~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg21sep21,0,3326687,print.column?coll=la-util-opinion-commentary
A Disgraced, Corrupt Ex-Governor ... who happens to be gay.
New Jersey's James McGreevey plays the identity card to garner sympathy.
by Jonah Goldberg
September 21, 2006
A SURE SIGN of a political movement's maturity is the discretion it shows inpicking its leaders. Which is why gay groups could show how grown-up theyare by excommunicating James McGreevey.
McGreevey, you will recall, was the corrupt governor of New Jersey who wasforced to resign when it was revealed that he had appointed Golan Cipel, apoet, to run his state's homeland security department in the hope that Cipelwould become the governor's male concubine. McGreevey came out of the closetonly after Cipel threatened to sue him for sexual harassment. McGreeveystill denies accusations that he plied Cipel with Jagermeister shots andassaulted him. He says it was a real "love affair" first consummated whileMcGreevey's wife was in the hospital recovering from her Caesarian sectiondelivery of their daughter. Cipel says he and McGreevey never had sex.
Whatever the truth, it's clear that McGreevey only came out because thewheels were coming off his political career. He tried to leap to safety bygrabbing on to the guardrail of identity politics, declaring withfocus-group clarity: "My truth is that I am a gay American." That formulation - "my truth" - was exquisitely postmodern, implying that truthisn't something we can all lay claim to any more. It must be personalized,relativized. It's all about me.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://news.com.com/Gonzales+ISPs+must+keep+records+on+users/2100-1028_3-6117455.html
WASHINGTON--Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday stepped up hisefforts to lobby for federal laws requiring Internet providers to keep trackof what their customers do online.
Gonzales asked senators to adopt "data retention" legislation that wouldlikely force Internet providers to keep customer logs for at least a year ortwo. Those logs, often routinely discarded after a few months, are intendedto be used by police investigating crimes.
ISP snooping time line
In events that were first reported by CNET News.com, Bush administrationofficials have said Internet providers must keep track of what Americans aredoing online. Here's the time line:
June 2005: Justice Department officials quietly propose data retentionrules.
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Forwarded from Ken's List
<Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/09/i_wrote_the_fol.html
Ghana: Media Leads Anti-Gay Witch-Hunt
NEW from DIRELAND, Septembver 20
Gays and lesbians in Ghana, where homosexuality is a crime, have beenthe target of a month-long campaign of homophobia in the media thatcontinues-an attack abetted by homophobic declarations from theGhanaian government. The climate of hate and fear is so great that theleader of Ghana's only LGBT group has been forced to flee the countryin fear of his life, after receiving a constant stream of threats ofviolence and death. FOR DETAILS, and an exclusive interview withPrince Kweku MacDonald, the exiled leader of the Gay & Lesbian Assn. Ghana (GALAG), click on:
<http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/09/i_wrote_the_fol.html>
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15572423.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
AIDS bill advances despite complaints from big-state lawmakers
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A spending bill that would send more AIDS money to the Southhas passed a House committee despite opposition from some big-state lawmakers.
Representatives from southern and rural states say revisions to the RyanWhite CARE Act of 1990 were necessary because of how the epidemic haschanged over the years.
Once a big-city illness mainly infecting gay white men, AIDS now isprevalent in the South and among minorities.
But, according to government studies, federal support has not kept pace.
A patient in California, for example, gets more money than a patient inAlabama, by some estimates.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/l21gay.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Gays in the Military (1 Letter)
To the Editor:
Those who read "Gay Groups Renew Drive Against 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' "(news article, Sept. 14) should not forget that the military's "don't ask,don't tell" policy prohibits not only openly gay troops from serving, butalso openly gay lawyers in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Navyand gay translators of Arabic within the military, among other positions.
The argument that allowing openly gay individuals to serve in the militarydisrupts "unit cohesion" strains logic when viewed in light of the military'spolicy of prohibiting from its ranks trained professionals it desperatelyneeds in the continuing war on terror. Mark Siegmund
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/15568840.htm
TOURISM SURVEY TO DEFINE GAY TOURIST MARKET
The travel industry is sponsoring a survey to plumb the details of anincreasingly popular label for vacation destinations: gay friendly. TheTravel Industry Association of America has hired Harris Interactive to poll2,000 gay travelers about what they look for when making vacation plans.Tourism bureaus in the Keys and Miami-Dade are also sponsoring the study.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092006cab.htm
Chicago Gay AIDS Activist Sentenced To Prison For Cabbie Murder
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
September 20, 2006 - 7:00 pm ET
(Chicago, Illinois) A gay Chicago man who devoted most of his adult life toraising money for AIDS organizations and working with the city's healthdepartment was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for killing a taxidriver over what prosecutors described as a fare dispute.
With good behavior Michael Jackson (pictured) could be released in seven toeight years.
A jury last month found Jackson, 38, not guilty of first-degree murder butconvicted him of second degree murder and aggravated criminal hijacking inthe death of cabbie Haroon Paryani last year.
During the trial Cook County Assistant State's Atty. Mercedes Luque-Rosalescalled Jackson a cold-blooded killer who repeatedly ran over Paryani in adispute over an eight-dollar fare.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092006vatican.htm
Vatican Gay Probe Of US Seminaries Finishes
by The Associated Press
September 20, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET
(Washington) A Vatican-ordered review of Roman Catholic seminaries in theUnited States has been completed and the results sent to Rome, the U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops says.
Vatican officials sought the evaluation in response to the clergy sex abusecrisis, to look for anything that contributed to the scandal, which eruptedin 2002 and battered the church.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops' conference, said thismonth that the visits to the seminaries and houses of formation for priestswere finished July 14 and the reports were sent to the Vatican.
The agency overseeing the assessment _ the Vatican's Congregation forCatholic Education _ is reviewing the data. It was not known how much of thefindings will be made public.
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092006phelps.htm
Phelps Clan Seeks Dismissal Of Gay Protest Charges
by The Associated Press
September 20, 2006 - 9:00 pm ET
(Westminister, Maryland) A church whose members show up at militaryfunerals claiming God is killing troops in Iraq to punish the nation for itstolerance of homosexuality is asking that a defamation lawsuit be dismissedon the grounds that they are merely expressing an opinion.
"There can be no falsehood when mere opinions are stated," attorneys for theWestboro Baptist Church said Monday in a motion
filed in U.S. District Court.
Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., is suing the Rev. Fred Phelps and his Topeka,Kan.-based church after church members demonstrated at the funeral of LanceCpl. Matthew Snyder, and posted pictures of the protest on their Web site.
Cpl. Snyder was killed in March. Snyder's lawsuit, filed June 5, allegeschurch members violated the family's right to privacy and defamed the Marineand his family at the funeral and on the church's Web site.
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http://www.waynebesen.com/2006/09/old-time-religion-with-new-twist.html
Anything But Straight
Sept. 20, 2006
by Wayne Besen
Old Time Religion With A Gay Twist
In the pastoral foothills of North Carolina, nearly 2000 conservativeChristians anxiously gathered this past Sunday in a school auditoriumconverted into a makeshift revival meeting. The make-up was as thick as theanticipation and the hairdos higher than the choir's soaring notes. Thestanding room only crowd was whiter than a convention of ghosts andoverflowed into an adjacent room with a big screen television. As the musicplayed people held up massive Bibles and hollered and hooted as if they werein a heated competition for the Lord's ear.
The clean cut and wholesome-looking families were not waiting on evangelicaltitans such as Billy Graham or Rev. Jerry Falwell, but on the somewhatobscure ex-gay leader Tim Wilkins, who directs Wake Forest-based CrossMinistries.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/26725.php
Gay frat at UA gets its national charter
Delta Lambda Phi plans service role; adds to diverse Greek groups
By LA MONICA EVERETT-HAYNES
Tucson Citizen
It took a little more than one year for a group of University of Arizona students to get a national charter for their gay fraternity.
Delta Lambda Phi, which is now recognized at UA, received its charter earlier this month.
"We were one of the fastest charters in history because we were dedicated to this," said Christopher Newman, 23, a senior education major and founding member.
It's the university's first fraternity geared toward gays, making UA one of a few schools in the nation with Greek letter organizations geared toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students.
But the fraternity, which completed rush this month, is not exclusively for gays. Membership is open to men who are bisexual or progressive.
UA recognizes several fraternity and sorority chapters based on diversity.
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2006/09/18/daily18.html?from_rss=1
Coors praised for treatment of gays
The Denver Business Journal - 9:48 AM MDT Tuesday
A national human rights organization on Tuesday gave Coors Brewing Co. a perfect score for its treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.
Coors was the only Colorado company to receive the highest marks and one of only 138 corporations in the nation to receive a perfect score.
The Human Rights Campaign of Washington, D.C., said the number of companies
with a top rating of 100 percent rose from 101 last year. The organization has been tracking how gay-friendly corporate America is since 2002.
Coors has improved its standing since the first survey, when it was scored an 86 in 2002 and again in 2003. Coors has earned the top mark in each of the past three years.
Coors is a regional division of brewing giant Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP) of Denver.
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The current issue of The Independent Gay News is online
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
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The Express Gay News
http://expressgaynews.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=9199
Hong Kong court upholds decision against sodomy laws
Decision: "Values have changed"
HONG KONG (AP) | Sep 20, 6:44 AM
The Hong Kong government lost an appeal Wednesday of a High Court rulingagainst a law that says men younger than 21 who engage in sodomy should bejailed for life.
A panel of three Court of Appeal judges upheld the original decision issuedby the lower court in August 2005, the court's ruling said.
The laws were first challenged by William Roy Leung, a then 20-year-old gayman who argued he should be able to have a loving relationship without thefear of imprisonment.
In last August's ruling, High Court Judge Michael Hartmann sided with Leung,saying the laws against sodomy infringed on the rights of privacy andequality for gay men.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092000540.html
Conservative Anglican bishops to sign anti-gay pact
Reuters
Wednesday, September 20, 2006; 9:35 AM
KIGALI (Reuters) - Conservative Anglican bishops largely drawn fromdeveloping countries are expected to agree on a pact condemning theordination of gay clergy, Nigeria's archbishop said on Wednesday.
The agreement, expected to be signed later this week by clerics from Africa,Latin America, the Middle East and Asia meeting in Rwanda, is likely todeepen rifts between the conservatives mainly from the "Global South" andliberals in the United States and Europe.
"In order to put to rest this issue of homosexuality, we are working on anAnglican covenant with provisions that very clearly say what it means to bean Anglican," Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola, told reporters.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/arts/television/21barb.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1158812031-vNd/aqpMkLKsmxDN+yKxKw&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
On 'The View,' New Face, New Dynamics
By JACQUES STEINBERG
From her new perch at the head of the glass table on "The View" Tuesdaymorning, Rosie O'Donnell was expressing skepticism about Oprah Winfrey'srecent declaration that she was not gay.
After showing the "View" audience a clip of Ms. Winfrey and her friend GayleKing struggling to pump gas while driving cross-country this summer, a"Thelma and Louise" excursion they had recorded for the fall premiere of Ms.Winfrey's talk show, Ms. O'Donnell said, "I think that's very typical of gayrelationships - not saying they're gay."
"You might be a little bit gay," said Ms. O'Donnell, hardly shy about herown homosexuality, as she spoke to Ms. Winfrey, whom she called "Opie," asif she were there. "You're just not doing it."
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/features1.html
Today's Date:September 21, 2006
History of Gay Politics on The Island City
By Art Greenwald
Features Writer
As Wilton Manors evolved from a nondescript, blue-collar, conservative townwith a decaying downtown district into a booming gay epicenter, its politicsreflect that change.
Big, powerful hurricane force political winds of change have swept throughthe island city in recent years. It started with a slow-moving steamrollereffect in 1988 with John Fiore, the first 'out' gay man elected to the citycommission.
"Back then I didn't think being gay would be an asset," he noted. "I ran onmy record as an urban planner and believed I could turn things around."
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Moscow court rejects appeal against gay parade ban
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060919/54051050.html
MOSCOW, September 19 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court rejected Tuesdayan appeal lodged by the organizers of a gay pride parade in May against aban on the event, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom.
The Tverskoy district court issued a ruling against the parade, planned forMay 27, a day before, upholding a ban imposed earlier by City Hall.
"We intend to appeal shortly with the European Human Rights Court inStrasbourg to vindicate our rights, and also to lodge a complaint with thepresidium of the Moscow City Court. We believe the decision it has handeddown is against the law," Dmitry Bartenev, a lawyer representing theorganizers, told RIA.
Gay activists went ahead with their May 27 march in Moscow in defiance ofthe authorities' ban, but riot police, supported by neo-Nazis and militantChristians, broke up the rally shortly before it began.
Although homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, and quite a fewgay clubs have opened since then in Moscow and other big cities, there isstill a lot of resentment, both at the public and the state level, to open displays of homosexuality.
#####
Thursday, September 21, 2006
NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST September 21, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=17524
Power from Not-So-Hot Geothermal
This power system could make it feasible to generate cheap electricity from lukewarm geothermal sources.
By Prachi Patel-Predd
A large share of the geothermal resources suitable for powergeneration--those with temperatures higher than 300°F--are deep underground,beyond the reach of current technology. Lower-temperature resources, whichare common across the United States, are generally used for heating, butcould be a bountiful source of power as well, if researchers were able tofind an economical way to convert them into electricity.
