Free Republic

Surely Miami is one of the sexiest cities in America. Sexiness starts on South Beach and slowly works its way through the rest of Miami. Topless is common on the wide, luxurious beaches, and there's even a sizeable chunk of sand that's reserved for folks who want to shed it all. What better place to attend a casting call for Playboy? One of the 70 or so women who shows up is Charlotte Lambert of St. Petersburg. "Miami equals sexy. It's in your face here," says Lambert, 21, an English major at the University of Tampa.

PRINCETON BOROUGH - An outdoor public plaza used to be the kind of place where smokers like Joseph Santoli were practically guaranteed a safe haven to light up. So Santoli, who was looking for a local cigar shop while visiting Princeton this week from Ridgewood, was surprised to learn that borough officials want to prohibit smoking in a new 15,000-square-foot outdoor plaza downtown next to the Princeton Public Library. Last night, the borough council voted 5-1 to adopt an ordinance that includes a ban on smoking in the plaza. Under the ban, which applies only to the library plaza, violators...

A New Jersey radio station is facing protests from Asian-American groups angered by a talk show broadcast on Monday that lampooned Edison's Asian-American population, and the Korean-American candidate in the township's Democratic primary, Jun Choi. New Jersey 101.5 FM's afternoon drive-time show, "The Jersey Guys," with hosts Craig Carton and Ray Rossi, discussed Choi's and Mayor George Spadoro's efforts to win the election by tapping into the township's burgeoning Asian- American population.

CHERRY HILL -- The state's proposed ban on smoking would help lessen the discrepancy in cancer rates between whites and racial minorities, according to the American Cancer Society of New York and New Jersey. "Economic, social and cultural factors all play a role in creating cancer disparities," said Alfred Ashford, chief medical officer of the society. "The American Cancer Society is committed to helping communities of color, the medically underserved and all patients, survivors and caregivers overcome these disparities."

BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech's recent action against a student caught carrying a gun to class could draw unwanted attention from groups already angry about firearms restrictions on public college campuses. University officials confirmed that, earlier this semester, campus police approached a student found to be carrying a concealed handgun to class. The unnamed student was not charged with any crimes because he holds a state-issued permit allowing him to carry a concealed gun. But the student could face disciplinary action from the university for violating its policy prohibiting "unauthorized possession, storage or control" of firearms on campus. Tech spokesman Larry...

Only prosecutors, not private citizens, can take complaints of wrongdoing to a grand jury, the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday. The justices overturned a lower court ruling giving ordinary citizens access to grand juries and reaffirmed prosecutors' long-held monopoly over the power to initiate criminal investigations. In doing so, the high court turned back arguments by an activist attorney that citizens needed a direct path to grand juries to expose corruption in a scandal-plagued state.

Hudson County is increasingly unsure about whether gays should be allowed to get married. A new Jersey Journal/New Jersey City University poll suggests that county residents' uncertainty about gay marriage has grown over the past three years while support for gay marriage has fallen. According to the March 22 poll, 42.8 percent of Hudson County residents oppose a constitutional amendment supported by President Bush stipulating that marriage be only between a man and a woman, while 32.2 percent support the amendment. But 17.8 percent said they "do not know," an increase of almost 8 percent since 2003, when the NJCU/Jersey...

CAMDEN -- An appellate court Friday upheld the Superior Court of New Jersey’s decision not to charge Robert Edward "Weedman" Forchion with refusing to comply with an order to supply DNA samples to police. Forchion, a frequent candidate for office, a Rastafarian by faith and a pro-legalization marijuana activist,said he was elated when he got the news Saturday. "I am happy. Now I don’t have to supply a DNA sample," Forchion said.

A homeland security drill designed to test how New Jersey authorities respond to a bioterrorism attack began to expose problems yesterday, as officials said communication failures allowed a simulated plague to spread. The cracks began to surface in the second day of the drill, which imagined the release by terrorists of highly contagious pneumonic plague in central New Jersey. The errors could add to the "death toll" from the fictitious outbreak, which by late yesterday had already climbed over 3,750.

WASHINGTON -- Frank Lautenberg has not yet decided if he will seek re-election in 2008, but just in case, the 81-year-old junior U.S. senator from New Jersey has registered four Internet domain names he could use for his campaign site. Lautenberg for Senate, Inc., has purchased these domain names: www.lautenberg2008.com, www.lautenbergforsenate.com, www.lautenbergfornj.com and www.lautenberg08.com, said Alex Formuzis, the senator's spokesman. "The early bird gets the Web site," Lautenberg said Monday.

