Florida Courier - June 28, 2013

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JUNE 28 - JULY 4, 2013

VOLUME 21 NO. 26

SUPREME COURT

Voting rights ruling a ‘dagger in the heart’ FROM WIRE AND STAFF REPORTS

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

The father of Trayvon Martin, Tracy Martin, cries as he listens to the description of his son’s death, with Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, at left, and Daryl Parks, a family attorney, at right, during the 11th day of the George Zimmerman trial in Seminole circuit court, in Sanford on Monday.

WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT

Key witnesses at George Zimmerman’s trial tell what they heard the evening Trayvon Martin was killed

conversation with Martin of the night he was shot and killed by Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012.

Jeantel said Martin described the man watching him as a “creepy-ass cracker.” She recalled suggesting that the man might be a rapist. She went on to say that the 17-year-old Martin told her he was going to try to elude FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS the man. She said the teen left the arRachel Jeantel, the young woman ea but was still being followed. who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin the night he was shot, testified Heard ‘get off’ on Wednesday at George ZimmerThe witness, who lives in Miami, man’s trial that Martin was aware that said she told Martin on the phone to he was being followed. run but he replied that he was close Jeantel followed a long list of wit- to his father’s fiance’s house at the nesses who began testifying on Mon- Retreat at Twin Lakes community in day after opening statements.

Sanford. Shortly after, Martin told Je“A man was watching him ... He antel he would run home and then kept complaining the man was watchthe phone went dead. ing him,” 19-year-old Jeantel told the See TRIAL, Page A2 prosecuting attorney, relating her

Lewis, NAACP outraged

JACOB LANGSTON/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Witness Rachel Jeantel gives her testimony to the defense during George Zimmerman’s trial in Seminole circuit court in Sanford on Wednesday.

Heat takes the party to the street The Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh proudly shows off his team’s 2013 Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy during a celebratory parade Monday. With Bosh are teammates Jarvis Varnado and Norris Cole.

An estimated 400,000 people lined downtown Miami streets to cheer the repeat NBA champs. The Heat held an inarena rally after the parade.

Judge agrees to delay redistricting trial

ALSO INSIDE

Under the provision that the court struck down, nine states and the city councils and local governments within them were required to obtain advance approval from Washington before changing their rules on voting and elections, a process

KIM GIBSON/FLORIDA COURIER

FLORIDA | A3

NATION | A6

Scientists find drug that could reverse Alzheimer’s

Rainbow PUSH attorney: Deen mistreated Blacks

FINEST | B5

Meet

Cybil

A report by David Savage with the Tribune Washington Bureau/ MCT was used in compiling this report.

High court’s rulings bittersweet for LGBT Floridians Despite state’s stance, gay marriage proponents say they will keep pushing for change

BY MARGIE MENZEL THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3

A divided Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, freeing the Southern states from federal oversight of their election laws and setting off a fierce reaction from civil rights advocates and Democratic leaders.

The court’s conservative majority moved Tuesday to rein in a law revered by civil rights groups that is credited with transforming the South by ensuring Blacks could register and vote. In doing so, the court eliminated a tool the Justice Department used hundreds of times to prevent cities, counties and states from adopting allegedly discriminatory voting rules.

The court left open the possibility that Congress could fix the law, but the partisan gridlock that has dominated the legislative branch in recent years appears to make that unlikely.

known as “pre-clearance.”

In Florida, affected counties were Hillsborough, Monroe, Collier, Hardee and Hendry.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a hero of the civil rights movement, said the Supreme Court “had stuck a dagger in the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

They’re saying, in effect, that history cannot repeat itself. But I say, come and walk in my shoes.” Lewis was badly beaten by Alabama police in the “bloody Sunday” march across a bridge in Selma, Ala., an outrage that spurred Congress to adopt the Voting Rights Act. The national NAACP also expressed outrage after the Supreme Court ruling.

“This decision is outrageous. The Court’s majority put politics over decades of precedent and the rights of voters,” stated NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Congress must resurrect its bipartisan efforts from 2006 to ensure that the federal government has the power to preemptively strike racially discriminatory voting laws. Without that power, we are more vulnerable to the flood of attacks we have seen in recent years.”

TALLAHASSEE – Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Floridians are celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic rulings striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and paving the way to restore gay marriage in California – but said the victories are bittersweet.

By a 5-4 majority, the high court on Wednesday overturned DOMA, which has denied federal benefits to same-sex couples who are legally married in states that approve their unions. Florida is not one of them.

“The rulings out of the Supreme Court mean so much for so many people, but so much less for the

people in Florida,” said Rep. Joe Saunders, an Orlando Democrat and one of the first two openly gay lawmakers in the state.

Traditional view That’s because in 2008, Floridians passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions, with the measure receiving nearly 62 percent of the vote. There’s also a state version of DOMA on the books, passed in 1997.

“In Florida, I think there’s been a very clear statement with the marriage amendment, where we stand,” said House Judiciary Chairman Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican and supporter of the ban.

Other Florida Republican leaders weighed in Wednesday, reiterating their support for the traditional view of marriage as between one man and one woman.

“The voters in 2008 decided that we’re going to be a traditional marriage state,” said Gov. Rick Scott, noting that he’s been married since he was 19.

See FLORIDIANS, Page A2

COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: BARBARA R. ARNWINE: Opportunity for young activists to meet unmet needs | A5

FOCUS

A2

JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

Prayer instead of protests

TRIAL

Pastors leading weekly vigil at Sanford church; city manager and police chief weigh in on trial, lack of protesters

Later in her testimony, Jeantel said that when she called Martin back, he told her “the nigga is behind me.” Jeantel said she heard a bump and then the sound of “wet grass.” She said she then heard Martin say “get off,” the call was cut off and she never spoke to Martin again.

When asked whose voice was screaming for help on the 911 audio, Jeantel said she believes it was Martin.

BY JAMES HARPER FLORIDA COURIER

Driving up to the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford, no one would know a case that garnered international attention was going on.

One lone Seminole County resident held a sign in the fencedoff protest zone on Tuesday as the trial of George Zimmerman was taking place inside the courthouse.

Norton On Feb. 26, 2012, Bonaparte Zimmerman fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in a gated community in Sanford. Zimmerman is claiming self-defense in the shooting.

Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte said in an interview Wednesday with the Cecil Florida Courier “the Smith fact that they (residents) are not at courthouse (protesting) doesn’t mean anything” about their emotions over the killing of Martin.

Lied about age GARY W. GREEN/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

George Zimmerman, left, chats with his attorney Mark O’Mara on the 12th day of his trial in Sanford on Tuesday.

‘Division, discontent’

Smith has been on the job for three months. He replaced Lee because of how he handling the case and alleged bad relations between the Blacks and the police department of the city.

The new chief said he is working to figure out who people are and hearing their major concerns.

“There was division, discontent (with the police department),” Smith said he has concluded so far.

Smith said he is concerned about what the media will report about Sanford’s police department and its residents.

“There has been a lot of things people thought took place that didn’t happen,” he continued, adding that he Meeting at church believes the entire police department Bonaparte said Monday night that has gotten a bad reputation because more than 200 people attended a of what Lee allegedly condoned. town hall meeting at Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal organized Proud of officer by the Seminole County NAACP Smith said there will be informaBranch. They were praying instead of tion coming out during the trial that protesting.

Seminole County NAACP Presi- will clear up some misinformation dent Turner Clayton Jr. told a News that has been put out during the past 13 reporter, that the “so-called “dem- 18 months about the officers of his onstration area” that has been desig- department.

He was proud of testimony of ponated you will not see us protesting in that particular area cause no one tells lice patrol Sergeant Anthony Raimonus where to go, how long to stay, what do, who was one of the first to arrive on the scene, giving Martin mouthto do, and what to say.”

Bonaparte, Sanford’s city manager to-mouth resuscitation without a profor nearly two years, said he and the tective mask.

“He tried to extend the man’s life. city’s new police chief, Cecil Smith, are prepared for whatever may hap- A lot of people didn’t know that. The pen during the trial and when the ver- Sanford Police Department does care about people. That officer put his life dict is reached. at risk doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.”

Prepared for verdict Smith attributes the calm from residents to the fact that their demands were met.

“Citizens made requests for several things to take place - George Zimmerman arrested, Police Chief (Bill Lee) fired and an investigation of the police department,” he said, noting that all had taken place.

Smith said he is not worried about an eruption taking place after the verdict similar to what happened after the Rodney King verdict in April 1992. Los Angeles residents rioted and burned down parts of Central Los Angeles when the police officers accused of beating King were found not guilty.

Bonaparte recalled when 30,000 people came to the city last year angry that no charges had been filed against Zimmerman.

“There were no incidents then,” he noted.

“People are waiting to see what verdict will be. The verdict will come – some will think it is justice, others will think it is not. Reality is there will be an emotional reaction to verdict. We will be prepared,” he said.

Baptist Church.

City Manager Bonaparte said the purpose of the plan is to “move the community forward.”

He admitted that parts of the plan have not been addressed such as the creation of a local human relations commission, hiring of a director of community relations, and the creation of a panel to take a critical look at the Sanford Police Department.

Sanford Pastors Connecting

Bonaparte also said an interfaith group has been formed known as Sanford Pastors Connecting.

As a result of the group, pastors were given four seats in the courtroom for the duration of Zimmerman’s trial so they can tell parishioners what is going on.

Bonaparte said the pastors also have organized a “call for prayer’’ the next three Mondays – July 1, 8 and 15, starting at noon at area churches.

He said they also are working on programs to reach out to youth before they become part of the penal system.

Bonaparte wanted to make it clear, that in spite of Zimmerman trial, life goes on in Sanford.

He noted they are being proactive working on lessening crimes in the city and doing what they can to prevent incidents such as what happened between Martin and Zimmerman.

Bonaparte said the case involving Martin and Zimmerman is not representative of the people who live in Sanford.

“This was a tragic encounter of two individuals in a city of 54,000,” he said, explaining that most people don’t Smith: Procedures followed know Zimmerman had only lived in In reference to the police depart- the city three years and that Martin ment’s handling of Zimmerman the was visiting his father from Miami. night of the shooting, Smith said the “Sanford is friendly, welcoming and officers followed procedures. accommodating,” added Bonaparte.

“We do not charge; state attorney does,” he pointed out.

Protester stands his ground Smith hinted that an arrest should The lone protester at the courthave been made the night of the house on Tuesday was James Frashooting by saying, “(We have) the leigh, a 54-year-old White man from right to detain a person as long as we Casselberry holding up a sign reading need. If the individual was detained, “Stand your ground, Nelson Lied.” next we talk to state attorney office,” Fraleigh was referring to Judge Debhe stated. ra S. Nelson, the judge in the ZimmerThe chief said his main concern is man murder case. the arrival of out-of-town protesters In December, she had rejected Fraas the verdict gets closer. He worries leigh’s “stand your ground” claim in the media will report what is not the an unrelated case in which he was voice of Sanford residents. charged with whacking his neighbor in the head with a shovel.

Nine-point city plan Initially, Zimmerman had planned As the trial continues, Sanford of- on using the “stand your ground” deficials are working to deal with the fense but chose to go with a self-deblack eye the city received after the fense claim. shooting.

“I’m here for justice for everybody.

Sanford Community Relations Co- The law has to be applied fairly and ordinator Andrew Thomas presented just. The case should invoke everya nine-point plan to the community a body’s sensibility,” Fraleigh added year ago at Second Shiloh Missionary about the Zimmerman trial.