Engineers at the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), a unit ofUnited Technologies based in East Hartford, CT, say they have developed alow-cost system that can utilize low-temperature geothermal resources. Thetechnology could be particularly useful in generating electricity from wastehot water generated at oil and gas wells.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15568984.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Time for dialogue to resolve nuclear crisis
OUR OPINION: TALKING TO IRAN DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT OF ITS POLICIES
For sheer brass, it's hard to top the performance of Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. Iran, lestwe forget, is in violation of a U.N. deadline to halt its uranium-enrichmentprogram -- a defiance that the United Nations apparently is powerless too over come. Yet Mr. Ahmadinejad had the nerve to criticize the SecurityCouncil for somehow failing to rein in the United States and those hederisively chose to call ``the big powers.''
Strive for unity
If Mr. Ahmadinejad had a decent respect for the United Nations and worldopinion, he might have explained exactly why Iran has failed to heedSecurity Council Resolution 1696, adopted by a vote of 14-1 on July 31.Better yet, he would simply comply. The resolution expresses ''seriousconcern'' over Iran's refusal to comply with International Atomic EnergyAgency orders to halt uranium enrichment that could lead to a nuclear bomb.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/09/21/democrats_skip_detainee_treatment_debate?mode=PF
Democrats sit out detainee debate
By Anne Plummer Flaherty, Associated Press Writer
September 21, 2006
WASHINGTON --Congressional Democrats are sitting out an explosive debate onhow to treat the nation's most dangerous terrorism suspects, bypassing achance to challenge President Bush on a proposal that has infuriatedinternational law experts and human rights groups.
The reasons are fraught with politics: They don't have to join in, and theycould regret it if they did.
With November elections for control of Congress just weeks away, Democratsare letting a handful of Republican senators battle the Bush administrationover the legal fine points of the White House detainee plan in hopes the GOPwill bloody itself on the top-tier issue of security.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday that Democratswere "on the sidelines watching the catfights" among Republicans onterrorism legislation. He said they had little choice until the GOP settledon its position.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/20/health/webmd/printable2027945.shtml
Poor Report Card For U.S. Healthcare
Sep 20, 2006
(WebMD) In high school, 66 percent earns a "D" - not quite bad enough tofail, but still dismally below average.
And 66 is exactly the score the U.S. health system received in the mostcomprehensive grading to date of areas such as access to care, quality,cost, and efficiency.
The score comes from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health policythink tank in Washington.
The group evaluated more than three dozen different measures to come up witha composite score for American health care in relation to top-performingnations - or, in some cases, individual states.
The categories included areas such as long, healthy, and productive lives(the U.S. scored a 69 on this), quality (71), access (67), efficiency (51),and equity (71).
"Some might ask if it is a 'C,' [is it] an 'F'?" says James Mongan, MD,chairman of the commission that issued the report. "To me the message isclear. We can do much better and we need to do much better."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/nyregion/21clinton.html?ei=5040&en=04b3dcf0e8d87533&amp;ex=1159502400&adxnnl=1&partner=MOREOVERNEWS&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1158851935-TYZDxGPe8Ck/GAHi3kUxJQ
September 21, 2006
It's the Bushes and Clintons, Finding Common Ground
By PATRICK HEALY
It's not often that you see a current American president and his predecessorin New York City, on the same morning, trying to foster peace in the Muslimworld, and trying to burnish their own legacies as statesmen.
Nor is it common to have the wife of one of them on hand to help out theother guy.
But there was President Bush meeting with the Palestinian president, MahmoudAbbas, at the Waldorf-Astoria. And there was former President Bill Clintonconvening a conference on global concerns at a nearby Sheraton, andlistening to President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan chastise Pope BenedictXVI for the pope's remarks about Islam. And there was the first lady, LauraBush, giving the Clinton conclave some juice by announcing a new project todeliver clean water to 10 million Africans by 2010.
Mr. Musharraf, echoing an old slogan of Mr. Clinton's, could have beenreflecting the ethos of the Midtown diplomacy - not to mention the Bushesand the Clintons - when he told the conference that in dealing with allreligious faiths, "This is a time to build bridges and not burn bridges."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/us/politics/21massachusetts.html?ei=5040&en=44a45fda293111e7&ex=1159502400&partner=MOREOVERNEWS&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
In Massachusetts, a Race That's Anything but Typical
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON, Sept. 20 - The major candidates for governor here have signatureattributes of generations of Massachusetts politicians. They have Irishsurnames and Harvard degrees, and both rose to financial prosperity fromhumbler origins.
But this election bears little resemblance to a classic Massachusetts race.
If elected, the Democratic candidate, Deval L. Patrick, who headed theJustice Department civil rights division under President Bill Clinton, wouldbecome the state's first African-American governor, and the second blackgovernor in the country.
The Republican, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, would be the first woman elected tothe state's highest position.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/09/20/clinton_global_conference_begins_in_nyc?mode=PF
Clinton global conference begins in NYC
By Deepti Hajela, Associated Press Writer
September 20, 2006
NEW YORK --World political leaders discussed the need for Palestinian peace,religious sensitivity and clean water in Africa on the opening day of theClinton Global Initiative conference Wednesday.
Former President Clinton's second summit brings together government,business and nonprofit sectors to come up with tangible solutions to globalproblems.
It was expected to draw diverse voices such as Afghanistan President HamidKarzai, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, cyclist Lance Armstrong, CBS Newsanchor Katie Couric, actor Don Cheadle and U.N. Secretary-General KofiAnnan.
Some of the world's religious and ethnic conflicts were addressed from thestart with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stressing the importance ofPalestinian peace.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001789_pf.html
Abramoff Associates, Bush Aides Met Often
Associated Press
Thursday, September 21, 2006; A11
Former associates of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had dozens ofappointments with Bush administration staff members, according to SecretService visitor logs the White House released yesterday to settle a lawsuitby the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group.
Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, political allies ofPresident Bush and longtime Abramoff associates, totaled more than 100visits to the Bush White House. Abramoff, a former GOP lobbyist, has pleadedguilty to fraud and is cooperating with prosecutors in an influence-peddlinginvestigation. White House officials said they believe all their meetingsthat included Bush were group events, such as Christmas parties or policybriefings for GOP supporters.
Among others who visited White House staff members are two former Abramofflobbying associates who have also pleaded guilty in the ongoing lobbyingprobe. Neil Volz, an aide to Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) before joiningAbramoff's lobbying team, had 18 appointments with White House aides. TonyRudy, an aide to then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), visited the Bush White House 13 times.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060920venez,1,1811094.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Chavez taunts 'dictator' Bush
By Gary Marx
Tribune Foreign Correspondent
September 20, 2006, 11:12 PM CDT
HAVANA -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez came to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday and showed precisely why the Bush administration isworking hard to make sure his country doesn't win a seat on the SecurityCouncil next month.
Chavez, fresh from meeting with some of the United States' other ardentadversaries last week in Cuba, denounced President Bush as "the devil" and a"world dictator" when it was his turn to address the UN General Assembly, aday after Bush made a speech from the same lectern.
"Yesterday, the devil came here," Chavez said, drawing giggles from theaudience as he crossed himself, looked toward the heavens and said the spot"still smells of sulfur today."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-circuit21sep21,1,6048076.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
Plan to Break Up 9th Circuit Court Faces Opposition
Judges, politicians and law professors line up against the move that some conservatives seek.
By Henry Weinstein
Times Staff Writer
September 21, 2006
A broad array of judges, law professors, bar associations and politicalleaders came out Wednesday against splitting the U.S. 9th Circuit Court ofAppeals in San Francisco, as the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washingtontook up the thorny issue.
The overwhelming majority of the circuit's judges, led by Chief Judge MaryM. Schroeder of Phoenix, signed a letter reiterating their opposition to thebreakup. Schroeder, Carlos Bea of San Francisco, Consuelo Callahan ofSacramento and four other 9th Circuit judges - Alex Kozinski, a Reaganappointee from California, Sidney Thomas, a Clinton appointee from Montana,Johnnie Rawlinson, a Clinton appointee from Nevada, and Richard Clifton, aGeorge W. Bush appointee from Hawaii - attended the hearing to express theiropposition.
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The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001909_pf.html
Search Narrows For Source Of E. Coli
By Michael S. Rosenwald and Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 21, 2006; A01
Health officials in New Mexico positively identified a deadly strain of E. coli in a bag of spinach yesterday, providing a crucial clue that investigators say can be used to trace the source of an outbreak that has sickened 146 people.
Until now, the evidence implicating spinach has been circumstantial. By confirming the presence of the germ in a bag of spinach eaten by one victim, investigators can begin tracing it back to a farm in California, a step toward clearing the sale of fresh spinach from other parts of the country, David W. Acheson, a top FDA food safety expert, said.
"Yesterday, we narrowed it to California," he said. "Today, we narrowed it down to three counties. We're hoping to narrow it down to a field and . . . to a spinach leaf."
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/business/21walmart.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Wal-Mart to Test Price Cuts on Range of Generic Drugs
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, will test a program to sell generic prescription drugs to its workers and customers at sharply reduced prices, according to people briefed on the plans.
The giant discount chain, which has used its size to knock down the costs of toys, clothing and groceries, will sell generic versions of about 300 widely prescribed drugs for as low as $4 for a standard prescription, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the new program. On average, generic drugs cost between $10 and $30 for a 30-day prescription.
The company, which is frequently criticized for its employee health benefits, is expected to announce the program today. A company spokeswoman declined comment.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21roads.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Judge Voids Bush Policy on National Forest Roads
By FELICITY BARRINGER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - In the latest round of legal Ping-Pong over the future of 49 million roadless acres of national forests, a federal judge in California on Wednesday reinstated Clinton-era protections against logging and mining on the land and invalidated the Bush administration's substitute policy.
The judge, Elizabeth D. LaPorte of Federal District Court in San Francisco,
said the new policy had been imposed without the required environmental safeguards.
The reversal, however, does not cover nine million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska because a separate set of legal opinions determines their use.
Judge LaPorte ruled in a suit filed by a coalition of environmental groups and states that objected to the decision last year to scuttle what was widely known as the "roadless rule" of 2001.
The administration replaced that rule with a policy of state-by-state management under which governors submit recommendations for the use of national forest lands within their borders.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21habeas.html?ei=5094&amp;en=00bf4cedca2834dd&hp=&ex=1158897600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Measures Seek to Restrict Detainees' Access to Courts
By NEIL A. LEWIS and KATE ZERNIKE
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - Although the effort has been partly obscured by the highly publicized wrangling over military commissions for war crimes trials, the Bush administration and its allies in Congress are trying to use the same legislation to strip federal courts of their authority to review the detentions of almost all terrorism suspects.
Both the legislation introduced on behalf of the administration and the competing bill sponsored by a group of largely Republican opponents in the Senate include a provision that would bar foreigners held abroad from using the federal trial courts for challenges to detention known as habeas corpus lawsuits. If the provision was enacted, it would mean that all of the lawsuits brought in federal court by about 430 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would be wiped from the books.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee rejected an effort by opponents to strike that provision from the House bill by a party-line vote, with all 15 Republicans present voting to leave it in and all 12 Democrats voting against it. Then, after some initial difficulty in getting approval for the bill, the committee passed it on to the full House.
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http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/21/the_deadly_hole_in_global_security?mode=PF
The Boston Globe
The deadly hole in global security
By Óscar Arias | September 21, 2006
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY will be at the top of the agenda at the UN General Assembly meeting this week in New York. For many leaders, enhancing security involves spending more money on weapons for themselves and their allies. The five years since 9/11 have seen a boom in the conventional weapons trade, accompanied by a new willingness to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses committed in the pursuit of the war on terrorism. Yet the focus on the production and distribution of weapons to allies, whatever their human rights record, does not enhance global security.
International terrorism and nuclear proliferation, in particular, are not problems that can be solved simply by a show of military strength by the United States, or any other country. Too many governments still think in terms of this kind of Cold War-era strategy when trying to address the security challenges of today.
The Cold War-mindset endorsed proxy wars, leading the United States to train and equip mujahideen like Osama Bin Laden in its fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The Cold War-mindset promoted arming regimes with questionable human rights records for ``strategic" reasons, resulting in US forces eventually having to face enemies armed with US-made weapons in Panama, Somalia, Haiti, and Iraq.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=2894
Women's E-News
Jailing Pregnant Women Raises Health Risks
Run Date: 09/20/06 By Ehrlich and Paltrow
WeNews commentators
Pregnant women with untreated drug or alcohol problems are getting arrested and jailed for child abuse. Our commentators say this goes against the best medical advice and subverts the intentions of child-endangerment laws.
Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.
(WOMENSENEWS)--In recent months, pregnant women have been arrested and jailed in South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and New Hampshire, among other states, based on the claim that pregnant women can be considered child abusers even before they have given birth.
Women targeted for these arrests are usually those with untreated drug or alcohol problems.
Other women have also been arrested for endangering the fetus by not getting to the hospital quickly enough on the day of delivery and by not following doctor's advice to get bed rest. One woman who suffered a stillbirth was arrested for murder based on the claim that by exercising her right to medical decision-making and postponing a Caesarean section, she caused the death of her child.
Law enforcement officials often justify the application of criminal laws to pregnant women by claiming that the arrest and imprisonment of pregnant women will protect fetuses and advance children's health.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/stories/41819/
Inside the Feds' Secret Wiretapping Rooms
By Jeffrey Klein and Paolo Pontoniere, New America Media
Posted on September 20, 2006, Printed on September 20, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/41819/
Although it may appear as if Congress is about to put restraints on the Bush administration's wiretapping programs, the three "reform bills" now up for a vote all paint a deceptive picture of the massive domestic surveillance programs that the government has up and running. Because several ongoing invasion-of-privacy lawsuits could expose the extent of the illegal wiretapping, the administration is seeking via these bills to shunt the lawsuits into a secret court, where they will die.
