Choir member Denise Beumer took offense to the conductor's inclusion of Rock-a-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody, a tune made famous in 1918 by performer Al Jolson in blackface. It includes the words "Mammy" and "Old Black Joe."

"It connotes slavery," said Beumer, 49, one of two black members of the group, who had been scheduled to sing two solos in the July 21 show. "When we are saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing God Bless America, that means something to me. But then when we throw this song in, it's almost like a mockery of 9/11."

Beumer asked music director Dale Burke to remove the song, but he refused.

Burke told the Orlando Sentinel he offered to change "Mammy" to "Mommy" and "Old Black Joe" to "Old Man Joe." He also offered to let Beumer leave the stage during the song, but she said that would be humiliating.

Childers switches lawyers for his bribery trial

PENSACOLA -- W.D. Childers has hired a new attorney to help defend him against felony bribery and money laundering charges.

Childers, the former Florida Senate president who was elected to the Escambia County Commission after being forced out of the Legislature by term limits, said he has chosen West Palm Beach criminal attorney Richard Lubin to defend him. The trial date isn't set.

Childers was suspended from the commission after being charged with illegally discussing public business in private with another commissioner last year. He was convicted of violating the state's open-records Sunshine Law and faces sentencing later this month. Fred Levin, a close friend, was his attorney in that case.

The criminal case is more serious. Childers faces a maximum possible sentence of 25 years and $20,000 fine if convicted on one money laundering and two bribery counts growing out of the commission's vote to purchase a former soccer field.

Childers said this week he has never met Lubin, but "I know him by reputation."

Among Lubin's clients have been prominent attorney F. Lee Bailey, who was disbarred for mishandling a client's money, and millionaire Allen Blackthorne, who was convicted of having his former wife killed.

State's high court refuses to take over canker case

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Supreme Court refused Thursday to take on the legal fight over the state's citrus canker eradication law, which was found unconstitutional by a Broward County judge.

The 4th District Court of Appeal on Tuesday asked the high court to take over the case, as requested by the state Department of Agriculture.

In Thursday's unanimous order, the Supreme Court noted that the "underlying litigation has been ongoing and is still pending in the trial court." The 4th DCA can handle any emergency matters, the order added.

Agriculture officials are appealing a decision by Circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet in May that struck down a law allowing agriculture workers to cut down all citrus trees within 1,900 feet of a tree infected with canker. Fleet also ruled that the state must obtain specific warrants to search each property for canker.

2 men sue Miami priest, claiming sexual abuse

MIAMI -- A Miami priest already on administrative leave was sued Thursday by two men who said they were molested by him during the 1980s.

The separate lawsuits accuse the Rev. Jose Nickse, 56, a longtime pastor of St. Brendan Catholic Church, of abusing an altar boy for two years and fondling a young parishioner after the boy expressed sexual curiosities in confession.

In one suit, Richard Fiallo, 31, said Nickse took an interest in him when he was 12, after he became an altar server at the church.

The second suit was filed by a 36-year-old man, referred to only as "John Doe," who said the priest fondled him when he was 16.

Nickse was placed on administrative leave in early June because of an allegation of abuse.

-- Wire reports

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