Free Republic

SOUTH ORANGE — A group of black parent activists are calling on a black school board member to step down after she was caught on video calling a white police officer's chief a “skinhead cop” during a traffic stop. Stephanie Lawson-Muhammad was pulled over April 27 after an officer found her driving 37 mph in a 25 mph zone. When the officer approached her driver-side window, Lawson-Muhammad begins by pointing out that she is on the Board of Education. She then quickly breaks down into tears, saying that her daughter is going to be late for school “and I’m scared...

A former Hunterdon County school official pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling more than $90,000 from Delaware Valley Regional High School, saying he stole most of the money from the cafeteria. Robert P. Walsh, 43, of Forks Township, Pa., admitted in federal court in Camden that he committed the crime from 2005 to 2007 while he served as the school's business administrator and then superintendent, authorities said. "This was a top school official, well-compensated, whose charge and duty was to protect the interests of the school district and its students," Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra said. "Instead, he acted as...

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - A powerful southern New Jersey politician was paid for a no-work job at a scandal-ridden state university while helping the school garner millions of dollars in new state funding, according to a report released Monday. The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey paid state Sen. Wayne Bryant, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, $35,000 a year "to lobby himself in his capacity of state senator," according to the report of a federal monitor who had investigated the school's finances. The report said all Bryant appeared to do at the university's School of Osteopathic Medicine...

MINEOLA, N.Y. - A former superintendent of one of the nation's top school districts pleaded guilty Monday to grand larceny for embezzling millions of taxpayer dollars to finance his lavish lifestyle, including European jaunts on the supersonic Concorde. Frank Tassone, 58, who was booed by about 50 residents as he entered the courtroom, pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree grand larceny. As part of a plea deal, the former head of Long Island's Roslyn School District will be sentenced to four to 12 years in prison and pay back about $2 million. If convicted at trial, he could have faced...