Thursday, October 25, 2007

FLORIDA DIGEST October 25, 2007

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Ft. Lauderdale [TheDolphinDemocrats]

David Mixner to Speak at Nova on Today - Thursday, Oct. 25

The second speaker for the Goodwin Series at the law center at NovaSoutheastern University is author/activist/political consultant David Mixnerwho will speak to the public on Thursday, October 25 from 6-7. A receptionwith drinks and food and where you can meet David Mixner will follow thepublic presentation. The speaking event and reception are open to thepublic and free, and they will both take place at the law center. DavidMixner is likely to speak on a wide range of issues, including the rolepolitics plays in LGBT issues and defining morality, HIV/AIDS issues, andthe history of the gay rights movement. He is known to be an engagingspeaker who has been a leading activist in the fight for LGBT equality. Weexpect this to be a very interesting and lively discussion. His biographyis posted below. For directions to the law center at Nova, go tohttp://www.nova.edu/cwis/campusmaps/maincampus.html

In addition to having David Mixner visit the school next week, we will behosting an exhibit on LGBT hate crimes, entitled Gay American Heroes. Theexhibit will be in the law library beginning next week. You can read aboutthe display athttp://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2007/08/gay-american-he.html

Please mark your calendars for the remaining schedule.
Tuesday November 6, 6-7: Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the NationalLesbian and Gay Task Force
Tuesday November 27, 6-7: Rev. Gene Robinson, the First Openly GayEpiscopalian Bishop

David Mixner's Biography:

David Mixner has been involved in public life, policy, business and a writerfor nearly forty years. His blog, www.davidmixner.com is one of this year's most visitedissue-oriented blogs.

Mr. Mixner is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Stranger AmongFriends and the number one bestseller Brave Journeys. His screenplay,co-written with Richard Burns, Dunes of Overveen won the Outfest MTV Awardfor "Best New Screenplay" and his screenplay, co-written with Dennis Bailey,Fire in the Soul is being considered by a number of production companies atthe moment.. He just finished wth Dennis Bailey a play called Jacob'sLadder.. Additionally, Mr. Mixner has published numerous articles. He isExecutive Producer on the award-winning documentary called House on Firewhich deals with HIV /AIDS in the African American community.

more....



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A Chocolate Lovers Dream Event benefiting Care Resource

Jimmies Chocolates will host a weekend of 60th anniversary celebrationscentered around fundraising for local not-for-profit organizations.

The events will take place on Friday October 26 in their Pompano beachlocation, and on Saturday, October 27 in their Dania Beach location.

The events are focused on Chocolate, Wine and the Arts, and will featuremore than 9 wines from the wine list at the cafe' and of course Jimmiesfamous chocolates.

Members of the American Poets and the Florida Youth Orchestra will perform.Jimmies will also feature a Charity Art Auction as well as raffles at bothevents.

All proceeds from the events will benefit, Care Resource, Children's Harbor,and the S.T.E.P.S. program at the Florida Youth Orchestra.

Each event has a cost of $35 with a discount on a two night pass.

Friday, October 26 - 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Gourmet Chocolate Shoppe
124 W. McNab Road
Pompano Beach, FL 33060
Ph: 954.784.5656

Saturday, October 27 - 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Original Chocolate Shoppe
148 North Federal Highway
Dania Beach, Fl 33004
Ph: 954.922.0441



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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flplake1025pnoct25,0,7087429.story?coll=sofla_tab01_layout

Water shortage threatening to cut off Seminoles, worsen strain on SouthFlorida
District obliged to pump despite record low levels

By Andy Reid
October 25, 2007

Lake Okeechobee's historic, drought-induced decline now threatens to cutoff a key water source for one of the Seminole Tribe's reservations,potentially signaling serious problems to come for South Florida's mainbackup water supply.

An emergency proposal calls for the South Florida Water Management Districtto take the unusual step of floating a barge bearing a massive pump onto thelake to siphon water to replenish canals that supply the Seminoles' Brightonreservation on the northwest side of the lake.

By Friday, district officials are supposed to decide whether to use a bargeor try another method, which calls for plugging an in-lake canal andflooding an area outside the lake's dike to create an artificial basin ofwater that could be pumped to the Seminoles.

With the rainy season coming to an end in November and Lake Okeechobee still5 feet below normal, water managers warn that this is another sign of aworsening water shortage that threatens supplies for South Floridaresidents, agriculture and the Everglades.

"It's getting critical," district spokesman Randy Smith said Wednesday. "Itspeaks volumes as an indication of the situation Lake Okeechobee is in."

more . . . . .



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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flplake1025pnoct25,0,7087429.story?coll=sofla_tab01_layout

Water shortage threatening to cut off Seminoles, worsen strain on SouthFlorida
District obliged to pump despite record low levels

By Andy Reid
October 25, 2007

Lake Okeechobee's historic, drought-induced decline now threatens to cut offa key water source for one of the Seminole Tribe's reservations, potentiallysignaling serious problems to come for South Florida's main backup watersupply.

