**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/us/politics/17arizona.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Back at Home, McCain Annoys the G.O.P. Right
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
SURPRISE, Ariz., Feb. 13 — The chairman of the local Republican Party herein the most populous county in Arizona has in his possession a bright yellowbutton with a black line slashed through the name McCain.
“I don’t wear it out very often,” said the chairman, Lyle Tuttle of theMaricopa County Republican Committee, in a slightly sheepish coda to a20-minute vituperation about the state’s senior senator, served up from hisliving room chair.
“I think those who do not support Senator McCain,” Mr. Tuttle continued, “ifthey could just get the word out and help people to understand what hashappened with him, we could have an impact.”
No doubt about it, Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who wouldlike to be president, is a popular man in his state, having won re-electionin 2004 with about 76 percent of the vote.
But a vocal slice of the state’s most conservative Republicans, reflectingconcerns about Mr. McCain held by some conservatives nationwide, areagitating against him in a way that they hope might throw off his incipientpresidential campaign.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-On-the-2008-Trail.html?pagewanted=print
February 16, 2007
McCain to Discuss Abstinence in S.C.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:30 p.m. ET
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Most presidential candidates are trying to get peopleto say ''yes.'' Republican Sen. John McCain will be encouraging SouthCarolina students to say ''no.'' The Arizona lawmaker is scheduled to speakSunday night to about 1,500 middle and high school students about abstainingfrom premarital sex. Abstinence and abortion loom large as issues in thisfirst-in-the-South primary state in the heart of the Bible Belt.
''Senator McCain has a long legislative record of supportingabstinence-based initiatives in his record in the U.S. Senate,'' said TreyWalker, McCain's South Carolina campaign director. ''He thinks thatabstinence is healthier and should be promoted in our society for youngpeople.''
The event is to follow McCain's appearance at a hot dog and ice creamsocial.
McCain is courting Christian conservatives in his bid for the GOPnomination. Recently, Christian leader James Dobson said he wouldn't supportMcCain because of his opposition to a constitutional amendment banningsame-sex marriage. McCain opposes gay marriage but says it should beregulated by the states.
=
February 16, 2007
McCain to Discuss Abstinence in S.C.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:30 p.m. ET
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Most presidential candidates are trying to get peopleto say ''yes.'' Republican Sen. John McCain will be encouraging SouthCarolina students to say ''no.'' The Arizona lawmaker is scheduled to speakSunday night to about 1,500 middle and high school students about abstainingfrom premarital sex. Abstinence and abortion loom large as issues in thisfirst-in-the-South primary state in the heart of the Bible Belt.
''Senator McCain has a long legislative record of supportingabstinence-based initiatives in his record in the U.S. Senate,'' said TreyWalker, McCain's South Carolina campaign director. ''He thinks thatabstinence is healthier and should be promoted in our society for youngpeople.''
The event is to follow McCain's appearance at a hot dog and ice creamsocial.
McCain is courting Christian conservatives in his bid for the GOPnomination. Recently, Christian leader James Dobson said he wouldn't supportMcCain because of his opposition to a constitutional amendment banningsame-sex marriage. McCain opposes gay marriage but says it should beregulated by the states.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/washington/17cong.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
A Divided House Rebukes Bush on Iraq
By JEFF ZELENY and MICHAEL LUO
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — A sharply divided House of Representatives passed aresolution on Friday formally repudiating President Bush’s decision to sendmore than 20,000 new combat troops to Iraq.
The rare wartime rebuke to the commander in chief — an act that is notbinding, but that carries symbolic significance — was approved 246-to-182,ith 17 Republicans breaking ranks to join all but two Democrats insupporting the resolution.
Passage was never in doubt, but the debate, lasting full days and much ofthree nights, brought nearly every member to the floor to declare, brieflybut often vehemently, where they stood on a short, resolution affirmingsupport for the troops but denouncing Mr. Bush’s new approach to the war.
“We owe our troops a course of action in Iraq that is worthy of theirsacrifice,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. “Today, we setthe stage for a new direction in Iraq.”
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/iht/2007/02/17/world/IHT-17globalist.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Globalist
Vast Change Since the Cold War
By ROGER COHEN
International Herald Tribune
NEW YORK Iraq looms large and significant developments get left in theshadows. So it's time for a brief history of the post-Cold War world.With that war's surrogate battles concluded, outside Paleolithic North Koreaand Cuba, globalization sped ahead, bringing several hundred million workers(at least) into the production of internationally traded goods and services.
