WHAT JUSTICE?: THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE AL SHARPTON
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BARRY LEVINSON
THE HUFFINGTON POST MAGAZINE
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MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
JULY 21, 2013
WHY QUALIFIED HOMEBUYERS CAN’T COMPETE IN THE NEW HOUSING GOLD RUSH
BOOM TOWN BY BEN HALLMAN
COVER IMAGE: DIGITALGLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES; THIS PAGE FROM TOP: AP PHOTO/ROSS D. FRANKLIN, FILE; JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
07.21.13 #58 CONTENTS
Enter POINTERS: Zimmerman Under Review ... Meet Your New View Host JASON LINKINS: Looking Forward in Angst DATA: How Flip-Flops Are Killing Your Feet Q&A: Drive Director on Getting Booed at Cannes HEADLINES MOVING IMAGE
Voices REV. AL SHARPTON: We Lost the Battle, but the War Is Far From Over
BROKEN DREAM The housing revival is here, but homebuyers still can’t catch a break. BY BEN HALLMAN
BARRY LEVINSON: George Zimmerman vs. Fiction MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Justice Denied QUOTED
Exit CULTURE: The 5 Types of Cosplayers Wandering Comic Con STRESS LESS: Getting Centered With Yoko Ono TASTE TEST: 16 Ways to the Perfect Gin & Tonic TFU
FULL STOP Sequestration cuts leave Head Start families reeling. BY SAM STEIN
FROM THE EDITOR: Ordinary People ON THE COVER: Photo Illustration
for Huffington by Troy Dunham
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
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Ordinary People N THIS WEEK’S issue, Ben Hallman looks at the housing market in Phoenix, where he sees a worrying phenomenon: investment funds are crowding out ordinary people. We meet Megan and Danny Gilbertson, a recently married young couple with good credit and steady jobs, encouraged by recent reports of a recovering housing market. But after a year of searching, as Ben puts it, “the Gilbertsons have discovered that homes are scarce, competition is fierce and much of the buying is
ART STREIBER
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dominated by funds financed by Wall Street and other out-of-town investors.” Like millions of ordinary buyers, they have struggled to take advantage of the opportunities created by an otherwise tumultuous national housing crisis, finding themselves outbid by deep-pocketed investors willing to pay cash. Investors see things differently. “We are taking housing stock, renovating it, and getting it back out there for renters,” said one investment company executive, Eric Elder. “We are helping bring the fabric of communities back together.” In this in-depth piece, Ben takes us inside the tumultuous
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
economic hurdles that accompany our slowly recovering housing market, not only from an economic perspective, but through the eyes of people trying to buy homes, put down roots, and improve their lives. Elsewhere in the issue, Sam Stein considers the sequestration’s considerable effects on families and communities, despite spurious claims by many politicians that the consequences have been exaggerated. The sequestration’s cuts have resulted in fewer meals for seniors, less financial aid for scientific research, poorer natural disaster preparedness and more expensive treatments for cancer patients. But Sam’s particular focus here is Head Start, the organization providing educational services to low-income families. Many Head Start centers across the country have closed, and Sam tells the story of how this has affected one Kansas family, the Reynolds. Rhonda Reynolds learns that the program has been canceled when her four-year-old daughter’s teachers drive to their home to share the news in person. The lit-
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tle girl, Bella, received her crucial early education — from letters and numbers to manners and basic social skills — from Head Start. And the benefits went beyond formal education. As Rhonda Reynolds explained, Head Start gave Bella
Ben takes us inside the tumultuous economic hurdles that accompany our slowly recovering housing market … through the eyes of people trying to buy homes, put down roots, and improve their lives.” support at one of the most trying times in her young life — the death of her father. Bella’s Head Start teachers, Rhonda said, “were on top of that. They were there for her when she needed them.” Finally, in honor of the release of Yoko Ono’s new book Acorn, we’ve put together a list of inspiring quotes and advice from the book.
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POINTERS
AP PHOTO/ORLANDO SENTINEL, GARY W. GREEN, POOL
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ZIMMERMAN CASE UNDER REVIEW 1 TheJusticeDepartmentsaidonSundayitplanstoreviewthekillingofunarmed teenager Trayvon Martin to decide whether federal prosecutors should file criminal civil rights charges in the case. A six-woman jury acquitted George Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter in Martin’s death. “Experienced federal prosecutors will determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction,” the DOJ said in a statement. However, in a Los Angeles Times story Tuesday, an anonymous DOJ official was quoted saying, “I’d be very, very surprised if we took it.”
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GLEE TRAGEDY
Glee star Cory Monteith was found dead in a Vancouver hotel room over the weekend, at the age of 31. Best known for starring on the hit show as Finn Hudson, Monteith had long struggled with drugs and alcohol and most recently checked into rehab in March. “I watched Glee regularly with my daughters, and I know there will be shock and sadness in many households with the news of his tragic death,” acting Vancouver police Chief Doug LePard said in a statement. The British Columbia Coroners Service said Tuesday he died from “a mixed drug toxicity, involving heroin and alcohol.”
DRUG LORD CAPTURED
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Mexican Marines captured the leader of the infamous Zetas drug cartel on Monday after intercepting a truck he was riding in that contained more than $2 million in cash. Trevino Morales, known as “Z-40,” is charged with murder, torture and kidnapping, as well as other crimes. The capture is a coup for President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has struggled to lower the crime rate in Mexico.
YOU’RE FIRED
The National Transportation Safety Board this week fired an intern who confirmed fake, racist names for the pilots of the Asiana flight that recently crashed in San Francisco. A Bay Area TV station had incorrectly reported the names as “Sum Ting Wong,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” “Wi Tu Lo” and “Bang Ding Ow” after verifying the names with the NTSB. In a statement apologizing for the mistake, the agency said “a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority.”
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MEET YOUR NEW HOST
Barbara Walters announced Monday that Jenny McCarthy will be a new co-host of The View starting Sept. 9. The show recently made headlines with the abrupt departure of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who will become a host of Fox and Friends. Joy Behar will also be leaving after this season, and Walters plans to retire next summer. Many criticized the selection of McCarthy, saying it will give her a platform to talk about her controversial views linking childhood immunizations and autism.
J.K. ROWLING PUBLISHES IN SECRET Famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling
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has published a crime novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Sunday Times of London revealed. “I had hoped to keep this secret a little longer,” she told the paper. “It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback under a different name.” Sales of the book reportedly increased more than 150,000 percent after the news broke.
THAT’S VIRAL THIS HERO IS NOW ‘BROKE AND HOMELESS’
A selection of the week’s most talked-about stories. HEADLINES TO VIEW FULL STORIES
WELL, THAT’S RACIST...
MEN AT TWERK
EGYPTIAN PHOTOGRAPHER FILMS HIS OWN DEATH BY SNIPER
QUICK! SOMEONE CALL JOHN HAMMOND!
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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LOOKING FORWARD IN ANGST
JASON LINKINS
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AMERICANS WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY PROCESS THAT DOESN’T SUCK HE PROCESS by which we elect presidents sucks canal water, and people hate it. One of the things that people really hate about it is the long and drawn-out
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primary process, in which a few states fight to the death to be the first to hold primaries, and then once those are done, everyone agrees to pretend for a while that it isn’t completely obvious who is going to eventually win. Then, after a few months of that fiction, everyone gets tired of pretending and
Voters cast their ballots at an Alhambra, Calif., polling station in 2012.
Enter the primary season ends with a few completely meaningless plebiscites in the states that got rooked by getting scheduled at the end. Then, the long and drawn-out primary process is followed by the long and drawn-out everything else. The presidential campaign season goes on for months longer than makes sense. There’s just no good reason to take so long. In fact, it’s the length of the process that causes all of the things that everyone really hates about presidential campaigns to happen. It’s the reason why the media gets obsessed with nonsense, and why the debates degenerate into gaffe-fights, and why key issues don’t get attention, and why a lot of pointless money gets spent on terrible ads, and why there are so many dumb stunts. (A Republican National Convention that had to be over and done with in 48 hours wouldn’t have had the time to offer to Clint Eastwood to make a joke out of his entire career.) And so it came to pass that Gallup conducted a poll about voter reform, and lo, they discovered that the majority of Americans would prefer to un-suck this process. Election reform, in fact, is a perennial issue for the folks at Gallup:
LOOKING FORWARD IN ANGST
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The July 6-7 poll comes at a time when Americans are highly frustrated with the federal government. The reforms are three Dr. George Gallup promoted in a 1978 “Reader’s Digest” article entitled “Six Political Reforms Most Americans Want.” In addition to the three reforms tested this month, the other reform ideas Dr. Gallup advanced were congressional
The presidential campaign season goes on for months longer than makes sense. There’s just no good reason to take so long.” term limits, abolishing the Electoral College to elect the president based on the popular vote, and campaign finance reform. Back then, a majority of Americans favored all six reforms. At various times this year, Gallup has retested public support for the reforms using slightly different question wording and format and found that half or more of Americans still favor each of them. In January,
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Gallup found 75% in favor of term limits and 63% for abolishing the Electoral College. Last month, Gallup found 79% supporting overall limits on campaign spending and 50% backing a publicly financed campaign system. A large majority of respondents favor changing the total length of the presidential election to “just five weeks in late September and
LOOKING FORWARD IN ANGST
October before the November election.” A smaller, but still sizable, majority would like to scrap the primary process altogether, and have “a nationwide primary on one day instead of ... individual state primaries run over several months.” Of course, there is an obvious grand irony here. The largest majority of respondents would like to “require a nationwide popular vote on any issue if enough voters signed a petition to request a vote on the issue.” And that is something that I would caution against. It sounds very similar to the direct democ-
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President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event in Madison, Wis., in 2012.
