GLBT DIGEST - February 28, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-The Perpetual Protester
By JENNIFER MASCIA
The weather was cold, and the protesters relatively few. But among the two dozen or so men who braved the whipping winds for a recent rally near the mayor's home on the Upper East Side, one man's sign stood out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/nyregion/28protester.html?scp=2&sq=gay&st=cse

-Obama Moves to Undo Rule on Abortion Providers
By DAVID STOUT
The Obama administration moved Friday to undo a last-minute Bush administration rule granting broad protections to health workers who refuse to take part in abortions or provide other health care that goes against their consciences. The Department of Health and Human Services served notice on Friday that it intended to rescind the regulation, which was originally announced on Dec. 19 and took effect on the day President Obama took office.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/politics/28abort.html


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
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-Religion Briefing: EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH
Panel Proposes Allowing Gays to Become Clergy
A task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has recommended that its leaders make changes to allow gays and lesbians in committed relationships to serve as clergy. At the same time, the task force proposed giving individual congregations the option of rejecting a gay clergy member.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702735.html


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

-The Democratic Party Could Face an Internal Civil War
By JOEL KOTKIN
'Gentry' and 'populist' factions square off on energy and the environment. This is the Democratic Party's moment, its power now greater than any time since the mid-1960s. But do not expect smooth sailing. The party is a fractious group divided by competing interests, factions and constituencies that could explode into a civil war, especially when it comes to energy and the environment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123578533109798571.html


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

-Focus on Family leader to step down
By Eric Gorski
Conservative evangelical leader James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family but will continue to play a prominent role at the organization he founded more than three decades ago. Dobson notified the board of his decision Wednesday, and the 950 employees of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based ministry were informed Friday, said Jim Daly, the group's president and chief executive officer.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-fladobson0228sbfeb28,0,2487201.story


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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Study: Gays of color face greater discrimination in schools
By 365gay Newscenter Staff
LGBT students of color face greater victimization at school, according to a new study.
http://www.365gay.com/news/study-gays-of-color-face-greater-discrimination-in-schools/

-Life sentence for murder of Ryan SkipperJ
Joseph Bearden, a known methamphetamine addict, has been sentenced to life behind bars for his part in the killing of Ryan Skipper in 2007. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty.5

-Harvey Milk sculpture proposed for Utah Capitol (Salt Lake City, Utah)
A Salt Lake City area man has a unique proposal to counter what he sees as growing homophobia among Utah politicians - a statue to Harvey Milk at the Utah Capitol. Roger...

-Maine inkeeps say gay marriage could save industry
With the nation in the grip of an economic crisis that is threatening tourism across the country, Maine's inns, tourism agencies, and the wedding industry say legalizing same-sex marriage in the state could save them from disaster.

-Gay, straight adult entertainment, toys face "Skin Tax"
In Washington state, a half-dozen cash-strapped legislators recently endorsed a huge sales tax increase on explicit movies, magazines and other sex-themed products.


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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-PinkNews.co.uk considers legal action over Google ban
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
The fallout from Google's decision to list PinkNews.co.uk as a site containing "malware" on the StopBadware.org service continues. For around 48 hours between Tuesday to Thursday of this week users of Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Google's search engine were unable to access PinkNews.co.uk because of alleged security vulnerabilities.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11376.html

-Gay marriage vigils planned ahead of Prop 8 appeal to Supreme Court
Lesbian, gay and bisexual Californians and their supporters will take to the streets of more than a dozen cities next month to protest against a ban on gay marriage in the state.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11395.html

-Catholic bishops 'helped defeat' domestic partnerships bill in New Mexico
Lesiglation to provide gay and straight unmarried couples with the right to enter into domestic partnerships under state law has been rejected by the New Mexico state Senate.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11392.html

-Republican politician partially apologises for comparing gays to murderers
A state Senator in Colorado has admitted he has caused insult by comparing gay and lesbian people to murderers and adulterers.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11390.html

-Lithuania's EU Commissioner denies she is a lesbian
A leading Euro politician has responded to speculation about her personal life. Dalia Grybauskaite is the EU Commissioner for Financial Planning and Budgets.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11383.html

-Lesbian couple's victory over NHS fertility treatment
A local health authority has backed down after they were taken to court for refusing fertility treatment to a lesbian couple.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11381.html

-Homophobia is "rampant" on XBox claims gay media group
A cyber-row has broken out after a woman was banned from playing XBox Live online because her open lesbianism "offended" other players.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11378.html

-Comment: Tory MPs really need to shut up if they want my vote
As a political journalist, I regularly talk to MPs and activists of all parties. Tories spend most of their time telling me how much their party has changed.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11377.html

-Euro Parliament accepts petition on Poland's discrimination against gays
The European Parliament Committee on Petitions has accepted a petition submitted by a Polish LGBT rights group on the discriminatory practices of registry offices.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11373.html


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Daily Queer News
www.dailyqueernews.com
Go to the links for the following articles:

-NY: Gays of Color Face Greater Discrimination in Schools
365gay Newscenter Staff | 365gay.com
LGBT students of color face greater victimization at school, according to a new study. The research paper: Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students of Color in Our Nation's Schools, was released by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. The report documents the experiences of over 2,000 LGBT middle and high school students of color who were African American or Black, Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander, Native American, and multiracial. The researchers used data collected in 2007 as part of GLSEN's biennial survey of LGBT students along with results from in-depth individual and group interviews. Read more

-Federal Court: Montana Church May Shield Donations to Gay Marriage Ban
Carol J. Williams | Los Angeles Times
Far from the gay-rights battlefields of Los Angeles and San Francisco, where supporters of a ban on gay marriage risk business boycotts and landing on the social D-list, a Baptist church in Montana has scored a quiet victory in its campaign to keep its books and defense-of-marriage backers out of the limelight. The Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church of East Helena isn't obliged to make campaign finance disclosures, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, because its support for the Montana Marriage Protection Amendment - use of some printer ink and a foyer table - was "extremely minimal." The 2004 state ballot initiative passed by a 2-to-1 margin. Religious rights groups opposed to according legal status to gay marriage cheered the decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel as a precedent that could protect the identities of donors to other ballot initiatives in the West - including California's narrow passage in November of Proposition 8, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman. Read more

-UT: Gay-Rights Group Drops Boycott Against Garff
Tony Semerad | The Salt Lake Tribune
A California gay-rights group announced Friday it is formally ending a boycott of one of Utah's most high-profile car dealerships. Californians Against Hate had called for a boycott of Ken Garff Automotive Group's 53 dealerships in six states in retaliation for a $100,000 donation made by Garff family matriarch Katharine Garff in support of Proposition 8, alifornia's same-sex marriage ban, part of a total of $3.4 million donated for and against Prop 8 by Utahns. The same-sex-marriage ban is now being challenged in Calfornia Supreme Court. Fred Karger, director of Californians Against Hate, said Friday the two-week boycott of Ken Garff Automotive Group was being called off immediately, following a series of meetings that included face-to-face discussions between company principals John and Robert Garff and Utah philanthropist Bruce Bastian, a leading gay-rights advocate. "We're just ecstatic," said Karger, who said his group was moving swiftly to take down a Web site and other Internet presences associated with the boycott. "It's a wonderful situation . a happy ending." Said Bastian: "We were able to discuss this openly and honestly with the Garffs and reach an understanding. I think they understand now why this was upsetting and hurtful to many people." Read more

-Irish Gay Marriage Advocates Claim Massive Public Support
Tony Grew | Pink News
A group campaigning for full marriage rights for gay and lesbian people in Ireland has revealed the results of a new survey suggesting widespread support. MarriagEquality said 81% of those polled believe that all people living in Ireland should receive equal treatment from the state regardless of their sexual orientation. Six out of ten people believe that denying marriage to lesbians and gay men is a form of discrimination. Read more

-Lithuania's EU Commissioner Denies She is a Lesbian
Pink News
A leading Euro politician has responded to speculation about her personal life. Dalia Grybauskaite is the EU Commissioner for Financial Planning and Budgets. Yesterday she confirmed that she will be a candidate for President of her homeland, Lithuania, in May's elections. She was asked as part of an online Q&A with a Lithuanian website about press reports she has a relationship with another women several years ago. She responded: "If you are asking whether I am a lesbian, then no, I am not."
Lithuania is one of the most homophobic countries in the EU. Read more

-TX: National Gay-Rights Conference Coming to Dallas in 2010
Tammye Nash | Senior Editor | Dallas Voice
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's annual National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change is coming back to Dallas in 2010, and NGLTF leaders will be in town March 9 for the first of what is sure to be numerous planning sessions. Sue Hyde, Creating Change director, and Russell Roybal, deputy executive director of external relations, will attend the community information meeting, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Resource Center of Dallas, Hyde said this week. "We have a few different goals set for this meeting," Hyde said in a telephone interview this week. "The first of those is that Russell and I want to meet people from the Dallas-Fort Worth LGBT community and its organizations. Second, we want to tell people about this very important event that is coming to Dallas." Read more

-TX: Queer Liberaction Plans Dallas Rally Following Prop 8 Hearing
Dallas Voice
Queer Liberaction, the Dallas LGBT direct action group founded in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8 in California last November, is calling for rallies to be held across the country on Saturday, March 7 to demand that the California State Supreme Court invalidate the voter-approved amendment banning same-sex marriage there. The California court issued a ruling last May declaring the state law banning same-sex marriage to be a violation of the state's constitution. Voters, however, approved a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages on Nov. 4, sparking outrage and protests across the country. Opponents of the amendment, known as Proposition 8, quickly filed suit claiming that the amendment created a significant change in the constitution and therefore could not be approved just by a popular vote. The Supreme Court agreed to put the lawsuit on the fast track, and will hear oral arguments in the case on Thursday, March 5. The court is required to issue its ruling in the case within 90 days of the hearing. Read more

-Is the US Changing Its Anti-Gay Stance at the UN?
Patricia Nell | The Bilerico Project
Amid the marriage uproars, many gay media almost lost an important piece of news in the shuffle. We LGBT people had a longstanding grievance against the Bush administration for opposing and undercutting establishment of our rights in the global arena. Now the Obama administration has made a start on reversing that policy. As part of the countdown to the UN's upcoming Durban Review Conference, the U.S. voted with other countries to support language that would outlaw all discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Durban Review Conference will held in Geneva, Switzerland on April 20-24. According to the UN website, "It will evaluate progress towards the goals set by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001." Previously, the U.S. took the opposite positioning, and hung us LGBT people out to dry at the UN. More on this after the jump. Read more


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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-US State Department Criticises Russia, Serbia for Breaches of Human Rights
of Gays
Human Rights Report praised by Moscow Gay Pride Organisers
Russia is condemned for breaches of human rights in the US State Department's annual Human Rights Report, published yesterday. And human rights for gay men and women are highlights by the cases of continued bans on Moscow Gay Pride. The report also criticises other countries, like Serbia and Nigeria, for their attitudes towards gays. In the section on Russia, a large part of the report is given over to the human rights situation in the North Caucasus, highlighting cases of kidnapping, tortures, and killings of civilians.
http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/09/Feb/2602.htm

-Iraq's underground queer railroad
A secret network of safe houses and escape routes is saving gay Iraqis from execution by Islamist death squads
By Peter Tatchell - The Guardian
In the bad old days of slavery in the United States, there was the "Underground Railroad" - a clandestine network of secret routes and safe houses - which spirited thousands of southern slaves to freedom in the north. Today, 200 years later in Iraq, a modern version of the underground railroad is saving the lives of gay people who are fleeing Islamist death squads. It is providing safe houses in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, and is smuggling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people to neighbouring countries, where it helps them apply for United Nations humanitarian protection. This secret network, coordinated by Iraqi LGBT exiles in London, is saving dozens of lives.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/25/iraq-gay-rights

-Mich. man pleads no contest in vacuum sex act case From SAGINAW, Mich. - A man has pleaded no contest to indecent exposure after police said he was arrested for performing a sex act with a car wash vacuum. The Saginaw News reported 29-year-old Jason Leroy Savage entered the plea Wednesday in Saginaw County Circuit Court. A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but will be treated as one at sentencing on March 25. Police said Savage was arrested after a resident called officers early on Oct. 16 to report suspicious activity at a car wash in Thomas Township, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit. Defense attorney Philip Alexander Sturtz had no immediate comment Thursday.
http://www.mlive.com/saginaw


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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
Contact rays.list@comcast.net if you can't access the article

-For some, shadow of regret cast over gender switch
By Steve Friess, special for USA TODAY
The day Mike Penner left the Los Angeles Times made the news. The longtime sportswriter wrote the article himself, a personal essay explaining that he was taking some time off and, upon his return, he would be known from then on as Christine Daniels. Penner's public acknowledgment in April 2007 that he was transgender and would soon live as a woman shocked the world of sports journalism and turned his new identity, Daniels, into an instant celebrity. Daniels gave speeches, was profiled in Sports Illustrated, collected honors for courage from transgender groups and wrote a blog for the Times titled "Woman In Progress." Except that the transition didn't last. In mid-October 2008, after a lengthy leave of absence, Penner, 51, returned to the sports pages and the Times newsroom as a man. And just as suddenly, Penner's story, heralded in its early days as a triumphant example of transgender progress, has instead become a cautionary tale of the lesser-known phenomenon: transgender regret.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-02-24-transgender-penner_N.htm

-14th Annual Rainbow Families Conference 2009
Minneapolis, MN - April 18
Hosted by the Family Equality Council
Anwatin/Bryn Mawr Schools
The Rainbow Families Conference is the premier community building and learning event for current and prospective LGBT parents, their children, family members and friends, area educators and community members. This incredible conference is a special resource for Minnesota and surrounding states and is the largest of its kind in the nation. Participants enjoy a day of learning and sharing together and also leave with concrete skills and information relevant to their own lives and needs.
http://www.familyequality.org/conference/

-U.S. Department of State / 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/

-Roman Catholic Group Claims Progress in Campus Fight Against 'Vagina Monologues'
A conservative Roman Catholic organization is boasting that pressure from it and its allies has led, over the past six years, to a more than 50-percent reduction in the number of Catholic college campuses staging productions of The Vagina Monologues. The Virginia-based Cardinal Newman Society said in a statement this month that the number of Catholic colleges staging the controversial work has dropped from 32 in 2003 to 15 this year. Responding to Catholic college officials who continue to allow performances of the play out of a belief in academic freedom, the group argued in its statement that "there is no academic value to a third-rate, vile play presented to celebrate lesbian activity, objectify women, and sell tickets," and that Pope Benedict XVI "has made it clear that 'academic freedom' can no longer be used as cover for ignoring the abuse of Catholic identity."
http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=6038&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

-National Equality Rally YouTube Video
What kind of world do you want? Make your voice heard! Join the National Equality Rally at Independence Hall on Sunday, May 3, and tell our President, Congress, and people everywhere that the world you want cherishes diversity and supports Equality - for all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVELnP7ugAs

-Judge Rules Child Porn Possessor Must Pay Victim
Conn. - In a first-of-its-kind ruling, Senior U.S. District Judge Warren W. Eginton has ordered a corporate exec to pay $200,000 in damages to a teenager pictured in a sexually explicit image found on his computer. The child porn user is former Pfizer Pharmaceuticals executive Alan Hesketh, a British citizen who was fired from his position after his arrest in March of 2008 on child porn charges. Hesketh is currently serving 78 months in prison for possession and distribution of approximately 2,000 child porn images. Before Judge Eginton's ruling, courts had only awarded damages to child porn victims from the producers of the images themselves; never before has a possessor of the material been forced to compensate one of the children depicted. The woman, now 19, was awarded $150,000 for her medical and psychological expenses and another $45,500 in legal fees and expert witness costs - and she was only one of 24 children identified in Hesketh's kiddie porn collection.
http://business.avn.com/articles/34526.html

-Steamy sex courses fire GOP's ire
ATLANTA - Upset House Republicans are mounting a campaign to purge Georgia's higher education system of professors with an expertise in racy sexuality topics as the state grapples with a $2.2 billion shortfall. State Rep. Charlice Byrd, R-Woodstock, took the House well on Friday to announce a "grassroots" effort to oust professors with expertise in subjects like male prostitution, oral sex and "queer theory." "This is not considered higher education," Byrd said. "If legislators are going to dole out the dollars, we should have a say-so in where they go." Byrd and her supporters, including state Rep. Calvin Hill, R-Canton, said they will team with the Christian Coalition and other religious groups to pressure fellow lawmakers and the University System Board of Regents to eliminate the jobs. "Our job is to educate our people in sciences, business, math," said Hill, a vice chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee. He said professors aren't going to meet those needs "by teaching a class in queer theory."
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/020709/gen_385535247.shtml


-Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLaw), and the City of West Hollywood
The Global Arc of Justice Conference: Sexual Law Around the World
The Global Arc of Justice Conference will be a four-day international conference focused on advances in LGBT rights around the globe. Convened by the Williams Institute, a research center on sexual orientation and gender identity law and policy at UCLA Law; the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLaw); and the City of West Hollywood; the conference will be held from March 11-14 on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles and in West Hollywood, California. The conference will offer simultaneous translation in English and Spanish. Topics covered at the Global Arc of Justice Conference will include international efforts to advance legal recognition for same sex couples; the repeal of sodomy laws in former British Colonies; efforts by national governments to end homophobia and advance LGBT equality; implementation of the Yogyakarta Principles in litigation strategies and legal scholarship; and advancement of the rights of transgender people. Conference activities will include strategy working groups, paper presentations, plenary sessions, and various networking opportunities and celebrations.
http://www.law.ucla.edu/WilliamsInstitute/programs/GlobalArcofJustice2009.html

-Sign the petition to Secretary Gates
The New York Times reported last week that the Pentagon has a new program to recruit 1,000 temporary immigrants over the next year. It's heartening news -- but it's also pretty befuddling. While the Pentagon struggles to reach recruiting goals of 1,000 new service members, it could easily sign up that number of tough, capable recruits tomorrow. What's preventing those recruits from enlisting? "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Find this as frustrating as we do? Join our campaign to ask Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to help lift the ban:
http://www.sldn.org/page/s/gatespetition

-48 Hours Left to Participate in the Largest Ever Study of Transgender Discrimination
http://origin.ih.constantcontact.com/fs010/1100409733839/img/193.jpg?a=1102481188023

-Culture & Identity Studies: Explore Gay Paris
Faculty-Led Summer Session 2009
UW-La Crosse has partnered with CEA to offer you the opportunity to study abroad in Paris, France. Renowned for its intellectuals, artists, writers, and revolutionaries, Paris represents the perfect combination of tradition and modernity. Long known as a city for freedom and tolerance, Paris has become characterized over the past decade by its acceptance of the LGBT community. Discover the Marais district, the location of CEA's GlobalCampus in Paris and the heart of Gay Paris. You will live in an apartment with like-minded students, fully immersed in French culture. Contact Willem Van Roosenbeek at vanroose.will@uwlax.edu or Sara Sullivan at sullivan.sara@uwlax.edu


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Equality Forum
10th Annual Art Exhibit Features Richard Amsel Retrospective
PHILADELPHIA- Equality Forum 2009 will showcase the first-ever Richard Amsel Retrospective Exhibition, featuring artwork by one of Hollywood's most highly-acclaimed illustrators. The exhibition runs at the Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at The University of the Arts April 15 - May 14, 2009. Equality Forum 2009, the largest annual national and international GLBT civil rights forum, will be held April 27 to May 3 in Philadelphia. [...] "The first-ever Richard Amsel retrospective is the icing on the cake to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our annual exhibit of gay and lesbian artists," said Equality Forum Executive Director Malcolm Lazin. "Richard Amsel was Hollywood's top illustrator and a legendary artist."
www.equalityforum.com


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Video: Old Age Is No Place For Sissies!
A topic many in the LGBT community don't think about often is aging. We can accept it, but American society, unfortunately, still isn't comfortable with "the gays." Thus, when gay seniors need to find a retirement home, they are often shoved back into the closet. Significant others of many years are torn apart as they aren't legally recognized as a couple with rights. What happens to you if you're in your 60's or 70's with no biological family? How do you find affordable living arrangements that don't muzzle a major part of your identity or life? A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square is a documentary film that investigates this problem. The film won the Audience Award at OUTFEST in 2008.
http://lifestyle.gay.com/2009/02/finding-a-place-to-live.html


