Messing With Texas: The Justice Department has asked a federal court to require Texas to get permission to change is voting laws. Speaking to a national convention of The Urban League, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder cited, the “pervasive voting-related discrimination against racial minorities” in Texas. In June, just two hours after the Supreme Court decision threw out most of the voting Rights Act of 1965, the Texas legislature moved to tighten voter ID laws and implement a redistricting plan that dilutes the black and Latino vote.

National: Juror B29 in the George Zimmerman trial told ABC News that she and other jurors thought George Zimmerman got away with murder. She said the prosecution didn’t present the evidence to prove it, and the law was inadequate for the facts of the case. The juror, who identified herself only as “Maddy”, is Puerto Rican and the only nonwhite member of the six-woman panel.

World: For the second time in five months a Tunisian opposition leader has been assassinated. Mohamed Brahmi was gunned down outside his home in front of his wife and children. Tunisia was the point of origin for The Arab Spring and has been considered the most stable of the countries that toppled its leaders. Tunisia’s Islamist party rules the country.

Cheaters, Inc.: The Feds are charging Wall Street darling SAC Capital Advisors of raking in hundreds of millions of dollars with “systematic” insider trading from 1999 to 2010. The brains of the outfit is billionaire Steven A. Cohen, who is not charged. The US Atty. In New York said, SAC engaged in illegal trading that was “substantial, pervasive and on a scale without known precedent in the history of hedge funds.”

>Halliburton has pleaded guilty to destroying evidence after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The company that made a $2.6 billion profit in 2012 is being fined $200,000, the maximum allowed by law.

The Obit Page: Virginia Johnson, the female half of the Masters and Johnson sex research team died at age 88. She and Masters made sex a national discussion with the book “Human Sexual Response.” Little known was that when Masters hired Johnson he convinced her that having sex with him was part of the job. They married and divorced after 20 years.

What’s In a Name: According to two San Francisco news outlets, three staffers have been fired the Fox television station that reported bogus Asian names for the crew of the Asiana jet that crashed. You know: “Sum Ting Wong”. So far, the station has not explained how the obviously phony names made air. To put it in plain English for them, something is wrong.   

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