Enter racy experiments that have resulted in the widespread use of citizen referenda in the state of California. That is a classic example of a goodsounding idea in theory that turns into a terrible idea in practice. As The Economist explains: This citizen legislature has caused chaos. Many initiatives have either limited taxes or mandated spending, making it even harder to balance the budget. Some are so ill-thoughtout that they achieve the opposite of their intent: for all its small-government pretensions, Proposition 13 ended up centralising California’s finances, shifting them from local to state government. Rather than being the curb on elites that they were supposed to be, ballot initiatives have become a tool of special interests, with lobbyists and extremists bankrolling laws that are often bewildering in their complexity and obscure in their ramifications. And they have impoverished the state’s representative government. Who would want to sit in a legislature where 70-90% of the budget has already been allocated?
LOOKING FORWARD IN ANGST
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Of course, if direct democracy is a good-sounding dumb idea, its appeal among these Gallup respondents is probably rooted in the fact that our lawmaking professionals have endeavored at length these past few years to make representative democracy a complete and utter sinkhole of human wreckage, so these preferences are fairly understandable. Nevertheless, the majori-
If direct democracy is a good-sounding dumb idea, its appeal among Gallup respondents is probably rooted in the fact that our lawmaking professionals have endeavored ... to make representative democracy a complete and utter sinkhole of human wreckage.” ties of respondents are totally correct — we should scrap the stupid primary system, shorten the entire election season, and for Pete’s sake let’s also have Election Day on a weekend or make it a national holiday, for the sake of all humanity, the end.
Q&A
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Nicolas Winding Refn on Getting Booed at Cannes “Of course it’s more pleasurable if everybody likes it — because being degraded and hated by everyone is a terrible emotion ... but ... it only becomes interesting if people love it or hate it for the same reason.”
Nicolas Winding Refn’s (above) new film, Only God Forgives, arrives in theaters on July 19. The film stars Ryan Gosling (bottom right), who also appeared in Refn’s Drive.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW, VISIT HUFFPOST LIVE
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How Flip-Flops Are Killing Your Feet This summer staple might be a real health flop. Aside from the obvious lack of protection (meaning you’re more vulnerable to dropped objects, stubbed toes and the like), your favorite pair could be seriously damaging your feet. “The feet are the foundation of your whole body. This is the base of the skeleton,” says Jackie Sutera, a podiatrist in New York City. “It’s a domino effect... the rest of your joints and bones have to compensate.”
Like anything else, moderation is key: Slipping flip-flops on by the pool or for a short jaunt likely won’t cause any harm — the problems arise when your thongs become your go-to summer shoes. Sutera, along with Cary Zinkin, a podiatrist in Deerfield Beach, Fla., and a spokesperson for the American Podiatric Medical Association, break down exactly what’s happening to your feet when you slide into a pair.
NOT ALL FLIP FLOPS ARE CREATED EQUAL
Tips for picking a better pair
THE BEND TEST
STRAP IT IN
SIZE MATTERS
THINK MATERIAL
IT’S IN THE ARCH
GO SHOPPING
If you pick up a flip-flop and it easily bends right down the middle, put it back. You need more support than that. (It should only bend at the ball of the foot where you need it for walking.)
A thin thong doesn’t provide much support, and leaves your foot moving all over the place. Look for a shoe with a strap across the back, or at least longer, thicker straps in the front.
One-sizefits-all flops are not your friend. Zinkin recommends finding a pair that fit properly, without your toes or heels hanging (even a little) off the end.
The American Podiatric Medical Association recommends a high-quality, soft leather over other materials to cut blister and irritation risk.
Sutera recommends picking a flip-flop with a thicker sole and a little bump in the middle to create arch support.
Flip-flops wear out — replace yours each year, especially if they’re showing obvious signs of wear.
TAP CIRCLES FOR ADDITIONAL INFO
SOURCES: JACKIE SUTERA, NEW YORK CITY PODIATRIST; CARY ZINKIN, DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA. PODIATRIST AND SPOKESPERSON FOR THE AMERICAN PODIATRIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION; A.D.A.M. MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA; AUBURN UNIVERSITY; TODAY. PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK AND GETTY. ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAN DIEHM
MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES (MITCH SLAPPED); AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER (BREAKTHROUGH); AP PHOTO/TV POOL (NOT GUILTY*); TOM PENNINGTON/GETTY IMAGES (TEXAS CRACKDOWN)
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Belfast, Northern Ireland 07.13.2013
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Voices
REV. AL SHARPTON
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We Lost the Battle, but the War Is Far From Over TWO WEEKS AFTER the inexcusable death of young Trayvon Martin, I received a call from the attorney representing the Martin
family, Benjamin Crump. It was a plea for assistance as the person responsible for the 17-yearold’s death was walking around freely as if nothing had happened. George Zimmerman wasn’t arrested that fateful night. George Zim-
Trayvon Martin supporters march to an NAACP rally in Sanford, Fla., in March 2012.
Voices merman wasn’t arrested the next day. George Zimmerman, in fact, wasn’t arrested for over 40 days after killing a teenager. It was only because of a rallying cry for justice that the Sanford police department had to do its job and place handcuffs around Zimmerman. It was only after tens of thousands marched and protested that a special prosecutor was assigned to the case, who then brought charges that they failed to bring. And it was only then that this case finally went to trial. After last weekend’s atrocious verdict, some are acting as if a trial was automatic from the beginning. Let’s not have amnesia. Grassroots activism and mobilization for truth are the only reason why we even know the names Trayvon and Zimmerman. And they will once again be the reason why we take the fight to a federal level. The jury’s decision has left us with an atrocity and a disgrace to any American who believes in freedom, equality and justice. Interfering with the right of a person to walk home having committed no crime or trespassing is an outrageous travesty and a violation of that person’s civil liberties. Trayvon Martin had a civil right to go home that night. He
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never made it to his destination because of the actions of one man, and one man alone who was not a member of law enforcement and had no authority to disrupt his right of movement. The Martin family, their lawyers and I met with U.S. federal attorneys last year to look into the
Young Trayvon, who had only recently turned 17, had a civil right to go home. He had a civil right to walk in that neighborhood. He had a civil right to ignore some lone civilian questioning him if he wanted to.” case. They suspended their investigation as the state proceeded with its own. Following last weekend’s incomprehensible decision, we must reinstitute the federal investigation into the protection of the civil rights of Trayvon Martin. My organization, National Action Network (NAN), and I call on people to demonstrate in front of federal courthouses in 100 cities across the country this Saturday at noon. Whether you’re Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, male, fe-
ROBERTO GONZALEZ/GETTY IMAGES
Voices male — if you are on the side of truth and progress you must rally this Saturday and push for a federal investigation. If we allow the killing of an unarmed Black teenager to be turned into some sort of circus where the responsible party blames the victim, then we have reached the height of absurdity. But in this moment of frustration, we cannot become so disillusioned that we lose focus. We will not get hopeless in this situation, we will get organized. Watching protests take place across the country in support of Trayvon was encouraging. Overwhelmingly peaceful, these demonstrations brought together a cross section of people from all backgrounds and ages to demand justice. We must continue with that same passion and vigor this Saturday, and in the weeks and months ahead. NAN and Martin Luther King III will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” next month. Another key central theme of the rally will be justice for Trayvon and the protection of civil rights for all the Trayvons of the nation. We will convene in Washington, D.C., on August 24 for the “National Ac-
REV. AL SHARPTON
tion to Realize the Dream” demonstration. Just as a multiethnic rally of hundreds of thousands pushed for change 50 years ago, we shall do the same in 2013. Closely observing the Zimmerman trial, one fact served as a glaring reminder of the insanity of the entire fiasco: Zimmerman never was a cop. He was a citizen who was told by 911 dispatchers not to follow Trayvon; he was told, “We don’t
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Supporters gather and pray at a memorial for Trayvon Martin in April 2012.
