Allison Lundergan Grimes Makes A Campaign Stop Through Bowling Green On Her Way To Fancy Farm Picnic. watch News Video.

University Of Kentucky Will Spend $115 Million To Revamp Rupp Arena. Here's What Joel Pett Thinks About It. LOL.

School Superintendents React To Recommended Ruling In Bowling Green Versus Warren County Student Transfers Feud.

Superintendents React to Hearing Officer's Recommendation on Nonresident Issue

Some students in Warren County will finally know where they will attend school in a little more than a week.
Bowling Green Independent Schools and Warren County Public Schools have received the hearing officer's recommended order regarding the nonresident student agreement hearing.

Hearing officer Mike Wilson sent the recommendation to both districts today ordering Warren County to permit 750 resident students to attend Bowling Green Schools with state funding for the next two school years.
"That's what we had anticipated, and basically what we had been planning around since we approved our draft budget back in January," said Bowling Green Independent Schools Superintendent Joe Tinius.

The number agreed upon for several years was 850 students, but recently passed legislation already reduced that number by about a hundred students.
"The impact of House Bill 182... which was passed last spring by the Kentucky legislature, allowed the children of employees to come to the school district in which their parents work and the SEEK allocation to come with them," said Tinius.

Wilson also advised the districts attempt to negotiate a multi-year agreement in the future.
"From reading the ruling, what the expectation will be is that between now and school year 2015-2016, that the two school districts will come to an agreement that will cover a more lengthy period of time," said Tinius.
"I can assure you as superintendent, that timing won't be an issue in the future," said Warren County Public Schools Superintendent.

Due to those expectations, Tinius says he doesn't anticipate the 86 students now allowed to attend city
schools will have to worry about their future in the district but according to Warren County School's Superintendent Rob Clayton there is still work to be done to come to a new agreement.
"Our board of education is not comfortable continuing with the agreement that has been in operation over the last several years. and so moving forward, it's about looking at how we can work with Bowling Green Independent," said Clayton.

Clayton says Warren County has not decided whether or not they will file an appeal at this point.
And while Clayton doesn't anticipate Warren County having to make personnel adjustments Tinius says Bowling Green may have to hire some teachers.

Bowling Green City School District Wins Case Against Warren County Schools Over Student Transfers.

City schools win student cap appeal

The Bowling Green Independent School District will get to keep 86 county-zoned students lost to a student cap set April 18 by the Warren County Public Schools, according to a ruling released this morning.

“Obviously, we think this is a good decision,” said Leslie Peek, city schools spokeswoman. City schools personnel are calling the parents of the 86 county-zoned (non-resident) students today to let them know that they can enroll in the city schools with the $300 tuition, but no additional money. The 62-page ruling from the Kentucky education commissioner’s office is titled a “Recommended Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Recommended Order.”

Go to bgdailynews.com to read more.

George Zimmerman Trial For The Killing Of Trayvon Martin Makes Me Say: God Help Us All! Read Why!!

thinking back to the comments that erupted with the ‪#‎georgezimmerman‬ trial for the killing of ‪#‎trayvonmartin‬, i am sadly reminded that it won't take much more for us to repeat the ‪#‎tutsi‬ and ‪#‎hutu‬ fiasco here, or the ‪#‎bosnia‬ killings, or the massacre in ‪#‎burundi‬ or ... (you take your pick)!

‪#‎God‬ help us all!

How GOP Sees Obamacare. LOL.

Words To Live By, Words Of Wisdom, And Words To Ponder.

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

-- Job, 19:25

Zimmerman Trial "Just A Sign Of The Times" In Our Country.

Zimmerman trial 'just a sign of the times' in our country

It must now be OK for someone to follow an African-American teenager that you think is suspicious because he is walking. You can follow him in a car and then on foot with a loaded gun. You get to call the police and do not do what they say (by getting out of the car), follow and question them anyway, and if you fill threatened you can shoot. And not even have testify in your own defense and still get off.

When the police come to investigate, they won’t even put cuffs on you, and you get to go home to your kids (like Zimmerman). And once the word gets out, anonymous people will give you more than $400,000 to defend yourself – some of which you can use for personal expenses, as he did – and be treated like a weird cult hero by Fox and the local Darly and Ale show.

Mama Ree Gipson always taught me to not talk to strangers and run from troubles (as Treyvon did). I guess we need to be telling our teenage sons that if a creepy guy with a gun is following you to stop and talk to him and stand your ground. Well, I guess we need to get him a gun first in case that creepy guy is threatened, huh?

There are simple ways the teenager’s life could have been saved:

•If the teenager was not walking while black to get Skittles.

•If Zimmerman would have listened to the police and stayed in his car with a loaded gun.

•If Treyvon was armed while feeling threatened, like he did, and instead of running, stood his ground, wonder where he would be now?

Is this the America we want?

God bless America.

Tony Ragland

Bowling Green

Joel Pett "Takes Advantage" Of Anthony Wiener Or Is It Carlos Danger (?) To Pick On Rand Paul.

Western Kentucky Regents Approve Bonds To Fund Honors Program, International Building, Give Basketball Coaches Raises.

WKU Regents Approve Bonds for Honors College, Raises for Basketball Coaches

The WKU Board of Regents has approved a $37 million bond issue to fund a new international center and Honors College building, as well as the next phase of the ongoing renovation of the Downing University Center.

While the motion passed, three regents voted against the proposal.
Faculty Regent Patty Minter joined Student Regent Keyana Boka and Staff Regent James Kennedy in dissent. Dr. Minter says while she fully supports the WKU Honors College and the school's efforts to grow its international student population, she questions the need to issue bonds and build a brand new facility.
“There were a lot of better ideas that were not explored," said the WKU History Professor. "For example, having a floor in the replacement building for the Gordon Ford College of Business—what a great place that would be. And it would also integrate that group and the international student services into the entire student population, as opposed to segregating them out.”

WKU President Gary Ransdell has said he believes a new Honors College building will help the program attract academically elite students to the school.

The WKU Regents also approved the purchase of property on Normal Street that will be used for the new Honors College-International Center building.

Raises for Coaches Harper and Clark-Heard

The WKU Board of Regents approved salary increases for the men's and women's basketball coaches. Following Friday's vote, men's coach Ray Harper will earn $500,000 a year, and women's coach Michelle Clark-Heard will get $200,000 annually.

WKU Athletic Director Todd Stewart says the money for Harper's raise is coming from an account containing revenue from WKU's NCAA basketball tournament appearances. Stewart says the raise for Coach Clark-Heard is being funded entirely through private donations over the next three years.
The WKU athletic director says revenues generated by the school's move to Conference USA in 2014 will then be tapped to sustain Clark-Heard's salary.

Cleveland, Ohio, Monster Ariel Castro, Pleads Guilty To Cild Kidnappings, Etc., And Is Spared The Death Penalty, But Will Spend Life Without Parole, Plus 1000 Years In Prison. There Is No Mention Of Him Being Roommates With Jody Arias, But Good Riddance To Him Nonetheless! Watch Video.

Have A Pleasant Summer!

