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http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid37216.asp
October 06, 2006
Investigating "the congressional closet"
In September 1996 The Advocate ran a story by J. Jennings Moss titled "Onthe record," which has been repeatedly cited as the deliberate outing ofcongressmen Jim Kolbe (pictured) and Mark Foley. Decide for yourself. Here'sthe original text of that now infamous investigation.
By J. Jennings Moss
On the record
Heated debate over House approval of the antigay Defense of Marriage Actshines a wary spotlight on the congressional closet.
They spoke to their colleagues-and the nation-from experience. They arguedthat by passing a bill that defines marriage strictly as a union between aman and a woman, the House was trampling on the civil rights of gays andlesbians. They were talking about their own rights as gay men. And everybodyknew it.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/business/08religious.html?ei=5094&en=1b166af956151524&hp=&ex=1160280000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
October 8, 2006
In God's Name
Secular Laws Cede to Religious Exemptions
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
At any moment, state inspectors can step uninvited into one of the three child care centers that Ethel White runs in Auburn, Ala., to make sure they meet state requirements intended to ensure that the children are safe. There must be continuing training for the staff. Her nurseries must have two sinks, one exclusively for food preparation. All cabinets must have safety locks. Medications for the children must be kept under lock and key, and refrigerated.
The Rev. Ray Fuson of the Harvest Temple Church of God in Montgomery, Ala., does not have to worry about unannounced state inspections at the day care center his church runs. Alabama exempts church day care programs from state licensing requirements, which were tightened after almost a dozen children died in licensed and unlicensed day care centers in the state in two years.
The differences do not end there. As an employer, Ms. White must comply with the civil rights laws; if employees feel mistreated, they can take the center to court. Religious organizations, including Pastor Fuson's, are protected by the courts from almost all lawsuits filed by their ministers or other religious staff members, no matter how unfairly those employees think they have been treated.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/washington/08culture.html?ei=5094&en=a13a3dac6d27c8cb&hp=&ex=1160280000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
October 8, 2006
Foley Case Upsets Tough Balance by Capitol Hill's Gay Republicans
By MARK LEIBOVICH
WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 - Every month or so, 10 top staff members from Capitol Hill meet over dinner to commiserate about their uneasy experience as gay Republicans. In a wry reference to the K Street Project, the party's campaign to build influence along the city's lobbying corridor, they privately call themselves the P Street Project, a reference to a street cutting through a local gay enclave.
For many of those men and other gay Republicans in political Washington, reconciling their private lives and public roles has required a discreet existence. But in the last week, the Mark Foley scandal has upset that careful balance.
Since Representative Foley, Republican of Florida, resigned after it was revealed he had sent sexually explicit electronic messages to male pages, gay Republicans in Washington have been under what one describes as "siege and suspicion."
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/10/100706foley.htm
Foley To Escape Punishment By Congress
by The Associated Press
October 8, 2006 - 12:01 am ET
(Washington) The House's investigation of a page sex scandal has only onecertainty: Former Rep. Mark Foley will escape punishment by his peers.
It is the Florida Republican's sexually explicit electronic messages toteenage former male pages that have ignited what has become a pre-electionfirestorm.
Congress only can punish current members, officers and employees. Foleyresigned on Sept. 29, but is under investigation by federal and Floridaauthorities.
If the House ethics committee finds evidence of a Republican cover-up, manypeople could be in jeopardy, facing consequences that range from a mildrebuke in a committee report to a House vote of censure or expulsion.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-pbmail932oct08,0,3225419.story
Typical Republican
Larry Baum
Boca Raton
October 8, 2006
So Mark Foley was a gay alcoholic who was abused by a clergyman?
That's what I love most about Republicans.
Self-reliant individualists who take responsibility for their actions anddon't make excuses.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-ralph08oct08,0,3456482.column
Own up to yourself and your actions
Ralph De La Cruz
Lifestyle Columnist
October 8, 2006
By now, you've probably read and heard more than you ever wanted to knowabout former Congressman Mark Foley and his Internet liaisons. I know Ihave. It's gotten to the point where every time I read his name, I feel asif I need to take a shower. So, don't worry. This column isn't about Foley'sInternet follies -- however vile they might be. It's about his secondoffense.
