FLORIDA DIGEST August 29, 2007

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Janet Folger's take on James Naugle - Ft. Lauderdale - on
World Net Daily

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57349

Public sex arrests to slow AIDS spread
Posted: August 28, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle doesn't want his city be known as the AIDScapital of the nation, so he took a stand. Citing the Broward Department ofHealth statistics: "74 percent of new AIDS cases" in the city are in the"MSM" category - that's "men having sex with men." An estimated 500 men willbecome HIV positive this year in Fort Lauderdale alone, so Mayor Nauglespoke out against the illegal behavior that spreads it: Anonymous publicsex. Now he's called a hater.

Yes, Mayor Naugle is a hater: He hates AIDS. The most loving thing you cando for people is to stand against the activity that spreads a deadlydisease. The Broward Public Health Department reports that Broward leads thenation in the number of new AIDS cases, and now one in five men who have sexwith other men is HIV positive. Care about a homosexual? Tell them that.

But there's a move to keep that vital information quiet. See what they'redoing to Mayor Naugle by viewing the ad posted on the Faith2Action website.

Dr. John Diggs, of the Massachusetts Physicians Resource Council, and anexpert in sexually transmitted diseases, took a bold stand, too. At a pressconference with the mayor that I attended last week, Diggs went beyondstanding with the mayor for public safety, he also stood for my personalsafety.

You wouldn't know it from the Sun Sentinel's headlines that called ushomosexual "bashers," but as you can see by their own video: "Mayor Naugle'slatest press conference turns heated," I was the one being shouted down by ahomosexual activist with AIDS, who, spitting as he screamed, tried tosilence me. Thank you Dr. Diggs for standing between us as he approached thepodium where I was standing. Hear Dr. Diggs and other speakers at the pressconference on my latest radio program with the mayor.

The media rewarded this hostile behavior, of course, by ignoring my commentsand Dr. Diggs' research and surrounding the AIDS activist whose standagainst the mayor and enforcement of the law only invites new AIDS casesinto the city.

The good news? The mayor informed me today that: "We are making additionalarrests in our parks including one person who admitted to the media that hefound out about the park from a homosexual website."

He also informed me that the county's main homosexual weekly is calling onfolks to avoid sex in parks and public places. Unfortunately, they aresuggesting that homosexuals visit the sex clubs and bathhouses instead. Yes,bathhouses are making a comeback. In the 1980s, San Francisco's PublicHealth Director ordered 14 bathhouses to close immediately, saying they were''fostering disease and death'' by allowing indiscriminate sexual contactsthat could spread AIDS. Bigot.

While the Sun Sentinel calls for Naugle's resignation and the Miami Heraldcalls him a "hate-monger" - ringing their hands about the loss of tourismdollars, County Commissioner Stacy Ritter has scheduled a vote today toremove Mayor Naugle as a member of the Broward Tourist Development Council.Why? It seems the Tourist Development Council is more concerned abouthomosexual tourist dollars than protecting homosexual people.

Mayor Naugle is more concerned with the cost of lives, not to mention "theloss of tourism from those 80 percent who do not support sex in publicbathrooms and feel pornography should not be in public libraries."The cost? Beyond the lives of 500 Ft. Lauderdale residents each year whowill likely contract this terminal disease, let's take a look at cost, shallwe?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we spend moremoney each year on AIDS than cancer, heart disease and stroke victimscombined - actually it's about 10 times more per person than the other threeof our deadliest diseases put together! The cost in lives and dollars is toohigh to sit back and do nothing.

The mayor's bold stand for lives and the law is making a difference: Theconvention and visitors bureau has now said they will delete "bathhouses"from the 2008 rainbow vacation planner. More good news: Similar efforts arebeing attempted in North Carolina and Michigan as a result of Naugle'sefforts.

And still more good news: Mayor Naugle, a Democrat, will be there to welcomethe Republican candidates at the Values Voter Presidential Debate, Sept. 17in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Key leaders including Phyllis Schlafly, president ofEagle Forum; Don Wildmon chairman of the American Family Association; PaulWeyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation; Judge Roy Moore,chairman of the Foundation for Moral Law; Rick Scarborough, president ofVision America; and Matt Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel; Star Parker,president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education; Bobby Schindler,of Terri's Fight; Phillip Jauregui of the Judicial Action Group; andex-homosexual Stephen Bennet of Stephen Bennet Ministries, will be joined by30 of the nation's most influential groups asking the questions of thepresidential candidates that matter most to the Values Voters - the largestvoting block in America.

The majority of the Republican candidates have confirmed their attendance atthe debate which will be broadcast live on Sky Angel, streamed livepro-family websites including: Values Voter Debate and American FamilyAssociation, and heard live on the VCY and AFA radio networks. It will alsobe televised Saturday night, Sept. 22 on the INSP Network and aired on theDayStar Television Network and seen around the world on God TV.

Mayor Naugle will welcome attendees and introduce the Boy Scouts (who healso fought for) to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Make plans to watch,you're not going to want to miss it: Monday, Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m.



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Unite Fort Lauderdale Meeting / Wed., Aug. 30th 7pm @ GLCC

Please mark your calendars for this Thursday, Aug 30th, 7 P.M. at the GLCCfor the next meeting of UNITE Fort Lauderdale!

There will be updates and discussion on all the current actions underwayalong with what's coming up, and what you can do to help!

www.UniteFortLauderdale.org
www.FlushNaugle.org

See You There!



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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-flrxfree0829nbaug29,0,7144965,print.story

How to get your medication for cheap or free
By Bob LaMendola
August 29, 2007

Patients may not know. Their relatives and friends may not know. Evendoctors and pharmacists may not know: Millions of people can get free ordeeply discounted drugs simply by filling out a form.

Most drugs sold in America are available for little or nothing throughprograms that aim to assist people with no health coverage, inadequatecoverage, low to moderate incomes, or serious illnesses that require costlymedicine.

To tell more South Floridians about free drugs, the Partnership forPrescription Assistance, a group created by drug manufacturers, drove itspromotional bus through South Florida on Tuesday and helped people sign up.

"I didn't think it was true, but it is," said Lorraine Williams, a NorthLauderdale medical office worker who visited the bus in Fort Lauderdale.

Williams learned her husband, Lawrence, 62, qualifies for help even thoughhe is insured. Compared with his regular coverage as a U.S. Postal Serviceretiree, assistance programs can save hundreds of dollars per month on the11 drugs he takes since having a stroke, she said.

Through the partnership, Floridians can get help from at least 219 programsoffered by drug makers, state governments, nonprofit groups and charities.Generally, the programs help people with incomes below 200 percent of thefederal poverty level, or $41,300 for a family of four.



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St. Petersburg Times

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/28/Opinion/DNC_s_foolish_slighti.shtml

DNC's foolish slighting of Florida
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published August 28, 2007

The Democratic National Committee's message to more than 4-million Florida
Democrats couldn't be clearer: You don't count.

The refusal by national Democrats over the weekend to recognize the state'sJan. 29 presidential primary and seat any Florida delegates to the nationalconvention is foolish and small-minded. In rigidly enforcing rules regardinga primary schedule that already is a mess, they lost sight of larger goals -such as selecting a nominee for president who has been tested in a large,ethnically diverse state and laying the groundwork for the general election.

There is no easy response to such narrow thinking. The Republican-controlledLegislature is not about to move the primary back to Feb. 5, which is whereit should have stayed. Holding some sort of Democratic caucus, the solutionurged by national Democrats, would be absurd. This isn't Iowa, where theoverrated caucuses draw far fewer Democrats than there are in PinellasCounty alone.

The situation is further complicated by the constitutional amendment onproperty taxes that will be on the Jan. 29 ballot. This is an incrediblyimportant issue that will have long-term ramifications for the state'sfuture. Independent voters already were at a disadvantage, because theycan't vote in the presidential primaries and will have one less reason to goto the polls. If Democrats conclude there is no reason to vote in theirprimary, they also might be less inclined to take the trouble to vote on asingle amendment. Deciding the fate of the property tax amendment in anelection where the turnout may be lower than expected and less reflectivethan normal of the overall electorate would not be in the state's bestinterest.



