Sanford Bail Bond – Star Trek Fan Film In Legal Fight With Paramount

Source     : CinemaBlend
By            : Gregory Wakeman
Category : Sanford Bail Bond , Bail Bond Sanford

Star Trek Fan Film In Legal Fight With Paramount

A group of Star Trek fans who have so far raised over $1 million in their pursuit to make a professional-quality prequel to the beloved original series have found themselves confronted with a lawsuit because of just how good the quality of their potential effort could be.  Over the years, Paramount and CBS have not only tolerated Star Trek fans looking to add to the franchise with their own material, stories, and pieces, but they’ve encouraged it (to a certain extent) so that the universe could expand. But after it was revealed that Axanar, the name of the potential film, had raised so much money for the feature and accompanying short, the companies immediately decided to try and nip this project in the bud.

On Tuesday the court battle commenced, as Paramount and CBS looked to stop Axanar from being the first ever Star Trek independent film. After launching hugely successful campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the potential producer Alec Peters found himself with over $1 million to play with. Peters always intended for his group’s Star Trek film to match previous installments to the beloved franchise. In fact, their original pitch to investors declared, “While some may call it a ‘fan film’ as we are not licensed by CBS, Axanar has professionals working in front and behind the camera, with a fully-professional crew – many of whom have worked on Star Trek itself – who ensure Axanar will be the quality of Star Trek that all fans want to see.” Despite the earnest beginnings of this project, Paramount and CBS soon found a major problem with the Star Trek independent film, and started legal proceedings against Axanar because the film would violate their intellectual property. The lawsuit insists that “innumerable copyrighted elements” of Star Trek have been infringed, including the species, themes, characters, and settings of the show.

But what would Axanar have consisted of? Well, the description for the film states that it would take place 21 years before the first-ever Captain Kirk episode of the original Star Trek series, which die-hards of the series will know is called Where No Man Has Gone Before. It would have been set in the year 2245, and would have told the story of Garth Of Izar, who is Captain Kirk’s hero and took part in the Four Years War against the Klingon Empire that came very, very close to tearing the Federation apart. This lawsuit is almost certainly going to bring the work on Axanar to a complete stop, but Peters told The Hollywood Reporter that they were prepared for Paramount and CBS’ lawsuit against them. Peters, who rather luckily works as a lawyer, believes that the history of Star Trek fan films complicates the legal matters. However, Paramount and CBS are clearly concerned about the scope of Axanar, and believe that the fact it describes itself as a “fully-professional independent Star Trek film” means that it’s different.  Expect this battle to continue on for quite some time, which means that Axanar won’t happen anytime soon.

See more at : cinemablend.com/new/Star-Trek-Fan-Film-Legal-Fight-With-Paramount-102997.html

Bondsman in Seminole County – Hawaii soon to be first state to raise legal age to 21

Source     :  ABC 7 NY
By            :  KHON News Staff
Category :  Bail Bondsman in Sanford, Bondsman in Seminole County

Hawaii soon to be first state to raise legal age to 21

With a new year will come a new law — Hawaii will soon make history as the first U.S. state to raise the legal smoking age to 21. The new law goes into effect on Friday, Jan. 1. Tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes or e-cigs, can only be sold to people who are at least 21 years old.

New signs will be up in stores, telling customers about the new legal smoking age. “Anyone who looks under the age of 40, we ask for an I.D.,” said Ashley Agag, cashier at Times Supermarkets. Cashiers at Times will continue to do that, as the tobacco laws change. “People who do not look over 40, they actually have their I.D. ready, so I’m glad they’re prepared to show me their I.D. so I don’t really have to ask,” Agag said.

Although other cities and counties in the nation have similar smoking age laws, Hawaii will become the first state to change the law. Also changing with the new year is where people can use e-cigs. Beginning Friday, their use will be illegal where smoking is now prohibited, like restaurants.

