my pleasure to welcome lalita tademy and scott shafer. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. out of curiousity a show of hands how many of you have read the book? wow? >> you will have a chance to ask questions as well. bear with us. i don't think i need to summarize the back. sounds like everyone -- this is great. we heard a summary there. this is a story of resilience and about the brutality of slavery and the resourcefulness of your family going back several generations. i want to start at the end. your great grand mother emily grandma teet shart for

and here to tell us about his legacy and the future of the court, scott shafer, host of "california report kqed public radio. welcome, scott. >> thanks, belva. >> belva: so why was this announcement such a surprise? >> well, because there was every indication that ronald george was going to run again and stand for a reconfirmation for another 12-year term. he had indicated that in the past. there weren't any big problems on the court that he was trying to get away from. some of the budget issues seemed to be settled. and so it was a big surprise. there was no big campaign to oust him. so everyone just kind of assumed. and he's 70 years old, which for many people would seem like retirement age. but as judges go, it's really not that old. and so all of his colleagues were shocked to learn that he was deciding not to run again and they learned on the same day we did, which was this wednesday. >> belva: well, how much do you think politics played in this decision? he was the key judge in the proposition 8 decision. and that could have been some trouble for him coming up for reconfirmation. >>

. >> sreenivasan: on "newshour connect," we talked to reporter scott shafer of kqed, our pbs partner station in california, about the legal battle over prop 8, the law blocking gay marriage we have an update on border tensions between venezuela and colombia from a global post reporter in bogota. you can find out how liberal bloggers at the netroots nation conference in las vegas this week feel about democratic party leaders. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. jeff. >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. on monday, we'll look at the americans with disabilities act 20 years later. i'm jeffrey brown. >> lehrer: and i'm jim lehrer. "washington week" can be seen later this evening on most pbs stations. we'll see you online, and again here monday evening have a nice weekend. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been proved b and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you