Voices need you to do that.” He, a selfprofessed community watchman, made assumptions such as, “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something.” Zimmerman even had the audacity to say “f__king punks. These a__holes, they always get away.” Well, who are “they”? The bottom line is, if Zimmerman had not defied the orders of the 911 dispatcher and acted on his own assumptions, Trayvon would be in the loving arms of his parents today. When states failed us decades ago, it was the federal government that stepped in with federal protections. Today, as we are watching another grave setback to justice, it is incumbent upon the federal justice department to investigate possible civil rights violations in this case. One voice distinctly absent from the court proceedings the last few weeks was that of Trayvon. His voice will forever be silenced because of the actions of one individual. On that horrific day in February of 2012, Trayvon went to the store, bought Skittles and an iced tea. Young Trayvon, who had only recently turned 17, had a civil right to go home. He had a civil right to walk in that neighborhood. He
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had a civil right to ignore some lone civilian questioning him if he wanted to. He even had a civil right to defend himself if followed and attacked by Zimmerman. Trayvon had undeniable civil rights that are to be protected under the laws of this nation. We must fight for those rights be-
“Last weekend was upsetting and frustrating to many, but we cannot remain in a state of sorrow... we must fight for truth.” cause he no longer can. Last weekend was upsetting and frustrating to many, but we cannot remain in a state of sorrow. While we continue to mourn Trayvon’s death, we must fight for truth. We may have lost the battle, but the war for equality has just begun. Together, we will get there; together we will bring light to the depths of dark injustice that still remains. We owe it to a kid that just wanted Skittles and an iced tea. Rev. Al Sharpton is president of the National Action Network.
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BARRY LEVINSON
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George Zimmerman vs. Fiction
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ARK TWAIN once wrote, “The only difference between reality and fiction is that fiction needs to be credible.” That insightful comment would certainly apply to the recent George Zimmerman trial. ¶ There are a number of television shows that have used the “ripped from today’s headlines” concept, but if this trial’s story points were to be adapted into a piece of fiction, it would cause certain problems in credibility in the writers’ room. A discussion between a head writer and the episodic writer who had the idea for a show based on the Zimmerman case might play out something like this....
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BARRY LEVINSON
[SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE] Cut To: Int. Writers’ Room - Day HEAD WRITER: I looked over the script. The story is a little too nuts for me. I don’t buy it. WRITER: It’s based on a real case. This is what went down back then. The Head Writer looks over his notes. HEAD WRITER: A man stalks a young kid. Is warned by a 911 operator not to follow the kid. He goes ahead and follows him anyway. The kid is on a cell phone and says to his friend that he’s being followed by some stranger. The friend hears the kid say, “Get off, get off!” A struggle happens, and the kid is killed. And you write this like it’s a self defense case?? WRITER: Exactly. HEAD WRITER: But the man was pursuing the kid. How could it be a self defense case? You gotta create doubt. An audience watching this is not going to believe it. We’re going to lose our viewers before the commercial break! WRITER: Don’t you see? The guy was struggling for his life. The
kid pushed him to the ground. He had to pull out a gun and shoot the kid. HEAD WRITER: But you have the guy attending Mixed Martial Arts classes. Three times a week he goes to his gym. Two hours a session. For an entire year. And the kid gets him on the ground just like that? WRITER: Our guy was a bad student. HEAD WRITER: Bad student? How bad can he be? WRITER: They say he was not very athletic. HEAD WRITER: Six hours a week of martial arts training for one year and he can’t even push a kid away? And the kid weighs almost 50 pounds less than this guy? Impossible. You have to change that. No one will believe it. WRITER: Okay, I’ll cut that out of the script. HEAD WRITER: And then in a flashback scene, you have the guy, working as a bouncer, getting fired for being too aggressive with the patrons. WRITER: All right, I’ll cut that out too. HEAD WRITER: And on page 38, after the 911 operator tells the guy to stop following the kid, the
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Voices guy says to the operator, “Shit, he’s running.” WRITER: Right. HEAD WRITER: I don’t understand. He’s running? Running from what? He didn’t do anything, so the only thing the kid would be running from would be the guy? WRITER: Hmm. Maybe that’s not clear. The Head Writer thumbs forward a few pages. HEAD WRITER: Then somehow, out of the blue, the kid has the man on the ground, a struggle ensues, and the man pulls out a gun and shoots him in the heart? WRITER: The guy had no choice. It’s self-defense. HEAD WRITER: I don’t understand. The guy on the ground is yelling, “Help, help.” And then the guy on the ground screams? And right after he screams he shoots the kid. WRITER: Exactly. HEAD WRITER: You ever see a scene in a movie where a person screams and then shoots someone? It’s normally the other person who screams and then gets shot. This is just too illogical. WRITER: Okay, I’ll finesse that. HEAD WRITER: Why doesn’t the
BARRY LEVINSON
guy just shoot the kid in the arm? Or the leg? Or the stomach? WRITER: It was a struggle. HEAD WRITER: Yeah, but when I read the script it’s not credible. It’s more like a shoot to kill. WRITER: No, it’s a self-defense scene. HEAD WRITER: I don’t buy it. It’s much easier just to shoot the kid in the arm or the leg. It would take more effort to raise the gun up. The guy aims for the heart. Therefore he knows he’s going to kill him. It’s too illogical. Change it. WRITER: But this is what happened. HEAD WRITER: It doesn’t have the credibility to be a dramatic episode. Unless we want to chase the ghost of Paddy Chayefsky and get into absurdism. You know, like he did with Network. Unless you want to make a satire on how screwed up the legal system is, show me a script that makes sense. So you can see the dilemma of trying to write a script based on this tragic event. The logic evades us. And the reality haunts us. Barry Levinson is an Academy Awardwinning film director and screenwriter.
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PATRICK FARRELL/MIAMI HERALD/MCT
Voices
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
Justice Denied “Trayvon Martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to Medgar Evers and Emmett Till as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all.” — A Benjamin Crump, lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s parents, 2013
“Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons, is as important as the killing of White mothers’ sons, we who believe in freedom cannot rest.” —Ella Baker, leading mentor of Black Youth, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), 1964
James Alvarez chants with others at a vigil held for Trayvon Martin in Miami on July 14.
Voices The reaction to the not-guilty verdict from George Zimmerman’s jury was swift and strong. Young people poured onto the streets in peaceful protests in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. By 3 a.m. more than 100,000 people signed an online petition urging the Justice Department to pursue civil rights violation charges against George Zimmerman. The outrage over the killing of an unarmed Black teenager who was doing nothing wrong must continue until some semblance of justice is achieved. People who want to keep faith in American justice feel uncomfortable, upset and disheartened. Where is the justice if walking while Black is enough to get you “stopped and frisked” in New York City and fatally shot in Florida with its senseless, violent “Stand Your Ground” law that allows people to defend themselves with deadly force anytime and anywhere they imagine they are or say they feel threatened even if they are the stalker? Many decades of struggle and progress to eliminate racial profiling, arbitrary arrests, unfair sentencing, imprisonment and criminalization of Black males at younger
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
and younger ages are being reversed by determined special interests like the gun lobby putting profits before the most basic American civil rights. The National Rifle Association and their allies, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), determined efforts to support and pass “Stand Your Ground” and other destructive laws to protect guns rather than children perpetuates the epidemic of gun
Since 1963, 59,265 Black children and teens have been killed by guns — more than 17 times the recorded lynchings of Black people of all ages in America between 1882 and 1968.” violence, especially for Black male teenagers like Trayvon Martin. Black children and teens were 17 times more likely to die from a gun homicide than White children and teens in 2010. Since 1963, 59,265 Black children and teens have been killed by guns — more than 17 times the recorded lynchings of Black people of all ages in America between 1882 and 1968. What made a Black male teen-
ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES
Voices
ager in a hoodie walking home in the rain appear suspicious and “up to no good” in George Zimmerman’s eyes? Would he have stopped a White male teenager? Isn’t it long past time that we have a candid conversation about how we can create a post-racial America for our children and grandchildren beginning today? Let us refuse to be silent. If Trayvon Martin’s parents had been silent and other voices had not joined with them, George Zimmerman never would have been arrested and never would have been brought to trial. Let us continue to refuse to be silent until all the George Zim-
MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
Isn’t it long past time that we have a candid conversation about how we can create a post-racial America for our children and grandchildren beginning today?” mermans of this world are deterred and held accountable for vigilante justice against Black males. Let us refuse to be silent until the killing of Black mothers’ sons is as important as the killing of White mothers’ sons. Only then will we have a post-racial America. Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund.
Leon McCutchin holds a candle at a vigil for Trayvon Martin in New York City two days after Zimmerman’s acquittal.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JOE BURBANK-POOL/GETTY IMAGES; KNAPE/GETTY IMAGES; AP PHOTO/ALIK KEPLICZ
Voices
QUOTED
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
“ You don’t follow someone to deliver justice because you see them walking while black!” —HuffPost commenter avggrl on the George Zimmerman trial
“ I have no need to improve my memory. My wife takes care of that for me.”
—HuffPost commenter imfedup
on “Five Ways To Sharpen Your Memory”
“ It’s a big, big deal. It’s like selling the recipe for Coca-Cola.” —Joseph Maddalena
owner of auction house Profiles in History, on Milton H. Greene’s unpublished Marilyn Monroe negatives and transparencies hitting the auction block
“ I wired up the Big Brother machine.”
—Mark Klein
a retired AT&T technician and America’s original NSA whistleblower
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DOMINIQUE CHARRIAU/WIREIMAGE/GETTY IMAGES; DAVID PAUL MORRIS/ BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES; AP PHOTO/MICHAEL DWYER; COURTESY OF CELESTE PILLE
Voices
QUOTED
Sparks don’t grow—your vagina doesn’t become more inclined to wanting someone just because you’re around them.