FLORIDIANS

Both Jeantel and Martin’s father became emotional during the testimony, wiping their eyes with tissues. Jeantel became agitated when she described hearing about Martin’s death and while discussing her decision not to attend his wake or his funeral.

“I didn’t want to see the body,” she said. Jeantel also grew visibly frustrated by defense attorney Don West’s questions on cross-examination.

Jeantel, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, admitted that she lied about her age, claiming to be a minor because she did not want to get involved.

She also insisted she declined to meet with Martin’s mother because she did not want to “see somebody cry.”

Confrontation with attorney During a confrontational exchange with West, she dismissed apparent discrepancies in her previous statements to attorneys by saying that she was distraught during her interview with the Martin family lawyers and that it “didn’t mean nothing to me.”

She bristled when West asked why she didn’t attend funeral services for Martin.

“You gotta understand,” she told West. “I’m the last person – you don’t know how I felt. You think I really want to go see the body after I just talked to him?”

Graphic photos shown On Tuesday, Sanford Police Sgt. Anthony Raimondo testified that he was one of the first officers to arrive at the scene where Trayvon Martin was facedown in the grass, a bullet in his chest, his hands beneath him.

Prosecutors showed jurors a photo of Martin in that position Tuesday.

Then they showed several more photos of his body.

In one, a close-up, Martin’s eyes are open, his face slack.

His father, Tracy Martin, rushed from the courtroom after seeing the first photo. His mother, Sybrina Fulton, stayed put, but she kept

he acknowledged. During the 2013 session, Saunders filed a bill (HB 653) that would have banned workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but it died without a hearing.

from A1 “That’s what the voters decided, and it’s my job as governor to uphold the law of the land.”

‘Get Engaged’ started

Fired up by rulings “I respect the rights of states to allow same-sex marriages, even though I disagree with them,” said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in a statement. “But I also expect that the decisions made by states like Florida to define marriage as between one man and one woman will also be respected.”

But Florida LGBT activists, fired up by the rulings, said they have no intention of leaving matters as they stand.

Civil rights attorney Mary Meeks of Orlando said the high court’s ruling will immediately grant more than 1,100 federal rights and benefits to same-sex couples who were married in states that have legalized same-sex unions.

Nine states and the District of Columbia have such laws on the books now, while three more

from A1

PETE MAROVICH/MCT

Demonstrators stand outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, the day the Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act. states have approved same-sex marriage to take effect Aug. 1.

Other avenues “The money question that I believe is unanswered by this court’s decision is whether people like my wife and I, who got married in states like that but who live in states like Florida that prohibit same-sex marriage, whether or not we will have access to those

rights and benefits,” Meeks said.

“And I think that’s a legal question that will only be answered by further legal action.”

Advocates are also considering two other avenues for change: another constitutional amendment that would overturn the 2008 ban, or legislation at the state level.

Hardly anyone thinks the latter is likely, even Saunders. “For this year, it feels like a heavy lift,”

Also this year, a bill that would have allowed domestic partnerships for unmarried couples (SB 196) made Florida history by passing one committee – the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood and the bill’s sponsor. But that was as far as it got.

“The make-up of the Legislature just has no tolerance for this kind of radical legislation that redefines marriage,” said John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council and a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage. “I think that’s a dead end for them.”

That would appear to leave a ballot measure as a likely alternative, and last week the gayrights group Equality Florida announced its new “Get Engaged” campaign to do that in 2014.

her eyes down, then lifted them and looked straight ahead. The photos were on the wall to the left, projected so they were life-size.

One of many dramatic moments Before the day was through, prosecutors would show a dozen photos of his body — one a bare-chested close-up of the bullet hole in his chest. It was small and nearly bloodless except for a thin trail that trickled down his side.

It was the first time the public had gotten a look at his body.

For the most part, they were clinical crime-scene photos, but they also revealed something of a child in Martin. He was a gangly teenage boy with a whisper of a beard beneath his jaw and a frame so long his leg extended beyond the yellow blanket that Raimondo had spread over him, trying to give him some privacy.

The showing of the photos were just one of many dramatic moments on Day 12 of Zimmerman’s trial.

Hoodie, gun shown Also Tuesday, prosecutors placed several important items into evidence, including Martin’s now-near iconic hoodie, the packet of Skittles he had gone to a nearby 7-Eleven to buy and Zimmerman’s gun.

The crime-scene technician who gathered evidence from the scene, Diana Smith, pulled the KelTec 9 mm handgun from its evidence box.

“Can you hold it up for the jury, please?” asked Assistant State Attorney John Guy. Smith did, at arm’s length, holding it aloft for about 30 seconds for panel members, who sat 20 feet away.

Prosecutors also called to the witness stand what’s likely to be the first of several neighbor witnesses.

Selene Bahadoor testified that the night Zimmerman killed Trayvon, she heard running, from left to right, and a voice saying, “No,” or, “Uuuuuuuuh,” she said.

When she looked out, it was too dark to identify anyone, she said, but she saw figures with their arms “flailing.”

She turned away to pull food off the stove, heard a gunshot, and when she looked again, she saw a body in the grass, she testified.

Defense attorney O’Mara challenged her, however, pointing out that she had not come forward and given police a statement for several days.

She also had signed an online petition titled: “Prosecute the killer of our son, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin,” which was addressed to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Generational divide University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus said a sharp generational divide favors the passage of same-sex marriage as the electorate ages.

“But it’s still a divided state on the issue,” she said, “and if it were put on the ballot, much would depend on the turnout – the demographic make-up of the voters who actually turn out to vote.”

That’s why, MacManus added, backers of same-sex marriage would be well-advised to mount their campaign in 2016, because a higher percentage of young voters go to the polls in a presidential election. Older voters tend to dominate in a midterm election, she said.

The changing demographics have prompted more politicians who opposed same-sex marriage – including U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and former Gov. Charlie Crist – to change their views on the issue.

Baxley acknowledged the demographic shifts, but he wasn’t ready to declare his traditional view of marriage obsolete.

“Some of those young folks’ opinions are going to shift as they mature,” he said.

JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

FLORIDA

A3

Realtors: Florida home sales up 18.7 percent in May NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

Then Florida governor-elect Rick Scott listens to Dr. Daniel Kelly, center, during a tour at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona in Orlando on Dec. 10, 2010.

Florida scientists find drug that could reverse Alzheimer’s Researchers at Orlando institute present findings from 10-year study

Steve Gardell, senior director of scientific resources at Sanford-Burnham in Lake Nona.

To get a new drug approved for use in humans is a tremendous accomplishment, he said. Once a drug makes it that far, it should be leveraged for other uses.

BY MARNI JAMESON ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT

ORLANDO – Scientists at SanfordBurnham Medical Research Institute have discovered a combination of two FDA-approved drugs that appears to stop — and possibly reverse — the destructive changes in the brain caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

By combining two widely used drugs, nitroglycerin and memantine, researchers created a third drug: NitroMemantine. In animal models, the hybrid appears to restore synapses — the connections between neurons — lost in the disease process, according to findings from a 10-year study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new experimental drug may be the first to restore brain synapses lost during the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, said Dr. Stuart Lipton, professor and director of Sanford-Burnham’s neuroscience, aging and stem-cell research center, and the study’s lead researcher.

“These findings actually mean that you might be able to intercede not only early but also a bit later,” said Lipton, whose team studied the drug combination in mice and in brain cells derived from human stem cells.

Enormous potential The new combo drug — developed by researchers at Sanford-Burnham’s LaJolla, Calif., center — is part of an overall effort focused at its Orlando sister facility that explores ways scientists can “re-purpose” already approved drugs in new ways to treat disease.

“The potential of drug re-purposing is enormous and will accelerate the pace of drug discovery,” said Dr.

5.4 million in U.S. Drugs are typically developed for one purpose; however, “observing how they act in humans can open our eyes to other, possibly more valuable, uses,” Gardell said.

Alzheimer’s disease progressively destroys the connections among neurons, leading to memory loss and cognitive decline.

In the United States, an estimated 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s, and as many as 16 million Americans will by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

In Florida, nearly half a million residents 65 or older already have Alzheimer’s, according to the association.

Past focus of meds The disease is characterized by abnormal clumps of proteins called amyloid plaques and tangled bundles of fibers.

Until now, medications have focused on attacking the plaques and tangles that form in the brain, said Lipton, who was part of the research team at Harvard that discovered how the drug memantine helped Alzheimer’s patients.

That work contributed to the Food and Drug Administration approval of memantine — sold as Namenda — in 2003 for the treatment of Alzheimer’s.

However, that drug’s effectiveness has been limited.

37 combinations used The new research found that when nitroglycerin — commonly used to treat chest pain or angina in patients

with coronary heart disease — was added to memantine to form a new drug, the results improved.

It took researchers 37 combinations of the drugs before they found one that worked, Lipton said.

“We show in this paper that memantine’s ability to protect synapses is limited,” Lipton said.

But working with mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, Lipton’s team found NitroMemantine brought synapses back to normal within a few months and started to work within hours.

TALLAHASSEE – The trial to determine the degree politics played when lawmakers redrew congressional districts last year will be delayed so the votingrights groups contesting maps have more time to build a case.

Attorneys for the state, which noted the Fair Districts coalition has had more than a year to prepare, contend the delay could impact the 2014 elections.

The delay, from August until December or January, came as court documents were released on June 20 showing an aide to former House Speaker Dean Cannon sent drafts of proposed maps to a Republican Party operative weeks before they became public in 2011.

Consultant withheld documents Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis accepted the request by the Fair Districts coalition – which includes the League of Women Voters of Florida and Common Cause – for additional time to prepare for the trial that was set to begin Aug. 19.

“I don’t think you all are ready to try the case because I’m still thrashing through some discovery this week,” Lewis said.

The coalition contends the Legislature failed to follow the standards of the 2010 voter-approved, antigerrymandering constitutional amendments when crafting new congressional and legislative district lines.

Last month, Lewis found consultant Pat Bainter and his Gainesville-based firm

46.3 percent hike in Tallahassee The median price of sales this past month was $171,000, up 15.9 per-

‘Very promising’ research The study was funded by grants from agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense and the American Heart Association.

Calling the new research “very promising,” Dr. David Smuckler, geriatrician and medical director of Orlando Health’s Center for Aging and Memory Disorder Clinic, said he would welcome a new treatment.

“The medications we have now are not very good. A lot of patients don’t respond, but they’re the best we have,” Smuckler said. “They don’t do much to slow the process, and they definitely don’t reverse it.”

Years before on market Dr. Gary Small, director of the Longevity Center at University of California Los Angeles and co-author of “The Alzheimer’s Prevention Program,” also said the research offered hope.

“I like the whole concept,” Small said. “The anti-amyloid drugs have failed. This approach has some interesting science behind it.”

The proof, both agree, remains to be seen when the drug is tested in humans. That’s the next step.

Once researchers find a pharmaceutical partner, the science will advance to human trials, said Lipton, who estimates it will be “several years” before it’s on the market.

Judge agrees to delay of redistricting trial

BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

Single-family home sales across Florida stood 18.7 percent higher in May compared to a year earlier, Florida Realtors reported last week.

The Realtors recorded closing 22,375 singlefamily home sales in May, the highest May total in Florida since 2005, when 24,523 sales were completed with the median price of $232,000. Florida Realtors President Dean Asher said the sales numbers are helping to attract more people to list their homes for sale.

“Statewide, new listings for single-family homes increased 10.2 percent in May, while new town home-condo listings rose 7.1 percent,” Asher said in a release.

cent from May 2012 and the highest mark for May since 2008, when the median price was $203,800.

