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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-cpventure29sep29,0,884581.story
Couple revive forum for friendships
Social outlet for gay community gains popularity
By Ivette M. Yee
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
Online chat rooms and smoke-filled bars such as H.G. Roosters and Kashmir offer a way to socialize, but for some gay people in Palm Beach County,finding other places to make friends isn't easy.
Kevin Lerner and Rudy Flugel know this all too well, so the Delray Beachcouple resurrected Venture Out Florida, a free social group for gay,lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Broward and Palm Beach counties.With about $200 of their own money and by spreading the word through postcards and friends, they got it off the ground.
In a year, membership has climbed to more than 400. Many in the group useVenture Out's Web site, www.ventureoutflorida.com, not for a hook up, but totruly connect with others outside of the weekly planned events, whichinclude potluck dinners, beach trips and movie dates.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/Opinion/On_drilling__no_news_.shtml
On drilling, no news is good news
A Times Editorial
Published September 29, 2006
Need some good news out of Congress for a change? Here it is: "We can't do anything." Believe it or not, those words are good news for Floridians. Theywere spoken by Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate EnergyCommittee, about the prospects for offshore drilling legislation this year.
Both the House and Senate passed bills that would expand drilling in theeastern Gulf of Mexico, but the two bills contained significant differences.While those differences reportedly narrowed some during secret negotiations,any compromise would still move drilling closer to Florida beaches. TheSenate bill offered better protection, keeping oil rigs at least 125 milesoff most of the Florida coast, and 235 miles off Pinellas beaches. The Housebill would allow drilling within 100 miles, or even 50 miles, of shore.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/Business/667_an_hour.shtml
$6.67 an hour
By Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2006
That will be Florida's new minimum hourly wage as of Jan. 1, up 27 centsfrom this year's minimum of $6.40. Florida's state labor agency unveiled theincreased 2007 wage, adjusted for inflation, on Thursday. Florida's minimumwage will be $1.52 more than the $5.15 federal minimum wage and up from $6.15 in 2005, the first year Florida set its wage above the nation's.
© Copyright, St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/nation/epaper/2006/09/29/a6a_foley_0929.html
Foley camp: Release of e-mails with teen 'political attack'
By Larry Lipman
Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
Friday, September 29, 2006
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's campaign Thursday called the disclosureof a series of e-mails between the congressman and a 16-year-old former congressional page a "political attack and ... the worst kind of character assassination."
But the campaign of Foley's challenger, Democrat Tim Mahoney, denied he was behind the release of the e-mails and said the issue should be "a matter forthe appropriate authorities to investigate."
The e-mails - which Foley spokesman Jason Kello said Foley wrote a yearago - publicly surfaced Sunday on an Internet blog site devoted to exposingsexual predators.
In the five e-mails sent from his personal account, Foley asks the page - whose identity is being withheld - when his birthday is, how old he will be,what he likes to do, and what he wants for his birthday. Foley also asks theteenager to send him a photograph.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/29/news_pf/State/Bid_to_halt_execution.shtml
Bid to halt execution says death penalty is flawed
By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 29, 2006
Last week, the American Bar Association issued a 403-page report thatreprehended Florida's handling of the death penalty.
Today, renowned death penalty defense attorney Martin McClain hopes thereport will keep the state from executing one of his clients.
McClain filed a motion Thursday asking a judge to vacate the conviction andsentence of Arthur Rutherford, who was sent to death row for killing a womanin Santa Rosa County in 1985.
In a 56-page motion, McClain cited numerous examples from the ABA reportoutlining the problems in Florida's death penalty system.
"The report makes it clear that Florida's death penalty system is seriouslyflawed and is not fair or reliable," McClain said Thursday."This is from a comprehensive investigation performed by a panel thatincludes judges and prosecutors."
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/politics/15634698.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
CAMPAIGN 2006
Democrats ask Nelson to spread wealth
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson has a $1,000-per-person fundraiser at Dolphin Stadium today to fatten a campaign account that is Congress' third-largest.
By LESLEY CLARK AND BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, leading his Republican challenger by miles in the polls and millions in the bank, says he will do everything he can to helpfellow Democrats below his name on the Nov. 7 ballot.
But some strategists, elected officials and activists are anxious aboutwhether the party's only statewide officeholder in Florida is spreading the wealth. Nelson, who surpassed U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris by 18 points in thelatest Mason-Dixon poll, had $12 million socked away as of mid-August,compared to Harris' $2.2 million.