Earlier this year Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) accused President Bush and the National Security Agency (NSA) of breaking the law by authorizing wiretaps without seeking a judicial warrant. Vice President Cheney quickly went to the Hill to work out a compromise with Sen. Specter. The so-called Specter-Cheney bill would give the president the option -- not the requirement -- to submit his electronic surveillance programs for review by the special secret court created by FISA, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
A contrasting bill sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) affirms that FISA court approval for eavesdropping is the "exclusive" means for authorizing wiretaps in domestic terrorism and espionage cases. And a third proposal by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) requires only that the administration notify Congress when it conducts wiretaps without a warrant.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901382_pf.html
Georgia Law Requiring Voters to Show Photo ID Is Thrown Out
Judge Says Some Would Be Disenfranchised; State Plans Appeal
By Darryl Fears and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 20, 2006; A06
A state judge yesterday rejected a Georgia law requiring voters to showgovernment-issued photo identification, writing in his decision, "This cannot be."
Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. said the law,pushed by Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) to fight voter fraud, violates the stateconstitution because it disenfranchises citizens who are otherwise qualifiedto vote.
State officials vowed to appeal Bedford's ruling to the Georgia SupremeCourt before the Nov. 7 general election.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001586_pf.html
Independence Days
By David S. Broder
Thursday, September 21, 2006; A25
American politics reached a critical turn last week. The revolt of severalRepublican senators against President Bush's insistence on a free hand intreating terrorist detainees signaled the emergence of an independent forcein elections and government.
This movement is not new, but the moral scale of the issue -- torture -- andthe implications for both constitutional and international law give it anepic dimension, even if it is ultimately settled by compromise.
The senators involved -- John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner -- werealso instrumental in forming the "Gang of 14," the bipartisan bloc thatseized control of the Senate last year and wrote the compromise thatprevented a drastic change in the filibuster rule that otherwise would have triggered a bitter partisan divide.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21herbert.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
The Torture of Liberty
By BOB HERBERT
After traveling to Ottawa to interview Maher Arar last year, I wrote: "If John Ashcroft was right, then I was staring into the malevolent, duplicitouseyes of pure evil ... But all I could really see was a polite, unassuming,neatly dressed guy who looked like a suburban Little League coach."
It turns out John Ashcroft was wrong. After an exhaustive investigation, agovernment commission in Canada ruled definitively and unequivocally thisweek that Maher Arar was no terrorist. He was nothing more than a quietfamily man who found himself sucked into a vortex of incompetence, hysteriaand a so-called war on terror that has gone completely haywire.
He's lucky he survived. Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen who was born in Syria,was snatched by American authorities as he waited for a connecting flighthome from Kennedy Airport in September 2002. The Americans apparently wereacting on bad information fed to them by Canadian investigators.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21brooks.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Lessons From U.N. Week
By DAVID BROOKS
One of the lessons of this past week is that the international system isbroken. The world community might make declarations - on preventing Iranianand North Korean nukes, disarming Hezbollah, or preventing genocide inDarfur - but when it comes to actually uniting to take action, words andresolutions lead nowhere. Thanks to a combination of American errors,European escapism, and Russian and Chinese greed, the worst people in theworld now drive events while the best people do nothing.
The second big lesson of the past week is that five years after 9/11 we arefarther from reaching a consensus on the nature of the threat than everbefore. Instead of clarity, there is a cacophony of theories that attempt toexplain the extremists - emphasizing religion or ideology or feelings ofhistoric humiliation or some combination of all three.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21thu3.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Editorial
Keep Christ Out of the Christmas Tree
Taxpayers may find it hard to believe that the must-pass $500 billiondefense budget could be held hostage to a mischievous amendment empoweringevangelical chaplains to speak in the name of Jesus at nonreligious militarygatherings. But that is the case in Congress, where hard-right Republicanshave held up passage of the defense bill in an attempt to license zealotchaplains to violate policies of religious tolerance at secular ceremonies.
Despite the firm opposition of the Pentagon and ecumenical chaplain groups,House Republicans have been defending this egregious pro-evangelical thumbon the scale in negotiations with the Senate.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21thu1.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Editorial
Keep Away the Vote
One of the cornerstones of the Republican Party's strategy for winningelections these days is voter suppression, intentionally putting up barriersbetween eligible voters and the ballot box. The House of Representativestook a shameful step in this direction yesterday, voting largely along partylines for onerous new voter ID requirements. Laws of this kind areunconstitutional, as an array of courts have already held, and profoundlyundemocratic. The Senate should not go along with this cynical, un-Americanelectoral strategy.
The bill the House passed yesterday would require people to show photo ID tovote in 2008. Starting in 2010, that photo ID would have to be somethinglike a passport, or an enhanced kind of driver's license or non-driver'sidentification, containing proof of citizenship. This is a level of identification that many Americans simply do not have.
#####
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=17524
Power from Not-So-Hot Geothermal
This power system could make it feasible to generate cheap electricity from lukewarm geothermal sources.
By Prachi Patel-Predd
A large share of the geothermal resources suitable for powergeneration--those with temperatures higher than 300°F--are deep underground,beyond the reach of current technology. Lower-temperature resources, whichare common across the United States, are generally used for heating, butcould be a bountiful source of power as well, if researchers were able tofind an economical way to convert them into electricity.
Engineers at the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), a unit ofUnited Technologies based in East Hartford, CT, say they have developed alow-cost system that can utilize low-temperature geothermal resources. Thetechnology could be particularly useful in generating electricity from wastehot water generated at oil and gas wells.
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/15568984.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Time for dialogue to resolve nuclear crisis
OUR OPINION: TALKING TO IRAN DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT OF ITS POLICIES
For sheer brass, it's hard to top the performance of Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. Iran, lestwe forget, is in violation of a U.N. deadline to halt its uranium-enrichmentprogram -- a defiance that the United Nations apparently is powerless too over come. Yet Mr. Ahmadinejad had the nerve to criticize the SecurityCouncil for somehow failing to rein in the United States and those hederisively chose to call ``the big powers.''
Strive for unity
If Mr. Ahmadinejad had a decent respect for the United Nations and worldopinion, he might have explained exactly why Iran has failed to heedSecurity Council Resolution 1696, adopted by a vote of 14-1 on July 31.Better yet, he would simply comply. The resolution expresses ''seriousconcern'' over Iran's refusal to comply with International Atomic EnergyAgency orders to halt uranium enrichment that could lead to a nuclear bomb.
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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/09/21/democrats_skip_detainee_treatment_debate?mode=PF
Democrats sit out detainee debate
By Anne Plummer Flaherty, Associated Press Writer
September 21, 2006
WASHINGTON --Congressional Democrats are sitting out an explosive debate onhow to treat the nation's most dangerous terrorism suspects, bypassing achance to challenge President Bush on a proposal that has infuriatedinternational law experts and human rights groups.
The reasons are fraught with politics: They don't have to join in, and theycould regret it if they did.
With November elections for control of Congress just weeks away, Democratsare letting a handful of Republican senators battle the Bush administrationover the legal fine points of the White House detainee plan in hopes the GOPwill bloody itself on the top-tier issue of security.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday that Democratswere "on the sidelines watching the catfights" among Republicans onterrorism legislation. He said they had little choice until the GOP settledon its position.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/20/health/webmd/printable2027945.shtml
Poor Report Card For U.S. Healthcare
Sep 20, 2006
(WebMD) In high school, 66 percent earns a "D" - not quite bad enough tofail, but still dismally below average.
And 66 is exactly the score the U.S. health system received in the mostcomprehensive grading to date of areas such as access to care, quality,cost, and efficiency.
The score comes from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health policythink tank in Washington.
The group evaluated more than three dozen different measures to come up witha composite score for American health care in relation to top-performingnations - or, in some cases, individual states.
The categories included areas such as long, healthy, and productive lives(the U.S. scored a 69 on this), quality (71), access (67), efficiency (51),and equity (71).
"Some might ask if it is a 'C,' [is it] an 'F'?" says James Mongan, MD,chairman of the commission that issued the report. "To me the message isclear. We can do much better and we need to do much better."
=
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/nyregion/21clinton.html?ei=5040&en=04b3dcf0e8d87533&amp;ex=1159502400&adxnnl=1&partner=MOREOVERNEWS&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1158851935-TYZDxGPe8Ck/GAHi3kUxJQ
September 21, 2006
It's the Bushes and Clintons, Finding Common Ground
By PATRICK HEALY
It's not often that you see a current American president and his predecessorin New York City, on the same morning, trying to foster peace in the Muslimworld, and trying to burnish their own legacies as statesmen.
Nor is it common to have the wife of one of them on hand to help out theother guy.
But there was President Bush meeting with the Palestinian president, MahmoudAbbas, at the Waldorf-Astoria. And there was former President Bill Clintonconvening a conference on global concerns at a nearby Sheraton, andlistening to President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan chastise Pope BenedictXVI for the pope's remarks about Islam. And there was the first lady, LauraBush, giving the Clinton conclave some juice by announcing a new project todeliver clean water to 10 million Africans by 2010.
Mr. Musharraf, echoing an old slogan of Mr. Clinton's, could have beenreflecting the ethos of the Midtown diplomacy - not to mention the Bushesand the Clintons - when he told the conference that in dealing with allreligious faiths, "This is a time to build bridges and not burn bridges."
=
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/us/politics/21massachusetts.html?ei=5040&en=44a45fda293111e7&ex=1159502400&partner=MOREOVERNEWS&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
In Massachusetts, a Race That's Anything but Typical
By PAM BELLUCK
BOSTON, Sept. 20 - The major candidates for governor here have signatureattributes of generations of Massachusetts politicians. They have Irishsurnames and Harvard degrees, and both rose to financial prosperity fromhumbler origins.
But this election bears little resemblance to a classic Massachusetts race.
If elected, the Democratic candidate, Deval L. Patrick, who headed theJustice Department civil rights division under President Bill Clinton, wouldbecome the state's first African-American governor, and the second blackgovernor in the country.
The Republican, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, would be the first woman elected tothe state's highest position.
=
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/09/20/clinton_global_conference_begins_in_nyc?mode=PF
Clinton global conference begins in NYC
By Deepti Hajela, Associated Press Writer
September 20, 2006
NEW YORK --World political leaders discussed the need for Palestinian peace,religious sensitivity and clean water in Africa on the opening day of theClinton Global Initiative conference Wednesday.
Former President Clinton's second summit brings together government,business and nonprofit sectors to come up with tangible solutions to globalproblems.
It was expected to draw diverse voices such as Afghanistan President HamidKarzai, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, cyclist Lance Armstrong, CBS Newsanchor Katie Couric, actor Don Cheadle and U.N. Secretary-General KofiAnnan.
Some of the world's religious and ethnic conflicts were addressed from thestart with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf stressing the importance ofPalestinian peace.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001789_pf.html
Abramoff Associates, Bush Aides Met Often
Associated Press
Thursday, September 21, 2006; A11
Former associates of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff had dozens ofappointments with Bush administration staff members, according to SecretService visitor logs the White House released yesterday to settle a lawsuitby the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group.
Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, political allies ofPresident Bush and longtime Abramoff associates, totaled more than 100visits to the Bush White House. Abramoff, a former GOP lobbyist, has pleadedguilty to fraud and is cooperating with prosecutors in an influence-peddlinginvestigation. White House officials said they believe all their meetingsthat included Bush were group events, such as Christmas parties or policybriefings for GOP supporters.
Among others who visited White House staff members are two former Abramofflobbying associates who have also pleaded guilty in the ongoing lobbyingprobe. Neil Volz, an aide to Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) before joiningAbramoff's lobbying team, had 18 appointments with White House aides. TonyRudy, an aide to then-Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), visited the Bush White House 13 times.
=
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-060920venez,1,1811094.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Chavez taunts 'dictator' Bush
By Gary Marx
Tribune Foreign Correspondent
September 20, 2006, 11:12 PM CDT
HAVANA -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez came to the United Nations in New York on Wednesday and showed precisely why the Bush administration isworking hard to make sure his country doesn't win a seat on the SecurityCouncil next month.
Chavez, fresh from meeting with some of the United States' other ardentadversaries last week in Cuba, denounced President Bush as "the devil" and a"world dictator" when it was his turn to address the UN General Assembly, aday after Bush made a speech from the same lectern.
"Yesterday, the devil came here," Chavez said, drawing giggles from theaudience as he crossed himself, looked toward the heavens and said the spot"still smells of sulfur today."
=
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-circuit21sep21,1,6048076.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california
Plan to Break Up 9th Circuit Court Faces Opposition
Judges, politicians and law professors line up against the move that some conservatives seek.
By Henry Weinstein
Times Staff Writer
September 21, 2006
A broad array of judges, law professors, bar associations and politicalleaders came out Wednesday against splitting the U.S. 9th Circuit Court ofAppeals in San Francisco, as the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washingtontook up the thorny issue.
The overwhelming majority of the circuit's judges, led by Chief Judge MaryM. Schroeder of Phoenix, signed a letter reiterating their opposition to thebreakup. Schroeder, Carlos Bea of San Francisco, Consuelo Callahan ofSacramento and four other 9th Circuit judges - Alex Kozinski, a Reaganappointee from California, Sidney Thomas, a Clinton appointee from Montana,Johnnie Rawlinson, a Clinton appointee from Nevada, and Richard Clifton, aGeorge W. Bush appointee from Hawaii - attended the hearing to express theiropposition.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001909_pf.html
Search Narrows For Source Of E. Coli
By Michael S. Rosenwald and Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 21, 2006; A01
Health officials in New Mexico positively identified a deadly strain of E. coli in a bag of spinach yesterday, providing a crucial clue that investigators say can be used to trace the source of an outbreak that has sickened 146 people.
Until now, the evidence implicating spinach has been circumstantial. By confirming the presence of the germ in a bag of spinach eaten by one victim, investigators can begin tracing it back to a farm in California, a step toward clearing the sale of fresh spinach from other parts of the country, David W. Acheson, a top FDA food safety expert, said.
