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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/world/africa/17anglicans.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Anglican Prelates Snub Head of U.S. Church Over Gay Issues
By SHARON LaFRANIERE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Feb. 16 — Seven archbishops who say they representmore than 30 million Anglicans worldwide refused to take Communion here onFriday with the new head of the American Episcopal Church, to protest hersupport of gay clergy members and blessings for same-sex unions.
Their action demonstrated the deep gulf between conservative and liberalwings of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third largest Christiandenomination, with 77 million members. Conflict over the American branch’sacceptance of an openly gay bishop and same-sex unions has dominated ahigh-level Anglican meeting here.
A statement posted on the Web site of Nigeria’s Anglican Church said sevenarchbishops, five of whom represent African countries, felt that it would bea violation of Scripture to celebrate the Eucharist with Presiding BishopKatharine Jefferts Schori, who was elected in June as head of the 2.3million Episcopalians in the United States. The statement quoted a passagefrom the Book of Common Prayer calling for sinners to repent.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/opinion/l17waivers.html?pagewanted=print
February 17, 2007
Who Is Army Material? (1 Letter)
To the Editor:
Re “Army Giving More Waivers in Recruiting” (front page, Feb. 14):
So, now you can join the Army if you have committed “aggravated assault,burglary, robbery and vehicular homicide.” But not if you are openly gay.Does anybody really think that this makes sense anymore?
David A. Herman
New York, Feb. 14, 2007
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021601470.html
Gay Pastor Loses Ruling, But Not His Flock -- Yet
Supporters Seek Change in Denomination Policy
By Giovanna Dell'Orto
Associated Press
Saturday, February 17, 2007; B09
ATLANTA -- It was a typical Sunday scene and, in its own way, a small act ofdefiance.
Members of St. John's Lutheran Church last weekend filed by their pastor,hugging him and exchanging jokes. Gleeful children rushed past toward atreats-laden table.
Many in the 350-member Atlanta congregation say they don't plan to let theRev. Bradley E. Schmeling leave the pulpit Aug. 15, as ordered last week byan Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) disciplinary committeebecause he is in a gay relationship.
Defying the order could end Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church affiliationwith the ELCA, cutting off the small church and its members from the largedenomination's resources, including community service programs, hymn booksand access to synod officials for guidance on legal, financial and spiritualmatters.
St. John's members hope it doesn't come to that. They want the denominationto change its rules about sexually active gay clergy at its biennialchurchwide assembly in Chicago next August, just days before Schmeling is tobe removed from the clergy.
"We are not an activist church, even though we can stand for issues ofjustice," said Charles Fox, who occasionally assists Schmeling at Sundayworship. "He exemplifies the kind of love and empathy I envision Christ tohave had."
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Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-allstarnote17feb17,0,1113332,print.story
Heat stars express tolerance
By Michael Cunningham
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
February 17, 2007
Las Vegas · Former Heat guard Tim Hardaway apparently wouldn't want ahomosexual teammate, but the three Heat representatives at All-Star weekendall indicated they would accept one.
All-Stars Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade and 3-point shootout contestantJason Kapono all expressed tolerant views on the issue Friday.
"I was always taught as a youngster to never judge people," O'Neal said. "SoI never judge people, and to each their own. If he was my teammate, andpeople ridiculed him and jumped on him, I would probably have to protecthim."
Hardaway, responding to former NBA player John Amaechi's announcement thathe's gay, said in a radio interview this week that he wouldn't want to playalongside Amaechi and that he hates gays. Hardaway later apologized.
Wade said a teammate's sexual orientation wouldn't be the most importantaspect of his relationship with him.
"I am a guy who loves his teammates," Wade said. "I don't look at it like[Hardaway]. I look at it like, `What can guys do for you [on the court]?'"
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16717218.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
NJ says it will recognize gay unions from other states, nations
GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press
MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Gay couples who are married in Massachusetts, Canada orother places where same-sex marriage is allowed will have all the rights ofmarried people in New Jersey as of Monday, the state Attorney General'sOffice decided Friday.
New Jersey should consider those couples to be in civil unions rather thanmarriages, Attorney General Stuart Rabner said in the opinion for the stateDepartment of Health and Senior Services, which is responsible forregistering civil unions.
Civil unions, which will be available in New Jersey starting Monday, grantall the benefits of marriage - but not the title - to gay couples.Gay rights activists had mixed reaction to the decision. They were happy tohave the clarity and to learn that the civil unions will be grantedautomatically, but also voiced concern about possible discrimination.
"In the nick of time before next week, the attorney general has given peaceof mind to a lot of families," said David S. Buckel, the director of theMarriage Law Project for Lambda Legal.Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
NJ says it will recognize gay unions from other states, nations
GEOFF MULVIHILL
Associated Press
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365gay
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/021607hardaway.htm
Hardaway Homophobia Hurts Anti-Gay Movement Group Says
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: February 16, 2007 - 5:00 pm ET
(Washington) The leader of an organization that opposes homosexuality hascondemned former NBA player Tim Hardaway for the language he used inattacking gay players.
"Hardaway's comments are both unfortunate and inappropriate," said MattBarber, the policy director for Concerned Women of America."They provide political fodder for those who wish to paint all opposition tothe homosexual lifestyle as being rooted in 'hate.'"
But Barber then fires off his own anti-gay broadside.
"It's perfectly natural for people to be repelled by disordered sexualbehaviors that are both unnatural, and immoral."
"All too often those behaviors are accompanied by serious physical,emotional, and spiritual pitfalls. However, the appropriate reaction is torespond with words and acts of love, not words of hate. Jesus Christ offersforgiveness and freedom for all sinners, and that is the heart of the Gospelmessage," Barber said.
But then added that gay activists are at least partly to blame.
"Hardaway's comments only serve to foment misperceptions of widespreadhomosexual 'victimhood' which the homosexual lobby has craftilymanufactured," said Barber in a statement.
Earlier in the week Hardway was asked on a Miami radio station about thecoming out of fellow former NBA star John Amaechi.
"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay peopleand I don't like to be around gay people,'' he said in the interview.
"I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in theUnited States.''
Hardaway, facing a backlash over the remarks has attempted to apologize.
"Yes, I regret it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said I hate gay people oranything like that,'' he said.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/021607haggard.htm
365Gay.com
Church Struggles To Move On After Haggard
by The Associated Press
Posted: February 16, 2007 - 2:00 pm ET
(Colorado Springs, Colorado) Leaders of New Life Church will hold whatthey're calling a "day of hope" Sunday to discuss the claims of drug use andgay sex that led to the downfall of founding pastor Ted Haggard.
"What we have in mind for that Sunday is to give some closure to ourcongregation from this difficult time and also some perspective on the roadahead for the Haggard family as they enter this season of restoration," saidRob Brendle, an associate pastor.
Haggard was forced out as senior pastor at the 14,000-member New Life Churchlast year, and resigned as head of the National Association of Evangelicals,after a Denver man, Mike Jones, came forward alleging the pastor had paidhim for sex and sometimes used methamphetamine when they were together.
Haggard, who is married, has publicly admitted to "sexual immorality" andhas undergone intensive, Bible-based counseling.
Haggard told church members in a recent e-mail that his family planned toleave Colorado Springs and that he and his wife planned to pursue master'sdegrees in psychology.
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365gay
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/02/021607pastor.htm
Church Begins Campaign To Keep Gay Pastor
by The Associated Press
Posted: February 16, 2007 - 2:00 pm ET
(Atlanta, Georgia) It was a typical Sunday scene and, in its own way, asmall act of defiance.
Members of St. John's Lutheran Church last weekend filed by their pastor,hugging him and exchanging jokes. Gleeful children rushed past toward atreats-laden table.
Many in the 350-member Atlanta congregation say they don't plan to let theRev. Bradley Schmeling leave the pulpit on Aug. 15, as ordered last week byan Evangelical Lutheran Church in America disciplinary committee because heis in a gay relationship.
Defying the order could end Atlanta's oldest Lutheran church affiliationwith the ELCA, cutting off the small church and its members from the largedenomination's resources, including community service programs, hymn booksand access to synod officials for guidance on legal, financial and spiritualmatters.
St. John's members hope it doesn't come to that. They want the denominationto change its rules about sexually active gay clergy at its biennialchurchwide assembly Aug. 6-12 in Chicago, just days before Schmeling is setto be removed from the clergy.
"We are not an activist church, even though we can stand for issues ofjustice," said Charles Fox, who occasionally assists Schmeling at Sundayworship. "He exemplifies the kind of love and empathy I envision Christ tohave had."
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365gay
http://www.365gay.com/health/fitness/sports/021607sports.htm
Openly Gay Collegiate D'Lineman Speaks
by Cyd Zeigler Jr., Outsports.com
One of the pieces of John Amaechi's legacy will be the discussion thatensued, and the closet doors that opened, after he came out. We prideourselves in being ahead of the curve and on top of who's who in gay sports.But I read a column today that introduced me to a gay athlete I hadn't heardof. And he's the prototype for the future of gay athletes.
ESPN's LZ Granderson, who is openly gay and a good friend of Outsports,wrote a fantastic column centering on Adam Goslin, a senior defensivelineman at Washington University (the one in St. Louis, not the Huskies ofthe Northwest). Goslin is openly gay, has been openly gay with his teamsince his sophomore year, and played a year of baseball as an openly gayathlete as well.
Granderson's column picks up specifically on this crazy idea that gay menwill somehow disrupt a locker room, that they will cause havoc in a showerand make teammates feel uncomfortable.
"I mean seriously, what kind of bull---- excuse it that?" Arden Farhi, whoplayed with Goslin on the school's baseball team, told Granderson. "Do thepros really feel threatened in that situation? I can't imagine that they do.What, do they honestly think someone's going to stare at them, or try toattack them or something like that? I know for sure Goose is the one whofeels weird and changes quickly and tries to get out of there as soon aspossible."
