The reality TV beauties looked stunning as they showed their support for the Smart Girls Fake It campaign at the London Film Museum.
At last night's bash TOWIE's Jess, 26, showed off her long legs in a short hot pink dress, and accessorised with matching peep-toe heels.
And her former co-star on the ITV2 show, Amy, 22, looked glam in a pink lace knee-length number as she arrived at the do with new fella Take Me Out hunk David Peters.
David looked dapper in a grey jacket and black jeans.
TOWIE star Billi Mucklow, who kept up the rose-coloured trend, also attended the party with best pal Cara Kilbey.
Billi, 24, looked fab in her McBerry feather dress, which she teamed with a matching clutch and nude wedge heels.
Meanwhile former Big Brother star Nikki Grahame, 30, continued the pink theme in a shapeless shift dress.
And she proudly showed off her cast after breaking her arm recently in the sleeveless number.
Other guests at the star-studded Now magazine and Fake Bake bash included Nicola McLean, Lizzie Cundy, Cheska Hull, Mick Norcross, Jessica-Jane Clement, Perez Hilton and Katie Piper.
The Smart Girls Fake It campaign is urging people to look after their skin this summer and not get sunburnt.
Source: www.thesun.co.uk
ACLU: Emails show racial bias in immigration law - USA Today
Dozens of emails are cited in a new legal effort by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups to block police from enforcing the Arizona law's so-called "show me your papers" provision recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The groups said the emails and other material reveal that ex-Sen. Russell Pearce and other supporters of the law known as SB1070 embraced discriminatory views and bent the truth about immigration-related matters, setting the stage for enactment of a law that the groups contend will lead to racial profiling if enforced.
Russell is the architect of Arizona's immigration law.
The use of the emails in the court filing later Tuesday was reported Friday by The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/OzRYIx ).
Pearce on Friday denied discriminatory intent in championing the law, telling The Associated Press that the civil rights groups falsely portray him as a racist and that the law includes protections against racial profiling.
"Nobody wants to talk about that," he said. "I've been attacked for years. I don't expect it to stop."
The motion cited dozens of emails that were sent, received or forwarded by Pearce. Many of the emails asserted costs and troubles associated with illegal immigration, including crime and increased demand for public services such as education and health care.
Pearce has made countless public statements to that effect in recent years, while repeatedly saying he just wants federal and state officials to enforce laws against illegal immigration.
In one article forwarded by Pearce from one of his email accounts to another in 2006, a commentator spoke of the United States "facing an overwhelming illegal alien invasion" in which Hispanic illegal immigrants were "arrogantly corrupting our unifying national language while actively disrespecting our culture, society and country."
A 2007 email sent from Pearce's legislative email account to a personal Pearce account said illegal immigration of Spanish-speakers puts the country's status as an English-speaking country at risk.
"It's like importing leper colonies and hope we don't catch leprosy," the email stated. "It's like importing thousands of Islamic jihadists and hope they adapt to the American dream."
The five-page email contained multiple references to conditions in Arizona, but Pearce said the leprosy reference was from material written by a man in Colorado.
"I forward a lot of his stuff. Much of it is right on," Pearce said.
The Arizona law's so-called "papers" provision requires police to check the immigration status of people they stop for other reasons if there is reasonable suspicion the people are in the country illegally.
The high court on June 25 rejected the Obama administration's argument that the provision was unconstitutional because federal law trumps state law. But the civil rights group now argues that it should be blocked because Latinos in Arizona would face systematic racial profiling and unreasonably long detentions.
The civil rights groups' motion argues that discriminatory intent by legislative supporters of the law would help prove that it violates the Constitution's right to equal protection under the law.
Jack Chin, a University of California-Davis law school professor, said courts typically are more interested in details of laws or their enforcement, and that legislative emails and questionable claims of fact have limited value as evidence.
"If we're talking about the bad views of one legislator, even an important legislator, that's going to be a hard sell because the majority of legislators who voted for the thing might not have been racially motivated," Chin said.
A spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer said the groups' arguments are a smoke screen that won't succeed in court.
"By focusing upon an individual legislator's emails, they intend to divert focus from SB1070's simple, common-sense language — language that the overwhelming majority of Arizonans and Americans support, and language that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld," said Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson.
Pearce was Arizona Senate president when he was ousted from the Legislature after losing a November 2011 recall election. He is running for re-election to the state Senate.
Source: www.usatoday.com
Older Adults Protest New Voter ID Law at Philadelphia Rally - YAHOO!
To: CITY, POLITICAL AND STATE EDITORS
Senior Advocacy Groups File Court Brief Supporting Legal Challenge
PHILADELPHIA, July 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hundreds of older Pennsylvanians yesterday protested the implementation of Pennsylvania's new voter ID law by chanting "Don't Block My Vote" at a midday rally near Independence Mall in Center City Philadelphia.
The rally followed Wednesday's filing of an Amicus (friend of the court) brief in Commonwealth Court by nine senior advocacy organizations supporting a lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania's new Voter ID law that is scheduled for trial July 25 in Harrisburg. The coalition of senior organizations filing the Amicus court brief includes: Senior LAW Center; AARP; Pennsylvania Association of Area Agencies on Aging; Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly; Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans; the Pennsylvania Homecare Association; ElderNet of Lower Merion and Narberth; the Institute for Leadership, Education, Advancement and Development, and Intercommunity Action, Inc.
"As a non-partisan organization, AARP opposes the voter ID law as a matter of fairness," said AARP Pennsylvania State Director Ivonne Gutierrez Bucher. "Thousands of older Pennsylvanians could be shut out of the voting process this November simply because they don't have the right kind of identification required by Pennsylvania's new voter ID law."
Senior advocates believe the new voter ID law particularly disenfranchises older adults--especially those with disabilities or from economically disadvantaged populations. According to a national study, nearly one in five citizens over 65 lacks a current, government issued photo ID. Older adults often give up their driver's license or may never have had one. Seniors are also more likely to lack raised seal birth certificates necessary to acquire a new photo ID.
"For many older Pennsylvanians, the burden of obtaining the required documentation in terms of dollars, time and difficulty will make exercising their franchise so difficult and costly as to effectively deny them the right to vote," said Karen Buck, Executive Director of the Philadelphia-based Senior Law Center.
Joining advocates for older adults at yesterday's rally were Philadelphia City Commissioner Stephanie Singer; Reggie Shuford, Executive Director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania; John Chin, Executive Director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, Vice President and Policy Director for the Committee of Seventy, and David Castro, President of the Institute for Leadership, Education, Advancement and Development.
Recently-released figures from the Pennsylvania Department of State show more than 750,000 individuals statewide could have trouble voting this fall because they don't have a current PennDOT photo ID, representing nine percent of the state's registered voters. Voting rights advocates have also raised concerns about the state's ability to educate older adults about new ID requirements and provide the necessary free IDs in time for November's General Election.
On May 1, The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the Advancement Project, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP), and the Washington, DC law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of ten Pennsylvania voters and three prominent advocacy organizations, alleging that the state's voter photo ID law violates the Pennsylvania Constitution by depriving citizens of their right to vote. A trial has been scheduled for July 25 at the Judicial Center in Harrisburg.
"This law deprives many eligible voters in the commonwealth--disproportionately the poor, minorities, senior citizens, young voters and people with disabilities--of their fundamental right to vote," said Marian K. Schneider of the Advancement Project, one of the lead attorneys on the Voter ID legal team. "If this law is allowed to stand it will disenfranchise thousands of voters in Pennsylvania who cannot overcome the law's many hurdles and will undermine the basic fabric of our democracy."
CONTACT: Angela Foreshaw, AARP PA (267) 825-9922 or aforeshaw@aarp.org or Steve Gardner, AARP PA (717) 237-6481 or sgardner@aarp.org
SOURCE AARP Pennsylvania
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Source: news.yahoo.com
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