FLORIDA DIGEST October 13, 2007

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Sun-Sentinel.com

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/legislature/sfl-flfsheriff1013nboct13,0,5888314,print.story

Gov. Charlie Crist interviews 9 candidates for Broward sheriff post

By Jamie Malernee
Tallahassee Bureau
October 13, 2007

TALLAHASSEE

Broward County on Friday moved closer to getting a new sheriff as ninecandidates trooped into Gov. Charlie Crist's office for the chance tosucceed Ken Jenne, who resigned last month before pleading guilty to taxevasion and mail fraud.

Among the hopefuls Crist interviewed were a former Broward sheriff known forraiding gay bars, a defense attorney who recently represented a Hollywoodpolice officer ensnared in a FBI corruption investigation, a former FBIagent once hired by Jenne, two state judges and the current interim sheriff.

The interviews at Crist's first-floor Capitol office - which were attendedby Department of Children & Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, himself aformer Broward sheriff - were not open to the public. Crist has not saidwhen he will make his choice.

Wiley Thompson, a former assistant director of the FBI and a candidate forthe sheriff's job, used the visit to Tallahassee to distance himself fromJenne, who hired him in May 2005. Thompson left the sheriff's office lastAugust, and said Jenne fired him.

"I never developed a relationship with Ken Jenne, which turned out to be agood thing for me," Thompson told a reporter before meeting the governor.

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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbhotel1013nboct13,0,4089940.story?coll=sofla_tab01_layout

Developers planning hotels for downtown Fort Lauderdale

Developers move in as Lauderdale condos slump
By Brittany Wallman
October 13, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE

The downtown condo boom is over and a new one has begun: hotels.

Developers are seeking city building approvals right now for four majorhigh-rise hotel-office towers downtown. That's in addition to plans at thehistoric Riverside Hotel - for many years the only hotel downtown - to razestorefronts on Las Olas Boulevard and build an expansion.

All told, there are plans for almost 1,000 hotel beds in Fort Lauderdale'srelatively compact downtown, city building plans show. More than 1 millionsquare feet of new office space would also be built.

A vertical renaissance swept through the downtown in recent years, fillingit with new residential condos and lofts. Meanwhile, high-end hoteldevelopers were busy re-making the beach.

Now the condo developers have departed downtown Fort Lauderdale, and thehotel builders moved in. The city's rules for developing downtown put alimit on residential growth, and that cap has nearly been reached. Two ofthe proposed projects originally were proposed as condos.

Hotel analysts said they're not sure how deep the downtown market is, butthey said the signs are positive. Still, all five projects may not survive.

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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/insurance/sfl-flfpip1012nboct12,0,6702263.story

Gov. Crist signs bill reinstating no-fault car insurance Jan. 1

By Josh Hafenbrack
Tallahassee Bureau
October 12, 2007

TALLAHASSEE

Which Scion would get the most envious glares?

Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday signed a bill into law reviving Florida'sno-fault automobile insurance law and the requirement that all motoristscarry $10,000 in personal-injury coverage.

The changes restore mandatory personal-injury protections, or PIP, as ofJan. 1. Between now and then, motorists can decide whether or not to buy thecoverage, which pays for the first $10,000 in medical bills regardless ofwho caused an accident.

Florida had required motorists to carry personal-injury coverage since 1973,but the requirement lapsed Oct. 1. Deep-pocketed insurance companies andtrial lawyers battled for years to kill PIP, arguing it's a system rife withfraud that drives up insurance rates.

The new law "will have some important reforms - fighting fraud moreaggressively, which is extremely important," Crist said at a Capitolbill-signing ceremony, flanked by lead legislative negotiators on the issue,including Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale.

"Extending care is a compassionate thing to do," Crist said. "Trying to takefrom the system is not."

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St. Petersburg Times

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/13/State/All_acquitted_in_boot.shtml

All acquitted in boot camp beating trial

REACTION: Verdict brings a protest and a boycott threat.
WHAT'S NEXT: Federal officials promise to investigate.
By ABBIE VANSICKLE and COLLEEN JENKINS, Times Staff Writers
Published October 13, 2007

PANAMA CITY -- The quiet lasted just seconds after the judge read the jury'sverdicts.

"Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty ..."