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365gay
http://www.365gay.com/health/fitness/sports/021507sports.htm
Pro Sports Now Ready For Gay Athletes
by Cyd Zeigler, Outsports.com
It's been one week since news of former NBA player John Amaechi's coming outparty hit the Internet, and if there's one thing we've learned it's this:The idea that an active professional athlete in one of the big four leaguescan't come out is now officially dead. Gone. Not to be revived. Sleepingwith the Celtics' playoff chances. Dead.
Amaechi's revelation that he is gay has stirred a weeklong nationaldiscussion but, interestingly, precious little debate. That's because, whilea handful of religious conservatives and sheltered ballplayers haveexpressed doubts or concerns about gay athletes, the overwhelming majorityof comments have been positive and supportive – and much more so than manywould have ever guessed.
"If [there was an openly gay player] in my locker room, we won't have aproblem with it," New York Knicks coach Isaiah Thomas told Newsday. "I can'tspeak for somebody else's locker room, but if it's in mine, we won't have aproblem. I'll make damn sure there's no problem.
"I don't consider it any issue at all," Detroit Red Wing Chris Chelios toldthe Detroit Free Press. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a non-issue. I don'tcare if a guy comes out and says he's not gay or he comes and says he's gay.Who cares?"
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365gay
http://www.365gay.com/health/fitness/Sports/021307sports.htm
Gay Player Would Clean Up
by Jim Buzinski., Outsports.com
Now that the news has broken that former NBA player John Amaechi is gay, ithas been interesting to see the reaction in the media. No longer does anyonequestion the existence of gays in all sports; this is a major change from asrecently as 10 years ago. Now the question is when the first active playerwill come out. I always tell interviewers that I'm not holding my breath,and look more to the next generation of jocks to pave the way.
Amaechi told ESPN, in his first TV interview, that he knows a number of gayNBA players, but that none are ready to come out. "It's terrifying," he saidwhen asked their reservations. "These are people whose entire world is basedaround this idea that people will look at them and when they look at themthey are NBA superstar, NBA player, and any change to that will bepsychologically devastating, emotionally devastating and financiallydevastating."
It's this fear of the worst-case that has a powerful pull on jocks in thecloset. Many of the dozens of articles on Amaechi dealt with this. ButDallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban disputes the notion that coming out whileplaying will be career or financial suicide. He thinks the opposite.
"From a marketing perspective, if you're a player who happens to be gay andyou want to be incredibly rich, then you should come out, because it wouldbe the best thing that ever happened to you from a marketing and anendorsement perspective," Cuban told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Youwould be an absolute hero to more Americans than you can ever possibly be asan athlete, and that'll put money in your pocket. On the flip side, ifyou're the idiot who condemns somebody because they're gay, then you'regoing to be ostracized, you're going to be picketed and you're going to ruinwhatever marketing endorsements you have."
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The current issue of The Independent Gay News is online
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
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International Heral Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/14/europe/EU-GEN-Child-Welfare.php
UNICEF report ranks well-being of British, U.S. children as last inindustrialized world
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
BERLIN
The United States and Britain ranked at the bottom of a U.N. survey of childwelfare in 21 rich countries that assessed everything from infant mortalityto whether children ate dinner with their parents or were bullied at school.
The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at thetop while the U.S. was 20th and Britain 21st in the rankings releasedWednesday by UNICEF in Berlin.
One of the study's researchers, Jonathan Bradshaw, said children fared worsein the U.S. and Britain — despite high overall levels of national wealth —because of greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support forfamilies.
"What they have in common are very high levels of inequality, very highlevels of child poverty, which is also associated with inequality, and inrather different ways poorly developed services to families with children,"said Bradshaw, a professor of social policy at the University of York innortheast England.
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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=/g/a/2007/02/15/violetblue.DTL
Kink.com and Porn Hysteria: The Lie of Unbiased Reporting
By Violet Blue, SF Gate, Thursday, February 15, 2007
It's no secret that I look at lots of porn for a living, but sometimes Ilike to spend a little time with people who are a little more obsessed withit than I am, just so that I feel like I have a life outside of the dailybump-and-grind. Mostly, though, I just want to see what the leadinganti-porn, anti-homosexual, pro-life organizations (you know, the ones withpundits on CNN and Fox News and "friends" in the Oval Office) say about myjob.
Home of the "ex-gay movement," Pure Life Ministries tells us:
"First, as more hardcore pornography is sold, more is produced, creating ademand for more porn 'performers' -- many if not most of whom are teens orlook like teens. Second, as more 'adult businesses' open, there are morepublic venues for anonymous sexual encounters and the resulting spread ofSTDs, including AIDS. Third, as more 'adult businesses' open, moreneighborhoods in communities large and small are adversely affected.
"A number of Christian men have confessed to me that they clicked on a pornsite out of casual curiosity. They just wanted to see what the excitementwas all about, but they became addicted almost immediately.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
20070216191612.8C1E3C4801@pocky.dreamhost.com
War top issue for gays in Dem prez race
In officially announcing his candidacy Saturday, February 10 for theDemocratic presidential nomination, Illinois Senator Barack Obamamentioned gays. In fielding a question last week on the campus ofDartmouth University, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards refinedhis position on gay marriage. But during her first foray into NewHampshire this week, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was neverasked her stance on anything gay.
Obama, Edwards, and Clinton appear to be emerging as the gay community'stop preferences for the Democratic nomination in 2008, as they are forthe general public. And while their positions on the war in Iraq provideanalysts one clear-cut way to distinguish them, their positions ongay-related issues does not.
But in interviews with more than a dozen longtime activists and gaypeople attending their campaign forums in New Hampshire, it is clear thathow the candidates have addressed, and now talk about the war, is a toptier issues for gays. Asked to name the top three issues on which theywould measurecandidates, those interviewed always included the war,often in the number 1 slot. After that, gay issues were the most frequentcriteria, followed by a variety of matters from health coverage toeducation to immigration.
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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://newyorklawschool.typepad.com/leonardlink/2007/02/11th_circuit_se.html
11th Circuit Sex Toys Wars - They Just Won't Give It Up!!
by New York Law School Professor Arthur S. Leonard, February 16, 2007 inLegal Issues
As a Valentine's Day gift to the people of Alabama, the US Court of Appeals,11th Circuit, has once again reaffirmed the constitutionality of Alabama'slaw forbidding the sale or commercial distribution of any device "primarilyfor the stimulation of human genital organs," i.e., sex toys. This case hasbeen kicking up and down the federal system for quite a while, and has hadseveral stops at the circuit level. This latest decision, February 14,affirms the ruling by the district court that the public morality concernsof the Alabama legislature remain a sufficient rational justification tosustain the law, even after Lawrence v. Texas (the 2003 Supreme Courtdecision striking down that state's misdemeanor homosexual conduct law)seemingly ruled out morality as a justification for a criminal statute thatburdens private, consensual sexual activity.
The court, reiterating reasoning from its prior rulings in the case (whichwas originally filed before the Lawrence case was decided), insists thatLawrence has not eliminated all morals legislation (as Justice Scaliafamously declared that it had done in his dissent in that case). Theopinion by Circuit Judge Wilson cites a variety of Supreme Court decisions,all of which predate Lawrence, for the proposition that the Supreme Courthas frequently sustained statutes on morality grounds, and also makes muchof the fact that the statute only forbids commercial sale and distribution,but does not impose any penalties for private possession or use.
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Saturday, February 17, 2007
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST February 17, 2007
**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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.''
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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
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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
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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."
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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]
#####
FLORIDA DIGEST February 17, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
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
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/16719070.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Feb. 17, 2007
BROWARD ELECTIONS
Oliphant is cleared in botched '02 vote
Closing an embarrassing chapter in Broward election history, former
Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant was cleared of all charges.
BY AMY SHERMAN
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
The Florida Elections Commission officially dropped charges and finesagainst former Broward Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant on Friday,sealing the book on the four-year saga sparked by the botched 2002 primary.
Her attorney, Henry Hunter, cheered, saying she was exonerated.
''This is it for the Elections Commission,'' Hunter said. ``This is it.Miriam clearly wins.''
For the most part, Broward has ceased Oliphant-bashing. Many of her firedmanagers have moved on to other careers or were rehired by Oliphant'ssuccessor, Brenda Snipes. And election observers say they are more focusedon reforms needed before the 2008 presidential election, and that Oliphantis just one symbol of the woes that led to calls for change.
The Elections Commission on Friday ratified a decision it reluctantly madein November to accept the findings of an administrative law judge and dropthe charges, deciding that it couldn't prove its original 2004 charge thatshe ''willfully'' botched the election.
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/16719220.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Feb. 17, 2007
ENVIRONMENT
Pollution cleanup costs for Lake Okeechobee rise
South Florida water managers now estimate that it could cost as much as $1.1billion to cleanse phosphorus-laden Lake Okeechobee.
WEST PALM BEACH-- (AP) -- Cleaning up pollution in Lake Okeechobee couldcost as much as $1.1 billion, about three times more than previousestimates, water management officials estimated.
The South Florida Water Management District board sent the latest version ofthe plan to the Legislature with a 7-0 vote Thursday. In 2004, officialsestimated the project would cost $360 million, but that plan didn't includesome new features in the latest proposed cleanup.
The lake sits at the head of the Everglades, and its polluted waters can besent through canals into the fragile wetlands when lake levels rise. TheOkeechobee cleanup cost is separate from the estimated $10.5 billion federaland state Everglades restoration plan.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2007/02/17/m1a_FLARELIGION_0217.html
Social conservatives losing faith in values of Crist, '08 hopefuls
By Brian E. Crowley
Palm Beach Post Political Editor
Saturday, February 17, 2007
ORLANDO — Catholic, conservative and concerned, former Florida ChristianCoalition leader Pat Neal says many social conservatives are "a littledisappointed" in the state's new governor and worried about the comingpresidential election.
After years of the reliable social conservatism of President Bush and hisbrother, former Gov. Jeb Bush, self-described "values voters" wonder aboutthe future of their agenda.
