He's become a household name: Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., the brilliant orator and legal strategist who captained the Dream Team in the trial of the century. But behind the man the media created is a story of a life spent in the trenches of the American legal system, fighting not for clients as high-profile as O. J. Simpson but for individuals whose voices are too often silenced. JOURNEY TO JUSTICE is an unflinching portrait of Johnnie Cochran and the legal system that he has so profoundly influenced. It will forever change our understanding of what works and what doesn't in America's most noble and troubling institution.
"Studies in repetition and order, orchestrations of movement in the landscape, and elements placed in geometric conversation," is how author Mary Myers describes the twenty-five-year career of San Francisco-based landscape architect Andrea Cochran. Poetic language suits these functional and often lyrical works of art. They are sensuous, captivating oases that absorb the eye in a totality of spatial composition. Andrea Cochran: Landscapes presents eleven residential, commercial, and institutional landscape projects in detail, including Walden Studios in Alexander Valley, California; the sculpture garden for the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon; and the award-winning Children's Garden in San Francisco. Andrea Cochran seeks to put her clients' individual narratives in conversation with the land. Her work is distinguished by its careful consideration of site, climate, and existing architecture. A stacked plane of planters, each housing a different variety of succulent, mimics the compression found in hills banked against each other in the distance. Drawing on an encyclopedic knowledge of plant species, Cochran uses vegetation to blur edges, and porous and permeable materials to create grade changes that enlighten and disappear. Materials such as COR-TEN steel allow her to draw boundaries on the land with ultrathin edges while also reflecting the earthy tones of the soil beneath. Cochran's landscapes are clean, but not cold. In her hands, polished black concrete becomes both a quiet reflection of the sky and an instrument to amplify the sound of falling rain; locally quarried stone walls reflect the border walls between valley farms; twisted forms of olive respond to the spreading California oaks dotting distant hills. A combination of harmony, wonder, and surprise awaits wherever her sharp geometry and vibrant plant life meet. Featuring stunning photography, drawings, plans, and an essay by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art curator Henry Urbach, Andrea Cochran: Landscapes celebrates the first twenty-five years of a highly intuitive and reflective creative process.
Masculinity in America has never been under attack the way it is today. We have reached the point where the term itself is considered toxic or offensive to many. American men are conflicted as to what their role is in society. The consistent message that has proliferated in our nation is that masculinity, by nature, is bad and is the root cause of many of the problems plaguing our society. Everything from racism to pedophilia has been blamed on “toxic masculinity.” Some colleges and universities are now offering classes on how to overcome or be delivered from this very “threatening” phenomenon called “masculinity.” If men take up biblical mandates ordained by their Creator—no matter their color, nationality, station, upbringing, or education—a new vision can be cast and executed that will restore a civil and prosperous America for all.
An unexplained disappearance spirals into an unrelenting murder mystery. In October 2014, local Michigan police chief Laura Frizzo faced a perplexing missing-person case. It was not like Chris Regan, a devoted father and dependable employee, to take off without explanation. When Frizzo learned Chris was having an affair with Kelly Cochran, a married co-worker, suspicion fell on Kelly’s hulking husband, Jason. Soon after that the Cochrans abruptly moved to Indiana. Sixteen months later, Jason Cochran died from a drug overdose. Friends and family rallied around the grieving Kelly. But when the coroner ruled Jason’s death a homicide, no one reacted more bizarrely than his widow. Detectives tried to put Kelly’s past into focus. But the horrific truth was hidden under a near-perfect patchwork of lies. Veteran investigative journalist M. William Phelps expertly reveals Kelly Cochran’s staggering saga of murder, revenge, and payback. “Anything by Phelps is an eye-opening experience.” —Suspense Magazine “Phelps knows how to work it.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review “Master of true crime.” —Real Crime magazine
The most famous lawyer in America talks about the law, his life, and how he has won. Johnnie Cochran has been a lawyer for almost forty years. In that time, he has taken on dozens of groundbreaking cases and emerged as a pivotal figure in race relations in America. Cochran gained international recognition as one of America's best - and most controversial lawyers - for leading 'the Dream Team' defense of accused killer O.J. Simpson in the Trial of the Century. Many people formed their perception of Cochran based on his work in that trial. But long before the Simpson trial and since then Johnnie Cochran has been a leader in the fight for justice for all Americans. This is his story. Cochran emerged from the trial as one of the nation's leading African-American spokespersons - and he has done most of his talking through the courtroom. Abner Louima. Amadou Diallo. The racially-profiled New Jersey Turnpike Four. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. Patrick Dorismond. Cynthia Wiggins. These are the names that have dominated legal headlines - and Cochran was involved with each of them. No one who first encountered him during the Simpson trial can appreciate his impact on our world until they've read his whole story. Drawing on Cochran's most intriguing and difficult cases, A Lawyer's Life shows how he's fought his critics, won for his clients, and affected real change within the system. This is an intimate and compelling memoir of one lawyer's attempt to make us all truly equal in the eyes of the law.