Eight times he repeated the phrase. Eight acquittals for the boot campemployees accused in the January 2006 death of 14-year-old Martin LeeAnderson.

Next came the voices of relief and disbelief, clashing in the courtroom andbeyond.

College students filled the streets of Tallahassee with angry protests. Astate lawmaker called for an economic boycott of Bay County. Defenseattorneys reveled in their victory as federal officials vowed toinvestigate.

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St. Petersburg Times

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/13/State/Simpler_is_better_on_.shtml

Simpler is better on homestead

A GOP poll shows strong approval for the latest tax plan.
By ALEX LEARY, Times Staff Writer
Published October 13, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - In terms of gaining public support, the now-defunct superhomestead exemption amendment had two big problems: It was hard tounderstand. And it failed to protect funding for schools, which turnededucators into instant opponents.

"It was going to be a hard sell," Sen. Dan Webster, one of the plan'sprimary authors, conceded Friday.

The Legislature's new amendment is simpler and specifically shields schoolsfrom tax cuts. And, Webster said Friday, new Republican Party polling showsthe new plan is well above the 60 percent margin needed for approval.

An independent poll had put the approval rating for the old amendment, whicha judge ruled misleading, at 47 percent.

The old plan would have reduced school revenue from property taxes by up to$2-billion a year. Republican lawmakers promised to replace the funding, butmany people simply did not believe they would keep that pledge.

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The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/270164.html

Teenager's death exposed use of violence on youths

Posted on Fri, Oct. 12, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Despite their disappointment with acquittals in the Martin Lee Andersoncase, children's advocates and juvenile justice experts said Friday the casehas already had positive consequences for the state.

Among them: All of Florida's military-style boot camps have been shut down,and painful restraints intended to force unruly juveniles to comply havebeen banned.

''Regardless of how any of us feel about the verdict, the best thing to comeout of this case is that it brought to the surface how much we hadcorrectionalized adolescents and juveniles,'' said Nancy Hamilton, who runsa St. Petersburg drug treatment program and is the former head of Florida'sJuvenile Justice Association.

Said incoming Senate Democratic leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee: ``Ifnothing else, Martin's death caused not only a shake-up of our juvenilejustice system, but the way in which our troubled youth are rehabilitated.''

On Friday, a Bay County jury acquitted seven guards and a nurse ofmanslaughter charges in the Jan. 6, 2006, death of Martin, a 14-year-oldPanama City youth sent to a military-style boot camp after he violatedprobation on a joyriding charge. After Martin's death, lawmakers banned theuse of force and violence in controlling youths in state custody.

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October 12, 2007

The Sunshine Athletic Association of So. Florida
P.O. Box 1281, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33302
Eric Ginnegar (954) 561-

Ft. Lauderdale GLCC Receives a Matching Grant from Graves Foundation

Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On Sunday, October 21st, the Sunshine AthleticAssociation will host its annual dinner at the 17th Street Causeway EmbassySuites Hotel and formalize its Grant funding to three organizations, theGLCC of Fort Lauderdale, The Stonewall Library and the Sunshine CathedralMCC. These organizations will have received $30,000 each and they werechosen because they offer and have offered shelter, meeting space and/orhistorical records retention to SAA clubs.

The Board of Directors of the Sunshine Athletic Association was informedthat as a result of the $30,000 SAA grant gifted to the Fort LauderdaleCommunity Center, the Graves Foundation match that amount.

For information about the dinner contact SAA's Tri-County Council of Club'sSecretary, Eric Ginnegar, at (954) 561-4541



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(Tallahassee, Florida)
Florida's Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink hasimplemented a policy allowing Florida Department of Financial Services("DFS") employees to use sick leave to care for their domestic partners. DFScurrently employs 2,560 Floridians.

As stated in the DFS employee handbook, which will be distributed to newemployees on October 16, the department's sick leave policy was revised "tobe responsive to the changing needs of society, and to treat all personsfairly and equitably."

Sink's policy change was initiated at the request of the Palm Beach CountyHuman Rights Council, a non-profit organization that has been in theforefront of domestic partnership issues in Florida.

On the day Sink was sworn into office last January, a letter from CouncilPresident Rand Hoch was hand-delivered to James Cassady, Sink's Chief ofStaff. In the letter, Hoch asked Sink to consider granting DFS employeeswith domestic partners the same family benefits as married employees.