May 2008 also marked the lowest overall number of home sales for a May in the past decade, when 12,044 sales were completed.

Regionally top sales performers last month included a 35.5 percent jump in the Fort Walton Beach-Destin region, 32.2 percent in Jacksonville, and 46.3 percent in Tallahassee.

Meanwhile, Naples reported a 6.2 percent increase in the monthly year-to-year single-family home sales, while Fort Myers was at 1.4 percent and Pensacola stood at 4.8 percent. Naples retains the highest price for home sales, with median sales at $350,000.

The latest monthly numbers come on the heels of a 17.4 percent jump in single-family home sales recorded for April.

Data Targeting in contempt for withholding nearly 1,900 pages of documents that were to be turned over to Fair Districts’ attorneys in April.

Deadline could cost George Meros, an attorney for the Florida House, argued on June 20 that the request for the delay is simply a hope by the coalition that during the additional time the Florida Supreme Court will overturn a lower-court ruling that shields lawmakers from talking about the maps.

A divided three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled in May that lawmakers are protected by legislative immunity.

Ashley Davis, counsel for the Florida Department of State, told Lewis the delay could also impact the 2014

election cycle.

She noted that the deadline for candidates to collect petitions to qualify for the 2014 contests is March 31 and that if the Legislature has to redraw the districts, many signatures could be ruled invalid if voters are redrawn from candidates’ districts.

Playing politics?

The state did score points as Lewis ruled that the coalition must release emails and other material that could be tied to the creation of alternative maps that have been offered as examples of how the lines should have looked if the Fair Districts requirements were followed.

Meros contends that testimony and emails between coalition member and consultants indicate that politics played a hand in those maps.

MARICE COHN BAND/MIAMI HERALD/MCT

Luxury property in the Miami area has been in great demand. In February, Jill Eber and Jill Hertzberg, luxury Realtors, had the listing for this $37 million bayfront home on Miami Beach.

“A fundamental part of their complaint is that these are non-partisan entities that joined together that wanted to draw fair districts, when we know the evidence shows to the contrary,” Meros said.

He noted that testimony has shown meetings were held in late 2011 involving U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., representatives for some of the plaintiffs, and most of the Florida Democratic congressional delegation where discussions were held to “scoop” Jewish voters into the district of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, and to target the districts of Republican Reps. Vern Buchanan and C.W. “Bill” Young.

“All we know now is that there darn well are emails that show that they did things to benefit Democrats,” Meros said of the map-makers for the League of Women Voters.

Maps released in 2011 Prior to the afternoon hearing on June 20, Fair Districts introduced a few pages of documents into court records as an indication of why the additional time for discovery and depositions was needed.

The paperwork included a deposition from May 16, 2013, of Marc Reichelderfer, listed as a “political operative,” who received seven electronic drafts of congressional maps on Nov. 23, 2011, from Cannon aide Kirk Pepper. The deposition also indicated they continued an email dialogue over the maps.

The maps were released to the public on Dec. 6, 2011.

When asked during the deposition if he received the maps so he could analyze the political impact of the proposed lines, Reichelderfer responded, “I could have done that, yes, sir.”

EDITORIAL

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JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

Consumer preferences reshape entire industries I have a black belt in retail therapy, so I was thrilled when I first saw Nielsen’s new in-depth report, “Brick

by Brick: the State of the Shopping Center’’ because it confirms two very important things: our economy is growing stronger because jobs are being created and money is being spent; and as consumers, we are stronger than ever.

You’ve probably heard the line, “If you build it, they will come,” from the movie “Field of Dreams.” Well, that is happening all around us, no matter where you live.

CHERYL PEARSONMCNEIL NNPA COLUMNIST

We consumers don’t just shop. We want a multi-faceted experience to play, eat, be entertained and engaged – and that’s what’s available to us.

Shopping centers on rise Nielsen’s shopping center

study reports that the number of large shopping centers has jumped 65 percent over the last five years. This translates well for employment. According to both the Department of Labor and the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), the U.S. shopping center retail sector added 33,000 jobs in April.

That accounts for onefifth of the total jobs added that month. Labor Department figures show the industry has bounced back from its recessionary low back in December 2009, re-

VISUAL VIEWPOINT: PAULA DEEN

covering more than half a million jobs since that time.

Between April of last year and April 2013, 213,000 of those jobs were filled.

This means retail now employs 12.5 million people, which makes up 9.3 percent of all payroll employment. Additionally, the restaurants and bars that are part of the shopping centers generated another 38,000 new jobs. According to the Nielsen Restaurant Growth Index (RGI) which tracks restaurant openings and sales, there were 47,161 new restaurant openings in 2012. Many of those restaurants are located in Lifestyle Shopping Centers.

More money to spend More jobs mean there’s more money to spend. Total shopping center sales for 2012 were more than $2.4 trillion, an increase of 2.8 percent over 2011.

Those small shopping

centers that are anchored by a convenience store are growing because convenience stores (c-stores) are increasing even faster than the overall market, up 4.9 percent over the last year compared to 3.7 percent for the overall market.

Specialty stores closing The picture is not so rosy for everyone. We all had our favorite specialty stores that either no longer exist or have closed locations as a result of the past recession and changing consumer tastes. An example is the Disney Store, which has closed one-third of its stores since 2008.

Nielsen’s shopping report shows that although ecommerce is growing, representing 5.4 percent of retail sales in the last quarter of 2012, consumers still spend most of their money at brick and mortar locations.

E-commerce to grow The report also reveals that affluent suburban families are more than twice as likely to shop online as the average American household, spending about $200 online a year and that ecommerce will continue to grow over the next five years.

Although e-commerce can be a double-edged sword for retailers, it’s projected that it is going to work particularly well for those establishments that take advantage of promotions both online and in their stores.

Cheryl Pearson-McNeil is senior vice president of public affairs and government relations for Nielsen. For more information and studies go to www. nielsenwire.com. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

Blacks and Africans don’t mix

NATE BEELER, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Random thoughts of a free Black mind, v. 180 NNPA election – I’m in Nashville, Tenn. for the National Newspaper Publishers Association annual convention trying to win an election for national chairman. Columnist Lucius Gantt is correct that the African attire I’ve been wearing since 1993 is an issue with some of my colleagues.

My response? I’ll wear a suit. Black newspapers are facing major challenges. If the group grants me the privilege of leadership, wearing Spanx, a girdle and a corset simultaneously – that’s what Europeanstyle men’s business wear with a necktie feels like to me – is a small price to pay. If I win, I’ll work on raising their consciousness about “looking like an African.”

Voting Rights Act, Defense of Marriage Act, and Proposition 8 decisions at the U.S. Supreme Court – Big victories for gay marriage proponents. (When’s the last time they lost something?). Big loss for racial minorities with regard to protection of voting rights. (When’s the last time we won something?)

What’s the difference? Homosexuality cuts across race, ethnicity, gender and income. The lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered community is active, has financial resources and uses them strategically, and is politically sophisticated. Black Americans have few allies, we don’t use our financial resources strategically, we naïvely place all our policy hopes in the

quick takes from #2: straight, no chaser

Charles W. Cherry II, Esq. PUBLISHER

Democratic Party, and we gripe without taking action…

Bro. Prez in Africa – He’s visiting South Africa, Tanzania, and Senegal with the family, but he's bypassing his dad’s home country of Kenya. Why go? China is eating America’s lunch with regard to doing business in Africa. That must change. Why bypass his homeland? Because Kenya’s president was indicted by the World Court for alleged war crimes. (The Kenyan people elected him anyway.) That’s like me driving up I-95 from South Florida to visit friends in Jacksonville without stopping to see Mom in Daytona – and Mom knows I’m bypassing her. Not a good move…

Paula Deen – Only in America can a Southern White woman get a substantial Black following by teaching Black people how to cook “soul food.” Like the White man’s ice is colder, Paula Deen’s mac and cheese must be cheesier and her fried chicken and smothered steak greasier…

Contact me at ccherry2@gmail.com.

Opinions expressed on this editorial page are those of the writers, and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of the newspaper or the publisher.

THE CREDO OF THE BLACK PRESS The Black Press believes that Americans can best lead the world away from racism and national antagonism when it accords to every person, regardless of race, color or creed, full human and legal rights. Hating no person, fearing no person. The Black Press strives to help every person in the firm belief...that all are hurt as long as anyone is held back.

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Charles W. Cherry, Sr. (1928-2004), Founder Julia T. Cherry, Senior Managing Member, Central Florida Communicators Group, LLC Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Cassandra CherryKittles, Charles W. Cherry II, Managing Members Dr. Glenn W. Cherry, Chief Executive Officer Charles W. Cherry II, Esq., Publisher Dr. Valerie Rawls-Cherry, Human Resources Jenise Morgan, Senior Editor Lynnette Garcia, Marketing Consultant/Sales Linda Fructuoso, Marketing Consultant/Sales, Circulation Angela VanEmmerik, Creative Director Chicago Jones, Eugene Leach, Louis Muhammad, Lisa Rogers-Cherry, Circulation James Harper, Andreas Butler, Ashley Thomas, Staff Writers Delroy Cole, Kim Gibson, Photojournalists MEMBER National Newspaper Publishers Association Society of Professional Journalists Florida Press Association Associated Press National Newspaper Association

I don’t know too many Mexicans that want to be Koreans. I don’t know Russians that want to be Haitians. And, I don’t know Dominicans that prefer to be Dutchmen.

But African-Americans love to be anybody that they are not!

Cuban Americans still love Cuban culture. Irish Americans still love Irish coffee and corned beef. And Chinese Americans still like egg rolls and fortune cookies.

How can African-Americans hate the blues and love hard rock when there would be no hard rock music if it were not taken from blues music. There would be no Elvis Presley or Rolling Stones if there were no Arthur Crudup, Muddy Waters and Elmore James.

During slavery days, slaves were taught and told to hate themselves. Now, hundreds and hundreds of years after slavery, AfricanAmerican don’t have to be told everything Black or everything African is bad, the new age, 21st century slaves hate themselves on their own.

Most people can be told thousands of times, they can be shown television commercials and newspaper reports about something but they still might not believe it until they see it with their own eyes.

Even shoppers can walk

Lucius Gantt THE GANTT REPORT

through the grocery produce section and see the cool mist blowing on the fruit, see how colorful it looks, feel how firm and fresh it is but in many cases they will pull a grape off of a bunch of grapes and put one in their mouth to taste it. Sometimes the grapes that look good from afar are far from tasting good.

Imitating imposters But no, African-Americans like to imitate the impostors!

Negroes don’t like to eat at the Black restaurant, don’t like to read the Black newspaper, don’t like to patronize the Black business and don’t like to stand up and speak out on Black issues or support Black causes.

But those same Negroes are quick to put on a Cowboy hat, some Go Go boots or a blonde wig with purple extensions.

I was shocked to hear one of the reasons some African-American newspaper owners were reluctant to support the candidacy of Charles Cherry, publisher of Florida’s only statewide Black newspaper The Flori-

da Courier. Some of the media owners said that Cherry always wears dashikis and doesn’t dress like white newspaper owners that wear suits and ties!

Choice of clothing No other ethnic group in the world would deny a very good candidate an opportunity to hold office merely on his choice of clothing.

It doesn’t bother Cuban Americans one bit to be called Cuban. Jews don’t mind being called Jews.

Calling some African Americans “African” might get you cut or even shot!

Black people don’t like to name children African names, they don’t like to eat African food dishes, they don’t like Afrobeat, high life or other kinds of African music.

