WOODBURN, Ind. -- A high school teacher who faced terminationover a student newspaper column advocating tolerance of gays reacheda settlement with school officials Thursday that allows her tocontinue teaching, although at another school.
Under the settlement with East Allen County Schools, Amy Sorrell,30, agreed to be transferred, said her attorney, …
NEW YORK (AP) — Children's clothing retailer Gymboree Corp. has agreed to be bought by asset management firm Bain Capital for $1.8 billion in what would be the sixth-largest private equity deal of the year.
Gymboree said Monday that the deal is for $65.40 per share, a 24 percent premium to Gymboree's Friday closing stock price of $52.95. The retailer, based in San Francisco, currently has about 27.3 million shares outstanding.
Gymboree stock surged 23 percent in afternoon trading on the news.
The news did not come as a surprise, as speculation about a potential acquisition had been brewing for a few weeks. Last week a report from The New York Post said Gymboree was …
TORSHAVN, Faeroe Islands (AP) — The Faeroe Islands' football federation says former Denmark international Lars Olsen will replace Brian Kerr as coach of the national team.
Federation chairman Christian Andreasen says 50-year-old Olsen will sign a two-year contract Wednesday.
Kerr, who took over in 2009, stepped down last …
FAMILY TIES
"Are you going to use hot peppers?" my husband asked as I chopped and saut�ed zucchini, onions and eggplant for ratatouille. Inwardly I winced at the suggestion. Wouldn't the spicy pepper overtake the gentler flavours of thyme, oregano and basil? I murmured a noncommittal reply. "I hope so," he added before departing the kitchen, leaving me to my musings.
The kitchens of our childhoodbustling production centres of sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch meals-never created ratatouille. I'm pretty sure I never saw an eggplant in my mother's kitchen. My fondness for this French stew began a few years ago when an abundance of zucchini and peppers appeared in our farm co-op bin. I …
A day ahead of most other teams, the Washington Nationals opened their new ballpark with a little help from President Bush.
The former Texas Rangers owner, wearing a bright red team jacket, threw the ceremonial first pitch _ high and to the third-base side of the plate _ to Nationals manager Manny Acta before Washington inaugurated National Ballpark against Atlanta before a sellout crowd of about 41,000 on Sunday night.
There was a mixture of boos and cheers for Bush. Those in the upper deck of the $611 million ballpark could see the Capitol and the Washington Monument. The cherry blossoms planted beyond the left-field bleachers weren't yet in bloom.
…
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Muslim rebels in the Philippines say they will wait for a Malaysian facilitator to try to narrow the gap between them and the Philippine government before resuming peace talks.
Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiator Mohagher Iqbal said Tuesday that the positions of the two sides are so far apart that instead of meeting for another round of talks they want the facilitator from Malaysia to step in.
Iqbal said the government has proposed Sept. 13 for their next meeting in Kuala Lumpur and is waiting for the rebels to respond.
At their latest talks last month, the rebels turned down a government proposal to grant them autonomy without constitutional changes. The rebels say they want a substate that may require amendments to the charter.
A defiant Sen. Ted Stevens returned to his home state Wednesday a convicted felon, telling cheering supporters at an airport that bears his name that he's innocent and vowing he will be vindicated.
It was the 84-year-old lawmaker's first stop in Alaska since a federal court jury in Washington convicted him Monday of seven counts of lying on Senate disclosure forms to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a wealthy businessman. He will be sentenced early next year.
Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, has brushed aside calls from GOP leaders to resign. He is seeking his seventh full term in next Tuesday's election, facing Democrat Mark Begich.
"I'm running for re-election because I love this land and its people," he told a standing-room only crowd at a hangar at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Stevens was greeted by hundreds of cheering supporters who chanted, "We need Ted!" and "We love you, Ted!"
He told them: "I will appeal Monday's verdict, and we will win that appeal."
Stevens blamed his legal problems on his former friend Bill Allen, the founder and former chairman of VECO Corp., an oil field services company. Allen was the government's star witness.
"I naively trusted someone who I thought was a trusted friend, who was neither honest nor a friend," Stevens said.
Even though a convicted felon, Stevens remains popular in home state, where he was named "Alaskan of the Century."
The feisty rhetoric resonated with supporter Phil Isley, 53, an Anchorage airplane mechanic.
Isley said he appreciates Stevens for the money and jobs that he has brought to this state, and what occurred in the Washington courtroom should be a lesson for every American.
"If you take one of the most powerful men in America and he can't get a fair trial, how can the rest of us expect a fair trial?"
Earlier Wednesday, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, joined a growing list of Republicans urging Stevens to step down.
"Sen. Stevens should do the right thing and resign," he told MSNBC.
Among other Republicans calling for Stevens' resignation are GOP presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
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Associated Press Writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report from Washington.
(This version CORRECTS supporter's name Isley, not Ifley.)
