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Way before Barack Obama broke the color barrier to become president of the USA, Thurgood Marshall broke that barrier for another of the most powerful and important positions in the country, that of Supreme Court Justice. After graduating from high school with honors he applied to the University of Maryland law school where he was not accepted because he was black. Instead, he went to Howard University and received his law degree in 1933.

Before being appointed Supreme Court Justice, he had a stellar career from 1934 to 1961 as a lawyer for the NAACP where he won landmark civil rights cases. Beginning in 1940, Marshall won 29 of 323 US Supreme Court cases. One of his first big cases was Smith vs. Allwrite in 1944 which overthrew the South’s “White Primary”. The White Primary was a practice of excluding African Americans from the Democratic Party. It was most common in a state where that party controlled the state government.

In 1954 Marshall achieved a landmark victory with the case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. This Supreme Court decision demolished the legal basis for segregation in the USA. It also made state-enforced racial segregation in public schools invalid.

In 1961 he was appointed the the US Court of Appeals by President Kennedy. He was the first African American on the Court of Appeals and went on to be appointed to the Second Court of Appeals. President Johnson made him the Solicitor General in 1965 and later in 1967 President Johnson nominated him for the Supreme Court.

On the Supreme Court he was a steadfast supporter of positive gender and racial action policies and in his 24 years on the court he became a vocal liberal on a conservative-dominated court. He was an ardent supporter of Constitutional protection of individual rights, in particular the rights of criminal suspect versus the government. Marshall’s backing of Affirmative Action led to his strong dissent in the Regents of the University of California vs. Blake in 1978. Justice William Brennan was Marshall’s most reliable confederate who voted with him against the death penalty.

Citing poor health, Thurgood Marshall stepped down from the court in 1991 and remained a vocal critic of the court until his death in 1993 at the age of 84.

Next week I will be on the road so it will be fun to see how Emily handles the Apple quarterly results that are going to be announced on Tuesday. I guess I’d better write that up in my hotel room from the road.

Last year, most of our plants suffered while we were gone. Between the lack of water and the chickens we had to do a lot of work to get them back. I installed a nice drip irrigation system this year but we will still have chicken invasions. For those of you that don’t know, Key West protects wild chickens and they are everywhere. That must be why Grace loves Key West so much!

Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

_Don, Emily, Hadley & Amy_

_Hello Friends,_

The big winter storm called Jonas is heading for the east coast and Vermonters are hoping that it tracks north of the current projections but it looks like it might miss northern New England and hit the coastal areas. The lack of snow in Vermont and the unusually high temperatures have hit the Vermont ski areas and local merchants pretty hard. Here it is the end of January and no significant snow in Vermont. Well for all the skiers and especially for the businesses I hope that those areas that can’t really handle snow get bypassed and Vermont gets the big dump because Vermonters are ready.

Down here in Key West it has been sort of cool meaning I have to wear long pants and shoes, although if it was this warm in Vermont everyone would be in shorts. Down here when it gets below 65 you see people with down coats. NOAA reported this week that 2015 was the warmest year in recorded history breaking the record from 2014 by far.

Apple honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on its home page on the national holiday on Monday with Dr. King’s quotation “Life’s most persistent and urgent questions is, What are you doing for others”. Tim Cook tweeted his respects, too. I had the honor of marching with Dr. King and share this respect, he was truly one of the great Americans of all time

We always advertise our “Celebrate Diversity” slogan during this time of the year. We strongly feel that you gain strength through diversity whether it is race, religion, national origin or sexual orientation. I remember a long time ago we had a series of Celebrate Diversity web banners that created a lot of controversy with some sites refusing to run them. Diversity is much more mainstream now despite some candidates for President attempting to divide us.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes Exclusive is weather related with $20 off the “**Tempus Pro Bluetooth Weather Stations.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002127/special-save-20-on-tempus-pro-bluetooth-weather-station This was one of the most popular gifts this holiday season and is a great way to keep track of the weather in your microclimate. This complete weather station includes indoor and outdoor sensors that measure temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind and barometric pressure. Complete with mounting hardware it is simple to install and once you download the App you can monitor the weather on your iPhone or iPad. Read a Small Dogger review of the Tempus Pro “**here.**”:http://blog.smalldog.com/article/fody-weather-station/ Normally, $159.99 this week Kibbles & Bytes readers can get the Tempus Pro Weather Station for only **$139.99**

_Dear Friends,_

I tuned into the Apple special “Let Us Loop You In” event on my Apple TV. We will talk about the new hardware and software but there were a few things that caught my attention that really help to define Apple as a truly different company.

The first was Apple’s environmental commitment. They now boast that 90% of their operations, worldwide, are powered by renewable energy and 100% in the USA. This is a unique accomplishment that is made even more remarkable by Apple’s size. While Small Dog Electronics is proud to power our Waitsfield headquarters and S. Burlington store by solar energy, we have not yet reached the point of powering all our operations which is something Apple has done both by purchasing renewable energy and installing large scale solar arrays at their locations both in the USA and China.

Their environmental commitment goes further with an awareness of the impact their products have on the waste stream. They made a point to describe the materials used which have lower impact and talked about their recycling program, too. The robot, Liam, that disassembles iPhones into its component parts was very cool and is a further demonstration of Apple’s leadership in environmental stewardship.

The other part of the announcement that caught my eye was the extension of Apple’s altruistic Research Kit tool that has helped researchers gather data on several chronic diseases. CareKit takes that a step further, offering tools that help patients and their medical providers manage those chronic diseases. They already have several new apps in development, including one that provides post-surgical care monitoring and another for diabetes monitoring. Research Kit and CareKit are both open-source software that do not necessarily provide any revenue stream for Apple but provides the tools to improve health. I am very proud of Apple for its initiatives in these areas.

This week’s Kibbles & Bytes exclusive is a “**home and away USB charger bundle.**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002185/home-and-away-usb-charger-bundle-one-for-the-car-one-for-home This features the Hammerhead 2-port USB Automotive charger and the Hammerhead 2-port wall charger. Both have sufficient power to charge both an iPhone and iPad. If you are like me, you can never have too many chargers and this bundle is a great way to get a spare for you home and car! Normally, this bundle is $34.98 but exclusively for Kibbles & Bytes readers this week, it is $10 off at “**$24.98!**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002185/home-and-away-usb-charger-bundle-one-for-the-car-one-for-home