Side Street Inn on Kapahulu Avenue is not waiting until the new law goes into effect. Management has already been telling customers who vape to go outside. Operations manager Rob Acoba said “the issue is how it affects people … so with this law coming into play, we figure, let’s just do away with it.” Volcano eCigs said it will not be affected by this law since the majority of its customers are 40 to 60 years old. ECig user Alex Wirkus said the new law won’t bother him. “I think it’s a pretty good idea, seeing as how it does kind of disrupt the air that you breathe,” he said. Anyone underage caught by police trying to buy tobacco products could be fined $10 for the first offense. Retailers caught selling to those under 21 will face a $500 fine for the first offense, and fines will increase for multiple violations. Hawaii is the first state in the nation to raise the minimum age to 21 (Act 122). A second measure restricts the use of e-cigarettes in all locations where smoking is illegal (Act 019). “Raising the minimum age as part of our comprehensive tobacco control efforts will help reduce tobacco use among our youth and increase the likelihood that our keiki will grow up tobacco-free,” said Governor Ige in June. The legislature said that according to recent figures from six Hawaii high schools, among the ninth and tenth grade students, 29 percent have used e-cigarettes at least once and 18 percent use them regularly. In Hawaii, 86 percent of current adult smokers began smoking before 21 years of age; of these, 34 percent started smoking between 18-20 years old, state officials say.

The new law also requires signs posted where tobacco products are sold that say the following:
– The sale of tobacco products or electronic smoking devices to persons under twenty-one is prohibited.”
– Earlier this year, Ige signed HB525 into law (Act 123), which prohibits smoking and the use of tobacco products and electronic smoking devices in all state parks and beaches. That law went into effect on July 1, 2015.

The Department of the Navy announced that they will enact a policy that complies with the new Hawaii state law, and that all shore-based Navy and Marine Corps Exchanges in Hawaii will cease the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21, effective January 1, 2016. However, the Navy does note that Hawaii state law does not apply to personnel or transactions while aboard U.S. naval vessels due to federal jurisdiction laws.

See more at : abc27.com/2015/12/29/hawaii-soon-to-be-first-state-to-raise-legal-age-to-21/

Seminole County Bail Bonds – Legal woes cast pall on Yankees’ Aroldis Chapman trade

Source     : New Jersey On-Line
By            : Reuters Press
Category : Seminole County Bail Bonds, Bail Bondsman in Sanford

Legal woes cast pall on Yankees’ Aroldis Chapman trade

The Yankees made the biggest splash of their offseason Monday afternoon, trading for left-handed monster closer Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for four minor leaguers.The addition of Chapman, on paper, gives the Yankees perhaps the best bullpen in baseball with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller either in front of or behind him late in games. But there’s a chance Chapman isn’t even on the team to start the 2016 season, and the issues surrounding the lefty have cast a shadow over what should have otherwise been a celebratory day in Yankeeland. Earlier this month during the Winter Meetings, Chapman appeared headed to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a trade, but talks with the Reds hit a snag when it was revealed around the same time that Chapman had allegedly been involved in a domestic violence case with his girlfriend. (It’s not, however, been confirmed that the trade fell through due specifically to that.)According to a police report obtained by Yahoo Sports, Chapman fired eight gun shots in his garage and choked his girlfriend on October 30 at his home in Florida. Chapman admitted to firing the gun, but denied any assault on his girlfriend. Due to conflicting reports and what police said was insufficient evidence, Chapman was not charged. Said Chapman’s attorney, Jay Reisinger, at the time: “I’ve reviewed the facts as portrayed…On behalf of Mr. Chapman, we vehemently deny the allegations as stated. Beyond that, we have no further comment at this time.”  The domestic investigation, as it concerns law enforcement, is closed.  But that doesn’t mean it’s over. Under Major League Baseball’s new domestic violence policy, agreed upon in August of this year, the league reserves the right to investigate a player if he is said to have been involved in such a case.

MLB is currently investigating Chapman. Yankees’ general manager Brian Cashman spoke to reporters Monday afternoon on a conference call and addressed the situation on a number of occasions. “We are not a law enforcement agency and we certainly don’t have the full extent of the MLB investigative arm,” Cashman said. “We’re acquiring him understanding there are some unresolved issues and we will let those processes continue and without interference.”

Several things are at play.

— First, the Yankees snagged one of the game’s best closers at a big discount, likely because of the investigation. None of the four minor leaguers they sent to Cincinnati were figuring to be large parts of the future in the Bronx. (Said Cashman Monday: “I think it’s certainly reflected in the acquisition price and there’s risk and I understand that.”)

