Nation in brief: Bond wants to stay chairman of NAACP
Three weeks after announcing he would not seek another term as chairman of the NAACP’s national board, veteran civil rights activist Julian Bond said Tuesday that he has changed his mind.
Bond said in an interview on “The Tom Joyner Morning Show” that he was flooded with calls from board members and others asking him to remain at the helm of the civil rights organization.
Bond, 68, has been board chairman since 1998.
Las Vegas
Simpson cohorts get probation
Four men who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for testifying against O.J. Simpson at his robbery-kidnapping trial were sentenced Tuesday to probation, drawing a loud protest from a sports memorabilia dealer they held at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Bruce Fromong exclaimed after Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass sentenced Michael McClinton to eight years’ probation. McClinton, 50, testified that he supplied two guns and brandished one during the Sept. 13, 2007, confrontation.
“Get him out of the building,” Glass said of Fromong.
Glass lectured the four defendants but accepted a state recommendation that they serve no prison time. She handed probation terms of six years to Charles Ehrlich, four years to Walter Alexander and three years to Charles Cashmore.
Albany, N.Y.
Drescher interested in N.Y. Senate seat
The star of “The Nanny” wants to go from playing nasally New Yawkers to succeeding Hillary Rodham Clinton in the U.S. Senate.
Publicist Jordan Brown delivered the straight line that Fran Drescher is serious about becoming the next junior senator from New York. Brown cited Drescher’s experience as an actress, advocate for women’s health and public diplomacy envoy for the U.S. State Department.
The 51-year-old “Saturday Night Fever” and “This is Spinal Tap” actress joins a field headed by Caroline Kennedy and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Coopersville, Mich.
The buck stops in Michigan class
A fourth-grade class in Michigan learned firsthand about animal behavior when a deer crashed through a window and into its classroom.
The six-point buck sent chairs, desks, books and shards of glass flying. A boy suffered a small cut to his head, but there were no serious injuries.
Marty Alexander, the principal of Coopersville East Elementary School, says the unexpected guest dropped by Monday afternoon. He says the teacher stayed cool, instructing her 23 startled students to drop to the floor as the deer bounded across the room.
After a twitchy, 30-second visit, the buck jumped back through the window and ran away.