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May 15, 2014

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The Associated Press BOISE, IDAHO A federal judge's decision to allow same-sexmarriagesinIdaho starting Friday has attor- neys for the state scrambling to appeal and gay rights ad- vocates planning their next steps. U.S. District Magistrate Judge Candy Dale over- turned Idaho's ban on same- sex marriages Tuesday, and on Wednesday she refused to put pending marriages on hold while Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden appeal. Both Otter and Was- den said Wednesday they would ask the 9th U.S. Cir- cuit Court of Appeals for an emergency stay while they fight the lower court's ruling. Matrimonial law expert Seymour J. Reisman said the appellate court is likely to is- sue the stay, and the U.S. Su- preme Court is almost cer- tain to take up the matter. But with several other states appealing rulings similar to the one handed down in Idaho, it's anyone's guess which state's case the high court will consider, said Reisman, a partner in the New York law firm Reisman Peirez Reisman and Capobi- anco LLP. "You can't just have differ- ent states having different laws all over the place," he said. "Nobody knows where they can live, what they can do." After the ruling, the Idaho Republican Party is- sued a statement reaffirm- ing the organization's stance against same-sex marriage, and contending that the Tenth Amendment gives states the power to regulate and define marriage. "The disintegration of marriage will lead to the dis- integration of our society," Idaho GOP Chairman Barry Peterson said in a prepared statement. 'AddtheWords' Gay couples who choose to get Idaho marriage li- censes Friday are still open to housing and employment discrimination, noted for- mer state Sen. Nicole LeFa- vour, Idaho's first openly gay lawmaker and a leader of the "Add the Words" campaign. "Add the Words" has be- come the catchphrase for amending Idaho's Human Rights Act to include pro- tection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The amendment change has been proposed for the past several years but has never received a full committee hearing in the Legislature. "On Friday, if people go out and get married and their announcement is in the paper, there is a chance they'll get fired or lose their housing," LeFavour said. "For some people, they can't take that risk, so they won't be able to take advantage of this new opportunity." She said state lawmak- ers previously denied giving the campaign a hearing be- cause they feared it would be a "slippery slope" toward allowing gay marriage in Idaho. Now that a federal judge has cleared that hur- dle, legislators can no lon- ger use that as an excuse, she said. Reisman said the federal judge's decision to toss out Idaho's gay marriage ban could make it easier for peo- ple to bring a lawsuit over the Idaho Human Rights Act. A plaintiff could claim lawmakers' failure to include protections for gay or trans- gender people in the act is a violation of the 14th Amend- ment's equal protection clause, he said. The nation's highest court last year found that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which barred the federal government from recogniz- ing same-sex marriage, de- prived gay couples of due process. GAY RIGHTS Idahoscramblesa ermarriagebanoverturned KYLEGREEN—THEIDAHOSTATESMAN Same-sex marriage supporters ring a large bell on the steps of the Idaho Statehouse during a rally in support of same sex marriage in Boise on Tuesday night. Weddings start Friday a er request for delay denied By Christina Huynh The Associated Press LITTLE ROCK, ARK. The Arkansas Supreme Court refused Wednesday to put on hold a ruling that over- turned the state's constitu- tional ban on gay marriage, but the short-lived ability for same-sex couples to wed in the state still came to a halt amid confusion about what comes next. The justices in their de- cision offered no direc- tion on that point to the state's county clerks, some of whom had pointed to an- other ban against gay mar- riage that is written into an aspect of state law and questioned if it remained in effect. Last Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza threw out a 10-year- old ban that voters placed in the state constitution and a separate state law barring same-sex marriages. But he didn't rule on a third law that regulates the con- duct of county clerks, which threatens fines if they issue marriage licenses to same- sex couples. Clerks in five counties responded to Piazza's de- cision by starting to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, and more than 450 gay couples in Arkan- sas have since received a li- cense to marry. Two coun- ties continued to issue li- censes on Wednesday, but they stopped after the Su- preme Court's ruling. Cou- ples that already have li- censes can still get married. "County clerks have been uncertain about their re- sponsibilities and couples unable to know definitively whether their marriage will remain valid," said Aaron Sadler, a spokesman for At- torney General Dustin Mc- Daniel. "A stay issued by ei- ther the Supreme Court or Judge Piazza would have brought some certainty. Un- fortunately, today's decision did not do that." The state's other 70 coun- ties had not issued licenses to gay couples, with many saying the Supreme Court needed to weigh in. Also Wednesday, the high court dismissed McDaniel's initial appeal of Piazza's rul- ing, saying it was prema- ture because Piazza hadn't issued a final order. His of- fice promised Wednesday it would now file an appeal at the appropriate time. Chris Villines, executive director of the Association of Arkansas Counties, said the ruling didn't appear to clear up the confusion that followed Piazza's order last week. ARKANSAS Sa me -s ex m ar ri ag es en d, f or n ow 450 couples already have tied the knot By Jesse J. Holland The