— Second, because of the investigation, Chapman may begin next year unable to pitch if he is suspended. How long he could be suspended is anyone’s guess—the league hasn’t yet had to rule in such a case, even though Chapman’s isn’t the first they’ve handled since the policy began. (Former Mets shortstop, Jose Reyes, is under investigation.)

— Third, if Chapman is suspended for a significant period of time, he may have to wait another year to become a free agent. Chapman is scheduled to hit free agency next winter, but if he misses 45 or more games in 2016 due to a league ruling, he will lose service time and will still be under team control. (If this happens, it will oddly benefit the Yankees, as they can then retain him for 2017 relatively cheap.)

— Fourth, and clearly the most important one, is that Chapman may have committed a serious offense. As Cashman said Monday, Chapman is innocent until proven guilty, and certainly he is.

But at the very least from an appearances standpoint, it’s not something any team wants, especially the image-conscious Yankees. Cashman acknowledged the fact that signing Chapman may not be received well in some circles of the public. “I can’t speak to where it may lead and what may happen, but we went into it with understanding that there’s clearly some unresolved issues and risks,” Cashman said. “But I would say these issues are serious and we understand that. It’s a concern.” At this point it’s pure speculation on what MLB may or may not know. The Reds seemed desperate to unload him, while the Yankees seemed OK with what may come with the signing. Cashman wouldn’t say what sort of conversations he’s had with anyone around the league. “That process has to be respected,” he said. “It’s really bigger than the Yankees. We’ll wait and see how it plays out and respect that process.” Cashman said he has not yet spoke with Chapman but planned to later on Monday. He said on several occasions to reporters that the team had done its “due diligence” finding out as much about the case as they could. Apparently, nothing in that process came up that scared them off. He said the team did not know of the situation until everyone else found out in early December.

See more at : nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2015/12/legal_woes_cast_pall_on_yankees_aroldis_chapman_tr.html

Bail Bondsman in Sanford – DraftKings, FanDuel Sue in Illinois to Declare Games Legal

Source     : NBC News
By            : Reuters Press
Category : Bail Bondsman in Sanford, Bondsman in Seminole County

DraftKings, FanDuel Sue in Illinois to Declare Games Legal

Leading daily fantasy sports companies DraftKings and FanDuel filed lawsuits Thursday in Illinois asking a judge to declare their games legal a day after the state’s attorney general outlawed them as gambling. The opinion Wednesday by Attorney General Lisa Madigan was the latest blow to the two companies, which are also fighting a legal battle in New York to continue doing business there. Boston-based DraftKings and New York-based FanDuel have said they would continue to operate in Illinois, despite Madigan’s opinion, pending the outcome of their lawsuits, which were filed in Cook and Sangamon county circuit courts, respectively. FanDuel brought its action with another fantasy sports company, Head2Head Sports LLC, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, which adds a layer of complexity to the Illinois case. FanDuel games are daily in nature, while Head2Head’s are operated on a seasonal basis. The two companies asked for a declaration that both types of games are legal.

In November, New York’s attorney general acknowledged that seasonal fantasy sports, which require skill to succeed over a period of months, are lawful, while daily games are based on chance and, therefore, are illegal gambling in the state.  Illinois is the third-largest market for DraftKings and FanDuel, with 6.7 percent of their users, according to Eilers Research LLC. The Illinois opinion comes amid nationwide scrutiny at the state and federal levels as to whether daily fantasy sports games, which have surged in popularity in recent years, amount to gambling.

In October, Nevada’s gaming regulator also ordered the online sites to cease operations in the state. The fantasy sports industry allows participants to assemble imaginary pro football, baseball, basketball and hockey teams from rosters of real players and to accumulate points based on how those players perform in actual games over the course of a season. The daily versions allow fans to spend money on the game with a frequency that critics say is akin to sports betting. Purveyors of fantasy sports argue that it is a skilled-based entertainment product, not wagering. DraftKings and FanDuel, both of which are privately held, have valuations of more then $1 billion; high-profile investors have poured money into both.