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Nancy Keenan - NARAL Pro-Choice America
News organizations are reporting that the Obama administration is moving to repeal Bush's dangerous, last-minute regulation that could allow anyone from a woman's doctor to her doctor's receptionist to her entire HMO system to deny women reproductive-health services. This is a great win for American woman! I'm grateful to President Obama for listening to activists like you and reversing this outrageous attack. Please thank the president for taking action and continuing to make women's health care a priority. Bush's last-minute regulation was a parting gift to his anti-choice base. It could allow insurance companies to deny claims for the pill, hospitals to refuse emergency contraceptives to rape survivors, and employees at HMOs to refuse their patients referrals for abortion care. We expect anti-choice organizations like Americans United for Life to overwhelm the White House with calls. Please show President Obama that he has your support - send him a quick thank-you email today.
https://secure.prochoiceamerica.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=3515&JServSessionIdr006=s6aft4zje1.app20b


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Kate Kendell, Esq., Executive Director
National Center for Lesbian Rights
California: On Thursday of next week, March 5th, NCLR Legal Director Shannon Minter will stand before the California Supreme Court and argue that by taking away a right from a minority, Proposition 8 violates the most basic principle of our government: that all people are entitled to equal treatment under the law, and such a change may not be enacted through the amendment process. I know you'll be in the courtroom in spirit. I hope you will also watch the argument and support our case in one or more of the following ways:
Join our online rally in support of our legal challenge to Prop 8. We're 10,000 strong, join us now!
Check out our live blogging of the oral argument with the most up-to-date information from the court. We will also be keeping you updated through Twitter.
Make plans to view the oral argument:
http://www.calchannel.com/


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Truth Wins Out - TWO
by Wayne Besen
http://www.truthwinsout.org/

-TWO Comments On James Dobson Resigning As Focus on the Family Chairman
NEW YORK - Truth Wins Out (TWO) expressed its hope today that James Dobson resigning as chairman of Focus on the Family would eventually lead the anti-gay organization in a new direction. Dobson has created an entire industry that distorts the lives of gay and lesbian people for political gain, says TWO. "James Dobson's legacy of lies has caused significant pain for gay and lesbian people and their families," said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out. "We hope his departure will eventually signal a shift in tone and end Focus on the Family's destructive attacks against gay and lesbian Americans." The Associated Press reports that Dobson, 72, will still be a powerful presence. He will continue to host his daily radio show, which reaches 1.5 million listeners in the United States. A Focus on the family spokesman also said he will "continue to speak out as he always has - a private citizen and not a representative of the organization he founded." "It is time for Focus on the Family to abandon the politics of polarization and choose moderate leaders who are not fixated on culture wars," said Besen. "This would also be a good time for the organization to consider abandoning its failed 'ex-gay' ministry, Love Won Out."
http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/two-comments-on-james-dobson-resigning-as-focus-on-the-family-chairman/


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Soulforce
http://www.soulforce.org/
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-SPRING 2009 CATHOLIC ACTION
For the first time ever at the United Nations in December 2008, a statement was heard on the support of equal rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. French Minister of Human Rights and Foreign Affairs Rama Yade began the effort in early 2008 to create U.N.-backed protections for LGBT people. The Netherlands signed on as a co-sponsor on behalf of the European Union, and on December 18, 2008 Ambassador Jorge Arguello of Argentina read out the first declaration on LGBT rights in the General Assembly. [...] We have sent a letter to the Archbishop in New York City, calling on him to take a personal stand against defamatory language regarding LGBT people and work in open and good faith to bring the Vatican toward supporting safety for all humans.
http://www.soulforce.org/catholic-action


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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
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NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 28, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Democrats Open Arms to Obama's Budget, With Some Caveats
By CARL HULSE and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
For years, Congressional Democrats tried to avoid anything that would let Republicans slap the tax-and-spend label on them. But on Friday, they cautiously embraced President Obama's budget, with its ambitious blend of new spending and tax increases, calculating that they could turn the old attack line to their benefit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/politics/28web-budget.html

-'Great Society' Plan for the Middle Class
By DAVID E. SANGER
Opponents of President Obama's proposal for a sweeping new government activism in the economy call it a return to a traditional tax-and-spend philosophy, a step back to the era of Lyndon B. Johnson.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/us/politics/28assess.html?_r=1

-Braced for a Higher Tax Bill, Some May Dodge the Bullet
By RON LIEBER and TARA SIEGEL BERNARD
The wealthiest stand to lose the most under President Obama's proposed budget, while individuals with lower incomes could gain in many different ways.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/your-money/28money.html?hp

-Even Worse for Young Workers
By BOB HERBERT
The employment situation in the U.S. is, if anything, worse than most people realize. And huge numbers of young people, ages 16 to 30, are being beaten down in ways that could leave scars for a lifetime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28herbert.html?ref=opinion

-Gun Sense and Nonsense
The Supreme Court brushed past flimsy arguments by the gun lobby this week to uphold an important restriction on gun ownership that protects public safety.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28sat2.html?ref=opinion

-Evidence and Health Care Reform
Medicare has proposed not to pay for so-called virtual colonoscopies becausethere is not enough evidence that they would benefit people aged 65 and older. That may be disappointing for older Americans who would prefer a virtual exam to a real one. But those sort of judgments will be fundamental to any successful health care reform effort. Eliminating unproven procedures and reducing needless costs is necessary if the nation is to improve the quality and lower the cost of care over all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28sat3.html?ref=opinion

-The Ape in American Bigotry, From Thomas Jefferson to 2009
By BRENT STAPLES
Hitler found quite a bit to admire about this country during its apartheid period. Writing in the early 1930s, he attributed white domination of North America to the fact that the "Germanic" peoples here had resisted intermarriage with - and held themselves apart from - "inferior" peoples, including the Negroes, whom he described as "half-apes."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28sat4.html?ref=opinion

-Playing With Fire in Pakistan
Almost no one wants to say it out loud. But between the threats from extremists, an unraveling economy, battling civilian leaders and tensions with its nuclear rival India, Pakistan is edging ever closer to the abyss.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28sat1.html?ref=opinion

-Saudi Prince Is Humbled by Citigroup
By LANDON THOMAS Jr. and ERIC DASH
LONDON - the bad news arrived by telephone early this week at the Saudi headquarters of Prince Walid bin Talal. Citigroup, the investment that had transformed Prince Walid from an obscure Arabian royal into the Warren E. Buffett of the Middle East, was spiraling down around him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/business/worldbusiness/28prince.html


=
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-U.S. Economy Contracts At a Staggering Rate
By Annys Shin and Neil Irwin
Gross domestic product shrank at faster rate than expected in last quarter of 2008, dimming prospects for an economic recovery by year's end.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022700884.html?hpid=topnews

-As Task Force Debuts, Some Ask: Who Is Middle Class?
Definition Will Help Determine Who Benefits From Changes
By Alec MacGillis
Commentators left and right have reacted with awe to the ambition and transformative potential of President Obama's economic blueprint. But the debut of Vice President Biden's Middle Class Task Force here Friday suggested that the administration will be selling its plans in more conventional and reassuring tones -- as a bevy of benefits for the American middle class.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702952.html?hpid=topnews

-Latham & Watkins Cuts 190 Lawyers
Huge Global Firm Lays Off 250 Others
By V. Dion Haynes
In a vivid illustration of how the global recession is battering the legal profession, Latham & Watkins, one of the largest law firms in the nation, announced yesterday that it will let go 190 lawyers and 250 paralegal and support staff.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702751.html?hpid=topnews

-Top Officials Expand The Dialogue on Race
Month's Celebrations Evoke a Mix of Views
By Krissah Thompson
When the country's racial chasms seemed to threaten President Obama's election, his team had to tread carefully. A month into his administration, the tone has changed. Top officials are engaging the subject of race more freely, with a boldness and confidence they once shunned.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022703242.html?hpid=topnews

-U.S. May Boycott U.N. Racism Conference Over Document
By Colum Lynch
The Obama administration has said it will boycott a major U.N. conference on racism scheduled for April unless significant changes are made to the draft outcome document, which U.S. officials say unfairly singles out Israel for censure and could restrict freedom of speech.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702826.html?hpid=topnews

-Netanyahu's Middle East Outlook
Interview by Lally Weymouth
Israeli Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu sat down last week with Newsweek-Washington Post's Lally Weymouth -- his first interview with foreign media since he was asked by President Shimon Peres to form Israel's next government. Excerpts:
Q. President Peres reportedly believes that you have matured since you served as prime minister in 1996.
A. One would hope. I think time has its uses. One of them is to reflect on your experiences and those of others. I have watched carefully the successes of governments and . . . [seek] to draw from those the elements of policy and leadership that will enable me to move Israel to a better future -- one of peace, security and prosperity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702278.html

-Obama's Intelligence Blunder
By Jon Chait
Most of President Obama's "missteps" to date have been Washington peccadilloes of the "let's find something to complain about" sort. But Obamahas made one major mistake that has attracted little public attention: his appointment of Charles Freeman as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Freeman was attacked by pro-Israel activists, but the contretemps over Freeman's view of Israel misses the broader problem, which is that he's an ideological fanatic.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702485.html

-Preemptive Strike
Domestic violence suspects should be forced to relinquish their weapons.
"FIREARMS AND domestic strife are a potentially deadly combination nationwide." So wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this week in an opinion upholding a federal law that bars convicted domestic violence abusers from possessing firearms. Seven justices, including conservatives Clarence Thomasand Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined the opinion. This is the same Supreme Court that held last year that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms. If the justices can bless such a law, one wonders why Maryland lawmakers cannot follow suit and embrace an equally sensible measure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022703080.html


=
Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

-Obama's Bush Vindication
The President's good turn on Iraq. It was never very likely that President Obama would come out and praise George W. Bush for the latter's handling of the Iraq war, and in his speech yesterday to the Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., he didn't. Then again, we didn't quite expect to find ourselves praising President Obama for his handling of Iraq.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123578458503498487.html


=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Welfare workers warn not reporting child abuse can be deadly
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
Welfare workers warn that child sexual abuse flourishes because, far too often, adults fail to act when children cry for help. For half her life, Priscila Amador may have kept a deadly secret. Since she was a small girl, her father had been molesting her, she told classmates, who in turn told their parents. On Wednesday, days after she told friends to ''pray for her,'' Priscila, 14, was shot and killed by her father. Pablo Josue Amador also killed his wife, another daughter and then himself.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/925745.html

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

-GOP policies to blame for country's massive deficit
By FROMA HARROP
How big should government be? The answer is: As big as it has to be - and for small-government types, no bigger than it has to be. The whole debate about the proper size of government is a blind alley leading into a deadend. Government must grow at times of war or collapsing economy. It grows when there are lots of schoolchildren, elderly people or natural disasters. Government provides necessities that the private sector can't. We can argue over what constitutes a necessity.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6283619.html

-Time for Iraq
President Obama's strategy aims at success. Is that a goal congressional Democrats can support?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/27/AR2009022702556.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

-Public support
by Libby Spencer
The media has spent the last five weeks amplifying the Republicans' complaints that the Democrats aren't being bipartisan because they're not caving into their demands. Even Obama seems to think there's some great public hunger for unanimous bipartisan votes in Congress. But if you ask the people what they want, it's leadership. A recent poll shows 56% want Obama to stick to his own policies, while only 39% care at all about bipartisanship. Furthermore, 79% think the GOPers should be more accomodating to the President's agenda and only 17% say the Republicans should be obstructing the process with all these united no votes. In otherwords, the people don't care about bipartisanship, what they want is non-partisanship. Solutions, not politics.
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/politicsblog/index.php?blogid=14293

-Stem cell research supporters offer Senate bill
By Maggie Fox
Two prominent supporters of stem cell research said on Thursday they had reintroduced a Senate bill that would allow federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, in anticipation of President Barack Obama's support for the work. Senators Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, and Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said their bipartisan measure would allow federal funding for research using stem cells taken from human embryos left over from fertility treatments.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2009/02/26/stem_cell_research_supporters_offer_senate_bill/

-Prevent the pregnancies
Publicly financed family planning services prevent nearly 2 million unintended pregnancies and more than 800,000 abortions each year, according to a new Guttmacher Institute report. And for every $1 spent on those services, taxpayers save $4 - $24 in Florida - that would have been spent onthose unintended births.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/02/27/a14a_familyplan_edit_0227.html


=
Pew Research center
http://pewresearch.org/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-The 4th Estate Formula Newspapers Face a Challenging Calculus
The growth in readership online has not offset the decline in print for newspapers. Read more Economies of Scale

-Harsh Words for Wall Street
An increasing number of Americans say the government's action on the economy is on the right track while Americans remain angry about the financial problems that contributed to the current crisis. Read more

-Supply & Demand: Crisis Eclipses All Other News
With the stimulus passed, the media moved on to other economic horror stories such as the mortgage bailout. Read more

-Budget Busting With Crisis as Catalyst, State Governors Push Big Changes
State executives are using the economic crisis to sell big changes in how jurisdictions operate, promising overhauls that could alter governments around the country. Read more

-Daily Number 86% - Social Segregation
The voluntary social segregation in America, recently commented on by Attorney General Eric Holder, can be seen in Pew Research data showing that while most have a friend of a different race (86%), pluralities of whites, blacks and Hispanics have just a few. Check back every weekday for another number in the news. Check back every weekday for another number in the news. Read more


=

[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####

FLORIDA DIGEST - February 28, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~

From Anthony Niedwiecki Campaign for Oakland Park City Commission
WE NEED YOUR HELP- the $10 challenge in the final two weeks of the Campaign
We are in the final stretch of the campaign to get Anthony Niedwieckielected to the City Commission in Oakland Park, but we need your help! Weare asking all of our online supporters to donate just $10 to the campaignto help with final costs as we move forward to Election Day! Each dollar you give will help reach another voter and make sure we bring real change to Oakland Park and all of Florida!
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://anthony09.com%2Fcontribute


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Gay & Lesbian Community Center of South Florida
2009 STARS OF THE RAINBOW GALA
Tomorrow! Sunday, March 1 - Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty Six
Last Chance For Tickets
Saturday, 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM at the GLCC
1717 N. Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale
954-463-9005
Tickets Can Also Be Purchased At The Door
http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001Q2Adiqq9HW_atYxvkN9391iBVpmIJTFGArbK5wF1IAU3rvgVJv5wkeCVNLovy15cS1UfBLc68CWkIiivrOtLaB0khGDRGMBxuNgGKO3n9UQrvPqWyAtApQ%3D%3D


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Equality Florida]
Polk County: Ryan Skipper's Killer Found Guilty
Today, Joseph Bearden, one of the two accused killers of Ryan Skipper, was found guilty of second-degree murder and robbery. On March 15, 2007, Ryan Skipper was stabbed 19 times and left to die on a dirt road in Polk County, Florida. His death is a bloody reminder of the anti-gay hatred faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in our state. Just days ago, a prosecution witness revealed that shortly after the killing, Joseph Bearden, the defendant, said, "He felt he was doing the world a favor by getting rid of one more faggot." The 19 stab wounds that Ryan Skipper suffered are what the FBI calls 'overkill'. That's when the violence in an assault is beyond what would be necessary for a robbery and more than would even be required to take someone's life. [...]
No action. No public acknowledgment of what has happened. No commitment to ensuring this never happens again. Their silence is as terrifying as the violence itself. Take action. Tell Gov Crist and Attorney General McCollum that they must refuse to be the second-step in the cycle of anti-gay hate violence. Tell them to speak out, to turn the tide and declare that gay and transgender people are valued members of our society and that hate violence will not be tolerated against any group.
http://ga4.org/campaign/hate_crimes_2009


~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~
=
Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:
-Special magistrate: Broward teacher raises should not be guaranteed
By Kathy Bushouse
The Broward County School District should not have to guarantee teachers a raise for the 2009-10 school year, but should modify contracts for 243 teachers to give them full credit for their teaching experience, according to a special magistrate's recommendations issued Friday.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/sfl-flbsalary0228sbfeb28,0,3424245.story

-A tough task: Legislators seek to fix Florida's property insurance problems during session Legislators seek solutions for property owners
By Julie Patel
A group of leading state legislators is considering a dramatic way to try to fix Florida's property insurance market: have the state cover the hurricane portion of virtually all homeowner policies statewide.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flzinsurance0228sbfeb28,0,3481809.story

-Saturday is deadline to move
Davie mobile home park resident's plight tugs at heartstrings
Public responds to evicted Palma Nova resident
By Susannah Bryan
DAVIE - One of the town's largest mobile home parks is set to close today,forcing hundreds from their homes.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-0227-palma-nova,0,4221029.story


=
Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Florida is No. 3 in nation for identity-theft complaints
Florida is a hotbed for identity thieves, according to newly released national statistics. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area ranked 21stin the nation for complaints.
BY NIRVI SHAH
Identity theft continues to be the chief complaint reported to the Federal Trade Commission, data reported this week shows, and identity-theft incidents in Florida climbed about 25 percent in 2008. Overall, the report ranks Florida third in the country for identity-theft complaints per capita.
http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/925526.html

-Miami judge blasted for scolding runaway girl
A Miami judge, trying to scare a neglected child into making better decisions, may have gone too far with his tongue-lashing.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
A Miami child-welfare judge drew the ire of his chief and local children's advocates when he told a 15-year-old runaway foster child she would end up a''toothless, dead crack whore'' if she didn't mend her ways. Exasperated that the girl was refusing to return to a home where she said her caregiver hit and cursed at her, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Spencer Eig lectured the sobbing teen about making bad choices during a hearing Tuesday.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/925739.html

-Florida pastor joins Obama's religious advisory council
BY BETH REINHARD
Joel Hunter -- Christian evangelical, pastor of a Central Florida megachurch and lifelong Republican -- gave the benediction at the Democratic National Convention. He prayed with Barack Obama on Election Day, and rode to the inauguration with Oprah. At the swearing in, he sat in the 12th row, next to Muhammad Ali. 'I'm like, `What am I doing here?' '' said Hunter, who recounted his experience before leading his fifth service in three days.``It's surreal.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/front-page/story/925699.html


=
Steve Rothaus
http://www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Alibi's Land Sharks softball opener Sunday in Fort Lauderdale
News release from Adam Sanders:
The Alibi Land Sharks will take the field for a doubleheader this Sunday, March 1 at Fort Lauderdale's Mills Pond Park to begin the South Florida Amateur Athletic Association's (SFAAA) spring season. The Land Sharks will take on Bill's Bombers at 2:00 p.m., and conclude with a 3:00 p.m. game against the Sluggers. Both games are scheduled to take place on Field 2.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/

-Equality Florida bulletin: Ryan Skipper's killer found guilty
Ryan Skipper's Killer Found Guilty Today, Joseph Bearden, one of the two accused killers of Ryan Skipper, was found guilty of second-degree murder and robbery.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/


=

[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####

GLBT DIGEST - February 27, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


=
South Florida Blade
http://www.floridablade.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-NM: Domestic partnership bill fails
Opponents: Bill was 'marriage in disguise'
The state Senate rejected a bill creating domestic partnerships in New Mexico, with opponents contending it was "marriage in disguise." Supporters of the bill did a last-minute rewrite to remove references that could be construed as marriage-related, but that wasn't enough to win the necessary votes.
http://www.floridablade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=24241

-Conservatives make appeal during D.C. conference
By CHRIS JOHNSON
Social conservatives are urging the Republican Party to hold firm on social issues positions, such as opposing same-sex marriage, but it's unclear whether GOP followers are hearing the request. During the Conservative Political Action Conference in D.C., speakers Thursday addressed issues of importance to social conservatives during a panel titled, "New Challenges in the Culture War." Marjorie Dannenfelser, panel moderator and president of the Susan B. Anthony List, called on the Republican Party to continue to address social issues in campaigns because the GOP can't win without them.
http://www.floridablade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=24235

-NYPD: Arrest in killing of Ecuadorean immigrant
Police looking for second man named Keith Phoenix
Police said Wednesday they arrested one of the attackers who yelled slurs as they beat an Ecuadorean immigrant to death on a city street, and investigators were looking for a second man. Hakim Scott, 25, was arrested in the Dec. 7 attack on real estate broker Jose Sucuzhanay, which ignited outrage from New York to Ecuador. Police and prosecutors said he was beaten with a bat and kicked by men shouting anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs as he walked arm-in-arm with his brother to keep warm.
http://www.floridablade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=24230