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The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/775/story/218261.html

Posted on Tue, Aug. 28, 2007

House, Senate budget writers say they won't cut Medically Needy
By DAVID ROYSE

A program that helps Floridians with catastrophic illnesses pay theirmedical bills should be left alone as lawmakers wrestle with how to lowerstate spending, House and Senate health care budget writers said Tuesday.The Medically Needy program helps uninsured people who have enormous medicalexpenses they could never pay on their own pay for care they absolutely needto stay alive.

It's an expensive program, and the state Medicaid agency had identified it,reluctantly, as a place where lawmakers could free up some money, becauseit's one of the few major state health care expenses not required by thefederal government.

By restricting the program to just pregnant women and children, the statecould save $175 million, the Agency for Health Care Administration said.

But Rep. Aaron Bean, who is leading the House's effort to cut the healthcare budget, and his Senate counterpart, Sen. Durell Peaden, rejected thatidea Tuesday.

"We will avoid the Medically Needy program," said Bean, R-Fernandina Beach.




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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbkennedy0829nbaug29,0,5726197,print.story

Once a dance instructor, the Rev. Kennedy built evangelical empire in FortLauderdale

By Robert Nolin and James D. Davis
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 29, 2007

A dramatic moment of conversion and deeply felt religious convictionpropelled the Rev. D. James Kennedy, a former tango instructor, to thepinnacle of a Fort Lauderdale-based ministry that reaches millions.

Now retired after an incapacitating heart attack, Kennedy, 76, no longerwill ascend the mahogany pulpit of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, wherehis leadership spanned nearly five decades.

Church elders now must find a successor for the preacher with the baritonevoice whose retirement was announced Sunday. But they're unlikely to everreplace Kennedy, whose unyielding conservative positions are affirmed by hisdisciples and assailed by his critics - often with passion.

"His place in the evangelical world is like Mount Everest - huge, almostindescribable," said Richard Land, president of the Ethics and ReligiousLiberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"I'm very glad to see him leave the ministry, very happy," said the Rev.Harold McSwain, pastor of the First Congregational Church of FortLauderdale, United Church of Christ. "I've had to deal with a lot of woundedpeople coming to me in tears and in anger because of the kind of hate hefosters."


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The Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpfaubudget0829pnaug29,0,7946298,print.story

FAU to save $7 million by freezing jobs, cutting travel, turning up AC
By Scott Travis
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 29, 2007

Florida Atlantic University will freeze positions, scale back travel andkeep campus buildings warmer to deal with a budget cut of almost $7 million.

The Board of Trustees approved a state-mandated reduction of $6.96 million,or 4 percent of its operating budget, in a conference call Tuesday. The cutsaffect almost every department, with financial aid and campus police amongthe few exceptions.

FAU officials said they don't plan to eliminate many classes altogether,although the number of course sections may decline over the next couple ofyears. Students in Davie might have to drive to the Boca Raton campus for aclass, or take a day class they could otherwise take at night, said KenJessell, vice president for finance.

They also might sweat a bit. The university has raised thermostat settingsfrom to 78 degrees from 76 as part of a set of cost-cutting measures in thefacilities department that are expected to save about $597,000.

The state required that public universities, as well as all state agencies,make cuts to deal with shortfalls triggered by lower-than-expected taxcollections. Community colleges also are planning cuts.



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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-flpschoolplan0829pnaug29,0,7815237,print.story

Palm Beach County School Board plans for $905 million in constructionthrough 2012
By Marc Freeman
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 29, 2007

They've accounted for a drop of $212 million. They've accounted for a majorslowdown in student enrollment. They've accounted for building designchanges, inflation and shifting priorities.

After a summer of tough work, the Palm Beach County School District finallyhas arrived at a new five-year construction plan, ready for the SchoolBoard's review at 5:30 p.m. today.

Even with all the changes and trims, the plan still calls for spending $905million on new construction projects through the 2011-2012 school year. Afinal board vote is set for Sept. 5.

"We are simply giving the board another opportunity to review and discussthe proposed plan prior to adoption," said Joseph Sanches, chief offacilities management.

For the first time in 12 years, the district did not order a new schoolbecause of growth needs. Last year, officials requested only one new schooland it remains on schedule. The $33.5 million elementary south of OkeechobeeBoulevard and west of Haverhill Road is coming in 2009 to relieve crowdingat Wynnebrook and West Gate elementary schools.



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