Central Europe, the former Soviet Union, China and India joined globalmarkets, doubling the labor force (at least) and changing the relationshipbetween capital and labor in the former's favor. Capitalists had many morecheap workers at their disposal, not least because technology eliminateddistance.
The result was the rich thrived.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/washington/17wage.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Congressional Memo
Familiar Problem Stalls Minimum Wage Bill
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — When Democrats campaigned last fall to recapturecontrol of Congress, few domestic issues seemed to have as much winningpotential as raising the minimum wage.
Democrats ostentatiously signed pledges to block any pay increase forCongress until it raised the minimum wage. They organized ballot initiativesto raise the state minimum wage. And when they did recapture the House andthe Senate, Democrats made it a top priority.
Yet after six weeks in power, the Democratic-led House and Senate have yetto agree on a final bill. The obstacle is the same one that stymiedRepublicans time after time when they had control: paralyzingly thin marginsin the Senate.
On Friday, the House voted 360 to 45 to pass a $1.3 billion tax cut forsmall business, which will be linked to a bill that would raise the minimumwage to $7.25 an hour from $5.15. But the Senate, where Democrats needRepublican votes to prevent a filibuster, has coupled the minimum wage billwith $8.3 billion in tax cuts for small business.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Mardi-Gras.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Revelers Begin Packing Big Easy Streets
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:22 a.m. ET
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- From costumed men on horseback riding rural roads to an''American Idol'' and bead-throwing marchers, there are events in theweekend leading up to Mardi Gras to please almost anyone.
Cars began streaming into the city Friday, choking highway traffic, asgrocery stores filled with people stocking up for weekend parties.
In the New Orleans area, no fewer than three parades a day will be held inthe lead-up to Fat Tuesday.
The Krewe of Endymion, one of Carnival's best known groups, was set to makeits annual march through the city streets on Saturday, with ''AmericanIdol'' winner Taylor Hicks leading it.
Hicks was given a standing ovation when he appeared at a Bourbon Streetrestaurant Friday, as elated diners waved their napkins to a brass band'sbeat.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/us/17face.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Driver’s License Emerges as Crime-Fighting Tool, but Privacy Advocates Worry
By ADAM LIPTAK
BOSTON, Feb. 12 — On the second floor of a state office building here,upstairs from a food court, three facial-recognition specialists arerevolutionizing American law enforcement. They work for the Massachusettsmotor vehicles department.
Last year they tried an experiment, for sport. Using computerized biometrictechnology, they ran a mug shot from the Web site of “America’s Most Wanted,” the Fox Network television show, against the state’s database ofnine million digital driver’s license photographs.
The computer found a match. A man who looked very much like Robert Howell,the fugitive in the mug shot, had a Massachusetts driver’s license underanother name. Mr. Howell was wanted in Massachusetts on rape charges.
The analysts passed that tip along to the police, who tracked him down toNew York City, where he was receiving welfare benefits under the alias onthe driver’s license. Mr. Howell was arrested in October.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/washington/17assess.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
News Analysis
A Symbolic Vote Is a Sign of Bitter Debates to Come
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — The symbolic House vote on Friday opposing theAmerican troop buildup in Iraq was an act of Congressional defiance thatlays the groundwork for an even more bitter and ultimately moreconsequential clash over whether and how lawmakers might restrict PresidentBush’s authority to prosecute the war.
Even before the vote, the White House and Democrats who control Congresswere girding for the next fight, over Mr. Bush’s request for $99.6 billionin emergency spending for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.Already, Democrats are contemplating moves that, while short of cutting offmoney for the war, would restrict how Mr. Bush can spend it by limiting thePentagon’s ability to recycle troops back to Iraq after they have returnedhome.
The 246-to-182 vote, with 17 Republicans crossing party lines to joinDemocrats, was a stark reminder of how isolated Mr. Bush has become as hepresses ahead with his increasingly unpopular Iraq policy. The presidenthimself seemed resigned to the outcome. At a news conference on Wednesday,he told reporters, “They have every right to express their opinion.”
At this point, it is unclear whether that opinion will eventually translateinto the political resolve to rein in Mr. Bush. But by emboldening criticsof the Iraq war, the vote has made the debate over financing, which wouldhave been unthinkable even six months ago, a virtual certainty. “What thepresident is getting is a real indication that the weather is going to getworse,” said Tom Daschle, the former Senate Democratic leader. “He’s goingto be in the middle of a huge storm.”
