Free Republic

At $9,000, what a deal: It doesn't even run: The listing on eBay, the Internet auction site, is straightforward enough: New Orleans public school bus, 1993 International Bluebird. Minimum price: $9,000. Not interested? OK, let's sweeten the offer: the 13-year-old Bluebird doesn't run. Still holding back? Well, see if this doesn't make you grab your credit card: The bus was under water for a few weeks. For Katrina-weary New Orleanians, a flooded-out school bus is just another piece of debris that should have been hauled away months ago. But if you're the cash-strapped city school system trying to market one...

A school bus driver was arrested for driving under the influence with four children under the age of 6 Friday, the California Highway Patrol said. Tara Cook, 35, was booked into Kern County Jail on one count of DUI and four counts of child endangerment -- one count for each child on board -- Officer Mark McWilliams said. Officers were called at 2:13 p.m. to respond to a bus that had stopped in the middle of a road after driving into the center median, McWilliams said. She had passed out, he said. The driver was taken to Bakersfield Memorial Hospital...

In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans' protective levees were intact, according to new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials. "We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video. "We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time."

video of Nagin responding to questions about latest AP report "Bush knew levees could fail"

Just on!! School bus collides with tractor-trailer. Seven dead....5 are kids.

B.B. Guns Becoming a Problem for Police Updated: 8:12 AM Nov 17, 2005 NBC 15 Tuesday, a 13 year old Blackhawk Middle School student took a B.B. gun on to a Madison school bus. He shot three people with that gun. All three students had minor injuries. Now, police say it's the latest in a series of serious events related to such a weapon. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray says in the last few weeks there have been a growing number of B–B gun incidents involving children. It's illegal in the city of Madison for children under the age of...

HANNIBAL, N.Y. (AP) — Some boys and girls in an Oswego County school district must sit in separate sections of their school buses following the arrest of two students for engaging in sexual activity on their ride home. State police said a 14-year-old boy was charged in juvenile court with forcing a 13-year-old girl into a sexual act and a 16-year-old boy was charged with a misdemeanor count of sexual misconduct involving a 14-year-old girl. Investigator Stephen Cadwell said the Hannibal Central Schools students were all on the same after-hours bus ride Nov. 7. "These cases are coincidental," Cadwell said....

MIRAMAR – A student was shot in the chest aboard a school bus Tuesday morning and police are searching for a teenage girl reported to be armed with a gun. Officials locked down two nearby schools – Perry Elementary and Perry Middle – on the possibility the armed teen could be headed to that area. The shooting occurred around 7:20 a.m. on a southbound school bus near Southwest 38 Street and between Rose and Woodscape drives, which is located east of Florida's Turnpike. Police said two students, both teenage girls, had argued and fought a day earlier and said the...

A station wagon barreled head on into a school bus carrying 14 Kellam High School students Monday morning in Pungo, killing the car’s driver and sending nine teens and the bus driver to the hospital with minor injuries. (snip) The car’s driver, Jesus Valdivia, 41, who lived in the 1000 block of Gill Court, was killed. (snip) Valdivia was a non resident alien from Mexico whose driving privileges had been revoked before the accident.

To some he is a thug, but to the 60 people on the school bus he commandeered as Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters rose, Jabar Gibson is nothing short of a hero. HOUSTON -- Across the street from the Astrodome, in the alcove of a motel where the night manager sits behind bulletproof glass, a young man leaned against a faded stucco wall. A grin crept beneath his wispy mustache when a stranger approached. "Do you know who I am?" he asked. His name is Jabar Gibson. The first bus to arrive in Houston loaded with Hurricane Katrina evacuees from New Orleans...

Governor Blanco Announces Executive OrderBaton Rouge, LA— Governor Blanco today announced the following Executive Order:Executive Order NO. KBB 2005- 31- provides that pursuant to the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act, R.S. 29:721, et seq., grants emergency powers to the governor, where, she has in consultation with school superintendents, utilized public school buses for transportation of Hurricane Katrina evacuees. As you are aware most public school districts will not begin school until Tuesday, September 6th 2005. The full text of the above mentioned proclamation is available on the Internet at www.gov.state.la.us.

Authorities in Frederick County, Md., said they have found no evidence that female first-grade students were molested by male eighth-grade students on a public school bus last year and have closed their investigation. Detective Willie Ollie of the Frederick County Sheriff's Office said the bus driver and a female first-grade student whose mother had said she had been molested last fall have both denied that any sexual touching took place. But the bus driver did tell investigators that "horseplay" between the older boys and the girls, including tickling, could have been "construed" as sexual, Detective Ollie said.

Authorities in Frederick County, Md., have begun investigating a report of repeated incidents in which eighth-grade boys fondled and taunted first-grade girls on a public school bus last fall. The mother of one first-grade girl said she first learned of the fondling accusations this month and is criticizing school officials for not alerting her. Detective Willie Ollie of the Frederick County Sheriff's Department said he has opened an investigation into the case.

RICHMOND — Wanted: Applicants seeking the responsibility of transporting as many as 78 sometimes unpredictable students to school on a 38-foot-long vehicle through congested suburban traffic. Requirements: Obtain a commercial driver's license and extensive training (certification training), pass criminal background checks, a drug screening and a physical exam. Sincere affection for young people is strongly preferred, even when they're being unruly. Pay: Relatively low.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A state lawmaker whose son died when a woman sped past the lowered arm and flashing lights of a stopped school bus introduced legislation Wednesday to toughen the penalty for the crime. A bill introduced by Rep. Dale Folwell, R-Forsyth, would make passing a stopped school bus a higher level misdemeanor. Striking someone after passing the bus would become a felony. The bill was among more than 90 introduced Wednesday, a key deadline for filing bills that do not generate or require revenue. Bills not introduced by Wednesday will have a difficult time being considered before the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children riding on school buses are breathing in more pollution than people standing out on the streets, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. They found that exhaust from the buses was leaking into the passenger cabin, and probably affecting the children. Older buses were the worst, they found. And exhaust "scrubbers" did little to help, perhaps because the exhaust is coming inside before it gets to the devices, the team at the University of California, Berkeley, found. "In a single day, a child riding a school bus will breathe in anywhere from seven to 70 times more exhaust...

OTHERS ON SCHOOL BUS UNINJURED - "CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn. - A 14-year-old boy was charged with shooting a school bus driver to death as she drove her morning route yesterday. A relative of the driver said she had reported the boy a day earlier for using smokeless tobacco on the bus."

A Lake County mom was arrested after a camera on a school bus caught her beating a student who had gotten into a fight on a school bus, police said. The camera shows three girls throwing punches at the back of the bus as a woman in a white shirt, Rita Gooden, walks back. The camera shows Gooden push one girl out of the way, then strike another girl. The child appears to be pinned to a back seat out of view of the camera as the apparent beating continues. Gooden is charged with simple battery, and she faces up...

GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (AP) - An elementary school bus driver was fired after sharing a statistic she had read about embryonic stem cell research with students, then encouraging them to tell their parents about it.

Transvestite teachers. Boys kissing boys in restrooms. Teens taught about anal sex. "Gay" fairy tales for children. Could these things actually become a reality in our public schools?