College Club Thought It Was Being Funny by Offering a Scholarship for White Males

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

White Male Scholarship

A student senate committee at the University of Rhode Island has voted to cut off money and recognition for the school's College Republicans group because of its satirical offer of a scholarship for white male heterosexuals.

The stunt was an effort to draw attention to the many college scholarships that are targeted at various groups and minorities — and was never actually awarded. But more than 40 people did apply for it. The student senate demanded the group publicly apologize. The Republicans refused.

And the university president told the senate it could not limit free speech by the Republicans. But the senate committee defied the president and voted to derecognize the group. The entire student senate will vote on the recommendation next week.

Lobby Money

A political watchdog group says Hillary Clinton brought in $168,000 in contributions from the lobbying industry during the first quarter of this year — but that none of those contributors identified themselves at lobbyists.

The Hill newspaper reports the donors listed their professions as attorneys, company presidents, and other titles. Of all the presidential candidates, only Clinton and John Edwards had no lobbyists listed on their campaign finance records. Edwards refuses contributions from federally registered lobbyists — as does Barack Obama.

$400 Haircuts

Speaking of Edwards — barbers in the caucus state of Iowa are reacting to a story we told you about yesterday concerning the candidate's $400 haircuts from a Beverly Hills stylist. The Quad-City Times says the haircutters in the Hawkeye State responded with astonishment and incredulity to the report.

Barber Leo Fier says: "If I charged $400 for a haircut, they'd come after me with white coats." Other descriptions ranged from "preposterous" to "impossible." The newspaper reports that it's pretty tough to find a barber shop that charges much more than the $10 average. Specialty salons get from $18 to $42.

One Iowa barber says that years ago President Clinton had his hair cut in Davenport — for what now seems to be the bargain price of $150.

Late this afternoon, a spokesman for Edwards said the candidate will personally reimburse his campaign fund $800 for the two Beverly Hills haircuts.

Up in Smoke

An Australian scientist is calling for an end to cremation — in order to cut global warming. Professor Roger Short of the University of Melbourne tells the French Press Agency that if people really want to help the environment, they should be buried in a cardboard box under a tree.

Short says that way the decomposing body will feed the tree with nutrients — and the tree will convert carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen. He says of cremation: why go up in "a big bubble of carbon dioxide?"

—FOX News Channel's Martin Hill contributed to this report.