Three things about the place where I live, ease of adoptions, and the culture of diversity.

Sun-Sentinel reports: No China Consulate for South Florida...Yet.

This one is interesting -- right now, the only Chinese consulates in the U.S. are in Houston, D.C., New York and the two big cities in California. If you remember that MLA map showing where "Chinese-speaking" people live, this kind of lines up with that reality. The idea that one would open up close to where I live pleases me. Of course, it's all politics.

China asked Washington last May for permission to open additional consulates in
Atlanta and Boston, but has yet to receive the go-ahead. The United States wants approval to open more consulates in China before it grants China's requests, U.S. officials have said.

"We have to go step by step. Next, maybe Miami," Consul Hua Jinzhou said after a
breakfast with more than 50 South Florida executives in Miami at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a Hong Kong-based chain.

On the less-pleasing tip, there's the baffling new struggle over a Confederate flag license plate (baffling in the "what are they really thinking?" sense). I like history, but I also understand that it's still going on. But, on the other hand, there's always an other hand in the place where I live.

Five years after Gov. Jeb Bush removed the Confederate flag from the rear steps of the Capitol, a group of men wearing Confederate grays sang Dixie before announcing Friday they want a state-sanctioned license plate bearing what may be the nation's most divisive symbol.

"Confederate heritage and Florida heritage are not only historically linked, but they're woven into the fabric of our daily life here in Florida," said Doug Dawson, commander of the Florida Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The Florida group, composed of men who can trace their lineage to individuals who served in the Confederate army, said they plan to start the process for a specialty license plate next week.

The license plate features the words "Confederate Heritage" beneath a crest bearing four flags flown over Florida during its 1861-1865 Confederate era, as well as the state's first flag.

"Tell me you're joking," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, when told of the group's effort.

The tag is "an insult to all people of the African diaspora," said Wilson, vice-chairman of the Florida Caucus of Black Legislators.

"That kind of license plate just brings up additional bigotry, the vestiges of slavery and racism and every other word you can think of that's very harmful and painful to African-American people," she said. "These people need to be stopped in their tracks."

But H.K. Edgerton, a black North Carolina resident who has promoted the Confederate flag — which he refers to as the "Christian cross of St. Andrew" — led the group's rendition of Dixie and said afterward that blacks should be educated about their role in the Civil War. He said that whites and blacks have been "shamed and beaten down" into denying their heritage.

On the other other hand, you said something about "shamed and beaten down" in the Tallahassee area?

Driving While Black earns stiff penalties in the Panhandle. Which result in some pretty steep damage payments.

Cynthia was searched twice.

The second time, while she was standing on the side of the road after midnight, she was forced to pull her pants down while a female officer searched her with a flashlight.

"She was a very young girl at the time," Arnetta McCloud said after the verdict. "It's been very stressful."

Arnetta McCloud said the trial "was not all about the money."

"It was letting everybody know what happened to us on that dark road that night," she said. "We thank God first. There is justice in the United States."

The McClouds said that after the strip-searches, deputies forced them to return to a relative's home in Monticello where they had been celebrating Arnetta's birthday. The McClouds said they were moving the party to another family member's home in Tallahassee when they were pulled over.

During the search of the Monticello home, deputies used racial slurs and dragged family members from their beds, the McClouds said.

Deputies denied those claims in court, saying there were no strip-searches and that the family consented to a search of the Monticello home.

OK, maybe there was an informant who bought drugs from somebody. But this being where it is, I'd need to be convinced that was the case. Because, in the place where I live, history is still going on, no matter how ethnically diverse we get.