They don’t like African religions, they don’t like African culture and it is obvious when African-Americans don’t like Africa, they don’t like themselves.

Negroes love to imitate the impostors!

Buy Gantt’s book “Beast Too: Dead Man Writing” and contact him at www. allworldconsultants.net.

Click on this story at www. flcourier.com to write your own response.

SBA wants to help Veterans become entrepreneurs The U.S. Small business Administration (SBA) would like to express our gratitude to the people who volunteer to keep our nation safe and strong which is why veterans are a particular focus for us.

Did you know that veteran-owned small businesses account for a large percentage of small businesses?

Veterans are at least 45 percent more likely to take the plunge into entrepreneurship than people with no active-duty military experience, according to a May 2011 study from the SBA Office of Advocacy.

In 2007 (the latest data available from the U.S. Census Bureau), veterans owned 2.4 million businesses, or 9 percent of all businesses nationwide, generating $1.2 trillion in receipts and employing nearly 5.8 million people.

CASSIUS BUTTS GUEST COLUMNIST

With the support of SBA’s top 20 national lending partners, and approximately 100 additional regional and community lending partners across the United States, SBA expects to assist an additional 2,000 veterans obtain loans to start or expand small businesses by increasing lending by $475 million over the next five years. This equals a five percent increase above historic veteran lending activity by the SBA. SBA also has teamed up with the nation’s 250 Certified Development Companies (CDCs) to launch an initiative which provides financing discounts and training to veterans who Raising capitol But often times, veterans own businesses or are inface challenges in raising terested in small business capital or have trouble re- ownership. ceiving a conventional loan.

SBA has recently announced Vets borrowing more In the North Florida Disthe SBA Veteran Pledge Initiative, a commitment by its trict, veteran lending has tremendoustop national, regional and increased community lenders to col- ly over the past few years. lectively increase their lend- Combined FY11 and FY12 ing activity to veterans by lending totaled $52.3 milfive percent per year for the lion, up over 19% over the FY09 and FY10 combined next five years.

total of $43.7 million. With this new support, veteran lending has the potential to increase even more.

Do you know a veteran? Make sure to introduce them to the SBA because we have programs designed for Veterans, Service-Disabled Veterans, Reserve Members, and their spouses.

The VBOC offers free counseling and technical assistance/training to more than 150,000 Veteran and Service-Disabled Veteran Small Business Owners.

Many veterans have innate entrepreneurial skill.

We honor them on holidays and pay tribute to all American veterans. The SBA wants to help veterans find a path which will lead to success in operating or owning a small business.

Thanks to all who wear, or have worn, the uniform of the United States Armed Forces. We’re a safer nation because of you.

Cassius Butts is an SBA Regional Administrator. For more information on SBA’s services and programs for veteran entrepreneurs, please visit www.sba.gov/vets. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

Opportunity for young activists to meet unmet needs The State of Equality and Justice in America” is a 20-part series of columns written by an all-star list of contributors to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Here’s the 18th op-ed of the series.

Fighting for social and racial justice is the enduring component of the civil right movements.

In the tumultuous 1960s many great leaders emerged, dedicating their lives to moving America toward justice.

Iconic civil rights activist Medgar Evers made tremendous efforts in fighting for positive change and social justice. June 12 marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Evers. Though only 37 at the time of his death, he had become a key civil rights leader who worked diligently to secure equal rights in the state of Mississippi.

It is vital to ensure that his work and legacy does not become blurred with other historical events. We must continue to teach younger generations of activists how we have been afforded certain rights, including voting rights, because of the bitter sacrifices of sheroes and heroes like Evers. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law extends its deepest appreciation for Mr. Evers’ courageous life and civil rights legacy.

BARBARA R. ARNWINE TRICE EDNEY WIRE

widow Myrlie Evers-Williams, who has valiantly upheld their shared ideals since his murder.

The Lawyers’ Committee fully supports Myrlie’s efforts to build a memorial for her late husband at Alcon State University in Mississippi. More information about the memorial is available at http:// mememorial.org/.

After becoming the first field secretary of the NAACP in Mississippi, Medgar Evers organized and participated in voter registration efforts, demonstrations, and economic boycotts of companies that practiced discrimination. He also worked to investigate crimes perpetrated against African-Americans.

Evers’ many contributions to the civil rights movement, along with his untimely death, were both factors in the creation of the national Lawyers’ Committee, which I have been honored to lead for the last 24 years.

Lawyer’s Committee founded

In the summer of 1963 demands for racial justice were increasingly being met with lawless intimidaMyrlie Evers-Williams tion and violence, and immediate a sheroe action was needed. On June 11th Among my sheroes is Evers’ President John F. Kennedy gave

Supreme Court reaffirms importance of diversity in college admissions The Supreme Court Monday endorsed the benefits of studentbody diversity in colleges and universities and allowed the continued use of race-conscious admissions policies. The Court upheld the equal protection framework as laid out in Grutter, and did not strike down affirmative action. And it recognized that a diverse campus brings important benefits, “including enhanced classroom dialogue and the lessening of racial isolation and stereotypes.”

This is a win for the principles of opportunity, diversity, and equality. Abigail Fisher’s legal team failed to prove that she was discriminated against.

Wrinkle added However, the Court added a wrinkle by sharpening the standard that universities must meet, requiring colleges to show there were no “available, workable race-neutral” alternatives available to them.

The Court sent the case back to the lower court to determine whether the University of Texas admissions policy meets this standard. In dissent, Justice Ginsburg stated that she would not

SHERRILYN IFILL GUEST COLUMNIST

have asked the court of appeals to take a “second look” because she believes that the University has already produced sufficient evidence that its policy is permissible.

Calling on voices We are confident that the University of Texas will be able to meet this standard, as will other universities that have been responsibly using affirmative action. However, it will be critically important that the voices of students – those most affected by the policy – be fully heard at any re-hearing, and we will do everything possible to help make that happen.

The University of Texas admissions policy challenged by Fisher involved only a very modest consideration of race, in addition to race-neutral initiatives. Most of the University of Texas’s students are admitted through its Top Ten

EDITORIAL VISUAL VIEWPOINT: IRS LINE DANCE

a nationally televised speech on civil rights stating that “it is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets.” Tragically, only hours after Kennedy’s speech, Evers was assassinated by a member of the White Citizens’ Council.

Shortly after President Kennedy heard the news of Evers’s assassination, he called for the best and the brightest attorneys in the nation to attend a historic meeting at the White House and urged them to defend the rule of law and the rights of civil rights demonstrators.

Within a week, the Lawyers’ Committee was formed to obtain equal opportunity for minorities by leveraging the pro bono reIn our efforts to uphold the sources of the private bar to ad- legacies of civil rights activists, dress legal factors that contribute and encourage new activists to to racial justice. emerge, we have also implemented the Young Lawyers Committee Vigilant on civil rights for Civil Rights initiative.

Today the Lawyers’ Committee and our partners remain vigilant Next generation on civil rights issues. We are curThe goal of this initiative is to rently fighting for stronger tenant encourage lawyers in the first 10 laws in New Orleans, providing a voice for those who may not know years of their career who are inhow to speak up for their own fair terested or actively engaged in housing rights. In addition, we the work of the Lawyers’ Commitare fighting to protect voters from tee to join us in the fight. With our Young Lawyers Initiative, we are voter suppression laws.

We also strive to break the assisting the next generation to School to Prison Pipeline (STPP) answer the call to action and bethrough helping students who come more knowledgeable about have fallen subject to the juve- pressing racial and social justice nile justice systems reenter into issues by getting involved and school to complete their educa- connected with the civil rights istion and educating teachers and sues nationally. parents on STPP issues.

Leaders like Medgar Evers Percent Plan, which guarantees acceptance to Texas residents in the top ranks of their high school class.

For the remainder of its applicants, the University undertakes an individualized “whole-file” review to assemble a class that is both exceptionally academically qualified and broadly diverse.

This process allows the school to consider a student’s race along with multiple other criteria, such as essays, leadership qualities, extracurricular activities, awards, work experience, community service, family responsibilities, socio-economic status, and languages spoken in the home.

Sufficiently flexible The full-file review process does not award any fixed points to racial minorities; nor does it involve illegal quotas or set aside designated admissions slots for minority students. The University of Texas’s admissions process is sufficiently flexible to take into consideration the racial background of any applicant, including White students, based on their unique backgrounds and experiences.

As the Court of Appeals noted when it first upheld the University of Texas’s admissions policy, the University’s policy considers race even more modestly than the University of Michigan Law School policy that the Supreme Court previously upheld in Grutter.

We are eager for the lower court to hear student voices, and we will be there to vigorously represent those students, when it hears the case again.

A5

that a clear majority of the Justices did not challenge the Court’s precedents, including its seminal 2003 decision in Grutter, that colleges and universities have a compelling interest in creating diverse campuses. Getting into a high quality college impacts a person’s life well beyond their time in that school. Higher education plays a vital role in opening pathways to opportunity in today’s society.

A broad coalition supported the critical importance of diversity in higher education in Fisher, including major corporations, former military leaders, over 100 colleges and universities, religious organizations, diverse student organizations, labor unions, as well as civil rights advocates, including Latino groups, AsianAmerican organizations, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which filed a brief on behalf of the UT Black Student Alliance and African-American alumni of UT.

Deliver on promise

Our country must deliver on its promise to make the pathways of opportunity open to everyone.

The promise of equal opportunity will ring hollow unless colleges and universities can ensure meaningful access to students of all races. We will not rest until a quality college education is within reach of every American child.

Stark racial disparities in education continue to limit opportunity from elementary school through college. We must redouble efforts to develop creative policies that open and maintain access to higher education for all of our nation’s students. We must do everything possible within the Compelling interest Court’s guidelines to make diIt is important to emphasize verse colleges the norm across

GARY MCCOY, CAGLE CARTOONS

blazed a trail for generations to come; it is now up to us to continue fighting for justice. Let not the work of Mr. Evers be done in vain, but let it be a reminder of how far the civil rights movement has come and how much work remains.

Barbara R. Arnwine is president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Jaila Carter, a psychology major at Howard University and intern for the Lawyers’ Committee, contributed to this editorial. For more information on the Lawyers’ Committee’s 50th anniversary, visit www.lawyerscommittee.org or http://www.towardjusticecampaign.org/. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response. the United States.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is co-counsel in another case on the Court’s docket for next term about college diversity, but the legal questions before the Court are very different from this case.

Reaffirm Constitution There is little to no chance a ruling in Schuette v. Cantrell next year will tell colleges nationwide whether or not they can consider race on applications. Next term’s case does not ask the Court to weigh in on what types of diversity policies colleges and universities may adopt. Instead, Cantrell is about reaffirming the constitutional principle that our democratic processes must be open and accessible to all citizens.

In that case, we urge the Court to declare Michigan’s ballot initiative, which bars the consideration of race in college admissions within the state, unconstitutional because it rigs Michigan’s political process against students and universities that support diversity.

In practice, the ballot initiative creates a racially selective, twotiered political process. It forces supporters of racial diversity to overcome more formidable obstacles than those who advocate for consideration of legacy status, athletics, or virtually any other lawful factor in the college admissions process.

Sherrilyn Ifill is president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

In defense of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder I express my feelings directly.

While maintaining civility, I have no difficulty expressing the truth as I see it. One such situation involves our current U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, who, despite a long career in service to this country, has been targeted for professional destruction by conservative political elements.