-Drag Queen Brings Gift to Harvey Milk School
By Jennifer 8. Lee
The emotional speeches by Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn that sandwiched Sunday night's Academy Awards spoke to Harvey Milk's impact on the gay political landscape. Another of the legacies in the slain gay activist's honor is a high school in New York City, which was established almost 25 years ago by the Hetrick-Martin Institute to serve gay, lesbian and transgendered students who have a hard time in other schools.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/drag-queen-brings-gift-to-harvey-milk-school/?hp


=
Steve Rothaus
www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Gay and straight teens 'Out With It' in moving new book of true-life essays A colleague of mine, journalist Katia Hetter, helped edit a revised version f Out With It: Gay and Straight Teens Write About Homosexuality. The book is published by Youth Communication and sells for $13.95.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/


=
The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Log Cabin Republicans Did Not 'Congratulate' Michael Steele
A spokesperson for the Log Cabin Republicans said an e-mail that was sent out to members Wednesday taking issue with Republican Party chief's comments on civil unions but with the subject line 'Log Cabin Congratulates Michael Steele' was the result of a clerical error. The e-mail used the same subject line as one sent by the organization on January 30 after Steele became chair.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid73942.asp

-Accused Murderers Ran Prostitution Ring
Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes allegedly racked up more than $10,000 per week running a prostitution ring in Virginia Beach, Va., a former employee of the gay-pornography producers testified in court Wednesday. Cuadra, 27, is on trial in Luzerne County, Pa.,l for the murder of rival porn producer Brian Kocis, owner of Cobra Video.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid73867.asp

-NYC Gay Bashing Pits Victims Against Theater Chain
Two victims of an alleged hate crime outside a popular New York City movie theater want the theater's staff to accept the blame for ignoring their repeated requests for help.
By Julie Bolcer
Efosa Agbontaen and Branden McGillvery-Dummett expected a good scare when they decided to see a horror film in Manhattan one recent night, but they hardly imagined they would be confronted with the fright of their lives. The couple allege that four male teenagers spewing antigay slurs attacked them with glass bottles and a box cutter on February 15, following harassment that management failed to address during a screening of Friday the 13th at the Regal Union Square Stadium 14.
http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid73933.asp


=
365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-NM partner bill dies in Senate
By 365gay Newscenter Staff
With less than an hour of debate in the New Mexico Senate, legislation that would have created a statewide domestic partnership registry for both same and opposite-sex couples is dead.
http://www.365gay.com/news/nm-partner-bill-dies-in-senate/

-Gay man to direct national AIDS policy
By 365gay Newscenter Staff
President Barrack Obama on Thursday named Jeffrey S. Crowley, Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute, to be director of the Office of National AIDS Policy.
http://www.365gay.com/news/gay-man-to-direct-national-aids-policy/


=
Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Irish gay marriage advocates claim massive public support
By Tony Grew
A group campaigning for full marriage rights for gay and lesbian people in Ireland has revealed the results of a new survey suggesting widespread support. MarriagEquality said 81% of those polled believe that all people living in Ireland should receive equal treatment from the state regardless of their sexual orientation.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11357.html

-Comment: Iraq's gays go underground to survive
By Peter Tatchell
In the bad old days of slavery in the United States, there was the "Underground Railroad" - a clandestine network of secret routes and safe houses - which spirited thousands of southern slaves to freedom in the north. Today, 200 years later in Iraq, a modern version of the underground railroad is saving the lives of gay people who are fleeing Islamist death squads. It is providing safe houses in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, and is smuggling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people to neighbouring countries, where it helps them apply for United Nations humanitarian protection. This secret network, coordinated by Iraqi LGBT exiles in London, is saving dozens of lives.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11367.html

-Google's blockade of PinkNews.co.uk leaves unanswered questions
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
We are back. After more than 48 hours of being listed by Google as an "attack site," our readers across the world can now access our site. Hundreds of readers from across the world contacted PinkNews.co.uk to express their frustration at not being able to read our regularly updated news.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11372.html

-Brighton council asked to support homeless gay teens
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
The Green party group on Brighton and Hove City Council has proposed measures that would improve support for young LGBT people with housing and homelessness problems in the budget for 2009/10. The Greens have 12 councillors, the Labour party has 13.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11369.html

-Comment: Iraq's gays go underground to survive
By Peter Tatchell
In the bad old days of slavery in the United States, there was the "Underground Railroad" - a clandestine network of secret routes and safe houses - which spirited thousands of southern slaves to freedom in the north. Today, 200 years later in Iraq, a modern version of the underground railroad is saving the lives of gay people who are fleeing Islamist death squads. It is providing safe houses in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, and is smuggling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people to neighbouring countries, where it helps them apply for United Nations humanitarian protection. This secret network, coordinated by Iraqi LGBT exiles in London, is saving dozens of lives.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11367.html

-Councillor asks if homophobic attacks are "acceptable" in Merseyside
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
A local councillor has questioned the attitudes of the people of Merseyside after a jury acquitted a man who admitted assaulting a gay teenager. Gavin Alker, 19, was cleared of the murder and manslaugher of Michael Causer at iverpool Crown Court last Friday.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11364.html


=
Daily Queer News
www.dailyqueernews.com
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Justice Department to Stop Medical Marijuana Raids, Attorney General Says
John Byrne and David Edwards | Raw Story
In a little-noticed remark Wednesday, Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries established under state laws but technically prohibited by the federal government. The decision marks a shift from the Bush Administration, which was more draconian in its approach to hunting those who sought to dispense marijuana for medical purposes. Numerous states have decriminalized marijuana in recent years, and new fiscal pressures are turning more states toward being more lenient toward first-time drug offenders as the cost of keeping drug users in jail becomes untenable for state budgets. The remark was caught by The Huffington Post's Ryan Grimm. Read more

-Is the US Changing Its Anti-Gay Stance at the UN?
Patricia Nell | The Bilerico Project
Amid the marriage uproars, many gay media almost lost an important piece of news in the shuffle. We LGBT people had a longstanding grievance against the Bush administration for opposing and undercutting establishment of our rights in the global arena. Now the Obama administration has made a start on reversing that policy. As part of the countdown to the UN's upcoming Durban Review Conference, the U.S. voted with other countries to support language that would outlaw all discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Durban Review Conference will held in Geneva, Switzerland on April 20-24. According to the UN website, "It will evaluate progress towards the goals set by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa in 2001." Previously, the U.S. took the opposite positioning, and hung us LGBT people out to dry at the UN. More on this after the jump. Read more

-Log Cabin Under Democratic Control?
CHRIS JOHNSON | Washington Blade
The amount of money that the Gill Action Fund has contributed to the Log Cabin Republicans - about one-third of its total budget in some years - is raising questions about Democratic influence over the GOP organization and its search for a new president. Tim Gill, founder and chair of Gill Action, is widely known for funding the campaigns of pro-gay politicians, many of them Democrats. He's a wealthy entrepreneur and founder of Quark who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to various Democratic causes and candidates, including to the campaigns of Sens. John Kerry, John Edwards and Chris Dodd, as well as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Gill is viewed as publicity shy, but made a rare public appearance at last year's Democratic National Convention in Denver where he lives. Sources familiar with Log Cabin, who spoke to the Blade on the condition of anonymity, said Gill Action's contributions last year comprised $250,000 of Log Cabin's $750,000 budget. The sources said in 2007, Gill Action's donations constituted a similar percentage of Log Cabin's budget. Read more

-Frank Outspoken at CD Event
Geoffrey Middleberg | Hatchet Reporter
One of Congress' most outspoken representatives did not mince words when it came to the state of affairs in Washington at an event in the Marvin Center Monday night. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services committee, spoke to an enthusiastic, standing-room only crowd and made blunt pronouncements on the economy, partisanship and gay rights. "Justice Antonin Scalia is a bigot and an outright homophobe," Frank declared of the conservative Supreme Court justice. One of only a few openly gay members of Congress, Frank said he feared a conservative-leaning Supreme Court would overturn any legislative progress on gay rights. He also discussed the importance of legalizing same-sex marriage and ending discrimination and the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the military. Read more

-Lesbian couple claim £20,000 damages after NHS refuses them fertility treatment
Auslan Cramb, Scottish Correspondent | Telegraph
Caroline Harris and Julie McMullan claim they are victims of discrimination because they are a same sex couple and have asked a judge to order fertility treatment for Miss Harris. But Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Health Board insists that its expensive "assisted conception service" is for couples who have been trying without success to conceive "in the normal way". There are 460 couples on its list and the waiting time for IVF treatment is currently 95 weeks, according to papers lodged with the court. The health board argues that the two women do not fit the definition of an infertile couple. Miss Harris and Miss McMullan, of Maryhill, Glasgow, have been in a relationship for seven years and have lived together for the past two years. Read More

-NM: Domestice Partner Bill Advances in Legislature
East Park Forest News
Washington, D.C.-(ENEWSPF)- The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights group, today praised New Mexico's state Senate Judiciary Committee for voting 6-5 to advance the Domestic Partner Rights and Responsibilities Act, which would allow gay, lesbian, or straight couples to enter into domestic partnerships and receive the rights, benefits, and responsibilities of marriage under state law. The bill now moves toward a floor vote in the Senate. Similar legislation is pending in the House of Representatives. "The Human Rights Campaign is pleased that the New Mexico Senate has taken this important step toward enacting much-needed protections for all couples in New Mexico, and we're hopeful that this legislation will ultimately pass the Senate and House, and be enacted into law. " said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "This is simply about making sure that all loving, committed couples in New Mexico receive the equal rights that they and their families need and deserve." New Mexico's legislature has considered similar legislation in each of the last two years, and the bill has, in the past, come within a single vote of passing. New Mexico's legislative session runs through March 21, 2009. Read more

-Exodus Shows Change Is Possible-in the Wrong Direction
Dave Rattigan | Ex-Gay Watch
Exodus is changing all right, but hardly in the right direction. Despite hinting numerous times at a more progressive outlook, here comes yet another move to put Exodus firmly in the "What the hell were you thinking of?" category. In March, reports BTB, Exodus board member Don Schmierer (pictured) will be heading for Uganda to share a platform with Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and Cohen cohort Caleb Lee Brundidge. The embarrassments for Exodus are numerous. Lively is no ordinary revisionist. He doesn't deny 6 million Jews were killed - the author of The Pink Swastika just says that the Nazis responsible were "militant male homosexuals," and uses this theory to dismiss gay victims of the Holocaust and justify discrimination against homosexuals today. Read more

-Bill Moyers, Gay Baiter
James Kirchick | Independent Gay Forum
First published in Advocate.com on February 25, 2009
Being a homosexual in America in 1964 was not easy, and one of the more difficult places to be one was Washington, D.C. While the nation's capital has long since become the setting for some of the most important gay rights battles (and home to a vibrant gay scene), it was also the site of routine antigay witch hunts. At the time, gays were officially barred from working in government and their livelihood depended on the secreting of their sexuality. Indeed, the mere suspicion of homosexuality could get a person fired, and the consequences of losing one's job due to what was then known as a "morals charge" were long-lasting. It's in this context that recent revelations about Bill Moyers are so disturbing. Before he became the self-righteous scold of the liberal television commentariat, Moyers served as a special assistant to Democratic president Lyndon Johnson. This was at the height of J. Edgar Hoover's reign over the Federal Bureau of Investigation, during which time the FBI director spied on a vast array of public and private citizens in order to gather information for potential blackmail. According to documents obtained last week by The Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act request, one of these individuals was former Johnson aide Jack Valenti, later head of the Motion Picture Association of America. Hoover, according to the Post, was "consumed" by the question of whether Valenti was gay, and deployed his agents to investigate the man's sex life. They turned up nothing. Read more

-ME: Innkeepers Lobby for Same-Sex Marriage
Judy Harrison, BDN Staff | Bangor News
Innkeepers and others who make their livings in Maine's tourism and wedding industries headed to the Statehouse today to ask legislators to support a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in Maine. They are expected to take part in a 10:30 a.m. press conference sponsored by the Maine Freedom to Marry Coalition, which is supporting the bill. Jim Davitt, the owner of Nonesuch Farm Bed and Breakfast in Bangor, will be one of them. He and others will present lawmakers with a report estimating that same-sex marriage would boost the state's economy by $60 million over three years. Read more

-Stimulus Bill Discriminates Against Gays
Andoni | Citizen Crain
We are a gay family. I'm the breadwinner and my partner is a full time student. His tuition is one of the biggest items in our family budget, and it certainly is a drag in these tough economic times. So you can imagine my elation when I heard President Obama describe the $2500 tax credit in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the purpose of helping families offset the cost of tuition for education. Then I started looking into this. I contacted my accountant, my Congressman and various gay organizations to see exactly how my family could participate in this provision of the stimulus bill. The answer is, we can't. It appears that the definition of family in this bill is not defined broadly enough to include LGBT families. Without a broader definition of family, the tax credit would have to claimed via the normal mechanism of filing for it on the1040 federal income tax return form. But by law, our relationship is not recognized by the federal government, we cannot file jointly and I cannot claim him as a dependent, even though he really is. This #%@##! Read more

-HI: Senate Committee Deadlock on Same-Sex Unions Bill
MARK NIESSE | Associated Press | Google News
A state Senate committee voted 3-3 early Wednesday on a bill that would allow same-sex civil unions, a split that normally would stall the legislation but in this case was not expected to prevent it from advancing. More than 1,400 people signed up to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which took more than 15 hours of testimony before voting at 3 a.m. It was the largest turnout for a Capitol hearing in years. Democratic Senate leaders have said that if the panel became deadlocked, they would yank the measure from its committee and force a vote before the full Senate. That is allowed under a rarely used provision of the Hawaii Constitution if more than one-third of senators approve. At least 18 of the 25 senators have said they favor civil unions. The measure already has passed the Hawaii House, but with one vote less than would be needed to override a veto. Republican Gov. Linda Lingle has not stated her position on the bill, which would make Hawaii the fifth state to allow same-sex civil unions. Under the state constitution, the earliest the bill can be pulled to the Senate floor is March 10. Read more

-Richard Cohen is Back In the PFOX and Exodus Orbit
Jim Burroway | Box Turtle Bulletin
Richard Cohen is back and he's on tour, with the full blessing of Exodus International member organization PFOX.
Two years ago, the ex-gay movement was widely embarrassed by Richard Cohen when in July 2006 he revealed his "holding" or "touch" techniques before a nationwide audience. It's a controversial techniques that Cohen promotes through his International Healing Foundation. Cohen had also been president of the PFOX, but he was forced out after that CNN episode aired. That embarrassment was compounded when in March 2007 he appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. That prompted PFOX and NARTH to scrub their web sites of all mention of him, and Exodus International publicly distanced themselves from his techniques: Read more

-CA: Marriage Ruling Gave Gay People Legal Protection
Greg Moran | Union-Tribune Staff Writer | SignOnSanDiego
Tucked deep within the state Supreme Court's sweeping decision in May that struck down same-sex-marriage bans for a time is a single sentence that will have a significant effect for years - regardless of any new turns in the same-sex-marriage debate.
On page 100 of the 124-page ruling, in dense legal prose, Chief Justice Ronald George ruled that a special constitutional protection applies to people based on their sexual orientation.
In essence, the court said discrimination against gays and lesbians was equivalent to racial, age or gender discrimination, giving same-sex-rights advocates a powerful legal weapon in the future.
Already the first echoes of that determination are being heard in some of the arguments that will be made in the upcoming challenge to Proposition 8, the voter-approved measure that rebuked the main aspect of the court's May ruling and declared that only marriages between men and women are valid. Read more


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NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 27, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Obama Plans to End Combat Mission in Iraq by August 2010
By PETER BAKER
President Obama heads to one of the nation's most storied military bases Friday morning to unveil plans to pull most troops out of Iraq by August 2010 and he has support from an unlikely quarter - Senator John McCain, the Republican he beat in last year's election.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/washington/28troops.html?hp

-Budget Choices Test Obama's Political Skills
By JOHN HARWOOD
Whatever else it is, President Obama's budget is a political gamble of the first order. In his ambition to put his own stamp on liberalism and to move domestic policy leftward, Mr. Obama has much going for him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/us/politics/27assess.html?hp

-U.S. Is Said to Agree to Raise Stake in Citigroup
By ERIC DASH
The Treasury Department reached a deal late Thursday to take a stake of 30 to 40 percent in Citigroup as part of a third bailout of the embattled bank, according to several people close to the deal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/business/27deal.html?hp

-U.S. Will Give Qaeda Suspect a Civilian Trial
By DAVID JOHNSTON and NEIL A. LEWIS
The Justice Department, in an abrupt change in policy from the Bush administration, is preparing to bring terrorism-related charges against a man identified as an operative of Al Qaeda who has been held in a military brig for more than five years, government officials said Thursday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27detain.html?hp

-Palestinian Rivals Announce Steps Toward Healing Rift
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER
CAIRO - Leaders of the rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah declared Thursday a "historic day" at the conclusion of a meeting here aimed at healing a 20-month schism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/world/middleeast/27mideast.html

-U.S. Is Arms Bazaar for Mexican Cartels
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
The Mexican agents who moved in on a safe house full of drug dealers last May were not prepared for the fire power that greeted them. When the shooting was over, eight agents were dead. Among the guns the police recovered was an assault rifle traced back across the border to a dingy gun store here called X-Caliber Guns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/us/26borders.html

-The Drug Cartels' Right to Bear Arms
The hypocrisy grows all too gruesome: The Justice Department pronounced the Mexican drug cartels "a national security threat" this week, even as American gun dealers along the border were busily arming the cartels' murderous gangs. Mexico complains that American dealers supplied most of the 20,000 weapons seized last year in drug wars in which 6,000 Mexicans died.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27fri3.html?ref=opinion

-President Obama's Budget: Some Honesty About Taxes - Finally
President Obama's first budget recognizes what most of Washington has been too scared or ideologically blind to admit: to recover from George W. Bush's reckless economic policies, taxes must go up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27fri1.html?ref=opinion

-Climate of Change
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Elections have consequences. President Obama's new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years. If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on a fundamentally new course.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27krugman.html?ref=opinion

-The Uncertain Trumpet
By DAVID BROOKS
On Tuesday night, President Obama talked about a national culture of irresponsibility. He talked about the way Americans have sacrificed the long term for the short term, spent more than they could afford, and how the country's leaders have broken promises and delayed reform. Obama described a rot that was ingrained and pervasive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27brooks.html?ref=opinion

-President Obama's Budget: Progress on Health Care
Mr. Obama's budget plan makes a bold and long overdue commitment to overhaul the dysfunctional and far-too-costly American health care system. The plan will not guarantee affordable health coverage for all Americans, the ultimate goal, and it contains no blueprint for comprehensive reform of the system. Those issues will have to be thrashed out with Congress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27fri2.html?ref=opinion


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-D.C. Rights, With a Bullet
The Senate offers the city a vote in the House -- at a cost. THE SENATE voted yesterday to give the people of Washington, D.C., a voting representative in Congress. It was a historic moment and should have been a moment for pure celebration. But both moment and measure were tarnished by a dangerous amendment that would strip D.C. officials of their rightful authority to regulate guns. Senators, perversely, offered the District a taste of democracy while at the same time not trusting it to run its own affairs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/26/AR2009022603249.html\

-Israel's Netanyahu Meets With Envoy Mitchell
By Aron Heller
JERUSALEM, Feb. 26 -- Israel's next leader sat face-to-face Thursday with a man whose vision of Israeli-Palestinian relations is radically different from his own: the Obama administration's new Middle East envoy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/26/AR2009022603327.html?hpid=sec-world


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Senate Panel to Probe CIA Interrogations
By SIOBHAN GORMAN
The Senate intelligence committee is expected to open a new probe into the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation program as soon as Friday, congressional aides said, signaling a desire in Congress to examine Bush-era policies, even as President Barack Obama talks of looking to the future rather than the past.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123568730332987225.html