Their businesses in New York and Illinois could also be saved by legislatures in those states, where legalization bills have been introduced. But the level of support for these bills is unclear. DraftKings hired a high-profile legal team in November, including David Boies and Randy Mastro, to fight cease-and-desist letters from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Schneiderman had demanded that the companies stop taking money from players in the state. On Dec. 11, Schneiderman won injunctions against DraftKings and FanDuel, but later the same day, a state appellate court temporarily stayed the order. The companies, as a result, may continue to operate in New York until at least early January, when the appeals court is to hold another hearing.

See more at : nbcnews.com/news/us-news/draftkings-fanduel-sue-illinois-declare-games-legal-n485761

Bail Bond Sanford – Nearly 100 Mexicans Seek Return to US Under Legal Settlement

Source     : ABC News
By            : Elliot spagat, associated press
Category : Sanford Bail Bond , Bail Bond Sanford

Nearly 100 Mexicans Seek Return to US Under Legal Settlement

Nearly 100 Mexicans have sought to return to the U.S. by Wednesday’s deadline under the settlement of a class-action lawsuit that accused federal immigration officials in Southern California of failing to advise people of their rights. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Department of Homeland Security in 2013 over the use of a procedure to expel people from the country known as a voluntary return. Under the procedure, people surrender rights to appear before an immigration judge and can’t legally return to the U.S. for up to 10 years. The lawsuit claimed authorities threatened people into accepting the terms. The government didn’t acknowledge wrongdoing but agreed to changes in California that include a revised form that spells out the consequences and options of a voluntary return, new training and procedures and an information hotline for detainees seeking legal aid.

The settlement reflects the agency’s “commitment to ensuring foreign nationals fully understand the implications of returning voluntarily to Mexico,” the department said in a statement. The government also agreed to let some Mexicans return to the U.S. to resume efforts to stay legally. The ACLU, which had estimated thousands might be eligible for that chance, identified nearly 100 who might qualify to return to the U.S., said staff attorney Gabriela Rivera. Of those, the government has so far approved more than 20 to return and was reviewing other cases. The number reflects the high bar to qualify, Rivera said. The requirements include being married to a U.S. citizen after entering the country legally, being in the country for at least 10 years and having a spouse, child or parent who relies on them, or being eligible to be shielded from deportation under President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive order.

Applicants also must have accepted a voluntary return in Southern California between 2009 and 2014. Lucy Sanchez, who came to California in 1996, was on a fishing boat in San Diego’s Mission Bay in October 2009 when authorities asked her legal status. She said they told her she might be jailed for months if she fought to stay and would be released immediately to Mexico if she agreed to a voluntary return. “They didn’t even let me read it, they just said sign here,” said Sanchez, 35, a wife and mother of U.S. citizens. Sanchez lived in Tijuana, Mexico, for six years with her daughter, now 7, and was among a small group of Mexicans allowed to return to the U.S. in August to plead her case before an immigration judge. She has a court date in April. The ACLU spearheaded an extensive campaign on both sides of the border that included workshops, billboards and television advertising to reach the estimated 200,000 people who accepted voluntary returns in Southern California during the period covered by the settlement.

The settlement applies only to the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Los Angeles and San Diego field offices, and the requirements on the agencies to change the form and its practices expire in August 2017. The agencies have limited changes to Southern California and made no commitment to keep them in place after 2017. The number of voluntary returns has dropped sharply in recent years to less than 9,000 nationwide in fiscal 2015, the federal agency said.

See more at:  abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/100-mexicans-seek-return-us-legal-settlement-35928055

Sanford Bail Bond – It’s Time For An Organized Legal Response To Anti-Vaxxers

Source    :  Above The Law
By            :  Sam Wright
Category :  Sanford Bail Bond ,Bail Bondsman in Sanford

Time For An Organized Legal Response To Anti-Vaxxers

Sometimes I write about cases that aren’t necessarily in the field of what we might call “public interest law” but probably should be. Earlier this week, Above the Law covered one such case — a case that, I think, deserves more attention as a symptom of a broader societal issue that’s practically crying out for an organized legally-oriented response. Which case am I talking about? The New York Supreme Court case striking down New York City’s flu-vaccine mandate, of course.

