Free Republic

A Universal Orlando actor was fired after flashing the “OK” hand sign in a photo taken with a biracial child. Tiffiney Zinger told USA Today that an actor dressed as the movie character Gru from “Despicable Me” posed with her 6-year-old daughter, who is biracial and has autism, at a March character breakfast at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort, a Universal hotel.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A car-burglary suspect fell to his death early today after he climbed over a wall on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill while trying to flee from police, authorities said. The incident began at 12:30 a.m. when police received reports of a someone breaking into a car on the unit block of Alta Street near Montgomery Street, east of Coit Tower. Officers set up surveillance in the area and spotted the man getting out of car. Police tried to stop him, but he took off running. At one point, he stumbled, and a screwdriver fell out of his pocket,...

Still, Mr. Clarke’s inevitable performance, and make no mistake, that’s what it was, failed to win the “Statement Most Likely to Delight the Moonbat Blogs” that night on Bill Maher’s show. That prize goes to the droning, long-faced junior senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kerry After telling Maher that he and Te-RAY-zuh went to Vermont to celebrate her birthday, Kerry and the condescending comic had the following exchange: Maher: “You could have went [sic] to New Hampshire and killed 2 birds with one stone.” Kerry: “I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone.”...

Sheehan's response to family criticism By Robin Miller/City Editor Cindy Sheehan, the Vacaville woman staging a war protest outside of President Bush's Texas ranch, responded early today to criticism of her effort by members of her family. The protesting 48-year-old mother of a soldier killed in Iraq noted the admonition came from her in-laws who were "disagreeing with me in strong terms; which is totally okay with me, because they barely knew Casey,'. Casey Sheehan, 24, was killed in Iraq in April 2004. Sheehan is camped outside of Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch insisting on another face-to-face meeting with the president...

DENVER - Hunter S. Thompson, the "gonzo journalist" with a penchant for drugs, guns and flamethrower prose, might have one more salvo in store for everyone: Friends and relatives want to blast his ashes out of a cannon, just as he wished. "If that's what he wanted, we'll see if we can pull it off," said historian Douglas Brinkley, a friend of Thompson's and now the family's spokesman. Thompson, who shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home Sunday at 67, said several times he wanted an artillery send-off for his remains. "There's no question, I'm sure that's what he...

AP News Alert ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- The son of Hunter S. Thompson says the author shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home.

From the right By Steve Tefft Does John Kerry really want to be president? The question may seem rhetorical, and it is…to a point. One presumes Massachusetts’ junior senator has chosen to put himself and his family through the meat grinder of modern-day politics because he truly wants the job. But a recent run of campaign missteps makes one wonder: just what is Kerry doing? August should have been the Democrat’s month. Coming out of a convention that presented him well to the nation’s voters, Kerry was poised to clearly establish himself as the frontrunner heading into autumn. Yet he’s...

Revenge of the hassled waiters The story of a Sizzler server who allegedly vandalized a customer's home has others abuzz. These Are Side Dishes the Family Didn't Order June 10, 2003 By Gayle Pollard-Terry and Shawn Hubler, Times Staff Writers In the Customer Hall of Shame, the family that awoke to toilet paper in the trees, maple syrup on the hedges and a mix of powdered sugar, flour and instant mashed potato flakes on the lawn after a complaint at a Sizzler restaurant wouldn't merit a mention. They even left a tip.