"Yesterday, we narrowed it to California," he said. "Today, we narrowed it down to three counties. We're hoping to narrow it down to a field and . . . to a spinach leaf."
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/business/21walmart.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Wal-Mart to Test Price Cuts on Range of Generic Drugs
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, will test a program to sell generic prescription drugs to its workers and customers at sharply reduced prices, according to people briefed on the plans.
The giant discount chain, which has used its size to knock down the costs of toys, clothing and groceries, will sell generic versions of about 300 widely prescribed drugs for as low as $4 for a standard prescription, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the new program. On average, generic drugs cost between $10 and $30 for a 30-day prescription.
The company, which is frequently criticized for its employee health benefits, is expected to announce the program today. A company spokeswoman declined comment.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21roads.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Judge Voids Bush Policy on National Forest Roads
By FELICITY BARRINGER
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - In the latest round of legal Ping-Pong over the future of 49 million roadless acres of national forests, a federal judge in California on Wednesday reinstated Clinton-era protections against logging and mining on the land and invalidated the Bush administration's substitute policy.
The judge, Elizabeth D. LaPorte of Federal District Court in San Francisco,
said the new policy had been imposed without the required environmental safeguards.
The reversal, however, does not cover nine million acres of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska because a separate set of legal opinions determines their use.
Judge LaPorte ruled in a suit filed by a coalition of environmental groups and states that objected to the decision last year to scuttle what was widely known as the "roadless rule" of 2001.
The administration replaced that rule with a policy of state-by-state management under which governors submit recommendations for the use of national forest lands within their borders.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/washington/21habeas.html?ei=5094&amp;en=00bf4cedca2834dd&hp=&ex=1158897600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Measures Seek to Restrict Detainees' Access to Courts
By NEIL A. LEWIS and KATE ZERNIKE
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 - Although the effort has been partly obscured by the highly publicized wrangling over military commissions for war crimes trials, the Bush administration and its allies in Congress are trying to use the same legislation to strip federal courts of their authority to review the detentions of almost all terrorism suspects.
Both the legislation introduced on behalf of the administration and the competing bill sponsored by a group of largely Republican opponents in the Senate include a provision that would bar foreigners held abroad from using the federal trial courts for challenges to detention known as habeas corpus lawsuits. If the provision was enacted, it would mean that all of the lawsuits brought in federal court by about 430 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would be wiped from the books.
On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee rejected an effort by opponents to strike that provision from the House bill by a party-line vote, with all 15 Republicans present voting to leave it in and all 12 Democrats voting against it. Then, after some initial difficulty in getting approval for the bill, the committee passed it on to the full House.
=
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/21/the_deadly_hole_in_global_security?mode=PF
The Boston Globe
The deadly hole in global security
By Óscar Arias | September 21, 2006
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY will be at the top of the agenda at the UN General Assembly meeting this week in New York. For many leaders, enhancing security involves spending more money on weapons for themselves and their allies. The five years since 9/11 have seen a boom in the conventional weapons trade, accompanied by a new willingness to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses committed in the pursuit of the war on terrorism. Yet the focus on the production and distribution of weapons to allies, whatever their human rights record, does not enhance global security.
International terrorism and nuclear proliferation, in particular, are not problems that can be solved simply by a show of military strength by the United States, or any other country. Too many governments still think in terms of this kind of Cold War-era strategy when trying to address the security challenges of today.
The Cold War-mindset endorsed proxy wars, leading the United States to train and equip mujahideen like Osama Bin Laden in its fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. The Cold War-mindset promoted arming regimes with questionable human rights records for ``strategic" reasons, resulting in US forces eventually having to face enemies armed with US-made weapons in Panama, Somalia, Haiti, and Iraq.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm?aid=2894
Women's E-News
Jailing Pregnant Women Raises Health Risks
Run Date: 09/20/06 By Ehrlich and Paltrow
WeNews commentators
Pregnant women with untreated drug or alcohol problems are getting arrested and jailed for child abuse. Our commentators say this goes against the best medical advice and subverts the intentions of child-endangerment laws.
Editor's Note: The following is a commentary. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of Women's eNews.
(WOMENSENEWS)--In recent months, pregnant women have been arrested and jailed in South Carolina, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, North Dakota and New Hampshire, among other states, based on the claim that pregnant women can be considered child abusers even before they have given birth.
Women targeted for these arrests are usually those with untreated drug or alcohol problems.
Other women have also been arrested for endangering the fetus by not getting to the hospital quickly enough on the day of delivery and by not following doctor's advice to get bed rest. One woman who suffered a stillbirth was arrested for murder based on the claim that by exercising her right to medical decision-making and postponing a Caesarean section, she caused the death of her child.
Law enforcement officials often justify the application of criminal laws to pregnant women by claiming that the arrest and imprisonment of pregnant women will protect fetuses and advance children's health.
=
Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/stories/41819/
Inside the Feds' Secret Wiretapping Rooms
By Jeffrey Klein and Paolo Pontoniere, New America Media
Posted on September 20, 2006, Printed on September 20, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/41819/
Although it may appear as if Congress is about to put restraints on the Bush administration's wiretapping programs, the three "reform bills" now up for a vote all paint a deceptive picture of the massive domestic surveillance programs that the government has up and running. Because several ongoing invasion-of-privacy lawsuits could expose the extent of the illegal wiretapping, the administration is seeking via these bills to shunt the lawsuits into a secret court, where they will die.
Earlier this year Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) accused President Bush and the National Security Agency (NSA) of breaking the law by authorizing wiretaps without seeking a judicial warrant. Vice President Cheney quickly went to the Hill to work out a compromise with Sen. Specter. The so-called Specter-Cheney bill would give the president the option -- not the requirement -- to submit his electronic surveillance programs for review by the special secret court created by FISA, the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
A contrasting bill sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) affirms that FISA court approval for eavesdropping is the "exclusive" means for authorizing wiretaps in domestic terrorism and espionage cases. And a third proposal by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) requires only that the administration notify Congress when it conducts wiretaps without a warrant.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901382_pf.html
Georgia Law Requiring Voters to Show Photo ID Is Thrown Out
Judge Says Some Would Be Disenfranchised; State Plans Appeal
By Darryl Fears and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 20, 2006; A06
A state judge yesterday rejected a Georgia law requiring voters to showgovernment-issued photo identification, writing in his decision, "This cannot be."
Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. said the law,pushed by Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) to fight voter fraud, violates the stateconstitution because it disenfranchises citizens who are otherwise qualifiedto vote.
State officials vowed to appeal Bedford's ruling to the Georgia SupremeCourt before the Nov. 7 general election.
=
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/20/AR2006092001586_pf.html
Independence Days
By David S. Broder
Thursday, September 21, 2006; A25
American politics reached a critical turn last week. The revolt of severalRepublican senators against President Bush's insistence on a free hand intreating terrorist detainees signaled the emergence of an independent forcein elections and government.
This movement is not new, but the moral scale of the issue -- torture -- andthe implications for both constitutional and international law give it anepic dimension, even if it is ultimately settled by compromise.
The senators involved -- John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner -- werealso instrumental in forming the "Gang of 14," the bipartisan bloc thatseized control of the Senate last year and wrote the compromise thatprevented a drastic change in the filibuster rule that otherwise would have triggered a bitter partisan divide.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21herbert.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
The Torture of Liberty
By BOB HERBERT
After traveling to Ottawa to interview Maher Arar last year, I wrote: "If John Ashcroft was right, then I was staring into the malevolent, duplicitouseyes of pure evil ... But all I could really see was a polite, unassuming,neatly dressed guy who looked like a suburban Little League coach."
It turns out John Ashcroft was wrong. After an exhaustive investigation, agovernment commission in Canada ruled definitively and unequivocally thisweek that Maher Arar was no terrorist. He was nothing more than a quietfamily man who found himself sucked into a vortex of incompetence, hysteriaand a so-called war on terror that has gone completely haywire.
He's lucky he survived. Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen who was born in Syria,was snatched by American authorities as he waited for a connecting flighthome from Kennedy Airport in September 2002. The Americans apparently wereacting on bad information fed to them by Canadian investigators.
=
The New York Times
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21brooks.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Lessons From U.N. Week
By DAVID BROOKS
One of the lessons of this past week is that the international system isbroken. The world community might make declarations - on preventing Iranianand North Korean nukes, disarming Hezbollah, or preventing genocide inDarfur - but when it comes to actually uniting to take action, words andresolutions lead nowhere. Thanks to a combination of American errors,European escapism, and Russian and Chinese greed, the worst people in theworld now drive events while the best people do nothing.
The second big lesson of the past week is that five years after 9/11 we arefarther from reaching a consensus on the nature of the threat than everbefore. Instead of clarity, there is a cacophony of theories that attempt toexplain the extremists - emphasizing religion or ideology or feelings ofhistoric humiliation or some combination of all three.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21thu3.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Editorial
Keep Christ Out of the Christmas Tree
Taxpayers may find it hard to believe that the must-pass $500 billiondefense budget could be held hostage to a mischievous amendment empoweringevangelical chaplains to speak in the name of Jesus at nonreligious militarygatherings. But that is the case in Congress, where hard-right Republicanshave held up passage of the defense bill in an attempt to license zealotchaplains to violate policies of religious tolerance at secular ceremonies.
Despite the firm opposition of the Pentagon and ecumenical chaplain groups,House Republicans have been defending this egregious pro-evangelical thumbon the scale in negotiations with the Senate.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21thu1.html?pagewanted=print
September 21, 2006
Editorial
Keep Away the Vote
One of the cornerstones of the Republican Party's strategy for winningelections these days is voter suppression, intentionally putting up barriersbetween eligible voters and the ballot box. The House of Representativestook a shameful step in this direction yesterday, voting largely along partylines for onerous new voter ID requirements. Laws of this kind areunconstitutional, as an array of courts have already held, and profoundlyundemocratic. The Senate should not go along with this cynical, un-Americanelectoral strategy.
The bill the House passed yesterday would require people to show photo ID tovote in 2008. Starting in 2010, that photo ID would have to be somethinglike a passport, or an enhanced kind of driver's license or non-driver'sidentification, containing proof of citizenship. This is a level of identification that many Americans simply do not have.
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FLORIDA DIGEST September 21, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/features2.html
Independent Gay News
Guest Column: Let's Stand Behind the Line in the Sand with Jim Davis
By Jim Stork
Over the last several months, I've met and become friends with Michael Schiavo.
In one of my earliest conversations with him we realized somethingimportant. It was obvious that the same group of people who attacked Michael and exploited his family tragedy for political gain are fighting to denyGLBT people basic civil rights.
And more than being the same people, they were using the same tactics - innuendo, character attacks, moral certainty and religious passion - and hadthe same crass motives - pure power politics.
We talked about how the same people who fight all day to keep same sexcouples from visiting their partners in hospitals, camped out all night atMichael's home to make sure his decisions about his wife were not honored.
Going down the list of what these people are doing makes their motivesstarkly clear. What they really want - from what they did to the Schiavofamily, what they want to do to GLBT families and rolling back the clock on health care - is to run your life by their rules.
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http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/local5.html
Today's Date:September 21, 2006
Klein Fundraiser Takes in 20,000 Gay Dollars
By Paul Harris
PHarris@ourindy.com
With just 55 days to go before the election in November when a new House of Representatives will be elected, Ron Klein met with gay supporters twice inas many days in Fort Lauderdale.
The first occasion was at a GLCC rally and the second was at the home of JoeBarnett and Dan Hellman where a total of $20,000 was raised in a couple ofhours. The fundraiser was organized in part by the Human Rights Campaign(HRC).
Marty Rouse, who is the organization's national field director, explainedthat they get involved in those elections where they feel they can make areal difference. Klein's opponent in Congressional District 22, which runsup the coast from Dania up through Palm Beach County, is Clay Shaw who has a very poor record when it comes to gay rights.
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http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/palmbeach1.html
Focus on Continuation of Coverage Benefit
By Donald Cavanaugh
Palm Beach County Editor
dcavanaugh@ourindy.com
Following its success with West Palm Beach (see story), the Palm BeachCounty Human Rights Council (the Council) has decided to focus attention onthe continuation of health coverage for surviving partners of unmarriedemployees throughout the county.
"Over the years, the loss of health insurance coverage following the deathof a partner has been frequently brought to the Council's attention," saidDan Hall, Council treasurer and intake coordinator. "The Council is nowstressing the importance of the continuation of coverage benefit whenever wework with an employer on domestic partner issues.
In July, both the County Tax Collector and the City of Delray Beachannounced that they will provide the full range of domestic partnerbenefits, including continuation of coverage, for their employees. TheCouncil has also requested that the County Office of the Clerk andComptroller extend their domestic partner benefits package to include continuation of coverage.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/21/news_pf/State/FAMU_turns_away_1_000.shtml
FAMU turns away 1,000 students for not paying
Denying them re-enrollment was tough but necessary, the school's interim president says.
By Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer
Published September 21, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - More than 1,000 Florida A&M University students were turned away this fall for failing to pay their tuition and fees - a long-standingproblem that added $5-million in student debt to the historically blackcollege.
It wasn't an easy or popular decision to deny re-enrollment to the students,some of them seniors who had not paid for several semesters, interim FAMUpresident Castell Bryant told the Times editorial board Wednesday.
Bryant said she did it as part of her ongoing efforts to clean up years offinancial mismanagement, lax bookkeeping and other institutional woes before a permanent president is hired next year.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cbeating21sep21,0,4137182.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Bike-riding boys beat and stab homeless man in Fort Lauderdale
By Macollvie Jean-François & Sofia Santana
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 21, 2006, 11:00 AM EDT
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A group of young boys attacked a homeless man who was sitting on a bench at Esplanade Park Wednesday night, inflicting seriousinjuries, police said. It was the second attack on helpless homeless peopleat the park by youth in eight months.
