The cold weather in Buffalo, N.Y., must have frozen the brain cells of those in charge of finances. The state-appointed authority overseeing the city’s school finances says that taxpayers paid nearly $9 million in 2009 for city teachers and their dependents to get cosmetic surgery. Officials say teachers and their dependents accounted for 90 percent…

In what is sure to become a marathon game of “He said, she said,” Rep. Kendrick Meek, the last-place Democratic candidate running for the Senate from Florida, denied claims that former President Bill Clinton had advised him to drop out, saying the idea came instead from his independent rival, Gov. Charlie Crist. Rep. Meek went…

Fresh from our “Has the world gone mad?” file, a north Florida mother has pleaded guilty to shaking her baby to death after the boy’s crying interrupted her game on Facebook. Alexandra V. Tobias pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Wednesday and remains jailed. The Florida Times-Union reports that she told investigators she was angered…

Halliburton Co. has admitted that it skipped performing a critical test on the final formulation of cement used to seal the BP oil well that blew out in the Gulf of Mexico. The company, which was BP’s cementing contractor, said that at the last minute, BP increased the amount of a critical ingredient in the…

Former President Bill Clinton nearly convinced Florida Democrat Kendrick Meek to drop his Senate bid — twice. The thought was that Meek would bow out of the race and encourage his supporters to vote for Republican-turned-independent candidate Charlie Crist. This move would help keep Republican Marco Rubio, who is leading both candidates and poised to…

You would literally have to be living under a rock not to know that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are coming to D.C. this weekend to spearhead the Rally to Restore Sanity. The Root readers are in the know, so we expect that you will be here in full force on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2010.…

ColorLines’ Rinku Sen finally says what everyone is thinking but few are actually willing to say. Check it out: Excerpt: If the election of 2008 was a referendum on race, the midterms are feeling like a recount. The dominant political discourse of 2008 centered on an improbable question: Could a black man overcome decades’ worth…

Benson, Ariz., City Manager Glenn Nichols has let the cat out of the bag. In an interview with NPR, Nichols details how he was approached by businessmen who were planning to build a prison that would be filled with illegal immigrants. The prison would specifically house women and children who had been identified as illegal…

Songstress Mariah Carey has confirmed that she is indeed pregnant. In an exclusive interview with Access Hollywood, she details the path to pregnancy with her husband, Nick Cannon. Carey made the announcement on The Today Show this morning, saying that she is due sometime in the spring. Gossip sites have been speculating that Carey is…

After an incident in which 50 Central Washington University students got sick from drinking Four Loko alcoholic beverages at a house party, Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said that he wants the Food and Drug Administration to ban the drinks nationwide. Four Loko combines as much alcohol found in a six-pack of beer with…