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/nyregion/17sex.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Suffolk County to Keep Sex Offenders on the Move
By COREY KILGANNON
Suffolk County officials have long searched for ways to provide temporaryhousing for homeless sex offenders, from the controversial practice ofplacing them in local motels to the unusual proposal of loading them on ahouseboat docked in a marina.
Now officials of this county on Long Island say they have a solution:putting sex offenders in trailers to be moved regularly around the county,arked for several weeks at a time on public land away from residentialareas and enforcing stiff curfews.
“We believe this is the first time this has been done anywhere,” said GregBlass, chief deputy commissioner of the county’s Department of SocialServices. By keeping homeless sex offenders in trailers, he said, the countyavoids having to burden any single neighborhood with a permanent shelter forthem.
The county, which is required by state law to provide housing for homelesspeople, regardless of sex offender status, put five offenders into a trailerlast week.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/us/17illinois.html
University to Retire Its Indian Mascot
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 17, 2007
URBANA, Ill., Feb. 16 (AP) — The University of Illinois will retire its81-year-old American Indian mascot, Chief Illiniwek, after the last men’shome basketball game of the season on Wednesday.
The N.C.A.A. in 2005 deemed the buckskin-clad mascot an offensive use ofAmerican Indian imagery and barred the university from being a host ofpostseason events. “This is an extremely emotional day for people on bothsides of the issue, but the decision announced today ends a two-decade-longstruggle surrounding Chief Illiniwek on this campus,” said Ron Guenther, theuniversity’s athletic director. “Personally, as an alumnus and formerathlete, I am disappointed. However, as an administrator, I understand thedecision that had to be made.”
American Indian groups and others complained for years that the mascot wasdemeaning. Supporters of the mascot said it honored the contributions ofIndians to the state.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021602084_pf.html
Young Voters Find Voice on Facebook
Site's Candidate Groups Are Grass-Roots Politics for the Web Generation
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 17, 2007; A01
Late on the day that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) announced he was forming apresidential exploratory committee, Farouk Olu Aregbe logged on toFacebook.com, the popular online community where college students postprofiles, share photos and blog. On a whim he created a group called "OneMillion Strong for Barack."
"I remember thinking, there's got to be more supporters out there," saidFarouk, 26, who advises student government at the University at Missouri atColumbia.
Farouk's group had 100 members in the first hour. In less than five days,0,000. By the third week, nearly 200,000. Yesterday, a month after hecreated the group, it had 278,100 members.
There are more than 500 Obama groups on Facebook. One of the first,"Students for Barack Obama," was created on July 7 by Meredith Segal, ajunior at Bowdoin College who first heard of Obama when he gave the keynotespeech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Instead of starting "apetition or something" to encourage the freshman senator to run forpresident, she turned to her Facebook page, created a group and invitedpeople (first her friends, later strangers) to join.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021601572.html
What Matters About Mitt Romney
By Stephen Stromberg
Saturday, February 17, 2007; A31
In 1967, a moderate governor of Michigan ran for the Republican presidentialnomination and, for a time, was a favorite among many in the party. Hissupport for the civil rights movement also gave him valuable crossoverappeal. But after reversing course on the Vietnam War, his campaign fizzled.
What did not ruin George Romney's aspirations was his faith.
Like his son Mitt, George Romney was a devout Mormon. Religion, as thetruism goes, is far more influential in American politics today than it wasin the 1960s. Forty years after his father ran, Mitt Romney's faith haselicited a cover story in the New Republic, a front-page feature in the NewYork Times and obligatory mentions in otherwise standard coverage of theformal kickoff of his campaign this week. Romney, it seems, might be thefirst presidential candidate since Al Smith whose campaign suffers seriouslybecause of his regular attendance at Sunday services.
Writers often note that evangelical voters, now considered consequential inSouthern Republican primaries, distrust Mormons. It is too easy, however, toclaim that the two Romney candidacies' differing challenges simply reflectthe altered composition of Republican primary voters since 1968. In a recentPost-ABC News poll, 35 percent of respondents said they would be less likelyto vote for a candidate who is Mormon.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021602274_pf.html
In Energy Conservation, Calif. Sees Light
Progressive Policy Makes It a Model in Global Warming Fight
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 17, 2007; A01
At the height of the 1973 energy crisis, Arthur H. Rosenfeld had arevelation.