On Thursday, Sean Cononie, spokesman for the Homeless Voice, warned in anews release that "Fort Lauderdale is going to be known as the hate crimescapitol of the United States. Florida will once again be the most dangerousstate for homeless people in the United States."
Homeless advocates planned to alert the homeless to possible danger by passing out fliers and talking to them later this afternoon.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15568900.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Block rivalries take deadly turn for teens
BY DARRAN SIMON
dsimon@MiamiHerald.com
One night this summer, seven wakes were scheduled at McWhite's Funeral Home.
It's not out of the ordinary for the Fort Lauderdale funeral parlor, one ofBroward's busiest, to handle multiple services on one night.
But what was unusual this Friday night in July was that among the coffinslay two young boys shot and killed within hours of each other days earlier.
Sharod Smith, 15, and Casmo Hill, 17, had never met. But that night theirfathers, mothers and best friends were wound around a strand that tiesgrieving strangers. In one room, Sharod lay in a brown casket, dressed in awhite Perry Ellis suit, white tie and white socks. Sharod's teenage friends,some clad in white T-shirts with a picture of Sharod on them, spilled into ahall. They were mostly angry
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http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/local2.html
Today's Date:September 21, 2006
Blood Drive Held At New Moon
For the third time since it opened the New Moon Bar on Wilton Drive inWilton Manors has hosted a "drive" to encourage lesbians to contributeblood. A regular of the popular bar, Jackye Goldner, who works with Florida's Blood Centers as a Donor Development Coordinator, spoke with Carl Moran whoowns the bar and set up the event. Gay men are not allowed to donate bloodunder the current rules but lesbians are not only allowed to, but, as theevent showed, encouraged to take part.
Speaking with The Independent Goldner said that after the blood drawn istested it is normally used within 48-72 hours to help patients in need oftransfusions. The typical donor gives 1 pint of blood per session. (Thehuman body contains between 10 and 12 pints and new blood is created within24 to 48 hours to replace that donated.)
There are relatively few criteria for lesbians who want to donate blood.They should be healthy and over 110 pounds in weight. It is suggested thatthose giving blood should have a healthy meal and consume plenty of fluidsbefore making their donation. A donor can give blood up to six times a yearand be over 16 years of age. Jackye said that the oldest donor she was awareof who donates blood in the Fort Lauderdale area is a 93 year old man.
While at the venue "The Independent" got to speak with Lisa Carman who wasin one of the Blood Donor trucks donating blood under the watchful eye ofCharles, the phlebotomist. She told us that she has been a blood donor"since I was a teenager 25 to 30 years ago." It takes about 20 minutes intotal to give blood.
Donors do not have to wait until the New Moon has their next blood drive. Togive blood sooner, go to www.FloridasBloodCenters.org for more information.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/21/news_pf/Opinion/Fix_the_death_penalty.shtml
Fix the death penalty
Making Florida's capital punishment system more uniform and accurate shouldbe the goal of anyone who cares about justice.
A Times Editorial
Published September 21, 2006
Broward County's Frank Lee Smith spent 14 years on death row for a crimethat DNA evidence finally determined he did not commit. Smith died of cancerprotesting his innocence even as the state pushed for his execution. Hiscase is not unique. With 22 death-row inmates exonerated, Florida leads thenation in the number of capital convictions that didn't hold up upon furtherscrutiny. All told, this group spent 150 years in prison before being set free.
Even to supporters of capital punishment, this fact should cause somediscomfort. When the proportion of inmates exonerated equals more than 30percent of the number executed, there is something about the system that needs fixing.
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http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/LOCAL/209210367&template=printart
Article published Sep 21, 2006
Sep 21, 2006
Hill executed, but leaves legal questions behind
By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer
RAIFORD - Clarence Hill was injected with a lethal dose of drugs Wednesdayevening, ending his life and the claim that the execution method amounts totorture.
The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly rejected a stay of execution hours before the sentence was carried out. Hill's attorney, Todd Doss of Lake City, said the justices missed the chance to resolve questions about the lethal injection method.
"I'm baffled why they would want this to keep coming up," he said.
Hill showed no visible signs of suffering during the execution at FloridaState Prison. He had claimed the drugs could have left him awake but paralyzed, preventing him from expressing excruciating pain before dying.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/09/21/m18a_deathpenalty_edit_0921.html
A faulty death penalty
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Even those who want Florida to retain the death penalty must take seriouslythe American Bar Association's multi-count indictment of the state's capital-punishment system.
Few issues in the study, which the ABA released last week, are new. Thisreport, however, raises them all. For critics of the system, among them thisnewspaper, the collective weight of the problems is reason enough forFlorida to abolish capital punishment. For death-penalty supporters, however, the continued refusal to fix the problems effectively willeliminate capital punishment because so many death sentences won't stand up in court.
The study begins with the most searing evidence of the system's failures:Nearly two dozen Death Row inmates in Florida have been exonerated, the mostin any state.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pendorse21sep21,0,6045797.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
Voters Coalition of Palm Beach County endorses Davis
By Maria Herrera
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 21, 2006
The nonpartisan Voters Coalition of Palm Beach County endorsed U.S. Rep. JimDavis for governor on Wednesday.
"He was the more qualified of the two," Voters Coalition chairman BobNewmark said.
Daryl Jones, running on Davis' Democratic ticket for lieutenant governor,was there to receive the coalition's blessings over their Republicanopponent, Attorney General Charlie Crist.
"They have tremendous credibility," Jones said of the coalition. "They wantto endorse people who want to do the right thing."
In the U.S. Senate race, the coalition endorsed incumbent Bill Nelson, aDemocrat, over challenger Rep. Katherine Harris. In congressional races, thegroup endorsed U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, over challenger TimMahoney and state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, over incumbent Clay Shaw,R-Fort Lauderdale.
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http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBX2I1ICSE.html
Bill Targeted Rebel Flag, Leader Says
By WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune
Published: Sep 21, 2006
TAMPA - A former commander of the Florida Sons of Confederate Veterans says
a 2001 bill co-sponsored by state Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, Charlie Crist'srunning mate, was inspired by controversies over displays of the Confederatebattle flag.
The bill died because black legislators thought it was aimed at protectingthe flag, though proponents, including Kottkamp, deny that.
At the time the bill was filed, "nobody was asking to take down anything butConfederate monuments," said John Adams of Deltona, commander of the Floridadivision of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 2000 to 2004.
Adams said the bill "wasn't Confederate-centric," but "it doesn't take arocket scientist to figure out that it was inspired by the attacks on Confederate monuments."
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15568873.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
CAMPAIGN 2006 | GOVERNOR'S RACE
A duel of interests over Crist's running mate
Republican candidate Charlie Crist's choice of a running mate has exposed the party to the special-interest fight between doctors and lawyers.
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
Attorney General Charlie Crist's mega-fundraiser with President Bush todayn Orlando reflects the tricky terrain that the Florida Republican Party hasentered as its candidate for governor welcomes the oft-maligned legalprofession into the GOP's big tent.
The fundraiser is being co-hosted by Democrat John Morgan, the media-savvyfounder of one of the largest and most advertised trial-lawyer firms in thestate and a law partner of Crist's running mate, Rep. Jeff Kottkamp. Thecampaign hopes to raise $4 million from the $25,000-a-person admission and aswanky cocktail party at the Ritz-Carlton.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/21/news_pf/State/Democrats__show_of_un.shtml
Democrats' show of unity lacks co-star
The last time Rod Smith and Jim Davis were in the same room was the Aug. 23 debate in Tampa.
ALEX LEARY and JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published September 21, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - It took Janet Reno two days. Tom Gallagher, two days. RodSmith - two weeks and counting.
Losers of hard-fought primary contests may want nothing to do with thevictor but are typically quick to show up at unity events that, with broadsmiles and firm handshakes, are designed to send a signal to voters andcampaign contributors that from here on out, it's the party that matters.
Yet Smith has yet to appear on stage with gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis,who won the Sept. 5 primary by 52,718 votes. Smith's absence raisesquestions about unity in the Democratic Party at a time when it is essentialfor a victory over Charlie Crist, a moderate Republican who this week flewaround the state to trumpet more than 100 Democrats who are supporting him.
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Mary-Jane Cunnignham is hosting her seventh Annual T-Dance tobenefit the Breast Cancer Treatment Center at Broward General Medical Center.She has raised over $20,000.00 for the center through this benefit during thepast six years.
This year's Benefit promises to be one of the best yet. And, with your help,who knows how much we can raise for this most worthwhile cause.
The T-Dance INFO is as follows:
The 7th Annual T-Dance to Benefit the
Breast Cancer Treatment Center at Broward General Medical Center
Sun. Sept. 24, 2006 ~ Elements Nightclub ~ from 3:00 - 7:00 PM
This event will feature a complimentary buffet, half-priced drinks,entertainment, dancing, auctions, raffles, 50/50 drawing, door prizes, etc.
Admission~$10
Elements is located at 3073 NE 6th., Avenue, Wilton Manors, FL
Ph: 954-567-2432
For further information or to donate contact Mary-Jane Cunningham at
954-772-4947,
or by e-mail at maryjanesings@aol.com
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This Friday night at 6:00 pm, please share in this special moment of No MoreNames! at the 2006 United States Conference on AIDS. New panelsmemorializing the lives of those lost to AIDS will be presented and becomepart of The Quilt.
Along with a team of activists, I have been given the honor to serve as teamcaptain in presenting a panel representing many beloved lives lost to AIDS.
When: Friday, September 22, 2006 at 6:00 PM
Where: Weston Diplomat Hotel
3555 South Ocean Drive
Hollywood, FL 33019
(954) 602-6000
Room: Great Hall, Great Hall Level, Convention Center
Learn how to mobilize your community to End AIDS!
Michael Emanuel Rajner
Founding Member - Campaign to End AIDS - Florida
National Secretary - Campaign to End AIDS
Telephone: (954) 272-8131 . (305) 677-3506
Cellular: (954) 288-1999
visit: www.aidsvote.org
and www.CampaignToEndAIDS.org
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
Candidates Night
After the success earlier this year of The Independent/GLCC candidates'night, The Independent has teamed up again with the GLCC to invite all thecandidates for public office to come to speak to the electors and to answerquestions (where appropriate). The event is going to be held at the GLCC,1717 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, on Tuesday October 10 starting at6.30pm.
We are literally going to invite everyone running for everything from judgeto congressman to attend. We are inviting all the candidates irrespective ofparty affiliation . We believe that elections are far too important a partof the democratic process NOT to allow everyone the opportunity of hearingand meeting the various people offering themselves for public service.
We are inviting journalists from two other news organizations to joinMichael James, editor of The Independent, in questioning the candidates. Theexception to this is the candidates for judgeships. Because of the nature ofthe office that they are seeking and the fact that they can not (and shouldnot) reveal partisan opinions we shall ask them simply to make a briefaddress to those present as to why they are running to become judges.
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/oped1.html
The Independent Banned!
The Independent, South Florida's leading gay newspaper, was banned fromattending and reporting upon a political event at which Republicancandidates for public office were invited to address and answer questionsfrom gay Republican voters. The Indy even wrote to Andy Eddy, the local LogCabin group's press liaison, offering to send one of its writers - who is aregistered Independent - to attend the meeting of the Broward Log CabinRepublicans. The meeting took place on Tuesday, September 19th at Clay Shaw'soffices at 1555 North Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale.
Earlier this year when another meeting was announced we asked the BrowardLog Cabin Club's then Public Relations contact, Matthew Tsien, five times ifwe could attend. Not one request received a reply. Somewhat ironically theBroward Log Cabin Republican Club have complained at the lack of coveragethat Gay Republicans receive in this newspaper!
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
Get Well Soon Nicole!
Nicole Martin, Operations Manager at the GLCC, is taking the month of September off from working at the GLCC to recover from a procedure she underwent early in the month. The good news is that the procedure went well and she is going to be back at work at the beginning of October. Earlier this year The Independent was honored to present her with our "Straight Ally Of The Year Award." On behalf of all her friends within the gay community we wish her well and look forward to having her "back where she belongs," to quote Jerry Herman.
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
Today's Date: September 21, 2006 September 20, 2006
Fundraiser For Ken Keechl This Weekend
Staff Report
News@ourindy.com
The Dolphin Democrats are hosting a fundraiser for Ken Keechl at Georgie's Alibi in the heart of Wilton Manors on Sunday, September 24. He is running for a seat on the Broward County Commission against Republican Jim Scott.
Guests will receive their first drink free, and subsequent cocktails are two-for-one. Light fare will be served. A $25 contribution is suggested, although the laws allow contributions of up to $500. Those attending will also have the chance to register to vote, or sign up to receive absentee ballots.
Ken Keechl was until recently the president of the Dolphin Democrats, one of the largest Democratic clubs in the state. The host committee for the event includes Wilton Manors Mayor Scott Newton; Wilton Manors Commissioner Joe Angelo; former Wilton Manors Mayor Jim Stork; former Fort Lauderdale Vice-Mayor Dean Trantalis; and State Committeewoman Diane Glasser.
The district for which Keechl is running runs from Deerfield Beach to Dania Beach, and includes Wilton Manors and most of Oakland Park.
Visit www.Keechl2006.com for more information.