An emergency proposal calls for the South Florida Water Management Districtto take the unusual step of floating a barge bearing a massive pump onto thelake to siphon water to replenish canals that supply the Seminoles' Brightonreservation on the northwest side of the lake.

By Friday, district officials are supposed to decide whether to use a bargeor try another method, which calls for plugging an in-lake canal andflooding an area outside the lake's dike to create an artificial basin ofwater that could be pumped to the Seminoles.

With the rainy season coming to an end in November and Lake Okeechobee still5 feet below normal, water managers warn that this is another sign of aworsening water shortage that threatens supplies for South Floridaresidents, agriculture and the Everglades.

"It's getting critical," district spokesman Randy Smith said Wednesday. "Itspeaks volumes as an indication of the situation Lake Okeechobee is in."

more . . . . .



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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbmayor1025nboct25,0,7296621.story

Voters may decide on county mayor issue
County issue is meeting's topic Dec. 12

By Brittany Wallman
October 25, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE

Voters may decide whether the county needs an elected mayor - acontroversial issue that's been debated in Broward County for years.

On Wednesday, a 19-member board that can put county charter changes on thefall 2008 ballot decided that the issue is worth pursuing. The topic will behashed out in public on Dec. 12, at the next meeting of the Broward CountyCharter Review Commission.

Top business executives in Broward want the makeup of county governmentchanged, again. Seven years ago, voters rejected the idea of replacing theprofessional county administrator with an elected "strong mayor" form ofgovernment. Two years later, voters agreed to a figurehead mayor chosen eachyear by county commissioners from among themselves. They also increased thenumber of commissioners from seven to nine.

Those changes did not produce good leadership, say members of theinfluential Broward Workshop. The workshop is a non-profit, non-partisangroup created 27 years ago, and made up of CEOs and business professionalswho attempt to steer public policy or tackle the county's problems.

The discussion comes a day after county commissioners accepted theresignation of their relatively new professional administrator, PamBrangaccio, who lasted less than 18 months. The county will launch a searchfor a replacement.

more . . . . .



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Sun-Sentinel

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/theslant/blog/2007/10/floridas_faithbased_prisons_sh.html

Florida's faith-based prisons show promise.

Posted by Doug Lyons at 2:32 PM

That's the result of a national report that concludes that Florida'sdalliance into faith-based prisons is paying off. Staff, inmates andvolunteers overwhelmingly find value in the Faith and Character-BasedInsititution model and believe that it is achieving its goals of changinginmate behaviors and preparing them for more successful re-entry back intosociety.

The recently released study by the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center,which also concluded that male FCBI inmates have a slightly lowerreincarceration rate than their counterparts in other Florida Department ofCorrections facilities.

Florida, under an initiative pushed by former Gov. Jeb Bush, became thefirst state in the nation to dedicate an entire publicly run correctionalfacility to a faith-based model when it converted Lawtey, a male prisonoperation near Jacksonville into a FCBI back in 2003. A similar facility forwomen opened the following year near Tampa

There are still issues to be worked out, but the report, like the concept,is promising..



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Sun-Sentinel

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/283546.html

Home prices now falling in Broward, flat in Dade

BY MATTHEW HAGGMAN
Posted on Thu, Oct. 25, 2007

Prices of homes and condos in Broward County dropped in September comparedwith a year ago, a sign that stubborn sellers may finally be accepting thereality that they are no longer able to get the sky-high prices of the boomyears.

Market watchers cautioned that September sales figures represent just onemonth of data, and it's still too early to conclude the market has hitbottom. And sales remain sluggish, still down considerably from a year ago.

Broward's single-family home sales were off last year's number by 46percent; condo sales declined 39 percent. But prices also fell -- the medianhome price down 7 percent year-over-year to $345,200 while condo pricesslipped 15 percent to $174,600.

In Miami-Dade, single-family home sales were more than cut in half for themonth, dropping 53 percent from September 2006. Condo sales were similarlyoff 47 percent. Home prices were mostly flat at $372,300, and median condoprices rose 2 percent to $275,000.

The Broward price declines may represent a small step back to a healthymarket.

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The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/283495.html

Thompson slow to draw big donors

By BETH REINHARD AND ROB BARRY
Posted on Thu, Oct. 25, 2007

When Fred Thompson jumped into the presidential race in early September,months after his rivals, he was widely expected to pick up some of theheavy-duty Republican fundraisers in Florida who had been lingering on thesidelines.

It hasn't happened. Half of the leading fundraisers for President GeorgeBush -- anointed ''pioneers'' and ''rangers'' for their groundbreakingsuccess -- have taken sides.

But Fort Lauderdale cardiologist Zachariah Zachariah so far is the only oneto back Thompson, hosting a fundraiser for him Tuesday at his home.

Supporters point to his conservative bona fides and Southern charm, but somedonors and activists balk at the former Tennessee senator's laid-back mannerof speaking and campaigning.

Thompson gave a brief speech that many considered uninspiring at the stateparty's convention in Orlando on Saturday, leaving some voters who werehoping to be swept off their feet feeling stood up.

