Sanford

If Sanford city officials thought the police chief's departure would calm tempers arising from the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, Thursday night's rally in the teenager's honor proved them wrong. As speaker after speaker took the stage at a downtown park, they made one thing clear: They want George Zimmerman, the man who said he shot the 17-year-old, arrested, and they won't settle for anything less. "I pledge I will not let my son die in vain!" Martin's father, Tracy Martin, told a cheering crowd of several thousand after being introduced by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Bill Lee temporarily stepped down Thursday as police chief of Sanford, Fla., in the wake of complaints about how he handled the case of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager shot to death by a neighborhood watch officer. At a televised news conference, Lee announced that he was stepping aside because his leadership has become a distraction and had overshadowed the events of Feb. 26, when Martin, 17, was shot by George Zimmerman. “As a former homicide investigator, a career law enforcement officer and a father, I am keenly aware of the emotions associated with this tragic death of a child,” said Lee, who took the top police spot in May after his predecessor was pushed out because of another racially charged scandal.

The slaying of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black 17-year-old, by a neighborhood watch volunteer has prompted a federal investigation and, on Thursday, the temporary ouster of the city's police chief. To many black residents of Sanford, the escalating national anger over how local police have handled the case reflects years of tension and frustration over their treatment by authorities. Murray Jess, for one, can't shake the memory of an evening two years ago, as he drove through Sanford at dusk, heading home after attending an art show with his fiance and his 14-year-old nephew.

In a tense meeting Wednesday that highlighted growing tensions over the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager, city commissioners here passed a vote of no confidence in the police chief, as protests spread north to New York City, where the slain youth's parents joined a march demanding the killer's arrest. The no-confidence measure passed 3 to 2 after more than an hour of debate. Though it was not binding, the outcome and the public groans and applause that punctuated the debate underscored the anger pulsing through the Orlando suburb nearly a month after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death on Feb. 26. Most of that anger is focused on the fact that the admitted shooter, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, who has been described as both Latino and white, has not been arrested.

In a tense meeting Wednesday that highlighted growing tensions over the shooting deat h of an unarmed black teenager, local officials in Sanford, Fla., passed a vote of no confidence in the police chief as protests spread north to New York City, where the slain youth's parents joined a Manhattan march demanding the killer's arrest. The no-confidence measure passed 3 to 2 after more than an hour of debate, and though it was not binding, the outcome and the public groans and applause that punctuated the debate underscored the anger pulsing through the Orlando suburb nearly a month after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death on Feb. 26. Most of that anger is focused on the fact that the confessed shooter, 28-year-old George Zimmerman, who has been described as both Latino and white, has not been arrested.

Sanford "Sandy" McDonnell, the former chief executive of aerospace giant McDonnell Douglas Corp. who in the 1970s helped turn around the company started by his uncle, died Monday. He was 89. His death was announced by Boeing Co., which acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997. McDonnell's family told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at Thanksgiving 2010 and died at his home in Clayton, Mo. Although McDonnell Douglas was headquartered in St. Louis and was the region's largest company, it had a major presence in Southern California that continues to this day. The sprawling factory in Long Beach that now houses construction of Boeing's C-17 cargo planes is where McDonnell Douglas once produced commercial airliners, including the MD-80 and later the MD-95.

Relax, TV programmers. The teen viewer isn't going anywhere. The perception of today's teenagers is that of antsy kids bouncing back and forth between their computer screens and cellphones as they update their Facebook statuses and look at videos on Hulu and YouTube while texting their friends. The reality is that for all the time teens spend staring at small screens, it's still the television screen that gets most of their attention. "There is a popularized notion of the typical teenager constantly digitally connected....

Corporate turnaround expert Sanford C. Sigoloff, credited with leading ailing companies such as Wickes Cos. out of bankruptcy but criticized by many as a tough-as-nails boss, has died. He was 80. Sigoloff died of complications from pneumonia Saturday with his family by his side at his Brentwood home. He also had Alzheimer's disease. Sigoloff, whose stern voice and lean figure were familiar to millions of Southern Californians from his "We got the message, Mr. Sigoloff" television commercials for Wickes' now-defunct Builders Emporium chain, was an ace at salvaging debt-laden companies.

In his final few weeks as governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford is looking back on those disastrous several days of mid-2009 that he did not spend hiking the Appalachian Trail. Sanford was, as the Republican politician later admitted, doing other things in South America with a dear, dear Argentine friend who had become his mistress. Thus endeth the rising-star chapter of the married Bible Belt father who had been building impressive conservative credentials resisting some of President Obama's stimulus spending, in one of the early GOP primary states come 2012.

Hey, it must be the month for Father's Day because Mark Sanford has disappeared! Just like clockwork, the South Carolina governor has vanished again. Is he "hiking the Appalachian Trail" as he did last year? We don't know. We just know that the governor, who left South Carolina without a trace at this time a year go to meet up with his Argentinean "soul mate," sneaked out of his office again without telling Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer. The lieutenant governor, of course, is the one who would take over the affairs of the state when the governor isn't there.