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http://www.indynews.4t.com/
The Independent Gay News
Today's Date:September 20, 2006
A Driving Force in Wilton
Manors
How GLBT Businesses have Transformed Wilton Drive
By Michael James
Editor
MJames@ourindependent.com
"We have a small town feel in Wilton Manors. That's what sets us apart,"says George Kessinger, proprietor of Georgie's Alibi. It's one of the fewremnants that remain of the city that was originally planned to be almostcompletely residential.
In the early 1920s Ned Willingham came to the area from Georgia with avision for a quiet little town. Wilton Boulevard would be lined with statelyhomes while businesses had to build elsewhere. When he started WiltonManors, most of the roads were named after Native American tribes.
In the 1930s Judge George Richardson bought over 40 acres and built a golfcourse in an area now known as Manor Grove. All that remains of theRichardson estate is the park baring his name sitting on a few acres at thesouth end of Wilton Drive. The golf course thrived until the 1950s.
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Come and be part of the special presentation on Community Mobilization and AIDS Vote
by Campaign to End AIDS - Florida
at the 2006 United States Conference on AIDS
When: Friday, September 22, 2006 from 3:30 pm - 4:50 pm
Where: Weston Diplomat Hotel
Hollywood, FL
Room: Diplomat 4, Grand Ballroom Level, Convention Center
Learn how to mobilize your community to End AIDS!
Michael Emanuel Rajner - PLWA
Founding Member - Campaign to End AIDS - Florida
National Secretary - Campaign to End AIDS
Telephone: (954) 272-8131 . (305) 677-3506
Cellular: (954) 288-1999
visit: www.aidsvote.org
and www.CampaignToEndAIDS.org
#####
http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/features2.html
Independent Gay News
Guest Column: Let's Stand Behind the Line in the Sand with Jim Davis
By Jim Stork
Over the last several months, I've met and become friends with Michael Schiavo.
In one of my earliest conversations with him we realized somethingimportant. It was obvious that the same group of people who attacked Michael and exploited his family tragedy for political gain are fighting to denyGLBT people basic civil rights.
And more than being the same people, they were using the same tactics - innuendo, character attacks, moral certainty and religious passion - and hadthe same crass motives - pure power politics.
We talked about how the same people who fight all day to keep same sexcouples from visiting their partners in hospitals, camped out all night atMichael's home to make sure his decisions about his wife were not honored.
Going down the list of what these people are doing makes their motivesstarkly clear. What they really want - from what they did to the Schiavofamily, what they want to do to GLBT families and rolling back the clock on health care - is to run your life by their rules.
=
http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/local5.html
Today's Date:September 21, 2006
Klein Fundraiser Takes in 20,000 Gay Dollars
By Paul Harris
PHarris@ourindy.com
With just 55 days to go before the election in November when a new House of Representatives will be elected, Ron Klein met with gay supporters twice inas many days in Fort Lauderdale.
The first occasion was at a GLCC rally and the second was at the home of JoeBarnett and Dan Hellman where a total of $20,000 was raised in a couple ofhours. The fundraiser was organized in part by the Human Rights Campaign(HRC).
Marty Rouse, who is the organization's national field director, explainedthat they get involved in those elections where they feel they can make areal difference. Klein's opponent in Congressional District 22, which runsup the coast from Dania up through Palm Beach County, is Clay Shaw who has a very poor record when it comes to gay rights.
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http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/palmbeach1.html
Focus on Continuation of Coverage Benefit
By Donald Cavanaugh
Palm Beach County Editor
dcavanaugh@ourindy.com
Following its success with West Palm Beach (see story), the Palm BeachCounty Human Rights Council (the Council) has decided to focus attention onthe continuation of health coverage for surviving partners of unmarriedemployees throughout the county.
"Over the years, the loss of health insurance coverage following the deathof a partner has been frequently brought to the Council's attention," saidDan Hall, Council treasurer and intake coordinator. "The Council is nowstressing the importance of the continuation of coverage benefit whenever wework with an employer on domestic partner issues.
In July, both the County Tax Collector and the City of Delray Beachannounced that they will provide the full range of domestic partnerbenefits, including continuation of coverage, for their employees. TheCouncil has also requested that the County Office of the Clerk andComptroller extend their domestic partner benefits package to include continuation of coverage.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/21/news_pf/State/FAMU_turns_away_1_000.shtml
FAMU turns away 1,000 students for not paying
Denying them re-enrollment was tough but necessary, the school's interim president says.
By Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer
Published September 21, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - More than 1,000 Florida A&M University students were turned away this fall for failing to pay their tuition and fees - a long-standingproblem that added $5-million in student debt to the historically blackcollege.
It wasn't an easy or popular decision to deny re-enrollment to the students,some of them seniors who had not paid for several semesters, interim FAMUpresident Castell Bryant told the Times editorial board Wednesday.
Bryant said she did it as part of her ongoing efforts to clean up years offinancial mismanagement, lax bookkeeping and other institutional woes before a permanent president is hired next year.
=
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cbeating21sep21,0,4137182.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Bike-riding boys beat and stab homeless man in Fort Lauderdale
By Macollvie Jean-François & Sofia Santana
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 21, 2006, 11:00 AM EDT
FORT LAUDERDALE -- A group of young boys attacked a homeless man who was sitting on a bench at Esplanade Park Wednesday night, inflicting seriousinjuries, police said. It was the second attack on helpless homeless peopleat the park by youth in eight months.
On Thursday, Sean Cononie, spokesman for the Homeless Voice, warned in anews release that "Fort Lauderdale is going to be known as the hate crimescapitol of the United States. Florida will once again be the most dangerousstate for homeless people in the United States."
Homeless advocates planned to alert the homeless to possible danger by passing out fliers and talking to them later this afternoon.
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15568900.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Block rivalries take deadly turn for teens
BY DARRAN SIMON
dsimon@MiamiHerald.com
One night this summer, seven wakes were scheduled at McWhite's Funeral Home.
It's not out of the ordinary for the Fort Lauderdale funeral parlor, one ofBroward's busiest, to handle multiple services on one night.
But what was unusual this Friday night in July was that among the coffinslay two young boys shot and killed within hours of each other days earlier.
Sharod Smith, 15, and Casmo Hill, 17, had never met. But that night theirfathers, mothers and best friends were wound around a strand that tiesgrieving strangers. In one room, Sharod lay in a brown casket, dressed in awhite Perry Ellis suit, white tie and white socks. Sharod's teenage friends,some clad in white T-shirts with a picture of Sharod on them, spilled into ahall. They were mostly angry
=
http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/local2.html
Today's Date:September 21, 2006
Blood Drive Held At New Moon
For the third time since it opened the New Moon Bar on Wilton Drive inWilton Manors has hosted a "drive" to encourage lesbians to contributeblood. A regular of the popular bar, Jackye Goldner, who works with Florida's Blood Centers as a Donor Development Coordinator, spoke with Carl Moran whoowns the bar and set up the event. Gay men are not allowed to donate bloodunder the current rules but lesbians are not only allowed to, but, as theevent showed, encouraged to take part.
Speaking with The Independent Goldner said that after the blood drawn istested it is normally used within 48-72 hours to help patients in need oftransfusions. The typical donor gives 1 pint of blood per session. (Thehuman body contains between 10 and 12 pints and new blood is created within24 to 48 hours to replace that donated.)
There are relatively few criteria for lesbians who want to donate blood.They should be healthy and over 110 pounds in weight. It is suggested thatthose giving blood should have a healthy meal and consume plenty of fluidsbefore making their donation. A donor can give blood up to six times a yearand be over 16 years of age. Jackye said that the oldest donor she was awareof who donates blood in the Fort Lauderdale area is a 93 year old man.
While at the venue "The Independent" got to speak with Lisa Carman who wasin one of the Blood Donor trucks donating blood under the watchful eye ofCharles, the phlebotomist. She told us that she has been a blood donor"since I was a teenager 25 to 30 years ago." It takes about 20 minutes intotal to give blood.
Donors do not have to wait until the New Moon has their next blood drive. Togive blood sooner, go to www.FloridasBloodCenters.org for more information.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/21/news_pf/Opinion/Fix_the_death_penalty.shtml
Fix the death penalty
Making Florida's capital punishment system more uniform and accurate shouldbe the goal of anyone who cares about justice.
A Times Editorial
Published September 21, 2006
Broward County's Frank Lee Smith spent 14 years on death row for a crimethat DNA evidence finally determined he did not commit. Smith died of cancerprotesting his innocence even as the state pushed for his execution. Hiscase is not unique. With 22 death-row inmates exonerated, Florida leads thenation in the number of capital convictions that didn't hold up upon furtherscrutiny. All told, this group spent 150 years in prison before being set free.
Even to supporters of capital punishment, this fact should cause somediscomfort. When the proportion of inmates exonerated equals more than 30percent of the number executed, there is something about the system that needs fixing.
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http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/LOCAL/209210367&template=printart
Article published Sep 21, 2006
Sep 21, 2006
Hill executed, but leaves legal questions behind
By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer
RAIFORD - Clarence Hill was injected with a lethal dose of drugs Wednesdayevening, ending his life and the claim that the execution method amounts totorture.
The U.S. Supreme Court narrowly rejected a stay of execution hours before the sentence was carried out. Hill's attorney, Todd Doss of Lake City, said the justices missed the chance to resolve questions about the lethal injection method.
"I'm baffled why they would want this to keep coming up," he said.
Hill showed no visible signs of suffering during the execution at FloridaState Prison. He had claimed the drugs could have left him awake but paralyzed, preventing him from expressing excruciating pain before dying.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2006/09/21/m18a_deathpenalty_edit_0921.html
A faulty death penalty
Palm Beach Post Editorial
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Even those who want Florida to retain the death penalty must take seriouslythe American Bar Association's multi-count indictment of the state's capital-punishment system.
Few issues in the study, which the ABA released last week, are new. Thisreport, however, raises them all. For critics of the system, among them thisnewspaper, the collective weight of the problems is reason enough forFlorida to abolish capital punishment. For death-penalty supporters, however, the continued refusal to fix the problems effectively willeliminate capital punishment because so many death sentences won't stand up in court.
The study begins with the most searing evidence of the system's failures:Nearly two dozen Death Row inmates in Florida have been exonerated, the mostin any state.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pendorse21sep21,0,6045797.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
Voters Coalition of Palm Beach County endorses Davis
By Maria Herrera
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 21, 2006
The nonpartisan Voters Coalition of Palm Beach County endorsed U.S. Rep. JimDavis for governor on Wednesday.
"He was the more qualified of the two," Voters Coalition chairman BobNewmark said.
Daryl Jones, running on Davis' Democratic ticket for lieutenant governor,was there to receive the coalition's blessings over their Republicanopponent, Attorney General Charlie Crist.
"They have tremendous credibility," Jones said of the coalition. "They wantto endorse people who want to do the right thing."
In the U.S. Senate race, the coalition endorsed incumbent Bill Nelson, aDemocrat, over challenger Rep. Katherine Harris. In congressional races, thegroup endorsed U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, over challenger TimMahoney and state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, over incumbent Clay Shaw,R-Fort Lauderdale.
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http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBX2I1ICSE.html
Bill Targeted Rebel Flag, Leader Says
By WILLIAM MARCH The Tampa Tribune
Published: Sep 21, 2006
TAMPA - A former commander of the Florida Sons of Confederate Veterans says
a 2001 bill co-sponsored by state Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, Charlie Crist'srunning mate, was inspired by controversies over displays of the Confederatebattle flag.
The bill died because black legislators thought it was aimed at protectingthe flag, though proponents, including Kottkamp, deny that.
At the time the bill was filed, "nobody was asking to take down anything butConfederate monuments," said John Adams of Deltona, commander of the Floridadivision of the Sons of Confederate Veterans from 2000 to 2004.
Adams said the bill "wasn't Confederate-centric," but "it doesn't take arocket scientist to figure out that it was inspired by the attacks on Confederate monuments."
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15568873.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
CAMPAIGN 2006 | GOVERNOR'S RACE
A duel of interests over Crist's running mate
Republican candidate Charlie Crist's choice of a running mate has exposed the party to the special-interest fight between doctors and lawyers.
BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
Attorney General Charlie Crist's mega-fundraiser with President Bush todayn Orlando reflects the tricky terrain that the Florida Republican Party hasentered as its candidate for governor welcomes the oft-maligned legalprofession into the GOP's big tent.
The fundraiser is being co-hosted by Democrat John Morgan, the media-savvyfounder of one of the largest and most advertised trial-lawyer firms in thestate and a law partner of Crist's running mate, Rep. Jeff Kottkamp. Thecampaign hopes to raise $4 million from the $25,000-a-person admission and aswanky cocktail party at the Ritz-Carlton.
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http://www.sptimes.com/2006/09/21/news_pf/State/Democrats__show_of_un.shtml
Democrats' show of unity lacks co-star
The last time Rod Smith and Jim Davis were in the same room was the Aug. 23 debate in Tampa.
ALEX LEARY and JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published September 21, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - It took Janet Reno two days. Tom Gallagher, two days. RodSmith - two weeks and counting.
Losers of hard-fought primary contests may want nothing to do with thevictor but are typically quick to show up at unity events that, with broadsmiles and firm handshakes, are designed to send a signal to voters andcampaign contributors that from here on out, it's the party that matters.
Yet Smith has yet to appear on stage with gubernatorial candidate Jim Davis,who won the Sept. 5 primary by 52,718 votes. Smith's absence raisesquestions about unity in the Democratic Party at a time when it is essentialfor a victory over Charlie Crist, a moderate Republican who this week flewaround the state to trumpet more than 100 Democrats who are supporting him.
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Mary-Jane Cunnignham is hosting her seventh Annual T-Dance tobenefit the Breast Cancer Treatment Center at Broward General Medical Center.She has raised over $20,000.00 for the center through this benefit during thepast six years.