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
“ Whew. These kids have their work cut out for them.”
—HuffPost commenter O_K_Ali
on Google quietly giving aid to marijuana activists
—Amanda Seyfried
to Elle on why sexual attraction has to come first
“ Noooo!!! They all became annoying hipsters?!”
—HuffPost commenter Joshua_Taj_ Bozeman
on Celeste Pille’s reimagining of Nicktoons casts in their 20s
“ I love him.”
—Elizabeth Warren
explaining why she’d pick Paul Volcker to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
07.21.13 #58
FEATURES THE NEW GOLD RUSH ‘ FRUSTRATING... CLAUSTROPHOBIC... HELPLESS’
THE NEW GOLD RUSH Wall Street Gives Homebuyers a Run for Their Money
BY BEN HALLMAN
PREVIOUS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES/ FOTOSEARCH RF; THIS PAGE: COURTESY OF MEGAN AND DANNY GILBERTSON
By the values that have long governed American housing, Megan and Danny Gilbertson are precisely the sorts of people who are supposed to now be buying a home.
They have good credit, steady jobs and decades worth of earning potential ahead of them, but not a lot of money for a down payment. Recently married, they are eager to leave a cramped apartment for a home of their own in a revitalized neighborhood here, a few miles from downtown and recently populated with coffee shops, hip restaurants and young parents pushing strollers.
THE NEW GOLD RUSH
Many parts of Phoenix have in recent years been besieged by foreclosure and abandonment, and the Gilbertsons seem like prime candidates to join in the revival. They want to capitalize on historically low interest rates, and prices that they perceive to be a bargain. But in the year since the couple first started their search for a home, they have found mostly bewilderment and exasperation, along with an unwanted lesson about the odd workings of a suddenly hot American housing market: Despite the headlines suggesting that housing is returning to normal, the Gilbertsons have discovered that homes are scarce, competition is fierce and much of the buying is dominated by funds financed by Wall Street and other out-of-town investors. “It’s been incredibly frustrating,” said Megan Gilbertson, 27. “We feel like we can’t fairly compete.” In the course of their yearlong search, the Gilbertsons have cycled through three different realtors while losing four bids. In three other situations in which they intended to bid, the home sold almost immediately, before they could even make an offer. All the while, prices have
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The Gilbertsons have discovered that homes are scarce, competition is fierce and much of the buying is dominated by funds financed by Wall Street and other out-of-town investors. soared in the region, climbing about 30 percent over the past year to an average of $175,000, according to a report from Arizona State University. More than onequarter of those properties, or 27 percent, were purchased by investors, the report says. The Gilbertsons’ pursuit of a home is emblematic of the struggles of millions of ordinary buyers to exploit the opportunities delivered by an otherwise disastrous national housing bust. After exploding into the stratosphere, home prices have returned to affordable levels. Yet as local families try to take advantage of the newly created bargains, they frequently find themselves outbid by deep-pocketed investors who are buying up many of the good values on the market. These investment firms are ac-
JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
THE NEW GOLD RUSH
quiring vast quantities of homes, fixing them up, and then marketing them as rentals. They arrive at auctions or home sales bearing cash, which gives them a competitive edge on millions of ordinary would-be buyers like the Gilbertsons, who must finance their purchase using borrowed money. These cash buyers are also more
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likely to pay above asking price, local brokers say, which is contributing to the overall price increase. One company, Invitation Homes, funded by the hedge fund Blackstone, has over the past year spent $4.5 billion to purchase about 25,000 homes in formerly distressed housing markets, including 4,000 properties here in the Phoenix area. Most of these homes are former foreclosures purchased directly
Phoenix bore the brunt of the housing crisis, with home prices falling 55 percent between 2005 and 2011. Prices have increased by 22.9 percent since then, causing a boom in the local housing market.
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“People are flocking here like it is the gold rush. I’m up against everyone from mom-and-pop investors to multibillion-dollar hedge funds.” from banks, and many require substantial renovations to make them livable, said Eric Elder, the vice president of marketing and communications at the Dallasbased company. Elder said that neighbors of these properties often thank his company’s representatives for rescuing these homes from decay. “We are helping the housing recovery,” Elder said. “We are taking housing stock, renovating it, and getting it back out there for renters. We are helping bring the fabric of communities back together.” The company plans to keep purchasing homes at the current clip, Elder said. This peculiar bust-to-boom story is playing out conspicuously in Phoenix. Only two years ago, home prices were down 56 percent from their 2007 peak. Foreclosures raced through the area like a contagious disease in a disaster movie. In July of 2010,
12.5 percent of all borrowers were at least three months behind on their mortgage payments, according to the real estate data site Corelogic. Seemingly everyone knew someone who had lost their home, an event that often tore families apart. During the depths of the crash, hardly any homes were changing hands. The few buyers were local investors betting on a turnaround, and so-called flippers — usually small, local outfits that paid cash for distressed homes, made quick renovations, and then sold them at a mark-up, pocketing the difference. Small-time investors and local flippers are still buying homes, but in the last year, the local residential market has undergone a remarkable transformation. Prices have increased rapidly even as sales have dropped, a function of increased competition for a shrinking pool of available properties. A similar dynamic is playing out in other foreclosure hotbeds, including Las Vegas, Atlanta and Orlando.
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“Housing has become like a thinly traded, volatile public stock. Any change in demand can dramatically affect the price.” Adding to the frenzy, a flood of new prospective home purchasers, families and individuals, are rushing into real estate offices. In an attempt to not be left behind, they’re trying to buy now before prices go even higher. But these would-be buyers are finding that if they wait a few days to place a bid on a new listing — especially in the sub-$200,000 range — they risk missing out. Contracts are being signed without buyers ever seeing properties. Though some signs suggest that investor interest is cooling, cash buyers — a group dominated by investors — accounted for roughly one-third of all sales in Phoenix in recent months, and one-half of those homes priced less than $150,000. “People are flocking here like it is the gold rush,” said Marty Boardman, a local flipper who says he cannot compete in Phoenix anymore. “I’m up against everyone
from mom-and-pop investors to multibillion-dollar hedge funds.” Amid this rampant speculation, ordinary buyers — that is, people like the Gilberstons, who want to live in the home they purchase — are often losing out. It’s happening not only here in Phoenix, but also in many similarly frothy markets. In Atlanta, Tara Burks has spent the last year looking for a small three- or four-bedroom house with a backyard. A single mother of a teenager, Burks said she is looking for room to spread out after several years spent in a small rental apartment. “I was under the impression that houses were plentiful,” she said. “I thought the hard part would be getting approved for a mortgage.” But while the loan application proved a relative breeze, the bidding wars have filled her with a sense of impossibility. “It’s been a real trial,” she said. Burks has lost seven homes to other bidders so far, including at least three to investors paying cash. The short supply is attributable
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HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
COURTESY OF TARA BURKS
to a still-sizable proportion of underwater homeowners who do not want to sell at a loss, combined with the fact that very little new housing has been built in recent years. Meanwhile, places like Atlanta and Phoenix have continued to see population growth. On top of that, said Michael Orr, director of Arizona State’s real estate center, “people are buying homes like stocks.” “My advice is to stick to it and be patient,” he said. A NEW BUBBLE? While new buyers bemoan the challenges of a revived market, the lift in home prices after years of uncertainty and panic comes as a huge relief to the 10 million or so borrowers who remain underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth. The long-dormant home building industry, which was devastated by the crash, is up and running again, offering a potential boost to employment in states suffering from economic stagnation. Realtors who survived the dark years are positively giddy. For now, home prices in most areas remain below historic highs, meaning homes can be had at rela-
“I was under the impression that houses were plentiful. I thought the hard part would be getting approved for a mortgage.” tive bargains. Most housing market experts describe current trends as a positive — even the rapid price increase of the past year. Orr described what is happening right now in Phoenix as “a fast bounce.” “If prices can go down fast, they should be allowed to go up fast as well,” he said. Yet in a nation still contend-
Tara Burks, who’s been looking to purchase a house in Atlanta, has lost several bidding wars to investors paying cash.