Disturbed about having to spend half an hour in line at a gas station oneFriday night, the particle physicist calculated that keeping his floor ofoffices brightly lit all weekend as usual would consume the equivalent offive gallons of gasoline. So Rosenfeld took what then seemed like a boldstep: He turned off the lights.
For 30 years, Rosenfeld has been one of the forces guiding California on amission of conservation. And today the state uses less energy per capitathan any other state in the country, defying the international image ofAmerican energy gluttony. Since 1974, California has held its per capitaenergy consumption essentially constant, while energy use per person for theUnited States overall has jumped 50 percent.
California has managed that feat through a mixture of mandates, regulationsand high prices. The state has been able to cut greenhouse-gas emissions,keep utility companies happy and maintain economic growth. And in the wakeof the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on global warming,California serves as a model for other states seeking a similar path toenergy reduction. Now California is pushing further in its effort to cutautomobile pollution, spur use of solar energy and cap greenhouse gases.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021602274_pf.html
In Energy Conservation, Calif. Sees Light
Progressive Policy Makes It a Model in Global Warming Fight
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 17, 2007; A01
At the height of the 1973 energy crisis, Arthur H. Rosenfeld had arevelation.
Disturbed about having to spend half an hour in line at a gas station oneFriday night, the particle physicist calculated that keeping his floor ofoffices brightly lit all weekend as usual would consume the equivalent offive gallons of gasoline. So Rosenfeld took what then seemed like a boldstep: He turned off the lights.
For 30 years, Rosenfeld has been one of the forces guiding California on amission of conservation. And today the state uses less energy per capitathan any other state in the country, defying the international image ofAmerican energy gluttony. Since 1974, California has held its per capitaenergy consumption essentially constant, while energy use per person for theUnited States overall has jumped 50 percent.
California has managed that feat through a mixture of mandates, regulationsand high prices. The state has been able to cut greenhouse-gas emissions,keep utility companies happy and maintain economic growth. And in the wakeof the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on global warming,California serves as a model for other states seeking a similar path toenergy reduction. Now California is pushing further in its effort to cutautomobile pollution, spur use of solar energy and cap greenhouse gases.
=
Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/11/MNG7VO2LUV1.DTL&feed=rss.news
Abstinence-only sex ed finds few scientific fans
Birth control taught in shrinking number of schools, study says
Mike Weiss, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, February 11, 2007
There is no good scientific evidence that teaching abstinence to teenagerswill by itself prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitteddiseases, say the authors of a recent study. Yet they found thatcomprehensive sex education is declining and that more youngsters are beingtaught nothing more than abstinence.
As with similar debates over stem cell research and abortion, California andthe Bush administration are at loggerheads over an ethical issue withfar-reaching public consequences -- in this case, the best approach to sexed for middle and high school students.
More than $1 billion in federal aid has been poured into state-runabstinence-only programs in the past decade after the Bush administrationdecided there was an imbalance that favored comprehensive sex education andslighted abstinence. State school systems accepting the federal money arerequired to teach that sexual activity outside marriage is likely to haveharmful psychological and physical effects, and that a married, monogamousrelationship is the expected standard.
California is one of only three states -- the others are Maine andPennsylvania -- to refuse the federal education funding tied to abstinence.
=
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=24972
Proposed abortion ban in S. Dakota may return to the voters in 2008
By Staff, Baptist Press News, Feb 15, 2007
PIERRE, S.D. (BP)--South Dakota voters will decide next year whether to banmost abortions if a bill passed in the state House Feb. 14 becomes law.
The bill is different from a law that voters considered and rejected lastyear. That failed proposal contained an exception only to save the mother'slife. The newest bill, which passed the House of Representatives 45-25, hasthat exception as well as ones for rape, incest and a "serious" health risk.The hope is that the extra exceptions will make it more acceptable tovoters.
The bill, which now goes to the state Senate, is a direct challenge to theinfamous Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. If adoptedby voters in 2008, the bill almost certainly would be struck down asunconstitutional, although supporters hope the Supreme Court takes the caseand overturns Roe.
"The rights that we're discussing are not ours to give. They're given by ourCreator," Republican state Rep. Gordon Howie, a bill supporter, said duringdebate, according to the Rapid City Journal. "Those rights are ours todefend. We believe in bringing this bill we're fulfilling a responsibilityto defend those rights on behalf of those who are most innocent and the mostvulnerable."