Meanwhile, two Democrats immersed in competitive statewide races -- AlexSink for chief financial officer and Walter ''Skip'' Campbell for attorneygeneral -- are barely keeping up with their Republican opponents. TheDemocratic contender for governor, Jim Davis, has $411,455, while RepublicanCharlie Crist boasts $2 million plus the multi-million-dollar advantage ofhis state party's coffers.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/15634378.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Sep. 29, 2006
RACE FOR CONGRESS
Poll puts Klein, Shaw even
A poll sponsored by state Sen. Ron Klein shows he has advanced steadily in his race against U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw.
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD
ebolstad@MiamiHerald.com
A poll released Thursday by state Sen. Ron Klein's campaign shows the Democratic challenger has pulled even with his Republican opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw.
The poll shows Klein leading Shaw 43 to 42 percent, said Klein's campaign spokesman, Brian Smoot. That's a major uptick from August, when the campaign's polling showed Shaw leading Klein 48 to 41 percent, Smoot said.The poll's margin of error is 4.4 percent.
Smoot attributes the numbers to the intensity of the television advertising campaign, which began July 23.''I think one of the biggest things I would attribute this to is that folks in this district aren't happy with the direction of the country,'' Smoot said. 'I think the continued stubborn support of the failed policy of this Bush administration and no oversight on the war in Iraq is weighing on voters' minds.''
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail782xsep29,0,279795.story?coll=sfla-news-letters
Orioles are selling Brooklyn Bridge
M.L. Gibson
Hallandale Beach
September 29, 2006
Let's see if I've got this right: Taxpayers will be paying to revamp abaseball stadium complex, to tear down an existing self-supporting stadiumand to build practice to replace it, just to humor the Orioles into staying.All so we can, what? Pay the Orioles to watch six weeks of their MajorLeague practice games. Now there's something people are falling all overthemselves to see. Anyone see anything wrong with this besides me?
The Orioles are selling sunshine and the London Bridge and unbelievably theFort Lauderdale and county commissions have the audacity to consider buying.They are entertaining spending a huge amount of money (we all know it justcan't be put to better use elsewhere) on something that for all intents andpurposes costs them little to maintain and are still able to use.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-creplace29sep29,0,7737079.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Broward School Board race draws one teacher and two politicians
By Jean-Paul Renaud
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Education Writer
September 29, 2006
The candidates to replace Carole Andrews on the Broward School Board are astate representative, a Dania Beach commissioner who recently resigned and ahigh school teacher.
Voters in Dania Beach, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach will head to the pollson Nov. 7 to choose a successor for Andrews, who resigned this month becauseof failing health. If none of the candidates receive more than 50 percent ofthe vote, a runoff election will be held Dec. 5.
Eleanor Sobel, 60, was first elected to the Legislature in 1998. Beforethat, she was a Hollywood city commissioner for six years. Sobel hadintended to run for the state Senate in 2008, but she says those plans are on the back burner.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pfoley29sep29,0,1504251.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Teenage congressional page 'freaked out' by e-mail exchange with Rep. Foley
By Joel Hood
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, has come under fire for the appropriateness of e-mails exchanged with a 16-year-old congressional page.
In a series of e-mails between the six-term incumbent and the page lastyear, Foley asks about the teenager's schooling, an upcoming birthday andrequests a picture.
" ... did you have fun at your conference ... what do you want for yourbirthday coming up ... what stuff do you like to do," Foley wrote in one e-mail obtained by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Another read: " ... are you safe ... send me a pic of you as well ... "
ABCNews.com reported Thursday that the 16-year-old page became uncomfortable with the dialog and forwarded the e-mails to an associate on Capitol Hill.In an excerpt reported on ABCNews.com, the page wrote: "Maybe it is just me being paranoid, but seriously. This freaked me out."
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pchurch29sep29,0,6357375.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Police: Two Delray priests spent stolen $8.6 million on girlfriends, gambling, property
Pair accused of leading secret lives using money taken from collectionplates
By Jerome Burdi and Mike Clary
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 29, 2006
Delray Beach -- In a bold scheme carried out over decades, two respectedpriests are accused of stealing more than $8.6 million in cash from thecollection plates at St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic Church to bankroll lavishsecret lives that included steady girlfriends, investments in property inFlorida and Ireland and gambling junkets to casinos in Las Vegas and theBahamas.
Arrested on a grand-theft charge was retired Monsignor John A. Skehan, 79,who was pastor at St. Vincent for more than 40 years. He was picked up atPalm Beach International Airport on Wednesday night after returning fromIreland.
"He was very remorseful," Delray Beach Detective Thomas Whatley said. Skehanwas in the Palm Beach County jail Thursday in lieu of $400,000 bond.
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