Free Republic

Screamin' Scott Simon of Sha Na Na has died at the age of 75, following a lengthy battle with sinus cancer. The news was confirmed by his daughter, Nina, in a social media post. "My dad was a rock star. Literally," she wrote, sharing a photo of her father and family. "A member of Sha Na Na for over 50 years. He loved early morning diners and late nights onstage. But he loved his girls most of all." Simon's Background Simon was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1948, later graduating from Columbia in New York City in 1970. That...

While large swaths of downtown D.C. were closed to vehicular traffic and largely free of the big protests the city has seen over the last two weeks, a livelier scene was to be found on the small residential street in front of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s house on Saturday evening. That’s where a group of at least 200 people gathered for a protest-turned-party, calling on Bowser to decriminalize sex work and defund the Metropolitan Police Department. They danced in the streets and sashayed along line of police officers standing in front of Bowser’s house, calling out for justice they say they’ve...

Lennie Baker, a longtime member of the rock and doo-wop group Sha Na Na, who sang lead on its hit version of “Blue Moon,” died on Wednesday in Weymouth, Mass. He was 69. He had been hospitalized after developing an infection, David Baker, a nephew, said. Sha Na Na found fame resurrecting 1950s rock ’n’ roll with a retro style of singing and stage choreography that mixed tight harmonies with dashes of comedy. Starting in 1970, Lennie Baker spent 30 years touring with the group as a vocalist and saxophone player. He sang the group’s upbeat doo-wop version of “Blue...

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - As he walks to the stage of a Hofstra University lecture hall, Robert Leonard's attire is every bit the college professor: blue blazer and shirt, charcoal slacks, yellow tie, glasses. He's a long, long way from the summer of 1969 when the uniform of the day was a gold lame jumpsuit. Leonard was a founding member and bassist for Sha Na Na, a zany doo-wop group that played one of its first gigs at Woodstock. Leonard's specialty today is forensic linguistics — employing the science of language to help identify the writers of ransom notes, threatening letters...

These are no ordinary cars. Power comes from fresh air stored in reinforced carbon-fiber tanks beneath the chassis. Air is compressed to 4,500 pounds per square inch — about 150 times the pressure of the typical car tire. The air is fed into four cylinders where it expands, driving specially designed pistons. About 25 horsepower is generated. Though technical problems are being worked out, company officials say the car is capable of 70 mph and a 120-mile range under normal city conditions, performance that is comparable to electric cars. Critics say the car has had trouble living up to its...