The crime I'm talking about was caught on tape and victimized millions ofAmericans.
It's the crime he committed against the gay community.
For years, Foley has consistently avoided any talk of his sexualorientation. And hey, that's certainly his right.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/front/15707229.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
MARK FOLEY FALLOUT
Foley lawyer built career on handling tough cases
The attorney for Mark Foley, who resigned from Congress amid a scandal involving underage former pages, is one of the go-to guys for high-profileclients in South Florida.
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
llebowitz@MiamiHerald.com
David Roth, attorney extraordinaire in Palm Beach County's most notoriouscases, had his hands full before his latest client demanded his attention.
Roth was about to start the highly anticipated retrial of a millionaire realestate investor charged with murdering his fifth ex-wife. And he wasnegotiating the surrender of a fugitive priest charged with embezzling morethan $8.7 million in church donations.
Now he has another job: representing his friend Mark Foley. Since Foley'sresignation Sept. 29, Roth has been the only voice to speak for thedisgraced former congressman.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/08/foley_issue_could_sap_republican_support_analysts_say?mode=PF
The Boston Globe
Foley issue could sap Republican support, analysts say
By Margaret Talev, Mcclatchy Newspapers | October 8, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The congressional page sex scandal could have a decisive effect on key political campaigns across the country and prove crucial to Democratic hopes of gaining control of the House in November, political analysts said.
Polls are mixed on whether the scandal -- triggered by the publication of sexually explicit messages sent by former US representative Mark Foley, a Florida Republican -- has generated a wide voter backlash against Republicans nationally.
But analysts from both parties said polls have indicated a growing concern among voters about ethical problems in Congress, which could jeopardize support for Republicans, particularly among elderly voters, women, and religious conservatives.
In some House districts held by Republicans, the Foley scandal could prove decisive because of the candidates' connections to Foley or to child-protection issues.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100701008.html
The Washington Post
Sunday, October 8, 2006; A28
Castro Believed to Have Cancer, Report Says
U.S. intelligence officials believe that Cuban President Fidel Castro has terminal cancer and will not return to power, despite statements by that country's government that he will return to his post once he recovers from the abdominal surgery he had in July, according to a report in Time magazine.
"Certainly we have heard this, that this guy has terminal cancer," one U.S. official said. Castro on July 31 released a statement saying the surgery to stop intestinal bleeding "obliges me to spend several weeks in repose, away from my responsibilities as leader."
Yet the fact that Castro's brother, Raúl, 75, is still serving as acting president has some intelligence officials convinced that the Cuban government wanted Fidel Castro, 79, off the public stage before his death to gauge public reaction to his absence.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100701004_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
Conflicting Accounts Leave Plot Holes in Foley Saga
House Ethics Committee and FBI Will Try to Sort Out Who Knew What -- and When
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 8, 2006; A08
Despite countless hours of TV coverage and reams of newspaper reporting on the House's handling of the Mark Foley page scandal, numerous fundamental questions remain unanswered as the FBI and the House ethics committee begin their first full week of inquiries.
Gaps and inconsistencies in the public accounts include such basic matters as when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and his top aides first learned of concerns about Foley's relationships with male pages, and what they did about it. Also unclear is which GOP officials decided that only two members of the six-person House Page Board should confront the Florida lawmaker.
And accounts differ on whether the two board members knew the exact contents of e-mails Foley sent last year to a teenage boy in Louisiana. Those messages alarmed the boy and his parents and set into motion the events that eventually would uncover far more sexually graphic messages to other former pages, triggering Foley's abrupt resignation a week ago.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100700308_pf.html
Outspoken Putin critic shot dead in Moscow
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 8, 2006; A20
MOSCOW, Oct. 7 -- Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist whose byline defined the fading craft of investigative and crusading reporting in President Vladimir Putin's Russia, was fatally gunned down Saturday in the lobby of her apartment building in central Moscow.Politkovskaya, 48, was renowned for her probes of the brutality of Russia's military campaign in Chechnya as well as the banality of corruption permeating Russian life, from the remote provinces to the bright lights of Moscow.
