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Texas voting maps drawn by GOP lawmakers rejected by federal court as discriminatory
• SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Stadiums and hospitals removed from the districts of black congressional members and country clubs newly drawn into those of white incumbents. A lawyer emailing "No bueno" to a Republican staffer about plans that risked leaving a paper trail and jeopardizing the legality of a voting map.
• Those were among the evidence a Washington federal court used to determine that Texas Republican lawmakers discriminated against minorities while drawing new political boundaries, throwing out the maps as violations of the Voting Rights Act but likely not in time to affect the November elections.
• The decision Tuesday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is instead likely to reverberate in 2014, when some Texans could find their congressional and statehouse districts changed for the third time in five years.
• The long-awaited ruling was hailed as a sweeping victory by minority rights groups that sued the state after the Republican-controlled Legislature pushed through new redistricting maps last year. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott called the decision "flawed" and vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• "Better late than never," said Luis Vera, attorney for the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the groups that sued the state. "It's a hell of a victory."
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Artists use old prosthetic limbs to create pieces of art just as Paralympics opens in London
• LONDON (AP) -- Prosthetics can change the life of an amputee. But when an old limb no longer fits or just gets worn out, it can be hard to part ways with an item that offered the liberating chance to jump, dance or simply walk.
• Priscilla Sutton has a solution: turn these "pre-loved" limbs into artwork. The Australian curator came up with "Spare Parts London," an exhibition of altered prosthetics that has opened in time for the Paralympics, which start Wednesday.
• "I was cleaning my home and I found two old legs in my cupboard," said Sutton, a below-the-knee amputee. "I thought it was a bit crazy to keep hoarding my legs."
• The exhibition, which includes works by artists from Britain, Australia, the United States and Japan, comes as people are paying new attention to the devices.
• Public awareness of prosthetics has been heightened by the popularity of double (Continued on page 32)
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