THE NEW GOLD RUSH
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
“I don’t like the competition. I want to be in a housing market where they appreciate me and my lowball cash offers.” ing with the devastating results of prices going up too rapidly and reaching levels that were too high, some now worry that the same sort of mindset that produced the last bubble is taking hold anew. The speculation speaks to renewed interest in housing as an investment opportunity — a story that has a history of ending in irrational exuberance. Bettina Franco is a Phoenix realtor with 28 years of experience. It is “unbelievable,” she said, that despite millions of recent foreclosures, realtors can’t find inventory. Recent bidding wars have her worried that the region is poised to “repeat the cycle again.” The Federal Reserve’s efforts to keep mortgage rates down has resulted in historically low interest rates. That has increased buyers’ purchasing power, allowing people to offer more than they could otherwise afford if rates were more typical. Indeed, by some measures,
Phoenix buyers are already paying higher prices than they would in a normal market. Historically, the purchase price of an American home equates to an average of 2.6 times the buyer’s annual income, said Stan Humphries, chief economist for the Internet real estate company Zillow. Were mortgage rates closer to their historical norms, housing prices would already be at about three times a buyer’s income. When mortgage rates go back up, that discount will vanish — and housing prices could conceivably drop, Humphries said. In many major American markets, prices are now spiking just as available inventory – the number of homes listed for sale – sits at very low levels. As of the week of July 15, the Phoenix metropolitan area, population 4.3 million, had only 8,758 single-family homes listed for sale, according to the local multiple-listing service. That equates to a supply that would normally be exhausted in less than two months. Local markets are typi-
COURTESY OF MICHAEL ORR/W P CAREY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
THE NEW GOLD RUSH
cally stocked with eight or nine months’ worth of homes. The inventory in Phoenix has dropped by about one-fourth compared to this time last year, a tightening that roughly matches what has occurred in cities like Denver and San Diego. In some markets, including Sacramento and Los Angeles, supply is down by nearly half. With so few homes on offer, one sale has an amplified effect over local prices, making the market particularly vulnerable to skittish movements. “Housing has become like a thinly traded, volatile public stock,” Humphries said. “Any change in demand can dramatically affect the price.” For now, demand is all going in one direction: up. Open houses, a traditional method agents use to attract potential buyers — and new clients — practically never happen in Phoenix. There’s no need. Even on weekends, there are just a few dozen held in the entire metro area, and most of these were in outlying communities. Shannon and Kathy Hudgins and their two daughters recently stopped by one such house, in a
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
subdivision on the edge of the desert in Surprise, Ariz., nearly an hour’s drive from downtown Phoenix. The three-bedroom home sold for $167,000 in 2011 and is now on the market for $199,000. “Too expensive,” declared Shannon Hudgins, after a 20-minute tour. “We’ve definitely seen a price increase lately,” he added. Realtor Dru Bloomfield of Realty One Group said she recently
Director of Arizona State University’s real estate center Michael Orr says, “people are buying homes like stocks.”
THE NEW GOLD RUSH
HUFFINGTON 07.21.13
To help give the Gilbertsons an edge, their realtor... suggested they write “a sweet little love story” of a letter explaining how this is the home where they hope to raise a family. listed a home in neighboring Mesa, Ariz., for $280,000 — even after looking at comparable sales from the previous three months that showed homes selling in the $200,000 to $225,000 range. Bloomfield opted to list the house at the much higher price after noticing that homes under contract — in the process of being sold — were selling at a remarkable 40 percent or so increase from just a few months before, she said. The decision proved fruitful. The winning bid came in four days later. The sale has not been finalized, but the home is under contract for approximately the listing price, Bloomfield said. Another buyer, Kristena Hansen, said that she lost four homes to other bidders before purchasing an adobe home with her husband in a historic district at the top of their price range.
Hansen covers real estate for the Phoenix Business Journal, a local publication, giving her a sense that she knew what to expect. “I thought I had all this knowledge,” she said. “But first-hand, it was a totally different experience.” Continued price inflation is cause for worry, Hansen said, recalling the bubble years. “When people say, ‘We need to get prices back up,’ I find myself thinking, ‘Is everyone’s expectation that we reach 2007, 2008 levels?’” Hansen said. “Do we really want that?” ‘LOVE LETTERS’ TO SELLERS Susan Cervantez works as a counselor at Neighborhood Housing Services of Phoenix, a nonprofit home ownership organization. She advises first-time homebuyers on warning signs that should scare them away from a property. If a realtor suggests bidding above the appraised value — and making up the difference in cash — don’t do
THE NEW GOLD RUSH
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“People say, ‘We need to get prices back up’... I find myself thinking, ‘Is everyone’s expectation that we reach 2007, 2008 levels?’ Do we really want that?” it, she tells clients. It is also unwise to make an offer on a house sight-unseen. But once she began searching for her own home a year ago, her professional prudence found itself tested by the imperatives of purchasing in a market fueled by speculation. Time and again, she said, realtors have told her that pushing the limits is the only way to compete with cash buyers. “I’ve been in the industry since 1991,” Cervantez. “This market is crazy.” After a year of looking, Cervantez recently paid $137,000 for a modest home in South Phoenix, in a neighborhood she had sought to avoid given her fears of crime. She settled on the area fearing that she had no alternative: She had made dozens of failed bids, she said. Cervantez supplied data on 10 of the most recent offers she made for The Huffington Post to review.
According to public records, five of the homes she lost were purchased by individuals or institutions paying cash, and three of these indicated the buyer planned to rent the homes. Two of these cash buyers were large institutional investors. Empire Institutional Opportunity Fund LLC was formed in 2011 in nearby Scottsdale, Ariz., and is connected to a larger company based in Wisconsin. American Homes 4 Rent LP is based in Malibu, Calif. The third rental-conversion buyers were a local couple. This breakdown, said Orr, who compiled the sales data, “is fairly typical” for the market. Even the fix-and-flip operators say the market is too heated for them. Boardman, a former television news cameraman who amassed — and lost — a real estate fortune in the crash, said he simply can’t operate on the scale needed to make a go in Phoenix anymore. “I don’t like the competition,” he said, a bit forlornly. “I want to
THE NEW GOLD RUSH
be in a housing market where they appreciate me and my lowball cash offers.” Boardman and his business partner recently made cash offers for 14 homes sold at short sale, a common method that deeply underwater borrowers employ to offload their homes. They lost every bid. Based on that experience, Boardman figures it’s next to impossible for an ordinary family to wade into the action and successfully purchase a low- to mid-priced home without paying a premium, or getting awfully lucky. “I feel for them,” Boardman said. “It is a frightening experience. They are not afforded the time to really think the process through, and they are competing against so many investors and other buyers.” For the Gilbertsons — the young couple that has spent a year looking for a home — the dizzying search finally paid off. The seller of a modest brick home in the older neighborhood of Arcadia recently accepted their $160,000 offer, made within two days of its listing. The offer was $5,000 above the asking price. To help give the Gilbertsons an edge, their realtor, Maureen Waters, suggested they write “a sweet
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little love story” of a letter explaining how this is the home where they hope to raise a family. “It’s ferocious out there,” Waters said. “I have to contact the seller’s agent immediately” when a property is listed, she said. On May 10, the couple cleared the last hurdle that might have derailed them, as an appraisal came in matching their agreedupon price. “We were so excited,” Megan Gilbertson said. “We immediately called our families and texted our friends.” Then, they went to celebrate over drinks, relieved that they like the house now as much as they did when they first viewed it. “It used to be the case that you could sleep on these big decisions,” Megan said. “You can’t do that anymore.” Ben Hallman is a senior financial writer at The Huffington Post.
Retail analyst Matthew Ong on what the new housing market will do to the social fabric of communities. Tap here for the full interview on HuffPost Live.
SEQUESTRATION’S DEVASTATING EFFECTS ON HEAD START FAMILIES
F RUSTRATING... CLAUSTROPHOBIC... HELPLESS BY SAM STEIN
PREVIOUS PAGE: JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES; THIS PAGE: COURTESY OF RHONDA REYNOLDS
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honda Reynolds was paying bills in downtown Pratt, Kan., on a hot and sunny mid-June afternoon when the second call came from her daughter’s Head Start teachers. ¶ Reynolds, 48 years old with shoulder-length blonde hair and a reassuring smile, jumped into her Ford Taurus and drove several miles home. It was 2:30 p.m. Just one hour earlier, those teachers, April and Misty, had told her they wanted to chat. Now they had called back, asking to meet in person and soon.
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
Reynolds pulled up to her onestory home. Minutes later, April and Misty arrived. They declined a drink of water. April went to use the bathroom while Misty took a seat on one of the two living room couches. Reynolds nervously sat on the other. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Is it bad?” “They did away with the Head Start program,” Misty replied, her head bent low. April came out of the bathroom and sat next to Misty. For the next 20 minutes, the three of them cried. In all, 14 children in Pratt, a town with a population just under 7,000, were dropped from Head Start, the federally funded education program for lower-income families. Reynolds’ 4-year-old daughter, Bella,
who had learned numbers and words, manners and social skills during her time in the program this past year, was among them — another casualty of the budget cuts brought about by sequestration. April and Misty had wanted to deliver the news in person to the parents, worried that they would overhear some mangled version of events. Head Start centers in nearby Kingman and Stafford counties had been closed as well, so word was bound to get out. Only late in their talk with Reynolds did they reveal that their slots had also been eliminated. “What about your jobs?” Reynolds asked. “Well,” they replied, “we don’t have jobs now either.” Sequestration was meant to hurt
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In addition to providing around 960,000 children from lower-income families with early education, Head Start also supplies each child with two hot meals a day.