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Palm Beach Post

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2007/10/25/m5c_cubareaction_1025.html

Local Cubans underwhelmed by Bush's speech

By GRETEL SARMIENTO
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 25, 2007

President Bush's mention of financial aid, international help, scholarshipsand computers to a free Cuba in a speech Wednesday left some disappointedand others wishing he had used a harsher tone.

"I don't think that's going to solve anything," said Neovelino Morell, vicepresident of the Pro-Cuba Association in Palm Beach County.

"The president knows very well how the situation in Cuba could be resolved,"Morell said. "Cuba doesn't admit anything unless by force. Nothing happensthere with soft hands."

Morell, of West Palm Beach, hasn't been back to the island in almost 40years: "I left for a reason, and that reason is still there."

More important than computers and a reconstruction fund is the encouragementthat comes with Bush's speech, said Jorge Avellana, executive director ofthe Hispanic Human Resources Council.

more . . . . .



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Palm Beach Post

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/south/epaper/2007/10/25/s1a_FAU_LOCKS_1025.html

FAU installs classroom locks as shield against intruders

By KIMBERLY MILLER
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 25, 2007

BOCA RATON - New locks are being installed on Florida Atlantic Universityclassroom doors so faculty and students can protect themselves from outsidethreats, including those like the April shooting spree at Virginia Tech.

It's part of a bigger security effort that will include a $100,000 reverse911 system to begin in mid-November - students will be asked to startregistering their cellphone numbers - and by January a solar-powered audioalert system, which cost about $93,000.

Since the massacre, in which student Seung-hui Cho killed 32 people andhimself, school leaders have brainstormed ways to increase emergency alertsystems and keep campuses more secure.

Virginia Tech's Norris Hall, where many of the killings occurred, did nothave locks on all its classroom doors. In fact, 76-year-old Professor LiviuLebrescu was shot to death trying to hold a door shut as he told students tojump from the second-floor classroom's windows.

"I could just envision that one engineering professor holding the door whileCho was trying to get in," said FAU Associate Provost Michael Armstrong, whoworked at Virginia Tech for three years and is familiar with Norris Hall."If the folks there had been able to have a lock, some of the people couldhave been protected by putting a barrier in his way."

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Florida Today

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071025/BUSINESS/710250332/1003

Florida ready to pump ethanol
Producers seek greater presence in Sunshine State

BY PHILIP BRASHER
GANNETT NEWS SERVICE
October 25, 2007

Struggling ethanol producers soon could have a vast new market to reduce adeveloping glut of the fuel -- Florida and other parts of the fast-growingSoutheast.

State officials in the Southeast are moving to alter fuel-quality standardsthat have discouraged refiners from adding ethanol to gasoline sold in theregion.

Agriculture departments typically set the gasoline rules, and most of themin the Southeast -- including in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee --are taking steps to ease their rules.

Standards can be relaxed without harming engine performance, officials say,and adding ethanol to gasoline could save motorists money.

A gallon of ethanol is about 40 to 45 cents cheaper than a gallon ofgasoline in the region, which translates to several pennies cheaper at thepump for a typical gasoline-ethanol blend.

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Tampa Tribune

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBP85WQ68F.html

Safer Water Comes With Big Price Tag

By MIKE SALINERO The Tampa Tribune
Published: Oct 25, 2007

After decades of inaction, the federal government is finally forcing statesto clean up their polluted rivers, lakes and bays, but is providingvirtually none of the funding to do so.

Neither is the state of Florida, which has appropriated $10 million a yearto deal with what state officials estimate will be a $10 billion cleanup.

That means cities and counties, which are struggling with money problems oftheir own, will shoulder most of the financial burden.

"The bottom line is these problems are locally generated and are the resultsof increased development and increased pressure on water," said TomSingleton, whose job at the state Department of Environmental Protection ishelping local governments develop cost-effective ways to reduce pollution.

For many counties, the costs will be enormous. Pasco County officialsestimate they will have to spend $260 million building systems to clean upnutrient pollution that washes into the upper Hillsborough River andtributaries.

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Jim Stork, Chef Peter Dekaj and Family INVITE YOU TO A VERY SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PARTY!

STORK'S
IS 10 YEARS OLD!

Please join us to celebrate!

Saturday, October 27
1:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Free food and fun for kids and adults!
See our biggest Barbie Cake ever!
And some special gifts for our first 250 guests!

Stork's Bakery and Café
2505 NE 15th Avenue
Wilton Manors
www.storkscafe.com 954-567-3220

This is a very personal invitation from us to you, members of our extendedfamily, to join us this Saturday to celebrate our 10th Birthday!Whether Stork's has contributed to your organization (over 500 of them over10 years! ), graced your table for the holidays, or simply served as afriendly solace during your hectic day, we all know that this bakery is avery special place! Our secret ingredient has always been you!

So please, come by and share a good wish with us, perhaps a coffee and acookie as well! We look forward to sharing this day with you!

And please- forward this invitation to all that you know!


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1 comment:

Hamster said...

Please check out the link to this blog in support of converting parts of Norris Hall into the Institute for Transformative Learning

http://norrishall.blogspot.com/