Born to Soviet diplomats in New York in 1958, Politkovskaya, who also had
American citizenship, chronicled nearly every major story in Russia in the past decade. Her reporting often clashed with official versions of such events as the hostage crisis at a theater in Moscow in 2002 and the bloody end of a school siege in Beslan in 2004.
She was a harsh critic of Putin's rule and was working on a story about torture in Chechnya, where a Kremlin-backed strongman has all but routed a separatist movement that sparked two bloody wars, at a cost to Russia that has yet to be measured.
The article was to be published Monday, according to her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, one of the few independent media outlets in a country where much of the press is timid if not directly controlled by central authorities or regional power brokers.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100700917_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
Congress Behaving Badly
By Dahlia Lithwick and Richard Schragger
Sunday, October 8, 2006; B02
While the language of addiction has become the catch-all excuse for bad personal behavior of every sort, it's worth invoking in one more context: the constitutional one. Please do forgive the U.S. Congress its atrocious behavior. It's not a bad institution, per se. It's merely addicted to judicial review.
Just days ago, we watched as several senators voted for a bill to redefine the treatment, detention and trials of enemy combatants, even as they expressed doubts about its constitutionality. The measure to set up military tribunals for enemy combatants contains, among other constitutional infirmities, a provision to strip courts of their power to review the constitutionality of the detentions. A number of senators contested this provision, which would suspend the writ of habeas corpus for current and future detainees, but the amendment that sought to excise it from the final bill failed by a vote of 51 to 49.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100601398_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
Congress's Sorry Session
By David S. Broder
Sunday, October 8, 2006; B07
The disgrace of Congress extends far beyond the scandals that have sullied the record of the dominant House Republicans. They are properly being blamed for most of the misdeeds and blunders that have marked this year on Capitol Hill, from the power grabs by Tom DeLay, to the greed of Duke Cunningham and Bob Ney, to the sexual overtures of Mark Foley.
Those were bad enough, and the glacial pace at which party leaders responded to all of them is a further indictment of the current regime. The House session opened with an attempt to change the rule that would have required an indicted Tom DeLay to step down as majority leader. It finished with Mark Foley hustling off to rehab before he answered questions about his electronic messages to underage male House pages.
And in between, what was accomplished? Nothing of significance on any of the major problems confronting the nation.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100601414_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
Fear and Loathing In the GOP
By Byron York
Sunday, October 8, 2006; B01
Even in the grand tradition of scapegoating in American politics, J. Dennis Hastert's current plight stands out. The former high school coach-turned-accidental speaker of the House spent last week as the unlikeliest of fall guys for a sex scandal that involved a closeted gay Republican congressman, underage male House pages and unseemly instant messages. As fear and loathing spread through panicky preelection Republicans, Hastert looked like a goner, then a survivor, then a goner again and then, well, who knows.
"I was inclined at first to believe that Denny Hastert should resign," conservative activist Paul Weyrich told me on Wednesday.
But then Weyrich heard from Hastert, in one of the dozens of calls the speaker made last week. ("He called me, I didn't call him," Weyrich stressed.) Hastert explained that he hadn't known about Foley's graphic sex talk with a teenage House page. And the speaker argued passionately, Weyrich said, that he had properly handled the so-called "overly friendly" e-mail from Foley to another former page. Ultimately, Weyrich was convinced. He would not call for Hastert's resignation.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100700892_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
Cheney Back Delivering the Grim Campaign Speech
Democrats Cast As Foils to the Nation's Security
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 8, 2006; A14
MILWAUKEE -- Vice President Cheney sometimes starts speeches with a Ronald Reagan quotation about a "happy" nation needing "hope and faith." But not much happy talk follows. Not a lot of hope, either. He does, though, talk about the prospect of "mass death in the United States."
The not-so-happy warrior of the past two campaign cycles is back on the road delivering a grim message about danger, defeatism and the stakes of the coming election. If it is not a joyful exercise, it is at least a relentless one. Even with poll ratings lower than President Bush's, Cheney has become a more ubiquitous presence on the campaign trail than in the last midterm election.
