After months of back-and-forth between a team of anthropological researchers at the University of South Florida, excavating human remains will begin on the grounds of the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys starting Aug. 31.

The exhumation comes after several setbacks in the course of the research team's efforts to exhume bodies at the school. Earlier this summer, Secretary of State Ken Detzner rejected the researchers' request for a permit to exhume bodies, saying his department did not have the authority to grant such a request.

As long as I've known Joe Negron, I've never seen him show as much emotion as he did Thursday listening to citizens -- many of them his neighbors -- pouring out their hearts, one after another, about the plight of the toxic, black St. Lucie estuary and Indian River Lagoon.

Buried in a New York Times story about the economy was this arresting statistic: Median family income for black Americans has declined a whopping 10.9 percent during the Obama administration. It has declined for other groups as well -- 3.6 percent for non-Hispanic whites and 4.5 percent for Hispanics -- but the figure for blacks is huge.