Free Republic

ST. PETERSBURG - The mother of the 5-year-old girl who was handcuffed at school by police has withdrawn her daughter from Pinellas public schools and is moving out of state, superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Monday night. The development was the latest in a bizarre saga that began Friday, when a videotape of the handcuffing was made public. Since then, wrenching video images of the wailing kindergartener being handcuffed by St. Petersburg police have raced around the globe, airing and re-airing on television news shows in the United States, Great Britain, Spain, around Asia and beyond. On Monday morning, the Largo...

Young people have been running amok at Sacramento showings of "Coach Carter," the Samuel L. Jackson film about a Richmond basketball coach who straightens out wayward students. Rachel Kahan was at a Century Stadium 14 showing on Arden and Ethan when a riot broke out. "Kids were beating up a security guard, and they attacked the manager," she said. "It was awful. And what makes it worse was that the behavior was exactly what the character Coach Carter is fighting against." Other showings have been disrupted by shouts and threats from boozed up fans. Paramount Pictures, which distributes "Coach Carter,"...

Congressmen, Jesse Jackson Investigating Ohio Election Complaints Jackson Says Election Not Over UPDATED: 2:42 PM EST December 8, 2004 COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Wednesday the burden is on Congress to investigate countless reports of election irregularities in Ohio and elsewhere. While he stopped short of calling for a delay in the Inauguration, Jackson repeatedly said the election is not over. "The legal challenges cannot stop. There should be a debate in Congress about what happened," said the former Democratic presidential candidate and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. Jackson's comments came as Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan...

BALTIMORE (AP) — The president of the NAACP is stepping down as head of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group, according to newspaper reports. Kweisi Mfume, who has been president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since 1996, planned to make the announcement Tuesday, The (Baltimore) Sun, citing an anonymous source, reported in Tuesday editions. The resignation was also reported Tuesday in a USA Today opinions column by weekly contributor DeWayne Wickham. [flip]Last month, the NCAAP announced that the Internal Revenue Service was reviewing the organization's federal tax-exempt status. NAACP chairman Julian Bond said...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - In an upset as historic as it was inevitable, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson and the rest of the U.S. basketball team lost 92-73 to Puerto Rico on Sunday, only the third Olympic defeat ever for the Americans. It was also the most lopsided loss in the games for the U.S. team, alarming not only for its significance but also for its decisiveness. Puerto Rico, which had lost to the Americans five times in the past 13 months, took control in the first half, led by 22 at halftime and gamely held off a fourth-quarter comeback for...

A first-grader in Arlington tried to moon his teacher. Another threw chairs and destroyed the classroom. A kindergartner in Fort Worth tried to poison the classroom ferrets by feeding them crayons and glue. The child also bit other students. As most North Texas students -- including those in Fort Worth and Arlington -- return to classes Monday, teachers expect to see a continuation of a disturbing trend: It's the tiniest students who are hitting, spitting, kicking, biting and cursing like sailors. "We fight before we learn to negotiate," said Michael Parker, who oversees psychological services for Fort Worth schools. "Kids...

The USA Men's Basketball team is losing by 22 points at the half to Puerto Rico. This is the largest deficit ever faced by a USA Olympic Basketball team since they went to NBA players. Only one team showed up to play in the first half.