Present:

Rene represents Bill after he is involved in a controversial shooting. Joe starts an aggressive campaign to market M.E.'s book.

Past:

M.E. suspects that Colliar is cheating on her with Rene.

Present:

Tillie Sims arrives for a visit and once again puts her son in jeopardy when a loan shark follows her from Florida looking for the money she owes him, prompting M.E. to give Tillie an ultimatum; worried that April's incoherent behavior means that she has a substance abuse problem, Rene forces her to take a drug test, which turns out negative; when April begins to exhibit delusional behavior, Rene gets Mrs. Samuels' permission to take her to a doctor.

Past:

After James is attacked by the police during the march on Selma, Elston and James disagree about the effectiveness of non-violent protest; after federal troops are sent in to protect the marchers, the entire Jackson family joins the march; Rene is forced to reconsider the practice of non-violence when she is tormented by Tully's constant bullying; Colliar's mother doesn't intervene when he is abused by his father.

Present:

Rene creates a firestorm a few days before the election when she admits during a call-in radio show that she experimented with drugs during the seventies; M.E. struggles for creative control when Kelly's sixth grade teacher asks her to sanitize the adaptation of ""Port Dixie"" that M.E. has been asked to create and direct for the Fall Drama Festival; Rene catches April smoking a joint and April admits that her mother is incarcerated on a drug-related charge; after visiting April's mother in prison and hearing her story, Rene campaigns for more equitable drug offense prosecution and sentencing; M.E. does her best to support and educate Kelly during the early stages of her pregnancy; Rene loses the election.

Past:

M.E. and Rene decide to emulate the Vietnam War protesters they see on television by chaining themselves to Port Dixie when they learn that it's to be carted away to make room for a housing development, but Grandma Otis shows them another way that their beloved hideaway

Present:

M.E. and Gail politely jostle over planning Emmett's first birthday party, but get into a really serious disagreement over his racial heritage. Gail insists that Emmett is a black child with a white mother and that everyone who looks at him will consider him black as well. M.E. maintains that he is biracial -- both Irish-American and African-American. When Kelly and M.E. find out that Emmett's birth certificate lists him only as black, they enlist Rene's help in getting it changed, so that Emmett will always know that he is part of two families that both love and fully accept him for all that he is. At the birthday party, the two grandmothers come to an understanding and agree to start new traditions for their families, blended and bonded by their love of Emmett.

Rene takes on a sexual discrimination case on behalf of a woman whose group health insurance carrier will cover the cost of Viagra, but not the cost of contraceptives. Joe is reluctant to take on the case at first, bu