FLORIDA DIGEST December 30, 2006

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From Paul Harris, Publisher of "The Independent"

People of the Year Awards - Thursday, February 1

Put Thursday, February 1 in your calendars. It is the date of the "SecondAnnual Independent People of the Year Awards." As with last year's sell-outevent it will be held at "Laffing Matterz," the wonderful comedy theaterrestaurant on South Andrews Avenue. The evening allows the GLBT community tohonor some of the many people who 'make a difference' in South Florida. Weshall be announcing the names of the honorees and full details about theevening in the next issue of "The Indy."

Some of the names of the people to be honored are ones that everyone willrecognize, but, as with last year, we shall also be honoring some people whogive greatly of themselves and are to a large extent 'unsung.' Without manyof these amazing people the organizations so important to the life of ourcommunity would not function. So, mark Thursday, February 1 in yourcalendars now. We look forward to seeing you there.





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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16348734.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp


Posted on Sat, Dec. 30, 2006

MIAMI BEACH
Blairs blend in on Beach holiday

Tony who? He may be a foreign dignitary, but in celebrity-saturated MiamiBeach, Blair is barely a boldface name.
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com



On the Miami Beach celebrity scale of J.Lo to your Aunt Hadassah at theHebrew Home, British Prime Minister Tony Blair ranks somewhere around thathomeless guy on Lincoln Road who wears a Santa suit all year round.

After an initial flurry of activity Wednesday outside Oak Hall -- former BeeGee Robin Gibb's estate, where the Blairs are staying -- interest in hispresence had dwindled Friday morning to a brace of neighbors dropping off abook.

No paparazzi. No autograph hounds. Not even protesters against the war inIraq, Blair's support of which has made him about as popular back home asJack the Ripper.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/16349371.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp


Posted on Sat, Dec. 30, 2006

VERBATIM
Getting ex-offenders into law-abiding lives

By EX-OFFENDER TASK FORCE


Below are excerpts from the recent report by Gov. Jeb Bush's Ex-OffenderTask Force. The full report is at http://exoffendermyflorida.com.



We began our work by studying the magnitude of the challenge of makingreentry successful and quickly learned that Florida has the third largestprison population in America and more than 30,000 people returning home fromprison each year. The continual growth of imprisonment has created anunprecedented challenge for our state and for the local communities thatmust absorb these individuals upon their return home.

Under the current conditions, most ex-offenders will fail at leadinglaw-abiding lives when they return home. This will result in new crimesbeing committed with new victims unnecessarily traumatized at a huge cost ofhundreds of millions of dollars to the taxpayers and their communities.

How, we asked, might prisoners be best prepared for their foreseeable returnhome? To answer this, we identified and referenced many promising programs,innovative practices and ongoing interventions that are working in Floridaand elsewhere. These examples have guided our recommendations and assistedus in establishing a formal reentry framework that can reduce recidivism.



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Naplesnews.com

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/dec/30/medicare_fraud_florida_has_doubled_past_year/?print=1


Medicare fraud in Florida has doubled in the past year
By Liz Freeman

Saturday, December 30, 2006



Medicaid fraud investigators in Florida have recovered nearly $75 million intaxpayer money in abuse and fraud activity this past year involvinghealth-care providers, almost double the $42 million recovered in 2005,according to a state report released Friday.

The Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration and the Florida AttorneyGeneral's Office both have Medicaid fraud units and jointly announcedresults of fraud detection and recovery efforts for fiscal 2005-06.

The two Medicaid fraud units work together on joint investigations andcollaborate to improve ways to combat fraud in the $16.6 billion stateMedicaid program involving 32,000 health-care providers, from nursing homesto durable medical equipment suppliers.



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The Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cunidentified00dec30,0,4694858.story?coll=sfla-news-front


Broward falling behind at reporting unidentified dead to FBI

By Sofia Santana
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

December 30, 2006


For a growing legion of souls, home is a pit in potter's field and a manilafolder with a number on it.

Almost 900 rest in the realm of Florida's unidentified dead, includingmurdered children.

Investigators across the country rely on an FBI database that links thesecases to missing person reports, but fewer than half of Broward County'sunidentified bodies are listed in it.

Broward law enforcement agencies overall have the worst record in SouthFlorida and one of the worst in the state when it comes to reportingunidentified remains to the FBI, according to an ongoing inventory of thecases by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and state medicalexaminers.



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PalmBeachPost.com

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2006/12/30/m1a_childdeath_1230.html


97 kids died of abuse in Fla. in '05, report says
By Kathleen Chapman

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Ninety-seven Florida children died of abuse or neglect in 2005, including 10deaths that might have been prevented by the state, according to a reportreleased Friday.

