Free Republic

Excerpt - see link: Local NAACP had objected to staging of 'Ten Little Cancellation of the Lakota East High School play "Ten Little Indians" by school administrators has created a stir in the community. The leader of the local NAACP said administrators, who canceled the play citing its violent content and racial title, made the right decision. But one Lakota board member said she disagrees with the decision.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Jason Pellegrino (an 8.2 on the attractiveness scale) says the problem with Internet dating services is not enough really hot-looking people. So he and a business partner have created HotEnough.org, a sort of online version of Studio 54, the exclusive '70s disco where gaining admission was a pitiless Darwinian exercise. HotEnough.org is for "fit, good-looking" people. Prospective members must submit pictures and must be rated an 8 or higher by people already in the club. Once they're in, they are permitted to e-mail other "hotties" for $9.95 a month. "It's definitely hard to get through that...

CINCINNATI -- A Cleves man is in police custody, charged with having sexual contact with a child his mother cared for at her home. Christopher Handy, 22, was arraigned Tuesday morning on one count of rape and three counts of gross sexual imposition. According to court documents, the offenses took place at 4338 Zion Road in Cleves on Dec. 1, Jan. 2 and twice on Feb. 23. Authorities said they are investigating whether other children are involved. Bond is set for Handy at $1.1 million, and he will go before a grand jury on March 8.

LAS VEGAS -- NBA All-Star Weekend in Vegas was an unmitigated failure, and any thoughts of taking the extravaganza to New Orleans in 2008 are total lunacy. An event planned to showcase what is right about professional basketball has been turned into a 72-hour display of why commissioner David Stern can't sleep at night and spends his days thinking of rules to mask what the NBA has come to represent. Good luck fixing All-Star Weekend. The game is a sloppy, boring, half-hearted mess. The dunk contest is contrived and pointless. The celebrity contest is unintended comedy. And, worst of all,...

I am seeking information a out a gun that was found by a friend. She has been told that it is quite valuable, but I am skeptical. She says it has been in her family for quite a while. The gun is a 2 shot, .22 caliber derringer. Engraved on the barrel is: "Double Deuce" and "Buddie Arms Fort Worth, Texas" Gun is silver except for the grip, which appears to be a beige/pearl colored plastic. Just curious as to whether any knowledgeable Freepers can supply further info. Thanks all, day10

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Take a few leggy California blondes, throw in a passion for luxury cars, plenty of parties, and a distaste for parking your own car. What have you got? A multimillion-dollar, female valet parking business, where struggling models and actresses dressed in bikinis, miniskirts or lingerie and Santa hats park the cars of the rich and famous in the Los Angeles area. Beverly Hills, California-based Girls Valet Parking opened for business less than six months ago. This week, it took over its rival, Valet Girls, and announced plans to expand to San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- An extradition hearing for a California woman who allegedly poisoned her Marine husband was postponed Wednesday in West Palm Beach. Authorities said Cynthia Sommer killed her husband to get money for breast enhancements and a more luxurious lifestyle. Before arsenic was found in her husband's body, she was left a $250,000 lump-sum payment from Todd Sommer's life insurance policy and a $6,000 death gratuity. She also was to get nearly $1,900 a month from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office told the judge that an extradition warrant has not been...

LONDON (Reuters) - Texan model Jerry Hall was unveiled on Tuesday as ambassador for a campaign to encourage people to be more open about erectile dysfunction. "It might be a conversation with your doctor or maybe with your partner but it's never too late to get the most from your love life," she said in a statement. The campaign is being run by Bayer HealthCare, makers of an impotence treatment. Hall, 49, who divorced Mick Jagger in 1999 when she finally became exasperated with the philandering of the Rolling Stones lead singer, said: "A healthy love life is not and...

Two employees have been charged with trying to steal money from the Wendy's Restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire early Monday morning. Police say one of them is Ronald MacDonald - no relation to Ronald McDonald, the clown. They say 22-year-old Ronald MacDonald of Manchester is charged with theft after the restaurant manager called police to say he found MacDonald and another employee stealing money from the store safe. MacDonald and 20-year-old Steve Lemay of Manchester were held at the restaurant around 1:30 this morning until police arrived.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A woman drove a station wagon through a wall of the Barnes & Noble bookstore, sending glass, wood and books flying. Three people suffered leg injuries. Two were taken to a hospital. The store was filled with shoppers at about 2 p.m. Sunday when the Subaru station wagon plowed backward through picture windows in a reading area in the store's northwest corner. The car took out the travel section and barreled about 40 feet through the bookstore before coming to rest in nonfiction. "I thought it was an earthquake," said shopper Chris Badgett, 27. "There was screaming,...

