Free Republic

Baton Rouge police on Tuesday arrested two teens accused of beating up a 55-year-old man on Feb. 1, causing him to fall, hit his head and suffer brain hemorrhaging. The victim, John Bannon, 1654 Clear Lake Lane, Baton Rouge, died from his injuries Friday, according to the arrest warrant for Windal Lavel Herring. Police booked Herring, 17, 8211 Perkins Road, Baton Rouge, into Parish Prison on counts of second-degree murder and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

New rules issued by the Bloomberg administration allow minority- and women-owned businesses to circumvent the system for awarding small city contracts -- an advantage denied white-owned firms, The Post has learned. In a memo issued July 15, the mayor's Office of Contract Services told city agencies they could no longer solicit vendors to bid on small contracts -- defined as between $5,000 and $100,000 -- unless they're certified as at least 51 percent minority- or female-owned. That means that even longtime vendors won't be able to sell goods and services to the city in that price range if the owner...