This year's Benefit promises to be one of the best yet. And, with your help,who knows how much we can raise for this most worthwhile cause.
The T-Dance INFO is as follows:
The 7th Annual T-Dance to Benefit the
Breast Cancer Treatment Center at Broward General Medical Center
Sun. Sept. 24, 2006 ~ Elements Nightclub ~ from 3:00 - 7:00 PM
This event will feature a complimentary buffet, half-priced drinks,entertainment, dancing, auctions, raffles, 50/50 drawing, door prizes, etc.
Admission~$10
Elements is located at 3073 NE 6th., Avenue, Wilton Manors, FL
Ph: 954-567-2432
For further information or to donate contact Mary-Jane Cunningham at
954-772-4947,
or by e-mail at maryjanesings@aol.com
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This Friday night at 6:00 pm, please share in this special moment of No MoreNames! at the 2006 United States Conference on AIDS. New panelsmemorializing the lives of those lost to AIDS will be presented and becomepart of The Quilt.
Along with a team of activists, I have been given the honor to serve as teamcaptain in presenting a panel representing many beloved lives lost to AIDS.
When: Friday, September 22, 2006 at 6:00 PM
Where: Weston Diplomat Hotel
3555 South Ocean Drive
Hollywood, FL 33019
(954) 602-6000
Room: Great Hall, Great Hall Level, Convention Center
Learn how to mobilize your community to End AIDS!
Michael Emanuel Rajner
Founding Member - Campaign to End AIDS - Florida
National Secretary - Campaign to End AIDS
Telephone: (954) 272-8131 . (305) 677-3506
Cellular: (954) 288-1999
visit: www.aidsvote.org
and www.CampaignToEndAIDS.org
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
Candidates Night
After the success earlier this year of The Independent/GLCC candidates'night, The Independent has teamed up again with the GLCC to invite all thecandidates for public office to come to speak to the electors and to answerquestions (where appropriate). The event is going to be held at the GLCC,1717 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale, on Tuesday October 10 starting at6.30pm.
We are literally going to invite everyone running for everything from judgeto congressman to attend. We are inviting all the candidates irrespective ofparty affiliation . We believe that elections are far too important a partof the democratic process NOT to allow everyone the opportunity of hearingand meeting the various people offering themselves for public service.
We are inviting journalists from two other news organizations to joinMichael James, editor of The Independent, in questioning the candidates. Theexception to this is the candidates for judgeships. Because of the nature ofthe office that they are seeking and the fact that they can not (and shouldnot) reveal partisan opinions we shall ask them simply to make a briefaddress to those present as to why they are running to become judges.
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
http://www.indynews.4t.com/0319/oped1.html
The Independent Banned!
The Independent, South Florida's leading gay newspaper, was banned fromattending and reporting upon a political event at which Republicancandidates for public office were invited to address and answer questionsfrom gay Republican voters. The Indy even wrote to Andy Eddy, the local LogCabin group's press liaison, offering to send one of its writers - who is aregistered Independent - to attend the meeting of the Broward Log CabinRepublicans. The meeting took place on Tuesday, September 19th at Clay Shaw'soffices at 1555 North Federal Highway, Fort Lauderdale.
Earlier this year when another meeting was announced we asked the BrowardLog Cabin Club's then Public Relations contact, Matthew Tsien, five times ifwe could attend. Not one request received a reply. Somewhat ironically theBroward Log Cabin Republican Club have complained at the lack of coveragethat Gay Republicans receive in this newspaper!
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
Get Well Soon Nicole!
Nicole Martin, Operations Manager at the GLCC, is taking the month of September off from working at the GLCC to recover from a procedure she underwent early in the month. The good news is that the procedure went well and she is going to be back at work at the beginning of October. Earlier this year The Independent was honored to present her with our "Straight Ally Of The Year Award." On behalf of all her friends within the gay community we wish her well and look forward to having her "back where she belongs," to quote Jerry Herman.
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The Independent Gay News
http://www.indynews.4t.com/
Today's Date: September 21, 2006 September 20, 2006
Fundraiser For Ken Keechl This Weekend
Staff Report
News@ourindy.com
The Dolphin Democrats are hosting a fundraiser for Ken Keechl at Georgie's Alibi in the heart of Wilton Manors on Sunday, September 24. He is running for a seat on the Broward County Commission against Republican Jim Scott.
Guests will receive their first drink free, and subsequent cocktails are two-for-one. Light fare will be served. A $25 contribution is suggested, although the laws allow contributions of up to $500. Those attending will also have the chance to register to vote, or sign up to receive absentee ballots.
Ken Keechl was until recently the president of the Dolphin Democrats, one of the largest Democratic clubs in the state. The host committee for the event includes Wilton Manors Mayor Scott Newton; Wilton Manors Commissioner Joe Angelo; former Wilton Manors Mayor Jim Stork; former Fort Lauderdale Vice-Mayor Dean Trantalis; and State Committeewoman Diane Glasser.
The district for which Keechl is running runs from Deerfield Beach to Dania Beach, and includes Wilton Manors and most of Oakland Park.
Visit www.Keechl2006.com for more information.
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http://www.indynews.4t.com/
The Independent Gay News
Today's Date:September 20, 2006
A Driving Force in Wilton
Manors
How GLBT Businesses have Transformed Wilton Drive
By Michael James
Editor
MJames@ourindependent.com
"We have a small town feel in Wilton Manors. That's what sets us apart,"says George Kessinger, proprietor of Georgie's Alibi. It's one of the fewremnants that remain of the city that was originally planned to be almostcompletely residential.
In the early 1920s Ned Willingham came to the area from Georgia with avision for a quiet little town. Wilton Boulevard would be lined with statelyhomes while businesses had to build elsewhere. When he started WiltonManors, most of the roads were named after Native American tribes.
In the 1930s Judge George Richardson bought over 40 acres and built a golfcourse in an area now known as Manor Grove. All that remains of theRichardson estate is the park baring his name sitting on a few acres at thesouth end of Wilton Drive. The golf course thrived until the 1950s.
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Come and be part of the special presentation on Community Mobilization and AIDS Vote
by Campaign to End AIDS - Florida
at the 2006 United States Conference on AIDS
When: Friday, September 22, 2006 from 3:30 pm - 4:50 pm
Where: Weston Diplomat Hotel
Hollywood, FL
Room: Diplomat 4, Grand Ballroom Level, Convention Center
Learn how to mobilize your community to End AIDS!
Michael Emanuel Rajner - PLWA
Founding Member - Campaign to End AIDS - Florida
National Secretary - Campaign to End AIDS
Telephone: (954) 272-8131 . (305) 677-3506
Cellular: (954) 288-1999
visit: www.aidsvote.org
and www.CampaignToEndAIDS.org
#####
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
GLBT DIGEST - September 20, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid36608.asp
The Advocate
September 20, 2006
Colorado activists want Banton concert scrubbed
A group of Boulder, Colo., gay activists are calling for the cancellation ofa Wednesday night concert by Buju Banton, a vehemently homophobic reggaeartist who advocates the murder of gays.
Boulder Pride, the largest LGBT advocacy group in Boulder County, isplanning a protest if the concert at Boulder's Fox Theatre takes place.
According to a Boulder Pride press release, the group alerted Fox Theatre'sgeneral manager, John Caprio, this weekend of Banton's antigay past, whichincludes being charged with an attack on six gay men. Caprio intends to goahead with the concert, said Boulder Pride's interim executive directorMichael Mills.
"Our community will not tolerate this type of violent hate speech celebratedonstage," Mills said in the release.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091900667_pf.html
Number of gay-friendly companies growing: study
By Ellen Wulfhorst
Reuters
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; 12:12 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A record number of U.S. companies are trying to begay-friendly, according to a survey released on Tuesday showing a growingnumber offering benefits and protections to gay and lesbian employees andcustomers.
An unprecedented 138 major U.S. companies scored 100 percent in a CorporateEquality Index compiled by the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gayrights advocacy group.
That number was up from 101 companies last year and was 10 times higher thanthe 13 companies with that score in 2002, said thecampaign, which conducts research and education programs and lobbies Congress.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/nyregion/20mcgreevey.html?pagewanted=print
September 20, 2006
Ex-Governor Is Back in Public, This Time as an Author
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
PLAINFIELD, N.J., Sept. 19 - Two years after a nationally televisedresignation in which he proclaimed himself "a gay American," former Gov.James E. McGreevey of New Jersey officially emerged from his self-imposedexile from public life today to release a memoir that chronicles his rise topower and fall from grace.
With a succession of newspaper interviews, an appearance Tuesday on "TheOprah Winfrey Show" and a book signing before a gay-rights group in the townwhere he once was mayor, Mr. McGreevey began a 60-day publicity campaign to promote his autobiography, "The Confession."
What Mr. McGreevey says in this explicit apologia is stunning for some,while to others, his confession is telling for what it omits.
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http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid36596.asp
The Advocate
September 20, 2006
Poland's president says his views on gays are misunderstood
Polish president Lech Kaczynski, a staunch Roman Catholic, said his viewslike traditional national values and gay people are misunderstood.Kaczynski, of the socially conservative Law and Justice Party, took officein December on pledges that included making sure that Poland's traditionalRoman Catholic values were not overwhelmed by the generally liberal European viewpoint. Poland, a former Soviet bloc country, joined the European Unionin 2004.
"I am aware that often the things I say are not in line with the Europeancorrectness," Kaczynski said in an interview Monday with the AssociatedPress in New York. "Even more, I am ascribed views that are not reallymine."
But he stressed the need to "verbalize our problems in Europe.... This ismuch more important than the hasty integration, a hasty killing of anational country that is an incomparably better center for consolidatingpeople than an anonymous, bureaucratic, and cold European Union."
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http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid36619.asp
The Advocate
September 20, 2006
American Airlines rebukes gay couple
An American Airlines captain reportedly threatened to divert a flight from Paris to New York after a gay couple complained about how they were treated by the flight crew, The New Yorker reported on Monday.
According to a "Talk of the Town" item in the magazine's September 25 issue, now posted on its Web site, TV journalist George Tsikhiseli and his boyfriend of four months, writer Stephan Varnier, were told by a stewardess to stop their "touching and the kissing" not long into American Airlines Flight 45 from Charles de Gaulle to JFK on August 22. The couple said they were doing nothing inappropriate-perhaps a peck on the cheek, a head on the other's shoulder-a story backed up by the two passengers seated behind them and another across the aisle.
When they asked to see the purser-whom the stewardess claimed had issued the order-the purser said she knew nothing about the incident and initially agreed that their behavior had not been inappropriate, the men and witnesses reported. But she returned later to say that other passengers had complained about the men's affectionate gestures. When the gay couple asked who had complained, asked to speak with an American Airlines representative upon landing, and asked for the stewardess's name and employee number, the purser told them to drop the matter or the flight would be diverted, the magazine reported.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail750xsep20,0,5199582.story
It's actually voters who don't get it
Mitchell Rosenberg
plantation
September 20, 2006
Re Monday's letter, "President, rest of GOP don't get it" (some editions):I'm afraid it is the letter writer who doesn't get it. The president and theGOP "get it" perfectly, because after all of their indiscretions andcriminal acts, they continue to be the party in power.
The GOP can continue its agenda of robbing the treasury and destroying themiddle class indefinitely.
As long as they can spread fear and paranoia among the masses, as long asthey can rally their right-wing base and make issues like abortion and gaymarriage a priority, as long as they can link the war in Iraq to the attackon 9-11, as long as they can take credit for "keeping us safe," and as longas they can brand their critics as "appeasers," the GOP can and willcontinue to stay in power.
The letter writer says the public is fed up, and mad and angry. Again, thisis incorrect; the public has no time for anger. The public is too busyworking 60 hours a week or trying to Google photos of baby Suri to know orcare how the GOP has taken this country hostage. So they are re-electedanyway, because the public doesn't want to vote for those "weak liberalsthat hate our troops" or be "unpatriotic," or whatever soundbite the GOP canget the uninformed public to swallow. Then again, maybe they just hatehomosexuals.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/15559485.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
CIVIL RIGHTS
Gay rights records improve in U.S.
In an annual survey of U.S. companies and law firms, the Human Rights
Campaign saw improvements in recognizing gay rights.
BY MARILYN GEEWAX
Cox News Service
WASHINGTON - Even as states have been passing constitutional amendments toban gay marriages in recent years, a soaring number of companies havebeenaddingdomestic-partnership benefits, a gay rights advocacy group saidTuesday.
In its fifth annual survey of 446 large U.S. companies and law firms, theHuman Rights Campaign, a Washington-based political organization, examinedbenefits and protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgenderemployees and customers.
HRC ranks companies on several policies, including those involvingdiscrimination, health benefits and family leave.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/15559484.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
FLORIDA'S EQUALITY INDEX
Here's how a selection of Florida companies rated on the Human RightsCampaign Foundations' Corporate Equality Index. The rating is for thecompanies' benefits and protections for their gay, lesbian, bisexual andtransgender employees and consumers.
Company, City Score
CSX Corp., Jacksonville 40
Darden Restaurants, Orlando 80
Office Depot, Delray Beach 60
Royal Caribbean, Miami 55
Ryder System Miami 93
Tech Data Corp., Clearwater 100
© 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miami.com
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http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/091906boston.htm
Boston To House Nation's Biggest Gay Health Complex
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
September 20, 2006 - 12:01 am ET
(Boston, Massachusetts) When it is completed a community health center inBoston will be the largest clinic and research facility targeting gays inthe country.
The Fenway Community Health Center, already known as one of the bestfacilities of its kind, is planning a $55 million dollar expansion.
The addition will increase its size fivefold.
Fenway is associated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of anumber of teaching hospitals in the Boston area. The center is one of onlyseven health centers in the United States with a major focus on treating theLGBT community.