While the Bushes have been vocal supporters of banning gay marriage,appointing conservative judges, opposing gay adoptions and a host of otherissues dear to social conservatives, there is a fear that all they aregetting is lip service from the presidential candidates.
This weekend, two of the top Republican candidates, former MassachusettsGov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain, will meet privately withreligious leaders who are attending the National Religious Broadcastersconvention here to reassure them.
=
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/02/16/romney_counts_on_fundraising_to_overcome_low_name_recognition?mode=PF
Jeb Bush steers advisers toward Romney
By Brendan Farrington, Associated Press Writer | February 16, 2007
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --Jeb Bush, who hasn't publicly picked a favorite in theRepublican presidential race, privately is talking up the candidacy of MittRomney and steering some of his closest advisers to the campaign.
The former Florida governor has said repeatedly he won't be a candidate in2008 despite encouragement from his father, the former president, and hisbrother, the current one. But Jeb Bush's support, even tacit, would becritical in the state that decided the 2000 presidential election.
"Governor Bush said, 'Before you commit, I want you to meet Mitt Romney. Heis the kind of guy you will like no matter what,'" said former Lt. Gov. ToniJennings. "The governor was very candid about the fact that he really likedthis guy."
Jennings, the woman Bush chose as his lieutenant governor, is one of severalformer Bush confidantes in the Romney camp. Others include his hand-picked,former state party chairman Al Cardenas, and Sally Bradshaw, Bush's formercampaign manager and chief of staff.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/02/17/a10a_ahca_edit_0217.html
Surplus of bureaucracy
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration expects a nearly $110million budget surplus. So, why does Florida's Agency for Persons withDisabilities have a waiting list of 13,000 families?
AHCA told the Legislative Budget Commission last month that the agency'sprojected $108.5 million surplus is in the "Hospital Inpatient Services"category. The disabilities agency's waiting list is for 13,489 people withautism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, Prader Willi syndrome, spinabifida, along with others at high risk of being diagnosed with adevelopmental disability, awaiting aHome and Community-Based Services waiver through Medicaid.
But spare the bureaucratic explanation of the two different agencies havingdifferent pockets of money to serve different pockets of the population.Forget the rule against "appropriating non-recurring funds" for "recurring"needs. In the plain language that Gov. Crist favors, one agency setup to help Floridians has millions more than it needs. Another agency set upto help Floridians needs millions more. And the two agencies already are entwined. AHCAdevelops and enforces Medicaid policies and handles payments for manyservices the disabilities agency provides.
In recent years, it's been the disabilities agency that sits on millionswhile would-be clients languish on waiting lists. APD prefers to hype thenumber of clients served: more than 48,000 in 2005-2006. That means littleto the families who qualified for services six years ago and are just nowbeing contacted.
=
http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070217/BUSINESS/702170319/1003/business&template=printart
February 17, 2007
Tourism numbers slow to rise
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Florida tourism was up in 2006, but not as much as state officials wanted.
Despite a weak third quarter, the number of visitors grew by 1.2 percent to84.6 million, officials said Friday. It was the fifth straight year ofincreases after a 5 percent drop following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Officials with Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency, said itwasn't enough.
"Although visitation increased 1 percent in 2006, the state depends on avisitation increase of 4 percent or 5 percent each year to strengthenFlorida's economic future," Visit Florida president and CEO Bud Nocera said.
Visit Florida is trying to drum up support in the legislature for moreadvertising money. The agency is requesting $59 million, more than doublethe $24.7 million in tax money it currently gets.
Tourism officials say the cost of advertising has grown, and Florida'sgetting outspent by Hawaii, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Visitor numbers were up 4.9 percent last year and 6.8 percent the yearbefore, but increased only .9 percent in 2003.
Visit Florida warned the state was poised for an annual decrease after437,000 fewer people came in the third quarter. But the state rebounded witha 9.5 percent increase in the fourth quarter over 2005.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/02/17/a10a_lethal_edit_0217.html
The state can't execute
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Florida pays an executioner $150. On the street, that amount wouldn't buy avery professional killing. It's no different when the state pays.
Testifying a week ago in Tampa before a special panel, the executioner whobotched the Dec. 13 lethal injection of Angel Nieves Diaz said, "I have nomedical training or qualifications." That would explain why needles thatwere supposed to go into Diaz's veins instead went into his soft tissue.
The poison thus took far longer to be absorbed. The death that was supposedto take about 15 minutes took twice that time. There were chemical burns onboth of Diaz's arms.
This is where people might ask, How long did it take for the topless-barmanager Diaz murdered in 1979 to die? The question is understandable butirrelevant. Like the other 37 states that allow capital punishment, Floridacan't subject any condemned inmate - no matter how heinous the crime - tocruel and unusual punishment. Anything less than a quick, clinical deathviolates that constitutional standard.
After the Diaz execution, Gov. Bush convened this panel to examine Florida'smethod of lethal injection. Florida is not alone. Ten other states arereviewing their lethal injection procedures because of problems. This panelcould recommend changes to the Legislature before the March session. Fornow, all executions are on hold.
=
Lavender Writes presents
Love Gone Bad
An Open Mic Fiction Reading
Borders Books and Music
2240 E. Sunrise Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale
954-566-6335
Saturday, February 17, 8pm
Free
Readers sign-up at LWrites@mindspring.com
Funding for this program is provided in part by the Broward County Board ofCounty Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council.
Lavender Writes, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, providesservice and support to lesbian and gay writers by sponsoring writingworkshops, developing public forums for writers to present their work andoffering assistance with publication. Non-gay writers and readers are alsowelcome to participate.
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
=
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
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/16719070.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Feb. 17, 2007
BROWARD ELECTIONS
Oliphant is cleared in botched '02 vote
Closing an embarrassing chapter in Broward election history, former
Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant was cleared of all charges.
BY AMY SHERMAN
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
The Florida Elections Commission officially dropped charges and finesagainst former Broward Supervisor of Elections Miriam Oliphant on Friday,sealing the book on the four-year saga sparked by the botched 2002 primary.
Her attorney, Henry Hunter, cheered, saying she was exonerated.
''This is it for the Elections Commission,'' Hunter said. ``This is it.Miriam clearly wins.''
For the most part, Broward has ceased Oliphant-bashing. Many of her firedmanagers have moved on to other careers or were rehired by Oliphant'ssuccessor, Brenda Snipes. And election observers say they are more focusedon reforms needed before the 2008 presidential election, and that Oliphantis just one symbol of the woes that led to calls for change.
The Elections Commission on Friday ratified a decision it reluctantly madein November to accept the findings of an administrative law judge and dropthe charges, deciding that it couldn't prove its original 2004 charge thatshe ''willfully'' botched the election.
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/16719220.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Sat, Feb. 17, 2007
ENVIRONMENT
Pollution cleanup costs for Lake Okeechobee rise
South Florida water managers now estimate that it could cost as much as $1.1billion to cleanse phosphorus-laden Lake Okeechobee.
WEST PALM BEACH-- (AP) -- Cleaning up pollution in Lake Okeechobee couldcost as much as $1.1 billion, about three times more than previousestimates, water management officials estimated.
The South Florida Water Management District board sent the latest version ofthe plan to the Legislature with a 7-0 vote Thursday. In 2004, officialsestimated the project would cost $360 million, but that plan didn't includesome new features in the latest proposed cleanup.
The lake sits at the head of the Everglades, and its polluted waters can besent through canals into the fragile wetlands when lake levels rise. TheOkeechobee cleanup cost is separate from the estimated $10.5 billion federaland state Everglades restoration plan.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/state/epaper/2007/02/17/m1a_FLARELIGION_0217.html
Social conservatives losing faith in values of Crist, '08 hopefuls
By Brian E. Crowley
Palm Beach Post Political Editor
Saturday, February 17, 2007
ORLANDO — Catholic, conservative and concerned, former Florida ChristianCoalition leader Pat Neal says many social conservatives are "a littledisappointed" in the state's new governor and worried about the comingpresidential election.
After years of the reliable social conservatism of President Bush and hisbrother, former Gov. Jeb Bush, self-described "values voters" wonder aboutthe future of their agenda.
While the Bushes have been vocal supporters of banning gay marriage,appointing conservative judges, opposing gay adoptions and a host of otherissues dear to social conservatives, there is a fear that all they aregetting is lip service from the presidential candidates.
This weekend, two of the top Republican candidates, former MassachusettsGov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain, will meet privately withreligious leaders who are attending the National Religious Broadcastersconvention here to reassure them.
=
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/02/16/romney_counts_on_fundraising_to_overcome_low_name_recognition?mode=PF
Jeb Bush steers advisers toward Romney
By Brendan Farrington, Associated Press Writer | February 16, 2007
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --Jeb Bush, who hasn't publicly picked a favorite in theRepublican presidential race, privately is talking up the candidacy of MittRomney and steering some of his closest advisers to the campaign.
The former Florida governor has said repeatedly he won't be a candidate in2008 despite encouragement from his father, the former president, and hisbrother, the current one. But Jeb Bush's support, even tacit, would becritical in the state that decided the 2000 presidential election.
"Governor Bush said, 'Before you commit, I want you to meet Mitt Romney. Heis the kind of guy you will like no matter what,'" said former Lt. Gov. ToniJennings. "The governor was very candid about the fact that he really likedthis guy."
Jennings, the woman Bush chose as his lieutenant governor, is one of severalformer Bush confidantes in the Romney camp. Others include his hand-picked,former state party chairman Al Cardenas, and Sally Bradshaw, Bush's formercampaign manager and chief of staff.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/02/17/a10a_ahca_edit_0217.html
Surplus of bureaucracy
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration expects a nearly $110million budget surplus. So, why does Florida's Agency for Persons withDisabilities have a waiting list of 13,000 families?
AHCA told the Legislative Budget Commission last month that the agency'sprojected $108.5 million surplus is in the "Hospital Inpatient Services"category. The disabilities agency's waiting list is for 13,489 people withautism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, Prader Willi syndrome, spinabifida, along with others at high risk of being diagnosed with adevelopmental disability, awaiting aHome and Community-Based Services waiver through Medicaid.