One Man's Very Interesting "Message To Trayvon Martin's Supporters".

A Message to Trayvon Martin Sympathizers

I haven't touched on the Trayvon Martin issue because race matters in this country are the paralysis of the American people. To constructively discuss Trayvon would require empathy, introspection and an understanding of America's social and economic history. This is why the open forums we have seen thus far seem to fuel more ignorance and bias than reasonable debate.

To be brutally honest, the only reason people are even aware of Trayvon Martin is because it became a topic within mainstream news and pop culture. Meaning: News directors saw it as a profitable, sensational story. Hundreds of blacks die annually in South Side Chicago without even a blurb.

Trayvon isn't in the mainstream news for any reason other than ratings and profit. The news coverage on the Zimmerman case almost implies that the killing of this young black man is somehow an anomaly and I resent that.

In this country, if it isn't streamlined through mainstream media and pop culture, it doesn't seem to warrant national debate. Our "government" continues to wreak havoc on our civil liberties and there is little to no protest from the black community because of media diversion tactics that keep such pertinent issues out of mainstream media. But if Jay-Z or Rihanna were to make mention of it, we'd suddenly be jolted out of our sugar comas and protesting on freeways.

My point being, people are up in arms about Trayvon based on regurgitated pundits and manipulated facts aired to elicit emotion while fueling America's anger and division. That's how you boost ratings. No different from Piers Morgan's desperate rant over gun control when he knew his ratings were in the dumps. And from where I stand, anyone who still relies on corporate-owned media pundits to support an argument isn't equipped to offer worthwhile solutions.

People are using Trayvon Martin's death as an excuse to project their own deep-seated issues with racism and will not be capable of intelligent, empathetic debate until they've cooled down and afforded themselves an education.

Addressing Trayvon without first addressing the absence of critical thinking in our schools, the lack of introspection, the reasons for our low tolerance and our country's skewed value system does nothing more than create a sounding board for the ignorant. So rather than facilitate more racism outcry, I'd like to address young black people specifically.

I believe we lost that trial for Trayvon long before he was killed. Trayvon was doomed the moment ignorance became synonymous with young black America . We lost that case by using media outlets (music, movies, social media, etc.) as vehicles to perpetuate the same negative images and social issues that destroyed the black community in the first place. When we went on record glorifying violent crime and when we voted for a president we never thought to hold accountable. When we signed on to do reality shows that fed into the media's stereotypes of black men, we ingrained an image of Trayvon Martin so overwhelming that who he actually may have been didn't matter anymore.

Don't you find it peculiar that the same media outlets who have worked so diligently to galvanize the negative stigmas of black men in America are now airing open debates on improving the image of black males in American media? Do you honestly think CNN is using their competitive time slots for philanthropy?

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel

If we really wanted to ensure Trayvon Martin's killing was not in vain, we'd stop perpetuating negative images that are now synonymous with black men in America. We'd stop rapping about selling drugs and killing niggas. The next time we saw a man beating a woman, we'd call for help or break it up, but one thing we would not do is stand by with our cellphones out -- yelling WORLDSTAR! Instead of rewarding kids for memorization, we'd reward them for independent and critical thinking.

We'd spend less time subconsciously repeating lyrics about death and murder and more time understanding why we are so willing to twerk to songs that bemean women and boast of having things we cannot afford. We'd set examples of self-love for our youth by honoring our own hair, skin and eye color. We'd stop spending money on designer gear that we should be spending on our physical and psychological health. We'd seek information outside the corporate owned-media that manipulates us. We'd stop letting television babysit our kids and we'd quit regurgitating pundits we haven't come up with on our own.

Education, introspection, self-love and excellence are the only ways to overcome the wrath of ignorance. So before going back to popping molly and getting Turnt Up, I urge you to consider the implications of your actions. Your child's life may depend on it.

Breaking News: George Zimmerman's Juror Says Defendant "Got Away With Murder"! She Needs To Tell Us Something We Don't Already Know!! Watch Video.

 

Juror says Zimmerman 'got away with murder'

Juror B29 says she feels she owes an apology to Trayvon Martin's parents

Evidence did not warrant murder conviction, she says

George Zimmerman acquittal prompted demonstrations across the USA

The lone minority member of the jury that acquitted George Zimmerman says Zimmerman "got away with murder" in the killing of teenager Trayvon Martin.

In an interview with ABC News scheduled to air Thursday evening, the woman identified as Juror B29 said she feels she owes an apology to Trayvon's parents over the verdict that touched off protest demonstrations around the country.

The juror said the six-member, all-female jury followed Florida law and found the evidence did not warrant a murder conviction.
"You can't put the man in jail even though in our hearts we felt he was guilty,'' said the juror.
She declined to be identified by her full name and was referred to in the interview as "Maddy." She allowed her face to be shown in the interviews to air on World News and Friday on Good Morning America.

She was interviewed by GMA anchor Robin Roberts.
The identities of the jurors were sealed by the Florida court and have not yet been made public. ABC News said she did not allow her full name to be used out of concern for her safety.
She was described as a 36-year-old nursing assistant and mother of eight children. A Puerto Rican, she had moved to Seminole County, Fla., from Chicago only five months before her selection to the jury.
She is the second of the six jurors to speak publicly since the verdict.

Zimmerman, 29, is a white Hispanic and Trayvon, 17, was black. The case was racially charged from the outset, and prosecutors alleged Zimmerman had racially profiled the teen.
Maddy said the case was not about race as far as she was concerned.

"George Zimmerman got away with murder, but you can't get away from God. And at the end of the day, he's going to have a lot of questions and answers he has to deal with," Maddy said. But, she added, "the law couldn't prove it."

Maddy said she favored convicting Zimmerman of second-degree murder when the jury began its deliberations.
"I was the juror that was going to give them the hung jury. I fought to the end," she said.

After nine hours of discussion about the evidence, however, Maddy said, she concluded there wasn't enough proof to convict of murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter under Florida state law.
She said she "felt confused" because "if a person kills someone, then you get charged for it.''
"But as the law was read to me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can't say he's guilty,'' she added.

Zimmerman, who did not testify in his own defense, contended he shot and killed Trayvon out of self-defense during a confrontation in a neighborhood of Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2012.
She said she has wrestled with whether she made the right decision.
"I felt like I let a lot of people down, and I'm thinking to myself, 'Did I go the right way? Did I go the wrong way?'" she said.

She said she owes an apology to the victim's parents because she feels "I let them down.''
"It's hard for me to sleep, it's hard for me to eat,'' she said. "... I'm hurting as much (as) Trayvon Martin's mother because there's no way that any mother should feel that pain.''

Western Kentucky University's Honors Program Building Project Draws Opposition, Even As Regents Meet To Approve It.

Honors College grad opposes $22M center

Opposition to the $22 million Honors College/International Center planned for Western Kentucky University has surfaced on another front.
 
Mark L. Reeves, a May 2012 Honors College graduate and international student worker, sent an open letter this week to members of the WKU Board of Regents, asking them to not approve a property purchase at 1590 Normal St. and a bonds sale Friday at their regular meeting, saying that approach would be “unwise.”