For those of short memory, it is easy to ignore the experience that Mr. Holder has developed in service to the department he now heads. The achievements of his career give greater reason to question the motives of those who persecute him.

It’s easy for some to forget that after law school, Holder joined the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and served there from 1976 to 1988. Others might forget that during this period, the quality of his service led to his appointment as a judge of the Superior Court of D.C. by President Reagan.

They might also forget Mr. Holder’s 1993 appointment as

Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq. TRICE EDNEY WIRE

D.C.’s U.S. Attorney by President Clinton or his elevation to Deputy AG in 1997 with unanimous Senate confirmation. He’s had bipartisan support.

Tough, independent Praised by President Obama for his “toughness and independence,” in December 2008, Mr. Holder was nominated for AG of the U.S.. Since then, his management of the DOJ has shown that no other AG in history has established a comparable record of civil rights enforcement and equal protection of citizens’ rights.

That brings us to my main point. I believe, unequivocally, that were it not for his pursuit of equity and justice for all citizens,

Mr. Holder wouldn’t be the target of the relentless pursuit of his resignation.

Although it probably irritated his detractors, Holder’s push for expanded Hate Crime laws isn’t the reason for the animus directed at him. Nor is it the legal action he took to thwart the 2010 Arizona Immigration Law which, in 2012, was mostly struck down by the Supreme Court.

Staunch defender The real problem: Mr. Holder is a staunch defender of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and enthusiastically opposes state laws that restrict/suppress the votes of qualified citizens. Under Holder’s tenure, the DOJ successfully sued Shelby County, AL for violating Section 5 of the VRA. In advance of the 2012 Election, Holder vigorously opposed new voter ID laws enacted in over a dozen states. He correctly assessed these laws as negatively impacting the votes of the elderly, students and minorities.

Will of the people He stated, “We have to honor the generations that took extraordinary risks” to achieve the right to vote. In April, Holder vowed to continue to enforce federal voting rights laws within the scope of his power, regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court decides the pending appeal of Shelby County, Ala. Mr. Holder’s efforts have had the effect of ensuring that the outcome of the election process more closely reflects the will of all voters.

For his efforts, Mr. Holder has been the subject of accusations of professional malfeasance. Conservatives have used every scurrilous allegation to sully his name and professional efficacy. In an unprecedented act, the Republican controlled House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.

Without foundation, he was accused of wrongdoing in the management of a cross-border guntracking effort between Mexi-

co and the U.S. begun under the Bush Administration. Almost weekly, some new accusation is registered with the stated intent of forcing Mr. Holder’s resignation.

A good man We have the means to stand in defense of this good man. We can maintain awareness of the efforts to do him professional harm and we can resist these destructive efforts by voicing our disapproval to those who work against him.

They may not cease their efforts to undermine him, but they will be aware of the will of those they must overcome to do so with success.

Dr. E. Faye Williams is National Chair of the National Congress of Black Women, www.nationalcongressbw.org.

Click on this story at www.flcourier.com to write your own response.

NATION

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JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

Supreme Court sends affirmative action case back to lower courts Lower court directed to more closely examine university’s admissions policies

BY MICHAEL DOYLE MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU/ MCT

WASHINGTON — Affirmative action in university admissions survives for now, under a Supreme Court ruling in a closely watched case that involves the University of Texas.

In a 7-1 decision Monday, justices directed a lower appellate court to examine more closely the University of Texas’ admissions policies that may take race into account. Though the university now faces tougher scrutiny, the decision leaves intact an earlier Supreme Court ruling that concluded racial diversity in college admissions can be justified as a compelling state interest.

“A university must make a showing that its plan is narrowly tailored to achieve … the benefits of a student body diversity that encompasses a broad array of qualifications and characteristics of which racial or ethnic origin is but a single though important element,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

Back to New Orleans court The decision sends the University of Texas affirmative action challenge back to the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. There, Kennedy said, judges must determine whether the university has dem-

onstrated that its admissions program is “narrowly tailored” to obtain the educational benefits of diversity.

“Whether this record, and not simple assurances of good intention, is sufficient is a question for the court of appeals,” Kennedy wrote, adding pointedly that “the reviewing court must ultimately be satisfied that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity.”

The decision may be most important for what it does not do.

NAACP thrilled Frustrating the hopes of some conservatives, including Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, the court’s majority didn’t use the University of Texas case to overturn a 2003 decision that involved the University of Michigan Law School.

In that earlier ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the Michigan school’s use of race as one admissions factor among many, and Kennedy reaffirmed this earlier conclusion as a “given” Monday rather than as something to be second-guessed.

“We’re thrilled that the court has reaffirmed affirmative action as one tool that colleges can utilize,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Bill Powers, the president of the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement that university officials were encouraged by the ruling, although they still have a legal fight ahead of them.

“We remain committed to assembling a student body … that provides the educational benefits

CNN

Abigail Noel Fisher, above, sued the University of Texas after what she claimed to be a race-related rejection in 2008. The Supreme Court sidestepped a sweeping decision on the use of raceconscious school admission policies, ruling Monday on the criteria at the University of Texas and whether it violates the equal protection rights of some White applicants. of diversity on campus while respecting the rights of all students and acting within the constitutional framework established by the court,” Powers said.

The largely positive reactions from affirmative action supporters reflected, in part, relief stemming from their recognition that they may have dodged a bullet.

Ginsburg the sole dissenter Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican appointee who’s since retired, wrote the 2003 majority opinion, which included the key conclusion that “student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions.”

Justice Samuel Alito, a staunch conservative who’s voiced much more skepticism about racial preferences, replaced O’Connor in 2005. Alito, nonetheless, didn’t join either Scalia or Thomas on Monday in writing concurring opinions to voice disapproval of

racial preferences.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the sole dissenter, and she underscored her points by reading a summary of her dissent from the bench.

“The court rightly declines to cast off the equal protection framework settled 10 years ago,” Ginsburg said, though she added concerns about the rest of the court’s decision Monday.

At the same time, conservatives said the decision might prove problematic for the University of Texas once the appellate court takes a second look, with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas saying, “This was a victory for our color-blind Constitution.”

Challenge by Fisher Determining that a policy meets a “compelling state interest” is one of the crucial elements a court considers when ruling on whether racial distinctions comply with the Constitution. Under the 14th Amendment, states must grant “the equal protection

Deen employees complain to Rainbow PUSH Coalition attorney Dark-skinned Blacks allegedly worked in back; light-skinned with customers FROM WIRE REPORTS

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An attorney for the Rainbow PUSH Coalition said current and former Paula Deen employees have told him the celebrity chef and her brother discriminated against Black employees, one of whom was consistently referred to as “my little monkey.”

After Deen acknowledged using a racial slur, the story went viral and the Food Network announced last week that it would not renew her contract when it expires at the end of June. Smithfield Foods, the global pork producing company, dropped her this week.

Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, are being sued by Lisa T. Jackson, a former employee who claims she endured a hostile work environment replete with racial slurs.

Robert Patillo, an attorney for Rainbow/ PUSH, a civil rights group founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr., said one current and two former employees told him White employees are routinely paid more than Black employees and are promoted more quickly. A Black man who had threatened to go to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Deen’s brother told him “you don’t have any civil rights here,” Rainbow/PUSH said in a press release.

Cook called monkey Rainbow/PUSH said it has “found evidence of systemic racial discrimination and harassment” by Deen and that “a family member consistently referred to a Black

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of the laws” to all people.

The other crucial element courts consider is whether the racial policy is “narrowly tailored,” which rules out sweeping quotas.

The Texas case arose from a challenge initially filed by Abigail Noel Fisher, a White woman who applied as an undergraduate to the University of Texas for the class that entered in the fall of 2008. Because she wasn’t in the top 10 percent of her high school class, she wasn’t guaranteed admission under the state’s college policy.

The University of Texas guarantees admission to students in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but Fisher’s 3.59 GPA was too low.

The university also admits a certain number of other students, for whom race, leadership experience, socio-economic status and other factors may provide admissions advantages. Fisher was rejected. She subsequently enrolled at Louisiana State University and graduated last year.

cook as ‘my little monkey.’”

Patillo, who conducted interviews in Savannah where Deen’s restaurant is located, said current and former employees told him that Deen “preferred White and light-skinned Blacks to work with customers” and that darker-skinned Blacks were relegated to “back-of-the-house operations.”

Patillo said employees have been reluctant to talk to him about their experience with Deen because they fear retaliation.

Deen has acknowledged in a deposition that she used a racial slur “a very long time” ago. News reports also indicated that Deen said jokes often target minority groups.

“I can’t, myself, determine what offends another person,” she has been quoted as saying.

“I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I’ve done,” Dean said in a video. “I want to learn and grow from this.

Inappropriate, hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable.”

Attorney: Workers mistreated In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Patillo said Deen’s use of a racial slur isn’t the problem.

“It’s a free country,” Patillo said. “We have freedom of speech, and you can say what you want. Our issue is Paula whether that mindset has Deen filtered into employment decisions.”

Patillo said there are strong indications that Deen’s operation mistreats and limits opportunities for Black employees.

“What we’ve found is that there has been disparate treatment,” Patillo said.

“What we’d like is to have her remedy the situation.”

Those remedies, Patillo said, should include giving Blacks a fair chance for employment and promotion, sensitivity training and providing an avenue of recourse for those who have been mistreated.

An article from the Atlanta JournalConstitution was used in this report.

HEALTH FOOD || HEALTH TRAVEL | |MONEY SCIENCE | BOOKS | MOVIES | TV | AUTOS LIFE | FAITH | EVENTS | CLASSIFIEDS | ENTERTAINMENT | SPORTS | FOOD COURIER

IFE/FAITH

June 28 - July 4, 2013

Review of book about Obama’s last campaign See page B2

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE

|

What’s next for Heat and Spurs See page B3

SHARING BLACK LIFE, STATEWIDE www.flcourier.com

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EDITOR'S NOTE: On July 5, 1852, anti-slavery crusader Frederick Douglass spoke at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Rochester, N.Y. Excerpts appear below.

What to enslaved Africans is the Fourth of July?

The Fourth of July...marks the beginning of another year of your national life...Nations number their years by thousands. You are...still lingering in the period of childhood. Were the nation older, the patriotís heart might be sadder, and the reformerís brow heavier.

Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interests nationís jubilee.

Why am I here? ...(W)hy am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?

And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us, I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me.

This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How can we sing the Lordís song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.

Fellow-citizens; above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, “may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!”

To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.

From the slave’s perspective Standing, there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July!

Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the

MOLLY RILEY/MCT

A visitor photographs the Frederick Douglass statue before a ceremony on June 19 honoring Douglass inside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America!

I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

No persuasion needed But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, and denounce less, would you persuade more, and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already.

There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a Black man, (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death, while only two of the same crimes will subject a White man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual and responsible being?

It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws, in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave.

Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christianís God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? You

have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters?

Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

Fire and thunder O! Had I the ability, and could I reach the nationís ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy ñ a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this

nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

Defiled Christianity (T)he church of this country... takes sides with the oppressors.

It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slavehunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system.

They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.

For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! Welcome atheism! Welcome anything! In preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines!

These ministers make religion a cold and flinty hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. They strip the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throng of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs.

But a religion which favors the rich against the poor; which exalts the proud above the humble; which divides mankind into two classes, tyrants and slaves; which says to the man in chains, stay there; and to the oppressor, oppress on; it is a religion which may be professed and enjoyed by all the robbers and enslavers of mankind; it makes God a respecter of persons, denies His fatherhood of the race, and tramples in the dust the great truth of the brotherhood of man.