The Florida Child Abuse Death Review team report, which looks back on deathsfrom the previous year, included children who were murdered, infants whowere accidentally suffocated by parents and toddlers who drowned while noone was watching.

Fifty-four of those children who died had previous involvement with theDepartment of Children and Families. That analysis included only 94 of thedeaths, however, because the remaining three were reported late.

Across the country in 2004, the last year for which national statistics areavailable, an estimated 1,490 children died of abuse or neglect.



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The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122901048_pf.html


AT& T Completes BellSouth Takeover
FCC Approves $85 Billion Deal

By Alan Sipress and Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, December 30, 2006; A01

The Federal Communications Commission yesterday overcame a seven-monthdeadlock and approved AT&T's $85 billion purchase of BellSouth, creating anew corporate giant that will stand astride the telecommunications industrylike none other in the generation since the old AT&T empire was broken up in1984.

The acquisition, which closed yesterday, reunites large parts of AT&T'sformer domain by folding BellSouth's nine-state territory into AT&T'sexisting operations spanning the Midwest, Southwest and West Coast. It givesAT&T complete control of Cingular Wireless, the country's largestmobile-telephone provider, at a time when wireless is the newest frontierfor reaching the Internet. Cingular is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth.




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Tallahassee.com

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/OPINION05/612300307/1006/OPINION&template=printart


Article published Dec 30, 2006
Jeb's legacy deserves a more sober view
By Howard L. Simon
MY VIEW


As the Jeb Bush administration ends, the battle to characterize the legacyheats up.

How Bush is characterized has future political consequence, given hisrelative youth, the cache of name recognition (though its value may betemporarily diminished), and the war chest stored in his foundation, whichis a potential campaign structure.

Anyone who has followed news about state government in Tallahassee over thelast eight years appreciates that the governor is an engaging, telegenic andintelligent policy wonk.

He has been a Reaganesque governor. For some that is the supreme compliment,but it also means that our Teflon governor has been immune from blame forthe harsh consequences of his policies and the mismanagement of the reins ofstate government.

President Ronald Reagan was so liked that the public often looked the otherway: He didn't screw up; he was "poorly advised." Case in point: Reagan wasnot involved in swapping arms for hostages and illegally funding theContras. That was the work of Oliver North and others who acted without thepresident's knowledge.


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floridatoday.com

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/OPINION/612300303/1004&template=printart


December 30, 2006


Our view: Guarding your money

Florida CFO Sink should hold state accountable for private sector deals




Protecting Florida taxpayers is a big job, but it rests on the simplepremise of honest accounting for every dollar saved or squandered.

That accountability has gone lacking under Gov. Jeb Bush's relentless pushto outsource state services such as foster care, personnel and payrollfunctions to private companies.

That's why Alex Sink, Florida's newly elected Chief Financial Officer, isright in pledging to kick off her term in office by investigating thebillions of dollars in private sector contracts the state hands out eachyear.

She's said she'll scrutinize the books to see if privatization is actuallysaving the state money and improving services. Previous studies indicatethat's often not the case.




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From Paul Harris, Publisher of "The Independent"

People of the Year Awards - Thursday, February 1

Put Thursday, February 1 in your calendars. It is the date of the "SecondAnnual Independent People of the Year Awards." As with last year's sell-outevent it will be held at "Laffing Matterz," the wonderful comedy theaterrestaurant on South Andrews Avenue. The evening allows the GLBT community tohonor some of the many people who 'make a difference' in South Florida. Weshall be announcing the names of the honorees and full details about theevening in the next issue of "The Indy."

Some of the names of the people to be honored are ones that everyone willrecognize, but, as with last year, we shall also be honoring some people whogive greatly of themselves and are to a large extent 'unsung.' Without manyof these amazing people the organizations so important to the life of ourcommunity would not function. So, mark Thursday, February 1 in yourcalendars now. We look forward to seeing you there.




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The Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-1229revkennedy,0,2363156.story?coll=sfla-home-headlinesRev.


D. James Kennedy hospitalized after suffering heart attack

By Scott Wyman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 29, 2006, 7:30 PM EST


The Rev. D. James Kennedy, the longtime pastor of Fort Lauderdale's Coral Ridge PresbyterianChurch and a prominent leader of the national religious right movement, suffered a heart attackThursday night and is hospitalized in serious condition. Church officials said Friday thatKennedy, 76, was rushed to a local hospital from his home in the affluent Coral Ridgeneighborhood. Although they are extremely concerned about his health, they also said Kennedyis becoming more alert and responsive.

As one of the largest religious broadcasters in the country and pastor of one of nation's firstmega-churches, Kennedy has been at the forefront of social conservative causes from abortionto homosexuality. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State this year rankedKennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries as the nation's third most powerful religious right group,behind only the Christina Broadcasting Network and Focus on the Family.


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