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Inside Higher Education
http://www.insidehighered.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Gulf Withdrawal
United Arab Emirates: It's the kind of story that could have come straight out of Peter Stearns' new book. Discussing the potential pitfalls of setting up branch campuses in foreign lands, the George Mason University provost strikes a sober tone: "This is difficult terrain, with a shaky past; caution is abundantly justified," Stearns writes in Educating Global Citizens in Colleges and Universities: Challenges and Opportunities. The challenges presented by international branch campuses are now all too familiar for Stearns and his colleagues at George Mason. After three years developing a full degree-granting campus in the United Arab Emirates, the university is pulling out without producing a single graduate. Plagued by slow enrollment growth, funding problems and disagreements with the Emirates government organization that bankrolled the project, the model is no longer viable, Stearns said Thursday.
http://news.insidehighered.com/track?type=click&enid=bWFpbGluZ2lkPTU0MTAmbWVzc2FnZWlkPTM2MDEmZGF0YWJhc2VpZD00OTAyJnNlcmlhbD0xMjIzOTE4OTk3JmVtYWlsaWQ9cmF5cmlkZW91dEBjb21jYXN0Lm5ldCZ1c2VyaWQ9NTY2NjImZXh0cmE9JiYm&&&http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/02/27/mason


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Pew Research center
http://pewresearch.org/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-The 4th Estate Formula
Newspapers Face a Challenging Calculus
The growth in readership online has not offset the decline in print for newspapers. Read more

-Economies of Scale
Harsh Words for Wall Street
An increasing number of Americans say the government's action on the economy is on the right track while Americans remain angry about the financial problems that contributed to the current crisis. Read more

-Supply & Demand: Crisis Eclipses All Other News
With the stimulus passed, the media moved on to other economic horror stories such as the mortgage bailout. Read more

-Budget Busting
With Crisis as Catalyst, State Governors Push Big Changes
State executives are using the economic crisis to sell big changes in how jurisdictions operate, promising overhauls that could alter governments around the country. Read more

-86% - Social Segregation
The voluntary social segregation in America, recently commented on by Attorney General Eric Holder, can be seen in Pew Research data showing that while most have a friend of a different race (86%), pluralities of whites, blacks and Hispanics have just a few. Check back every weekday for another number in the news. Check back every weekday for another number in the news. Read more


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

-The GOP's New Colors
Michael Steele and Bobby Jindal don't look like the vast majority of Republicans. But do new faces mean new ideas?
By John Heilemann
Not long after Barack Obama delivers his pseudo-State of the Union on February 24, the official televised Republican riposte will be uncorked by a guy who violates almost every prevailing liberal stereotype of the contemporary GOP: the governor of Louisiana, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal. At 37, Jindal is the nation's youngest governor and the first Indian-American to win statewide office in U.S. history. The son of Punjabi immigrants, he's an Ivy League-educated Rhodes scholar and an unrepentant policy wonk, with heterodox views on his specialty, which is health care, and a reputation for competence as much as ideology. For all these reasons and others, Jindal strikes many savvy conservatives as the answer to their party's prayers: a brainy, precocious, multiculti change agent-a Republican Obama.
http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/54691/

-Governor Jindal, Rising G.O.P. Star, Plummets After Speech
By SHAILA DEWAN
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has been a rising star in the Republican Party, but his stock took a hit as he was roundly panned for his televised response to President Obama's first speech to Congress on Tuesday night.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/us/politics/26jindal.html?partner=MOREOVERNEWS&ei=5040

-Poll: Do you support raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for health care for the uninsured?
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/feb/25/poll-do-you-support-raising-taxes-wealthy-pay-heal/


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#####

FLORIDA DIGEST - February 27, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~

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

-Florida ranks third in number of hate groups
Four operate in Broward, three in Palm Beach County, report says
By Alexia Campbell and Dana Williams
A "perfect storm" of factors fueled a spike in hate groups across the country and the state last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The tanking economy, heated immigration debate and the election of the country's first black president likely pushed up the number of groups, the report said. Florida follows California and Texas with the highest number of hate groups - 56 in 2008 compared to 39 in 2000.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbhate0227sbfeb27,0,2219333.story


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Mark's List
http://frontpage.jumponmarkslist.com/MSFL/2008/052908.htm

-Winter Party Schedule at a Glance
http://winterparty.org/schedule/schedule.pdf


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Lavender Writes - Ft. Lauderdale
Laugh it Off: an Open Mic Reading
Saturday, March 14, 2009, 1 p.m.
Broward Main Library
100 S. Andrews Avenue, 6th Floor Bienes Center
The economy getting you down? Your ex has a hot new number? You don't even want to think about doing your taxes? You need a laugh but can't afford to go to a comedy club? Lavender Writes will entertain you for free at this Open Mic Reading of some of the funniest writing to hit South Florida this week. Use this as an excuse to write that funny/absurd/silly story that's been rattling around in your head forever or pull an old story off the hard drive, read it to people, make them laugh and bask in the applause. Or sit back and relax as other people entertain you. It won't cost you a dime. Fiction writers and poets are all welcome. Evan J. Peterson will MC just a week after he finishes writing his thesis and figures he deserves some laughs. Writers should sign-up at LWrites@mindspring.com. Audience members can just show up.
Lwrites@mindspring.com


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AIDS Walk Miami - April 19
http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=276703


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1,000 HOMOSEXUALS
a comedy by Michael Yawney
COME OUT AND SUPPORT GLBT HISTORY IN THE MAKING!!!!
COLONY THEATER - MIAMI BEACH
February 26, 27 & 28, 2009 at 8PM
Tickets: $35
http://www.ticketmaster.com/venue/106597


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Steve Rothaus
www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:

-DJs Oren Nizri, Maximus 3000 at Living Room on Friday night
From George Maiko Coronado:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/

-Women's Latin Winter Party event Saturday at The Fifth
From Lynn Bove':
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/


~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~

New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-With Downturn, Calls to Florida Help Line Grow
By DAMIEN CAVE
The syncopated rhythm of recession plays on repeat in a downtown Miami office building, on high-tech headsets in a room with only one window, among the voices of those seeking help.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/us/26foodstamp.html


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Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Reject Crist's selfish budget
On Friday, Gov. Crist released what he called his proposed 2009-2010 state budget. In fact, it was the first Charlie Crist for Senate in 2010 commercial. At a time when Tallahassee needs to think years ahead, Gov. Crist is focused on his next office. He would use the federal stimulus money not to position Florida for the future but to position Charlie Crist in Washington, where he would think about running for president while those back home deal with the budget mess he left behind.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/02/25/a10a_leadedit_cristbud_0225.html


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

-Warm early weekend; cooling on Sunday
By Doug Phillips
South Florida's weather will cool slightly during the weekend after a partly sunny Friday, according to the National Weather Service. Today's high temperatures will be in the upper 70s with winds out of the east at 10 to 15 mph. Some clouds are forecast to move in this evening as the winds decrease to 5 to 10 mph and low temperatures hover around the upper 60s. It will be partly cloudy and warm on Saturday with a high of about 80 and winds 5 to 10 mph in the morning, increasing to 10 to 15 in the afternoon.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-bn-0227fri-weather-forecast,0,6319373.story


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JustNews.com
http://www.justnews.com
Go to this link for the following articles:

-First Vote Passes New School Boundaries
The Broward County School Board has taken the first step to change the school boundaries in several communities. The board voted 7-2 Wednesday to give the initial approval. The board agreed to change the boundaries at seven schools, including Atlantic West Elementary, Cooper City Elementary, Coral Grove Elementary, Riverglades Elementary, Margate Middle, Lyons Creek Middle and Walter C. Young Middle.
http://www.justnews.com/news/18800002/detail.html?treets=mia&tid=2655619429813&tml=mia_9am&tmi=mia_9am_1_08000102262009&ts=H


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#####

GLBT DIGEST - February 25, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Letters - Is 'Marriage' Subject to Compromise?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/l25marriage.html?scp=2&sq=GAY&st=cse


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Gay Asians criticize Oscar speech's TV censorship
By SEAN YOONG
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Gay Asians voiced indignation Wednesday after television broadcasts of the Academy Awards in their region censored the words "gay" and "lesbian" in speeches that called for equal rights for homosexuals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/25/AR2009022500349.html

-Pa. bishop scolds school over gay-rights speaker
The Associated Press
A Roman Catholic bishop in northeastern Pennsylvania wants a Catholic university to close a multicultural center because it hosted a visit by a gay-rights advocate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/24/AR2009022402472.html

-Gay Bloggers' Voices Rise in Chorus of Growing Political Influence
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Only the blogosphere, perhaps, has room for Pam Spaulding [Pam's House Blend] -- a black lesbian who lives in North Carolina, the only state in the South that has not banned same-sex marriage.
http:/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022303105.html

-Utah Dems call for sanctions over anti-gay remarks
By BROCK VERGAKIS
Utah Senate Democrats on Tuesday called for the ouster of a GOP lawmaker from two additional key committee posts because of his anti-gay comments. In recent comments to a documentary filmmaker, state Sen. Chris Buttars compared gay activists to radical Muslims and said they are "probably the greatest threat to America going down." He also said gay people lack morals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/24/AR2009022402095.html


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

-A plate of prejudice, anyone?
Forum Publishing Group February 25, 2009
Ponce de Leon High School in Panama City, in northwest Florida, has been ordered to respect the First Amendment right of students to express themselves. This came about after its principal testified that he believed it was necessary to ban clothing and stickers featuring rainbows because rainbows "are sexually suggestive" and may lead students to "imagine homosexual sex acts." I'm not making this up. His policy went on to forbid students from supporting or even showing respect for equal rights for gay people via clothing, stickers, buttons or symbols. This principal had no problem, however, permitting students to exhibit confederate flags on T-shirts.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/bocaraton/forum/sfl-flbrflifson0225drffeb25,0,7175859.story


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Steve Rothaus
www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Log Cabin Republicans repudiate RCN chairman's 'Are you crazy?' response to civil unions
The Log Cabin Republicans are responding to Republican National Chairman Michael Steele's "are you crazy" comment about civil unions to radio host Mike Gallagher. According to Ben Smith on Politico.com, this exchange occurred: "Do you favor civil unions?" Gallagher asked:
STEELE: No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you crazy? No. Why would we backslide on a core, founding value of this country. I mean this isn't something that you just kind of like, "Oh well, today I feel, you know, loosey-goosey on marriage." I mean, this is a foundational principle of this country. It is a foundational principle of organized society. It isn't something that, you know, in America we decided, "Let's make it between a man and a woman; oh well now, let's change our mind and make it between anyone and anyone." No.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/


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South Florida Blade
http://www.floridablade.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Transsexual says ex-employer ignored harassment
Leslie Fulbright, Chronicle Staff Writer
A transsexual former employee of Burlington Coat Factory filed a discrimination suit against the company Tuesday, claiming she endured seven years of verbal and physical abuse from supervisors, colleagues and customers after undergoing sexual reassignment surgery.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/24/BA291631QA.DTL

-Colo. Senate gives initial OK to same-sex benefits
Bill would give partners of state workers health insurance coverage
The partners of gay and lesbian state workers would be able to get health insurance coverage under a bill given initial backing by the Senate on Monday. The measure (Senate Bill 88) would add domestic partners to the list of dependents eligible for coverage. Same-sex partners who have been in a committed partnership with a state employee for at least a year would qualify as a domestic partner.
http://www.floridablade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=24163


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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Prime Minister celebrates LGBT History Month at Downing St
The Prime Minister is to host a reception at 10 Downing St next week to mark LGBT History Month. Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah will meet organisers and gay equality activists.

-Update: PinkNews.co.uk and Google security issues
Over the past day, users of Firefox, Safarri, Chrome and Google's search engine have been unable to access PinkNews.co.uk because of alleged security vulnerabilities.

-Israel's new gay MP starts work with civil marriage bill
A newly-elected member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, has proposed a bill to legalise civil marriage and divorce. Nitzan Horovitz submitted the legislation at the opening session of the 18th Knesset.

-Immigration minister backs ban on God Hates Fags preachers
The minister for immigration has said that the Labour government "will always oppose homophobia" after the Home Office banned two gay hate preachers from entering the UK.

-Belgrade conference venue staff should be sacked for refusing gays says minister
The directors of a conference hall who cancelled a press conference by a gay organisation for "security reasons" should resign.

-Hate crime reporting centres open for business in Manchester
Greater Manchester Police have urged the gay community to make use of facilities to report hate crimes.

-Lesbian poet is favourite for Royal appointment
A leading lesbian writer is thought to be on the shortlist for the position of Poet Laureate, the official poet of the monarch.


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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-KATHMANDU: They were touched by "Slumdog Millionaire" and are happy that A R Rahman won two Oscars. However, Nepal's gay community is ecstatic that Hollywood star Sea Penn won the awad for the best actor for his moving role in "Milk", the biopic of Harvey Milk, California's first openly gay man to be elected to public office. On Monday, after the results were announced, Blue Diamond Society, Nepal's pioneering gay rights organisation, distributed by email the BBC report on the 81st Academy Awards. Marked in violet was a brief sentence in the report that simply said: "The big surprise of the night was Sean Penn, winning best actor for his role as gay rights activist Harvey Milk. "I could sort of identify myself with Milk and the film," said Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal's first openly gay lawmaker who was nominated to the constituent assembly last year. Pant, the founder of BDS, has since 2002 emerged as a South Asian gay icon inspiring gay rights organisations in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. [...] "I was touched by Slumdog but I was moved by Milk since I could relate to it," Pant said. "I wish not only Nepal would make such a film but Bollywood too."

-IRAN'S HIDDEN HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY
by Doug Ireland
Gay City News, February 20, 2008
When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his infamous claim at a September 2007 Columbia University appearance that ""In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country," the world laughed at the absurdity of this pretense. Now, a forthcoming book by a leading Iranian scholar in exile, which details both the long history of homosexuality in that nation and the origins of the campaign to erase its traces, not only provides a superlative reply to Ahmadinejad, but demonstrates forcefully that political homophobia was a Western import to a culture in which same-sex relations were widely tolerated and frequently celebrated for well over a thousand years.
http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20266214&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6

-Beijing's 'happy couples' launch campaign for same-sex marriages
Tania Branigan in Beijing
With her bouquet of roses and fluffy white dress, Han Xincheng looked the epitome of the glamorous modern Chinese bride. But, although her parents had been pressing her to marry, the photographs were not what they might have expected: she is gazing adoringly at another woman, surrounded by onlookers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/25/gay-rights-china-beijing

-Israel: First openly gay MK submits bill to legalize civil marriages
By Haaretz Service
First-term Meretz MK Nitzan Horovitz submitted a bill for the legalization of civil marriages and divorces in Israel, just minutes after the 18th Knesset kicked off its opening session on Tuesday. The bill would "enable every Israeli citizen the freedom to choose between a religious or civil marriage, and between a religious and civil divorce," Meretz wrote in a statement. Former Meretz whip Zahava Gal-On and a number of other MKs have submitted a similar bill in the past.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066644.html

-HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
BASED ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION IN UKRAINE
This report encapsulates several examples of human rights violations based on sexual orientation in Ukraine in 2008. These facts reflect violation of the right to equality and non-discrimination, to information, to peaceful assembly and association, and to access to justice. Provided information indicates society-wide homophobia, including actions of several governmental bodies, anti-gay statements of political leaders, and clergy and extremist groups.
Contact Ray's List for the full article.


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Forwarded from Kenneth Sherrill - Ken's List
kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
Contact rays.list@comcast.net if you can't access the article

-Bill proposes ISPs, Wi-Fi keep logs for police
by Declan McCullagh
Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keeprecords about users for two years to aid police investigations.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10168114-38.html?tag=nl.e703

-Appeals Court Rules 2257 Constitutional in 6th Circuit
By David Sullivan
CLEVELAND - In a disappointing decision for the adult industry, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned a landmark ruling that struckdown the federal 2257 record-keeping and labeling law. Weighing the government's appeal in the case of Connections Distributing Co., et al. v. Keisler, the en banc panel voted 11-6 to uphold Section 18 U.S.C. §2257. An en banc ("full bench") review involves the entire membership of an appellate court, rather than a smaller panel of judges. A three-judge panel for the Sixth Circuit had declared section 2257 unconstitutional in October 2007, agreeing with the plaintiffs that the law is overly broad and a violation of free-speech rights. Soon after that ruling was handed down, the FBI stopped inspecting the records of adult producers; some fear that this week's reversal of that decision could open the door to more raids and prosecutions.
http://business.avn.com/articles/34501.html

-Sex, lies and the internet
From Economist.com
Protecting kids from harassment in cyberspace
THE wireless network at Mayhem Manor spreads from the router in the workroom to the living area of the one-storey hillside dwelling, but not as far as the bedrooms. And that's important.
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13166291

-Chronicle of Higher Education
Philosophers' Association Urged to Take Tougher Stand Against Colleges With Anti-Gay Policies
About 1,000 members of the American Philosophical Association have signed an online petition urging the group to take a stronger stand against colleges that bar employees and students from engaging in homosexual acts.
http://chronicle.com/news/index.php?id=6023&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

-Leave Civil Unions to the Government, Marriage to the Churches:
Two Points of View
http://www.equalmarriagenow.com/2009/02/talking-points-leave-civil-unions-to-the-government-marriage-to-the-churches-two-points-of-view/

-Spanish Oddities - Is a 13 year old mature enough for consensual sex?
Congress passed a vote on a non-legally binding proposal on Wednesday regarding the youngest age that people can have consensual sex. The current age in Spain, as indicated in the Penal Code, is 13, and the PNV Basque Nationalist Party is among those to consider the age too young. Their initiative did not specify a different age, and now debate has been seen in the Spanish media as to what the age should be. Some consider that the age should be between 14 and 16 to bring Spain into line with other European countries, while others are worried that any increase will impose on the freedom of adolescents.
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_20148.shtml

-Kansas: Library to restrict sex books' access
Some patrons up in arms over decision
By Ann Marie Bush
The covers will be pulled over four sex-related books at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. The library's board of trustees voted 5-3 Thursday evening in favor of restricting minors' access to "Sex for Busy People," "The Lesbian Kama Sutra," "The Joy of Sex" and "The Joy of Gay Sex" because they deemed the material "harmful to minors." [...] During a meeting that lasted about three hours, 16 people spoke about a statement of concern made last year by patron Kim Borchers, who represents a group called Kansans for Commons Sense Policy. Borchers wrote that the materials were harmful to minors under Kansas law.Fourteen people who spoke during the public comment section of the meeting were against the board restricting access.
http://cjonline.com/stories/022009/loc_395979087.shtml

-The son of T.D. Jakes - the Dallas megachurch pastor who's called homosexuality a "brokenness" and
declared that he would never hire a sexually active gay person - was arrested in a gay sex sting in Kiest Park in January, according to Dallas police reports.
http://outside.in/places/kiest-park-dallas

-Kinky Sex Is on the Rise, Therapists Say
Sexual Fetishes, Sadomasochism, Bondage, Swinging, Even Bestiality: Is it the Internet?
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ReproductiveHealth/story?id=6839410&page=1

-Wisconsin State Legislature Passes Download Tax
By Edward Duncan
MADISON, Wis. - Following the passage of a similar proposal in New York, the Wisconsin state legislature has approved a 5 percent tax on Internet downloads to take effect in October. Backed by Governor Jim Doyle, the tax will apply to music, movies, downloads, games, ringtones, e-books, greeting cards and other items, according to the Associated Press. This would presumably include adult content.
http://business.avn.com/articles/34502.html


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Truth Wins Out - TWO
by Wayne Besen
http://www.truthwinsout.org/

-A Winning Script
It is an odd time to be gay in America. Whether you are celebrated or despised depends on where you stand at any given moment.The most dramatic example of this dichotomy occurred on Sunday evening at the Academy Awards. To attend the glamorous event, one had to drive past anti-gay protesters shouting vile condemnations of homosexuality. Once inside, guests were treated to perhaps the most pro-gay Oscar extravaganza in history.
http://www.truthwinsout.org/opinion/a-winning-script/

-TWO Demands Family Policy Council of West Virginia Take Down Sniper Ad
Truth Wins Out (TWO) called on The Family Policy Council of West Virginia to immediately remove an online video ad that compares same-sex marriage supporters to snipers targeting families. The goal of the ad is to rally supporters to lobby in favor of amending West Virginia's constitution to prohibit same sex couples from marrying.
http://www.truthwinsout.org/pressreleases/two-demands-family-policy-council-of-west-virginia-take-down-sniper-ad/


