March 4, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students' arms.

I’m mad as hell and I can’t take it anymore! We have a president who misses nearly 60 percent of national security briefings. Iran has said it wants to wipe Israel off the map and is developing nuclear weapons. The prime minister of Israel wants to meet with the president, but Obama doesn’t have time. Yet, he can appear on Letterman and have a fundraiser with JayZ and Beyonce.

Less than 24 hours after saying he hadn’t spoken with Ohio State University about its athletic director position, Arizona State athletic director Gene Smith was in Columbus Friday, agreeing to leave the Sun Devils and join the Buckeyes for a big bump in prestige and pay.

Though rumors and speculation about the future of the Arena Football League are growing, the Rattlers are “absolutely” going forward with their 2009 season, the team’s spokesman said Monday.

Randy Smith is torn. He was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, but graduated from the University of Florida. Then again, Smith owns two bars in Scottsdale that are unofficial watering holes for the Florida Gators and Ohio State Buckeyes.

Back near the dawn of time, when the great reptiles roamed the earth and the Serpent was still whispering to Eve, "Pssst. Hey, lady, got a minute?’’ I became a sports writer.

The NHL's regular season ends on Sunday, but while the playoff teams will be decided, debate over which players should win certain individual awards continues.

NEW YORK - Just a dozen years ago, newspapers on either side of Arlington, Texas, fought fiercely for every reader in the fast-growing city, spending millions of dollars to expand their staffs and cover the smallest meetings and sporting events.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An end-of-year college block party spiraled out of control as police fired pellets and used pepper spray to break up hundreds of rioting students who sparked a string of street fires at Kent State University.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Well over a million people shivered in ice-bound homes across the country Wednesday, waiting for warmer weather and for utility crews to restring power lines brought down by a storm that killed 23 as it took a snowy, icy journey from the Southern Plains to the East Coast.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Democrat Barack Obama confidently broadened his advertising Friday into two once reliably Republican states and rival John McCain's home state of Arizona even as he chastized the Republican candidate for what he called "say-anything, do-anything politics." The GOP candidate, nevertheless, insisted to audiences in hotly contested Ohio that momentum has swung his way in the final days of the presidential campaign.

Wayne Pomeroy prides himself on saying he’s always had a job.

LEBANON, Ohio (AP) — As he sat in the doctor's office, ex-boxer and weightlifter Gerald Dixon explained that years of sports had left him in pain, especially his hands, and he was looking for relief.

NEW ORLEANS - In what may be their last peaceful pass before they get tough, rescuers scoured New Orleans' swamped houses and shattered high-rises Thursday, finding many stragglers finally ready to flee the filthy water and the stench of death.

LOS ANGELES - Harry Potter doesn't just have the fate of the magical world on his shoulders. This time, the teen wizard's trying to save Hollywood, too

Perhaps the most interesting personality on either team is Ohio State receiver Anthony Gonzalez, a philosophy major who earlier this week said college athletes were the most exploited group of people in the United States.