83 Steps to Fire a N.Y. Teacher
The phrase "in a New York minute" probably doesn't apply to the city's school bureaucracy, which serves 1 million students, says Common Good, a reform group.
A teacher must take 66 bureaucratic steps over 105 days to suspend a disruptive student, the group found. And a principal must take 83 steps to fire an incompetent teacher.
A spokesman for the New York City Department of Education promised reform. But former deputy schools chancellor Harvey Robins is skeptical. "The Education Department is a mausoleum of passive aggressivity," he said. "Control of schools is meaningless . . . unless you cut the 250-page teachers contract down to five pages."
-- Michelle Garcia
Fairy Tale Romance Ends in Vegas
She was a beautiful Bahraini princess. He was a U.S. Marine. She defied her family and he defied his superiors so they could start a life together.
But the extraordinary romance of Jason Johnson and Meriam Al-Khalifa -- which prompted a diplomatic scandal, international headlines and a made-for-TV movie -- came to a mundane end last month when the couple filed for divorce in Nevada.
They met in 1999 at a mall in Bahrain, where he was stationed as a lance corporal. Her family opposed the relationship, so Johnson, then 23, disguised his 19-year-old girlfriend in a flannel shirt and ball cap and spirited her into the United States with forged papers -- a stunt that ended his military career. They wed at a chapel on the Vegas Strip. But Johnson said that in recent years, Al-Khalifa spent more time at nightclubs than with him.
Their divorce filing came a day after their fifth anniversary.
-- Amy Argetsinger
Lawsuit Over Loss of a Spouse
An Illinois court may decide the price of a broken heart.
Steven Cyl, 44, of Chicago has sued Lee Bauman, 61, for essentially stealing his wife. Lupe Cyl moved in with Bauman after meeting him at a bar and divorcing her husband, said Steven Cyl's attorney, Michael Vitale.
The suit is allowed under an archaic Illinois law that allows one to claim damages for "alienation of affection."
There are only a few states that allow such lawsuits. The law has been invoked only a few times in Illinois over the past few decades, most notably when former congressman Mel Reynolds sued a man whom he accused of seducing his ex-wife.
"It's very hard to collect in these cases," said DePaul University law school professor Bruce Ottley.
"You have to show actual [monetary] damages. . . . It's not enough to say, 'Gee, I miss my spouse,' " Ottley said.
-- Kari Lydersen
Rifles to Be Raffled to Aid School
The Hanna Springs Intermediate School in Lampasas, Tex., needs a new fence. To pay for it, three mothers decided the project needed more than the usual bake sale. So they're selling $1 tickets to raffle off a couple of rifles.
"Fifteen thousand is not something easily raised by cookies," said Katherine Yoder, chief of staff for Texas state Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp (R), one of the mothers who devised the plan and who, in 1995, before she became a lawmaker, successfully lobbied the Texas legislature to pass a concealed-handgun law.
Hupp donated a Kimber 7mm hunting rifle, while PTA member Sharon Fehmel donated a Marlin .22-caliber rifle. The goal is to raise $15,000, and as of last week, more than $5,000 in tickets had been sold, Fehmel said.
The raffle will be held on Wednesday, just in time for the winners -- who must be at least 18 and who will be subject to local, state and federal regulations regarding the transfer of firearms -- to enjoy the last few weeks of deer hunting season.
-- Sylvia Moreno