Decades fighting other people’s fires prepared Kelvin Cochran to face his own fiery trial. He overcame poverty, prejudice, and pain to fulfill a childhood dream of helping others, rising to the top of firefighting’s professional ladder in Atlanta, Georgia. At one time nationally recognized as “America’s fire chief,” Kelvin unexpectedly found himself caught in a fireball of controversy over his orthodox Christian beliefs, for which he ultimately was fired by the city—making him a focal point in a national battle over religious freedom. Misrepresented by activists and the media, Kelvin relied on his faith to bring him through. In due course he emerged from the flames of scandal unscathed, like the friends of the prophet Daniel who were thrown into the burning furnace. Kelvin’s story is a sobering warning of how Christians faithful to biblical teachings are increasingly at risk of persecution in today’s culture. It is also an inspiring example of overcoming racial prejudice and adversity, and finding the courage to take the heat and stand for the truth.
A murder in her quaint British bookshop drops American Gothic novelist Penelope Parish into her deadliest caper yet. Penelope Parish is ready to close the book on her amateur sleuthing—from now on, The Open Book’s writer-in-residence will be sticking to villains of the fictional variety while she puts the final touches on her new novel. But when an author is murdered inside the bookshop, all of Upper Chumley-on-Stoke goes on high alert. Now it’s up to Pen and the quirky citizens of Chumley to stop a killer and protect the charming British town she’s begun to call home.
The story of Eddie Cochran, who started his recording career playing lead guitar and singing harmony with Hank Cochran in the hillbilly duet The Cochran Brothers. In the autumn of 1955, Eddie and Hank, who were unrelated, arrived in Dallas to play the Big D Jamboree, missing by days a young Elvis Presley's appearance. Inspired by rock 'n' roll, the 17-year-old Eddie moved away from country music to become one of the most sought-after guitarists on the West Coast of America. He wrote and recorded songs including Summertime Blues, C'mon Everybody, Something Else and Three Steps to Heaven. In 1960, he embarked on a tour of Britain. Easter Sunday, four months later, the tour was to end in tragedy. This work contains contributions from Cochran's family, friends, associates and fellow musicians, along with 100 rare photographs.
Resistance to malaria. Blue eyes. Lactose tolerance. What do all of these traits have in common? Every one of them has emerged in the last 10,000 years. Scientists have long believed that the "great leap forward" that occurred some 40,000 to 50,000 years ago in Europe marked end of significant biological evolution in humans. In this stunningly original account of our evolutionary history, top scholars Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending reject this conventional wisdom and reveal that the human species has undergone a storm of genetic change much more recently. Human evolution in fact accelerated after civilization arose, they contend, and these ongoing changes have played a pivotal role in human history. They argue that biology explains the expansion of the Indo-Europeans, the European conquest of the Americas, and European Jews' rise to intellectual prominence. In each of these cases, the key was recent genetic change: adult milk tolerance in the early Indo-Europeans that allowed for a new way of life, increased disease resistance among the Europeans settling America, and new versions of neurological genes among European Jews. Ranging across subjects as diverse as human domestication, Neanderthal hybridization, and IQ tests, Cochran and Harpending's analysis demonstrates convincingly that human genetics have changed and can continue to change much more rapidly than scientists have previously believed. A provocative and fascinating new look at human evolution that turns conventional wisdom on its head, The 10,000 Year Explosion reveals the ongoing interplay between culture and biology in the making of the human race.