He takes on not only the traditional vice presidential assignment of slicing up the opposition but also the Cassandra role of warning about dire threats to the nation's security. While others get distracted by Capitol Hill scandal, Cheney remains focused on the terrorists, who are, as he says in his stump speech, "still lethal, still desperately trying to hit us again." Bush, he says, is "protecting America" while the Democrats advocate "reckless" policies that add up to a "strategy of resignation and defeatism in the face of determined enemies."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100700907.html
The Washington Post Company
U.S. Casualties in Iraq Rise Sharply
Growing American Role in Staving Off Civil War Leads to Most Wounded Since 2004
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 8, 2006; A01
The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.
Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The sharp increase in American wounded -- with nearly 300 more in the first week of October -- is a grim measure of the degree to which the U.S. military has been thrust into the lead of the effort to stave off full-scale civil war in Iraq, military officials and experts say. Beyond Baghdad, Marines battling Sunni insurgents in Iraq's western province of Anbar last month also suffered their highest number of wounded in action since late 2004.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100601866_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
Iraq Is a Loser for Dems, Too
By Vic Fingerhut
Sunday, October 8, 2006; B04
The deepening controversy over Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld must seem like a dream come true for Democrats campaigning for the midterm elections. What better foil than a troubled president supporting an embattled defense secretary waging an increasingly unpopular war? Little surprise that the Democrats are pressing the debate on Rumsfeld, engaging the Republicans on terrorism-related matters and issuing a continual flow of press releases on Iraq.
But it's a losing strategy. For nearly 50 years, poll after poll has shown that the Democrats have very limited credibility with the American public on foreign policy issues -- particularly among the swing voters who have a disproportionate say in the outcome of U.S. elections.The Democratic Party seems certain to make serious gains in November's off-year elections, especially given the fallout from the House page scandal involving former congressman Mark Foley (R-Fla.). But focusing on foreign policy matters -- and the war in Iraq in particular -- during the final weeks of the campaign could cost the Democrats close contests they might otherwise win.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/07/AR2006100701059_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
Foley Consuming GOP As Elections Draw Near
By Michael Grunwald and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 8, 2006; A01
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) was trying to talk about security Friday at bustling Port Everglades, but with planes roaring overhead and containers slamming onto trucks, nobody could hear him.
That's a common problem for Shaw and Republican candidates around the country these days -- trying urgently 30 days before Election Day to frame a winning message but finding their efforts drowned out by the furor over former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.)."It's sucking all the air out of the room," Shaw said in an interview after his news conference at the port. "It's a tough time; there's just total saturation right now."
Back in Washington, Republican strategists acknowledge privately that, even under their best-case scenario, Foley's sexually charged messages and allegations that House leaders were too passive in responding to them will remain an all-consuming distraction for GOP campaigns for the next week.
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http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2003293922&zsection_id=268883724&slug=leonardpitts08&date=20061008
Leonard Pitts Jr. / Syndicated columnist
A long fall from a high horse for the "Morals Party"
So, anybody up for a chat about family values? The term has been a registered trademark of the GOP - the self-styled Morals Party - for years, a bludgeon against Democrats who, by implication, oppose families and have no values.
Like most political language, it's a code, intended to be understood by those with ears to hear. "Family values" means the pol in question has God on speed dial and can be counted upon to oppose gun control, the so-called "homosexual agenda" and abortion, while pushing schools to teach, as Tina Fey once put it, that Adam and Eve rode to church on dinosaurs.
For all its policy implications, though, "family values" has always had a larger meaning. It was an implicit promise to white, non-ethnic, rural or suburban-dwelling, church-going Christian moms and dads that the party would - pun intended - always do the right thing. It was an assurance to Ward and June Cleaver that GOP was the brand name of a certain fundamental decency.
Unless, it turns out, Ward and June were foolish enough to let Wally and the Beav sign up as congressional pages. In that case, kiss decency goodbye.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-klein8oct08,1,3104814,print.story?coll=la-news-comment
Too Soon for Obama
His rhetoric soars and inspires, but the Illinois senator has yet to show leadership in Congress.
By Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein is a writing fellow at the American Prospect. His blog is at
www.EzraKlein.com.
