So the teenager was disqualified by somewhat bewildered pageant organizers.

Arizona's population is less than 4 percent black, but Lavon Woods, a pageant organizer, said: "There are always lots of white people who come.

This forced the pageant organizers to purchase cut trees.

The move here this year - pageant organizers have not yet decided where next year's will be - was driven largely by financial necessity.

She blamed the pageant organizers for not warning her of the sexual questions Stern frequently asks.

Over the years, pageant organizers have steadily de-emphasized conventional notions of beauty and refined the pageant accordingly.

The pageant organizer aspires to enhance the "progressive" Pakistani women's goal of achieving "liberation" in what they consider an oppressive society.

As soon as the national winners are chosen, they will be subject to evaluation by the pageant organizer.

The outcry grew so loud that pageant organizers said today that they were reconsidering.

(After all, the pageant organizer is her mother.)