The Kentucky General Assembly approved the project as WKU’s contribution to a large capital projects program planned for several universities in Kentucky. University presidents and Gov. Steve Beshear approached lawmakers with the plan, where the state approves the projects while the universities themselves carry the debts. Currently, the Honors College and International Center at WKU are both housed in former residences on the main campus in Bowling Green.

Reeves objects to the planned $22 million in bonds and opposes the entire $37 million general obligation bond issue, which includes $15 million for the third phase of the renovation of Downing Student Union. He sketches a four-part argument in the letter.

Like Faculty Regent Patti Minter, Reeves objects to the university using revenue from international students’ tuition, particularly Navitas students. Reeves wrote that when WKU made the partnership with Navitas in January 2010, “ambitious promises” were stated about the number of students expected to come to WKU for the program. “In November 2010, Navitas projected it would bring 250 students in fall 2011, but even in the fall 2012 Navitas enrollment sat only at 126. By spring 2013, only approximately 56 students had matriculated into WKU, providing the projected revenue stream for debt service,” he wrote in the letter to the regents.

WKU President Gary Ransdell told the regents during a June 21 committee meeting, that if there weren’t 150 Navitas students to provide the necessary tuition revenue for paying the debt service on the bonds, any 150 of the 900 international students enrolled at the university would be used. At that committee meeting, university officials showed projections of growing numbers of international students in Bowling Green. Also, university officials this summer traveled to China to ink agreements to bring other international students to WKU.

“If, as been suggested, Navitas does not provide an adequate revenue stream, President Ransdell has proposed using the new difference in tuition paid by international undergraduate students from out-of-state students. However, to do so would lock in higher tuition rates for international undergraduate students for the next decades, removing WKU’s key competitive advantage in recruiting international students: low cost,” Reeves wrote. “As a friend of many international students, I can assure you that this is WKU’s key advantage, and locking in higher rates will hurt that advantage.”

Navitas at WKU offers a University Pathway Program and Pre-Masters Program designed to prepare international students for university studies in America, according to its website.

Reeves also states that while WKU attracts a large number of international students from Saudi Arabia, “... the Saudi government pays their tuition (plus a stipend), and this program is highly contingent on global politics: Saudi international numbers nosedived nationwide after 9/11, and the current Saudi enrollment growth dates to a 2005 political agreement between the Saudi King and then-President George W. Bush. Moreover, due to high numbers of Saudi students at WKU already, the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission has recently announced a freeze on sending Saudi students majoring in Business or Engineering (the main majors of Saudi students at WKU) to WKU,” Reeves wrote.

“... when Saudi students are removed from the international student population, international student growth at WKU is relatively flat from 2003 (497 students) to 2011 (505 students), the latest year for which country-specific data is publicly available,” Reeves wrote.

Reeves also told the regents in the letter that Honors College students should also pay in some fashion on the building’s debt service, not just international students; the project is not a priority to students at WKU and “WKU does not need to take on this massive debt project at a time when budgets have been cut and the fiscal future appears unclear,” Reeves wrote.

Reeves added that he doesn’t want the regents to shelve accommodations for the Honors College and international students at WKU. “I should stress that I do not urge the Board to reject building projects to create new or renovate existing spaces for the Honors College or international students. Rather, this specific project does not merit the risk of such a huge bond or such a huge, long-term financial commitment from WKU. Smaller-scale and lower-cost projects with different funding models should be encouraged and explored, in my opinion,” Reeves wrote.

Reeves said his views are his own, and don’t reflect his election in April as executive vice president of WKU’s Student Government Association.

The regents meet at 8 a.m. Friday in the Mass Media and Technology Hall.

We Congratulate The U. S. House Of Representives For Limiting Military Involvement In Egypt And Syria, Consiatent With War Powers Act.

With little argument, House limits U.S. military involvement in Syria, Egypt

WASHINGTON — With little argument, the House of Representatives approved measures Wednesday that would prevent the Obama administration from spending money on U.S. military operations in Syria without consulting Congress and would forbid funding U.S. military or paramilitary operations in Egypt.

The measures, part of the House’s $598 billion defense bill, were supposed to be contentious issues exposing bipartisan rifts between interventionists who want to give Obama a free hand in dealing with the civil war in Syria and unrest in Egypt and war-weary lawmakers concerned that U.S. troops will be dragged into more military actions.

But both amendments were approved on voice votes with only scant dissent.

On Syria, lawmakers passed an amendment by Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., that would forbid any military action in Syria if it violates the War Powers Resolution – which requires the president to consult Congress before committing U.S. forces to battle or placing them in situations where hostilities are imminent.

The Radel amendment does not address the contentious issue of providing weapons to the Syrian rebels, whose campaign to topple President Bashar Assad is made up of as many as 1,200 largely independent groups, including some that are openly affiliated with al Qaida. Congressional intelligence committees recently signed off on an Obama administration proposal to have the CIA funnel unspecified arms and training to rebels aligned with the moderate Supreme Military Council, led by a defected Syrian general, Salim Idriss.

But the wording of the amendment would apply to setting up a no-fly zone or using U.S. ships to launch attacks on sites in Syria, and the debate showed that deeper military involvement in Syria is opposed by an unusual House coalition of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats.
“I believe without a shadow of a doubt this is one of the most insane policies that borders on madness – the United States to give funding, training and arms most likely to al Qaida in Syria doesn’t make any sense,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. “This is absolute madness.”
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., agreed, calling the situation in Syria “chaotic.”
“Distinguishing between the good rebels and the bad rebels is impossible,” Welch said on the House floor. “The notion that we can have a micromanaged approach and pick the good guys, and arm them, and not have any reasonable . . . expectation that the arms will get into bad hands I think is naive.”
Welch added that Congress has the responsibility to weigh in before U.S. troops are sent into harm’s way.

“We have a job to do under the Constitution,” he said.

The Obama administration last month notified Congress under the War Powers Resolution that a detachment of 700 U.S. troops who’d been participating in war games in Jordan would remain in that country “until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed.” The detachment includes Patriot anti-missile systems and fighter aircraft, the White House notification said.

The Egypt amendment by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., would prohibit the Department of Defense from using money authorized in the defense bill to fund military operations in Egypt or to fund individuals, groups or organizations engaged in paramilitary activity.
“Since our national security interests in Syria and Egypt are unclear, we risk giving money and military assistance to our enemies,” Massie said when he introduced his measure last week. “The Constitution prohibits the president from unilaterally spending American taxpayer dollars on military operations without congressional approval.”

The Egypt vote occurred as the Obama administration suspended delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt this week. A Pentagon spokesman said that the United States values its relationship with Egypt but that the delay was necessary as Egypt remains divided over the military’s removal from office of Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president.
Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters Wednesday that the United States no longer believes it is “appropriate to move forward with the delivery.”

At the State Department, spokeswoman Jen Psaki used nearly the exact same wording to explain the decision. “Given the current situation in Egypt, we do not believe it is appropriate to move forward with the delivery of the F-16s at this time,” she said.

Great Western Kentucky (WKU) News: School To Raise Admission Standards.

