“A room without a book is like a body without a soul.”
unknown
In this fascinating read, best-selling author Amy Stewart delves into the process of fermenting plants into some of the greatest time-honored drinks. With over fifty spirited recipes and growing hints for gardeners, this work is sure to take your bartending skills to the next level.
From 1946, the poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West wrote a gardening column in the Observer. The columns were later collected into a set of books published between 1951 and 1958. Vita’s extensive gardening knowledge, her intense passion for her subject and her lively literary flair make these classics of garden writing essential for any serious gardener’s bookshelf. Volume 1 in a series of four anthologies reproducing the lively gardening columns by Vita Sackville-West. This volume covers 1946–1950.
The North Carolina Racial Justice Act of 2009
Prohibited seeking or imposing the death penalty on the basis of race. The act identified types of evidence that might be considered by the court when considering whether race was a basis for seeking or imposing the death penalty and established a process by which relevant evidence might be used to establish that race was a significant factor in seeking or imposing the death penalty. The defendant had the burden of proving that race was a significant factor in seeking or imposing the death penalty, and the state was allowed to offer evidence to rebut the claims or evidence of the defendant. If race was found to be a significant factor in the imposition of the death penalty, the death sentence would automatically be commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.[1]
North Carolina General Assembly Repeal Attempts [edit]
Under pressure from a group of 43 district attorneys, who expressed opposition to the act citing the clog of the court system in the state, the North Carolina Senate passed a bill by a 27-14 vote on November 28, 2011, that would have effectively repealed the Racial Justice Act.[2]
However, on December 14, Governor Bev Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed the bill, saying that while she supports the death penalty, she felt it was “simply unacceptable for racial prejudice to play a role in the imposition of the death penalty in North Carolina.”[3] The state legislature did not have enough votes to override Perdue’s veto.
The North Carolina General Assembly passed a major revision of the law in 2012 authored by Rep. Paul Stam (R-Wake). The rewrite “severely restricts the use of statistics to only the county or judicial district where the crime occurred, instead of the entire state or region. It also says statistics alone are insufficient to prove bias, and that the race of the victim cannot be taken into account.” The bill was vetoed by Gov. Perdue, but this time, the legislature overrode the governor’s veto.[4]
The North Carolina General Assembly voted to effectively repeal the entire law in 2013 and Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, signed the repeal into law.[5]
On April 20, 2012, in the first case appealed under the Racial Justice Act, the then-Senior Resident Superior Court Judge in Cumberland County (Fayetteville), Judge Greg Weeks, threw out the death sentence of Marcus Raymond Robinson, automatically commuting his sentence to life without parole. Robinson contended that when he was sentenced to death in 1994, prosecutors deliberately kept blacks off the jury. Robinson’s lawyers cited a study from Michigan State University College of Law indicating that prosecutors across North Carolina improperly used their peremptory challenges to systemically exclude qualified black jurors from jury service.[6][7][8]
Resource …wiki
so, I do not know how accurate this is
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by, Rebecca Skloot
In April 2011, I watched a C-SPAN show interviewing the author of a book about Henrietta Lacks, her name: Rebecca Skloot.
Henrietta’s story starts August 1, 1920, and her birth and life ended sometime in the early fifties, 1951. This story has just come into the light of day and while I cried again because it’s sad, and unacceptable by some, it reminds us of how life is treated when you have no or less power than the “average Joe” which is code for being white.
After having several children and years and years of reports by “the Media”, publicity, and whatnot, Henrietta’s family seems to be the only ones who didn’t benefit from the story of this woman whose cells were used to create a cell line for medical research but got nothing in return. I don’t know when everyone else heard of this story, but Oprah and some associates decided to make a movie…hopefully, some or ALL of the revenue will be given to the family. It is a story that makes you gasp, gets you upset, or mad, it will make you cry and wonder how the science community got away with not paying Henrietta Lacks and or her family for her contribution. If I understood the interviewer, Henrietta’s family has recently gotten more PR about their Mother’s story, but it’s unclear if anyone paid money for all the stories, books, and or TV programs about her. It is a story that appears to be on the surface, one of unintentional theft, that became just that, and if you are willing to dig deeper you realize it is theft and a secret kept quiet for years.
It becomes apparent her cells are used by an immoral scientist who did not tell her or her family even after it was evident that the cells were rare, viable, unusual, and priceless…worth an astronomical amount in my opinion. The fact that they were used and what effects they all would eventually have on science today, in 2011, was not evident then, but those scientists probably had some idea. I understand that back then technology may not have been as advanced, but it did advance and still is and if the reports are correct, the science community gave Henrietta nothing to her or her family for the wonderful things those rare cells she had that changed the lives of so many. It happened in a time when minorities were treated very poorly and again, even if the reports state that standard procedure was this that, and or the other, the ’70s gave way to new ways to handle science technologies; it’s time to pay Henrietta Lacks and her family back.
First posted 4/13/11
*****
Interestingly, this book is still being debated by folks who feel it could possibly be an exploitation of Mrs. Lacks and the family for a piece of the big pie or settlement after having done a decade of research, and getting personally involved while reports stated that she used personal funds. Others talk about the family like trash and fail to see why they should be given reparations. We must not ignore or deny, yes realize how important race, and ethics in the healthcare industry or lack of them, and the attempts to reform these issues still exist today. I feel that Rebecca set off a series of events that led to this family not only finding out things about their mother but also recouping some if only a fraction of their mother and the contribution she made. In my opinion as a mom and daughter, whatever the settlement was it clearly would never ever be enough since they stole her cells and Mrs. Lacks lost her battle to cancer. Sadly, people of colour were treated so poorly in 1951 and while this was and still is a fantastic scientific discovery, it also exposes the widespread discrimination on so many levels.
So, it’s 2023, and the news reports that Ms Lacks’ family is satisfied with the settlement ~Nativegrl77
Be a Seed for Change 
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