As a brief recap, according to the New York Times, “a new city requirement” that was “quietly adopted by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in the waning days of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration” would have resulted in young children being excluded from daycares and preschools unless they’d received flu shots. The reason for this new requirement? The Times says that “the city had been lagging behind the national average in preschool flu immunization rates” and that a similar program passed in Connecticut “raised vaccination rates among young children to 84 percent from 68 percent, and reduced hospitalizations from the flu by 12 percent.”

Another Times article reports that, though the new rule passed unanimously and at first received little attention — positive or negative — a while after it passed it began to meet “fierce opposition.” The reason for the opposition?  According to the Times, “some of the most vocal critics were those who believe vaccinations are linked to autism, although there is no scientific evidence that shots and the disorder are connected.” (Popular culture knows these people as anti-vaxxers.) Nevertheless, the rule was set to kick in in January.

So, of course, some parents sued. Then last week, just in time to forestall the rule from going into effect, a New York Supreme Court Justice granted those parents’ wish and struck down the law. And while the court’s opinion makes sense as a matter of law, its effect is terrible as a matter of public policy.  On the first point, the opinion makes sense as a matter of law in part because it is limited in its analytical scope. It doesn’t speak to the substance of New York’s attempt to curb the flu among small children. And it doesn’t hold that mandatory flu vaccines are a religious-liberty infringement or some other gross violation of individual rights. Instead, it says that New York City ventured into territory that exceeded its authority under state law. That’s reasonable enough.

But on the second point, the opinion’s effect is terrible as a matter of public policy because it not only ignores the decision’s broader effects, but actually lends credence to some of the parents’ policy arguments in considering whether to issue an injunction preventing the flu-vaccine rule from taking effect. In fact, it appears to hold that forcing parents to inoculate their children against the flu constitutes irreparable harm. That’s nonsense. Not only are vaccines a boon to those receiving them, but they’re a boon to the entire population when more people receive them. They’re a boon even to folks who, against all medical and scientific evidence, deny vaccines’ effectiveness and irrationally link them to negative health outcomes. And the flip side is true, too. The more you leave vaccination to chance, the less benefit vaccines offer to the public — including the majority of people who accept science and recognize that vaccines work. And that’s why we need an organized legal response to the so-called anti-vaxxers. Their wrongness harms everyone. Overcoming their wrongness helps everyone — even them.

But while there are plenty of organizations out there advocating in favor of vaccines and singing paeans to their effectiveness, there seems to be a void in the field of pro-vaccine legal advocacy. We need a savvy and well-informed organization to keep an ear out for cases like the one in New York and intervene or file amicus briefs. Maybe that happened here — I don’t know for sure. But perhaps an amicus brief would at least have prevented the Justice who issued the recent New York decision from writing that, if the rule had stood, the parents would have been “irreparably harmed by being forced to have their children take the flu shot or forego day care and/or kindergarten,” when science tells us that vaccination would actually have benefited both the children and New York residents at large. So, whaddaya think. Anyone out there want to start a national organization dedicated to fighting anti-vaxxers’ court efforts to undermine public health?

Read More : abovethelaw.com/2015/12/its-time-for-an-organized-legal-response-to-anti-vaxxers/

Bondsman in Seminole County – Ford, Google to build self-driving cars together

Source     : USA Today
By            : Alisa Priddle, Detroit Free Press
Category : Bail Bondsman in Sanford, Bondsman in Seminole County

Ford, Google to build self-driving cars together

Ford and Google could be planning a joint venture to build autonomous cars, pairing the strengths of the two companies to get self-driving cars on the road faster. Ford CEO Mark Fields will make the announcement in January at the 2016 International Consumer Electronics Show, according to Yahoo Autos, citing three sources. Ford officials would not confirm the details Monday, but the automaker has been making a series of announcements about ramping up its testing of autonomous cars. And the automaker has said more news is planned when Fields attends the CES next month.