But spare the bureaucratic explanation of the two different agencies havingdifferent pockets of money to serve different pockets of the population.Forget the rule against "appropriating non-recurring funds" for "recurring"needs. In the plain language that Gov. Crist favors, one agency setup to help Floridians has millions more than it needs. Another agency set upto help Floridians needs millions more. And the two agencies already are entwined. AHCAdevelops and enforces Medicaid policies and handles payments for manyservices the disabilities agency provides.
In recent years, it's been the disabilities agency that sits on millionswhile would-be clients languish on waiting lists. APD prefers to hype thenumber of clients served: more than 48,000 in 2005-2006. That means littleto the families who qualified for services six years ago and are just nowbeing contacted.
=
http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070217/BUSINESS/702170319/1003/business&template=printart
February 17, 2007
Tourism numbers slow to rise
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Florida tourism was up in 2006, but not as much as state officials wanted.
Despite a weak third quarter, the number of visitors grew by 1.2 percent to84.6 million, officials said Friday. It was the fifth straight year ofincreases after a 5 percent drop following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Officials with Visit Florida, the state's tourism marketing agency, said itwasn't enough.
"Although visitation increased 1 percent in 2006, the state depends on avisitation increase of 4 percent or 5 percent each year to strengthenFlorida's economic future," Visit Florida president and CEO Bud Nocera said.
Visit Florida is trying to drum up support in the legislature for moreadvertising money. The agency is requesting $59 million, more than doublethe $24.7 million in tax money it currently gets.
Tourism officials say the cost of advertising has grown, and Florida'sgetting outspent by Hawaii, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Visitor numbers were up 4.9 percent last year and 6.8 percent the yearbefore, but increased only .9 percent in 2003.
Visit Florida warned the state was poised for an annual decrease after437,000 fewer people came in the third quarter. But the state rebounded witha 9.5 percent increase in the fourth quarter over 2005.
=
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2007/02/17/a10a_lethal_edit_0217.html
The state can't execute
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Florida pays an executioner $150. On the street, that amount wouldn't buy avery professional killing. It's no different when the state pays.
Testifying a week ago in Tampa before a special panel, the executioner whobotched the Dec. 13 lethal injection of Angel Nieves Diaz said, "I have nomedical training or qualifications." That would explain why needles thatwere supposed to go into Diaz's veins instead went into his soft tissue.
The poison thus took far longer to be absorbed. The death that was supposedto take about 15 minutes took twice that time. There were chemical burns onboth of Diaz's arms.
This is where people might ask, How long did it take for the topless-barmanager Diaz murdered in 1979 to die? The question is understandable butirrelevant. Like the other 37 states that allow capital punishment, Floridacan't subject any condemned inmate - no matter how heinous the crime - tocruel and unusual punishment. Anything less than a quick, clinical deathviolates that constitutional standard.
After the Diaz execution, Gov. Bush convened this panel to examine Florida'smethod of lethal injection. Florida is not alone. Ten other states arereviewing their lethal injection procedures because of problems. This panelcould recommend changes to the Legislature before the March session. Fornow, all executions are on hold.
=
Lavender Writes presents
Love Gone Bad
An Open Mic Fiction Reading
Borders Books and Music
2240 E. Sunrise Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale
954-566-6335
Saturday, February 17, 8pm
Free
Readers sign-up at LWrites@mindspring.com
Funding for this program is provided in part by the Broward County Board ofCounty Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council.
Lavender Writes, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, providesservice and support to lesbian and gay writers by sponsoring writingworkshops, developing public forums for writers to present their work andoffering assistance with publication. Non-gay writers and readers are alsowelcome to participate.
[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####
Friday, February 16, 2007
GLBT DIGEST - February 16, 2007
**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US ATrays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.
=
To Our Subscribers on Ray's List,
Ray's List will publish only the 3 Ray's List Daily Digests [GLBT News,National/World News, and Florida News] on Saturday and Sunday - February17-18. We will not send the individual articles this weekend.
In an attempt to streamline our production of Ray's List, we anticipate thatwe will eliminate mailing full articles in the near future and focus only onthe 3 daily digests. As always, you are invited to request a full articlefrom us if it is unavailable through the attached link or if the link is notavailable.
We are in a state of transition and request feedback so that we can makeRay's List a valuable tool in the quest for full human rights for ALLpeople.
This week's news including the disgusting and dangerous comments from TimHardaway, the frightening attack by a large mob against gay men in Jamaica,and the collusion with Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola by a number ofright-wing break-away Episcopal congregations should serve as notice to usin the U.S. that our safety, security and well-being are seriouslychallenged by groups that have no intention of giving up their fight againstour dignity as human beings. Their intentions are not benign.
Even though statistics show Americans are growing more tolerant of gays, weare a long way from security for GLBT people. For those of us in S.Florida, life is pretty nice. Even though we have one of the largestpopulations of gay people in the U.S. our leadership and activism on thenational and world stage is sorely lacking. South-Floridian gays love toparty, but it is very difficult to gain the attention of the majority ofGLBT persons for more sober issues.
We publish Ray's List in the hope that our daily reminders of the news froma world-wide perspective will motivate and provide the links for actionwithin our community. We frequently feel we are only "singing to thechoir." But, we know that each time you forward a Ray's List article toyour contacts, you provide a great service and make it more difficult forbigotry and hatred to flourish.
Knowledge is power.
Best wishes - and thanks for your work as activists!
Ray and Michael
Ray's List
rays.list@comcast.net
The digests are on the web at http://www.rayslistglbtnews.blogspot.com/
=
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20070214T220000-0500_119155_OBS_COPS_SAVE_THREE_ALLEGED_HOMOSEXUALS_FROM_ANGRY_CROWD.asp
The Jamaica Observer
Cops save three alleged homosexuals from angry crowd
KARYL WALKER, Observer staff reporter
Thursday, February 15, 2007
THREE men branded as homosexuals were yesterday rescued by the police froman angry mob outside a pharmacy in Tropical Plaza, where they had been holedup for almost an hour.
But even after the police managed to take the young men from the MonarchPharmacy, one of the three was hit with a stone, forcing officers to firetear gas on the crowd which included men, women, teenagers and smallchildren.
The approximately 2,000 people gathered outside the Kingston pharmacy hurledinsults at the three men, with some calling for them to be killed.
The crowd grew larger as the minutes ticked by and the three men and staffinside the pharmacy were visibly terrified as the mob demanded that they besent out so they could administer their brand of justice. "Send them out!"shouted one man.
=
Moscow official nixes gay rights parade
Feb. 14, 2007, 2:41PM
The Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4553865.html
MOSCOW - A top Moscow official repeated Wednesday that the city will notallow a gay rights parade, echoing the mayor's vocal criticism and sayingthat homosexuality is bad for your health, the RIA-Novosti news agencyreported.
"There is the hard line of the city authorities and the position of our mainfaith, the Russian Orthodox Church ... of the inadmissibility of such anevent in Moscow," RIA-Novosti quoted the head of the city's internationalrelations department, Georgy Muradov, as saying.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and city authorities barred gay rights activists fromstaging a parade last year, citing the threat of violence, but activistsignored the ban and were attacked by right-wing protesters and detained bypolice. Last month, Luzhkov vowed never to allow a gay rights parade,calling such events "satanic."
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-02-15-voa14.cfm
Hidden Homosexuality in Senegal Presents Challenge to HIV Prevention
By Phuong Tran
Dakar
15 February 2007
Across Africa, HIV infection is significantly higher in some groups. InSenegal, homosexual men are 10 times more likely to be HIV positive than therest of the population. Phuong Tran reports from Dakar on the challenges ofpreventing HIV in a mostly hidden community.
In Senegal, homosexuality is considered a moral crime punishable by up tofive years in prison and a $3,000 fine.
Abdou Houdia Diop - a doctor at a sexually-transmitted disease clinic run bythe Senegalese Ministry of Health - says societal, religious and legaldisapproval of homosexuality drives many underground.
"Since homosexuals are a hidden group, it is difficult to treat them, and itmakes it difficult to manage their treatment because they may not want toget tested or to come for their test results," he said.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3717.html
Gays and alcoholics the same, says Moscow
15th February 2007 12:45
Ben Leung
A high-ranking official in Moscow has joined in the growing debate over thecity's refusal to allow a gay rights parade this year.
Georgy Muradov, head of the city's international relations department,yesterday likened homosexuality to alcoholism and argued that both are "badfor one's health."
His remarks came as he tried to fend off criticisms from the Swedishambassador to the Russian Federation who had protested that the city'sdecision to ban a Pride march for the second year in a row.
Muradov said the ban on the parade was aimed to protect the health andwell-being of society.
"As you know, the sale of alcohol is restricted in many Scandinaviancountries.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/48016/
Monday, February 12, 2007
GLBT Americans Are Declaring Our Independence
After a disappointing decade in the political scene for gay people, many gayAmericans decided to change their strategies.
After Bill Clinton signed DOMA and banned gay people from serving openly inthe military, we realized that we weren't going to get our rights throughthe Democratic president -- who viewed gay Americans as an ATM machine thatcould be attacked in "pro family" campaign ads later. . . ads paid for withgay campaign contributions.
Still, gay Americans maintained some hope in the Democratic Party. Afterall, we reasoned, Bill Clinton was just one man -- and the larger party waswith us, right?
Maybe not.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3722.html
80% of Italians defy Vatican over partnership rights
15th February 2007 17:24
Tony Grew
A poll has revealed that an overwhelming majority of Italians approve of thegovernment's proposed legislation that will grant some rights to unmarriedcouples.
Last week the Cabinet unanimously approved the new legislation, which alsogrants rights to unmarried heterosexual couples.
Now a survey for newspaper La Repubblica has found strong support for themeasures.
67% of practising Catholics support protections for heterosexualco-habitees, a number which falls to 35% who think gay and lesbians shouldget legal protection.