WKU to raise admission standards and accept fewer students

Fewer, but more qualified students may be making there way to WKU in the future as the Board of Regents discuss a change in focus for the university today at a board retreat at the WKU Glasgow campus.
 
Regents will be meeting with a state demographer at the retreat, who will help to provide key information to the university and its plan to change the course of growth development in the future.

President Gary Ransdell said the demographer will show that the pool of Kentucky high school students is not growing, and that the university will soon see a “paradigm shift” in its focus by raising admission standards and lowering student enrollment.
“As our university has grown dramatically over the past 15 years, we have penetrated that market pretty well,” Ransdell said. “In my opinion, we can no longer look to Kentucky students as a growth strategy.”

Ransdell said it’s time instead for the university to focus on the quality of students and retention rates.
“We are going to continue to raise our admission standards and accept fewer students,” Ransdell said. “Our strategy going forward is likely to be shaped around a slightly smaller student population.
Rather than aggressive growth, we’re going to focus on retention, graduation rates and higher academic standards.”

Targeting student populations where retention is needed is a center focus moving forward according to Joelle Carter, assistant vice president for Retention and Student Services.
“We look at retention across the board,” Carter said. “There are certain student groups where retention is more of an issue. We can look at those gaps and develop programs to help retention in that regard moving forward.”

Retention is a moving factor in this shift. Ransdell said the university must do better than a 75 percent retention rate for freshmen and sophomores. Actions towards implementing higher standards have already taken place. Ransdell said the university accepted 500 less students for the 2013-14 academic year than last year.

“We’ve put higher admission standards into play over the last couple of years and this is the first year we’re beginning to see a pay off on that,” Ransdell said.
Provost Gordon Emslie said even though admissions requirements have become more challenging, more opportunities for students have unfolded as well.
“With the state focus on retention and graduation rates we felt it appropriate to apply a different admission criteria,” Emslie said. “We’ve also added a significant number of new scholarships bringing the ACT and GPA range down. So we have more limited and partial tuition scholarships available to students who are fairly solid students, but were just not competitive for other scholarships in the past.”

Ransdell said a major part of the reasoning is because the university must control its own future financially rather than being dependent on Kentucky general assembly, which is facing financial challenges. WKU and education overall is only one of the many areas that receive funds from the state.

“While I believe we’ve reached an end to the budget cutting process for the foreseeable future, I am not optimistic that the general assembly will resume a significant level of new state funding,” Ransdell said. “We’re coming to the conclusion that state funding to support growing enrollment is not going to be forthcoming. Therefore, what we have to do as an institution is to ensure strong quality and strong financial underpinning.”

This shift in the university philosophy will be a highlighted topic with the regents Thursday. Ransdell said this process will take a lot of time and thought from the regents.
“These are all matters that we’re contemplating,” Ransdell said. “There is not a strategy manual in place. We’re studying all these dimensions and will discuss it with the board.”

TEA Partier Matt Blevis Joins The Senate Race Against Mitch McConnell. Watch Video.

Allison Lundergan Grimes Begins Her Enate Race Taking On Mitch McConnell. Watch Video.

Kentucky U, S. Senate Race Continues To Heat Up As Laurel County Clerk Files Ethics Charges Against Allison Lundergan Grimes.

County clerk files ethics complaint against Grimes

A county clerk in southeastern Kentucky has asked the Executive Branch Ethics Commission to determine the propriety of a fundraising email sent to government email accounts by Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes last week.

Republican Laurel County Clerk Dean Johnson filed the complaint on Thursday, a week after receiving the email from Grimes, a candidate for U.S. Senate.

Johnson is asking the Ethics Commission to determine the legality of the secretary of state sending fundraising emails to county clerks who report to her in in matters pertaining to elections. Johnson said he believes Grimes acted unethically by using a government email list to raise money and may have also run afoul of state law.

Grimes political adviser Jonathan Hurst had no immediate comment.

Eric Holder And Justice Department Aim To Challenge States' Voting Rights Laws.

Justice Department to challenge states’ voting rights laws

The Justice Department is preparing to take fresh legal action in a string of voting rights cases across the nation, U.S. officials said, part of a new attempt to blunt the impact of a Supreme Court ruling that the Obama administration has warned will imperil minority representation.

The decision to challenge state officials marks an aggressive effort to continue policing voting rights issues and follows a ruling by the court last month that invalidated a critical part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The justices threw out a part of the act that determined which states with a history of discrimination had to be granted Justice Department or court approval before making voting law changes.

The Supreme Court effectively struck down part of the Voting Rights Act.

In the coming weeks, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is expected to announce that the Justice Department is using other sections of the Voting Rights Act to bring lawsuits or take other legal action to prevent states from implementing certain laws, including requirements to present certain kinds of identification in order to vote. The department is also expected to try to force certain states to get approval, or “pre-clearance,” before they can change their election laws.
“Even as Congress considers updates to the Voting Rights Act in light of the Court’s ruling, we plan, in the meantime, to fully utilize the law’s remaining sections to subject states to pre-clearance as necessary,” Holder said in a speech Thursday morning in Philadelphia. “My colleagues and I are determined to use every tool at our disposal to stand against such discrimination wherever it is found.”

Holder announced that, in a first step, the department will support a lawsuit in Texas that was brought by a coalition of Democratic legislators and civil rights groups against the state’s redistricting plan.
Holder said he is asking a federal judge to require Texas to submit all voting law changes to the Justice Department for approval for a ten-year period because of its history of discrimination.
“It’s a pretty clear sign that a lawsuit against the Texas voter-ID law is also on the way,” said Matthew Miller, a former Justice Department spokesman. Miller said Justice may also sue North Carolina if that state passes a new voter ID law.

The Obama administration had opposed the Texas voter-ID law signed in 2011 by Gov. Rick Perry (R.), saying it endangered minority voting rights. Texas was one of eight states that passed voter-ID laws.

Supporters of the measures, which were signed by seven Republican governors and one independent, said that requiring voters to show specific photo IDs would prevent voter fraud. But critics of the laws said that they could hurt turnout among minority voters and others.
Because of Texas’s history of discrimination, the voter-ID law had to be cleared by the Justice Department. The department blocked the law, saying it would endanger minority voting rights. Texas sued the Justice Department, leading to a week-long trial last summer.
Last August, the U.S. District Court in Washington blocked the law from going into effect, ruling that the legislation would impose “strict, unforgiving burdens” on poor, minority

Anthony Weiner Or Is It Carlos Danger?

Steve Nunn's "Sputtering Heart" Prevents Him Answering Questions Regarding Girlfriend Amanda Ross' Death, Judge Orders "Full And Complete" Answers.

 

Judge: Nunn must answer questions from attorneys

Facing a team of attorneys, imprisoned former Kentucky lawmaker Steve Nunn apologized to the family of the ex-fiancee he was convicted of killing but declined to say he shot her, complained of health problems and refused to answer questions about her death, according to the transcript of his deposition.
 
Nunn, the son of former Kentucky Gov. Louie B. Nunn, also repeatedly said in the brief July 11 deposition that his heart was racing and he didn't feel comfortable talking about the September 2009 death of Amanda Ross until he consults with a lawyer.