A dozen Tri-state high school students made quite a scene at the school halloween dance when they put on Ku Klux Klan outfits. Students and administrators in Rising Sun, Indiana, say they're upset it happened and shocked the students would do it. The principal made the students take off the outfits right away, but the damage was done. 9News learned the students were told they have to go through sensitivity training or risk suspension. People in the community are also being asked to reach out to each other. "I think you're surprised if one person shows up [in KKK garb],...

SYDNEY, Australia - A chicken toy that squawks and flaps its wings when strangled is "grossly irresponsible" and sends the wrong message to young children, a spokesman for a leading animal welfare group said Tuesday. The toy is manufactured by a Taiwanese company and is widely available in toy and electronics stores across Australia. It is marketed for children over 3. A product description on the Web site of Jaycar Electronics, a major Australian importer of toy, says: "Grab him by the neck and he will squawk and cluck like mad, flapping his wings and feet wildly as if he...

Mom Uses Car As Battering Ram, Shoves Son's Pickup Through Wall CARLISLE, Ohio -- A drunken woman in a jealous rage over her ex-husband's new girl friend smashed her car into three vehicles in his driveway, even shoving her son's pickup truck through the wall of his house, News 5's Juliette Vara reported. "It was like being at the fair seeing a demolition derby," said a neighbor, Joyce Stewart. "She was in a rage," said the woman's 18-year-old son, Justin Wells. "It blew my mind. I didn't know what to think." Police said 40-year-old Alina Thinnes went to her husband's...

Here's a poser for you: you're trying to knock together a TV ad highlighting the effects of war on children. What's the plan? Well, you could go down the traditional route of earnest voice-over accompanying footage of said kids miserably awaiting a better life or, on the other hand, you could arm up a squadron of attack aircraft and go and raze a Smurf village to the ground. Let's face it, it's a toughie. Not for Unicef Belgium though, which earlier this week reduced an enchanted Smurf hamlet to smouldering rubble - much to the horror of some TV viewers...

ASPEN, Colo. - Sky high real estate prices in this resort city in the mountains have driven yet another business out of town: The Aspen Board of Realtors. The board was renting an office at the Aspen airport because of the cost of real estate in the city, where even a small house can cost $1 million. Now, the board has purchased a spacious office in Basalt, 10 miles from Aspen, said Brynne Kristan, executive vice president of the board. Kristan said the board had hoped to own its own office in Aspen: "We thought we'd be real estate owners...

WICHITA, Kan. - One person required stitches and a mother and son were arrested after two drill teams began brawling during an impromptu "dance off," Wichita police said. "This is a whole new arena" of crime, said Wichita police Lt. Jeff Easter. The Dynamic Steppers, a Wichita drill team, were practicing routines Saturday night when members of another drill team, the White Tigers, showed up and challenged the others to a "dance-off," police said. When the challengers appeared to be losing, a woman struck a 17-year-old Dynamic Steppers drummer in the face with a drumstick, Easter said. The teen, who...

I am doing some heavy duty waterproofing work in my basement as I prepare to possibly sell my home. I need to pull up some thin indoor/outdoor type carpet from the concrete floor that it is glued to. What is the best way to do this - preferably without destroying the carpet? Is there something I can put on it to loosen the glue? Any experts out there?

In honor of today's premiere, here is Triumph the Insult Dog hammering people in line for the opening of Attack of the Clones. One of the funniest things I have ever seen on TV. Triumph

Vikings running back Onterrio Smith was detained last month at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport after police found paraphernalia later identified as a kit used to circumvent drug tests. Smith acknowledged to airport police that he was carrying dried urine, along with a device called "The Original Whizzinator" and a bottle of pills labeled "Cleansing Formula." He told police the kit was "for making a clean urine test," according to the police report, and said he was taking the materials to his cousin. Smith was suspended four games last season after testing positive for marijuana, his second "strike" in the league's program....

WASHINGTON — Airlines can provide their passengers access to high-speed wireless Internet while they fly, under a vote by federal regulators Wednesday. "If there is a theme for this meeting, it is that we want (new technologies) on the land, in the air, and on the sea"