Overall, 80% of Italians are in favour.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://opinion.gaynewsblog.net/2007/02/nigerian-primate-has-unexpected.html
Nigerian Primate has unexpected Valentines Day gay encounter
Archbishop Peter Akinola, scourge of lesbian and gay people and theirsupporters in the worldwide Anglican Communion, had an unexpected ValentinesDay encounter today – with the head of an organization that embodies theconcerns of a group he has previously suggested do not exist, gay Christiansin Nigeria.
This afternoon (14 February 2007), following the first press briefing priorto the official start of the Anglican Primates meeting on Thursday 15February, Mr Davis Mac-Iyalla, director of Changing Attitude Nigeria andArchbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of All Nigeria, met for the first time.
As Mr Mac-Iyalla left the hotel lobby with the Rev Caro Denton Hall (fromIntegrity, USA), he found the Archbishop in the company of Bishop MartynMinns (head of a breakaway group of US Episcopal parishes now under Nigeriancontrol) and his wife, plus Canon Chris Sugden from the conservative groupAnglican Mainstream.
Mr Mac-Iyalla went straight to the Archbishop to introduce himself andDenton Hall, from the network of lesbian and gay Episcopalians.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3066
U.S. Clout Raises Worries for World Health Agency
Run Date: 02/13/07
By Bojana Stoparic
WeNews correspondent
The new director of the World Health Organization has made maternal andreproductive health issues a top priority for the global health agency. Butcritics say that U.S. policies hinder those efforts and funding still fallsshort of ambitions.
(WOMENSENEWS)--Some women's and global health experts are beginning toquestion whether Dr. Margaret Chan, the new director-general of the WorldHealth Organization, can stand up to the historical interference from itsbiggest donor, the United States. The Bush administration has been pushing apro-abstinence, anti-abortion agenda at WHO and has cut its funding forcomprehensive sexual and reproductive health services worldwide.
"The U.S. has pressured WHO behind the scenes not to address unsafeabortions and to remove references to sexual and reproductive rights," saysJodi Jacobson, executive director of Center for Health and Gender Equity inTakoma Park, Md.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1171487554800B221
Safe sex in the city
By James Hossack
New York - With branded condoms and lesbian weddings, Americans markedValentine's Day in ever more inventive ways on Wednesday, even if chocolatesand flowers remained the most popular way to say "I love you".
In New York, health authorities unveiled the country's first city-themedcondom in an effort to spark a bit of passion amid a winter blizzard.
The subway-styled condoms, which are being promoted with the slogan "NewYork we've got you covered", and the provocative "NYC condoms - get some",are part of a serious drive by the city to
tackle sexually transmitted diseases.
The one-size-fits-all condoms come in black packaging featuring colouredcircles that spell out "NYC Condom" in the style of the city's subway.Another suggested design that ended on thecutting-room floor featured skyscrapers.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.bcheights.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=e3708ba0-013c-47ed-8aff-9d7cf19883b9
Speaker discusses difficulties as a homosexual Muslim
Emily Koruda
Posted: 2/8/07
"I knew I was an outsider, and I was reminded of it everyday," said FaisalAlam of his experiences growing up in a small, rural Connecticut town asboth a devout Muslim and a conflicted homosexual.
In his lecture entitled "Hidden Voices: Lives of Queer Muslims," sponsoredby Allies, Boston College's own recognized student organization promotingthe understanding and support of sexual orientation, Alam spoke of how therestrictions of Islam prevented him from expressing his own sexuality duringthe greater part of his life.
A graduate from Northeastern University and an activist for gay rights forMuslims, Alam has been traveling and speaking at various universities aroundthe country for nearly five years.
Alam began his lecture by stating that although many Americans holddisparaging views toward Islam as a religion, conversion in America hasactually increased in the past five years. More people have studied it forthe mere sake of gaining a better understanding. Sept. 11 marked the firsttime radical Islam was truly introduced in the United States.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/world/africa/16anglicans.html?pagewanted=print
February 16, 2007
A Move to Heal Anglican Rift, but Short of Conservatives’ Goal
By SHARON LaFRANIERE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Feb. 15 — The Episcopal Church in the United Stateshas taken steps to heal a rift over homosexuality that threatens to fracturethe worldwide Anglican Church, but it has not compromised as much asconservative Anglican leaders have demanded, according to a report issued ata crucial meeting of the Anglican leadership here on Thursday.
The report said leaders of the Episcopal Church — the American branch of theAnglican Communion — have effectively stopped consecrating openly gaybishops. They have also apologized to Anglicans who were offended by theirliberal stance on homosexuality.
But the leaders have failed to explicitly forbid the blessing of same-sexunions, as representatives of the global church requested two years ago,according to the report. It called for urgent action by Episcopal leaders,saying bishops who defy the Anglican Church on the issue can not “be fullyincorporated” into it.
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PalmBeachPost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbcsouth/content/local_news/epaper/2007/02/15/s1b_condoms_0215.html
Condom giveaway wildly popular on love's special day
By Antigone Barton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 15, 2007
BOCA RATON — If true romance combines passion with a desire to protect theobject of one's affections, then Planned Parenthood's Valentine's Day condomgiveaway brought out clinic visitors' romantic side.
"They've been flying out the door," said Boca Raton center office managerKerine Salmon, preparing to empty another thousand condoms into basketsplaced around the clinic waiting room. "Today is the perfect day," she said,because on Wednesday the center has walk-in clinic services requiring noappointments,
The organization's chapter for south Palm Beach and Broward Counties isgiving unlimited free condoms to all who come through its five centers inrecognition of National Condom Awareness Day, which coincides with the dayof love.
They will continue through the week, which is recognized by the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services as National Condom Week.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/16710167.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
The father counts, as more than a figure
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
I'll tell you when I decided -- apologies to Ricky Ricardo -- I had somesplainin' to do.
It was a few days ago, when I got an e-mail informing me that I am an''anti-gay bigot.'' Which would be a shock to the system at any time, butseems especially ironic coming as it does a few weeks before I am supposedto receive an award from PFLAG -- Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
The source of this ire? A column I wrote about Mary Cheney, who is alesbian, pregnant and the daughter of the vice president. I thought it was abad idea for Cheney and her life mate, Heather Poe, to have a baby, and Inoted that this is an opinion I share with Dr. James Dobson of Focus on theFamily fame.
Which caused a few folks to fire off scandalized notes wondering how Ifunction without benefit of a brain. Or a heart.
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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/print_article_ektid42084.asp
Febuary 16, 2007
Episcopal leader's pro-gay views won't waver, aide says
The head of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the Anglican Church, whosupports ordaining gays and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sexcouples, will not soften her views even as the issues threaten to breakapart the Christian denomination, her aide said Thursday. The leaders of theworld's 77 million Anglicans, who are holding a closed meeting this week inDar Es Salaam, Tanzania, said they would discuss the U.S. response to a 2004report by an Anglican panel that called for a moratorium on consecrating gaybishops and blessing same-sex unions.
Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years but became a crisis in2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V.Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The problems mounted last year with theelection of Katharine Jefferts Schori as head of the U.S. church.
"The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here, and there will be a middle wayforward,'' said Jefferts Schori's aide, Robert Williams. But he said she''will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in thebody of Christ.''
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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/print_article_ektid42093.asp
New Life to discuss Haggard scandal with congregation
Leaders of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., will hold whatthey're calling a ''day of hope'' Sunday to discuss the claims of drug useand gay sex that led to the downfall of founding pastor Ted Haggard.
''What we have in mind for that Sunday is to give some closure to ourcongregation from this difficult time and also some perspective on the roadahead for the Haggard family as they enter this season of restoration,''said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor.
Last year Haggard was forced out as senior pastor at the 14,000-member NewLife Church and resigned as head of the National Association of Evangelicalsafter a Denver man, Mike Jones, came forward alleging the pastor had paidhim for sex and sometimes used crystal meth when they were together.Haggard, who is married, has publicly admitted to ''sexual immorality'' andhas undergone intensive, Bible-based counseling.
Haggard told church members in a recent e-mail that his family planned toleave Colorado Springs and that he and his wife planned to pursue master'sdegrees in psychology.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/16710232.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
Hardaway's gay bashing brings swift rebuke
Former pro basketball player Tim Hardaway felt heat from all sides one dayafter making anti-gay comments.
BY BARRY JACKSON AND STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
A day after declaring ''I hate gay people'' on a South Florida radio show,former Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway was banned from this weekend's NBAAll-Star Game activities, lost a national endorsement deal and drew intensecriticism from gay-rights advocates.
Five-time All-Star Hardaway, who apologized on WSVN-Fox 7 several hoursafter making the comments Wednesday, released another apology Thursdaythrough his agent, Henry Thomas.
''As an African American, I know all too well the negative thoughts andfeelings hatred and bigotry cause,'' Hardaway said in Thursday's apology.``I regret and apologize for the statements that I made that have certainlycaused the same kinds of feelings and reactions.
''I especially apologize to my fans, friends and family in Miami andChicago. I am committed to examining my feelings and will recognize,appreciate and respect the differences among people in our society,'' hesaid. ``I regret any embarrassment I have caused the league on the eve ofone of their greatest annual events.''
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/16710784.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
IN MY OPINION
Hardaway has a right to spout his ignorance
DAVID J. NEAL
dneal@MiamiHerald.com
Because we tend to focus on the negative, ''hate'' stands as the biggestfour-letter word you can use on ABC. People used to having their publiclyspoken words recorded or written for posterity know to handle that word asif it were a glass of nitroglycerin.
Which is just one reason to say ''please'' to any apology from former Heatguard Tim Hardaway's for saying, ''I hate gay people'' during a Wednesdayradio interview that also included Hardaway's admission that, basically, hecouldn't deal with a teammate known to be gay.
Thus did Hardaway give voice to the feelings shared by the majority ofprofessional athletes and by many in America. Nothing wrong with that. Atleast he was honest. In America, it's your right to be a bigot so long as itdoesn't infringe on someone else's right to just be. When we lose the rightto bigotry, we no longer live in America.