"My mind is sputtering, I guess, at best," Nunn said during the questioning at Green River Correctional Center in Central City. Nunn was sent to prison for life without parole after he pleaded guilty in June 2011 to first-degree murder with an aggravating circumstance in the shooting of his ex-fiancee.

On Tuesday, Fayette Circuit Judge James Ishmael ordered Nunn to "fully and completely" answer queries from attorneys in a lawsuit over Ross' death.

Nunn and the owners of Ross' former residence, Opera House Square, are defendants in a lawsuit brought by the slain woman's family. Ishmael has already determined Nunn is liable for the death. Nunn faces a possible damages judgment at a trial starting Aug. 19 in Lexington.

Diane Laughlin, an attorney for Opera House Square, wants Nunn's testimony as she tries to place responsibility for the death on the man who pulled the trigger and deflect it away from the property owner. A jury will be asked to determine who is responsible for Ross' death and to what degree.
Ishmael found no reason for Nunn to remain silent.

According to a transcript of the deposition, Nunn answered two questions, one of which was to identify himself. Nunn then apologized to the Ross family and Opera House Square, but never directly acknowledged that he shot his one-time fiancee.

Nunn went on to complain of experiencing atrial fibrillation _ a rapid heartbeat often associated with palpitations, fainting, chest pain, or congestive heart failure. Nunn also said he felt uncomfortable answering questions since he had not talked to an attorney in more than a year.

"Again, I apologize to all of you," Nunn told the attorneys. "Almost need a wheelchair to get out of here."
Laughlin said getting Nunn's deposition before trial could be tricky and she hopes it won't delay the proceedings.

"Mr. Nunn is a potential fly in the ointment," Laughlin said.
"We'll keep our fingers crossed on Mr. Nunn," Ishmael said.

Also included in the trial will be consideration of negligence claims against Nunn's daughter, Mary Elizabeth Nunn of Glasgow. The claims against the daughter stem from accusations that Stephen Nunn illegally transferred property in Glasgow to her to avoid having the Ross family claim it as damages.

After the shooting, Nunn bolted from Lexington. Police caught up with him near the graves of his parents in Hart County, where he fired one shot at a state trooper before surrendering. He had self-inflicted wrist wounds when he was taken into custody.

Nunn spent about 15 years in the state legislature. His father served as governor from 1967 to 1971.

Amanda Ross' death prompted changes to domestic violence laws in Kentucky. Amanda's Law, which passed in 2010, allows domestic violence victims to be alerted by a GPS tracking system when their aggressors get too close.

Nunn, who briefly served as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, had carved out his own political career as an advocate for people with mental disabilities. Nunn failed to win re-election to the state House in 2006. In 2003, he made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

When he turns 62 on Nov. 4, 2014, Nunn will be eligible to receive his full state pension of $28,210 annually, based on his legislative and executive department service. State law permits pension benefits to former lawmakers unless they commit a crime while in office.

So What's The "Danger" In Showing A Little "Weiner", You Ask?! New Yorkers Should Answer.

Read more.

Meeting Fire With Fire: Vigilantes Target Boko Haram In Nigeria.

Nigeria's vigilantes take on Boko Haram

Nigeria under attack

Vigilante groups have formed in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri to fight the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, a move welcomed by the military as it battles to quell the insurgency, as the BBC's Will Ross reports.

Military checkpoints have been a common sight in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri - the birthplace of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram - for several years.

But these days the people asking the questions at the ubiquitous roadblocks are often not in uniform.

They are civilians who are adding their muscle to the fight against Boko Haram, which is waging a military campaign to create an Islamic state across Nigeria.
More than 2,000 people have been killed since it launched an insurgency in 2009.
"When the situation became too bad to endure, we decided to find the Boko Haram members ourselves," said Mohammed, who was stopping and searching cars at one of the checkpoints.

"Whenever we see them we arrest them and hand them over to the army. Some of us know these people," he said, adding that he and his colleagues are not paid for the work.

The vigilantes started appearing on the streets in early June, after a state of emergency was declared in May and thousands of extra troops sent to the area to wipe out the militants.
The civilian-run checkpoints have since spread across almost every district of the mainly Muslim town. They are mostly manned by teenage boys and young men in their twenties but there are also some women searching female passengers.

Mohammed said that when they detain a suspected militant, "we bring the holy Koran and then ask him to swear on it. If he's lying we are sure he will die".
'Idiotic thieves' The vigilantes all carry crude weapons; sticks, machetes, knives and metal pipes.

Considering the

"It is thanks to the protection of God - God is our guide whenever you do something with good intention you will definitely succeed," said Mohammed, who normally works as a lorry driver.
"If we are allowed to operate without any interference, definitely we will bring an end to this problem," he said.

His colleague Salisu, normally a bricklayer, said that the vigilantes, and not Boko Haram, are carrying out the work of Allah.

"It is a mission for the sake of Allah.
"If we refuse to expose these irresponsible archaic hypocritical idiotic thieves, then we will face the wrath of the Koran."

The Nigerian military Joint Task Force (JTF) has welcomed the presence of the vigilantes on the streets of Maiduguri.
"These gestures are commendable as it underscores the desired positive civil-military collaboration necessary for the success of the ongoing internal security operation," said Brig-Gen Chris Olukolade just after civilians had started appearing at the roadblocks.

It is not clear if the vigilantes, also known as the civilian JTF, will later be armed with guns by the government.
Many of the soldiers deployed in northern Nigeria are from other parts of the country and do not know the Kanuri language, the most common used in Maiduguri.
'Guns in coffins' "Without knowing the environment and the people, building confidence and establishing a presence is very difficult," said Kole Shettima, chairman of the Centre of Democracy and Development in Abuja.

Boko Haram at a glance

• Founded in 2002
• Official Arabic name, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad"
• Initially focused on opposing Western education
• Nicknamed Boko Haram, a phrase in the local Hausa language meaning, "Western education is forbidden"
• Launches military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state across Nigeria
• Founding leader Mohammed Yusuf killed in same year in police custody
• Succeeded by Abubakar Shekau, who is said to be well-versed in theology
• Suspected to have split into rival factions in 2012

"The vigilantes know the local population and can help fish out the insurgents."

"But increased conflict between the vigilantes and Boko Haram is possible and this would further militarise the society and make it extremely difficult to see and end to the violence," he said.
"A new group of young people who may get armed could then try to get what they can out of the situation. They may themselves become a danger and mete out their own form of justice."
There are already some reports from Maiduguri of vigilantes killing people, rather than handing suspects over to the army.

In order to sidestep the tighter security presence in Maiduguri, the Islamist militants have diversified their tactics.
Earlier this month several suspected Boko Haram members disguised themselves as women.
They hid their faces behind veils and their guns beneath full-length robes.
Local reports from Maiduguri said their mission was thwarted and soldiers shot several of them dead.
In June eyewitnesses said Islamist insurgents shot dead 13 people in an apparent reprisal attack on members of a vigilante group.
They had sneaked their weapons into the area by pretending to be on their way to a burial, hiding their weapons in the coffin.