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“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
people just like Reynolds and Bella, Misty and April. The policy’s designers made a bet in the summer of 2011 that a deficit-reduction cleaver that decimated defense and harmed the most vulnerable would be abhorrent to Republicans and Democrats alike. They lost the bet. Sequestration went into effect on March 1, 2013, after lawmakers failed to agree on a replacement. In Washington, the conventional wisdom has sometimes held that sequestration’s harms were oversold. Dire warnings of massive job loss never came true, while government programs used budget gimmickry to keep operating. Outside the Beltway, the perception of sequestration is sharply, viscerally different. Budget cuts have resulted in fewer meals for seniors, less financial aid for scientific research, poorer natural disaster preparedness and more expensive treatments for cancer patients. The Huffington Post set out to tell the story of another slice of sequestration: the damage being done to Head Start. The 5.27 percent reduction to the $8 billion program is having a devastating effect on families with children in the program, according to interviews with parents across the
country. Not everyone has experienced the loss of a child’s Head Start slot or a teary living room conversation. But parents have been left fearful and scrambling, worried that the cuts are shredding an already frayed social safety net upon which they depend.
H
ead Start’s overarching goal is to provide educational services to low-income families. But its functions go well beyond that. Funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start supplies many of the more than 960,000 children it serves with two hot meals a day, transportation to and from school, and basic medical care like vision and hearing tests. (Vermont Head Start’s tooth tutor program provides young kids with proper dental hygiene.) Critics of the program have called it subsidized day care. But parents benefiting from Head Start say it keeps their lives afloat. When she was told that Bella had been dropped from the Head Start rolls, Reynolds had few options. Unemployed and living off Social Security benefits that started after her husband drowned two years ago, she didn’t have the money for quality day care while she looked
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
for work. So she sought instead to bring Pratt’s Head Start program back to life. Reynolds started a petition and attended town hall meetings. When Rep. Mike Pompeo (RKan.) made a swing through Pratt, she asked him if Congress would come to the rescue. Current spending on Head Start “will probably be about the same ... in 2014, or pretty close to that,” the congressman replied, according to a transcript provided by his office. “It won’t be any more than that. The chances of us appropriating more money for that is almost zero.” Pompeo encouraged Reynolds
to try to raise the money herself. Since local Head Start officials have significant discretion over how to handle sequestration cuts, they might be open to private funding. Sure enough, they were, provided that the revenue stream would be sustained over a long period of time. Reynolds has been looking for a rich benefactor with a soft spot for disadvantaged children ever since. While she’s yet to find her saving patron, it has not been for lack of determination. “[Bella] was two when her dad died. She didn’t understand. She didn’t want to play with kids.
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Though its critics call it subsidized day care, Head Start gives children access to basic medical care that their parents may not be able to otherwise afford.
COURTESY OF NIKKITTA JACOBS
“I get calls every day from parents crying…” She was kind of angry. They [the teachers] were on top of that. ... They were there for her when she needed them,” Reynolds explained, when asked why she was going to these ends. Roughly 1,500 miles east of Pratt, in Roanoke, N.C., Nikkitta Jacobs was dealt a similarly crummy hand. Her son, Jaden, who turned 3 years old in late June, was denied a spot at the Clara Hearne Head Start Center when the program, facing a $267,000 budget reduction, cut the incoming class by 37. A single mother of two, Jacobs is a devout believer in Head Start’s benefits. Her 5-year-old daughter went through the program, which helped her overcome problems she had with reading and writing. Jacobs herself serves on the board governing the local Head Start. Hoping to ensure that her son would be able to benefit as her daughter had, Jacobs began looking at programs outside her district. The extra commute — at least 20 more minutes — would be a small inconvenience.
But those other programs are being pinched as well. With no help coming from Washington, Jacobs is growing resigned to the possibility that Head Start and its educational benefits won’t be there for her son. She has a job working with at-risk youth through the North Carolina Division of Juvenile Justice. It’s part-time work. But it’s enough, at the very least, to cover the cost of day care. “It can be stressful if you let it,” said Jacobs. “But I look at the world kind of differently. You are only dealt one hand, and either way something positive will happen.” Paying for day care is not always an option for Head Start families,
Recent budget cuts at the Clara Hearne Head Start Center forced the center to downsize its classes, denying children like Nikkitta Jacobs’ (right) 3-year-old son, Jaden (left), a spot.
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
COURTESY OF KASHKA ORLOW
however. In Gulfport, Miss., where the median household income was $38,287 in 2011, Head Start programs face a $500,000 cut. Officials there have tried to lessen the blow by reducing costs elsewhere. Bus drivers were fired, as were cooks and staff. Finally, organizers reduced the incoming class by 100. But that’s just shifting the burden to the parents of the next class. Organizers are increasingly worried about the additional stress being placed on already hurting families. “Child care can cost $540 a month. And if you are 200 percent below the poverty line, then you are going to have a hard time providing that,” said Dr. Barbara Coatney, executive director of the Gulf Coast Community Action Agency, which oversees eight Head Start centers. “Some of the poorest children in Mississippi won’t be able to get child care through Head Start because of sequestration.” uch like in Gulfport, Head Start officials across the country have worked to ameliorate the impact of sequestration, usually by shifting funds or working with local schools to pick up the slack. It hasn’t al-
M
ways worked, as Reynolds and Jacobs can attest. But on occasion it has helped parents avoid falling over the proverbial precipice. Kashka Orlow is one of those parents. Several years back, she left her husband in Las Vegas and brought her two kids to Burlington, Vt., to be closer to family. But despite having two degrees, she couldn’t find work. “I’m a business major. I understand ... there are other candidates who, I hate to say it, don’t have the same baggage that I do,” she said of how her personal story has been greeted in the labor market.
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A local preschool put parents like Kashka Orlow at ease by taking on displaced children after sequestration forced a Head Start summer program to close. Without that help, Orlow says, “I would be scrambling.”
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
In a new place and without a job, Orlow placed her younger child, Emma, in Head Start. Emma blossomed socially and benefited from the tooth tutor program. Orlow was freed up to start a selfmanagement company. That dynamic held steady through this spring, until sequestration forced the closure of the local Head Start summer program. Facing the prospect of her family’s life being upended once again, Orlow was spared when a local preschool agreed to take on the displaced Head Start kids. “If not for this partnership, my daughter would have been out at the beginning of this summer and I would be scrambling,” she told The Huffington Post. “People don’t realize that you can come from a place where you are making a lot of money, and suddenly a wrench is thrown into the works and you lose everything. It is places like this, Head Start, that help you get on your feet — not just the kids, but your whole family.” For Head Start officials, life under sequestration has been spent trying to ward off the worst for families like Orlow’s. But the efforts to minimize pain have come with a significant and perverse political
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risk: The smaller the universe of those directly affected by the cuts, the less likely it is that Congress will be compelled to find a sequester fix. And right now the parents most likely to be harmed by the Head Start cuts are those trying to
The impact on the Head Start community … has been demoralizing, so much so that the association has begun running a mental health webinar to help with depression among Head Start staff. get their kids into the program, not those with children already there. In Washington state, Head Start officials estimate that 68 percent of providers will be forced to reduce the size of their classes. But the actual reductions are expected
JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
Though sequestration has forced many Head Start programs to cut costs, most children who are already enrolled in Head Start programs won’t likely be shown the door.
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JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
to come in the fall, when many parents hoping to enroll their kids won’t find any space available. “There are a whole plethora of people sitting on the wait list who won’t be getting a call,” said Joel Ryan, executive director of the Washington State Association of Head Start. In Ramsey County, Minn., where Head Start serves only 10 to 15 percent of 3- to 5-yearolds, the waiting list to get into the program ranged from 900 to 1,500 children prior to sequestration. A $488,000 cut means 120 fewer slots and desperate pleas from local parents. “I get calls every day from par-
ents crying, in every language, because they want their child to learn English before they get to kindergarten,” said Deb Moses, who runs the Ramsey County Head Start program. “It is a daily occurrence.”
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ecause much of the Head Start harm caused by sequestration lies in what won’t happen (a child who could have been enrolled, money spent on day care that could have been spent elsewhere, etc.), assessing the overall damage is a difficult task. But one place to start is by observing local news coverage, which provides a
Securing a spot in Head Start is crucial for many families, but officials can do little to appease the desperate pleas from parents when the newly downsized classes fill up.
“There is nothing being done to fix it at the moment. There is a total lack of understanding of what the severity of the effects are.” –Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)
daily drip of depressing developments. In a two-week period this June, it was announced that Head Start was eliminating staff positions and student spots in Cincinnati, Hannibal, Mo., Hennepin County, Minn., Cullman County, Ala., Cicero, N.Y., and elsewhere. Yasmina Vinci, executive director of the National Head Start Association, said that her group anticipates 65,000 fewer slots for children and 11,500 Head Start jobs being lost nationally. The impact on the Head Start community, she said, has been demoralizing, so much so that the association has begun running a mental health webinar to help with depression among Head Start staff. “We built the whole system on relationships, on holistic, sustaining, affirming relationships between the teachers and the family,” said Vinci, “and then [Congress]
went and they cut it. People are naturally upset about it.” Indeed, even those who have been minimally harmed so far say that the cuts to Head Start are taking an emotional toll. In the town of Goldendale, Wash. — population just under 3,500 — the Early Head Start program, which works with children 3 years old and under, was forced to shut down two weeks early this spring to deal with sequestration. In all, 26 children were affected, one of whom was Rebecca Boyer’s son, Will. Boyer’s life didn’t change much. She’s in the self-publishing business, which allows her to work at home and tend to Will, 3. But there is fear that the cuts to Head Start are just beginning. It was through the program that Will’s astigmatism was first discovered. A nurse found it during a checkup, and a doctor who volunteered with the program confirmed it later. Head Start also helped Will
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
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acclimate to a new community (Boyer had moved from Seattle). And because there is no day care in Goldendale — there isn’t even a Starbucks — the loss of Head Start would make the days more cramped and life less flexible. “When these resources get cut, it hurts families,” said Boyer. “It’s making it more difficult for lowincome people. It is frustrating. It feels claustrophobic. It feels helpless really.”
