As I’m sure you know, George Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder yesterday, a charge that surprised many legal experts who expected something more like manslaughter.

A small band of foreclosure fraud fighters in Florida, ground zero for the housing crisis, decided to get involved in public service at one of the most basic levels possible. These activists want to become the public official who tracks the transfer of mortgages in their respective counties. Sometimes this is called a register of deeds, or recorder of deeds, or a clerk of court. It’s traditionally a backwater for legacy types who, if they’re lucky, never get their name in the papers. But since the foreclosure fraud crisis, a few of these registers of deeds have shown real leadership in exposing criminal fraud in the mortgage document process. Inspired by their efforts, one of the leading foreclosure fraud activists in the nation, Lisa Epstein, is running for office.

Angela Corey, the special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case, announced Tuesday she will make her decision on whether to charge George Zimmerman within 72 hours — by Friday. And given recent events, her decision has become tougher, especially if she leans against prosecution.

President Obama has been hammering the so called “Buffett Rule” as a key part of his 2012 campaign and an important way to distinguish himself from Republicans on issues of economic justice and deficit reduction. Obama was in Florida today pushing the Buffett Rule, while his administration released a new report on it. But it wasn’t a priority when the Democrats controlled Congress, and the chances they’ll control it next year are slim.

David Ferguson reports that security rules around the Republican convention may preclude you from carrying a toy water squirt gun near the convention site, but Florida laws will prevent police from interfering with the state’s laws giving anyone the right to carry live guns and ammo. What could possibly go wrong?

One of the tropes most often used by the right-wing and often blatantly racist defenders of George Zimmerman, the man who shot an unarmed Trayvon Martin to death in a Florida gated community last month, was that Zimmerman was allegedly beaten to a bloody pulp by the 17-year-old boy he killed: Punched in the nose hard enough for it to break, knocked down, head slammed into the ground, dripping blood from his various wounds.

The tale of Zimmerman’s many serious wounds was already in question: For one thing, he refused medical attention when it was offered to him. And now, thanks to the release of this police surveillance video, we can now see that the tale of the bloodily-beaten Zimmerman is just so much nonsense.

Bill Lee, the chief of the Sanford Police Department, which has still failed to make an arrest in the killing of Trayvon Martin, has taken a temporary leave of absence. This came a day after a no-confidence vote from the city commissioners.

Protests have only grown in the Trayvon Martin case, both online and offline. Change.org now has nearly a million signatures on their petition to prosecute George Zimmerman for murder. Hundreds turned out in New York City yesterday for what they labeled the Million Hoodie March. And another protest will send mass amounts of Skittles to the Sanford, Florida police chief, Bill Lee, who released Zimmerman without charges after questioning in the case. Martin had just purchased Skittles and ice tea from a 7-Eleven and was returning to his home when he was confronted by Zimmerman.

The Justice Department and the FBI, responding to a growing display of outrage, will open an investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17 year-old African-American killed in a gated community in Sanford, Florida by a neighborhood watch captain. This follows a month of protests over the shooting and the failure of local authorities to arrest the shooter.

s it 2012? Yes, it is, but in Sanford, Florida (near Orlando), the clock winds back to the days of Deep South Justice. Unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was hunted down and gunned down for the heinous crime of “carrying Skittles while black.”