All this we affirm to be true of the popular church, and the popular worship of our land and nation ñ a religion, a church, and a worship, which, on the authority of inspired wisdom, we pronounce to be an abomination in the sight of God.

Inconsistency, hypocrisy Americans! Your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent.

You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties), is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen.

You invite to your shores fugitives of oppression from abroad, honor them with banquets, greet them with ovations, cheer them, toast them, salute them, protect them, and pour out your money to them like water; but the fugi-

tives from your own land you advertise, hunt, arrest, shoot and kill.

You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America.

You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a three-penny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hardearned farthing from the grasp of the Black laborers of your country.

You profess to believe “that, of one blood, God made all nations of men to dwell on the face of all the earth,” and hath commanded all men, everywhere to love one another; yet you notoriously hate, (and glory in your hatred), all men whose skins are not colored like your own.

You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you “hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among these are, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, “is worse than ages of that which your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose,” a seventh part of the inhabitants of your country.

I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies.

The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretence, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a byword to a mocking earth.

It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes.

Oh! Be warned! A horrible reptile is coiled up in your nationís bosom; the venomous creature is nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic; for the love of God, tear away, and fling from you the hideous monster, and let the weight of twenty millions crush and destroy it forever!

I still have hope ...(N)ot withstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country...I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope.

No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference.

The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness.

But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind.

Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth.

Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all pervading light.

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JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

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‘The Center Holds’ examines how Obama prevailed in 2012 DR. GLENN C. ALTSCHULER SPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

On Election Night 2012, Barack Obama was apparently happier than he had been four years earlier. He believed that the stakes were higher with Mitt Romney as his opponent than with John McCain. And the outcome meant more to him, he told colleagues, because the public had made an informed judgment of him and his accomplishments as president.

At the victory celebration at McCormick Place, a convention center in Chicago, not far from his home, Obama went to the podium, accompanied by Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours,” and declared “We are an American family, and we rise and fall together as one nation.”

Pivotal moment The presidential contest was a pivotal moment in American

history. It preserved the social safety net of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society – and Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act. As Jonathan Alter claims, it stopped the momentum of Tea Party reactionaries, who had helped Republicans gain 63 seats in the United States House of Representatives, the largest number in more than 60 years, in 2010.

A columnist for Bloomberg View, an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC and the author of “The Promise: President Obama, Year One’’ and “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope,’’ Alter draws on interviews with many of the key players in both parties to provide a sharp, smart, and stirring account of Obama’s last campaign in “The Center Holds.’’

Awfully close call Although he documents the

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR

Daytona Beach: Walmart will host free NASCAR fan events in the Daytona area beginning July 1-5 and leading up to the Coke Zero 400.

Each family-friendly event features racing show cars and simulators, and some include special appearances. More information: www. walmart.com/NASCAR. Kissimmee: Osceola Heritage Park, 1875 Silver Spur Lane, will host the Youth Basketball of America National Championships July 1-13. Boys and girls basketball teams from around the nation will compete

Bolstered by minorities

BOOK REVIEW “The Center Holds: Obama And His Enemies.’’ By Jonathan Alter.

Simon & Schuster. 428 pp. $30. president’s communications failures, his lack of skill as a negotiator, and his disastrous mistake in assuming that the economy would bounce back rather quickly, Alter does not hide his preference for Obama, who, he insists, was “mild mannered and moderate by any historical standard.”

Romney, he suggests, was an intelligent man “running for

Thanks in no small measure to blatant attempts at voter suppression by the Republicans, Alter indicates, the turnout among African-Americans and Latinos was very high.

Black votes enabled Obama to carry the swing states of Ohio and Virginia; Latinos made the difference in Nevada, Colorado and Florida.

And yet, Alter agrees that had unemployment spiked to 8.6 percent in the fall and had job growth fallen below zero, “both possible within the margin of error,” the president would “most likely” have lost the election.

Romney’s confidence (he

didn’t prepare a concession speech) was clearly misplaced, but he had pulled even (or close to even) after the first debate and was only a slight underdog a week before Election Day.

No second-term prediction Most important, Obama’s enemies do not accept the proposition that “we rise and fall together as one nation.”

Perhaps because the Tea Party retains its animus toward the president, its stranglehold on the Republican Party, and its capacity to paralyze public policy, Alter declines to predict how Obama’s agenda will fare in his second term.

After all, after the Newtown killings, Obama fought for gun control and lost. He made no progress on an alternative to budget sequestration. And fights over immigration, “entitlements,” the debt ceiling “and a hundred other issues” lay down the road, Alter concludes. The center had held in November 2012. For a moment.

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He wrote this review for the Florida Courier.

YVONNE BROWN

Miami Tower and Miami Jazz will present a free concert featuring Yvonne Brown, Oriente and the Federico Britos Trio on July 12. The concert starts at 8 p.m. at the Olympia Theater at the Gusman Center, 174 E. Flagler St., Miami.

Orlando: The Central Florida AIDS Planning Consortia, in partnership with the Florida Department of Health in Orange County and other community health organizations, will host the Test Orlando Family Fun Day event on June 29 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Northwest Community Center, 3955 WD Judge Drive. More information: Call Natalie ThornhillBrown at 407-429-2188 or email natalie.thornhill-brown@hfuw.org.

Clearwater: A Bikers Beyond the Bay fundraiser to help the needy in Tampa Bay as well as victims of the recent tornadoes in Oklahoma. The event is July 7 at Jack’s Joint, 2950 Gulf to Bay Blvd. More information on items needed or to make a donation, call 727-643-7559 or email blackvelvetent@gmail.com.

Jacksonville: The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, 829 Riverside Ave., is celebrating Independence Day with a Garden Concert featuring the River City Satin Swing Band on July 3 from 7 to 9 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 for members, $20 for non-members. Free admission for children 5 and under.

Tickets: Call 904-899-6004 or visit www.cummer.org/concerts-cummer.

president in a political party that was no longer serious” – and remained wedded to remedies for budget deficits, undocumented immigrants, gay marriage and foreign policy that “were badly out of step with American voters.”

As Alter reminds us, the political center in the United States did, indeed, hold. But it was an awfully close call. Obama benefitted from an extraordinarily adept digital campaign and an extraordinarily inept adversary, who succumbed to xenophobes and “knifed himself” during the primaries.

TYRESE, GINUWINE, TANK

R&B trio TGT (Tyrese, Ginuwine and Tank) will be at the Times Union Performing Arts Center on July 3 and the James L. Knight Center in Miami on July 4. during a two-week tournament.

Ticket prices are $50 adult tournament pass, $15 daily, $20 student tournament pass, $10 daily (17 and under) and youth 5 and under free (cash only.) More information: www. ohpark.com.

Tampa: Ace Hood is scheduled to perform at 7 p.m. July 4 at the Amphitheatre Entertainment Complex at Ybor.

Orlando: 2013 “American Idol’’ winner Candace Glover and finalists on the Fox show will be on tour at the Amway Center in Orlando on Aug. 1 and AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on Aug. 2.

Jacksonville: Cedric The Entertainer will be at the Florida Theatre

T.I.

The America’s Most Wanted Festival starring Lil’ Wayne, T.I., Tyga and GEazy is scheduled July 13 at Midflorida Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa.

Jacksonville, July 19 and the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre, Orlando, July 20.

St. Petersburg: Youths ages 7 to 11 can enjoy a night of football, kickball, ping-pong, foosball, video games and dance parties during “Freestyle Fridays” at the Fossil Park and Willis S. Johns Center, 6635 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. N. First visit free; $6 each following visit. More information: 727-8937756.

Fort Lauderdale: Through July, the museum/gallery of the AfricanAmerican Research Library and Cultural Center will be hosting “Portraits by Caribbean Artists.”

Four local artists – Phillip Curtis,

Shernett Muhammad, Melissa Aldana and Courtney Henderson – will be sharing the spotlight with images inspired by their Caribbean heritage. More information: www. broward.org/library.

businesses and nonprofits. More information: www.letsdobusinessflorida.com.

Jacksonville: Mary J. Blige is scheduled at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena June 30 for an 8 p.m. show.

St. Petersburg: First Fridays are held in downtown St. Petersburg at 250 Central Ave. between Second and Third Avenues from 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. More information: 727-393-3597.

Fort Lauderdale: The Florida Minority Community Reinvestment along with a coalition of Florida minority non-profits and neighborhood associations are hosting the 2013 Let’s Do Business Florida & Summit June 28-June 29 at the Westin Beach Resort & Spa. No cost to women-minority-veteran

Tampa: State Rep. Janet Cruz will host a West Tampa Job Fair July 30 from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at Higgins Hall, 5255 N. Himes Ave. Admission for job seekers is free and an eightfoot table is free to employers.

More information and to register as an employer: 813-673-4673.

Bluesman Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland dies at 83 GW World Designs Bland was drafted into the Army in 1952. After his release from the service in 1954, he resumed his musical career as a solo act and established a long-term professional relationship with Duke Records.

Soon he had hits racing up the R&B charts, including “I Pity the Fool” and “That’s the Way Love Is.” Bland often toured with his former bandmate King, and King was on hand to help induct the singer into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

BY CNN STAFF

Singer Bobby “Blue” Bland has died at the age of 83, his son said Monday.

Bland’s son Rodd told CNN that failing health had forced his dad off the stage earlier this year. “He had a hole in his stomach that had become tumorous, and it was emptying into his bloodstream.”

He said Bland passed away from natural causes at his home in Germantown, Tennessee. “He was in my arms,” his son said.

“But I’m not going to lie. I could have used at least 20 more years.”

A website in Bland’s name credits the singer with being “one of the main creators of the modern soul-blues sound.”

“He never b**ched about not getting his due,” said his son, who formerly was a drummer in his father’s band. “When I took him to Beale Street for ribs and catfish, fans would come up to him. He was always courteous, polite and kind. And humble. That’s what I admired.”

Often toured with B.B. King Bland’s song “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City” was sampled on Jay-Z’s 2001 album, “The Blueprint.”

According to his website, Bland was

FAMILY REUNION Special T-Shirts Starting at

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JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

SPORTS

B3

What’s next for the Heat, Spurs and rest of NBA

BY KEVIN LYTTLE AND MARK ROSNER AUGUST AMERICANSTATESMAN/MCT

Las Vegas oddsmakers have spoken, and the Miami Heat already are tagged as heavy favorites to win their third consecutive NBA championship next season.

With LeBron James, the best player on the planet, signed up for at least one more year, Miami is a consensus 3-to-1 pick to threepeat, last accomplished

ANALYSIS by the Los Angeles Lakers from 2000-2002.

Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder are the only other team with less than 10-to-1 odds, checking in at 7-to-1.

Are the Spurs done? Not necessarily. Vegas sports books have them as the third choice at 10-to-1, according to RJ Bell of Pregame.com.

With this year’s NBA Finals over, so too is the sea-

PEDRO PORTAL/EL NUEVO HERALD/MCT

The Miami Heat celebrates after a 95-88 win against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 7 of the NBA Finals at the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on June 20. son. Here’s a look at what’s ahead for the NBA, beginning with the Spurs:

San Antonio Spurs Eventually, the Spurs will fade away, as many have predicted for years.

Just not yet.

Maybe they don’t get to the Finals again, but the Spurs are capable of contending. Tim Duncan and Tony Parker are still under contract, although Duncan will turn 38 next season. Manu Ginobili is in obvious decline, and he’s a free agent. Kawhi Leonard was tremendous against Miami and could replace Ginobili as the team’s third star.