Associated Press WASHINGTON Progress to- ward integrating America's schools since the landmark Brown v. Topeka Board of Education decision 60 years ago is being chipped away, and it's no longer just a black-and-white issue. Latinos, the largest mi- nority group in the public schools, are less likely to have white classmates than other students are. In New York, California and Texas more than half of all Latino students go to schools that are 90 percent minority. For black students, the South now is the least seg- regated section of America. Outside of Texas, no South- ern state is in the top five in terms of most segregated for black students. But more than half of black students in New York, Illinois, Maryland and Michigan attend schools where 90 percent or more are minority. Gary Orfield, co-direc- tor of the Civil Rights Proj- ect at UCLA and author of "Brown at 60" about the Su- preme Court decision, says the changes are troubling, with many minority students receiving poorer educations than white and Asian stu- dents who tend to be in mid- dle class schools. Educational policy since the 1980s has largely ignored race, he says, with an empha- sis instead on accountability measures that assume equal opportunity can be achieved in separate schools. When people ask if there is any great advantage to sit- ting next to a white person, Orfield said, his answer is no. "But there is a huge ad- vantage to being in a mid- dle-class school where most of the kids are going to go to college and almost every- body is going to graduate and you've got really good teachers who know how to get you ready for the next ed- ucation step and you've got a class of other students you can learn from." Although segregation is more prevalent in central cities of the largest met- ropolitan areas, it's also in the suburbs. "Neighborhood schools when we go back to them, as we have, pro- duce middle class schools for whites and Asians and segregated high poverty schools for blacks and Lati- nos," he said. Housing discrimination — stopping or discourag- ing minorities from mov- ing to majority-white areas — also plays a role in school segregation and "that's been a harder nut to crack," said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which argued the Brown case in front of the Supreme Court. School performance can be entwined with poverty, too. "These are the schools that tend to have fewer re- sources, tend to have teach- ers with less experience, tend to have people who are teaching outside their area of specialty, and it also de- nies the opportunities, the contacts and the networking that occur when you're with people from different socio- economic backgrounds," said Dennis Parker, direc- tor of the American Civil Liberties Union Racial Jus- tice Program. For students like Dia- mond McCullough, 17, a se- nior at Walter H. Dyett High School on Chicago's South Side, the disparities are real. Her school is made up almost entirely of African-Ameri- can students. She said her school doesn't offer physical education classes or art, and Advanced Placement classes are only available online. "Our school is named af- ter a famous musician, Wal- ter H. Dyett, and we don't even have band class no more. We don't have a music chorus class. We barely have the basic classes we need," McCullough said. SEGREGATION School integration slips decades a er Brown v. Board of Education The Associated Press SAN DIEGO Weather condi- tionsthatatleasttemporarily calmed allowed firefighters togaingroundearlyWednes- day on a pair of wildfires that forcedthousandsofresidents to leave their homes. Evacuation orders were lifted for all of the more than 20,000 residents in and around San Diego on Tues- day night just a few hours after they were called, and all but a handful of those in 1,200 homes and businesses told to evacuate in Santa Barbara County had been allowed to return. The 1,550-acre San Diego- area blaze was 25 percent contained and it was hoped that number would increase to 50 percent by day's end, said San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesman Lee Swanson. TheSantaBarbaraCounty blaze, 250 miles to the north- west, was 50 percent con- tained Wednesday morning. Firefighters also adjusted its size downward to 600 acres. Neither blaze caused any home damage or injuries, but another hot, dry and gusty day was expected as California baked in a spring heat wave as high pressure sat over the West. "We believe we have a pretty good handle on it," San Diego Fire Chief Javier Mainar said. "We hope to do some more work through the night and into tomorrow, but I think the largest part of the emergency has passed." The flames erupted in the fire-prone Rancho Bernardo area of the city, driven by hot, dry Santa Ana winds. By late afternoon, the flames ripped through can- yons to approach expensive homes and new subdivisions on the ridges. It spread to Rancho Santa Fe, one of the nation's wealthiest commu- nities, known for its multi- million-dollar homes, golf- ing and horseback riding. Black and gray smoke bil- lowed over San Diego, filled withwhirlingashandembers that created small spot fires. Flames crept within yards of some homes before firefight- ers doused them. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS California Fire Capt. Mark Miller lights a backfire as he and a crew from Oak Glen Fire Camp in Riverside try to knock down a brush fire near Oriole Court in Carlsbad. Firefighters gain ground Evacuation orders rescinded in San Diego, Santa Barbara Select"Subscribe"tabinlowerrightcorner Complete information for automatic weekly delivery to your email inbox That's it! This FREE service made possible by the advertisers in TV Select Magazine Kindly patronize and thank them. Click on their ads online to access their websites! FREE online subscription to TV Select Magazine Digital edition emailed to you, every Saturday! 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