October 8, 2006
AS MUCH AS political junkies love the presidential horse race, their deepestaffection is reserved for fantasy campaigns. Your average Democratic pollwatcher or precinct walker will happily expound on his or her thoughts aboutthe 2008 crop of candidates, but their eyes will really light up when theyslip the surly bonds of reality and begin drafting titans and bigfoots,movie stars and war heroes. Oprah! Tom Hanks! Al Gore! A constitutionallyincapable Bill Clinton! A resurrected FDR! A progressive shape-shifter fromthe Alpha Centauri quadrant!
It's perhaps predictable that this affliction, at least for now, is mostprominent among Democrats, who are understandably insecure about theirparty's capability to draft winners. Surveying the field, many see a lineupof has-beens and never-wills. Charisma-challenged moderates such as MarkWarner mingle with establishment blowhards such as Joe Biden; disgracednominees such as John Kerry threaten to drown out promising newcomers suchas Russ Feingold. And who-oh-who will stop Hillary?
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http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/nation/4243572
Oct. 8, 2006, 12:55AM
LABOR'S ROLE
Unions to target 'dropoff voters'
Outhustled by Republicans in recent elections, AFL-CIO plans to take
playbook back
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
New York Times
COLUMBUS, OHIO - After being outhustled by Republicans in voter-turnout drives in recent years, the AFL-CIO plans to spend $40 million nationwide on voter education and turnout, emphasizing swing states such as Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania.In addition, just as conservatives used referendums on same-sex marriage to mobilize voters in 2004, labor has helped put measures to raise the state minimum wage on the ballot in Ohio and three other states, an effort that union officials hope will draw low-income voters.
Unions may not feel the economic wind at their back, but they feel good as they tap into worker discontent over stagnant wages, factory closings, shrinking pensions and the soaring trade deficit.
"What we're seeing is dozens of races that are so close that they're really going to be decided on the ground," said the president of the federation, John Sweeney, "and I think that's where we're going to make the difference."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100601391_pf.html
The Washington Post Company
A Rush to Medicate Young Minds
By Elizabeth J. Roberts
Sunday, October 8, 2006; B07
I have been treating, educating and caring for children for more than 30 years, half of that time as a child psychiatrist, and the changes I have seen in the practice of child psychiatry are shocking. Psychiatrists are now misdiagnosing and overmedicating children for ordinary defiance and misbehavior. The temper tantrums of belligerent children are increasingly being characterized as psychiatric illnesses.
Using such diagnoses as bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Asperger's, doctors are justifying the sedation of difficult kids with powerful psychiatric drugs that may have serious, permanent or even lethal side effects.
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http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061008/POLITICS/610080321/1020/rss09&template=printart
Rice meets unexpected resistance on Middle East trip
Robin Wright / The Washington Post
LONDON -- It was a tough week for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Middle East. On four issues pivotal to the future of the world's most volatile region, U.S. diplomatic efforts made no visible progress or came up against unexpected resistance during her five-day tour, according to Arab and Israeli officials and analysts.
On Iraq, Arab-Israeli peace, democracy promotion and fostering a so-called moderate bloc of Arab states to stand together against militancy, Rice pressed at each of six stops for new energy or more decisive action. Many of the Arab leaders she met share U.S. fears about the region's future, but there is a growing divide even with Washington's closest allies over what needs to be done, at what pace, in what order, and by whom, according to Arab officials interviewed at each stop.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/08/news_pf/State/Mentally_ill_inmates_.shtml
St. Petersburg Times
Mentally ill inmates sue DCF, demand freedom
The Miami-Dade County Jail is overcrowded and dangerous, lawsuits against the state claim.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 8, 2006
MIAMI - Five mentally ill inmates have sued Florida's Department of Children and Families, demanding to be released from Miami-Dade County Jail on claims that the conditions there are dangerous.
All five have been declared incompetent and ordered into state care, but the DCF has said it doesn't have the space, so the inmates are being held in the main jail.
By law, the state has 15 days to pick up an inmate. All five inmates have been waiting well past that time on the overcrowded and understaffed ninth floor, according to three lawsuits filed in state court and a class-action suit in federal court over the past week.
Inmate Eugene Roman is now blind after he gouged out his eyes while waiting in one of the jail's suicide cells last year, the lawsuit said.
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