The spate of slayings over the first three months of the year has prompted Assemblyman Louis Manzo, D-Jersey City, to introduce a bill which would make it possible to confiscate a home or car in which an illegal firearm is found - even if the gun doesn't belong to the owner. "Simply put, we cannot afford to lose another life, at a time when it has become a daily routine to read about another life lost in our neighborhoods as a result of gun violence," Manzo says in a letter asking state Assembly Speaker Albio Sires, D-West New York, to...

Don't look now, but it appears that the teaching of economics is becoming illegal on the campuses of America. That is the only logical conclusion one can reach after studying the treatment of Harvard president Lawrence Summers and his fellow economist, University of Nevada- Las Vegas professor Hans-Herman Hoppe. Summers was recently condemned by a majority vote of the Harvard faculty for raising questions about gender differences that apparently cannot be raised on campus today. But the Hoppe case offers a better illustration of the parlous nature of academic freedom in America

TRENTON -- Republicans are asking elections regulators to issue an advisory opinion on whether a $37,500 campaign donation by the mother of U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine violated state election laws. The donation to the Bergen County Democratic Committee came during the same election cycle the Democratic gubernatorial candidate himself donated $37,500 to the organization. Tom Wilson, chairman of the Republican State committee, has called for the state Election Law Enforcement Commission to issue the opinion as a preliminary means of whether Corzine, D-N.J., used his mother as a proxy to skirt finance laws.

The European Union is still "working towards" lifting a 15-year-old arms embargo on China, but discussions are ongoing, EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Thursday. Speaking after talks with visiting Chinese Foreign Ministe Li Zhaoxing, she however also reiterated concern over China's new anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan, calling for their dispute to be solved peacefully. She noted China's wish to have the EU's arms embargo lifted at an early date. "The EU is working towards that objective, but ... discussions on this issue are still ongoing," she told reporters. Referring to the anti-secession law, which authorizes force against...

What a night for Sharks fans! First their team was beaten by the Hurricanes. Then 16 of them were arrested for drunken driving at a roadblock in Springfield Park. Two of them tried to speed off, but were chased and brought back, tested for alcohol and charged. No less than 40 of them were served with tickets for various speeding offences. Four of them were charged with being in possession of drugs. And one of them is in hospital, having had a police bullet go right through his penis and out of his buttocks.

WEST WINDSOR - Former Gov. Christie Whitman blasted the right-wing fringe of the Republican Party at the Barnes & Noble bookstore last night during a tour to promote her new book, "It's My Party Too." Whitman spoke to a crowd of about 150 before taking written questions from the crowd and signing copies of her book. "What I have seen increasingly over the years - my party, anyway, has begun to be controlled by a faction of the party that believes in a very narrow litmus test in what it takes to be a good Republican."

NEW YORK, March 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, the nation's leading advocacy group for a crucial 9/11 Commission recommendation to keep licenses out of the hands of terrorists who could be in this country unlawfully, today announced that it has retained the media firm of Stevens Reed Curcio and Potholm, creators of the now-legendary Swift Boat Veterans for Truth advertising campaign during the 2004 Presidential contest. The firm's initial advertisement for the Coalition, a 60- second television spot, will begin airing in the Washington, D.C. media market on March 15. It will be available...

All Murrysville dentist Michael Gigliotti wanted was a relatively cheap, last-minute flight from his mother's house in Florida to a natural-gas auction in Texas. But a $552 bill for the late-February trip quickly went up when a late-boarding passenger complained he could not fit in the seat next to the 5-11, 300-pound Gigliotti. A supervisor from Southwest Airlines boarded the plane, crouched next to Gigliotti and said he would have to pay for a second seat on the return flight, claiming the dentist's large frame would not fit entirely in the 17-inch-wide space.

ISFAHAN, Iran - The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will likely raise its output ceiling by 500,000 barrels a day if prices stay at present levels, the organization's president said Monday. With OPEC already overshooting quotas by about 700,000 barrels a day, any such move would mostly have a psychological effect by signaling that the organization is formally ready to pump more in an effort to regulate prices.

Before Dan Rather signed off March 9 after 24 years as a news anchor for CBS, conservative "netizens" already were cheering the man they believe led to the tidal wave of criticism that forced Rather to leave his post a year early: Atlanta attorney Harry W. MacDougald. MacDougald, 46, who has been with Atlanta's Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC since 2002, was the blogger "Buckhead" who first started a cascade of criticism about a report Rather aired Sept. 8 on CBS's "60 Minutes II" about President George W. Bush's Air National Guard service.