COURTESY OF REBECCA BOYER
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ith sequestration now more than four months along, members of Congress have had ample time to observe and digest what the Obama administration cooked up and they, ultimately, passed. They don’t seem particularly nauseated by the meal. Small fixes have been made, most infamously to end the furloughing of air traffic controllers. Plenty of lawmakers, meanwhile, have protested the injustice of the other cuts, including those to Head Start. Even the occasional fiscal conservative will argue — while back in his or her district — that it all could have and should have been avoided.
But as far as legislative items go, getting rid of sequestration has fallen far from the top of Congress’ priorities. “There is nothing being done to fix it at the moment,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), one of Head Start’s foremost champions in the House. “There is a total lack of understanding of what the severity of the effects are. You have people who have lost their jobs, who are waiting and can’t get in. The door is shut, and they won’t know that until they try and enroll their child and can’t do it. And so far the weight of this has not made its way to the
If Head Start closes in small-town Goldendale, Wash., which doesn’t have another day care center, parents like Rebecca Boyer will be left with very few options.
“FRUSTRATING ... CLAUSTROPHOBIC ... HELPLESS”
psyche of the people who have the power to turn it around.” Advocates for Head Start long ago stopped telling themselves that once the pain set in, presequestration order would be restored. In its place, there is anguish and disbelief that Congress was able to move so quickly, and without apparent regret. “I used to have what I thought I needed to be comfortable,” said Orlow, the Burlington mother. “It’s when the rug gets pulled out from under you that you realize, ‘Oh wow, without programs like this I probably still would be lost.’” A single mom, dependent on government programs she never thought she would need, Orlow
UPDATE
has seen life grow more challenging since she left her husband in Las Vegas. “I wish that Congress would just walk a little bit in the shoes of somebody who that happened to.” Sam Stein is senior politics editor at The Huffington Post.
Hours after this story was published on the web, Rhonda Reynolds received a call from officials at the local public school informing her that they could take her daughter, Bella, for the next academic year. They would be taking the other 13 kids dropped from Bella’s Head Start program as well, Reynolds told HuffPost. Those Pratt parents hoping to get their children into Head Start next year will still face closed doors, however, unless they can find the private revenue streams to keep the local program open. And that remains a daunting task. “It was kind of hard to find someone who would guarantee two hundred and fifty big ones every year,” Reynolds said of her brief efforts to locate a Head Start benefactor.
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HuffPost reporter Zach Carter discusses the real effects of these cuts. Tap here for the full interview on HuffPost Live.
PAT LOIKA/FLICKR
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The 5 Types of Cosplayers Wandering Comic Con BY GAZELLE EMAMI
CULTURE
OMIC CON is as much a showcase for science-fiction and fantasy as it is a fourday stage for cosplayers. Short for costume play, the activity has grown into a subculture for superfans of the genres, who create costumes — by hand — of their
C
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A group of cosplayers strike a pose at San Diego Comic Con 2012.
Exit favorite fictional characters. For the most committed, this involves not only wearing the part, but also taking on the personalities of their characters. Each year at San Diego Comic Con brings a mix of the familiar and the unimaginable — for every Batman, there’s a Sesame Street Stormtrooper around the corner. Ahead of the festivities at this year’s international event, we spoke to a group of cosplayers and
ALBERT L. ORTEGA/GETTY IMAGES
THE CLASSICS
The most popular characters to frequent Comic Con tend to come from the Marvel and DC worlds, according to Ejen Chuang, author of Cosplay in America. However, the fandom universes are intersecting ones, and Chuang says you’ll see Iron Man at an anime convention just as you will bump into Naruto characters at a comic book convention. You’ll also find characters that cosplayers grew up with — “Princess Leia resonates with a lot fans because they grew up watching her be a really strong female character,” said Jill Pantozzi, cosplayer and associate editor at The Mary Sue. This year brings a new spin on a classic — Superman, Man of Steel edition.
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cosplay experts to pinpoint which characters we can expect to see at the convention this weekend. The range — from comic books and manga to video games and TV shows — was overwhelming. But in sifting through, we emerged with five categories that every character could neatly fit into (with some crossover). Read on for some of the biggest costumes to watch for this year, from those who wear them best.
COSTUMES TO WATCH FOR Harley Quinn, Sailor Moon, Super Mario, The Avengers, The Joker, Captain America, Iron Man, Batman, Superman, Mary Jane from SpiderMan, Wonder Woman, Disney, Star Wars (especially Slave Leia), Naruto
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CULTURE
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THE TRENDY ONES
FROM LEFT: ALBERT L. ORTEGA/GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY OF FREMEN PHOTO
When an obsession surfaces in our culture — be it a buzzy new TV show, film, or comic book — chances are it will be reflected in the cosplay world for however long it’s in mode (usually a few years). According to Chuang, My Little Pony is dying down a bit this year, while Adventure Time is still going strong. Dr. Who is one of the greater success stories in recent years, though its had its own convention, Gallifrey One, since 1990 (according to Chuang, it’s already sold out for 2014). Cosplayer Hannah Black credits the rise to new showrunner Steven Moffat, who played a large role in bringing Dr. Who to a mainstream American audience — and to Comic Con itself.
THE MASH-UPS
Why be one character when you could be two? Our cosplay panel tended to agree that mash-ups are some of the most fun costumes to witness — no matter the new trends, shows and comic books percolating, these are the unexpectedly clever ones, the ones that prompt passersby to ask, “Who are you supposed to be?” Take cosplayer Hannah Black, who has cleverly mixed Dr. Who’s time machine (known as TARDIS) with pairings from Captain America’s USO Girl to Sailor Moon’s Sailor Scout. Black is pictured here in a Victorian take on Dr. Who (with a TARDIS parasol) — while not intentional, it’s been mistaken for a Mary Poppins/Dr. Who mash-up enough times that Black’s embraced it, finding the pairing apt. “I’m completely cool with people thinking I mashed those two together because Mary Poppins definitely has Time Lord qualities,” Brown told us.
COSTUMES TO WATCH FOR Game of Thrones, My Little Pony, Black Cat (manga), Adventure Time (animated series), Red Sonja and Mera from Aquaman, Thor (and his archenemy Loki)
OUR COSPLAY PANELS’ FAVORITES INCLUDE: Mary Poppins and Dr. Who, Deadpool and Sailor Moon, Link and Assassin’s Creed, superhero Disney princesses, 1920s Twilight Sparkle, Avengers Playboy
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AP PHOTO/ANDY WONG
COSTUMES TO WATCH FOR Hipster Ariel, female versions of Captain America and The Avengers, female Dr. Whos, male Sailor Moons, steampunk versions of everything
CULTURE
THE CULTURAL ONES
Like any good subculture worth its salt, cosplayers will often make conscious decisions to reflect — or subvert — a cultural norm. Dressing as a character of a different gender, has been huge in the past few years, according to Pantozzi. Referred to as Rule 63 (an internet rule establishing that, for any given male character, there is a female version of that character), female versions of male characters are far more common, mainly because there’s more social stigma attached to the reverse. Writer and feminist Dr. Who blogger Courtney Stoker told io9, “Women passing as men are destabilizing gender by illustrating how easy it is to perform the opposite gender, by showing that all gender performance is performance, since cosplay is fundamentally performative.” Also keep an eye out for any hipster Ariels, a meme started by model Traci Hines. “She added black-rimmed glasses to her Ariel costume and it went viral,” model Victoria Cosplay told us.
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CULTURE
THE TOPICAL ONES
Every year brings with it a new slew of comic book films to the big screen and video games to consoles, giving cosplayers renewed interested in a particular series. This year is ripe for the picking — Elysium, After Earth, Oblivion and Pacific Rim all hit theaters in 2013. As for this year’s Superman reboot, cosplayers can’t just pull out old costumes to truly inhabit the Man of Steel. According to Victoria Cosplay, the differences include no yellow belt, red briefs or yellow “S” on the back of the cape; add in bracers on the wrists and a Kryptonian design in the center of the suit and along the leg. “The hair is different too,” she added. “He no longer has the curl in the front.”