The Spurs have some decisions to make on role players. Tiago Splitter and Gary Neal, both integral in the team’s run-up to the Finals, could become restricted free agents. The Spurs would have to match offers they receive. Boris Diaw has the option of deciding if he wants to return next season.

The staff in San Antonio is known for developing players, and this offseason a worthy goal is to improve Danny Green’s mid-range game. Once Miami ran him off the three-point line in Games 6 and 7, Green couldn’t make shots.

Free agency 1. Chris Paul (point guard, L.A. Clippers): The six-time All-Star is reaching his peak, and he clearly makes teammates better. Besides, the NBA ALLOY MEDIA +has MARKETING become a perimeter game.

4.9400 x 6 2. Dwight Howard (center, L.A. Lakers): An intebaf rior tour de force, a stat stuffer, arguably the best big man, but he’s a bit of a pouter and often clueless.

3. Andre Iguodala(small forward, shooting guard, Denver): Versatile player

who contributes in so many ways with 13.2 points, 5.4 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game.

4. Josh Smith (small forward, Atlanta): Fantasy players love him even more than GMs because of his combination of scoring, rebounding and blocked shots.

5. Monta Ellis (Shooting guard, Milwaukee): Probably the best shooter and scorer available. Has averaged more than 20 points four times.

Best of the West: 2014 1. Oklahoma City: With Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Thunder might have the top one-two punch in the game. Don’t forget, they won 60 games, but James Harden isn’t coming through that door anymore.

2. San Antonio: Yeah, the Spurs are aging, but they’re too smart and talented to fall off the face of the earth. Leonard’s growth will compensate for some of the dropoff elsewhere.

3. Golden State: Stephen Curry, Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson are young and hungry.

And better yet: Now they even play defense. A lot to like here.

Best of the East: 2014 1. Miami: The aging, ATL093512B Heat prob1 cash-strapped ably won’t win 66 games again, but adding key pieces on the cheap should be easy as long as LeBron and D-Wade are on board.

2. Chicago: The Bulls won 45 games without a single basket or assist from Derrick Rose. With Rose rejoining Luol Deng, Car-

los Boozer and Joakim Noah, it’s a formidable cast.

3. Indiana: Paul George has taken a star turn, and Roy Hibbert has emerged as a low-post force. Next year Danny Granger, who played only five games this season because of a knee injury, returns.

On the rise Golden State: Warriors had a breakout season, but there’s still room to grow.

Mitigating factors: Curry’s balky ankles, center Andrew Bogut’s health and defensive-minded assistant Mike Malone becoming head coach in Sacramento.

Dallas: An attractive city and franchise with ample cap space the next two seasons. Dirk Nowitzki still has some game left.

Falling teams Houston: The Rockets already are a playoff team, and they have youth, talent and cap space.

Denver: New coach, new general manager and trying to hang onto Andre Iguodala. Missing George Karl could really hurt.

Boston: Old-man Celtics need6/28/2013 to rebuild even if they don’t make the Kevin ESMOOKLER Garnett trade to the ClipDrivers pers.

Atlanta: The Hawks have seven unrestricted free agents, including top players Josh Smith and Devin Harris.

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Transportation Walmart will not tolerate discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

TECHNOLOGY

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STOJ

JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

Recent reports of government access to records from phone companies, Internet providers and credit card companies raise anew questions of just how much other people can know about you, especially in the age of the Internet and high technology.

All the ways you’re being watched Protesters at Checkpoint Charlie (“You are leaving the American Sector”) in Berlin, Germany, on June 18 said President Barack Obama was welcome but NSA policies were not.

COMPILED BY THE MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — Someone is watching you.

What you spend. Where you eat. Who you call.

Where you travel. What you Google. What you give to charity.

Recent reports of government access to records from phone companies, Internet providers and credit card companies raise anew questions of just how much other people can know about you, especially in the age of the Internet and high technology.

They watch from the air, from cameras, from computers. And you help them, volunteering vast amounts of information about yourself in the magnetic stripe on the back of your credit card, the SIM card in your phone, the sites you visit on the Internet.

U.S. officials insist they only tap into information that points at suspected terrorists and that there are plenty of safeguards to make sure they don’t snoop on good guys.

“I want the American people to know that we’re trying to be transparent here, protect civil liberties and privacy but also the security of this country,” Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the National Security Agency, told Congress last week.

He also acknowledged that the government could look at such things as phone records and what site someone Googled. All of it alarms civil libertarians.

“We don’t want to live in a world where anytime you do anything you have to stop and ask yourself, ‘Could this come back to hurt me if somebody found out about it?’ ” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union.

“Because absolutely nothing we do is private.”

Indeed. Here are just some of the ways Americans can be watched.

CLADIA HIMMELREICH/ MCT

Finance

How is it collected The National Security Agency has established relationships with credit card companies; a warrant could provide information on whenever and wherever the card had been used Why data is collected According to payment card industry security standards, retailers aren’t supposed to hold on to that information unless it's deemed “absolutely necessary” by the retailer

Travel

How Transportation Security Administration collects data on a daily basis from travelers; frequent travelers’ information is retained for up to two years Why Data can be used to know where the person is going, where the person has been and, in some cases, the purpose of the trip

Incoming, outgoing emails The government also might be able to look at your email.

A warrant can grant access to email sent within 180 days. Older emails are available with an easier-toget subpoena and prior notice.

Government officials also could read all the incoming and outgoing emails on an account in real time with a specific type of wire-

How Americans are likely within sight of one of the 30 million estimated surveillance cameras in the U.S. Why Used to monitor streets, subways and public spaces; able to track through facial recognition technology in a networked area

Internet

How The government can access any information posted online with a warrant; Google granted 90 percent of government requests for user data in 2012 Why Used to assess terrorist threats; government admits it has sometimes acquired information on Americans accidentally

Finance

How More than 80 agencies already have approval from the FAA; as many 30,000 domestic drones will be in the skies above the U.S. within 20 years Why Provide surveillance from the sky with high resolution images

• High resolution images

• Facial recognition

• ATM, credit card trasactions, IRS information and tax returns

Drones

Drone

Cameras

Social media

• Photos, videos, chats, tweets

Internet

• IP addresses, emails, searches

Cellphone

Travel

• GPS tracking, phone call records, apps

• Name, birth date, gender

Google searches A quick Google search for a lunch spot? There’s a record of that.

Arranging a vacation?

Someone knows where you’re planning to go.

Check in with Facebook? It tracks all the sites you visit that have “like” buttons or allow you to sign in with Facebook — pretty much all of them.

If those Internet giants can record so much about you, who can look at this electronic diary?

The government can access any emails, chats, searches, events, locations, videos, photos, log-ins and any information people post online with a warrant, which the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court can grant secretly.

And the revelation of PRISM, a secret government program for mining major Internet companies, suggests the government could have direct access to Internet companies’ data without a warrant.

Every company reportedly impacted — Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Skype, PalTalk and AOL — denied knowing about the program or giving any direct access to their servers.

Cameras

Ways the

GOVERNMENT

Each day you volunteer vast amounts of information about yourself through your credit card, your cellphone and the sites you visit on the Internet. The government has access to some of it. And might have access to more.

Cellphones © 2013 MCT Source: McClatchy Washington Bureau Graphic: Melina Yingling

How is it collected In 2011, 1.3 million requests were made for subscriber information; if request is labeled “emergency” by an official, no legal documents are required Why data is collected Surveillance on suspected foreign terrorists

tap warrant, which is granted with probable cause for specific crimes such as terrorism.

Google received 16,407 user data requests involving 31,072 users from the U.S. government in 2012.

It granted about 90 percent of those requests.

Microsoft, with its Outlook/Hotmail email service, received 11,073 requests involving 24,565 users, at least partially granting 65 percent of those requests.

Cell phone use With the advent of smart phones and SIM cards, cell phones are no longer strictly for storage of digits and 180-character short messages.

We use cell phones to navigate road trips, buy vintage boots on eBay and watch the game when we’re stuck on the subway.

We deposit checks with a bank app and a camera, find the closest happy hour and board a train with the flash of a QR-code. Phones hold our coupons, our fa-

Social media

can

WATCH you

How Users post information to their profile; each social media company has different standards and levels of access to private information; Facebook profile information stored on a user may remain up to 90 days after deactivation Why Used to assess terrorist threats

vorite cat videos and functions as a credit card when we forget ours at home.

The NSA collects subscriber information from major cell phone carriers.

This information is primarily based on metadata, such as location and duration of calls, along with numbers dialed, all in search of links to suspected terrorists.

In 2011, the last year with available information, law enforcement agencies made 1.3 million requests for subscriber information.

These government requests, both from 2011 and more recently from the NSA, are limited to metadata. That doesn’t mean that the content of conversations is off-limits. To listen in, the government just needs a warrant, one that’s granted through the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The court approves almost every request, fully denying just nine out of 33,900 government applications for surveillance over its 33-year existence, according to Foreign In-

Politics

• Campaign contributions, party affiliation

Domestic drones

Politics

How Individual donations of more than $200 are reported to the Federal Election Commission with the name, addresses, occupation and the amount donated of the contributor Why Regulate campaign money

telligence Surveillance Act reports submitted to Congress.

Credit card tracking Have a favorite spot where you buy your coffee?

Uncle Sam might know where it is.

It all starts with that stripe on the back of your credit card, which gets swiped through thousands of readers every year.

That solid black bar is made up of millions of ironbased magnetic particles, each one 20-millionths of an inch wide. Each credit card owner has a personalized strip full of intimate data sitting right inside his or her pocket. Any purchase can be traced directly back to your wallet.

And the NSA is doing just that, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Although the scope of credit card tracking efforts are unknown, the Journal reported that the NSA has established relationships with credit card companies akin to those that they had established with phone

tos and video pulled from cameras to identify suspects after the Boston Marathon bombing. The images showed the suspects making calls from their cell phones, carrying what the police say were bombs, and leaving the scene.

New high-tech, highdefinition security camera manufacturers give police departments the options of thermal imaging, 360-degree fields of view and powerful zoom capabilities for identifying people.

Advances in camera technology enable new ways to monitor American citizens.

Some states such are using cameras as an alternative method of charging motorists toll fares. As a motorist drives through the toll lanes, motion-activated cameras capture an image of the license plate and the driver is billed. Cameras are watching if you speed or run a red light, too.

Also, police departments in several metro areas began employing cameras to deter traffic infractions and raise revenue.

Libertarians and electronic privacy advocates oppose these methods, citing a lack of transparency in the use of the cameras and the retention of the data they collect.

carriers, which provide them with data under warrant, subpoena or court order. These former officials didn’t know if the efforts were ongoing.

What could they find?

Based on the technology of the mag stripe, quite a bit.

Even with just the metadata — digitally contained bits of information — on a credit card, they could most likely see when and where a purchase was made, and how much it cost.

Surveillance cameras Whether they’re walking to work, withdrawing money from an ATM or walking into their favorite local grocer, Americans could be within sight of one of the United States’ estimated 30 million surveillance cameras.

Police use them to monitor streets, subways and public spaces. Homeowners put them on their houses. Businesses mount them in stores and on buildings.

In Boston, for example, the FBI used still pho-

If Americans are not within sight of a camera, they could soon be spotted from the air.

As many as 30,000 domestic drones will travel the skies above U.S. soil within 20 years, according to a report for Congress by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Gearing up, Congress has called on the FAA to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national air system even sooner, by 2015.

Already, the FAA has approved domestic drone use by 81 agencies, including schools, police departments and the Department of Homeland Security, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group of privacy advocates.