The recent attacks on schools have also proved how vulnerable the local population is. Over the past month 48 students and seven teachers have been killed in four attacks in northern Nigeria.
In a video on the internet, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said his group supported the recent attacks on schools, although he denied being behind the attack on Mamudo in Yobe State where at least 29 students were killed.

There are dangers associated with relying on vigilante groups to offer security for the population.
But as Islamist militants seem determined to attack softer targets, the vigilantes could play a vital role in trying to thwart attacks and save lives, some analysts say.

(White And Black) America: Following Each Other.

Gangster Chronicles.

Gangsta Guilt Trip

By MAUREEN DOWD

BOSTON — Even the loathsome Stephen Flemmi was loath to see a picture of the skull of Debbie Hussey.

“I don’t want to see that,” the man who murdered for a living said, turning his head away from the macabre remains of a beauty he raised from the time she was a toddler as his own daughter, then molested when she was a teenager, and then helped kill when she was 26.

Jurors stared at the skull of Debbie, who grew up calling Flemmi “Daddy.”

“Do you remember how many teeth you pulled out of your stepdaughter’s mouth?” Whitey Bulger’s tart defense lawyer, Hank Brennan, asked Flemmi, Whitey’s old partner in killing, ratting and womanizing who is now the star witness against Whitey.

The 79-year-old Flemmi replied that he had been “in a semitraumatic state” and on a “guilt trip” during the murder. Whitey nicknamed Stevie “Dr. Mengele,” because extracting identifying teeth was his specialty.

The bodies have piled up in this trial, men, women and teenagers killed accidentally or vengefully in the ’70s and ’80s, often for the flimsiest of reasons. There is even a new body, a man who was at one point scheduled to testify against Whitey who died here last week under suspicious circumstances.

Yet, as Kevin Cullen, a Boston Globe columnist, told me, “Debbie Hussey might be the saddest case of all.” Cullen co-wrote the compelling chronicle of the Winter Hill gang, “Whitey Bulger.”

“I think the most interesting thing about Whitey and Stevie was their obsession with women,” Cullen said. “They could never have enough of them. They kept very tangled domestic situations, with common-law wives and girlfriends on the side. Their domestic lives were more complicated than their criminal lives.”

Indeed, the emotional core of this case concerns women. The federal government is wasting all this money proving what we already know, that Bulger, 83, is a misogynist and rat, because he is determined to beat back the contentions that he was an F.B.I. informant and killed women — anathema to the Irish mobster code he supposedly lived by.

The first woman was Debbie Davis, a sexy blonde girlfriend of Flemmi. Flemmi made the mistake of mentioning his F.B.I. handler to her, but she had to pay for his slip.

The second was Debbie Hussey. At 25, Flemmi moved in with Debbie’s 19-year-old mother, Marion. They had three kids and he raised Debbie as his own. When she was 12, she saved Flemmi’s 9-year-old son from a riptide in Montauk. Flemmi started molesting Debbie in “her early teens,” according to the authors of “Whitey Bulger,” and, after that, she fell into using drugs and working in the Combat Zone, a former red-light district. Whitey, a violent opponent of Boston busing, and Stevie were furious that she had been bringing black men (described in court as “clients”) to the family home for sex, Whitey told their protégé, Kevin Weeks.

“Is it hard for you to accept the fact that you strangled somebody who sat on your knee as a little girl?” Brennan asked a fuming Flemmi.

You could see the thought bubble over Flemmi’s head: “Can I whack this guy now, Your Honor?”

Brennan asked Flemmi about the unholy relationship with his “daughter.”

“Stepdaughter,” Flemmi primly corrected. He asked Brennan why he couldn’t focus more on “the positive things,” like when he gave her money to go away.

Asked by Brennan if he understood that his incestuous relationship was wrong, Flemmi replied, “Probably. Not really. No. Because the fact of the matter was, she was a different person in my eyes” once she began her “different lifestyle.”

Flemmi contended there were only two instances of “consensual” oral sex once she turned 17 (“17 and a half, almost 18”) but conceded it was “an indiscretion.”

He and Whitey prided themselves on being a cut above other wiseguys because they did not succumb to weaknesses like overdrinking and overeating — they once looked disdainfully at an F.B.I. agent who kept refilling his glass with red wine. But Flemmi admitted on the stand that he had shown “weakness” with Hussey. Then he tried to drag in Whitey, saying righteously: “He had a young girl, 16 years old, he took to Mexico. That’s a violation of the Mann Act.” (The Mann Act was the least of their problems.) Nodding toward Bulger later, he said, “You want to talk about pedophilia — right over there at that table.”

Like Debbie Davis, Debbie Hussey had to pay. Once more, Flemmi noted sullenly that Whitey had “coerced” him. Without irony, Flemmi declaimed, “There’s never any justification for murder,” adding that if Whitey had just said “four little letters p-a-s-s,” he would have been “so happy.”

Flemmi took Debbie Hussey out shopping at the mall and then lured her to her death in a house Whitey dubbed “The Haunty,” because of the bodies they had buried in the basement. Flemmi said Whitey choked the young woman — it didn’t take long because she was “very fragile” — and dragged her down the stairs in 1985, just as he had with Debbie Davis in 1981.

“I’m not a doctor,” Flemmi said, “but she looked dead to me; she felt dead to me; she was dead.” He added, “Dead, period.”

Nonetheless, he told Whitey to “Let her pray.” She was, after all, his little girl.

TEA Partier Matt Blevin Of Louisville Aims To Take On Mitch McConnell In Battle For GOP Primary Nod For Senate.

Tea party activist to take on Sen. Mitch McConnell

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Louisville businessman Matt Bevin, the tea party activist who had signaled that he intends to run against Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, removed all doubt Tuesday with a press advisory listing stops on a statewide tour to announce his candidacy.
Bevin's challenge reflects a splintering of the tea party in Kentucky where several leading activists, including Sen. Rand Paul, have already pledged their support to McConnell in an effort to keep others in the GOP's most conservative wing from peeling off.

Some tea party critics fault McConnell for voting for financial bailouts, debt ceiling increases and deficit spending during his nearly three decades in office. However, many conservatives are willing to overlook those points, seeing him as a valuable asset against the Obama administration. It's a rift that has played out elsewhere in the U.S.: Tea party supporters demanding strict conservatism pitted against more moderate, establishment politicians with a track record of getting things done.
"Mitch McConnell is a proven conservative who stands strong for Kentucky in the face of President Obama's big government agenda in Washington," Paul said in a statement to The Associated Press. "He is a consistent voice against Obamacare and against this administration's war on coal. He has stood up for Kentucky values."

McConnell helped Paul win the general election in 2010 by providing assistance with fundraising and campaign strategy. Now Paul is trying to help McConnell by touting him as a friend to the tea party and its conservative principles. Pragmatists within the movement don't want to jeopardize a friendly GOP seat in the face of a strong Democratic challenger. More zealous tea party activists are bent on taking on McConnell, and are talking smack ahead of Bevin's official announcement on Wednesday.
Republican state Rep. Mike Harmon, who ran as a tea party candidate for lieutenant governor in 2011, said Kentucky needs McConnell's clout in Washington. He said most tea party Republicans, himself included, don't want to run the risk of damaging McConnell in the primary and weakening him in the general election against Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky's 34-year-old secretary of state.

Knocking off McConnell would be the Democrats' biggest prize of the 2014 election. His seat is one of 14 that Republicans are defending, while Democrats try to hold onto 21.
One of Kentucky's most outspoken tea party activists, David Adams of Nicholasville, said McConnell has grown out of touch and said if he doesn't take Bevin seriously, "we should all drop moving boxes off at his state offices because he will lose." Adams then called on McConnell to retire and get behind Bevin "while he can still leave the Senate with dignity."

Louisville Metro Councilwoman Marilyn Parker, another tea party activist, said voters "need to consider the big picture" in the Senate race.
"Sen. McConnell has the influence and institutional knowledge to mitigate the over-reaching power of Obama's IRS, Obama's EPA, and Obama's health care act that is putting private health insurance, hospitals, doctors, nurses, patients, small business owners, and jobs at risk," she said. "Time is of the essence and a freshman senator will not have the clout to lead Kentucky and the country to sustainable, healthy, and reasonable policy."

Louisville attorney Mike Karem, a Republican activist who worked for the Nixon and Reagan
administrations, said it's too early to know how the Bevin challenge will affect the Kentucky tea party that solidly united behind Paul in 2010. Karem said the challenge could damage the tea party.
"There's no question that will put a crack in the egg," he said. "The question is will the egg bust. This could be Humpty Dumpty, and all the king's horses and all the king's men may not be able to put it back together again."

Besides his alliance with Paul, McConnell has picked up support from other national tea party leaders and brought in a campaign manager, Texan Jesse Benton, from the upper echelons of the tea party movement. The moves have virtually ensured that no would-be challenger can get the kind of infusion of cash from tea party channels that allowed Paul to win here in 2010.
Benton said McConnell's tea party coalition remains strong, though he said "we don't want anyone who truly believes in freedom and limited government to 'splinter.'"

University Of Louisville Cardinals, NCAA Men's 2013 Basketball Champions, Visit POTUS Barack Obama At The White House. Go Cards!

Read more here, and view more pictures here.

As I Reported On This Blog Earlier, Barren County Judge Executive, Davie Greer, To Appoint Replacement For Resigning Sheriff, Chris Eaton, Effective July 31.

Eaton to step down

Sheriff was convicted of witness tampering in May

Barren County Sheriff Chris Eaton will resign from office effective July 31, one day before being sentenced in federal court on two counts of witness tampering, Eaton’s attorney disclosed in a sentencing memorandum filed Monday.
 
Eaton was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in May on the two counts and acquitted on six additional counts after a trial in which he and two deputies were accused of using excessive force against Billy Stinnett during a 2010 arrest and lying about the incident to federal investigators.

Deputy Aaron Bennett and Detective Eric Guffey of the Barren-Edmonson-Allen County Drug Task Force were found not guilty of all counts in the same trial.

Guthrie True, the Frankfort attorney representing Eaton, said in the sentencing memorandum that he advised the sheriff to withhold his resignation until a judge ruled on a motion True had filed to either have Eaton’s conviction overturned or hold a new trial.

Chief Judge Joseph McKinley of U.S. District Court of Western Kentucky denied the motion last week.

Barren County Judge-Executive Davie Greer was shocked this morning to learn that Eaton would be resigning.

“I really didn’t think that he would ever resign,” Greer said. “He has not talked to me about it.”

Greer said it is her job to appoint a replacement for Eaton, who would serve until someone was elected in the 2014 general election.

Greer said she has not yet investigated how long she has to make an appointment.

“I really hadn’t thought about it, since I didn’t think he would resign,” she said. “But I guess I have to now.”

True’s 20-page memorandum raises objections to a pre-sentence investigation report prepared in the case and argues for a sentence for Eaton below federal sentencing guidelines.

The investigation report concludes that the total offense level in Eaton’s case calls for him to serve a sentence of 46 to 57 months, while True argues that the total offense level should recommend a sentence in the 10- to 16-month range.

Federal prosecutors have recommended a sentence of 87 to 108 months for Eaton, which True contends is “unreasonable, and a complete affront to any notion of justice.”

In his memorandum, True argues that Eaton made an effort to accept responsibility in this case, expressing a willingness to plea to a misdemeanor and resign from office in exchange for a dismissal of the remaining charges against him, Bennett and Guffey.

The federal government insisted that Eaton plead guilty to a felony and testify against Guffey and Bennett, resulting in a breakdown of negotiations, True said.

The pre-sentence investigation, in formulating its sentencing guideline, asserted that Eaton substantially interfered with the administration of justice, fabricated a substantial number of documents and abused a position of trust.

True disagrees with those conclusions, arguing that there was no evidence to show that any tampering with incident reports written for the FBI by former deputies Steve Runyon and Adam Minor caused an unnecessary expenditure of substantial government resources and positing that the government was intent on prosecuting the case based on the testimony of youth members at the Calvary Baptist Church who witnessed Stinnett’s Feb. 24, 2010, arrest.

“The government made up its institutional mind right from the start. It was going to believe what the kids at the church said and it was going to indict,” True argued, leading to an indictment returned against Eaton without cooperation from Minor, who would go on to plead guilty to providing false statements to federal investigators.

Minor will be sentenced Aug. 1 and is anticipated to receive no more than six months of prison time, with federal prosecutors recommending no time behind bars for Minor, according to court records.

True also takes issue with the FBI reports written by Minor and Runyon and Minor’s false testimony before state and federal grand juries being considered by the government to be a substantial number of fabricated documents for which Eaton should receive a longer sentence.

The attorney also argued, in an effort to prove that Eaton did not abuse his position, that many members of the sheriff’s office gave statements to the FBI and that Eaton did not attempt to influence the contents of their reports to the FBI.

The second half of True’s memorandum argues for a reduction of Eaton’s sentence based on his public service, his health and his family situation, among other factors.

Eaton was recently diagnosed as diabetic and has recurring respiratory problems after being exposed to fumes from a methamphetamine lab during a 2010 investigation. He and his wife raise two teenage children, an adult daughter who is physically and mentally handicapped and his wife’s niece and nephew, and his wife’s job does not provide enough income to raise all five children.

“This is not a circumstance where one can say that Chris chose drugs, or greed, or pleasure over his family,” True wrote. “This is a highly unusual circumstance where the conviction resulted from Chris Eaton, and others, attempting to do their jobs and protect the public.”

Bonus Cartoon: A New Baby Is Born Into The British Royal Family. Congrats., Englanders, And Anglophiles.

Floriduh's Justice System.

TEA Party Activist David Adams Files Kentucky Bar Association Complaint Against Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, Accuses Him Of Falsifying Court Evidence Over Obamacare.

Press release:

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear's latest court filing in his bid to force Kentucky into the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion without proper legislative approval may now put his license to practice law in jeopardy.

Tea Party activist David Adams, plaintiff in two lawsuits opposing Beshear's questionable ObamaCare actions, filed a Kentucky Bar Association complaint for evidence Beshear filed in the case which clearly was manufactured to advance his pro-Obama agenda.

"All you have to do is look," Adams said. "Beshear did this to himself and he should be held accountable."

Editor's note: go here to read the Bar complaint.

Poll Finds That 86% Of African Americans (Blacks) And 33% Of Caucasions (Whites) Disaprove Of The Verdict In George Zimmerman Trial.

Zimmerman verdict: 86 percent of African Americans disapprove

George Zimmerman during his trial  in Sanford, Fla., on July 12.

African Americans have a mostly shared and sharply negative reaction to the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the not-guilty verdict in the resulting trial, while whites are far more divided, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
At least eight in 10 African Americans say the shooting of the Florida teenager was unjustified, recoil at the verdict in the trial and want the shooter, George Zimmerman, tried in federal court for violating Martin’s civil rights.

On the Martin shooting in particular, the racial gaps are extremely wide.

Among African Americans, 87 percent say the shooting was unjustified; among whites, just 33 percent say so. A slim majority of whites (51 percent) approve of the not-guilty verdict in the Zimmerman trial, while African Americans overwhelmingly and strongly disapprove. Some 86 percent of blacks disagree with the verdict — almost all of them disapproving “strongly.”

There is also a partisan tinge to the public views. Among whites, 70 percent of Republicans but only 30 percent of Democrats say they approve of the verdict.

Some of the reaction to the trial — among both blacks and whites — stems from wildly different views of the role of race in the criminal justice system more broadly. Fully 86 percent of African Americans say blacks and other minorities do not get equal treatment under the law; the number of whites saying so is less than half as large, 41 percent. A majority of whites, 54 percent, say there is equal treatment for minority groups.

About eight in 10 African Americans (81 percent) say the federal government should charge Zimmerman in federal court with civil rights violations. Just 27 percent of whites agree, while 59 percent say the government should not bring such charges.

Some 60 percent of Hispanics say blacks and other minorities do not receive equal treatment with whites in the criminal justice system, and by a two-to-one ratio, they disapprove of the verdict in the Zimmerman trial.

The Post-ABC poll was conducted July 18 to 21 among a random national sample of 1,002 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; it is 4.5 points for the sample of white respondents and 11 points among African Americans and Hispanics.

We Congratulate Prince William, Lady Kate, All Members Of The British Royal Family In Kensington And Buckingham Palace, Englanders And Anglophiles The World Over At The Birth Of A New Royal Baby Boy King Of England. Watch Video.

International "Stand Your Ground" Law.

Racial Parity Finds An Unexpected Ally In Newt Gingrich.

Merlene Davis: Racial parity finds an unexpected ally in Newt Gingrich

By Merlene Davis — Herald-Leader columnist

Some folks say I have mellowed with age. If that means I tend to wade through all the smoke to find the source of the fire, then they are right.
By that definition, Newt Gingrich seems to have mellowed as well, particularly when he doesn't have to pander to a political base to win a seat in government.
Tuesday evening on CNN I heard words come out of Gingrich's mouth that startled me. And evidently I was not alone in my surprise.

A panel on AC 360's "Race and Justice in America" town hall meeting was discussing the aftermath of George Zimmerman's acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin. Mark Garagos, former attorney for Michael Jackson, said racial inequities are prevalent in our judicial system.
"It starts not when you get to court, it starts when you get arrested," Garagos said. "Where are, who are the people who are being profiled by police? Who are the people being pulled over by police? Race infects everything in the criminal justice system."
That wasn't news. Black people have always known that. And those white people who bother to look closer at the evidence know it, too.

Then Cooper called on Gingrich, who wasn't sitting with the panel on stage but appeared on camera. "Do you believe, Speaker Gingrich, that what Mark Geragos is saying is true, that race infects everything in the criminal justice system?" Cooper asked.
What happened next not only shocked me, but also the audience in the studio and Cooper himself.
"I think race has an enormous impact on decision after decision," Gingrich said, with nary a gun pointed at his head. "I think you almost have to be blind to America to not realize that we still have very, very deep elements that go all the way back to slavery and segregation and then go all the way back to fundamental differences in neighborhoods and in cultures."

Cooper's face never cracked. My jaw, on the other hand, had dropped to my chest.
"And I think it would be very healthy for the country and for the Congress to re-evaluate both the criminal justice part up through the court," Gingrich said, "but also to re-evaluate the whole way we've dealt with prison and the way in which we have basically created graduate schools for criminality, and locking people up in ways that are increasing their inability to function in society."
Cooper, try as he might, couldn't hold back.
"I think a lot of people are, like, wow, who are you?" Cooper said to Gingrich. The audience applauded.

I'd like to know who he is, too.
Isn't this the same Gingrich who, while vying for the Republican presidential nomination last year, suggested poor inner-city kids serve as school janitors to build their work ethic?
Isn't he the same man who told black people we should demand a paycheck instead of food stamps from President Barack Obama, making it appear that most of us receive that government assistance? According to U.S. Census Bureau, however, blacks represent about 28 percent of the households that receive food stamps, while 59 percent are white.

Who, indeed, is he? And when did he mellow?
Gingrich went on to say something has to be done about the sharp rise in gang membership, as well, up some 40 percent since 2009. Gang members in Chicago outnumber police officers 10 to 1, he said. We as a country have to address that as well.
But wait, there's more.

One panelist had complained that stand-your-ground laws had, in a sense, taken "our humanity away, our civility away."
Gingrich agreed. "I think the word civility is a great word," he said. "And it was really important to bring into this conversation. How do we restore civility at every level, from schools to malls to walking late at night, to seeing each other as genuine neighbors?"
He wasn't talking about the Zimmerman and Martin case. He was talking about lessening the chances of there being another Zimmerman and Martin. Gingrich was saying we all need to find a way to get along.

It took my breath away.
If someone as conservative as Gingrich can recognize this country still has a lot of work to do to mend our broken race relations, then I'm not understanding why we are moving so slowly to make the repairs.

I would have expected those words from Sen. John McCain who recently gained a black daughter-in-law, and who refused to use tired old racist tactics against Obama during his fight for the presidency.

And those words would be reasonable flowing from the tongue of Speaker of the House John Boehner who recently gained a black son-in-law. Dinner table conversations have been known to change minds.

Both men now have a vested interest in changing the racial climate of not only the criminal justice system, but also how ordinary citizens who carry guns perceive black people, especially black youth, who are not criminals.
But Gingrich? Who knew?
"I do think this is a profound moment," Gingrich concluded on the show. "Whether we can grow it into one that brings us together, or it just becomes another excuse to yell at each other, I don't think we know yet."

I chastised Gingrich for his inane comments about poor black people, so I've got to give him kudos for these reasoned thoughts.
Who knows? Maybe both of us are mellowing.

Merlene Davis: (859) 231-3218. Email: mdavis1@herald-leader.com. Twitter: @reportmerle. Blog: merlenedavis.bloginky.com.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/20/2723998/merlene-newt-gingrich-and-i-are.html#storylink=cpy