Free Republic

The radical-turned-scholar, disinvited by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln last fall following a public outcry over his planned visit, is scheduled to speak Nov. 14 at the annual meeting of the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska. Members of the public are invited to the event, to be held at the Holiday Inn at 72nd and Grover streets in Omaha. The event is not associated with the University of Nebraska. "Not a cent" of public money will be used to bring Ayers here, said Dwayne Ball, president of the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska, a statewide group whose members include the American...

Republicans have delayed for one week a committee vote on Eric Holder Jr.'s nomination to be attorney general, giving them extra time to pore over Holder's long record and force him to answer questions in writing about policies he would pursue at the Department of Justice. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., ranking GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested the delay on behalf of the eight other GOP members. They met this morning, Specter said, and "there was a unanimous view that there has been insufficient time to question Mr. Holder." Under committee rules, the request for a delay was...

Officials at Papillion–La Vista South High School have suspended two students who allegedly used insensitive language during a social studies class discussion about the presidential election. The school said the juniors made comments about President-elect Barack Obama that had racial and religious undertones. School officials declined to release the names of the two juniors and did not say how long they'll be kept out of classes. They also didn't disclose exactly what the students said, but indicated that the suspension fell under the Papio-La Vista School District's harassment policy. "It basically says that any language that's offensive, based on gender,...

Chicago lawyers who have known President-Elect Barack Obama for years and supported his quick rise in American politics expect his legislative priorities will focus on healthcare, immigration and education. When Chicago attorney Manny Sanchez, who leads the firm Sanchez, Daniels & Hoffman, invited a group of neighbors in his Republican-leaning suburb to support Obama's run for the Senate in 2004, they agreed to pay the $500 to attend, but said he shouldn't expect them to vote for a Democrat with a strange name like Barack Obama. Now, Sanchez says those same neighbors are taking the photos Sanchez forced them to...

At least two University of Nebraska regents were ready to step in to try to cancel William Ayers’ speech at UNL if campus administration didn’t do so. And they were willing to act despite clear recommendations against such intervention from NU’s president and regents chairman. NU e-mails reviewed by the Journal Star show Regents Howard Hawks of Omaha and Bob Phares of North Platte made multiple calls for the board to consider disinviting Ayers from UNL’s College of Education and Human Sciences Nov. 15 student research conference. Ayers is a 1960s and ’70s radical who’s now an education professor at...

Contrary to previous reports, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln did intend to use public and NU Foundation funds to pay for William Ayers’ visit, UNL said Thursday. Ayers’ $1,000 honorarium was to have come from state funds allocated to the College of Education and Human Sciences, UNL said. The education college had invited Ayers to deliver the keynote address at its Nov. 15 student research conference.And Ayers was to have been reimbursed for travel, lodging and food using grant funds held at the NU Foundation, UNL said.When UNL announced Ayers’ planned visit on Oct. 16, it said no state or foundation...

You won’t believe the title of Bill Ayers’ keynote lecture, scheduled next month, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln: “We are each other’s keepers.” UNL prof Gerard Harbison is disgusted: