June 30, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.npr.org/2015/06/29/418490411/arsonists-hit-6-black-churches-in-5-southern-states

Investigators Probe Fires At 6 Black Churches In 5 Southern States
Sam Sanders
June 29, 2015

Photograph -- Pastor Bobby Jones points to the cross on top of Glover Grove Baptist Church, where he has preached for more than 30 years. The steeple was one of the only parts of the church left standing.
Photograph -- Will Huntsberry/NPR Flowers left at the front door of Glover Grove Baptist Church in Warrenville, South Carolina. Will Huntsberry/NPR


Glover Grove Baptist Church is nestled in a woody, quiet part of Warrenville, South Carolina, surrounded by trailer homes and old cars. The congregation is small, about 35 people according to local reports. You have to look hard online just to find a phone number or an address.

Hours before President Barack Obama spoke to a packed house in Charleston last Friday in another black church, delivering the eulogy for State Senator Clementa Pinckney, Glover Grove Baptist Church burned to the ground.

It is one of at least six black church burnings in the South, all of which have taken place in the week-and-a-half since nine people were killed in Emanuel AME Church.

Fires in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Knoxville, Tennessee, are both being investigated as arson. Authorities in Macon, Georgia, are investigating another there as "suspicious." A fire at a Tallahasee, Florida, church was likely caused by electrical problems, authorities have said. Another in Gibson County, Tennessee, may have been caused by lightning. One burning in Charlotte is being investigated to determine if it could have been a hate crime.

Adonica Simpkins lives in a trailer home right next to Glover Grove Baptist Church. "I actually think it might be a hate crime," she said, looking across a field to the church's remains on a sticky, sunny South Carolina afternoon. "The way things are happening these days, you never can say. Look how they went up there and shot someone in the church, or other churches burning down. It's just so much going on in the world. You never know."

The burning actually woke Simpkins up that Friday morning, and she was one of the first to call 911, right before she walked down the road to the pastor's house to make sure he saw it, too.

"You could actually feel the heat from the church," she said. "The actual power lines, just started, pop, pop, pop! Then the power went off. It was terrible. You could see straight through the church, how it was burning."

Another nearby resident, George Mack, said of the flames, "It was like standing inside of a volcano, with the lava flowing. It was so hot."

The pastor of Glover Grove, Bobby Jones, walked around the charred building Sunday evening with NPR, pointing out everything that used to be.

"The pulpit, the highest place, that's the pulpit," he said as he gazed past the caution tape. "My office used to be right there. And it's gone. All my robes, and everything, all my stuff is in that room right there, it's gone." He vacillated between tears and declarations of his faith as he spoke, assuring us, and perhaps himself as well, that everything would be okay. "When you see me crying," he said, "it's not sad. It's joy. I just thank God for what he's done, and what he's going to do, and what he did in the past."

Only two walls and the steeple still stood, with a large, unscathed white cross on top. The roof was gone. And just about all of the inside of Glover Grove Baptist Church was blackened and charred. Some things remained, covered in ash: the hollowed-out shell of a snare drum, a few chairs in the kitchen. You could still make out lyrics and notes on some pages of hymnals. Some church pews were still standing, but they were totally burnt as well.

When asked if he thinks the fire was a hate crime, Jones hedges. "I hope not. I hope from the bottom of my heart that it's not. I'm 72 years old, and I've never had a problem out of anybody."

When pushed, Jones says he doubts it was an electrical fire. He's an electrician himself, and he says all of the equipment in the church was working fine before the fire. He thinks a person may very well have set the blaze. "If it's a hate crime, it had to be somebody that's not from here."

Richard Cohen is the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and he says the recent burnings of black churches throughout the south are "very, very suspicious."

"Black churches have long been the focus of civil rights activity," Cohen told NPR. "And for this reason they've been targeted historically."

There was a string of them in the 50s and the 60s, during the civil rights movement. Perhaps the most notorious was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, which killed four young black girls.

A wave of church burnings swept the nation again in the 90s, prompting then-President Bill Clinton to sign the Church Arson Prevention Act, a law that increased jail time for people who burn churches.

As to this recent wave of church burnings, Cohen said, "It's not unreasonable to suspect that what we're seeing [now] is a backlash to the taking down of the Confederate flag, the determination of our country to face its racial problems."

Whatever the cause of the Glover Grove fire, Adonica Simpkins says she will still be afraid. We asked her what it's like to be a black person in South Carolina.

"I tell you what, I wouldn't walk down this road. I wouldn't walk down this road," she said, sighing as she pointed down the road where Glover Grove sits. "It's so much hate. You might walk down the road and hear the word n*****, for nothing. People used to be riding by, and just throw bottles at black folks."

Less than half a mile from the church and Simpkins' home, a Confederate flag waves on a front porch.

State investigators told NPR on Sunday that they have not yet determined a cause in the Glover Grove Baptist Church fire. The Aiken County Sheriff's department has turned over its investigation to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and the FBI is investigating as well.

Jones is confident he'll rebuild. But this kind of tragedy isn't totally new to him.

"We had another church that burned down, over across the woods there," he said. "That's been, what, maybe 30, 32 years ago, no 34 years ago. I believe that was an arson."

Jones says before that church burned, he'd often find offensive messages written on the outside walls. Often, three letters, he said. "They put KKK."




“Glover Grove Baptist Church is nestled in a woody, quiet part of Warrenville, South Carolina, surrounded by trailer homes and old cars. The congregation is small, about 35 people according to local reports. You have to look hard online just to find a phone number or an address. Hours before President Barack Obama spoke to a packed house in Charleston last Friday in another black church, delivering the eulogy for State Senator Clementa Pinckney, Glover Grove Baptist Church burned to the ground. It is one of at least six black church burnings in the South, all of which have taken place in the week-and-a-half since nine people were killed in Emanuel AME Church. …. Fires in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Knoxville, Tennessee, are both being investigated as arson. Authorities in Macon, Georgia, are investigating another there as "suspicious." A fire at a Tallahasee, Florida, church was likely caused by electrical problems, authorities have said. Another in Gibson County, Tennessee, may have been caused by lightning. One burning in Charlotte is being investigated to determine if it could have been a hate crime. …. Richard Cohen is the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and he says the recent burnings of black churches throughout the south are "very, very suspicious." "Black churches have long been the focus of civil rights activity," Cohen told NPR. "And for this reason they've been targeted historically." There was a string of them in the 50s and the 60s, during the civil rights movement. Perhaps the most notorious was the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, which killed four young black girls. A wave of church burnings swept the nation again in the 90s, prompting then-President Bill Clinton to sign the Church Arson Prevention Act, a law that increased jail time for people who burn churches. …. Whatever the cause of the Glover Grove fire, Adonica Simpkins says she will still be afraid. We asked her what it's like to be a black person in South Carolina. "I tell you what, I wouldn't walk down this road. I wouldn't walk down this road," she said, sighing as she pointed down the road where Glover Grove sits. "It's so much hate. You might walk down the road and hear the word n*****, for nothing. People used to be riding by, and just throw bottles at black folks." Less than half a mile from the church and Simpkins' home, a Confederate flag waves on a front porch. …. "We had another church that burned down, over across the woods there," he said. "That's been, what, maybe 30, 32 years ago, no 34 years ago. I believe that was an arson." Jones says before that church burned, he'd often find offensive messages written on the outside walls. Often, three letters, he said. "They put KKK."

I would love to be able to praise the virtues of Americans, as some highly patriotic people do, but I just don’t see the evidence for it. I think some 50% or so of our citizens are moral and ethical – whether or not they are church members – but a painfully high percentage, some 20% maybe, are personally and socially tinged with these group hatreds of all kinds. I grew up as a somewhat more isolated young person than some – I didn’t buy a poodle skirt when they were popular or fight to get on the Cheerleading Team. I didn’t date a football player – I generally found them arrogant and not the kindest people I knew. I did study my school subjects, join a nice adult-supervised group, the Girl Scouts, and tried to follow the golden rule.

When I was maturing there was little evident racial hatred in Thomasville in my crowd. My parents were pretty typical Southern whites. I remember several anti-Jewish comments anti-black jokes. My parents didn’t talk about injuring blacks or hating them. By the same token, I was not sensitized to the subject of toleration and equality, either. It hadn’t hit the news yet by 1955 as an important issue, and white people were by and large simply satisfied with Jim Crow status quo. That unfortunately included me.

I remember in my teenage years noticing the separate bathroom facilities, etc. and I did feel that it was unfair, but there simply was not a push being asserted to make changes coming from the black communities or from the federal government, and I literally knew only two or three black people by face or name. I do remember that my brother-in-law came in once, talking excitedly and with some laughter, about a cross burning outside town, which my sister quickly hushed up. In my Middle School years the first sit down strike happened at a lunch counter in Greensboro, and the newspaper carried a photograph of a large gathering of black people facing down three large German Shepherds and four or five policemen, and it was really shocking to me. While I hadn’t started trying to work to help black people yet, I also had no racial hatred at all toward them, and that photograph was very frightening.

My in-group instincts have never been as highly developed as some teens and young adult’s are. As a result, when a hostile group interaction starts I don’t immediately move to join in on the conflict with the people of my skin color over “the enemy.” That is the thing that keeps us from progressing in the South – there has always been a strong group or gang mentality here, with frequent waving of the Dixie flag, etc. We need to talk in an open and positive manner to people of other races, so as to learn their cultural ways and see their inner person. If anyone smiles at me and speaks in a fair and friendly way, I am open to them as a friend. This is not blanket trust but just a little faith that they are not going to be dangerous to me necessarily, and is the result of long years of experience with getting to know individuals personally. When people do that, those knee-jerk group hatreds don’t form in the first place, and the fear melts away, too. That makes us a more decent as well as a safer society.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/confederate-flag-debate-sparks-heated-confrontation-south-carolina/

Confederate flag debate sparks South Carolina clash
CBS NEWS
June 30, 2015

Play VIDEO -- After Charleston funerals, where does U.S. stand on race?
23 PHOTOS -- Places the Confederate flag still flies
49 PHOTOS -- Charleston shooting, Police were forced to separate the protesters.


A heated confrontation unfolded in the shadow of the South Carolina statehouse over the Confederate flag, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller.

"That flag just does not deserve to fly at all in South Carolina and we want it down," one person said.

People for and against the display of the controversial banner, clashed Monday in the state's capital, Columbia.

"The blood on my teeth, the blood on my hands is no comparison to the Southern blood that runs through my veins," Joe Lindler said. He was hit during the brawl and said "racism has no part" in the flag.

"I'm gonna tell you one thing, I ain't sitting down; this'll just make me walk taller," he said.

"We do have tension, we do have feelings and we do have emotions," a preacher said. "When you got them coming past here, taunting certain words, you're messing with the emotions of the people."

Tony Gradel said the recent tragedy at Emanuel AME Church "has nothing to do with that flag up there."

"Just because nine people lost their lives in a church in Charleston, which I'm not downplaying at all, still a tragedy, has nothing to do with that flag standing up there," he said.

On a campaign stop in West Columbia on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush said the state needs to move forward -- without it.

Bree Newsome of Charlotte, N.C., climbs a flagpole to remove the Confederate battle flag at a Confederate monument in front of the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., June 27, 2015.
"The symbols that have divided the South in many ways, the symbols that were used in most recent modern history, not at perhaps at the beginning of the time, but the symbols were racist," he said.

The Confederate flag is no longer flying over Fort Sumter, South Carolina, where Southerners fired the first shots of the Civil War.

And on Saturday, activist Brittany Newsome climbed 30 feet up the statehouse flagpole and took the rebel flag down.

"You come against me with hatred, and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today," she said.

Newsome was arrested and charged with defacing monuments on capitol grounds.

The flag was put back up immediately, but the South Carolina legislature reportedly has enough votes for the two-thirds majority needed to bring it down for good. State lawmakers will take up the bill to remove the Confederate flag on July 6th.

"Do the right thing and vote with us to bring the flag down," State Sen. Kevin Johnson said.

The KKK is planning a rally at the statehouse next month. In the meantime, the community is bracing for its final funeral. The last of the nine victims killed in the June 17th Emanuel AME Church shooting will be laid to rest on Tuesday.




“And on Saturday, activist Brittany Newsome climbed 30 feet up the statehouse flagpole and took the rebel flag down. "You come against me with hatred, and oppression and violence. I come against you in the name of God. This flag comes down today," she said. Newsome was arrested and charged with defacing monuments on capitol grounds. …. State lawmakers will take up the bill to remove the Confederate flag on July 6th. "Do the right thing and vote with us to bring the flag down," State Sen. Kevin Johnson said. The KKK is planning a rally at the statehouse next month.”

One step forward and two steps back – sounds like a dance, right? It’s the way racism flares up again every time anyone tries to dig it up by the roots. I believe eventually fair and unbiased thinking will win out. I don’t think the White Supremacists are actually in the majority, but they are vocal and sometimes violent in fighting for that inherited social status that white skin has always, unjustly, accorded them. The law itself is moving toward full rights for minorities case by case, and I think that the public will follow along with it.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/whitey-bulger-letter-massachusetts-high-school-teens-offers-rare-look-life/

Whitey Bulger's "shocking" letter to high schoolers
CBS NEWS
June 29, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Ex-FBI agent accused of lying in “Whitey” Bulger trial


Three Massachusetts teens are holding onto a piece of "most wanted" history from legendary crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger.

The girls wrote to him looking for his take on leadership as part of a school project -- and he wrote back, expressing regret for a life he called "wasted," reports CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano.

"It was definitely shocking to see a letter from, basically, a serial killer, in your mailbox," Brittany Tanish said.

Bulger never testified during his trial, so the letter is a rare look at his life in his own words.

The one-page handwritten note was sent from a high-security federal penitentiary in Florida.

In it, 85-year-old Bulger wrote: "There are many people more deserving of your time and interests... Don't waste your time on such as I. We are society's lower, best forgotten, not looked to for advice on 'leadership'... I'm a 9th grade dropout from school and took the wrong road."

"I think that he was very remorseful and regretful, and kind of trying to stray us away from choosing him for a project," Mollykate Rodenbush said.

The three young women, now entering their senior year of high school, were working on a National History Day project about leadership and legacy.

"He was a primary source. Why not ask the source himself what he thought his legacy was?" Michaela Arguin said. "Even though he didn't directly answer it, what he did say was a lot different from what people think, like, he really is all about."

Bulger was captured in Santa Monica, California, in 2011 after 16 years on the run.

He was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to two life terms plus five years for his role in 11 murders, federal racketeering, extortion and conspiracy.

"It seemed pretty genuine to us. I mean, he still did it and he's still a horrible guy, but it was definitely a different side," Brittany said.

At the end of the letter, time-stamped by the prisoner at 1:10 a.m, Bulger said:

"My life was wasted and spent foolishly, brought shame and suffering on my parents and siblings and will end soon. Advice is a cheap commodity; some seek it from me about crime. If you want to make crime, pay 'go to law school'... best of luck in the future... sincerely James Bulger."

Bulger's lawyers said he didn't get a fair trial and a federal appeals court is scheduled to hear a request to have his 2013 conviction overturned. He is not expected to attend the arguments in Boston next month.




"I think that he was very remorseful and regretful, and kind of trying to stray us away from choosing him for a project," Mollykate Rodenbush said. The three young women, now entering their senior year of high school, were working on a National History Day project about leadership and legacy. …. He was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to two life terms plus five years for his role in 11 murders, federal racketeering, extortion and conspiracy. "It seemed pretty genuine to us. I mean, he still did it and he's still a horrible guy, but it was definitely a different side," Brittany said. At the end of the letter, time-stamped by the prisoner at 1:10 a.m, Bulger said: "My life was wasted and spent foolishly, brought shame and suffering on my parents and siblings and will end soon. Advice is a cheap commodity; some seek it from me about crime. If you want to make crime pay, 'go to law school'... best of luck in the future... sincerely James Bulger."

I’m glad to see that Bulger expresses regret about his crimes and “wasted” life. I don’t see why this article terms the letter “shocking,” unless the attempt by these kids to interact on the human level with a criminal is shocking. It’s bold and experimental, but no one was hurt at all and Bulger showed his human side. Most criminals, I would guess, wouldn’t reply at all to such a letter. Interestingly, he said he dropped out of school in the 9th grade. The step from being a school dropout to getting involved in crime, while by no means inevitable, is very commonplace. Some of those kids who drop out are black – much stressed in the press – but there have always been white kids who do these things, too. The Republican-backed financial attacks on the public school system can only make this worse. Above all, the parents of the nation need to support their local schools and guide their kids toward learning as a lifetime goal, and whenever possible, they should go to colleges and community colleges to get a leg up in life so they don’t turn to crime. Bulger wisely advised these students to do that. It looks to me like a spark of conscience in the killer’s soul, and it makes me feel good.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/early-human-may-have-had-neanderthal-great-great-grandparent/

Early human may have had a Neanderthal for a great-great-grandparent
By MICHAEL CASEY CBS NEWS
June 22, 2015

Photograph -- DNA taken from a 40,000-year-old modern human jawbone from the cave Peștera cu Oase in Romania reveals that this man had a Neandertal ancestor as recently as four to six generations back. SVANTE PÄÄBO, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

It turns out early modern humans had even more Neanderthal DNA than previously thought.

In a study published Monday in Nature, Harvard Medical School's David Reich and his colleagues examined one of the oldest humans ever found in Europe and determined that his genome contained more Neanderthal DNA than any human previously studied - and at least three times more than what is found in present day humans.

"This individual had 6 to 9 percent of the genes from Neanderthals and that is a lot. That is about the size of a whole chromosome - one the 23 packets of DNA you get from your parents - and it would have effected biological traits," Reich, a professor of genetics, told CBS News. "It is about as much DNA as you get from a great-great-grandparent."

That means the specimen - known as Oase I, whose jaw bone was discovered in a cave in Oase, Romania and who lived between 37,000 years and 42,000 years ago - may have had a Neanderthal relative in their family tree as recently as four to six generations back.

The closest-known extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, a shorter and stockier member of our lineage who lived in Europe and Asia starting around 300,000 years ago. Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa between 40,000 to 80,000 years ago. Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago.

Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany is among the pioneers in the field, having spent 16 years looking at this issue. Reich joined Pääbo's team in 2007 and they have since had a number of breakthroughs.

The 40,000-year-old jawbone from Romania represents some of the earliest modern-human remains in Europe. SVANTE PÄÄBO, MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY

They demonstrated that humans living outside of Africa have much as 2 percent Neanderthal DNA. They also sequenced the genome of a Neanderthal in 2010 and showed last year in a Nature study that Neanderthal DNA in modern humans was associated with genes affecting type 2 diabetes, Crohn's disease, lupus, biliary cirrhosis, and smoking behavior.

Along with showing that Oase I had Neanderthal DNA, the latest study sheds light on where the interbreeding between the two ancestors may have taken place.

By examining Oase I genome, Reich and his colleagues were able to demonstrate the interbreeding was not limited to the first human ancestors to leave Africa or people in the Near East. It probably occurred later, they surmised, and probably happened in Europe and about 200 years before Oase I lived.

And because Oase I doesn't share more alleles - a variant of a gene - with later Europeans than he does with East Asians, Reich said it suggests that this was a "pioneer" population, which didn't mix with modern Europeans.

"If you try and understand how it is related to modern humans today, it doesn't bear a particular close relationship to modern day Europeans. It's actually slightly closer, if anything, to present day East Asians," Reich said.

"For us, that was a surprise and very interesting and exciting," he said. "This sample seems to be part of an initial pioneer population of modern humans in Europe that overlapped with Neanderthals, interbred with them and kind of died out and was replaced by other waves of movement from other places. Those people (in Europe) today are descended from this later wave."

The next step, Reich said, to further understand these interactions between early humans and Neanderthals by finding other specimens which "carry morphological traits suggestive of a mixture with Neanderthals."




“It turns out early modern humans had even more Neanderthal DNA than previously thought. In a study published Monday in Nature, Harvard Medical School's David Reich and his colleagues examined one of the oldest humans ever found in Europe and determined that his genome contained more Neanderthal DNA than any human previously studied - and at least three times more than what is found in present day humans. "This individual had 6 to 9 percent of the genes from Neanderthals and that is a lot. That is about the size of a whole chromosome - one the 23 packets of DNA you get from your parents - and it would have effected biological traits," Reich, a professor of genetics, told CBS News. "It is about as much DNA as you get from a great-great-grandparent." …. The closest-known extinct relatives of modern humans were the Neanderthals, a shorter and stockier member of our lineage who lived in Europe and Asia starting around 300,000 years ago. Recent findings revealed that Neanderthals interbred with ancestors of modern humans when modern humans began spreading out of Africa between 40,000 to 80,000 years ago. Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago. …. Along with showing that Oase I had Neanderthal DNA, the latest study sheds light on where the interbreeding between the two ancestors may have taken place. By examining Oase I genome, Reich and his colleagues were able to demonstrate the interbreeding was not limited to the first human ancestors to leave Africa or people in the Near East. It probably occurred later, they surmised, and probably happened in Europe and about 200 years before Oase I lived. And because Oase I doesn't share more alleles - a variant of a gene - with later Europeans than he does with East Asians, Reich said it suggests that this was a "pioneer" population, which didn't mix with modern Europeans. …. . It's actually slightly closer, if anything, to present day East Asians," Reich said. "For us, that was a surprise and very interesting and exciting," he said. "This sample seems to be part of an initial pioneer population of modern humans in Europe that overlapped with Neanderthals, interbred with them and kind of died out and was replaced by other waves of movement from other places. Those people (in Europe) today are descended from this later wave."

Until the DNA studies came out, archaeologists were into long descriptions of “the Beaker Folk,” etc., with conclusions based more on their artifacts than on their physical characteristics. Those scientists decided on the basis of a Neanderthal skeleton found with a stooped posture that the Neanderthals must have been more ape-like than modern humans. A later archaeologist said that he was, in fact, arthritic and aged. They also concluded that because the Neanderthal stone work and a certain lack of artwork showed less innovation than the Modern Humans’ did, proving that they probably weren’t as intelligent. Other scientists decided that their larynx and mouth shape were not as likely to have been able to pronounce as many vocalizations either. In other words, he probably was in all ways more primitive. The fact that a group of Neanderthals did produce the preferred more modern stone work was put down to their being imitative. In the early days of archaeology there was a strain of racial bias as well. Different physical characteristics were put down to their inferiority in all ways.

In fact, cultural interchange and “imitation” is basic to the formation of new ideas. A tribe in a rainforest somewhere who have had no contact with the outside world will be culturally “behind” all other groups who have traded -- and “imitated” others -- for thousands of years. That isn’t because they aren’t as bright! It’s because they are isolated. Most of the time “new” ideas evolve rather than popping into being whole like Athena springing from Zeus’s forehead in full battle gear. (I have always loved that reference, so I couldn’t resist using it just now.) Even an inventive person still “learns” most of his concepts from others. The advancement of mankind technologically and culturally has as much to do with the free mixing between cultural groups as it does with any particular group’s intelligence. As a result, I’m proud and happy to have Neanderthal genes. I love the long continuum down through the several million years that modern people have been evolving. See “Timeline of human evolution,” in Wikipedia. That article places primates at 75 million years ago, hominids at 15 million, the “genus Homo and close human relatives” at 2.5 million, modern humans at .5 million and “fully modern humans” or Homo sapiens sapiens at .2 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomically_modern_humans gives a long and detailed article on “Anatomically modern humans” as today’s science views it.


http://www.definitions.net/definition/Freebase

Oase is the newfound skull thought to be from sometime in the first 5 000 years of human habitation of Europe It was found in a cave in southwestern Romania with other human samples from the time The skull has the same proportions as modern human craniums and has other features that are non-Neanderthal.






http://www.cbsnews.com/news/boys-mow-lawn-to-keep-elderly-texas-woman-out-of-jail/

Boys mow lawn to keep elderly Texas woman out of jail
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS NEWS
June 12, 2015

Photograph -- Texas woman Gerry Suttle, pictured with the Reynolds brothers, who mowed her lawn to try to keep her from being arrested KWTX

RIESEL, Texas -Four young brothers helped out an elderly Texas woman by mowing her lawn after a warrant was issued for her arrest over her high grass, reports CBS affiliate KWTX.

Several weeks ago, Gerry Suttle, of Riesel, east of Waco, was issued a notice to appear before a judge because the grass on a lot she owns across from her home was more than 18 inches high, violating city code. After she didn't appear, a warrant was issued for her arrest, reports the station.

Suttle, 75, told the station she never received the notice.

Four brothers who didn't know Suttle but learned of her plight through a news report decided to pitch in and help by mowing the lawn.

"We haven't met her yet but she's 75 years old and she needs some help mowing," said Blaine Reynolds, one of the boys. "That's the least we could do."

Suttle told the station she's grateful for the boy's help.

After the boys mowed the grass, Suttle was told Wednesday she needed to go to court and sign documents indicating she didn't receive the original notice to appear about the lawn in order to have the warrant dropped. But Thursday, she received another court summons,reports the station.

"It is very heartbreaking to see that someone that I didn't even know came out and spent two hours in the sun doing what we thought the city wanted done and then them turn around and say 'no,'" Suttle said.

City representatives haven't returned calls to KWTX. She's due in court June 16, and Suttle says she's prepared to fight the city.

Meanwhile, the Reynolds brothers have offered to help again.

"I'd do it for her a second time, or a third time," Blaine Reynolds said. "Anything to keep that lady from having to go to court."




“Several weeks ago, Gerry Suttle, of Riesel, east of Waco, was issued a notice to ap-pear before a judge because the grass on a lot she owns across from her home was more than 18 inches high, violating city code. After she didn't appear, a warrant was issued for her arrest, reports the station. Suttle, 75, told the station she never received the notice. Four brothers who didn't know Suttle but learned of her plight through a news report decided to pitch in and help by mowing the lawn. "We have-n't met her yet but she's 75 years old and she needs some help mowing," said Blaine Reynolds, one of the boys. "That's the least we could do." …. After the boys mowed the grass, Suttle was told Wednesday she needed to go to court and sign documents indicating she didn't receive the original notice to appear about the lawn in order to have the warrant dropped. But Thursday, she received another court sum-mons,reports the station. …. City representatives haven't returned calls to KWTX. She's due in court June 16, and Suttle says she's prepared to fight the city.”

This story brings up as many questions as it answers. I wonder if the city is trying to force Ms. Suttles to sell her property? Or trying to make money for the court through charging her fines? I would like to know what the other two summonses are about. I’m glad to see that she is fighting the city. See another version on the matter below.


http://thefreethoughtproject.com/arrest-warrant-issued-75-year-old-woman-uncut-grass/

Cops Protect Town from Hardened Criminal, Issue Arrest Warrant to 75-yo Woman for Tall Grass
By Jay Syrmopoulos on June 11, 2015

If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear……unless you’re a 75-year-old woman with tall grass.
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/arrest-warrant-issued-75-year-old-woman-uncut-grass/#l7KHzRMUSTVm95vf.99

Riesel, Texas – Seventy-five-year-old Gerry Suttle was stunned when she received a call from the local police chief, informing her that she had a warrant issued for her arrest.

“I’ll be 76 in July,” Suttle said. “I’m 75 now, and I’ve never had a speeding ticket, never had a parking ticket and now here I am got a warrant for my arrest from the big city of Riesel.”

Suttle’s arrest warrant was for failure to appear before a judge on a matter regarding the height of the grass on a property she owns across the street from her home.

Referencing the grass, Riesel police chief Danny Krumnow stated, “It has grown up, and the court had issued her letter and then court issued a warrant for failure to appear.”

Suttle says she never received a letter informing her of the court date and that she now fears driving.

“My name is on the list. If I get stopped, I’ll get picked up,” a clearly distressed Suttle said.

Does law enforcement truly have nothing more pressing to focus on than a 75-year-old woman whose grass is too long??

Why aren’t people able to have a natural lawn without the expectation of some cookie cutter yard standard by which all properties must be judged?

Suttle’s son said that he would come mow the grass, as his mother isn’t physically able to do so, but that the city may not drop the arrest warrant.

Regardless of the outcome, Suttle believes the whole ordeal is ridiculous and that the city needs to leave her alone.

“Straighten their act up. Read the state laws, before bailing off into something stupid,” Suttle said.

With all the ways the American people are fleeced of the hard earned money by law enforcement; does the system really need to target this elderly woman for having “too long” of grass?

This absurd arrest warrant comes on the heels of an equally asinine incident, also in Texas, in which two young girls had their lemonade stand shut down by local cops for not having the correct permit. The good news there is that the girls are refusing to roll over and are opening their stand up again this weekend.

In April, another Texas resident, Rick Yoes, was sentenced to 17 days in jail for the length of his grass.

And some folks still have the gall to call this country the Land of the Free.