MONEY COMES FIRST
That's an America where capitalism holds a daily referendum in which thepeople's voice can be heard via the wallet. The NBA, conscious that gays andlesbians buy season tickets and LeBron James jerseys, too, distancedthemselves from Hardaway much quicker than its daughter, the WNBA, embracedthe lesbian presence in its fandom. The dress-coded NBA's reflex is to meanno offense to any potential paying customer.
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From Scott Long
Director
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program
Human Rights Watch
Nigeria - Anti-gay bill debated - AN UPDATE
Dorothy has gone to bed after an exhausting day, but she asked me to relaysome information to activists about the day’s events. After an initialhitch when the pro-LGBT-rights civil-society contingent were told they couldnot attend the “public” hearing without an invitation, they were able to getpast the guards at the National Assembly gates. The presence of EU andforeign embassy staff apparently helped in this.
The hearing itself was chaotic and packed, with representatives from theChristian Association of Nigeria and other Christian groups (not sure whichyet) as well as some Muslim associations. About 10-12 representatives ofthe civil society coalition, supported by Global Rights, were able to speak,including INCRESE and the Civil Liberties Organization. UNAIDS alsocondemned the bill on health grounds, and the Nigerian Human RightsCommission made a strong statement against it. INCRESE presented a letterfrom 20+ African human rights defenders condemning the bill; a letter fromUS representative Tammy Baldwin; the letter from HR organizations in andbeyond Africa from last year; documentation from HRW and Global Rights; anda letter from the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association, among otherdocuments.
On the other side, the cultural argument that homosexuality is “un-African”was raised, and pressure from foreign homosexuals was cited as an indicatorof why the bill is necessary. The South African marriage bill was alsocited in warning. Health arguments were also used in the legislation’sfavor. An MD who is President Obasanjo’s assistant on health issues arguedthat the bill was needed to prevent HIV/AIDS (to keep gays from infectingtheir wives and children). He also said it would help in preventing breastand womb cancer, to which he said lesbians are particularly vulnerable, andpreventing depression and suicide.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.baywindows.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&AudID=0813BC739F2044E5A03DCF2DE3FDF7C9&tier=4&id=CFFBF5772BF541DEA63E2B4058D7BB8D
Issue Date: 2/15/2007, Posted On: 2/14/2007
The lesbians love Hillary
Laura Kiritsy
lkiritsy@baywindows.com
KEENE, N.H. — Oh, the downside of being the reporter for an LGBT newspaper:In the never-ending quest for the requisite “gay angle” one often findsoneself shuttling off to cover mainstream political events hoping to highheaven that the candidate will say or do something — anything — gay-relatedfrom which you can then wring a few lines of interesting copy. Sometimes youget a direct hit and the juicy headline “John Edwards Gets Hit With MarriageQuestion” (Bay Windows, Jan. 1). Other times you get bupkis, hence a lessenticing header along the lines of, “Rudy Giuliani Is Spared Any QuestionsOn Gay Issues” (Bay Windows, Jan. 4). Should the latter headline be yourfate, you desperately scan the crowds for some LGBT bystanders willing tooffer up their interpretations on the absence of gayness. At least you gotsomething.
Thus, it was with the usual trepidation that I made the two-and-a-half hourtrek to Keene, N.H., on Feb. 12 for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s first foray ontothe Democratic presidential primary scene. After all, despite all thosetabloid headlines of a few years ago and her Wellesley pedigree, there’snothing inherently gay about Clinton or her campaign. As I headed norththere was the customary fretting: Would she broach the topic of LGBT rightsin her stump speech? Would someone ask a gay question? Please, someone, saysomething gay. How would I find the lesbians if all of the women weresporting turtlenecks, boots and ski parkas? After all, this was NewHampshire.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.tajikistannews.net/story/228408
Gays 60 percent more prone to domestic abuse: survey
Tajikistan News.Net
Thursday 15th February, 2007 (IANS)
Gay people are 60 percent more likely than heterosexuals to suffer domesticviolence at the hands of their partners, a Hong Kong survey said Thursday.
Sixteen per cent of gay people are beaten up by their partners, comparedwith 9.6 percent of heterosexual people in comparable surveys, the study bya coalition of gay-rights groups found.
A third of gay people questioned said they suffered some form of domesticabuse, with many complaining of verbal abuse and threats, according to thestudy based on interviews with 236 people.
Among the most common forms of non-physical abuse reported by intervieweeswere threats to disclose a partner's sexual preferences to parents, friendsor employers.
However, social-welfare groups in the city of 6.8 million are not equippedto deal with gay people suffering from abuse and ignored appeals for helpfrom victims, the coalition complained.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20070215&Category=NEWS10&ArtNo=702150325&SectionCat=&Template=printart
Some licensing clerks join same-sex marriage debate
Dozens in Yolo County protest effort to legalize gay unions
Lisa Leff
The Associated Press
February 15, 2007 February 15, 2007
WOODLAND - For a decade, it's been a predictable Valentine's Day ritual:Same-sex couples across the nation show up at local government officesseeking marriage licenses only to be turned down - sometimes politely,sometimes not.
But the annual Freedom to Marry protests took on a slightly more hopeful hueWednesday in some parts of Northern California, where gay and lesbianpartners gained outspoken support from elected county clerks who lamentedthat state law forced them to say no.
"It's been on my conscience for a while, and I won't stand for it anymore,"said Yolo County Clerk-Recorder Freddie Oakley, who decided to give a"Certificate of Inequality" to each same-sex couple who came to her counterthis year. "This time, I'm standing up."
The strongly worded documents left no doubt on whose side Oakley stood.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/world/asia/16china.html?pagewanted=print
February 16, 2007
China Covers Up Detention of AIDS Doctor
By JIM YARDLEY
BEIJING, Feb. 15 — The photograph and article in Tuesday’s Henan Daily couldhave been headlined “Happy Holidays.” Three highranking Henan Provinceofficials, beaming and clapping as if presenting a lottery check, weremaking an early Lunar New Year visit to the apartment of a renowned AIDSdoctor, Gao Yaojie.
They gave her flowers. Dr. Gao, 80, squinted toward the camera, surelyunderstanding that pictures can lie. She was under house arrest to preventher from getting a visa to accept an honor in Washington. Her detentionattracted international attention, and the photo op was a sham, apparentlyintended to say, “Look, she’s fine and free as a bird.”
On Thursday, Dr. Gao said in a telephone interview, a handful of policeofficers remained stationed outside her apartment building in the centralChinese city of Zhengzhou.
“I just can’t simply swallow it all,” she said. “I want to know two things.First, who has made the decision? I am an 80-year-old lady, and what crimeshave I committed to deserve this? Second, they must find out who has beenslandering my name on the Internet.”
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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
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To Our Subscribers on Ray's List,
Ray's List will publish only the 3 Ray's List Daily Digests [GLBT News,National/World News, and Florida News] on Saturday and Sunday - February17-18. We will not send the individual articles this weekend.
In an attempt to streamline our production of Ray's List, we anticipate thatwe will eliminate mailing full articles in the near future and focus only onthe 3 daily digests. As always, you are invited to request a full articlefrom us if it is unavailable through the attached link or if the link is notavailable.
We are in a state of transition and request feedback so that we can makeRay's List a valuable tool in the quest for full human rights for ALLpeople.
This week's news including the disgusting and dangerous comments from TimHardaway, the frightening attack by a large mob against gay men in Jamaica,and the collusion with Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola by a number ofright-wing break-away Episcopal congregations should serve as notice to usin the U.S. that our safety, security and well-being are seriouslychallenged by groups that have no intention of giving up their fight againstour dignity as human beings. Their intentions are not benign.
Even though statistics show Americans are growing more tolerant of gays, weare a long way from security for GLBT people. For those of us in S.Florida, life is pretty nice. Even though we have one of the largestpopulations of gay people in the U.S. our leadership and activism on thenational and world stage is sorely lacking. South-Floridian gays love toparty, but it is very difficult to gain the attention of the majority ofGLBT persons for more sober issues.
We publish Ray's List in the hope that our daily reminders of the news froma world-wide perspective will motivate and provide the links for actionwithin our community. We frequently feel we are only "singing to thechoir." But, we know that each time you forward a Ray's List article toyour contacts, you provide a great service and make it more difficult forbigotry and hatred to flourish.
Knowledge is power.
Best wishes - and thanks for your work as activists!
Ray and Michael
Ray's List
rays.list@comcast.net
The digests are on the web at http://www.rayslistglbtnews.blogspot.com/
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http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20070214T220000-0500_119155_OBS_COPS_SAVE_THREE_ALLEGED_HOMOSEXUALS_FROM_ANGRY_CROWD.asp
The Jamaica Observer
Cops save three alleged homosexuals from angry crowd
KARYL WALKER, Observer staff reporter
Thursday, February 15, 2007
THREE men branded as homosexuals were yesterday rescued by the police froman angry mob outside a pharmacy in Tropical Plaza, where they had been holedup for almost an hour.
But even after the police managed to take the young men from the MonarchPharmacy, one of the three was hit with a stone, forcing officers to firetear gas on the crowd which included men, women, teenagers and smallchildren.
The approximately 2,000 people gathered outside the Kingston pharmacy hurledinsults at the three men, with some calling for them to be killed.
The crowd grew larger as the minutes ticked by and the three men and staffinside the pharmacy were visibly terrified as the mob demanded that they besent out so they could administer their brand of justice. "Send them out!"shouted one man.
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Moscow official nixes gay rights parade
Feb. 14, 2007, 2:41PM
The Associated Press
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4553865.html
MOSCOW - A top Moscow official repeated Wednesday that the city will notallow a gay rights parade, echoing the mayor's vocal criticism and sayingthat homosexuality is bad for your health, the RIA-Novosti news agencyreported.