Among the applicants approved: the Arlington Police Department in Texas; California State University in Fresno; Canyon County Sheriff’s Office in Idaho; the city of Herington, Kan.; the Georgia Tech Research Institute; Kansas State University; the Miami-Dade Police Department in Florida; the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources; the Seattle Police Department; and the Universities of Alaska at Fairbanks, CaliforniaDavis and Florida.

STOJ

JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

FINEST & ENTERTAINMENT

Meet some of

FLORIDA'S

finest

submitted for your approval

B5

Think you’re one of Florida’s Finest?

E-mail your high-resolution (200 dpi) digital photo in casual wear or bathing suit taken in front of a plain background with few distractions, to news@flcourier. com with a short biography of yourself and your contact information. (No nude/ glamour/ fashion photography, please!) In order to be considered, you must be at least 18 years of age. Acceptance of the photographs submitted is in the sole and absolute discretion of Florida Courier editors. We reserve the right to retain your photograph even if it is not published. If you are selected, you will be contacted by e-mail and further instructions will be given.

More than 4,000 cruisers joined nationally syndicated radio talk show host Tom Joyner on the 13th annual Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage 2012 aboard Royal Caribbean’s “Navigator of the Seas,” one of the world’s largest cruise ships. The Florida Courier spotlights some of the best-looking people on board.

Will, who lives in Chicago, was on his first Tom Joyner cruise.

Cybil, a Houston resident, was on her sixth Tom Joyner cruise.

will

cybil

New ABC show featuring biracial lesbian couple draws critics Jennifer Lopez is executive producer of ‘The Fosters,’ which airs on Mondays

ological parents, pill selling at school and parental boundaries. But, she quickly notes, the show still fits well on the network schedule.

“Obviously, it’s still ABC Family, it’s not Showtime or HBO,” said Saum. “It’s still incredibly fearless.”

BY YVONNE VILLARREAL LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT

LOS ANGELES — Elbow to elbow around a kitchen island, a family dinner is unfolding.

One teen is thumbing around on her phone; another is dousing his dinner in ketchup; the other two are talking music and dubbing their teacher Grim Reaper. The parents, meanwhile, are dancing around the issue of a former significant other’s popping into town.

Just run-of-the-mill family stuff being filmed on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.

But in ABC Family’s newest drama, “The Fosters,” few things are run-of-the-mill in narrative construct. The parents are a biracial lesbian couple and their brood is made up of biological, adoptive and foster children. The series underlines the basic cable network’s tag line: “A New Kind of Family.”

The modern family has always been a Rubik’s cube puzzle for TV programmers who must somehow appeal to youngsters without alienating parents. Most scripted shows built around the family hew to traditional formulas, but some networks have stretched limits with divorced parents (“Who’s the Boss?,” “Mad Men”), adoptive children (“Diff’rent Strokes,” “Life Unexpected,” “Parenthood”) and gay parents (“Modern Family,” “The New Normal”).

Cutting-edge series “The Fosters,” which boasts celebrity heavyweight Jennifer Lopez as an executive producer, is walking the road paved by such predecessors and like them has drawn criticism from socially conservative groups that disapprove of alternative families.

That’s when you know things are working, Lopez says.

“TV has always been on the cutting edge and always pushed the envelope of what’s going on in society,” she said in a phone interview an hour before she would live-tweet the show’s premiere

Opposed by moms group

JAY L. CLENDENIN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/MCT

The cast of “The Fosters,” where parents, played by Teri Polo, hands in air, and Sherri Saum, seated in purple stripes, are raising a biological son and several adopted children, seen on the set of their ABC drama. earlier this month. “We are pushing those boundaries and saying, ‘Hey, this is the society we’re living in and we all have to take notice of that.’”

The creation comes from Brad Bredeweg and Peter Paige, whose previous main producing credit was 2010’s short-lived, critically panned flight attendant-centered reality series “Fly Girls” on the CW. “There are so many cop shows, so many medical shows, so many legal shows,” said Paige, who starred in Showtime’s “Queer as Folk.” “There are very few family dramas, in particular nontraditional family dramas. I look around me and that’s what I see: people — lesbian, gay, straight, everyone — who are divorced or remarried or single and raising kids.”

‘A real thing’ “The Fosters” centers on a San

Diego-based family: Teri Polo (“Meet the Parents”) and Sherri Saum star as Stef Foster and Lena Adams, the couple whose family includes Stef’s biological son (David Lambert) from a former marriage, adopted twins (Cierra Ramirez, Jake T. Austin) and a newly arrived teen foster child (Maia Mitchell) — along with her younger brother — whose past has left her guarded.

“When you say it out loud, it sounds like a lot to take in,” Bredeweg said.

“But it’s a real thing,” Paige added. “And when you talk about a family created by two women, you have to look at how they did it. We talked about all the possible ways that a lesbian couple might have acquired children.”

Paige, who serves on the board of directors of L.A.’s Gay & Lesbian Center, was well acquainted with diverse families. In 2010, he became personally aware of the

foster system when the center received a multimillion-dollar federal grant to develop the nation’s first protocol for LGBT children in foster care. (A foster-system expert consults with the show to maintain accuracy.)

“When you put something in somebody’s living room on TV, it immediately makes it more accessible — be it a Black president, a gay man and straight women that are friends, or a two-mom family or a family made up of adoptive and foster kids — it just makes it more real and understandable,” said Kate Juergens, head of programming for the network. It’s a premise that hits close to home for Juergens — her sister is a foster mom.

Saum admitted she was surprised that Disney-owned ABC Family turned out to be the network willing to tackle the show’s sensitive themes, which have included secret meetings with bi-

Even before the show was officially picked up by ABC Family in 2012, One Million Moms, an offshoot of the socially conservative American Family Association, spearheaded a drive to quash it.

“Obviously, ABC has lost their minds,” the organization wrote on its website during the campaign. “While foster care and adoption is a wonderful thing and the Bible does teach us to help orphans, this program is attempting to redefine marriage and family by having two moms raise these children together.”

That sort of negative reaction to the show still can get cast members charged up. During a recent day on the set, Polo talked about the first time she had to share a kiss with Saum.

“Someone said that we were so brave,” she said. “There was a part of me that — it’s not that I was offended, I guess I was sad that it was considered brave because when I go onto a set and am introduced to a man that will play my love interest, I’m not brave for kissing him.”

“I had a lot of people ask me, ‘How did you prepare to play a lesbian?’” Saum chimed in. “That kind of sat strangely with me. I just started with love. I didn’t do research to be a lesbian or to be a parent to a certain type of child — biological, adoptive or foster.

I just grounded it with love and compassion and heart.”

The show has been a hit on social media and, more important, on the network. The show saw double-digit growth in its second week, up 20 percent in total viewers with 1.7 million, and up 36 percent among its target demo of viewers ages 12 to 34, from its June 3 premiere — outpacing its lead-in “Switched at Birth,” a program about the gulf between the hearing and deaf communities.

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Suggestions for Serving Seafood With so many seafood choices it can be difficult to know how to pick the freshest catch. Here are some tips to ensure you’re choosing the best at your next visit to the market or fish counter: Milk Does a Salmon Good: Milk tenderizes salmon and removes any frostbite or fishy taste, so try defrosting salmon in a container of milk for a fresher flavor.

Float On, Mussels: Mussels love to float. If a mussel sinks to the bottom of a container filled with water, throw it away – it’s a sign of a bad mollusk.

“R” for Really Fresh: Oysters taste best when they are harvested during colder weather. For a good rule of thumb, enjoy them during months with an “R” in the name, for example, September through April.

In the Red: Quality tuna should be deep red with no “rainbow” color­ing, which is a sign of old fish.

FOOD

TOJ

JUNE 28 – JULY 4, 2013

From the

to your table FROM Family Features

Few things better capture the feel of summer than the three S’s: sun, sand and, of course, seafood. Welcome the warm weather and embrace the fresh flavors of the sea with simple, yet deli­cious, coastal-inspired dishes.

Always a family favorite due to its versatility, seafood takes on a plethora of flavors — from spicy to buttery and beyond. These Crispy Crab Cakes with Spicy Remoulade will make your mouth water with every savory crunch, while smooth, Creamy Risotto with Asparagus and Shrimp will richly impress even the pickiest of palates.

A perfect pairing Any sea-inspired fare pairs perfectly with a crisp, dry white wine, such as the flavorful Albariño from Martín Códax. With origins span­ning back to 12th century Spain, the flavorful Albariño possesses tropical fruit aromas and bright citrus flavors.

Also known as the “Wine of the Sea,” this wine is the perfect accompaniment to any seafood dish. Consider serving this winning combination at your next outdoor gathering or dinner party and you’re sure to receive countless compliments.

Whether you’re looking for small bites or a heartier entrée, eat sea-to-table this season and take advantage of what summer has to offer.

For more information, please visit www.martincodax.com.

Grilled Salmon with Hazelnut Butter Yield: 4 servings Hazelnut Butter: 3 tablespoons butter, softened 2 tablespoons finely chopped hazelnuts, toasted 2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions 2 teaspoons lemon juice Salmon: 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 4 salmon fillets, each about 6 ounces Combine all ingredients for Hazelnut Butter in bowl; set aside. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of salmon. In a preheated grill pan, grill salmon, skin side up, for four minutes. Flip salmon, topping each fillet with 1 tablespoon of Hazelnut Butter. Cook for 4 min­utes until salmon flakes easily with fork. Serve with sautéed green beans.

Creamy Risotto with Asparagus and Shrimp Yield: 4 servings 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined 4 cups vegetable broth 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces 1 large shallot, finely chopped 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup Arborio rice 1/2 cup Martín Códax Albariño wine 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Salt and pepper Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat and cook shrimp, stirring occasionally. Remove shrimp once they are almost fully cooked.

Crispy Crab Cakes Bring vegetable broth to a boil. Once with Spicy Remoulade boiling, reduce heat to a simmer. Add Yield: About 16 crab cakes cut asparagus to broth and cook for 2 Spicy Remoulade Sauce: minutes. With slotted spoon, remove 1/2 cup mayonnaise asparagus and set aside with shrimp.

1 tablespoon lemon juice In a 3-quart saucepan over mediumhigh heat, cook shallots in butter until 2 teaspoons capers, chopped translucent. Stir in rice to coat the grains 1 teaspoon coarse-ground mustard and cook for approxi­mately 1 minute.

1/4 teaspoon hot sauce Add in Martín Códax Albariño and stir Crab Cakes: until wine is absorbed by rice. Once 8 ounces lump crabmeat, drained and flaked absorbed, stir in vegetable broth 1/2 cup at a time. Note: each 1/2 cup must 1 cup finely chopped red bell pepper be absorbed completely before the next 1 large egg one is added. Continue to stir the risotto 1 tablespoon grated horseradish to keep it from sticking and repeat with remaining broth until all has been added.

1 tablespoon lemon juice Stir in shrimp and asparagus and heat 1/2 teaspoon salt through. Add Parmesan cheese and 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

1 cup cracker crumbs 2 tablespoons vegetable oil Combine all ingredients for Spicy Remoulade Sauce into large bowl. Set aside.

In large bowl, combine crabmeat, red bell pepper, egg, horseradish, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Fold in 1/4 cup of cracker crumbs.

Form crab mixture into 2-inch cakes, about 1/2 inch thick. Dredge cakes in remaining cracker crumbs. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook crab cakes until golden, about 2 minutes per side. Serve with Spicy Remoulade Sauce.