DFS staff began working on the Council's request last April.

"CFO Sink's pro-family policy recognizing domestic partners is a significantfirst step for Florida, " said Hoch. "Hopefully, Governor Crist will directDepartment of Management Services Secretary Linda South to investigate thepossibility of offering domestic partner benefits to all state employees."

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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/10-11/news/localnews/4100.cfm

Light punishment for alleged witness tampering outrages gay murder victim'sbrother

Defense lawyer Moldof admonished for 'surreptitious payment'
By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Oct. 11, 2007

The brother of a gay Fort Lauderdale man who was brutally murdered in 2001is criticizing the Florida Bar Association for giving a light punishment toa Fort Lauderdale defense attorney who admitted to paying $100 to apotential witness against his client.

Nick Sortal, whose older brother, Michael Sortal, was tortured and killed byGeoffrey Kennedy and Kevin Hoffman, said defense attorney Hilliard Moldofshould have faced disbarment and felony charges for the alleged witnesstampering.

Moldof, a past president of the Broward Association of Criminal DefenseLawyers, represented defendant Hoffman in the case. He was investigated forallegedly paying co-defendant Kennedy $100 and allegedly promising to payhim $20,000. Moldof admitted to making the $100 payment but denied that hewas trying to tamper with a witness, according to media reports. Moldoffsaid he gave Kennedy $100 after he begged him for money to pay a prison debtthat he said threatened his safety.

After more than a year of legal wrangling that included a special prosecutorappointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, Moldof escaped with what Nick Sortal considers aslap on the wrist. On Oct. 4, the Florida Bar Association punished Moldofwith an official admonishment for his actions. Sortal thinks it's amiscarriage of justice.

"Why is Moldof even sending $100 to someone who's not his client?" Sortalsaid. "They should have put him away right there."

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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=10/7/07&end=10/14/07#14724

BEST OF GAY SOUTH FLORIDA

2007 Best of Gay South Florida
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Community | Nightlife | People | Arts | Dining

Welcome to the Express' annual "Best of Gay South Florida." Picking the bestof anything is a profoundly subjective endeavor. There are so many goodpeople, organizations, restaurants and bars in South Florida that it isoften hard to determine the crème de la crème. But both our readers and theExpress editorial staff gave it their best shot. The winners of the readers'online poll are listed below. The Editors' picks were determinedcollectively by Express Editor Phil LaPadula and Staff Writers Juan CarlosRodriguez and Sheri Elfman.

Some of the winners are local gay people who have stood out from the crowdover the past year. Some are straight allies who have lent a hand to ourcause. Some of the businesses are gay owned, while others are gay-friendlyplaces that are popular with the local gay and lesbian community.

We weighed many factors in picking these icons. If you were picked last yearbut not this year, don't feel slighted. It doesn't mean we think you are anyless fabulous. It might just mean that we wanted to honor someone else whohas shined this year. And, although the readers made many excellent choices,we chose to honor certain individuals, organizations or businesses that wefelt the readers had overlooked.

We hope this sampling of some of the highlights of our community helps makeyour life or visit here a more enjoyable experience.

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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/10-11/news/localnews/4101.cfm

Okeechobee school board bans clubs based on sexual orientation

As court battles play out elsewhere, GSAs thrive in Miami-Dade
Oct. 11, 2007

In the latest attempt to ban a gay-straight alliance in their district, theOkeechobee County School Board passed a measure Oct. 9 that bans studentclubs and organizations that are based on sexual orientation.

School Superintendent Patricia Cooper said that the measure was necessary toassure that no such clubs and organizations interfere with the district'sabstinence-only sex education policy. School board members unanimouslypassed the amendment to school policy despite U.S. District Judge MichaelMoore's protective order that states that the school board's denial of theOkeechobee High School GSA violates the Federal Equal Access Act.

"It really is a slap in the face to Judge Moore's order," said RobRosenwald, the ACLU attorney who represents Okeechobee High School gradYasmin Gonzalez in a lawsuit against the school board. "The OkeechobeeSchool district just doesn't get it. The judge decided that the GSA doesn'tviolate the school board policy. It's not a sex-based club."

