FLORIDA DIGEST - March 29, 2009

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~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~

Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-PrideFest theme celebrates Compass' move to city
JASON PARSLEY
Thousands of people will descend on Lake Worth from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday for the 16th annual PrideFest of the Palm Beaches organized by Compass, the gay and lesbian community center of the Palm Beaches. The festival will feature more than 150 gay-owned and/or gay-friendly businesses, churches, nonprofit groups, government agencies and entertainers. Between 10,000 and 12,000 people are expected to attend. As usual one of the major highlights of the two-day event will be Sunday's parade that starts at 11:30 a.m. at South L Street and Lucerne Avenue, and will make its way down Lake Avenue to Bryant Park.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/news/thingstodo/sfl-fllwfpride0324lwfmar24,0,4729244.story

-PrideFest in Lake Worth puts gay pride on display
Annual parade is Sunday in Lake Worth
By Maria Herrera
The 16th PrideFest of the Palm Beaches was as much about pride as it was about reaching out to the gay and lesbian community.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-032809-lakeworth-pridefest,0,5958346.story



~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~

Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Luxury hotels are replacing what remains of Fort Lauderdale's notorious Spring Break past
Story by Liz Doup
If this hotel could talk, it might hiccup. Or belch. Heaven knows, enough beer has flowed through it. Over the decades, Spring Breakers have flocked to the Tropic Cay Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? - Click Here., and no wonder.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/fort_lauderdale/sfl-flospringbreak0329sbmar29,0,3484009.story

-Florida teachers face tough fight for raises amid faltering economy
Fiscal uncertainty keeps Broward's in limbo for now
By Kathy Bushouse
It's a tough time for Florida schoolteachers to get pay raises. With the economy in recession and school budgets tightening, at least 14 districts around the state are locking horns with teachers unions over pay.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-flbteacherpay0329sbmar29,0,319668.story

-Florida jobless rate hits 9.4 percent in February, up from 5.2 percent a year ago
The unemployment level is the highest since April 1976, Rebecca Rust, chief economist for the Agency for Workforce Innovation, said in a press conference.
By Marcia Heroux Pounds
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/careers/sfl-jobless-february-florida-032609,0,1827216.story

-Michael Mayo: Civil War in Tallahassee pits pragmatists against pious
Michael Mayo
Just as there are two Floridas - the buckled-down Bible Belt north and the anything-goes liberal heathen south - this year there are two Florida Legislatures. There's the House, which is opposed to sin, taxes and new taxes on sin.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/columnists/sfl-flbmayocol032909sbmar29,0,3359847.column

-Florida teachers face tough fight for raises amid faltering economy
Fiscal uncertainty keeps Broward's in limbo for now
By Kathy Bushouse
It's a tough time for Florida schoolteachers to get pay raises. With the economy in recession and school budgets tightening, at least 14 districts around the state are locking horns with teachers unions over pay. "That's way, way, way more than normal," said Mark Pudlow, a spokesman for the Florida Education Association, the state's teachers union. "Usually, in any given budget year, you will have an impasse at one or two [school districts], not 14."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sfl-flbteacherpay0329sbmar29,0,319668.story


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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
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-Teachers need to redirect fight for raises to Tallahassee
By MYRIAM MARQUEZ
I n a $5.5 billion budget, is there wiggle room to find $72 million to pay Miami-Dade County's teachers, custodians, schools police and bus drivers the raises they were promised? Taxpayers haven't a clue, the United Teachers of Dade union points out, because the school district won't open some of its books.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/973209.html

-Ample evidence Florida's feeling effects of climate change
BY GEORGIA TASKER
Maybe the fish are on to something. Don Hammond, who catches, tags and releases dolphin-fish (also known as mahi-mahi), says those Florida natives are being hooked in some unusual places.
http://www.miamiherald.com/540/story/971605.html


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Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
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-Once a power couple, Kevin and Mary McCarty pay for ill-gotten gains
By TONY DORIS
Through the wife's county commission votes, she and her husband profited for a decade or more. On Friday, both paid a price. At a 10:30 a.m. hearing, former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty pleaded guilty to conspiring to deprive the public of her honest services. She is scheduled to be sentenced June 4 to as much as five years in prison. At 3 p.m., a federal judge sentenced Kevin McCarty, ex-chairman of the South Florida Water Management District, to eight months in prison, forfeiture of the couple's $272,000 in ill-gotten gains and a $5,000 fine. He's scheduled to enter prison near Miami on May 4.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/03/27/0327mccarty.html


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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Florida Legislature awaits Crist's word on budget
By Steve Bousquet
Gov. Charlie Crist's policy of disengagement is testing the limits of lawmakers' patience and raising questions about his leadership. As the legislative session nears the midway point, Crist keeps at a safe distance from the politically turbulent talk of painful budget cuts and higher taxes swirling about him.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/gubernatorial/article987897.ece

-It's hard to fire a teacher, even if they are bad
By Ron Matus
By the spring of 2007, Roy Sachse's boss had had it. In a span of 18 months, a co-worker accused Sachse of cussing her out. A confiscated note suggested he wanted to meet a 14-year-old girl behind a Dumpster. A parent said he threatened to pull another girl's pants down. Away from work, police arrested Sachse (pronounced SAX-see) on a charge of stealing a $5.95 sandwich - an arrest he was supposed to tell his boss about within 48 hours, but investigators said he did not.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/article987898.ece

-Anti-Evolution Bill Still A Fruitless Exercise
By WILLIAM MARCH and CATHERINE DOLINSKI
A bill aimed at undercutting acceptance of evolution in Florida science classes, which kicked up a fuss but didn't pass in the Florida Legislature last year, apparently is going nowhere this year. A Senate version of the bill has yet to receive a committee hearing and has no companion bill in the House.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/28/na-anti-evolution-bill-still-a-fruitless-exercise/news-politics/


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