In brief: Appeals court upholds Wisconsin voter ID law
MADISON, Wis. – A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Wisconsin’s requirement that voters show photo identification at the polls is constitutional, a decision that is not surprising after the court last month allowed for the law to be implemented while it considered the case.
State elections officials are preparing for the photo ID law to be in effect for the Nov. 4 election, even as opponents continue their legal fight. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Advancement Project asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to take emergency action and block the law.
Opponents argue that requiring voters to show photo ID, a requirement that had, until recently, been on hold since a low-turnout February 2012 primary, will create chaos and confusion at the polls.
Bond villain and 7-Up pitchman Holder dies
NEW YORK – Geoffrey Holder, a Tony Award-winning director, actor, painter, dancer and choreographer who during an eclectic show business career led the groundbreaking show “The Wiz” to Broadway, pitched 7-Up on TV and played a scary villain in a James Bond film, has died.
Holder, 84, died Sunday of complications of pneumonia.
The 6-foot-6, Trinidad-born Holder won Tonys in 1975 for directing and designing the costumes for his all-black retelling of “The Wizard of Oz.” In 1978, he directed and choreographed the lavish Broadway musical “Timbuktu!” starring Eartha Kitt and earned another Tony nomination for best costumes.
On TV, Holder played roles on TV’s “Tarzan,” voiced the leader on the PBS Kids animated show “Cyberchase” and pitched 7-Up as “the un-cola” in a commercial in which he wore a white suit and hat, purring “maaarvelous” as he drank the soda.
Police: Girl, 4, gave away mom’s heroin at school
SELBYVILLE, Del. – A 4-year-old girl in Delaware passed out packets of heroin she found in her mother’s backpack Monday to her day care mates, thinking they contained candy, authorities said.
The Delaware State Police said in a news release that the girl found the bags in a backpack her mom gave her to use after hers was ruined by a family pet. The pack contained 249 bags of heroin weighing 3.7 grams.
Day care providers at the Hickory Tree Child Care Center called police when they noticed some children with the bags.
The girl’s mother is 30-year-old Ashley Tull, of Selbyville. She faces charges of maintaining a drug property and endangering the welfare of a child.