Free Republic

Girls don't play trumpet, they told her. Cynthia Robinson had an answer to that — one that would later resonate in the hit song she recorded with Sly and the Family Stone: "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)." At a time when black women were relegated to roles as backup singers... Robinson died of cancer Nov. 23 in Carmichael, Calif. She was 71. Robinson, born Jan. 12, 1944, in Sacramento, was the daughter of LaVern Robinson, a concert pianist, and William Robinson, a military man. Cynthia began playing in the school band as a young girl. She tried various...

GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump claimed credit Sunday for Ford Motor Company's plans to move a production plant from Mexico to Ohio. Trump has been calling out Ford during his campaign, saying the automaker plans to move jobs from Michigan to Mexico, but Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who also is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, says the move from Mexico to Ohio had nothing to Trump's demands. "The truth is that Ford began moving jobs back to Ohio four years ago under the leadership of Governor John Kasich," the governor's campaign said in a statement to the press on Sunday...

NEW YORK — GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump warned The Hill in an exclusive interview of a looming economic recession, arguing that the stock market has already entered into another bubble. He also slammed the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law as a “disaster” that has stifled economic growth. “It’s terrible,” he said in an interview with The Hill, saying that he would "absolutely” repeal it. “Under Dodd-Frank, the regulators are running the banks,” Trump said. “The bankers are petrified of the regulators. And the problem is that the banks aren’t loaning money to people who will create jobs.” Democrats...

Disabled trumpeter, dad steal the show A member of the Louisville Cardinals marching band -- who is blind and in a wheelchair -- never fails to inspire when he takes the field with the help of his father. BY MICHELLE KAUFMAN The most inspirational team in the Orange Bowl this year, the one that best exemplifies courage and willpower, is not Louisville or Wake Forest. It is the team of Patrick Henry Hughes and his father, Patrick John Hughes, who will perform a feat more remarkable than anything displayed by the extraordinary athletes on the Dolphin Stadium field. Patrick Henry...

<p>Mark Judelson has been writing since his high school days in New Haven, when he once skipped classes for two weeks and justified it to his parents by announcing he was writing a book.</p> <p>His parents' first reaction was uncontrolled laughter, he says. He was a white student at a largely black inner-city school at the end of the 1960s. His hometown was experiencing race riots, and Black Panther Bobby Seale was on trial there. Judelson had a story to tell, and after two years of work and revision, his book about his experiences was published. Although he went on to study forestry, he's been putting words on paper ever since. After spending time in Africa, where storytelling is the medium of the masses, he's pursued that art form while working as executive director of the Arts Council of Rockland.</p>