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From Transgender Equality
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-I Changed Sex and Died
I changed my sex and then killed myself on Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving has never been the same since. The day dawned cold and rainy. I woke when it got light. These days I wasn't getting much sleep; a few hours here and there - that's it. Discomfort and stress kept me from getting a good night's sleep. It's not easy living in a car. I was living in my car where it ran out of gas, under a freeway overpass in West Los Angeles. Though I woke feeling bleak and depressed on that rainy Thanksgiving day, I had no idea it would be my last. Changing sex isn't something that can be done in private. You have to do it right in front of everyone in your life: family, friends, coworkers, boss, neighbors, the grocery checker. And it's not instantaneous; it takes a very long time. Years. And all the while, people watch with fascination and horror and sometimes revulsion, as you struggle to find yourself. When people think about transsexuals, they don't think about stuff like that.
http://open.salon.com/blog/hear_me_roar/2009/02/21/i_changed_sex_and_died#


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Mark's List
http://frontpage.jumponmarkslist.com/MSFL/2008/052908.htm
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Ft. Lauderdale: The Largest Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride Festival In Florida
Dance Tent and Non-Stop Entertainment All Day Long March 21st and 22nd 2009 Fort Lauderdale - The 32nd anniversary of Pridefest is scheduled for Saturday, and Sunday March 21 & 22, 2009 at the very popular Holiday Park/War Memorial Auditorium. Pridefest is a celebration and tribute to the LGBT community and its unique culture. The weekend-long event includes a special tent and dance floor for your dancing pleasure! with local DJ Miik (Sunday) and DJ J. Roxx (Saturday), Also featured are over 300 vendors, music, food, Games and Florida's largest Aids Quilt display. As usual, there will be non-stop entertainment both days, with an outdoor stage highlighted by national recording artist Lori Michaels & The Girls, Shelina, Howard Tonkin, Nelson Polanco and many more surprises! Official Pridefest events will be held at several of the nightclubs and venues in town starting on Friday, March 20 at Living Room Niteclub for the Official Pridefest Opening Party and Saturday March 22 at Sidelines Sports Bar and continuing through Sunday night.
http://jumponmarkslist.com/events/pridefest/index_pridefest_fll.htm


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

-Obama's moral majority
President Obama has a unique opportunity to unite Americans behind him and redefine liberalism. But if he is to succeed, he must find a new political language-and broaden the moral register of the political left
Jonathan Haidt
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10583


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Sunshine Cathedral - Ft. Lauderdale
Do you watch Sharing the Light online? Sharing the LIght is a webcast that we record 2-4 times each month and post to www.sunshinecathedral.org, Youtube.com, Facebook.com, and Myspace.com. I hope you'll watch the webcasts and feel free to pass along to any of your friends who might appreciate it. Click here to see Sharing the Light on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SunshineCathedral


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Soulforce
http://www.soulforce.org/
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-To hear our founder ridiculed falsely and Soulforce caricatured and condemned: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6XqjhWuZIo. Would you consider honoring Mel's writings (in response to those who condemn him) by donating to Soulforce $10 per book ($30) because you, too, have benefited from his biography, Stranger at the Gate: to be Gay and Christian in America, his booklet "What the Bible Says - and Doesn't Say - about homosexuality," and/or his latest, Religion Gone Bad: Hidden Dangers from the Christian Right. www.soulforce.org/donate


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Equality Forum

-Join Our Community and Allies at the National Equality Rally at Independence Hall on Sunday, May 3rd, in Philadelphia. Make your voice heard! Make History!
www.nationalequalityrally.org

-Check it out at this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVELnP7ugAs


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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####

NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 25, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Paging Uncle Sam
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Seoul, South Korea: It is very useful to come to Asia to be reminded about America's standing in the world these days. For all the talk in recent years about America's inevitable decline, all eyes are not now on Tokyo, Beijing, Brussels or Moscow - nor on any other pretenders to the world heavyweight crown. All eyes are on Washington to pull the world out of its economic tailspin. At no time in the last 50 years have we ever felt weaker, and at no time in the last 50 years has the world ever seen us as more important.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25friedman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

-I Ponied Up for Sheryl Crow?
By MAUREEN DOWD
LOS ANGELES: Talk about being teed off. The economy is croaking and bankers are still partying at a golf tournament here on our dime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25dowd.html?ref=opinion

-The Kindle Swindle?
By ROY BLOUNT Jr.
BEING president of too many well-meaning organizations put my father into an early grave. The lesson in this was not lost on me. But now I am president of the Authors Guild, whose mission is to sustain book-writing as a viable occupation. This borders on quixotic, given all the new ways of not getting paid that new technology affords authors. A case in point: Amazon's Kindle 2, which was released yesterday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25blount.html?ref=opinion

-Analyzing Obama's Speech to Congress
Interactive video and transcript of President Obama's address before a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, 2009, with annotations from New York Times reporters.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/25/us/politics/20090225-OBAMA-CONGRESS.html?hp

-Strikes Worsen Qaeda Threat, Pakistan Says
By ERIC SCHMITT and JANE PERLEZ
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - American missile strikes have reduced Al Qaeda's global reach but heightened the threat to Pakistan as the group disperses its cells here and fights to maintain its sanctuaries, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/world/asia/25drones.html?hp

-Citing Cost, States Consider End to Death Penalty
By IAN URBINA
When Gov. Martin O'Malley appeared before the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty to cut costs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/us/25death.html?hp

-G.I.'s Attacked by Iraqis in Uniforms
By MARC SANTORA
BAGHDAD - American soldiers were attacked, and one was reported killed, by Iraqi insurgents wearing police uniforms in Mosul on Tuesday, making it at least the third attack in the restive northern city in the past two months by Iraqis wearing the uniforms of security officers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/world/middleeast/25iraq.html


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Faith-Based Initiative
Can Obama Restore Our Belief in Government?
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
President Obama's message to the nation Tuesday night was plain and unequivocal: The era of bashing government is over. So, too, is the folklore of a marketplace capable of producing abundance without regulation, government oversight or public intervention. Addressing the deepest crisis of confidence in the market system since the Great Depression, Obama argued that the economic downturn, far from being an excuse for backing away from his ambitious plans, makes his proposals in health care, energy and education imperative.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/24/AR2009022403350.html

-The Jindal Phenomenon
By Michael Gerson
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- selected to deliver the Republicans' Fat Tuesday response to President Obama -- might also be voted the man least likely to let the good times roll. Slight, earnest, deeply religious and supremely wonkish, Jindal resembles neither his flamboyant predecessors as governor nor his reveling, 30-something contemporaries on Bourbon Street. Somehow the hall-monitoring, library-inhabiting, science-fair-winning class president has seized control of the Big Easy. And his coup has been an inspiration to policy geeks everywhere.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/24/AR2009022403019.html

-Another Star in Chicago
By Harold Meyerson
In March of 2004, a few days before the Illinois Democratic senatorial primary, I wrote a column for this page headlined "A Bright Hope in Illinois." It was, I believe, the first column for a daily newspaper outside Illinois devoted to a rising young pol named Barack Obama. Bolstered by polling that showed Obama to be the clear leader in the race, I fearlessly predicted that he'd become Illinois' next senator and quoted the assessment of Jan Schakowsky, the Democratic member of Congress from Chicago's Gold Coast district, that Obama would "march right onto the national stage and the international stage."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/24/AR2009022403017.html

-Anatomy of a Presidential Address
VIDEO | Watch step-by-step analysis, fact-checking and video highlights as Obama makes case for economic agenda.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/obama/address/?hpid=topnews

-Rescuing Pakistan from the Taliban
In its 60-plus turbulent years as an independent country, Pakistan has been held together by its music, poetry, films, literature and sports. Pakistan is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation, but culture -- not religion -- is the glue that binds people in this critical U.S.-allied country. But now the Taliban are grafting an alien form of Islam onto Pakistan, with dire consequences for Pakistanis, the region and possibly the world. Earlier this month the Pakistani government and army made a deal with the Taliban and gave them control of the Swat valley. The government ceded this region near the Afghan border after countless suicide attacks resulted in the loss of many military and civilian lives.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/salman_ahmad/2009/02/rescuing_pakistan_from_the_tal.html

-Northern Trust faces scrutiny for event spending
By STEPHEN BERNARD
The Associated Press
Northern Trust Corp., a bank that received $1.6 billion in government funds, is facing scrutiny for hosting parties and other events connected to its sponsorship of a professional golf tournament.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/24/AR2009022402363.html?hpid=sec-business


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
Go to the links for the following articles:

- Photos From Obama's Address
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123551134694763061.html

-Mardi Gras Revives, but Shooting Scars Party
Turnout in New Orleans Is Highest Since Katrina; Two Gunmen Arrested After
Spree Along Parade Route
By COREY DADE
New Orleans celebrated the biggest Mardi Gras since Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005, but Fat Tuesday's revelry was marred by a shooting spree along a popular parade route
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123551171997163137.html

-Photos: Mardi Gras Revelry in New Orleans
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123551171997163137.html#articleTabs%3Dslideshow

-Five Key Steps After a Layoff
By KAREN BLUMENTHAL
One of the worst parts of being laid off is coping with fear and confusion about what's ahead. You may not be able to control your exit. But you can make decisions about your money and how it will get you through the transition. So what do you do? Take a deep breath; don't rush to pull the kids out of piano lessons or soccer. Instead, start working on a new financial plan. The new stimulus package, which extends unemployment benefits and helps subsidize health-insurance costs, should help. Then consider these five elements that your plan should include:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123551934570664323.html


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

-Fifteen Things We Learned (Or Relearned) About Barack Obama and His Presidency
1. He smartly plans to ignore the media's fetishistic obsession with how he balances optimism and realism.
2. Michelle Obama (and her popularity) will not go unused by the administration as a valuable asset.
3. He appreciates Joe Biden, even when he wants to muzzle him (which is often) - and Biden is gamely taking to his role as public comic sidekick.
4. The president has a good ear for the level of populist outrage he needs to exhibit to satisfy the public's anger over Wall Street shenanigans.
5. If Republicans weren't sufficiently worried about the size and reach of Obama's megaphone before Tuesday night, they should ramp up their concern now.
6. Obama truly believes he is at the beginning of four-year teaching moment for the American people - and that his students are mature enough and interested enough to actually learn.
7. He's Mr. Cool, then, now and forever.
8. He knows that confidence is key - as much for him as for the country.
9. Like his predecessor, he feels no need to be loved by members of the Washington political power structure (but unlike his predecessor, he's not hostile to it).
10. He's doing his homework and he knows his history.
11. He's well aware of the audience(s) in the room and the audience(s) at home (and how those bodies interact and dovetail).
12. Education is the sleeper issue of this administration.
13. He seems genuinely inspired by the power and opportunities of the presidency (and has not become overwhelmed by the responsibilities, despite the overwhelming circumstances).
14. Youth + competence = a refreshing antidote to these exhausting times.
15. The man can give a heck of a speech - and has a close to perfect record of delivering at big moments.
http://thepage.time.com/halperins-take-fifteen-things-we-learned-or-re-learned-about-barack-obama-and-his-presidency/

-Palin to pay Alaska for kids' trips
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will reimburse the state nearly $7,000 for costs associated with nine trips taken by her children, her attorney said Tuesday. Palin must reimburse the state within 120 days, according to a settlement agreement filed by a special investigator hired by the Alaska Personnel Board to investigate an ethics complaint filed against her.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-24-palin_N.htm

-The Gatekeeper: Rahm Emanuel on the job.
by Ryan Lizza
Rahm Emanuel's office, which is no more than a three-second walk from the Oval Office, is as neat as a Marine barracks. On his desk, the files and documents, including leatherbound folders from the National Security Council, are precisely arranged, each one parallel with the desk's edge. During a visit hours before Congress passed President Barack Obama's stimulus package, on Friday, February 13th, I absently jostled one of Emanuel's heavy wooden letter trays a few degrees off kilter. He glared at me disapprovingly. Next to his computer monitor is a smaller screen that looks like a handheld G.P.S. device and tells Emanuel where the President and senior White House officials are at all times. Over all, the office suggests the workspace of someone who, in a more psychologized realm than the West Wing of the White House and with a less exacting job than that of the President's chief of staff, might be cited for "control issues."
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/02/090302fa_fact_lizza


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[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####

FLORIDA DIGEST - February 25, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~

-1,000 HOMOSEXUALS a comedy by Michael Yawney
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW !! 3 SHOWS ONLY
COLONY THEATER - MIAMI BEACH
February 26, 27 & 28 at 8PM
Tickets: $35 (call for group discounts)
http://www.ticketmaster.com/venue/106597


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A message from Dean Trantalis
To My Dear Friends and Supporters:
Two weeks have now passed since the Primary, and I think enough time has passed for us to reflect on what occurred and how best to assess the results of that important day. First, there are not enough thanks to express my deepest appreciation for the time, effort and generosity you all contributed to our campaign. We each made the commitment with a result that was never assured, and our performance was professional, with dignity, and with purpose. Even our opponents have praised us, and we each must feel proud of what we have contributed to the political history of our city and of our community. Many of you may recall that after months of encouragement from countless people, the decision to run for Mayor was finally cast in June of last year. It was then that we blanketed the Stonewall Street Festival with over 3000 palm cards, and the enthusiasm of the crowd could not be dampened by the wind and rain we encountered. Thanks to Eddie, Jack, and Chip, it was a propitious first step. Rick and I went home that weekend knowing that the decision we made was the right one.
Contact Ray's List for the full letter.


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Palm Beach Human Rights Council
www.pbchrc.org
Go to the links for the following articles:

-State Senator Ted Deutch and State Representative Kelly Skidmore have introduced legislation (SB 2012/HB 397) to prohibit discrimination against LGBT Floridians in employment, housing and public accommodations. To move this legislation forward this year, PBCHRC is working with the ACLU of Florida, Equality Florida, Organizations United Together, SAVE Dade, the Human Rights Council of North Central Florida, the Anti-Defamation League, Florida NOW and many other allied organizations to urge supportive Democratic and Republican legislators to sign on as co-sponsors to the bills. We need your help. If your legislators are not yet co-sponsors of SB 2012/HB 397, please contact your legislators and ask if they will sign on as co-sponsors today. Thank you.
Judge Rand Hoch (retired),
President and Founder
Palm Beach County Human Rights Council
www.pbchrc.org


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National Center for Lesbian Rights
http://www.nclrights.org
Go to the links for the following articles:
From Kate Kendell

-I'm coming to Miami - March 7 & 8
It's hard to believe it's been a year since I've been in Miami. But, then I look back on what has transpired between then and now and it seems as if a lifetime of experiences have occurred since I last saw you. I'll be in Miami in two weeks and I hope you will join me at one or both of the events we have planned. We have so much to catch up on! Details are below. In addition, we plan to open our Southern Regional Office in Miami this summer. Please pass along the job description for our Senior Staff Attorney to head that office to anyone you know who might be interested.

-A Night for Your Rights with NCLR
Saturday March 7, 2009 - 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
At the home of Olive Watson and Joanna Grover/Watson
Belle Meade Island, Miami
Suggested Donation: $100.00.
http://www.nclrights.org/site/DocServer/NCLR_Miami_2009_Web_Final.pdf?docID=5241

-NCLR Miami Family BBQ
Sunday, March 8, 2009 - 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.At the home of Karen Gilbert and Julie Miller in the Falls area
NCLR is once again throwing a BBQ - stop by and have some fun with other LGBT families. Please RSVP for either or both events to Eleanor Palacios atepalacios@nclrights.org or 415.365.1309.
http://www.nclrights.org/site/DocServer/NCLR_Miami_BBQ_Invite_MAR09.pdf?docID=5242


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Equality Florida
http://www.eqfl.org/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Rally Momentum Builds, T-Shirts Now Available
The momentum behind the 2009 Rally in Tally is really building and it's shaping up to be the largest event of its kind ever in Florida. More than 400 people have already registered and we are getting calls and emails daily about buses and caravans planned from all across the state. Be a voice for Equality and get to Tallahassee for this historic gathering! If you are thinking about going, now is the time to commit. Register today.
http://ga4.org/Equalityflorida/events/rallytally/register.tcl

-The far-right is targeting legislators who are backing pro-equality bills in the upcoming session. Several far-right groups have already sent out e-blasts calling on their members to "kill" these bills. Please take a moment right now to send a personal thank you to legislators who have sponsored bills that would repeal Florida's anti-gay adoption ban, provide domestic partnership protections, ban discrimination and ensure students get life saving, medically accurate sex education that includes LGBT youth. Click here and personalize a quick note
http://ga4.org/campaign/champions09



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From Anthony Niedwiecki for Oakland Park City Commission Campaign

-Anthony Niedwiecki Receives Victory Fund Endorsement
Longtime LGBT Activist Plans to Bring Advocacy Work to the World of Politics
OAKLAND PARK, FL-- Anthony Niedwiecki, a longtime and dedicated LGBT rightsadvocate, continues his march to victory in the Oakland Park City Commissionrace with his recent endorsement by the Victory Fund, which endorses openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates for public office who have demonstrated political viability and who have a plan to win. "Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders - on the floors of state legislatures, in the chambers of city councils, and in the Congress of the United States - are our clearest and most convincing champions for true equality. When we elect an LGBT candidate to office, we put them in a position to change hearts and minds, and the law," said the Victory Fund. Niedwiecki, who is a law professor and administrator at Nova Southeastern University, has a long track record of fighting for the equality and dignity of all people. With his husband Waymon Hudson, Anthony formed the LGBT rights group Fight OUT Loud after experiencing a startling death threat aimed at gay people over the Fort Lauderdale Airport intercom system. He also fought side-by-side with other activists as they organized a massive response to the bigoted words of Mayor Naugle of Fort Lauderdale, including holding the largest unity rally at City Hall that Fort Lauderdale had ever experienced, as well as getting Naugle removed from his post on the Tourism Development Council. Anthony has also traveled to the Florida State Capitol with their foster son to testify and push for the overturning of the state's ban on gays and lesbians adopting. He fought to protect the rights and benefits of thousands of families across Florida by actively opposing and speaking against Amendment 2, from traveling to speak at town hall forums and debates to writing extensively on the legal impact of the amendment. Niedwiecki has also been a leader in Oakland Park and Broward County by fighting for the expansion of non-discrimination policies to include both sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, as well as being involved in hate crime education and awareness. Contact Ray's List for the full article.
http://www.Anthony09.com


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South Florida Blade
http://www.floridablade.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-'1,000 Homosexuals' invades Colony Theater
Hilarious satire about Anita Bryant living in a big gay world
By Dan Renzi, | drenzi@expressgaynews.com
"1,000 Homosexuals" first played at the Arsht Center's Studio Theater, to rave reviews-and now it's back on stage, at The Colony Theater, from Feb. 26 to March 1. Tix are $35.
http://www.floridablade.com/blog/index.cfm#24185


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Ft. Lauderdale: 2009 STARS OF THE RAINBOW GALA
Sunday, March 1 - Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty Six
http://www.starsoftherainbow.org/


~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~

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

-Broward County wants out of Medicaid pilot program
County wants out of pilot program that was trying to revamp Medicaid
By Scott Wyman
Broward County Click here for restaurant inspection reports wants out of a 2-year-old state pilot project to revamp Medicaid health-care service to 120,000 residents. The nationally watched reform plan has aimed to save billions and give better health care by moving Medicaid recipients into private health plans. The experiment in Broward and four other counties, though, has come under fire, blamed for leading to delays in access to doctors and medicine.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/sfl-flbmedicaid0225sbfeb25,0,5901931.story

-Broward County schools consider four-day school week
Shorter school week for Broward County high schools could save money
By Kathy Bushouse and Akilah Johnson
new - the new be a Add four-day school weeks for high school students to the list of options the Broward County School Board is weighing to save money. During a Tuesday workshop, board members directed Schools Superintendent James Notter to study the idea to prepare for up to $160 million in possible budget cuts from the state for the 2009-2010 school year.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-bn-022409-school-week,0,4675170.story

-Free lunch time concert in Fort Lauderdale today
You know you need a break from the workday grind. That's why Fort Lauderdale Is your Fort Lauderdale restaurant clean? - Click Here. is hosting Comcast Noon Tunes, a free lunchtime concert is held every Wednesday at Stranahan Park (100 E. Broward Blvd.) from noon to 2 p.m. So escape the office for an hour, bring along that bagged lunch you diligently packed and enjoy the sweet sounds of free.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/consumer/bargains/sfl-free-music-park-0224,0,3054047.story

