How Does This Happen In America? + Very Strange Juneteenth Event

ACROSS AMERICA — Carl E. Johnson had precious little time to get his stuff out of his Joliet, Illinois, home, which the city had declared a public nuisance. The air was thick with profanities when the demolition crews arrived.

Johnson, 62, moved out a few years ago after city officials declared it off limits, and a clowder of feral cats moved in. Still, Johnson and his sisters say the city was out of line.

“He's owned it for 30 years. ...,” one of the sisters told Patch’s John Ferak in Joliet. “I don't understand, here in America, how they can do this to a person?” Read the story on Joliet Patch.

Memo To North Carolina

Someone send the memo that Juneteenth is now an official holiday to groups scheduling activities at the historic Latta Plantation in North Carolina. Latta Plantation is closed after a dust-up over a Juneteenth event told from the perspective of former white slave owners (or “refugees”) and called racist on its face; county officials have severed ties with the museum that runs the place, and the big-money donors are holding onto their purses. Click those green links and read the full package via Huntersville Patch.

Fun Reads

9 Good News Stories: A collection of positive and uplifting stories from Patch editors all over the country, via Across America Patch.

Every Intern, And Many Of The Rest Of Us, Can Relate: An intern’s blunder tickles everyone on Twitter, via Across America Patch.

Jump, Go Ahead And Jump: Not only does Doug Hendrix fall from the sky, he breaks records; story and video via Ellington-Somers Patch.

You Gave Dad A Ridiculous Tie, Didn’t You? Fair or not, Father’s Day and Mother’s Day aren’t the same, via Across America Patch.

Weekly Facepalm Moment: This actually happened. A Florida town accidentally sold its water tower, via Tampa Patch.

Your Teenager Wants To Hook Up: They’re, ahem, eager. Here’s some advice via The Conversation on Across America Patch.

What We’re Reading: One of the best ways to defeat ignorance surrounding the holiday and the Black American experience is to read books, one educator says, via Across America Patch.

House Porn: You could get the Woolworth’s mansion for a steal as it heads to auction | New Jersey’s most expensive home just got $6 million cheaper | It’ll still cost you, but sellers knocked hundreds of thousand of dollars off this Bucks County, Pennsylvania, home.

“What they had to go through on their hands and knees to get those pennies off the ground, it was such a demeaning act. And to create something so beautiful that caught so many people's attention and lifted their hearts, I just think is amazing. It's absolutely incredible.”

— Cathy Easter, director of Safe Harbor, which received $47,000-plus in donations after a teen and her mom donated the 80,000-penny child support payment made her estranged dad, via Richmond Patch

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