GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP)—A weekly newspaper photo depicting President Barack Obama and his wife as characters from the TV sitcom “Sanford and Son” was intended as political satire and not a racist commentary, the publisher said May 5.

Phillip Sciarello, publisher and part owner of the Smithtown Messenger on New York’s Long Island, defended the decision to publish the photo, but added the newspaper would run a retraction in its next edition for anyone who might have been offended.

CONTROVERSIAL PHOTO—In this page copied from the Smithtown Messenger weekly newspaper May 5, a group of photos showing recent presidents with their wives in a “before and after” sequence is shown.

CLEVELAND (AP)—An Ohio man tasted freedom for the first time in nearly 30 years May 5 after a judge vacated his conviction because DNA evidence showed he did not rape an 11-year-old girl.

“It finally happened, I’ve been waiting,” Raymond Towler, 52, said as he hugged sobbing family members in the courtroom.

He walked from the courthouse, arms around relatives, amid the smell of freshly cut grass, blooming trees and a brisk wind off Lake Erie. He was headed to an “everything on it” pizza party.

RAYMOND TOWLER

CHICAGO (AP)—A judge in Chicago ordered sheriff’s deputies to take Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade’s estranged wife into custody after she failed to show up for a divorce hearing.

Siohvaughn Wade will have to post $10,000 bond to be released, Cook County Circuit Judge Marya Nega said.

The sheriff’s department couldn’t immediately say when the order would be carried out.

NO SHOW—This June 22, 2006, photo shows Siohvaughn Wade, wife of Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade, at the NBA store in New York.

Week of May 14-20

May 14

1885—Erskine Henderson, an African-American jockey, won the Kentucky Derby on “Joe Cotton”—a horse trained by Alex Perry—an African-American trainer. Henderson was the sixth Black jockey to win the coveted race. Indeed, Black jockeys and trainers dominated the Kentucky Derby from 1875 to 1902. However, while some of the reasons are not entirely clear, it appears that as the race became more and more prosperous Black jockeys and trainers were forced out.