new jersey: Miss America Pageant director leaves post

The head of the Miss America Pageant abruptly resigned Friday, ending a tumultuous reign in which he threatened to move the pageant out of Atlantic City.

Robert M. Renneisen Jr., 55, a former casino executive who was named to the $250,000-a-year post two years ago, is the second consecutive Miss America chief executive officer to leave before his contract expired.

It wasn’t clear if he was forced out or quit on his own. Renneisen didn’t return telephone calls seeking comment Friday.

George Bauer, 58, Renneisen’s No. 2 man, will serve as interim CEO, the pageant said.

Renneisen ruffled feathers when he went public with the pageant’s dissatisfaction with Atlantic City.

Florida: Former governor dead at age 87

Farris Bryant, who was Florida’s governor from 1961 to 1965 during a period of racial strife and rapid population growth, died Friday. He was 87.

Bryant died at St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he had been for 10 days after he fell at home and hit his head. He later suffered a stroke, daughter Cecilia Bryant said.

Bryant urged expansion of the higher education system so Florida residents could win high-tech jobs beginning to locate in the area around the Kennedy Space Center.