Spokesman Alan Hall said the automaker would not comment on speculation. “We have been and will continue working with many companies and discussing a variety of subjects related to our Ford Smart Mobility plan,” Hall said. “We keep these discussions private for obvious competitive reasons, and we do not comment on speculation.” Meanwhile, the two companies have the connections and have laid the groundwork. Last year Google’s self-driving car group teamed up with Roush to develop and build a self-driving pod. Roush is building a test fleet of pods in Livonia, which are shipped to California where there is no snow to worry about. In January, Chris Urmson, director of Self-Driving Cars for Google, said the Internet company’s goal is to have driverless cars available on the market within five years. He said hundreds of people were working on the project in both Detroit and California.

In September, Google hired former Ford and Hyundai executive John Krafcik as CEO of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project and Google parent Alphabet is planning to make the project its own unit to compete in the car-sharing business. Former Ford CEO Alan Mulally is on Google’s board of directors. Google’s Urmson said earlier this year he had already met with Ford and other automakers including General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Daimler because Google was interested in working with conventional automakers who have expertise in engineering and building cars.

“For us to jump in and say we can do this better, that’s arrogant,” Urmson said in Detroit. Fields recently announced Ford has received the permits needed to test Fusion autonomous vehicles in California, where it has established a research center in Silicon Valley, near Google. And Ford will be the first automaker to test its autonomous Fusion at Mcity, a simulated city created on the campus of the University of Michigan that provides a safe area to put a car through repeated paces. The facility, part of the university’s Mobility Transformation Center, opened in July for use by more than a dozen automakers, suppliers, telecommunications and other companies in the pursuit of autonomous driving technology. Mcity provides an ideal setting for testing driverless cars in all seasons and conditions in a controlled environment.

Read More : usatoday.com/story/tech/nation-now/2015/12/22/report-ford-google-build-self-driving-cars-together/77734612/

Seminole County Bail Bonds| Legal Action faced by Greece, Croatia and Italy for Asylum Systems

Source : time
By : Mark Rivett-Carnac
Category : bail bonds in sanford, Seminole County Bail Bonds

Migrants wait to enter the refugee camp after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija, on December 5, 2015.

More than 710,000 refugees entered the E.U. in the first nine months of 2015
The European Commission initiated legal proceedings against Greece, Croatia and Italy on Thursday for inadequately documenting refugees. It said the three countries failed to fingerprint asylum seekers and record the data within 72 hours, as mandated by the Eurodac Regulation, despite warnings in October.

Hungary also faces an infringement case for its asylum legislation. Some of its latest regulations are “incompatible with E.U. law,” the Commission said in a statement that listed concerns about strict appeals procedures and insufficient translation services.

Europe continues to struggle under a flow of refugees and migrants arriving from war-torn and poverty-stricken regions in numbers not seen since World War II. More than 710,000 asylum seekers entered the E.U. in the first nine months of 2015, up from 282,000 in all of 2014, according to European border monitoring agency Frontex.

Greece is on the front line of this mass migration. The European Commission said nearly half a million refugees arrived in Greece between July 20 and Nov. 30, of which 121,000 were fingerprinted, according to the BBC. Refugees have also traveled to Italy in staggering numbers, with 149,100 people arriving by sea this year, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.

Sanford Bail Bond | Affirmative Action Fight Returns To The U.S. Supreme Court

Source : npr
By : Nina Totenberg
Category : Sanford Bail Bond ,Bail Bondsman in Sanford

Affirmative action in college admissions is once again under attack at the U.S. Supreme Court.In 1978 and in 2003 the Court ruled definitively that colleges and universities could consider race and ethnicity as one of many factors in admissions, as long as there are no quotas. By 2013, though, the composition of the Court had changed and grown more conservative, and the issue was back in a case from Texas—a case that eventually fizzled that year but is back again now.

There is a long and often tortured racial history at the University of Texas. UT was segregated by law until 1950 when the Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, ordered the school to admit its first black student—the grandson of a slave.

By 1996, UT operated like most other state schools; it had a selective admissions system that sought to increase the number of minorities, using race and ethnicity as one of many factors in evaluating applicants. The affirmative action plan, however, ran into a buzz saw in the lower courts, which ruled that the university could not consider race in any way in admissions.