FROM TOP: NICOLE CIARAMELLA/ COURTESY OF SONI BALESTIER; COURTESY OF VICTORIA COSPLAY
COSPLAY 101 Most diehard cosplayers — many of whom dress for upwards of 10 conventions a year — make their own costumes, or pay a skilled fellow cosplayer to do it. Here are a few words from the wise on how it’s done... “In the past I made my costumes a lot slower because materials weren’t so available. Back sixplus years ago, there were very little wig selections. People would hand dye wigs with markers!” — Soni Balestier, cosplayer and model (pictured above) “Many of the more intricate armor type builds can take upwards of 100-150 hours of work. The cost depends largely on the materials used. Costumes that made mostly from foam sheets can be as little as $100 and more complex, fiberglass costumes can reach into the thousands.” — Bill Doran, propmaker and cosplayer “We love crafting and making our own costumes and accessories. If there’s something we can’t create or if we’re not the best at sewing, there are plenty of talented people within the
community who you can hire to make something for you. My Black Canary was easy to put together because the pieces were easy to find and it was affordable; a little over $100. Something like Wonder Woman or Huntress is more complicated and takes weeks to create, as well as a larger budget. My Slave Leia and Wonder Woman are worth over $300 each.” — model Victoria Cosplay (pictured to the right) “For my next book, I’ve been following cosplayers behind the scenes in 12 cities around the country and I’ve noticed more than a few, when they go fabric shopping, they would use their phone to take a picture with and without a flash. This way they can determine how the fabric reacts to the camera and chose the fabric accordingly.” — cosplay photographer Ejen Chuang, author of Cosplay in America
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COSTUMES TO WATCH FOR: Superman (Man of Steel edition), Elysium, After Earth, Oblivion, BBC America’s Orphan Black, Pacific Rim, Guardians of the Galaxy (2014 film), Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite
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STRESS LESS
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Yoko Ono’s latest book, Acorn, is a collection of kernels of wisdom from the 80-yearold artist.
Getting Centered With Yoko Ono BY KATHERINE BROOKS
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OKO ONO, “the world’s most famous unknown artist,” is not so unknown anymore. At 80 years old, the avant-garde icon has solidified a reputation as an innovative performer, activist and poetic Twitter user, spreading her zen attitude across the art and environmental worlds with every project she touches. Her latest zen-like endeavor is a collection of 100 pieces of sage advice, titled Acorn. The book is a follow-up to her 1964 work, Grapefruit, and like its predecessor, is part meditation, part artwork, sprinkled with her signature statements of peace and tranquility and an assortment of psychedelic dot drawings. “Whisper your dream to a cloud,” she suggests, “Ask the cloud to remember it.” We’ve scoured Acorn for our favorite snatches of advice — we dare you not to have a better, more fulfilling day afterward.
PREVIOUS PAGE: BEN A. PRUCHNIE/GETTY IMAGES; THIS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES/FLICKR RF (STARS); STURTI/ GETTY IMAGES (LADDER)
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Look at a star in the sky not as something unreachable but as a planet you would visit one day.
Find a spot that is comfortable for you. Keep the spot clean. Think about the spot when you are away.
Climb up a ladder to reach the sky. Try ladders of different heights. See if the sky looks any closer from a higher ladder.
Write down a sad memory. Put it in a box. Burn the box and sprinkle the ashes in the field. You may give some ashes to a friend who shared the sadness.
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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: JOHAN RAMBERG/GETTY IMAGES; JEFFHOCHSTRASSER/GETTY IMAGES; SEKULICN/GETTY IMAGES
Listen to the sound of the fire burning in the center of the globe.
Think of the Earth as a turning point in eternity. Think of the Earth as a meeting point in infinity. Whisper your name to the wind. Ask the wind to take it to the end of the world.
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Imagine painting all the buildings in the city the colour of light. Imagine yourself being in your mother’s womb as an embryo. Stay in the position for a while. Ask yourself if you still wish to come out into the world with all the knowledge you have of what happened to you and how you affected others.
Count all the puddles on the street when the sky is blue.
Watch the sun until it comes into your body and stays as a tiny sun. It will keep your face shining even in the coldest of winter.
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Tape the sound of friends laughing together. Save it for rainy day.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 123RENDER/GETTY IMAGES; DIGITALSKILLET/GETTY IMAGES; GETTY IMAGES/VETTA; MARTIN GEE
Watch a hundred-year-old tree breathe. Thank the tree in your mind for showing us how to grow and stay.
Watch a fly slowly dying on the windowsill. Watch its movement and how long it takes for it to become completely still. Thank the fly, in your mind, for showing what you may go through one day.
Imagine a dolphin dancing in the sky. Let it dance with joy. Think of yourself at the bottom of the ocean watching.
Take your pants off before you fight.
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TASTE TEST
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16 Ways to the Perfect Gin & Tonic PAUL JOHNSON/GETTY IMAGES
BY JOE SATRAN
HIS WEEKEND, as you stand with friends and in-laws on your freshlymowed lawn, tearing up as charcoal smoke from the burgerbedecked Weber assaults your eyes,
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PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAMON DAHLEN
you’ll probably have a beer in your hand. But what you’ll really want, and what you should really mix yourself, is a gin and tonic. It’s the perfect summer drink: Refreshing enough to fight the humidity, but not frivolously summery. In particular, it’s the perfect drink for this year — because,
Exit according to The New York Times Dining section, 2013 is year of the gin and tonic. A burst of enthusiasm for G&T’s at high-end restaurants in Spain, of all places, has inspired mixologists at cool bars across the U.S. to rethink and rejigger the classic drink using artisanal ingredients and garnishes like strawberries and cucumbers. Some even concoct their own tonic water. We certainly don’t expect you to do that. But you can also do better than the dusty, half-empty bottles of Schweppes and Seagram’s that have been moldering
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TASTE TEST
in your liquor cabinet since 2003. We conducted a taste test to find out the best recipe for gin and tonics using readily-available brands of gin and tonic water. We mixed up 26 different combinations of nine kinds of gin and three kinds of tonic water, adding ice and lime wedges to each one to keep things realistic, then rated each on palatability. (We used a ratio of two parts gin to three parts tonic water, if you care.) Ahead, find our favorite and least favorite gin and tonic recipes, along with some trends I noticed.
THE GINS
THE TONIC WATERS
From left to right, with prices per bottle: New Amsterdam ($14 for 750 mL), Hendrick’s ($41 for 1 L), Gordon’s ($24 for 1.75 L), Plymouth ($36 for 1 L), Brooklyn ($42 for 750 mL), Georgi ($10 for 750 mL), Tanqueray ($30 for 1 L), Bombay Sapphire ($35 for 1 L), Beefeater ($28 for 1 L)
From left to right: Canada Dry ($1.59 for 1 L), Q ($6 for 750 mL), Fever Tree ($7 for four 6.8 oz bottles)
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TASTE TEST
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TAP ON EACH COMBINATION FOR THE TASTERS’ VERDICTS
GORDON’S + FEVER TREE
GEORGI + FEVER TREE
BEEFEATER + CANADA DRY
HENDRICK’S + CANADA DRY
PLYMOUTH + CANADA DRY
BOMBAY SAPPHIRE + FEVER TREE
BROOKLYN + CANADA DRY
PLYMOUTH + FEVER TREE
BOMBAY SAPPHIRE + Q
TANQUERAY + CANADA DRY
GORDON’S + CANADA DRY
NEW AMSTERDAM + FEVER TREE
HENDRICK’S + Q
NEW AMSTERDAM + CANADA DRY
GEORGI + Q
NEW AMSTERDAM + Q
PRICE-QUALITY CONCLUSION
There was actually a negative correlation between the price of a drink and the average rating it got from our taste testers. It could be a reflection of the general disdain for Q Tonic, which was about 70 cents more expensive, per drink, than Canada Dry. Still, that doesn’t explain the general enthusiasm for drinks on the low end. Maybe HuffPosters just have cheap taste!
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YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES (ADULT DIAPERS); TIM BOYLE/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES (TARGET); SCOTT HANDCOCK/ GETTY IMAGES (CHILDBIRTH); AP PHOTO/SYFY (SHARKNADO)
Adult Diapers Expected to Outsell Baby Diapers in Japan By 2020
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Military Sexual Assault Pamphlet Suggests Victims ‘Submit’ Rather Than Resist
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TARGET ADMITS TO DISTRIBUTING RACIST ‘MINORITY TIPS’ MANUAL TO EMPLOYEES
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05 Hospital Fines Woman for Screaming During Childbirth
Summer TV’s Most Ridiculous Program: Battling Sharks... in a Tornado.
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PERETS/ GETTY IMAGES (CAT); PLOUGMANN/ GETTY IMAGES (DOG); NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/GETTYIMAGES (PUSSY RIOT); NIKO GUIDO/ GETTY IMAGES (HOSPITAL)
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TFU
Cat Poop Is Home to Parasites That Can Cause Schizophrenia, OCD, Brain Cancer
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Wal-Mart Fires Employee for Asking Customer Not to Leave Their Dog in a Hot Car
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RUSSIAN VIDEO GAME LETS PLAYERS ‘KILL’ PUSSY RIOT
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Fox News Host: I Would Not Have Another Mosque Built in This Country Until We Know Who the Terrorists Are
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‘Dead’ Hospital Patient Awakes to Doctors Preparing to Remove Her Organs
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