-Supreme Court ruling may spoil Seminole Tribe's Coconut Creek plans
Decision may affect casino expansion plan in Coconut Creek
By John Holland
The Seminole Tribe's bid to take 100 prime acres in Broward County inspection reports off the public tax rolls and into a federally protected trust suffered a potentially fatal blow Tuesday with a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/coconut_creek/sfl-flbseminole0225sbfeb25,0,684372.story

-Human blunder blamed for polling place confusion in Fort Lauderdale
By Brittany Wallman
An election mix-up that had some voters confused about where to vote next month was not a conspiracy -just plain old human error, the city clerk said. Voters in a precinct of northeast Fort Lauderdale's District I had to vote in Pompano Beach for the Feb. 10 primary. But they received letters from the city recently saying they'd be voting in Fort Lauderdale at Cardinal Gibbons High School for the March 10 runoff between Commissioner Christine Teel and Bruce Roberts, her challenger.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/fort_lauderdale/sfl-flbmixup0225sbfeb25,0,2374522.story


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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Charlie, do we really know you?
BY MICHAEL PUTNEY
mputney@local10.com
In difficult times like these, it's not a bad idea for the governor to be the state's cheerleader-in-chief as well its chief executive. Charlie Crist has the cheering part down -- he's Florida's biggest booster. He's also eternally cheerful and almost depressingly optimistic. His glass is not just half-full; it's always two-third's full, which is how he sees Florida's future. But is he the right leader to move Florida to that future through the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes?
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/michael-putney/story/920293.html

-U.S. Sugar's 'poison pill' clause blocks takeovers
In a maneuver seemingly aimed at an unsolicited Tennessee suitor, U.S. Sugar moved to block hostile takeovers while negotiating a state contract to use its acres to clean Everglades water.
BY CURTIS MORGAN
The boardroom and backroom drama continues to churn behind Gov. Charlie Crist's $1.34 billion land deal with the U.S. Sugar Corp. The sugar giant's board of directors, controlled by foundations and the descendants of its founder, adopted a ''poison pill'' provision on Monday intended to protect its financial interests and block hostile takeovers.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/920166.html


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Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Entire Palm Beach County Commission asked to cooperate in state corruption probe
By JENNIFER SORENTRUE
Palm Beach County's new chief prosecutor is asking all six county commissioners to cooperate with a grand jury investigation of local corruption - a sign that the state may be joining what has largely been a federal crusade against official wrongdoing.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/02/24/0224corruption.html?imw=Y

-Palm Beach County has money, plan to aid homeless
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
After more than a decade of false starts and lost opportunities, Palm Beach County has a plan to get homeless people off the streets - and money to begin making it happen
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2009/02/24/a2b_homeless_0225.html


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

-Crist looms over little-known crop of Democrats in Florida
By Aaron Blake
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's now-public deliberations over whether to enter the state's Senate race have put things completely on hold for Republicans interested in the seat.
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/crist-looms-over-little-known-crop-of-democrats-in-florida-2009-02-24.html

-Obama's moral majority
Jonathan Haidt
At President Obama's inauguration, did we finally witness the beginning of the end of America's long and bitter culture wars? The two conservative ideologies that joined forces in the 1980s-free-market fundamentalism and the religious right-are severely weakened, while liberal ideas about the role of government, the limitations of markets and the value of international cooperation are newly ascendant. Yet, as the new leader of the victorious left, Obama has been a gracious winner. From his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic convention to his 2009 inaugural address, he has promised to transcend the old partisan divisions and reach out to the other side.
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10583

-Home prices fall by steepest rate on record
Home prices tumbled by the steepest annual rate on record in the fourth quarter, two housing indexes showed Tuesday, and the pace continued to gain speed in all but a handful of battered cities.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090225/ARTICLE/902250327/0/SPORTS0401

-Middle class families in the $40,000 to $60,000 range may not be able to
afford college
Scott Travis, Sun-Sentinel
The financial crisis and rising costs threaten to put college out of reach for many students, a new report suggests. The report from the group ENLACE Florida says the cost of higher education in Florida has outpaced families' ability to pay. As the recession leaves people with less money, many middle class families in the $40,000 to $60,000 range, who may earn too much for federal Pell Grants and other forms of financial aid, could be especially hurt, the report suggests.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/feb/24/middle-class-families-40000-60000-range-may-not-be/

-Everglades land deal in jeopardy from competition
A historic land deal aimed at helping restore the dying Everglades, and lauded by Gov. Charlie Crist as "monumental as the creation of our nation's first national park," may end up dead in the water
http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/llnews.aspx?articleID=11855&bnpg=0


=

[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####

GLBT DIGEST - February 24, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net
and we'll be happy to send the full article.


=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Gay Marriage Needs a Vote
Same-sex couples deserve full equality under the law, and that includes the right to marry. For the last decade or so, members of the Rhode Island State Legislature have regularly proposed bills to allow same-sex couples to marry only to see the issue die in committee without coming to a vote.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24tue3.html?ref=opinion

-Boosting Global AIDS Funds
The international AIDS community is buzzing with anxiety over unconfirmed reports that the Obama administration may hold down American financing for international AIDS programs that need greatly increased support. We hope that the new budget blueprint to be released this week will leave enough room to grant these and other vital health programs the money they need to care for millions of sick people and to prevent the spread of additional disease around the world.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24tue4.html?ref=opinion


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Gay Bloggers' Voices Rise in Chorus of Growing Political Influence
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Only the blogosphere, perhaps, has room for Pam Spaulding -- a black lesbian who lives in North Carolina, the only state in the South that has not banned same-sex marriage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022303105.html

-Time Has Come to Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
The law might be called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but Todd Belok got kicked out of the Naval ROTC at George Washington University because somebody told. Belok is an 18-year-old freshman who has wanted to be in the Navy at least since he took a trip to the USS Intrepid when he was in elementary school. The Navy is in his blood. His grandfather served during World War II. He refers to the military values of honor, courage and commitment so frequently that they could be his address.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302793.html

-A feel-good Oscar ceremony for the recession era
By JOCELYN NOVECK
-- Maybe it was the adorable smile on that "Slumdog Millionaire" kid in his pint-sized tuxedo. Or best director winner Danny Boyle bouncing in silly tribute to Tigger of "Winnie the Pooh." The grinning, top-hatted dad of best actress winner Kate Winslet, whistling like a champion to get his daughter's attention.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/24/AR2009022400680.html


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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-NAACP Calls for Overturning of Proposition 8
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced support on Monday for California's supreme court to invalidate Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that constitutionally banned same-sex marriage in California.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid73682.asp


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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Buttars blames everyone except himself
By James Withers
Hopefully this is the last ink I spill on the old fool, but Utah's state Senator Chris Buttars is the gift that keeps giving. On the Utah Senate blog, Buttars voiced his disapproval with his removal from two powerful committees.
http://www.365gay.com/blog/022409-utah-republican-buttars-promises-to-keep-fighting-the-homosexual-agenda/

-Hawaii civil union bill moves to Senate
By The Associated Press
Hawaii, the state that adopted the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment a decade ago, has now become the latest battleground in the fight for same-sex civil unions.
http://www.365gay.com/news/hawaii-civil-union-bill-moves-to-senate/

-US companies blamed for UK tainted blood scandal
By The Associated Press
(London) The first extensive report into Britain's tainted blood scandal stopped short Monday of blaming individual doctors or companies for what is widely viewed as the National Health Service's worst treatment disaster.
http://www.365gay.com/news/us-companies-blamed-for-uk-tainted-blood-scandal/


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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Colorado politician compares homosexuality to murder
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
A Republican state Senator in Colorado has compared gay and lesbian people to murderers and adulterers. Scott Renfroe was speaking during a debate on new legislation that would grant benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian state employees.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11316.html

-Australian MP's gay lover pleads guilty to blackmail
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
A leading Australian politician was targeted by a man he had sex with who threatened to out him unless he paid him $15,000 (£6,670). 25-year-old Jake Della-Vedova said he would expose the married MP's secret gay life with a clandestine video recording of them having sex.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11312.html


=

[Send your comments about articles to Rays.List@Comcast.net]
#####

NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 24, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-What Part of 'Stimulus' Don't They Get?
Imagine yourself jobless and struggling to feed your family while the governor of your state threatens to reject tens of millions of dollars in federal aid earmarked for the unemployed. That is precisely what is happening in poverty-ridden states like Louisiana and Mississippi where Republican governors are threatening to turn away federal aid rather than expand access to unemployment insurance programs in ways that many other states did a long time ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24tue1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

-That Can't-Do Spirit
By BOB HERBERT
In his first Inaugural Address, with the U.S. all but paralyzed by the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt declared that the nation's greatest task was "to put people to work."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24herbert.html?ref=opinion

-The Big Test
BY David Brooks
President Obama has concentrated enormous power on a few aides in the West Wing of the White House. These aides are unrolling a rapid string of plans: to create three million jobs, to redesign the health care system, to save the auto industry, to revive the housing industry, to reinvent the energy sector, to revitalize the banks, to reform the schools - and to do it all while cutting the deficit in half. If ever this kind of domestic revolution were possible, this is the time and these are the people to do it. The crisis demands a large response. The people around Obama are smart and sober. Their plans are bold but seem supple and chastened by a realistic sensibility. Yet they set off my Burkean alarm bells. I fear that in trying to do everything at once, they will do nothing well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24brooks.html?ref=opinion

-When Nuclear Subs Collide
Two nuclear missile submarines - one British, one French - armed with a likely total of well more than 100 thermonuclear warheads collided under the Atlantic Ocean earlier this month. It's a terrifying reminder of how many of these hugely destructive weapons are still routinely deployed and how little thought is given to keeping them as safe and secure as possible.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/opinion/24tue2.html?ref=opinion

-Survey Reveals Broad Support for President
By JEFF ZELENY and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
President Obama is benefiting from remarkably high levels of optimism and confidence among Americans about his leadership, providing him with substantial political clout as he confronts the nation's economic challenges and opposition from nearly all Republicans in Congress, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/us/politics/24poll.html?hp

-3rd Rescue Would Give U.S. 40% of Citigroup
By ERIC DASH
Nationalization, at least a partial one, seems inevitable for Citigroup. As Washington prepares to tighten its grip on the struggling company, the implications - for the troubled financial giant and the rest of the industry - are starting to sink in.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/business/24citigroup.html

-On Return to Court, Ginsburg Is Quick to Question
By ADAM LIPTAK
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer less than three weeks ago, was back on the Supreme Court bench on Monday, asking crisp and vigorous questions in the two arguments heard by the court.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/washington/24scotus.html

-Administration Draws Fire for Report on Guantánamo
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
The Pentagon official who inspected the Guantánamo Bay prison at the behest of President Obama and declared its conditions humane described himself Monday as a "fresh set of eyes" who had been given free rein to go about his work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/us/24detainees.html

-With Spending Set, at Least for Now, the Knives Come Out
By JACKIE CALMES
The White House echoed on Monday with familiar expressions of determination to make tough decisions, as President Obama used a "fiscal responsibility summit" to promise to do his part to move the nation's balance sheet back toward balance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/us/politics/24obama.html

-Video: Class Dismissed in Swat Valley, Pakistan
Taliban closes schools for girls
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/video/2009/02/19/4775_1_swat_75x50.jpg?pubId=1749339200


=
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-D.C.'s Day in the Senate
A disenfranchised city on the verge of a long-overdue debate
IT WAS TO THE discredit of the Senate in 2007 that it would not allow even consideration of a bill to give D.C. residents voting rights. Indeed, the last time the second-class status of D.C. residents was debated on the Senate floor was 30 years ago. So today's vote on Senate Bill 160 -- the D.C. House Voting Rights Act -- is more than overdue. It is time for the Senate to rectify its past mistakes and agree to hold an up-or-down vote on legislation giving District residents their rights as American citizens.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302551.html

-How to Speak Human Rights
By Anne Applebaum
"We pretty much know what they're going to say." -- Hillary Clinton, on the Chinese reaction to discussions of human rights, religious freedom and Tibet Amnesty International is "extremely disappointed," and rightly so; Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy director fears that America's human rights discussions in China will become "a dead-end 'dialogue of the deaf,' " and she has a point. As for the founders of the new Chinese "Charter 08" dissident ovement -- the biggest political protest group in years -- we don't know what they thought, because they were all under house arrest during Clinton's visit to Beijing. I'm sure, though, that they, too, were disappointed by our new secretary of state's failure to discuss human rights with her hosts during her stay in China.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302290.html

-Not So Obvious
The secretary of state underestimates the power of her words. HILLARY RODHAM Clinton says she was only "stating the obvious" when she played down the importance of U.S. pressure on China about human rights issues during a visit there over the weekend. In fact, her comments understated the significance of what a secretary of state says about such matters, and how those statements might affect the lives of people fighting for freedom of expression, religious rights and other basic liberties in countries such as China.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302412.html

-End of the Magic Show
By Eugene Robinson
It's reaching the point where desperate measures -- brutal honesty and complete transparency -- may be the only way to bring the economy out of its kamikaze dive. If so, this won't be pretty.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302323.html

-Whose Israel Shall It Be?
By Richard Cohen
The day after the United Nations created the state of Israel, the country's first president, Chaim Weizmann, found time to work on his memoir, "Trial and Error." In it, he issued a warning to the Israeli leaders of today: "I am certain that the world will judge the Jewish state by what it will do with the Arabs." It was Nov. 30, 1947.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022302291.html

-Gov. Palin's office defends per diem payments
By ANNE SUTTON
Gov. Sarah Palin's office on Monday defended the governor's practice of collecting per diem from the state while living at her home in Wasilla, saying she was costing the state a lot less than her predecessor. Spokesman Bill McAllister held a press conference comparing Palin's expenses with those of fellow Republican, former Gov. Frank Murkowski.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022303138.html?hpid=sec-nation


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

-Taliban Extend Cease Fire in Northwestern Pakistan
ISLAMABAD -- Taliban militants indefinitely extended a cease-fire Tuesday in a northwestern Pakistani valley, granting more time for peace talks that the U.S. worries could create an insurgent haven in the nuclear-armed country. Troops and insurgents have been observing a truce in the Swat valley since Feb. 15, when Pakistani authorities offered to introduce Islamic law in the region if militants lay down their arms. A hard-line cleric is negotiating a possible deal with the militants on behalf of the government.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123546082915557629.html

-Stocks Drop to 50% of Peak
Government Vows Anew to Back Banks, but Lack of Clear Plan Worries Investors Financial markets shuddered Monday with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 3.4% to 7114.78 -- or nearly half the peak it hit just 16 months ago -- even as the Obama administration tried to quell fears about the viability of major U.S. banks. The decline in the stock market was unusually broad and went well beyond the jittery financial sector, with technology and other economically sensitive categories driving major indexes to their lowest closing levels in more than 11 years.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123543520857454281.html


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

-Obama talks helos with McCain
By CRAIG GORDON & JOSH GERSTEIN
President Barack Obama opened Monday's economic summit by taking aim at the "casual dishonesty" of Bush administration budgets Monday, saying he'll abandon accounting "tricks" used to hide the ballooning deficit and pledging to cut a $1.3 trillion federal shortfall in half during his first term.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19184.html

-Poll: Politicians trusted more than business leaders on economy
By Paul Steinhauser
Call it a sign of the times. A new national poll indicates that when it omes to dealing with the economy, Americans have more confidence in the White House and Congress than Wall Street, the banks or auto executives.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/23/poll.economy/index.html


=

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#####

GLBT DIGEST - February 23, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


=
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Hawaii Debates Same-Sex Unions
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii has become the latest battleground in the fight for same-sex civil unions. A measure legalizing such unions passed in the State House this month, and it now goes before the Senate, where a divided committee is scheduled to vote on Tuesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/us/23hawaii.html?scp=3&sq=gay&st=cse


=
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Penn wins best-actor Oscar
By CHRISTY LEMIRE
His name is Sean Penn, and he is here to recruit you. Penn won his second Academy Award for best actor Sunday night for his moving portrayal of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk in "Milk." The win follows his first best-actor award for 2003's "Mystic River."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/23/AR2009022300034.html?sub=AR


=
Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

-Live Blogging the Oscars
Kim Masters offers her real-time take on the Oscars telecast
11:57 p.m. -- And the Oscar goes to... You guessed it. How cute are those kids? Well, in conclusion, I'm going to guess that the show wasn't different enough to make a difference. It's not the producer's fault. The format is too confining. And the movies were too uncommercial to save the ratings, I'm guessing (again).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123516112135535569.html


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

-HAWAII: Vote on civil unions
Hawaii, the state that adopted the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment a decade ago, has now become the latest battleground in the fight for same-sex civil unions. It would become the fifth state to legalize the alternative to gay marriage if the Democrat-dominated Legislature and Republican governor approve a civil union law. The measure was passed by the state House this month but it faces the Senate, where a divided committee is to vote Tuesday.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flzintdigest02235sbfeb23,0,213022.story


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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Sean Penn wins best-actor Oscar for `Milk'
By CHRISTY LEMIRE
His name is Sean Penn, and he is here to recruit you. Penn won his second Academy Award for best actor Sunday night for his moving portrayal of slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk in "Milk." The win follows his first best-actor award for 2003's "Mystic River."
http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/AP/story/916991.html

-Bill Moyers' Journal, gay-bashing edition
Of all the second acts in American public life, none has amazed me more than that of Bill Moyers. He spent the first decade of his adult life as one of Lyndon Johnson's dirtiest henchmen. His work on Johnson's vicious 1964 presidential campaign is probably worth an entire book by itself: Moyers helped thwart the seating of an integrated delegation from Mississippi at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, and asked the FBI to investigate 15 members of the Senate staff of Johnson's opponent, Barry Goldwater. Other lowlights include Moyers giving the FBI the okay to spread dirty stories about Martin Luther King's sex life, and his ongoing role spinning fanciful tales about the war in Vietnam as Johnson's press secretary from 1965 to 1967.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/changing_channels/2009/02/bill-moyers-homophobic-history.html

-Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter forges bond with Obama administration
Northland church's pastor Joel Hunter sits on President Obama's religious advisory council.
BY BETH REINHARD
Joel Hunter -- Christian evangelical, pastor of a Central Florida megachurch and lifelong Republican -- gave the benediction at the Democratic National Convention. He prayed with Barack Obama on Election Day, and rode to the inauguration with Oprah.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/917372.html


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South Florida Blade
http://www.floridablade.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Marriage ruling gave gay people legal protection
By Greg Moran
Tucked deep within the state Supreme Court's sweeping decision in May that struck down same-sex-marriage bans for a time is a single sentence that will have a significant effect for years - regardless of any new turns in the same-sex-marriage debate.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/23/1n23samesex003716-marriage-ruling-gave-gay-people-/?zIndex=57119


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The Advocate
http://advocate.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Elton John to Reinvent Jane Austen
Elton John's Rocket Pictures is hoping to reinvent the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice with an extraterrestrial twist. The period drama will deviate from its course when an alien crash-landing disrupts the life of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Predator, reports Daily Variety. "It felt like a fresh and funny way to blow apart the done-to-death Jane Austen genre by literally dropping this alien into the middle of a costume drama, where he stalks and slashes to horrific effect," David Furnish, John's partner in life and business, told Variety.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid73539.asp

-PepsiCo Gets in Bed With Rockstar, Michael Savage
PepsiCo announced Wednesday morning a multiyear distribution deal with the makers of the energy drink Rockstar, prompting calls among gay rights activists for a company-wide boycott. Rockstar was co-created by Dr. Michael Weiner, better known as conservative radio host Michael Savage, who has often broadcast antigay tirades, referring to gay callers as "sodomites" who should "get AIDS and die."
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid73414.asp


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365Gay.com
http://www.365gay.com/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Gay night at the Oscars includes victorious 'Milk'
By Brent Hartinger
Gus Van Sant's Milk may not have won Best Picture, but last night's 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony included plenty of gay-related moments, the most satisfying of which may have been Sean Penn's win for Best Actor for his acclaimed portrayal of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
http://www.365gay.com/living/gay-night-at-the-oscars-includes-victorious-milk/


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Pink News - UK
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Belarus gays go to court after ban on demonstration against homophobia
An event designed to raise public awareness about homophobia and discrimination against LGBT people in Belarus has been banned by government officials.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11296.html

-Family of murdered gay teen Michael Causer protest at not guilty verdict
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk
A group of more than 100 people protested at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday over the acquittal on Friday of a 19-year-old charged with the murder of a gay teenager.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11289.html


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Forwarded from Gays Without Borders
Contact rays.list@comcast.net for the full article

-Seminar against homosexuality on in Uganda
Family Life Network has organized a training seminar to equip Ugandans with information and skills to fight what it calls spiraling promotion of homosexuality in the country. The Executive Director of Family Life Network, Stephen Langa says that Uganda is now under extreme pressure from homosexual groups to de-criminalize homosexuality.
http://gayuganda.blogspot.com/2009/02/seminar-against-homosexuality-on-in.html

-PARIS - A world congress against homophobia is set to be held in Paris in May, it emerged last night. The proposal for the congress, UK Gay News has been told, was made by Rama Yade, the French minister for human rights as a major French contribution to International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) which the government officially recognised last year. The founder of IDAHO , Louis-Georges Tin, speaking at a press conference in May last year said that the French government's recognition of IDAHO was not just a symbolic gesture. "[It] will help to better prepare and coordinates actions with the different ministries next year," he added.

-JUGGLING GENDER
A loving portrait of Jennifer Miller, a lesbian performer who lives her life with a full beard. Miller works as a performance artist, circus director, clown and as the "bearded lady" in one of the only remaining sideshows in America. In public she is often mistaken for a man, an experience she handles with the wit and intelligence that characterize her stage performances. JUGGLING GENDER explores the fluidity of gender and raises important questions about the construction of sexual and gender identity.
http://www.andersongoldfilms.com/films/documentaries/jg.htm


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Daily Queer News
www.dailyqueernews.com
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Does Hillary Clinton Support Federal Benefits for Same-Sex Couples at State?
Paul Bedard | US News & World Report
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrapping up a worldwide trademark listening tour, has apparently been lending an ear to Foreign Service officers, too. The American Foreign Service Association, which represents the officers and USAID workers, reveals in a newsletter that Clinton is open to many of their workplace complaints, including a demand to expand benefits to same-sex couples. "This issue has been presented to the new secretary of state, and she seems understanding and supportive towards increasing these benefits," says the influential group. The assessment was included in the group's latest member survey. In that poll, members were asked: "Should AFSA advocate for official recognition and benefits for same-sex domestic partners of Foreign Service members?" About 71 percent said yes, with only 17 percent opposed. The group also said that Clinton is keen on addressing another of its issues: the overseas pay gap, the nearly 20 percent drop in pay department employees incur when leaving high-priced U.S. cities like Washington to move overseas.

-First Openly Gay Official Elected in South Carolina
Washington Blade
The Secretary of the South Carolina Stonewall Democrats has become the first openly gay elected official in the state, according to the organization. Nick Shalosky, 21, was elected with 22 votes to the Charleston County District Constituent School Board with a write-in campaign organized primarily through social networking tools like Facebook. Shalosky, a junior in college, wrote a piece for gay blog The Bilerico Project today explaining how Facebook helped him to get elected. "Facebook provided me with an avenue to quickly organize after jumping into the race with only two weeks before Election Day. Such rapid mobilization might not have been possible only two years ago. But, with a Facebook page and a knowledge of online organizing, I secured my winning margin without spending a penny." Shalosky wrote in the piece. Link

-RI: Lawmakers Consider Gay Marriage Bills
Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE, R.I.-Rhode Island lawmakers are taking up gay marriage legislation next week. One bill being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday would allow same-sex couples to marry in Rhode Island. Another would outright ban gay marriage and prohibit the state from recognizing same-sex couples as married. Rhode Island law is currently silent on the issue. A third bill before the committee would allow same-sex couples who wed out of state to get divorced in Rhode Island. That bill was inspired by a 2007 state Supreme Court decision that blocked a lesbian couple who lived in Providence from obtaining a divorce. Read more

-Presbyterian Leaders OK Gay Ordinations
Wade Rawlins | (Raleigh) News & Observer | Charlotte Observer
Presbyterian church leaders in the Triangle and the eastern part of the state approved a constitutional amendment to church law Saturday that would allow gays and lesbians in partnered relationships to be ordained as ministers, deacons and elders. The amendment carried by a vote of 177-139 with 10 abstentions during a meeting of church leaders of the New Hope Presbytery, a region covering 36 counties from the Triangle to the Outer Banks. To become church law, a majority of the 173 presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (USA) must ratify the amendment. But its passage also could cause fractures within the church, with opponents departing for more conservative Presbyterian denominations. The role of gay people in the church has long been a thorny issue for many Christian denominations. Traditionalists argue that prohibitions against homosexuality in the Bible are clear. Others say that the Bible's prohibitions may be outweighed by Jesus' mandate to love one another. Read more

-Video: Michael Moore vs Westboro Baptist Church
http://www.dailyqueernews.com/news/5464/

-Self-Hating Gay on Tyra: I'll Be Straight by 30
http://www.dailyqueernews.com/news/5465/


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Sunshine Cathedral - Ft. Lauderdale
http://www.sunshinecathedral.org/

-Videos: Sharing the Light is an Internet talk show where Reverends Durrell Watkins, Robert Griffin, and others discuss theological questions of interest to our GLBT community.
http://sunshinecathedral.org/stl/index.htm


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

-Hawaii is latest civil unions battleground
By MARK NIESSE - Associated Press Writer
Hawaii, the state that adopted the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment a decade ago, has now become the latest battleground in the fight for same-sex civil unions.
http://www.bradenton.com/439/story/1244915.html


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#####

NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 23, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Rift Over Stimulus Embroils G.O.P.
By JACKIE CALMES and ROBERT PEAR
Republican governors split sharply during the weekend over how to respond to the economic crisis, a debate whose outcome will go a long way toward shaping how the national party redefines itself in the wake of its election defeats of recent years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/us/politics/23govs.html

-Explaining a 'No' Vote on Stimulus in Michigan
By CARL HULSE
Connie from Livonia was on the line with Representative Thaddeus McCotter during a telephone town-hall-style meeting, sounding worried as the auto industry continued to spiral down, taking Michigan's economy along for the ride.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/us/politics/23repubs.html

-Rename Law? No Wisecrack Is Left Behind
By SAM DILLON
Two years ago, an effort to fix No Child Left Behind, the main federal law on public schools, provoked a grueling slugfest in Congress, leading Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, to say the law had become "the most negative brand in America."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/education/23child.html


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-A 'Ticking Time Bomb' Goes Off
When Abdallah Al-Ajmi Returned to Kuwait After Nearly Four Years at Guantanamo, His Family Tried to Get Him to Move On. But He Didn't Want to Let Go.
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
KUWAIT CITY -- After arriving here from Guantanamo Bay in November 2005, Abdallah Saleh al-Ajmi was transported by Kuwaiti security agents to a military hospital, where he was allowed to meet with his family. He was soon moved to the city's central jail and placed in a high-security wing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022202384.html?hpid=topnews

-Government Gets Chance To Prove It Can Work
Stimulus Act Will Test Civil Servants' Abilities
By Alec MacGillis
For weeks, the economic stimulus package lay in the hands of President Obama and congressional leaders. But with Obama having signed the $787 billion bill on Tuesday, its fate has been dispersed far and wide -- to places such as the state office building in Crownsville, Md., outside Annapolis, where three workers face the challenge of a career.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022201759.html?hpid=topnews

-Climate Fears Are Driving 'Ecomigration' Across Globe
By Shankar Vedantam
Adam Fier recently sold his home, got rid of his car and pulled his twin 6-year-old girls out of elementary school in Montgomery County. He and his wife packed the family's belongings and moved to New Zealand -- a place they had never visited or seen before, and where they have no family or professional connections. Among the top reasons: global warming.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022202378.html?hpid=topnews

-Clinton's Candor Abroad Draws Mixed Reviews
By Glenn Kessler
BEIJING, Feb. 22 -- Hillary Rodham Clinton's blunt and unadorned style of diplomacy has been evident throughout her first trip as secretary of state the past week in Asia. She questioned the efficacy of sanctions against the repressive junta in Burma, spoke openly about a possible succession crisis in North Korea and admitted that she expected to make little progress on human rights in China.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022200867.html?hpid=topnews

-Two GOP Governors and Federal Funds for Stimulus
Mark Sanford - Republican governor of South Carolina
Charlie Crist - Republican governor of Florida
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022202004.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

-A 'Reset' That Doesn't Compute
By Jackson Diehl
MOSCOW -- Normally sour Russian officials are almost jaunty in describing their first engagements with the Obama administration. "We are excited," says one at the Foreign Ministry.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022202005.html

-Obama's Stunted Stimulus
By Robert J. Samuelson
Judged by his own standards, President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus program is deeply disappointing. For weeks, Obama has described the economy in grim terms. "This is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill recession," he said at his Feb. 9 news conference. It's "the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression." Given these dire warnings, you'd expect the stimulus package to focus almost exclusively on reviving the economy. It doesn't, and for that, Obama bears much of the blame.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022202006.html

-Mr. LaHood's Good Idea
The transportation chief's mileage tax shouldn't be a nonstarter.
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY Ray LaHood told a reporter Friday that he was considering a tax on vehicle miles traveled as an alternative to the gas tax. Faster than you could say "smack-down," press secretary Robert Gibbs unleashed a White House scolding. Mr. Gibbs said, "I can weigh in on it and say that it is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022201651.html

-Legal Experts Propose Limiting Justices' Powers, Terms
By Robert Barnes
If we had it to do all over again, would we appoint Supreme Court justices for life? Allow the chief justice to keep the job forever? Let the court have the final word on which cases it hears and those it declines?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022201863.html?hpid=topnews

-Burma Begins Release of Thousands
Activists Say Few Are Political Prisoners
By Tim Johnston
PHUKET, Thailand, Feb. 22 -- Burma's military government has begun releasing more than 6,300 prisoners, including some members of the opposition National League for Democracy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022201188.html?hpid=moreheadlines

-Iran's First Nuclear Power Plant Set for Tests Before Launch
By Thomas Erdbrink
TEHRAN, Feb. 22 -- Iran's first nuclear power plant will undergo a critical series of tests starting Wednesday before full-scale operation begins later this year, Iranian state radio reported Sunday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022201127.html?hpid=moreheadlines

-Gruesome killing poses another test for US Muslims
By ERIC GORSKI
-- The crime was so brutal, shocking and rife with the worst possible stereotypes about their faith that some U.S. Muslims thought the initial reports were a hoax.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100715.html?hpid=sec-religion

-Well Before the 2012 Season, Obama Kicks the GOP a Political Football
By Chris Cillizza And Perry Bacon Jr.
One month into the Obama presidency, the race for the 2012 GOP nomination appears very much underway. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, before heading to the National Governors Association annual meeting that started over the weekend in the District, spoke Friday at a GOP gathering in South Carolina, one of the key primary states in the Republican nominating calendar.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022202115.html


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us

-Coaches, CFOs Among Big Earners at Colleges
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123534056703543691.html

-Governors v. Congress
The stimulus sets a long-term budget trap for the states.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123535040968044863.html

-The War on Drugs Is a Failure
We should focus instead on reducing harm to users and on tackling organized crime.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123535114271444981.html


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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Obama fast breaks, leaves some wanting
OUR OPINION: President has moved decisively to restore civil liberties
If you want a friend in Washington, Harry Truman advised, get a dog. Right about now, President Barack Obama must be marveling at Mr. Truman's wisdom. In office just one month, the president barely managed to scrape up three votes from Republicans for his stimulus plan. Now his erstwhile friends on the left are grumbling that Mr. Obama has not done enough to change Bush-era policies on the war on terror. With friends like this . . .
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/917078.html

-Bill would make a muddle of state law
OUR OPINION: Ill-advised proposal would give tribes unnecessary authority
When someone commits a crime or is involved in an accident in Florida, it is generally understood that the state has jurisdiction and will proceed with whatever investigation, charge, penalty or punishment is warranted. This clear delineation of authority would be jeopardized if legislation sponsored by Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, becomes law -- and the consequences would be serious and far-reaching.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/917069.html

-Immigrants give America winning edge
OUR OPINION: Citizenship through military service a win-win proposition The war in Iraq had been underway for years before U.S. military commanders realized that conventional combat tactics weren't working and that a counter-insurgency strategy was necessary. The tide turned in America's favor with the new strategy, now commonly associated with the Surge. The new strategy relied more on intelligence, human resources and integration with the Iraqi population than on bombs, assaults and fighting.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/914572.html

-Clinton smoothly fits into her new job
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has employed her own style as America's chief diplomat.
By TIM JOHNSON
BEIJING -- She's talked about love. She's given recycling advice. She's ripped into conservatives on the Supreme Court. And she's held chatty town-hall sessions.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/story/917072.html


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

-Crist's proposed $66.5 billion budget relies on federal stimulus
By Marc Caputo and Steve Bousquet
Promising more spending and no worker layoffs, Gov. Charlie Crist on Friday proposed a $66.5 billion budget bolstered by huge sums of federal stimulus money and rosy financial assumptions.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article977946.ece

-With an eye on 2012 presidential race, GOP governors step into the spotlight
By BETH FOUHY
With an eye toward the 2012 presidential contest, leading Republicans used this weekend's meeting of the National Governors Association to lay out divergent views of President Obama's stimulus plan - and competing visions of their party's future.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-governors-2012,0,2158375.story

-A New Mission for the NAACP
Ellis Cose
The youngest president in association history leads at a time when many question the body's very necessity. This February the NAACP marked its 100th anniversary. The venerable organization was on the front lines of some of the most important human-rights battles of the 20th century. But "venerable" is often a polite word for "passé." During the past several years, there have been times when even supporters have questioned the NAACP's role in the modern world.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/185805

-How Burris blew it
By MANU RAJU
The crisis now threatening Sen. Roland Burris' political career started with revelations about his entanglements with disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. But it was the way the situation was handled by Burris and his advisers - trapped between competing political and legal demands - that has made the problem much worse and has pushed him to the brink of losing his seat. In multiple interviews, several Senate aides and Burris confidants say the senator was unprepared from a public relations and political perspective to deal with the national media frenzy and ethics problems he now confronts.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19148.html

-Female candidates line up for 2010
By JOSH KRAUSHAAR
A slew of formidable female candidates, mostly Democrats, are lining up to run for the Senate in 2010, enough to raise the prospect of a surge of women into a chamber that currently has just 17 women senators.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19157.html-8

-Afghan truisms
Today, as the Obama administration considers how to deal with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, what its priorities should be, and how it will define success and bring American troops home, Khan's parade highlights many of the problems they will have to overcome. [...] Here are eight Afghan truisms they would do well to remember:
1. All against all, but especially outsiders
The people of Afghanistan may be divided by religion, tribal loyalties and ethnic rivalries, but they have a long tradition of banding together to successfully expel invaders. It may be dysfunctional; it may be a failed state, but the chaos that frustrates Kabul's efforts to control the rest of the country also frustrates foreign forces trying to do the same.
2. The Taliban is not a foreign body
The Taliban were born of desperation, principally over the country's deteriorating security situation. They are ethnic Pashtuns who rose up from towns and villages to end a brutal civil war among rival warlords that was tearing the country apart after the retreat of Soviet forces. Many of the Taliban's leaders and foot soldiers came from extremist religious schools that taught an intolerant brand of Islam, but many others were ordinary Afghans fed up with violence, corruption and poverty. Trying to excise the Taliban from Afghanistan would repeat the folly committed in trying to purge the Ba'athists from Iraq.
3. The border with Pakistan is a political fiction
The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan exists only on maps, not on the ground. Getting rid of Al Qaeda and other terrorists taking haven along the largely inaccessible, 1,500 mile frontier-and the broad swath of tribal lands that straddle it-will need to involve cooperation amongst Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States. All must agree that the area cannot be a haven for terrorist groups to plan attacks on any of the three nations. This is especially important today, when Pakistan, a nuclear-weapons state, itself is threatened by political and economic instability, Islamic extremism and growing violence, much of it fomented in the tribal areas.
4. Afghani extremism is abetted by Pakistani intelligence
Probably the single most effective step in combating Islamic extremism in Afghanistan would be purging Islamic radicals from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence bureau, the country's intelligence and spying agency. It helped create the Taliban, and it reportedly continues to support them. Purging radicals from ISI also would strengthen Pakistan's civilian democracy and dramatically improve its relations with neighboring India.
5. There is no military solution in Afghanistan
Development aid must be a vital ingredient in any successful strategy to stop the country's use as a base for terrorists and to keep it from becoming one again. Afghanistan is one of the poorest, most illiterate countries in the world. Implementing a new military strategy without significant employment, education and infrastructure programs will further drive its 33 million people into the arms of extremists.
6. Afghanistan is a narco state
The country now supplies about 93 percent of the world's opium, the key ingredient for heroin. Poppy cultivation is a main funding source for the Taliban, and it fuels endemic corruption that undermines the government and weakens its support among people across the country. Drug corruption has reached the highest reaches of the government, including, reportedly, the family of president Hamid Karzai.
7. The United States cannot do everything
Afghanistan has defeated other empires, and thinking that America will
transform it into a reliable ally while occupying it and launching military operations that kill scores of its citizens is simply wrongheaded. The United States needs to invest more in adequately training and arming the Afghan army and police to combat the country's security problems. This will be a years-long process, and current efforts need to be accelerated.
8. But few allies will help, at least yet
Most NATO countries do not have the stomach for expanding their troop strength and military operations in Afghanistan. Although some Europeans were sympathetic to U.S. calls for help in Afghanistan after 9-11, the Bush Administration's bait and switch with Iraq infuriated many Europeans and squandered good will. In fact, most European leaders recognize that they have huge shared interests with the United States in Afghanistan, but Obama will have a difficult time getting them to sell deeper involvement-and especially military involvement-there to their people.
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=A050D1E6-18FE-70B2-A8D4F4D2CC911ACD


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#####

FLORIDA DIGEST - February 23, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


~~FLORIDA GLBT NEWS~~

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

-Activists remember murder of Fort Lauderdale gay teen Simmie Williams
By Akilah Johnson and Sofia Santana
A year since gay teen's murder, police wonder: Was it a hate crime? With an occasional police siren in the distance punctuating their remarks, family, friends and community activists gathered in an empty corner lot Sunday to remember the life of a teen murdered there a year ago and vow: never again.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/fort_lauderdale/sfl-flbsimmie0223sbfeb23,0,3183923.story


~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~

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

-Davie mayor's race is Broward's hottest contest
The hottest contest in the county in the March 10 municipal elections is the Davie mayor's race. A massive development proposal divides the two candidates.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/02/davie_mayors_race_is_browards.html

-Miami-Fort Lauderdale on 'America's Emptiest Cities' list
The metropolitan Miami/Fort Lauderdale area ranks eleventh on a Forbes magazine list of the nation's 15 most-abandoned cities. Also on the list are Orlando (7th), Jacksonville (9th) and Tampa (13th). The Forbes list is a combination of rental and homeowner vacancy rates for the 75 largest metropolitan statistical areas of the country based on fourth-quarter data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Each was based on rental vacancies and housing vacancies with the final list averaging the two, Forbes reported. t the top of the list, Las Vegas edged out Detroit, which ranked second, followed by Atlanta, Greensboro N.C. and then Dayton, Ohio.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-bn-0223abandoned,0,3862358.story


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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter forges bond with Obama administration Northland church's pastor Joel Hunter sits on President Obama's religious advisory council.
BY BETH REINHARD
Joel Hunter -- Christian evangelical, pastor of a Central Florida megachurch and lifelong Republican -- gave the benediction at the Democratic National Convention. He prayed with Barack Obama on Election Day, and rode to the inauguration with Oprah.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/917372.html

-Attorney who took on Miami Archdiocese loses license
BY JAY WEAVER
A high-profile South Florida attorney who built a lucrative law practice suing the Archdiocese of Miami in clergy sex-abuse cases has had his license suspended.
http://www.miamiherald.com/486/story/916864.html

-Blackjack addiction on rise in Florida
BY MICHAEL VASQUEZ
Callers to the state's gambling help line are more frequently reporting an addiction to blackjack, and the overall number of callers seeking help is steadily rising.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/916871.html