=
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/letters_to_the_editor/article/0,,TCP_24461_5358092,00.html
Letter to the editor: Abstinence-only programs fail to address realities
February 17, 2007
Because abstinence-only is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy andsexually transmitted disease, the federal government currently mandates thisapproach with funding for sex education in our schools.
However, studies have shown that abstinence-only programs have beenineffective. Well over half of graduating high school seniors have hadintercourse. As a result, Florida had 42,790 births to teens in 2002. Mostof these mothers do not get married nor finish high school and are likely toraise their children alone and in poverty. Teenage sex also results in highrates of sexually transmitted diseases.
The abstinence-only approach has failed because teachers are required toteach that abstinence-only before marriage is the norm which is not true. Infact, nine out of 10 Americans have had sex before marriage. Theabstinence-only approach has also failed because teachers are required tomake false or misleading claims on the efficacy of condoms and are notallowed to provide useful information about various other birth controloptions. As a result, our students indulge in sex without the knowledge toavoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
As St. Lucie County Schools Superintendent Michael Lannon has said, "... ourcommunity is in crisis and the issue is no matter what you believe, we muststem the tide of illness and suffering."
St. Lucie County officials are now considering possible changes to thecurrent abstinence-only sex-education courses. I suggest that they forgo thefederal funding and that Planned Parenthood be contracted to prepare thesyllabus for these sex education courses which would address the issue withthe young people's health and the prevention of unintended pregnancy as themain consideration. And yes, the courses should be graphic as needed toproperly educate the children.
Parents who object can always opt their children out of these courses.
George Iliff
Port St. Lucie
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021602049_pf.html
Democrats Signal a Wider Battle Lasting the Rest of President's Term
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 17, 2007; A01
After enjoying great deference in the conduct of national security for hisfirst six years in office, President Bush now faces an assertive oppositionCongress that has left him on the defensive. The nonbinding resolutionpassed by the House yesterday on a largely party-line vote seems certain tobe the first of a series of actions that will challenge Bush for theremainder of his presidency.
At stake is not just Bush's decision to send an additional 21,500 U.S.troops to Iraq, the plan specifically renounced by the resolution. Byextension, the 246 to 182 vote passed judgment on Bush's overall stewardshipof the war in Iraq and, more broadly, on his leadership in the world. At atime when the president is confronting Iran over its nuclear enrichmentprogram, the House vote demonstrates that he has far less latitude to takeaggressive action than he might have had in the past.
"This is an important moment," said Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was PresidentJimmy Carter's national security adviser and is now a counselor at theCenter for Strategic and International Studies. "And it's an importantmoment not only about what's in the past, or even in the present, but alsowhat might be happening in the future."
The resolution, he said, "tells the president that the country'sincreasingly tired of the war and the country's reaction to his provoking anew war would be even worse."
=
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/17/ap/politics/mainD8NB6KFO0.shtml
Obama Cheers Diversity in South Carolina
Obama cheers diversity of supporters in first South Carolina campaign swing
COLUMBIA, S.C., Feb. 17, 2007
By JIM DAVENPORT Associated Press Writer
(AP) Presidential hopeful Barack Obama told thousands of cheering supportersFriday night that seeing such a racially diverse crowd in the shadow of theSouth Carolina statehouse would have surprised people a generation ago.
"Twenty years ago, nobody would have believed this crowd right here in SouthCarolina," Obama, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois who is black, saidduring his first campaign visit to South Carolina.
Blacks make up about half the Democratic primary voters in the state, whichwill hold the first presidential primary in the South in 2008. More thanhalf of the 1,000 tickets the party distributed for the Obama event werepicked up by blacks, a party official said.
Earlier this week, a state legislator who is black said that if Obama wonthe nomination for president, it would lead to losses for Democrats inCongress and governorships.
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-sadoptionfeb17,0,2725380.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Will $22 million help more children find stable homes through adoption?
By Georgia East
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 17, 2007
Adoption may become easier and less costly under a proposal by Gov. CharlieCrist.
He wants to create an Office of Adoption and Child Protection, headed by aChief Child Advocate who would be responsible for coordinating andstreamlining adoption efforts statewide.
Crist is asking that all parents who adopt children in state care get anannual $3,000 subsidy, until that child turns 18. Children with specialneeds, who already get a state subsidy of about $3,600 a year, would seethat increase to about $5,000.