The number of minorities at the school quickly plummeted by 40 percent, sending the Texas political and educational worlds scrambling. Soon the state legislature enacted a law known as the “10 percent plan,” guaranteeing anyone who graduated in the top 10 percent of his or her high school class a place at UT. Owing to the fact that Texas schools are largely segregated because they draw from racially and ethnically segregated neighborhoods, the 10 percent plan partially restored the number of minorities at UT.

But not enough.

As the minority population in the state surged, minority enrollment was still well below where it had been under the old affirmative action plan prior to 1996. So when the Supreme Court in 2003 reaffirmed the limited use of race as a factor in admissions, UT started using it again.

The way the system has worked since 2003 is that three-quarters of the UT slots are reserved by law for students who qualify under the top 10 percent plan (though the actual percentage these days is closer to 7 percent).

The other quarter of the seats are filled by a system called holistic review—combining class rank with SAT scores, independently-graded essays and other factors like leadership, awards, special skills — and race and ethnicity.

A White Student Challenges UT’s Policy

Enter Abigail Fisher, a white student who didn’t get in to UT in 2008 and claimed she was the victim of discrimination because of her race.

“There were people in my class with lower grades who weren’t in all the activities I was in, and who were being accepted into UT, and the only other difference between us was the color of our skin,” Fisher said.

The university flatly denied her claim, saying Fisher’s grades and test scores were simply too low to get her in, no matter what her extracurricular activities or her race.

The first time the case was argued, then-UT president William Powers defended the university’s approach on the steps of the Supreme Court. No university, he said, would fill all of its slots based on class rank alone. “You could have been the student body president. You could have been the winner of the state math contest and you have zero chance to get into the University of Texas” under holistic review, he said.

The Supreme Court pondered the case in 2013 and after eight months sent it back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The justices said that the lower court had deferred too much to the school’s claims of good faith in its use of race in admissions, and they ordered the lower court to determine whether the university’s use of race was as limited as possible in order to attain a diverse student body. But after taking another look, the appeals court again upheld the UT plan as constitutional.

(Source : npr.org/2015/12/09/459016970/affirmative-action-fight-returns-to-the-u-s-supreme-court )

Seminole County Bail Bonds | Daytona man jailed for fraud

Source : news-journalonline
By : Frank Fernandez
Category : Seminole County Bail Bonds

A Daytona Beach man facing numerous fraud charges reached a plea deal on Wednesday and also learned the proper way to refer to a judge.

Charles Okafor, 28, was sentenced to 364 days in jail followed by eight years probation after entering no contest pleas to seven counts of fraudulent use of personal ID, all second-degree felonies, and one count of fraudulent use of ID/specific victim, a third-degree felony as part of a plea agreement.

Circuit Judge Frank Marriott gave Okafor credit for the 252 days he has spent so far in the Volusia County Branch Jail.

Okafor also agreed to pay restitution, which has yet to be determined but is estimated by his attorney at less than $10,000.

Marriott adjudicated Okafor guilty and was asking him routine questions such as whether he was under the influence of any substance or had been treated for any mental health problems.

 

Okafor’s defense attorney, Joe Daniel Harrington, explained that Okafor was from Nigeria and he believed that in that country they refer to judges as “my lord.”

“I’m not offended by that or anything,” Marriott replied. “It sounds pretty good, actually.”

Marriott then said, “Your honor will be fine.”

Once done doing his time in Volusia, Okafor will be transfered to Seminole County jail to face fraud charges in there.

Prosecutors in Volusia County dropped other charges against him. Harrington said Okafor had joined the Army to get his citizenship and had studied at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Okafor has two degrees from Embry-Riddle: a bachelor of science in aviation in 2012 and a master of business administration in aviation management in 2015, according to the university.

Okafor’s wife, Judienne Okafor, 31, is also charged in the case with communications fraud, tampering with physical evidence and fraudulent use of personal ID. She is free on $4,500 bail.

Police said that while in the Seminole County jail, Okafor called his wife on March 10 and directed her to destroy evidence. The next day, Daytona Beach police searched Okafor’s apartment on Integra Shores Drive and found Judienne Okafor there and papers being burned in a bathroom sink. Wet papers had been torn up in the kitchen sink, reports said.

(Source : news-journalonline.com/article/20151202/NEWS/151209917)