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Palm Beach Post
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Crist backs Obama but rejects 'Obama Republican' tag
By GEORGE BENNETT and MICHAEL C. BENDER
Gov. Charlie Crist took his GOP-bucking support for President Obama and a $787 billion Democratic stimulus plan to a national stage this morning but brushed off the suggestion that he's an "Obama Republican."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/state/epaper/2009/02/22/0222crist.html


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

-Hawaii is latest civil unions battleground
By MARK NIESSE
Hawaii, the state that adopted the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment a decade ago, has now become the latest battleground in the fight for same-sex civil unions. It would become the fifth state to legalize the alternative to gay marriage if the Democrat-dominated Legislature and Republican governor approve a civil union law. The measure was passed by the state House this month but it now faces the Senate, where a divided committee is to vote Tuesday.
http://www.bradenton.com/439/story/1244915.html

-Florida's First Lady scores a seat next to Obama
By Michael C. Bender
Gov. Charlie Crist hasn't yet secured the state its share of education money from the federal stimulus package, but his support for President Obama and the plan might have helped score Florida First Lady Carole Crist a seat tonight next to Obama for the first formal White House dinner (here and here) of the Democrat's term. Obama hosted the nation's governors, who were in Washington for the National Governor's Association meeting, in the State Dining Room.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/floridapolitics/index.html

-Where is schools' lottery jackpot?
BY MICHELLE SPITZER
Driving across Brevard County, Cape Canaveral resident Ty Allen gets frustrated every time he sees billboards that credit the Florida Lottery with pumping billions of dollars into education.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090223/NEWS01/902230316/1006/news01&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL

-Crist doesn't rule out Senate run
Gov. Charlie Crist is in Washington as the National Governors Association wraps up its meeting. Crist attended a White House reception on Sunday night after appearing on "Meet the Press" earlier in the day.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090223/APN/902230583

-Crist: Obama Is Our Only National Leader
The Huffington Post
In a half-hour segment on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the varying threads of the GOP political psychology came into sharp contrast. On one side sat Charlie Crist, the moderate governor of the state of Florida, who not only openly campaigned for the president's stimulus package but also sent some very public plaudits the Obama's way.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/22/crist-obama-is-our-only-n_n_168936.html


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GLBT DIGEST - February 22, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-A Reconciliation on Gay Marriage
By DAVID BLANKENHORN and JONATHAN RAUCH
IN politics, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road. The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22rauch.html?scp=2&sq=GAY&st=cse

-This Is the Way the Culture Wars End
By WILLIAM SALETAN
Washington: PRESIDENT OBAMA wants to end the culture wars. He recently called for "common ground" on abortion reduction and an end to the "stale and fruitless debate" over family planning. His joint address to Congress this week could be an opportunity to change that debate. But to make a real difference, he'll have to tell two truths that the left and the right don't want to hear: that morality has to be practical, and that practicality requires morals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22saletan.html?scp=5&sq=GAY&st=cse

-Rupert Everett Is Not Having a Midlife Crisis
By ALEX WITCHEL
The first apartment never had a chance. "That's very bad luck, isn't it?" Rupert Everett said, looking dolefully at a sparsely decorated Christmas tree on a late January afternoon. Everett flew in from London the night before, and this was one of six places he was scheduled to see that day. He actually owns a house in Greenwich Village that has a long-term tenant, so he and Brian Babst, his broker from the Corcoran Group, were hunting for an urban paradise with a six-month lease. On March 15, Everett will make his Broadway debut in a revival of Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit," co-starring Angela Lansbury, and before rehearsals had even begun, his dry-martini delivery was pitch-perfect.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/magazine/22everett-t.html?scp=3&sq=GAY&st=cse


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-McDonnell Casts Himself As a More Moderate Choice
By Marc Fisher
Democrats don't yet claim Virginia as their own, but they have won two straight governor's races, both U.S. Senate seats, two out of three House seats in the Washington suburbs and a majority in the state Senate. So who does the Republican Party choose to pry the door to the Washington suburbs back open?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022101715.html


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

-Tennis: Players' support of Peer just empty words, no action
February 22, 2009
It needed far more than "peer" pressure from the top women tennis players to force the United Arab Emirates government to rescind their outlandish decision to deny Israel's Shahar Peer entry into their country, thus keeping her out of this week's WTA Dubai Tennis Championships.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/other/sfl-flsptencol22sbfeb22,0,6273411.story


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Steve Rothaus
www.MiamiHerald.com/gay
Go to this link for the following articles:

-Accused killer of gay man on trial in Polk County, Fla.
A year ago, I wrote about the Gay American Heroes Foundation, a group dedicated to raising awareness about hate crimes against gay people. The March 2007 death of 25-year-old Ryan Keith Skipper (pictured above) -- stabbed 20 times and dumped on a roadside in Winter Haven -- spurred Scott Hall to form the Heroes Foundation.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/


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Daily Queer News
www.dailyqueernews.com
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Gay. And Republican. And Not Confused.
Alex Knepper | Independent Gay Forum
First published in the American University Eagle on February 16, 2009 I am a gay Republican. I am not "self-hating." I am not confused. I am comfortable enough with my sexuality to think of myself in terms of traits other than simply my sexual orientation. I believe that my attraction to the same sex should have no bearing to my thoughts on tax policy, trade, foreign affairs or abortion. I believe that my sexuality is merely an incidental part of my life and should not be a major factor in my decision-making.
I am aware that there is a rich tradition of intellectualism, secularism and equality within the Republican Party outside of the Religious Right. I am aware that Hillary Clinton and Dick Cheney hold the same positions on gay rights. I am aware that Bill Clinton signed into law the last major anti-gay piece of legislation passed by Congress - the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. I am self-respecting enough to know that the words of the Democrats on gay rights are no substitute for their lack of action. Read more

-GA: Morehouse Under Fire Again for Alleged Homophobia
DYANA BAGBY | Southern Voice
A Morehouse College student newspaper column titled "Is Gay the Way?" has caused a stir in Atlanta as well as the national blogosphere, with many gay and transgender activists accusing the writer of being homophobic. The opinion article, published Feb. 16 in The Maroon Tiger, questioned masculine norms at the all-male historically black college. Gerren Gaynor, who wrote the column and serves as the paper's associate opinions editor, said his message has been misunderstood. "In no way was my article an anti-gay piece," said Gaynor, a sophomore English major.
"While I do agree that I went about my topic the wrong way - and please be advised that this was an article done over night for a weekly college publication - it is completely wrong to disregard the feelings of other students on campus, gay and straight, because every homosexual is not comfortable with seeing a man with feminine qualities," he said. "Nowhere in my article do I attack gays. The article is strictly a critique on gender norms." Read more

-Gays Losing Ground to God
KELLY JEAN COGSWELL | Gay City News
A DYKE ABROAD
In Pakistan, the government dumped democracy in the violent Shat region, agreeing on February 16 to institute homo-cidal Sharia law in exchange for the Taliban there laying down their arms, or at least not killing the local cops.
In the US, meanwhile, Obama's pushing ahead with his faith-based funding, dumping money in social service programs run by religious groups that - to less deadly effect - also encourage the hatred of queers, the subjugation of women, as well as the extraordinary misconception that science is nothing more than a wacky belief system on the same plain of reality as flying carpets and time machines. Nevertheless, some dead guy on a cross coming back to life is the "gospel" truth, and if we don't accept him as our personal savior we're more or less banned from running for public office, not to mention on a one-way ticket to hell.
And Gallup celebrated the birth of Darwin last week by asking citizens if they believed in evolution, and by the very shape of its question lending credence to the "No" that 39 percent of my glorious confreres offered in response. Perhaps next time around they'll ask if we "believe" that the earth is round. I'll stick to the obvious and give it a definite "No." Read more

-Iran's Hidden History
DOUG IRELAND | Gay City News
Janet Afary's new work of historical scholarship, "Sexual Politics in Modern Iran," will be published in late March by Cambridge University Press. When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his infamous claim at a September 2007 Columbia University appearance that ""In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country," the world laughed at the absurdity of this pretense. Now, a forthcoming book by a leading Iranian scholar in exile, which details both the long history of homosexuality in that nation and the origins of the campaign to erase its traces, not only provides a superlative reply to Ahmadinejad, but demonstrates forcefully that political homophobia was a Western import to a culture in which same-sex relations were widely tolerated and frequently celebrated for well over a thousand years. "Sexual Politics in Modern Iran," to be published at the end of next month by Cambridge University Press, is a stunningly researched history and analysis of the evolution of gender and sexuality that will provide a transcendent tool both to the vibrant Iranian women's movement today fighting the repression of the ayatollahs and to Iranian same-sexers hoping for liberation from a theocracy that condemns them to torture and death. Read more

-Minnesota's Gay Republican Senator Koering Answers Questions about His Anti-Equality Vote with Nasty Email
Waymon Hudson | The Bilerico Project Report
Wow. If this is "damage control", I'd hate to see him stick his foot in his mouth! State Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley Minnesota, is answering those who are asking him about his statement that he will not vote for the Marriage and Family Protection Act, a bill that would make Minnesota's marriage laws gender-neutral, allowing same-sex couples many of the rights currently denied by Minnesota statute. And let's just say the response is a little. odd, to say the least. And angry. And mean. And rude. And not going to help with his image problems.The angry missive is apparently a form letter fired off by his Legislative Assistant to everyone who emailed. It basically attacks anyone who is "wasting the senator's time" with their concerns about his vote and hides behind a weak "it's the will of his constituents" argument. You know, because leaders shouldn't lead or do the right thing- just bend to the mob mentality of small minds. Read the entire email response after the jump. Read more


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NATIONAL & WORLD NEWS - February 22, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Hold the Eulogies, Kennedy Says
By MARK LEIBOVICH
After the president of Harvard hailed him as a "national leader but a local servant," after the pastor read the "Let us now praise famous men" passage from the Bible and after the cellist Yo-Yo Ma honored him by performing a Gershwin prelude, Senator Edward M. Kennedy lumbered across the antique stage.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/politics/22kennedy.html?_r=1&hp

-After Losses, a Move to Reclaim Executives' Pay
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
SHOULD executives get to keep lavish pay packages when the profits that generated their compensation go up in smoke?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/business/22pay.html?hp

-The Government and the Banks
Bank stocks plunged last week on fears that the government will have to take over battered institutions like Citigroup and Bank of America. That would wipe out the banks' shareholders - hence, investors' rush for the exits - and put the government in control of a swath of the financial system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22sun1.html?ref=opinion

-Start Up the Risk-Takers
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Reading the news that General Motors and Chrysler are now lining up for another $20 billion or so in government aid - on top of the billions they've already received or requested - leaves me with the sick feeling that we are subsidizing the losers and for only one reason: because they claim that their funerals would cost more than keeping them on life support. Sorry, friends, but this is not the American way. Bailing out the losers is not how we got rich as a country, and it is not how we'll get out of this crisis.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22friedman.html?ref=opinion

-What We Don't Know Will Hurt Us
By FRANK RICH
AND so on the 29th day of his presidency, Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill. But the earth did not move. The Dow Jones fell almost 300 points. G.M. and Chrysler together asked taxpayers for another $21.6 billion and announced another 50,000 layoffs. The latest alleged mini-Madoff, R. Allen Stanford, was accused of an $8 billion fraud with 50,000 victims.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22rich.html?ref=opinion

-Sisters, Victims, Heroes
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
GOZ BEIDA, Chad: So I'm bunking with George Clooney in a little room in a guest house here in eastern Chad, near Darfur in Sudan. We each have a mattress on the floor, the "shower" is a rubber hose that doesn't actually produce any water, and George's side of the room has a big splotch of something that sure looks like blood.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22kristof.html?ref=opinion

-Video - Darfur: Sisters. Victims. Heroes.
by Nicholas Kristof
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/opinion/nicholas-d-kristof/1194811622305/index.html#1194838050200

-Taliban Truce Seems in Flux in Pakistan
By JANE PERLEZ and ISMAIL KHAN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A provincial government official in the disputed area of Swat announced details of what he called a "permanent cease-fire" with the Taliban on Saturday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/world/middleeast/22pstan.html?hp

-Running a Business After Doing Time
By LESLIE BERLIN
THIS year, nearly 700,000 people will be released from state or federal prisons. They will join the worst economy in decades, many of them with limited education and little or no legitimate employment experience. And a criminal record will make it that much harder to find a job.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/business/22proto.html

-Obama Upholds Detainee Policy in Afghanistan
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
The Obama administration has told a federal judge that military detainees in Afghanistan have no legal right to challenge their imprisonment there, embracing a key argument of former President Bush's legal team.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/washington/22bagram.html

-U.S. Concedes Afghan Attack Mainly Killed Civilians
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
KABUL, Afghanistan - An airstrike by the United States-led military coalition killed 13 civilians and 3 militants last Tuesday in western Afghanistan, not "up to 15 militants" as was initially claimed by American forces, military officials here said Saturday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/world/asia/22afghan.html

-Former Chief of eBay Tries a New Bid. It's Political.
By BRAD STONE
Meg Whitman, a former chief executive of eBay, once said that running the Internet auction site was like being the mayor of a large city, with the mix of politics, competing constituencies and widespread resistance to change.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/22whitman.html

-First Chores? You Bet
WASHINGTON: CONSIDER the perils of parenting in the White House. There is a movie theater, a bowling alley, a horseshoe pit, a swimming pool, five full-time chefs and dozens of household staff members ready to dish up ice cream at all hours. There are trips to foreign lands, dinners with kings and celebrities, swarming paparazzi and blaring motorcades, all with the potential to transform sweet little children into bossy, self-important ones. (Or lonely, dysfunctional ones.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/fashion/22firstp.html


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Death and Texas
By Bryan Burrough
In 1845, the second-largest independent country in North America, the Republic of Texas, held its nose, took a deep breath and merged with its upstart eastern neighbor, the United States. (As a Texan myself, I understand the occasional regret that we took y'all's name instead of the other way around.) For the next century, Texas didn't give America much trouble. By and large, it was known for cattle with large horns, men with large hats and its citizenry's penchant for orneriness, braggadocio and shooting one another.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022002165.html

-Yes, We're Out of Power. But I'm Still Starstruck.
By S.E. Cupp
I admit, I was a little hurt after overhearing a recent discussion about the lack of "star power" at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. Not only have I really been looking forward to CPAC, but this year I am actually on the agenda: "Book Signing: Exhibit Hall. Saturday.
12:30 pm." Tell me that doesn't ooze glitz and glamour.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022002163.html

-State Secrets? Let the Courts Weigh In.
By Ronald Goldfarb
When most people think of "state secrets," they no doubt envision military plans for troop movements in wartime or back-channel diplomatic maneuvering. But in fact, most claims of state secrets pertain not to the dramatic undercover actions of spy novels, but to civil matters. And thanks to a little-known, half-century-old case, the U.S. government has been able to use the state secrets defense with increasing frequency and marked success to prevent embarrassing information from coming to light.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022002167.html

-5 Myths About Education Reform
To borrow from the old quip on giving up smoking: Fixing public schools is easy -- we've done it hundreds of times. Even with the billions of dollars in economic stimulus aid, public schools stand no chance of getting better until we dispel some empty theories about how to help them. 1. We know how to fix public schools; we just lack the political will to finish the job. Wrong. For the past 25 years, K-12 education has been at or near the top of most politicians' domestic agendas. Candidates vie to become the "education" president, governor or mayor. The public cries out for better schools and is even willing to pay higher taxes to get them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/17/AR2009021703571.html

-Obama's First Budget Seeks To Trim Deficit
Plan Would Cut War Spending, Increase Taxes on the Wealthy
By Lori Montgomery and Ceci Connolly
President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100911.html?hpid=topnews

-19 political prisoners released from Myanmar jails
The Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar -- Several monks and three members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party were among the more than 6,300 prisoners released by Myanmar's junta as part of a government amnesty, a party spokesman and a rights group said Sunday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/22/AR2009022200015.html?hpid=moreheadlines


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Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Governors Defend Stimulus Plan
By LESLIE EATON
Democratic governors stepped up their defense of the federal stimulus package Saturday in the face of steady criticism of the $787 billion plan from a small group of their Republican peers. At a press conference held during the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington D.C., the Democrats said the stimulus plan is already protecting teachers from cutbacks and putting construction workers back on the job. And they criticized objecting Republicans as a "fringe group."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123525505653141087.html

-More Bank Misery Sinks Stocks
Efforts to Snuff Out Nationalization Talk Ease Selling, but Fears Remain
By PETER A. MCKAY
The stock market flirted with its dotcom-era low but trimmed its losses to miss that mark on Friday, capping an otherwise dismal week in which fears of nationalization of major U.S. banks gripped trading floors around the world.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123513190945132543.html

-Winning a Cyber War
The 'soft underbelly' of U.S. security. The Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan experienced a cyber attack last month that took down its two largest Web sites. But that's small beer compared to what happened to the Pentagon and several other U.S. agencies in 2007, when cyber attackers successfully hacked into their computer systems, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates's email.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123517477106837383.html

-Low Mortgage Rates Will Cost You
By AMY HOAK
Mortgage rates are low, but getting a home loan is going to cost you. New rules by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are upping the fees for borrowers with less than perfect credit, those in the mortgage industry say. Other increased costs reflect the uncertainty in the mortgage market as lenders try to reduce their risk and anticipate rates.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123525721998041127.html


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

-Obama's biggest challenges in Afghanistan
By Julian E. Barnes
Reporting from Krakow, Poland -- President Obama's war strategy began to take shape with his announcement last week that 17,000 additional U.S. troops are headed to Afghanistan. But the thorniest problems still await him: persuading militants to lay down their arms, coaxing help from allies and eliminating extremist havens on the Afghan-Pakistan border.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usafghan22-2009feb22,0,3663250.story


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FLORIDA DIGEST - February 22, 2009

**IF YOU CAN'T ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE, CONTACT US AT rays.list@comcast.net and we'll be happy to send the full article.


~~FLORIDA GENERAL NEWS~~

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

-Second legal opinions for South Florida Water Management District costly for taxpayers
By Andy Reid
Even with 27 full-time lawyers already at hand, the South Florida Water Management District's board prefers to have an extra attorney of its own for costly, just-in-case second opinions. In recent years, that has meant flying in an attorney from Miami and paying him $3,500 a day to sit in on monthly meetings - even though there is a floor full of lawyers available at the district's headquarters west of West Palm Beach.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/sfl-flpwaterattorneypnfeb22,0,3621094.story

-Huge project to expand Interstate 595 in Broward County to begin this summer
More lanes, safer ramps, new jobs: Construction will begin this summer on massive project to accommodate traffic growth
By Michael Turnbell
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/sfl-flb5950222sbfeb22,0,4075837.story


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

-Candidates featured at gay, lesbian caucus
By JANINE ZEITLIN
North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns, who recently announced his run for the U.S. Senate, courted about 80 people at the first gathering of a state gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Democratic group in Southwest Florida.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20090221/NEWS01/90221022/1002/RSS01

-It's Crist vs. Jindal on 'Meet the Press'
By Adam C. Smith
In this corner, Charlie Crist, carrying 27 electoral votes and sky-high approval ratings among moderate, independent voters. In that corner, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Rhodes Scholar and darling of conservatives, who see him as one of the brightest young lights in the GOP.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/article978121.ece

-Hundreds of people waiting for housing applications are sent home as process is abruptly shut down
By Andrew Ba Tran
Thousands of people seeking government-subsidized housing packed the street Saturday morning in front of the Robert P. Kelly Housing Authority Building until police shut down the line because the crowd had grown unmanageable.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-0221-bn-housing-subsidized,0,1202986.story?track=rss

-How dogs, dirt take priority over education
By FRED GRIMM
College students may think of themselves as dirt poor, but in Florida they're regarded as less than dirt. Fill dirt, unlike students, remains a sacred commodity in Florida, among the 239 items that the state Legislature has decreed too essential to our way of life to be squeezed for new revenue. Just as dry cleaning is exempt from the state's 6 percent sales tax. Or religious bric-a-brac. Or doggie manicures. Or Super Bowl tickets. Or haircuts. Or photo finishing. Or newspaper subscriptions. Or state flags (from any state).
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/5min/story/915829.html

-Virtual schools become an option for students
By Christopher O'Donnell
Starting this summer, all Florida school districts will be required by law to set up virtual schools for kindergartners through eighth-graders.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090222/article/902220340


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