Special needs children, defined by the state as "difficult to place,"include children who are 8 or older, physically or emotionally handicapped,of black or mixed race, or belong to a sibling group that will staytogether.
"You have grandparents who want to do it but can't afford to adopt," saidRuth Dorce, director of foster care at CHOICES, Children and FamiliesConsortium, in Pompano Beach.
Currently, there is no cost to adopt children in state care and theycontinue to get Medicaid. But other expenses, such as child care and sometherapy costs, drain pockets.
=
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
Posted February 17 2007
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorial/sfl-editnbrecruitfeb17,0,3214073.story?coll=sfla-news-editorial
ISSUE: Many unaware of rules on providing student information to themilitary.
The U.S. military is strained, recruitment is hurting and many worry that adraft is inevitable, especially with America at war. So the federalgovernment has logically pinned some of its hopes on an early marketingeffort of sorts, requiring high schools to release the names and contactinformation of juniors and seniors to military recruiters.
Some parents welcome the thought, knowing their child is getting briefed ona vital career option. Others don't want the government marketing a riskyfuture to their still-impressionable youngster.
It's a debate the No Child Left Behind Act suggests belongs in the Americanhome. The 2002 law requires the information's release, but it allows parentsto opt out of the disclosure. Fair enough.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking_news/16719271.htm
Posted on Sat, Feb. 17, 2007
TIM HARDAWAY CONTROVERSY
Gay mayor reaches out to Hardaway
The mayor of North Miami offered former Heat star Tim Hardaway an invitationto spend some time with a gay couple.
BY TIM HENDERSON
thenderson@MiamiHerald.com
As the firestorm continued over Tim Hardaway's anti-gay remarks on radio,the mayor of North Miami, who is gay, invited the ex-Heat star to spend aday with him.
On Friday, Hardaway accepted, the mayor said.
''We're just trying to show him that there are living, breathing people thatjust happen to be gay,'' said North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns, who lives withhis partner of 23 years and an adopted daughter.
He's still working out details of the visit with Hardaway's representativesand expects they will make a joint announcement on Monday, Burns said.
The plan is for Hardaway to join Burns and his family for a routine weekdayat the mayor's office and home -- doing things like dropping off Burns'child at school, meeting with constituents and dinner with the family.
Hardaway has been hit hard since the broadcast on the local AM radio station790 The Ticket, in which he said, ''I don't like to be around gay people''and ``it shouldn't be in the U.S. or the world.''
Although he apologized within hours, the NBA canceled his remainingappearances at this weekend's All-Star festivities in Las Vegas, and he lostat least two major endorsement deals.
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/16719265.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Turnout ploy may misfire in marriage vote
BY BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
A sked this week whether the Republican Party of Florida would continue tobankroll a proposed ban on gay marriage, Gov. Charlie Crist said the party'smoney ``can be spent on other things that may be more pressing, likeelections.''
But to anyone familiar with how these ballot measures play out across thecountry, influencing elections is exactly the point.
While leaders of anti-gay initiatives in Florida and elsewhere are truebelievers in their cause, their pitch is much broader: to boost Republicannational and statewide politicians who also happen to be on the ballot. Withthe first wide-open presidential election in more than half a century, thestakes couldn't be higher.
`VALUES VOTERS'
''The marriage amendment will bring people out to vote who are pro-family,traditional values voters,'' said Orlando lawyer John Stemberger, who isspearheading the petition drive to put gay marriage up for a vote in 2008.``We're going to have to have the most robust, well-funded effort in thecountry.''
=
The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/editorial/letters/16719111.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Feb. 17, 2007
Hardaway a bigot
Anytime someone like Tim Hardaway directs comments toward a group of people,we yell ''bigot'' -- and we should. But let's not confuse discriminationagainst a group of people with aversion to a repulsive lifestyle.
I don't hate gays. However, gay friends and relatives know that I amrepulsed by the act of homosexuality. I don't hate supermodels, but I amopposed to bulimia. I view homosexuality and bulimia in the same light. Bothare self-destructive, abnormal behaviors. I don't hate the person trapped inhomosexuality or bulimia, but I would not want to be in his or her shoes.
Contrary to NBA star John Amaechi's comments, homosexuals should not beafforded the same considerations, rights and privileges as ethnic groups.Discrimination against race or creed is wrong. It is morally unacceptable totolerate gay behavior.
TIMOTHY BROWN, Merritt Island
=
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment