BARAK OBAMA ACCUSED OF PLAGIARIZING SPEECH

Presidential hopeful Barak Obama has been accused of blatantly plagiarizing a speech given by the current Govenor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, back in 2006. Here is a side-by-side comparison...

CLEVELAND BROWN'S BRADY QUINN ACCUSED OF HARASSING GAY MEN OUTSIDE NIGHTCLUB

Football Hero Brady Quinn is accused of harassing numerous gay men outside of a GLBT nightclub:

On the 9-1-1 call, Harris said that "Brady Quinn from the Browns" was "trying to cause a fight." Harris told the operator, "I just walked outside and he exchanged many profanities with me and called me a faggot, of course."

Reached Monday by The Plain Dealer, Harris confirmed that Quinn was the person who used the slur.

"I knew who it was," he said. "It wasn't just directed at me, there were other people around, too."

He said Quinn was with a "big group" of friends numbering perhaps 10, and that the quarterback "wasn't as involved as" others were in stirring up trouble. "He was standing back and letting his friends do most of it," Harris said.

On the call, Harris told police that "this has been going on all night and nobody has stopped anything."

Browns spokesman Bill Bonsiewicz had no comment. On Monday afternoon, Bonsiewicz said Quinn was training "out west" and said he had left messages for the quarterback and his agent, Tom Condon. By Tuesday evening, no response had been received.

Quinn served as the Browns backup quarterback throughout 2007 and is a former first-round draft pick hailed as the team's savior at the quarterback position. A star player in college for Notre Dame and at Dublin Coffman High School outside Columbus, Quinn has parlayed his good looks and wholesome image into several lucrative national endorsement contracts.

On the 9-1-1 call, Harris told police that he feared for his safety.

"I'm not going to wait for police because it's going to turn ugly," Harris said. "They are being very violent and I probably should get away."

A Columbus police spokeswoman said officers arrived several minutes after Harris' call and found Quinn in the midst of an argument with 32-year-old Jason Thompson.

"I don't believe there were any punches being thrown -- it was more verbal than anything," said Columbus police spokeswoman Amanda Ford.

"When we got there, he was very cooperative and just stopped," Ford said of Quinn's encounter with police. "I think his friends were like, 'Let's get out of here.' "

However, police arrested Thompson when "he wouldn't back down and turned on officers," Ford said.

Additional police officers were called to help clear the scene, Ford said.

"From what I remember about it, there were so many people milling around in the parking lot that they called for more cars just so they could get things under control," she said.

Police arrested Thompson for disorderly conduct for failing to leave. His attorney, Joe Landusky, said that Thompson pleaded guilty to a minor misdemeanor and was given a suspended fine. Police say in the Thompson arrest report that two separate fights took place. Along with the Thompson fracas, the other confrontation appears to have involved Thompson's friend, Brian Dunfee.

Dunfee reported later to police that he suffered minor injuries to his left knee and right elbow when he was thrown to the ground by a 6-foot white man with brown hair, a police report says. Police labeled the attack on Dunfee as an "anti-male homosexual" hate crime.

Landusky, who represents Thompson and Dunfee, said his clients encountered Quinn's group outside La Fogata Grill. Landusky said Dunfee isn't sure who threw him to the ground.

"In all fairness to what the truth is, I don't know if Brady Quinn himself had anything to do with" the injuries, Landusky said. "It might have just been people he was with."

Landusky said Thompson was "trying to protect his friend" when he was arrested.

The head of a Columbus gay and lesbian anti-violence group called the report of Quinn using a slur "very distressing."

"That person is in theory a role model for so many people," said Gloria McCauley, executive director of the Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization. "To have one of our well-known people engage in behavior that I consider hateful saddens me. We obviously need to do a lot more education."

14 YEAR OLD BOY FATALLY SHOOTS 15 YEAR OLD BOY FOR BEING 'GIRLY'

14 year old Brandon McInerney (btm photo) is being charged as an adult with the attempted murder of Lawrence King (top), in what Ventura County Ca. authorities are now calling a premediated hate-crime:


Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox declined to discuss a motive in the shooting or why prosecutors added the special allegation of a hate crime against Brandon McInerney, who was charged as an adult.

But classmates of the slain boy, Lawrence King, said he recently had started to wear makeup and jewelry and had proclaimed himself gay. Several students said King and a group of boys, including the defendant, had a verbal confrontation concerning King's sexual orientation a day before the killing.

King, 15, was declared brain-dead and was expected to be taken off a ventilator late Thursday so organs could be removed for donation, said Craig Stevens, senior county deputy medical examiner.

King was shot in the head early Tuesday in a classroom full of students at E.O. Green Junior High School. Police said the suspect fled and was apprehended a few blocks away.

McInerney's family was in a Ventura courtroom Thursday as the adolescent was brought into a holding chamber to face charges.

His arraignment was delayed to give his attorney time to review the police investigation before entering a plea.

McInerney was charged with premeditated murder with enhancements of use of a firearm and a hate crime.

Because he is a minor, McInerney will remain in Juvenile Hall and be taken to the Ventura courtroom for court appearances, Fox said. He is being held in lieu of $770,000 bail.

If convicted, McInerney could face 50 years to life. The hate crime enhancement would add another one to three years to his sentence.

"In Ventura County, we've never had a violent shooting like this," Fox said. "It's very tragic."

The defendant's family declined to talk to reporters, rushing out of the courthouse after a short hearing. But his attorney, Brian Vogel, said McInerney and the boy's family also were hurting.

"Both Brandon and the family are terribly sad to learn [King] is brain-dead," he said.

Vogel declined to discuss the case but said he would ask the court to move it back into the juvenile system. McInerney had no criminal history and was generally a good student at E.O. Green, where he was an eighth-grader.

Vogel said the boy turned 14, the legal cutoff for charging an adolescent as an adult, on Jan. 24. Voters gave prosecutors the option of charging teenage suspects as adults under 2002's Proposition 21.

Details on the backgrounds of both boys began to emerge Thursday. King was a foster child living at Casa Pacifica, a shelter for abused and troubled children in Camarillo.

Steven Elson, executive director at Casa Pacifica, said he could not discuss how long King had lived there or the circumstances involving his removal from his family.

But Elson said King had made many friends on the sprawling residential campus and that many of the children were grieving his loss.

"It's been a sad couple of days here," Elson said.

King's father, who lives in Oxnard, declined to comment.