"There is the hard line of the city authorities and the position of our mainfaith, the Russian Orthodox Church ... of the inadmissibility of such anevent in Moscow," RIA-Novosti quoted the head of the city's internationalrelations department, Georgy Muradov, as saying.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and city authorities barred gay rights activists fromstaging a parade last year, citing the threat of violence, but activistsignored the ban and were attacked by right-wing protesters and detained bypolice. Last month, Luzhkov vowed never to allow a gay rights parade,calling such events "satanic."
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-02-15-voa14.cfm
Hidden Homosexuality in Senegal Presents Challenge to HIV Prevention
By Phuong Tran
Dakar
15 February 2007
Across Africa, HIV infection is significantly higher in some groups. InSenegal, homosexual men are 10 times more likely to be HIV positive than therest of the population. Phuong Tran reports from Dakar on the challenges ofpreventing HIV in a mostly hidden community.
In Senegal, homosexuality is considered a moral crime punishable by up tofive years in prison and a $3,000 fine.
Abdou Houdia Diop - a doctor at a sexually-transmitted disease clinic run bythe Senegalese Ministry of Health - says societal, religious and legaldisapproval of homosexuality drives many underground.
"Since homosexuals are a hidden group, it is difficult to treat them, and itmakes it difficult to manage their treatment because they may not want toget tested or to come for their test results," he said.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3717.html
Gays and alcoholics the same, says Moscow
15th February 2007 12:45
Ben Leung
A high-ranking official in Moscow has joined in the growing debate over thecity's refusal to allow a gay rights parade this year.
Georgy Muradov, head of the city's international relations department,yesterday likened homosexuality to alcoholism and argued that both are "badfor one's health."
His remarks came as he tried to fend off criticisms from the Swedishambassador to the Russian Federation who had protested that the city'sdecision to ban a Pride march for the second year in a row.
Muradov said the ban on the parade was aimed to protect the health andwell-being of society.
"As you know, the sale of alcohol is restricted in many Scandinaviancountries.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/48016/
Monday, February 12, 2007
GLBT Americans Are Declaring Our Independence
After a disappointing decade in the political scene for gay people, many gayAmericans decided to change their strategies.
After Bill Clinton signed DOMA and banned gay people from serving openly inthe military, we realized that we weren't going to get our rights throughthe Democratic president -- who viewed gay Americans as an ATM machine thatcould be attacked in "pro family" campaign ads later. . . ads paid for withgay campaign contributions.
Still, gay Americans maintained some hope in the Democratic Party. Afterall, we reasoned, Bill Clinton was just one man -- and the larger party waswith us, right?
Maybe not.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3722.html
80% of Italians defy Vatican over partnership rights
15th February 2007 17:24
Tony Grew
A poll has revealed that an overwhelming majority of Italians approve of thegovernment's proposed legislation that will grant some rights to unmarriedcouples.
Last week the Cabinet unanimously approved the new legislation, which alsogrants rights to unmarried heterosexual couples.
Now a survey for newspaper La Repubblica has found strong support for themeasures.
67% of practising Catholics support protections for heterosexualco-habitees, a number which falls to 35% who think gay and lesbians shouldget legal protection.
Overall, 80% of Italians are in favour.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://opinion.gaynewsblog.net/2007/02/nigerian-primate-has-unexpected.html
Nigerian Primate has unexpected Valentines Day gay encounter
Archbishop Peter Akinola, scourge of lesbian and gay people and theirsupporters in the worldwide Anglican Communion, had an unexpected ValentinesDay encounter today – with the head of an organization that embodies theconcerns of a group he has previously suggested do not exist, gay Christiansin Nigeria.
This afternoon (14 February 2007), following the first press briefing priorto the official start of the Anglican Primates meeting on Thursday 15February, Mr Davis Mac-Iyalla, director of Changing Attitude Nigeria andArchbishop Peter Akinola, Primate of All Nigeria, met for the first time.
As Mr Mac-Iyalla left the hotel lobby with the Rev Caro Denton Hall (fromIntegrity, USA), he found the Archbishop in the company of Bishop MartynMinns (head of a breakaway group of US Episcopal parishes now under Nigeriancontrol) and his wife, plus Canon Chris Sugden from the conservative groupAnglican Mainstream.
Mr Mac-Iyalla went straight to the Archbishop to introduce himself andDenton Hall, from the network of lesbian and gay Episcopalians.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=3066
U.S. Clout Raises Worries for World Health Agency
Run Date: 02/13/07
By Bojana Stoparic
WeNews correspondent
The new director of the World Health Organization has made maternal andreproductive health issues a top priority for the global health agency. Butcritics say that U.S. policies hinder those efforts and funding still fallsshort of ambitions.
(WOMENSENEWS)--Some women's and global health experts are beginning toquestion whether Dr. Margaret Chan, the new director-general of the WorldHealth Organization, can stand up to the historical interference from itsbiggest donor, the United States. The Bush administration has been pushing apro-abstinence, anti-abortion agenda at WHO and has cut its funding forcomprehensive sexual and reproductive health services worldwide.
"The U.S. has pressured WHO behind the scenes not to address unsafeabortions and to remove references to sexual and reproductive rights," saysJodi Jacobson, executive director of Center for Health and Gender Equity inTakoma Park, Md.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1171487554800B221
Safe sex in the city
By James Hossack
New York - With branded condoms and lesbian weddings, Americans markedValentine's Day in ever more inventive ways on Wednesday, even if chocolatesand flowers remained the most popular way to say "I love you".
In New York, health authorities unveiled the country's first city-themedcondom in an effort to spark a bit of passion amid a winter blizzard.
The subway-styled condoms, which are being promoted with the slogan "NewYork we've got you covered", and the provocative "NYC condoms - get some",are part of a serious drive by the city to
tackle sexually transmitted diseases.
The one-size-fits-all condoms come in black packaging featuring colouredcircles that spell out "NYC Condom" in the style of the city's subway.Another suggested design that ended on thecutting-room floor featured skyscrapers.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.bcheights.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=e3708ba0-013c-47ed-8aff-9d7cf19883b9
Speaker discusses difficulties as a homosexual Muslim
Emily Koruda
Posted: 2/8/07
"I knew I was an outsider, and I was reminded of it everyday," said FaisalAlam of his experiences growing up in a small, rural Connecticut town asboth a devout Muslim and a conflicted homosexual.
In his lecture entitled "Hidden Voices: Lives of Queer Muslims," sponsoredby Allies, Boston College's own recognized student organization promotingthe understanding and support of sexual orientation, Alam spoke of how therestrictions of Islam prevented him from expressing his own sexuality duringthe greater part of his life.
A graduate from Northeastern University and an activist for gay rights forMuslims, Alam has been traveling and speaking at various universities aroundthe country for nearly five years.
Alam began his lecture by stating that although many Americans holddisparaging views toward Islam as a religion, conversion in America hasactually increased in the past five years. More people have studied it forthe mere sake of gaining a better understanding. Sept. 11 marked the firsttime radical Islam was truly introduced in the United States.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/world/africa/16anglicans.html?pagewanted=print
February 16, 2007
A Move to Heal Anglican Rift, but Short of Conservatives’ Goal
By SHARON LaFRANIERE and LAURIE GOODSTEIN
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Feb. 15 — The Episcopal Church in the United Stateshas taken steps to heal a rift over homosexuality that threatens to fracturethe worldwide Anglican Church, but it has not compromised as much asconservative Anglican leaders have demanded, according to a report issued ata crucial meeting of the Anglican leadership here on Thursday.
The report said leaders of the Episcopal Church — the American branch of theAnglican Communion — have effectively stopped consecrating openly gaybishops. They have also apologized to Anglicans who were offended by theirliberal stance on homosexuality.
But the leaders have failed to explicitly forbid the blessing of same-sexunions, as representatives of the global church requested two years ago,according to the report. It called for urgent action by Episcopal leaders,saying bishops who defy the Anglican Church on the issue can not “be fullyincorporated” into it.
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PalmBeachPost.com
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/pbcsouth/content/local_news/epaper/2007/02/15/s1b_condoms_0215.html
Condom giveaway wildly popular on love's special day
By Antigone Barton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 15, 2007
BOCA RATON — If true romance combines passion with a desire to protect theobject of one's affections, then Planned Parenthood's Valentine's Day condomgiveaway brought out clinic visitors' romantic side.
"They've been flying out the door," said Boca Raton center office managerKerine Salmon, preparing to empty another thousand condoms into basketsplaced around the clinic waiting room. "Today is the perfect day," she said,because on Wednesday the center has walk-in clinic services requiring noappointments,
The organization's chapter for south Palm Beach and Broward Counties isgiving unlimited free condoms to all who come through its five centers inrecognition of National Condom Awareness Day, which coincides with the dayof love.
They will continue through the week, which is recognized by the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services as National Condom Week.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/16710167.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
The father counts, as more than a figure
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com
I'll tell you when I decided -- apologies to Ricky Ricardo -- I had somesplainin' to do.
It was a few days ago, when I got an e-mail informing me that I am an''anti-gay bigot.'' Which would be a shock to the system at any time, butseems especially ironic coming as it does a few weeks before I am supposedto receive an award from PFLAG -- Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
The source of this ire? A column I wrote about Mary Cheney, who is alesbian, pregnant and the daughter of the vice president. I thought it was abad idea for Cheney and her life mate, Heather Poe, to have a baby, and Inoted that this is an opinion I share with Dr. James Dobson of Focus on theFamily fame.
Which caused a few folks to fire off scandalized notes wondering how Ifunction without benefit of a brain. Or a heart.
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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/print_article_ektid42084.asp
Febuary 16, 2007
Episcopal leader's pro-gay views won't waver, aide says
The head of the Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the Anglican Church, whosupports ordaining gays and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sexcouples, will not soften her views even as the issues threaten to breakapart the Christian denomination, her aide said Thursday. The leaders of theworld's 77 million Anglicans, who are holding a closed meeting this week inDar Es Salaam, Tanzania, said they would discuss the U.S. response to a 2004report by an Anglican panel that called for a moratorium on consecrating gaybishops and blessing same-sex unions.
Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years but became a crisis in2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V.Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The problems mounted last year with theelection of Katharine Jefferts Schori as head of the U.S. church.
"The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here, and there will be a middle wayforward,'' said Jefferts Schori's aide, Robert Williams. But he said she''will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in thebody of Christ.''
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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/print_article_ektid42093.asp
New Life to discuss Haggard scandal with congregation
Leaders of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., will hold whatthey're calling a ''day of hope'' Sunday to discuss the claims of drug useand gay sex that led to the downfall of founding pastor Ted Haggard.
''What we have in mind for that Sunday is to give some closure to ourcongregation from this difficult time and also some perspective on the roadahead for the Haggard family as they enter this season of restoration,''said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor.
Last year Haggard was forced out as senior pastor at the 14,000-member NewLife Church and resigned as head of the National Association of Evangelicalsafter a Denver man, Mike Jones, came forward alleging the pastor had paidhim for sex and sometimes used crystal meth when they were together.Haggard, who is married, has publicly admitted to ''sexual immorality'' andhas undergone intensive, Bible-based counseling.
Haggard told church members in a recent e-mail that his family planned toleave Colorado Springs and that he and his wife planned to pursue master'sdegrees in psychology.
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/steve_rothaus/16710232.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
Hardaway's gay bashing brings swift rebuke
Former pro basketball player Tim Hardaway felt heat from all sides one dayafter making anti-gay comments.
BY BARRY JACKSON AND STEVE ROTHAUS
srothaus@MiamiHerald.com
A day after declaring ''I hate gay people'' on a South Florida radio show,former Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway was banned from this weekend's NBAAll-Star Game activities, lost a national endorsement deal and drew intensecriticism from gay-rights advocates.
Five-time All-Star Hardaway, who apologized on WSVN-Fox 7 several hoursafter making the comments Wednesday, released another apology Thursdaythrough his agent, Henry Thomas.
''As an African American, I know all too well the negative thoughts andfeelings hatred and bigotry cause,'' Hardaway said in Thursday's apology.``I regret and apologize for the statements that I made that have certainlycaused the same kinds of feelings and reactions.
''I especially apologize to my fans, friends and family in Miami andChicago. I am committed to examining my feelings and will recognize,appreciate and respect the differences among people in our society,'' hesaid. ``I regret any embarrassment I have caused the league on the eve ofone of their greatest annual events.''
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The Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/16710784.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Posted on Fri, Feb. 16, 2007
IN MY OPINION
Hardaway has a right to spout his ignorance
DAVID J. NEAL
dneal@MiamiHerald.com
Because we tend to focus on the negative, ''hate'' stands as the biggestfour-letter word you can use on ABC. People used to having their publiclyspoken words recorded or written for posterity know to handle that word asif it were a glass of nitroglycerin.
Which is just one reason to say ''please'' to any apology from former Heatguard Tim Hardaway's for saying, ''I hate gay people'' during a Wednesdayradio interview that also included Hardaway's admission that, basically, hecouldn't deal with a teammate known to be gay.
Thus did Hardaway give voice to the feelings shared by the majority ofprofessional athletes and by many in America. Nothing wrong with that. Atleast he was honest. In America, it's your right to be a bigot so long as itdoesn't infringe on someone else's right to just be. When we lose the rightto bigotry, we no longer live in America.
MONEY COMES FIRST
That's an America where capitalism holds a daily referendum in which thepeople's voice can be heard via the wallet. The NBA, conscious that gays andlesbians buy season tickets and LeBron James jerseys, too, distancedthemselves from Hardaway much quicker than its daughter, the WNBA, embracedthe lesbian presence in its fandom. The dress-coded NBA's reflex is to meanno offense to any potential paying customer.
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From Scott Long
Director
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program
Human Rights Watch
Nigeria - Anti-gay bill debated - AN UPDATE
Dorothy has gone to bed after an exhausting day, but she asked me to relaysome information to activists about the day’s events. After an initialhitch when the pro-LGBT-rights civil-society contingent were told they couldnot attend the “public” hearing without an invitation, they were able to getpast the guards at the National Assembly gates. The presence of EU andforeign embassy staff apparently helped in this.
The hearing itself was chaotic and packed, with representatives from theChristian Association of Nigeria and other Christian groups (not sure whichyet) as well as some Muslim associations. About 10-12 representatives ofthe civil society coalition, supported by Global Rights, were able to speak,including INCRESE and the Civil Liberties Organization. UNAIDS alsocondemned the bill on health grounds, and the Nigerian Human RightsCommission made a strong statement against it. INCRESE presented a letterfrom 20+ African human rights defenders condemning the bill; a letter fromUS representative Tammy Baldwin; the letter from HR organizations in andbeyond Africa from last year; documentation from HRW and Global Rights; anda letter from the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association, among otherdocuments.
On the other side, the cultural argument that homosexuality is “un-African”was raised, and pressure from foreign homosexuals was cited as an indicatorof why the bill is necessary. The South African marriage bill was alsocited in warning. Health arguments were also used in the legislation’sfavor. An MD who is President Obasanjo’s assistant on health issues arguedthat the bill was needed to prevent HIV/AIDS (to keep gays from infectingtheir wives and children). He also said it would help in preventing breastand womb cancer, to which he said lesbians are particularly vulnerable, andpreventing depression and suicide.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.baywindows.com/ME2/Audiences/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&AudID=0813BC739F2044E5A03DCF2DE3FDF7C9&tier=4&id=CFFBF5772BF541DEA63E2B4058D7BB8D
Issue Date: 2/15/2007, Posted On: 2/14/2007
The lesbians love Hillary
Laura Kiritsy
lkiritsy@baywindows.com
KEENE, N.H. — Oh, the downside of being the reporter for an LGBT newspaper:In the never-ending quest for the requisite “gay angle” one often findsoneself shuttling off to cover mainstream political events hoping to highheaven that the candidate will say or do something — anything — gay-relatedfrom which you can then wring a few lines of interesting copy. Sometimes youget a direct hit and the juicy headline “John Edwards Gets Hit With MarriageQuestion” (Bay Windows, Jan. 1). Other times you get bupkis, hence a lessenticing header along the lines of, “Rudy Giuliani Is Spared Any QuestionsOn Gay Issues” (Bay Windows, Jan. 4). Should the latter headline be yourfate, you desperately scan the crowds for some LGBT bystanders willing tooffer up their interpretations on the absence of gayness. At least you gotsomething.
Thus, it was with the usual trepidation that I made the two-and-a-half hourtrek to Keene, N.H., on Feb. 12 for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s first foray ontothe Democratic presidential primary scene. After all, despite all thosetabloid headlines of a few years ago and her Wellesley pedigree, there’snothing inherently gay about Clinton or her campaign. As I headed norththere was the customary fretting: Would she broach the topic of LGBT rightsin her stump speech? Would someone ask a gay question? Please, someone, saysomething gay. How would I find the lesbians if all of the women weresporting turtlenecks, boots and ski parkas? After all, this was NewHampshire.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.tajikistannews.net/story/228408
Gays 60 percent more prone to domestic abuse: survey
Tajikistan News.Net
Thursday 15th February, 2007 (IANS)
Gay people are 60 percent more likely than heterosexuals to suffer domesticviolence at the hands of their partners, a Hong Kong survey said Thursday.
Sixteen per cent of gay people are beaten up by their partners, comparedwith 9.6 percent of heterosexual people in comparable surveys, the study bya coalition of gay-rights groups found.
A third of gay people questioned said they suffered some form of domesticabuse, with many complaining of verbal abuse and threats, according to thestudy based on interviews with 236 people.
Among the most common forms of non-physical abuse reported by intervieweeswere threats to disclose a partner's sexual preferences to parents, friendsor employers.
However, social-welfare groups in the city of 6.8 million are not equippedto deal with gay people suffering from abuse and ignored appeals for helpfrom victims, the coalition complained.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20070215&Category=NEWS10&ArtNo=702150325&SectionCat=&Template=printart
Some licensing clerks join same-sex marriage debate
Dozens in Yolo County protest effort to legalize gay unions
Lisa Leff
The Associated Press
February 15, 2007 February 15, 2007
WOODLAND - For a decade, it's been a predictable Valentine's Day ritual:Same-sex couples across the nation show up at local government officesseeking marriage licenses only to be turned down - sometimes politely,sometimes not.
But the annual Freedom to Marry protests took on a slightly more hopeful hueWednesday in some parts of Northern California, where gay and lesbianpartners gained outspoken support from elected county clerks who lamentedthat state law forced them to say no.
"It's been on my conscience for a while, and I won't stand for it anymore,"said Yolo County Clerk-Recorder Freddie Oakley, who decided to give a"Certificate of Inequality" to each same-sex couple who came to her counterthis year. "This time, I'm standing up."
The strongly worded documents left no doubt on whose side Oakley stood.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/world/asia/16china.html?pagewanted=print
February 16, 2007
China Covers Up Detention of AIDS Doctor
By JIM YARDLEY
BEIJING, Feb. 15 — The photograph and article in Tuesday’s Henan Daily couldhave been headlined “Happy Holidays.” Three highranking Henan Provinceofficials, beaming and clapping as if presenting a lottery check, weremaking an early Lunar New Year visit to the apartment of a renowned AIDSdoctor, Gao Yaojie.
They gave her flowers. Dr. Gao, 80, squinted toward the camera, surelyunderstanding that pictures can lie. She was under house arrest to preventher from getting a visa to accept an honor in Washington. Her detentionattracted international attention, and the photo op was a sham, apparentlyintended to say, “Look, she’s fine and free as a bird.”
On Thursday, Dr. Gao said in a telephone interview, a handful of policeofficers remained stationed outside her apartment building in the centralChinese city of Zhengzhou.
“I just can’t simply swallow it all,” she said. “I want to know two things.First, who has made the decision? I am an 80-year-old lady, and what crimeshave I committed to deserve this? Second, they must find out who has beenslandering my name on the Internet.”
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