Judge Moore's injunction allows the club to continue to meet until thelawsuit is settled. The case is scheduled to go to court in March. Theamended policy cannot disband the GSA, but it will prevent future clubs frommeeting at the school, Ken Kenworthy, the assistant school superintendent,told the Associated Press.

Despite the legal dogfight, Jessica Donaldson, the current president of theOkeechobee High GSA, continues to organize weekly meetings and activitiesthat promote tolerance and combat attitudes that lead to bullying.

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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/10-11/news/localnews/4118.cfm

Group plays the straight card in effort to block marriage ban

Oct. 11, 2007

The leaders of Florida Red and Blue, an organization that fighting to blocka Florida state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, expectthe 2008 election season to be a long, tough one. The organization isexpecting the petition drive to put the anti-gay marriage amendment on theballot to succeed.

Derek Newton, Florida Red and Blue's campaign manager, explained tosupporters what they should expect in the coming weeks and months at afund-raising lunch at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of South Florida onSept. 28.

Newton told the nearly 50 community members that Florida Red and Blue willbe reaching out to Republicans and groups of swing voters not traditionallyaligned with gay and lesbian politics.

Newton said the campaign will be appealing to mostly straight people who areundecided about the amendment to explain how restricting marriage to a manand a woman will affect all Florida residents, not gays and lesbians alone.

"We need to frame the issue around consequences for everyone," Newton said."Instead of making it a referendum on gay marriage."

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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/10-11/view/editorial/4105.cfm

An outrageous travesty of justice

Florida Bar lowers the bar for legal ethics in case of murdered gay man
By PHIL LAPADULA
Oct. 11, 2007

It has been said that rich Hollywood celebrities who murder their wives paya fine instead of going to jail. The cases of O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake,both of whom were accused of murdering their wives and were confronted withmounds of evidence at their trials, come immediately to mind. With the helpof high-priced lawyers, both men were acquitted but found liable for thekillings in civil judgments.

Such cases are high-profile examples of how money corrupts the U.S. justicesystem. But there are low-profile examples as well. Last week, the FloridaBar Association "admonished" a defense lawyer who admitted to giving apotential witness against his client $100 in the case of a Fort Lauderdalegay man who was brutally murdered by two thugs. The lawyer, Hilliard Moldof,represented Kevin Hoffman, who was accused along with a co-defendant ofmurdering Michael Sortal, a gay Fort Lauderdale warehouse manager. The pairtargeted gay men for "gratuitous violence," and Hoffman even joked about it,according to a prosecutor in the case.

Moldof was investigated for paying Geoffrey Kennedy, the co-defendant in thecase, $100 and allegedly offering to pay him $20,000 to change his testimonyand say Moldof's client, Hoffman, was not involved in the murder. JoseArrojo and Michael Von Zamft, two Miami-Dade prosecutors who investigatedMoldof, concluded that he tampered with a witness, but they chose not tocharge him with a crime, according to reports in the Miami Herald and otherpublications. Instead, the prosecutors recommended that the Florida Barsuspend Moldof's license to practice law for six to 12 months.

But the Bar Association opted instead for the slap-on-the-wrist"admonishment," which they handed down Oct. 4. In its admonishment, the Barstates that "there is no doubt that [Moldof] made a surreptitious payment tothat witness." But the Bar said that there was "insufficient evidence" tocharge Moldof with witness tampering.

Moldof has admitted to giving Kennedy the $100 but denies he was trying toinfluence a witness. He said Kennedy begged him for money to pay a jaildebt, according to media reports.

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Express Gay News

http://www.expressgaynews.com/2007/10-11/locallife/feature/4107.cfm

Gay judge uses humor, show tunes to teach lessons

Miami native David Young has a TV show and a partner who is also a judge
By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
Oct. 11, 2007

Judge David Young considered a few major points in his most famous case whenhe sentenced two America West pilots for attempting to fly a jetliner whileintoxicated. He weighed the danger in which the pilots placed theirpassengers, the damage they did to aviation and the fact that they could beso reckless as to show up drunk to fly an airplane in the post-Sept. 11 era.

It was heavy stuff, and it got Young, an openly gay jurist, noticed bytelevision producers who were seeking a dynamic daytime personality. In hisnew television show, "Judge David Young," things are notably different.Today, the honorable, inexhaustibly cheerful Young measures questions suchas whether the owner of Pootie Tang, a toy apricot poodle, should bereimbursed for a $3,700 veterinarian bill that resulted from an attack byFinny, a neighbor's chow-chow.

Although the stakes may be different, to Young, who served 14 years on MiamiDade's circuit and county courts, there is a connection between the ownersof Pootie Tang and Finny and the convicted pilots.

"You can say these are small claims cases, but in reality the litigants arejust as tied up in their situations," says Young while sipping his usualStarbucks order, a grande iced-decaf, non-fat latte with two Sweet 'N Lows.

As he speaks, he stops to greet neighbors and other Starbucks regulars whohave gotten to know him and his partner of 13 years, Circuit Court JudgeScott Bernstein.

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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbdig10126nboct12,0,3688682.story

Fort Lauderdale: Latino AIDS awareness Is focus of program

October 12, 2007

The Broward County Health Department will host an education and preventionoutreach event at 10 p.m. today for National Latino AIDS Awareness Day.

Members of various community groups, including FUSION, Mpowerment Project,the Gay and Lesbian Community Center and Care Resources, will distributefree condoms at STEEL nightclub, 1951 NW Ninth Ave.

Free HIV testing and counseling with bilingual counselors will also beavailable at various sites throughout the community from Monday to Oct. 19.

For more information, call 954-762-3639.



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365Gay.Com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/101207flart.htm

Bill Would Protect Fla. Gays In Jobs, Housing

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: October 12, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET

(Tallahassee, Florida) A bill filed Friday in the Florida legislature wouldprohibit discrimination in Florida in employment, housing and publicaccommodations based on sexual orientation.

The measure would expand existing state law that covers race, color,religion, sex, national origin, disability and age.

"Several Florida counties and cities have enacted laws prohibitingdiscrimination based on sexual orientation," said civil rights attorney RandHoch who is president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.

"However, because their is no statewide law, well over half of allFloridians who face discrimination based on their sexual orientation have nolegal recourse."

Separate bills were filed by state Sen. Ted Deutch and Rep. Kelly Skidmore,both Democrats.

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365Gay.Com

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/10/101207amend.htm

Group Says Florida Anti-Gay Amendment Likely To Make 08 Ballot

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: October 12, 2007 - 3:00 pm ET

(Miami, Florida) A conservative umbrella group pushing to amend the Floridaconstitution to bar same-sex marriage says it expects to have enough namesbefore the February deadline to put the issue to voters in 2008.

Florida4Marriage said this week that it is only a few thousand signaturesshort of the 611,009 signatures needed and will likely have enoughadditional signatures to offset any names which cannot be verified andstruck off by the secretary of state.

The groups involved in Florida4Marriage said they plan a signature blitzover the holidays to put them over the top.

Florida4Marriage attempted to have the measure placed on the 2006 ballot butfell short of the required number of signatures.

Of the 611,009 signatures necessary to place the amendment on the November2006 ballot, only 455,363 were gathered by the February 1, 2006, deadline.
(story)

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The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/us/politics/13voting.html

Voting Machines Giving Florida New Headache

October 13, 2007
By ABBY GOODNOUGH

MIAMI, Oct. 12 - It used to be that everyone wanted a Florida votingmachine.

After the history-making presidential recount of 2000, Palm Beach Countysold hundreds of its infamous Votomatic machines to memorabilia seekers,including a group of chiropractors in Arizona, the cable-news host Greta VanSusteren and the hotelier André Balazs. One machine ended up in theSmithsonian Institution. Dozens were transformed into pieces of contemporaryart for an exhibition in New York.

But now that Florida is purging its precincts of 25,000 touch-screen votingmachines - bought after the recount for up to $5,000 each, hailed as the wayof the future but deemed failures after five or six years - no one isbiting.

"I think we are going to have them on hand for a while," said ArthurAnderson, the elections supervisor in Palm Beach County, which must jettison4,900 touch-screen machines for which it paid $14.5 million in 2001 andstill owes $4.8 million. "They are probably, for the most part, headed tothe scrap pile."

Across the nation, jurisdictions that experimented with touch-screen votingafter 2000 are starting to scale back or abandon it based on a growingperception that the machines are unreliable and concern that they do notprovide a paper trail in case questions arise. California will sharply scaleback touch-screen voting next year after a review by the secretary of statefound it was vulnerable to hackers.

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