Mississippi Gulf Coast:: Proposed highway route threatens homes

Mississippi Gulf Coast:: Proposed highway route threatens homes

The Supreme Court Decides the New Haven Firefighter Case

The test results should NOT have been thrown out and the WHITE and Hispanic applicants who scored highest should have gotten the job promotions. No one should be denied a promotion because their skin is the wrong color.

The Supreme Court Decides the New Haven Firefighter Case

The Court ruled 5-4 for the eighteen white (including one Hispanic) firefighter plaintiffs. The majority held that an employer can invoke fear of "disparate impact" litigation by minority applicants as a defense to a charge that discarding the results was itself an act of unlawful discrimination. However, the lead opinion written by Justice Kennedy announced that the defense is only available where the employer has a "strong basis in evidence" for fearing disparate impact liability. The majority further found that the record in Ricci did not meet this standard.

It looks as if the test results were thrown out to appease African American Rev Boise Kimber.

Alito’s opinion notes Kimber’s heavy hand

No stranger to local controversy, the (African American) Rev. Boise Kimber landed an unlikely national role Monday in dueling opinions from the U.S. Supreme Court, probing the extent to which the politically connected pastor may have influenced decision makers in the civil rights case of 20 (19 white and 1 Hispanic) city firefighters.

Kimber seems to have plenty of political clout.

Kimber Gets Off The (Towing) Hook

A politically connected marshal let a politically connected minister off the hook when the dreaded Plate Hunter came to snatch his car The Rev. Boise Kimber, a key mayoral ally and powerbroker in the city’s black community as well as a fire commissioner, was having a late dinner Wednesday evening at Portofino’s Restaurant and Bar on State Street. Meanwhile, the Lombard Motors towing crew prowled the streets to snatch the parked vehicles of scofflaws with unpaid parking tickets.

The Lombard crew had begun to position the flatbed for removal when out popped Kimber into the street.

“He engaged the tow truck agent and the marshal,” Piscitelli said. Kimber and Criscuolo exchanged words. Then Criscuolo reversed the towing order and let Kimber go free.

So apparently Kimber decided he wanted African-Americans who didn't do as well on the test as the White and Hispanic candidates to get the job and used his clout to get the test results thrown out.

Dining with Alasandra

For our 22nd anniversary we dined at Anthony's Under the Oaks in Ocean Springs. I had the grilled fish topped with crab-meat and asparagus, which was delicious. Hubby had the peppercorn steak (they held the peppercorns at his request) which he enjoyed. Both came with a salad and the remoulade sauce was delicious. Hubby who hardly ever eats dressing on his salad elected to have some. The entree also came with grilled vegetables and a stuffed potato which were scrumptious.



Afterwards we stopped by Coffee & More to pick up some chocolate mousse for dessert.

Going Orange for Animals

April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. Alasandra's Place is going orange for animals.

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) linked to a rare vaginal cancer.

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is a drug once prescribed during pregnancy to prevent miscarriages or premature deliveries. In the U.S. an estimated 5 to 10 million persons were exposed to DES from 1938 to 1971, including pregnant women prescribed DES and their children. In 1971, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised physicians to stop prescribing DES because it was linked to a rare vaginal cancer.

Disappointed

Two worthy bills are dead

DEAD
SEX EDUCATION - House Bill 234 would allow the state to establish a sex education program in two public school districts.

I guess Mississippi really doesn't want to do anything to lower teenage pregnancies. It seems we are determined to stick with abstinence only programs even with clear evidence those programs are not working.

HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION - Senate Bill 2300 would increase the homestead exemption from $75,000 to $100,000 for people who are over 65 or totally disabled.

This really should have passed. Many elderly people are losing their homes because they can't afford to pay the taxes on them. And please note these aren't people who went out and bought homes they couldn't afford. Many have owned their homes for years and they were not worth that much when they bought them. Now with the raise in property values their taxes have sky rocketed. I also think they needed to do something to lower the tax bite for the rest of us too. The artificial inflation of property values is killing our economy.

School accountability and charter schools are still alive.

Sore Losers

The nuts over at World Nut (err I mean Net) Daily are still insisting that President Obama isn't qualified to be our President.

Contrary to what the nuts say Obama has produced a valid birth certificate. You can check for yourself at Snopes.com.

To answer the dual citizenship question. From FactCheck.org

The Rocky Mountain News did in fact run an online article asserting that Barack Obama holds both American and Kenyan citizenship. The article was incorrect, and the paper removed the item from the article and ran a correction. The paper's editor, John Temple, formally apologized for the error in an Aug. 15, 2007, column. Neither the correction nor the apology has prevented the column from circulating across the Internet as part of the latest set of baseless rumors that Obama is ineligible to run for president. But the paper failed to note that the Kenyan Constitution prohibits dual citizenship for adults. Kenya recognizes dual citizenship for children, but Kenya's Constitution specifies that at age 21, Kenyan citizens who possesses citizenship in more than one country automatically lose their Kenyan citizenship unless they formally renounce any non-Kenyan citizenship and swear an oath of allegiance to Kenya. Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4,1982..”

HT: HERP&ES