Since it was opened in 1992 the center's client load has steadily increasedto about 11,000 patients who make 56,000 clinic visits a year.
Fenway is the largest provider of outpatient HIV care in New England, withmore than 1,100 clients. Its HIV counseling, testing, and referral programconducts 2,000 HIV tests annually.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Gay-Governor.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
McGreevey Hopes Book Brings Acceptance
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:56 p.m. ET
PLAINFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- Former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey said he has no desire to return to politics since he left office two years ago amid a sex scandal but hopes his new tell-all book leads to public acceptance of his homosexuality.McGreevey, who announced his resignation in a televised speech on Aug. 12, 2004, said Tuesday that he felt he had to come clean about his personal and political life.
''The danger is when people have to act out in dark shadows,'' McGreevey said. ''If people can be who they are in the bright light of day, can celebrate their uniqueness ... that's what promotes a moral fabric in a society.''
He also said his book contains some ''messy, shameful, sinful'' passages, including details of his relationship with an Israeli that he says began when he was governor, then married and a brand new father.
McGreevey's estranged wife, Dina Matos McGreevey, moved into her own home in Springfield after her husband left office.''Over the past two years my focus has been on protecting my daughter and establishing our lives as private citizens, and I will continue to do so. I have no further comment at this time,'' she wrote in an e-mail to the AP on Tuesday.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-mcgreevey.html
September 19, 2006
Ex New Jersey Governor Publishes Gay Memoir
By REUTERS
Filed at 4:14 p.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - For disgraced Americans, memoirs can offer a path to rehabilitation, but for the New Jersey governor who announced he was gay when he resigned on national television, his book has led to even more polemics.
James McGreevey -- who stepped down in August, 2004 -- said he had a passionate affair that finally made him proud to be gay. But his purported lover calls the book a pack of lies and says McGreevey sexually assaulted him.
Critics are also not impressed at McGreevey's attempt to restore his reputation. Ken Auletta, media critic for The New Yorker, called the memoir ``a fraudulent book and a fake.''
``Essentially this book puts him forward as some sort of civil rights leader, which is ridiculous'' Auletta said.
``Let's not forget he was forced from office because he made some terrible errors of judgment which approach corruption, not because he had a homosexual affair,'' he said.
McGreevey was accused of hiring Golan Cipel as a security adviser on the basis of his relationship with the man, not on his qualifications.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
VA: Editorial--The anti-family amendment
Roanoke Times, VA, September 19, 2006
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-83321
Editorial
The anti-family amendment
The amendment is meant to strengthen families. Instead it will strip manyVirginians of rights they enjoy and set the stage for family court battles.
When a state's attorney general interprets the marriage amendment one wayand a hundred-plus attorneys view it another, Virginians can be sure of onething: Much time, money and brainpower will clog the state's courts foryears to come if that amendment passes in November.
All those resources would be wasted on a measure that isn't even needed.Virginia law already clearly bans marriage between same-sex couples. Unlessthat law is repealed -- an extremely unlikely scenario-- the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman won'tchange.
Unfortunately, the full force of the law isn't comforting enough to theanti-gay crowd. They pushed for an amendment to Virginia's constitution thatwould not only bar same-sex marital unions but invalidate other legalarrangements by unmarried people, whether they are gay or straight.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
South Africa: Allow us to marry -
Citizen, South Africa, September 19, 2006
http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=24271,1,22
Allow us to marry - gay star
By Vicky Somniso, victorias@citizen.co.za
JOHANNESBURG - A gay socialite and member of award-winning music group 3Sum,Amstel Maboa, set to be married to a foreign Muslim man once the law allowsit, says Christians are promoting living in sin.
This follows Christian marches across the country against the amendment ofthe Marriage Act to include same-sex marriages.
The marches were organised by the Marriage Alliance of South Africa, andsupported by other Christian movements as well as the African ChristianDemocratic Party (ACDP).
Maboa yesterday said: "As Christians they are not supposed to judge, becausethat in a way is spreading a message of hatred and prostitution.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
AK: Judge finds same-sex benefits too restrictive;Court--policy holds same-sex couples to higher standards
Juneau Empire, AK, September 19, 2006
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/091906/loc_20060919012.shtml
Judge finds same-sex benefits too restrictive
Court: policy holds same-sex couples to higher standards
By TONY CARROLL,
JUNEAU EMPIRE
An Anchorage judge has found the state's proposed rules on benefits forsame-sex couples too stringent.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Stephanie Joannides earlier this month alsofound the state's view of an Alaska Supreme Court decision on the types ofbenefits to be offered too narrow.
The Alaska Department of Administration will hold public hearings in Juneauand Anchorage next week to take comments on the proposed regulation.
The state has never had a policy extending partner benefits to same-sexcouples, but an Alaska Supreme Court ruling last fall required it establishone before the end of the year. Following an action filed by the AmericanCivil Liberties Union and nine Alaska couples, the high court ruled thatbecause the state prohibits same-sex couples from marrying, denying gay andlesbian couples rights extended to married couples deprives them of equalprotection guaranteed under the Alaska Constitution.
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Costa Rica: Congress to Study Bill on Homosexual Civil Unions
Inter Press Service, Italy, September 19, 2006
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34776
SAN JOSÉ, Sep 19 (IPS) - The Diversity Movement in Costa Rica is sponsoring
a draft law on civil unions for same-sex couples which will be presentedformally to the legislature this week.
The civil unions initiative is aimed at ensuring equal rights for CostaRican homosexuals, granting each partner in stable same-sex couples theright to social security (if they are not economically self-sufficient), andthe right to inherit, among others..
More controversial issues, such as full marriage and adoption, have beenleft out of the bill. Abelardo Araya, president of the Diversity Movementwhich represents the homosexual and lesbian communities in the country, said that "these are issues that would create difficulties, rather than bringbenefits."
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Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
Associated Press, September 19, 2006
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/091906evang.htm
Liberal Evangelists: Ease Up On Gay Marriage by The Associated Press
(Washington) Liberal evangelicals, weary of a Republican-centric image,launched a campaign Monday to promote Christian values beyond the issues ofabortion and same-sex marriage.
Red Letter Christians, a project of Sojurners/Call to Renewal, announcedplans to establish a grass-roots network of 7,000 moderate and progressiveclergy members.
"A debate on moral issues should be central to American politics, but howshould we define religious values?" said Jim Wallis, an activist andexecutive director of the Christian ministry, which also publishes theliberal Sojourners Magazine.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
New Zealand: Press Release--Civil union numbers steady
Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand, September 19, 2006
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0609/S00224.htm
The 600th civil union has been registered today. Civil union services havebeen available since April 2005. In the first year, till April2006 there was a total of 460 civil union registrations.
The Registrar General for Births Deaths and Marriages, Brian Clarke saysthere have been 226 civil unions between males, 264 between females and 109between males and females.
"The registrations show that couples from all over the country have chosencivil union, from Punakaiki to Kerikeri. Most civil unions were registeredin Auckland where there have been 128 in 18 months. I'm pleased with therole of the Department of Internal Affairs in delivering the smooth runningof this service."
#####
http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid36608.asp
The Advocate
September 20, 2006
Colorado activists want Banton concert scrubbed
A group of Boulder, Colo., gay activists are calling for the cancellation ofa Wednesday night concert by Buju Banton, a vehemently homophobic reggaeartist who advocates the murder of gays.
Boulder Pride, the largest LGBT advocacy group in Boulder County, isplanning a protest if the concert at Boulder's Fox Theatre takes place.
According to a Boulder Pride press release, the group alerted Fox Theatre'sgeneral manager, John Caprio, this weekend of Banton's antigay past, whichincludes being charged with an attack on six gay men. Caprio intends to goahead with the concert, said Boulder Pride's interim executive directorMichael Mills.
"Our community will not tolerate this type of violent hate speech celebratedonstage," Mills said in the release.
=
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091900667_pf.html
Number of gay-friendly companies growing: study
By Ellen Wulfhorst
Reuters
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; 12:12 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A record number of U.S. companies are trying to begay-friendly, according to a survey released on Tuesday showing a growingnumber offering benefits and protections to gay and lesbian employees andcustomers.
An unprecedented 138 major U.S. companies scored 100 percent in a CorporateEquality Index compiled by the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington-based gayrights advocacy group.
That number was up from 101 companies last year and was 10 times higher thanthe 13 companies with that score in 2002, said thecampaign, which conducts research and education programs and lobbies Congress.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/nyregion/20mcgreevey.html?pagewanted=print
September 20, 2006
Ex-Governor Is Back in Public, This Time as an Author
By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
PLAINFIELD, N.J., Sept. 19 - Two years after a nationally televisedresignation in which he proclaimed himself "a gay American," former Gov.James E. McGreevey of New Jersey officially emerged from his self-imposedexile from public life today to release a memoir that chronicles his rise topower and fall from grace.
With a succession of newspaper interviews, an appearance Tuesday on "TheOprah Winfrey Show" and a book signing before a gay-rights group in the townwhere he once was mayor, Mr. McGreevey began a 60-day publicity campaign to promote his autobiography, "The Confession."
What Mr. McGreevey says in this explicit apologia is stunning for some,while to others, his confession is telling for what it omits.
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http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid36596.asp
The Advocate
September 20, 2006
Poland's president says his views on gays are misunderstood
Polish president Lech Kaczynski, a staunch Roman Catholic, said his viewslike traditional national values and gay people are misunderstood.Kaczynski, of the socially conservative Law and Justice Party, took officein December on pledges that included making sure that Poland's traditionalRoman Catholic values were not overwhelmed by the generally liberal European viewpoint. Poland, a former Soviet bloc country, joined the European Unionin 2004.
"I am aware that often the things I say are not in line with the Europeancorrectness," Kaczynski said in an interview Monday with the AssociatedPress in New York. "Even more, I am ascribed views that are not reallymine."
But he stressed the need to "verbalize our problems in Europe.... This ismuch more important than the hasty integration, a hasty killing of anational country that is an incomparably better center for consolidatingpeople than an anonymous, bureaucratic, and cold European Union."
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http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid36619.asp
The Advocate
September 20, 2006
American Airlines rebukes gay couple
An American Airlines captain reportedly threatened to divert a flight from Paris to New York after a gay couple complained about how they were treated by the flight crew, The New Yorker reported on Monday.
According to a "Talk of the Town" item in the magazine's September 25 issue, now posted on its Web site, TV journalist George Tsikhiseli and his boyfriend of four months, writer Stephan Varnier, were told by a stewardess to stop their "touching and the kissing" not long into American Airlines Flight 45 from Charles de Gaulle to JFK on August 22. The couple said they were doing nothing inappropriate-perhaps a peck on the cheek, a head on the other's shoulder-a story backed up by the two passengers seated behind them and another across the aisle.
When they asked to see the purser-whom the stewardess claimed had issued the order-the purser said she knew nothing about the incident and initially agreed that their behavior had not been inappropriate, the men and witnesses reported. But she returned later to say that other passengers had complained about the men's affectionate gestures. When the gay couple asked who had complained, asked to speak with an American Airlines representative upon landing, and asked for the stewardess's name and employee number, the purser told them to drop the matter or the flight would be diverted, the magazine reported.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-brmail750xsep20,0,5199582.story
It's actually voters who don't get it
Mitchell Rosenberg
plantation
September 20, 2006
Re Monday's letter, "President, rest of GOP don't get it" (some editions):I'm afraid it is the letter writer who doesn't get it. The president and theGOP "get it" perfectly, because after all of their indiscretions andcriminal acts, they continue to be the party in power.
The GOP can continue its agenda of robbing the treasury and destroying themiddle class indefinitely.
As long as they can spread fear and paranoia among the masses, as long asthey can rally their right-wing base and make issues like abortion and gaymarriage a priority, as long as they can link the war in Iraq to the attackon 9-11, as long as they can take credit for "keeping us safe," and as longas they can brand their critics as "appeasers," the GOP can and willcontinue to stay in power.
The letter writer says the public is fed up, and mad and angry. Again, thisis incorrect; the public has no time for anger. The public is too busyworking 60 hours a week or trying to Google photos of baby Suri to know orcare how the GOP has taken this country hostage. So they are re-electedanyway, because the public doesn't want to vote for those "weak liberalsthat hate our troops" or be "unpatriotic," or whatever soundbite the GOP canget the uninformed public to swallow. Then again, maybe they just hatehomosexuals.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/15559485.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
CIVIL RIGHTS
Gay rights records improve in U.S.
In an annual survey of U.S. companies and law firms, the Human Rights
Campaign saw improvements in recognizing gay rights.
BY MARILYN GEEWAX
Cox News Service
WASHINGTON - Even as states have been passing constitutional amendments toban gay marriages in recent years, a soaring number of companies havebeenaddingdomestic-partnership benefits, a gay rights advocacy group saidTuesday.
In its fifth annual survey of 446 large U.S. companies and law firms, theHuman Rights Campaign, a Washington-based political organization, examinedbenefits and protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgenderemployees and customers.
HRC ranks companies on several policies, including those involvingdiscrimination, health benefits and family leave.
=
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/15559484.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
FLORIDA'S EQUALITY INDEX
Here's how a selection of Florida companies rated on the Human RightsCampaign Foundations' Corporate Equality Index. The rating is for thecompanies' benefits and protections for their gay, lesbian, bisexual andtransgender employees and consumers.
Company, City Score
CSX Corp., Jacksonville 40
Darden Restaurants, Orlando 80
Office Depot, Delray Beach 60
Royal Caribbean, Miami 55
Ryder System Miami 93
Tech Data Corp., Clearwater 100
© 2006 MiamiHerald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miami.com
=
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/091906boston.htm
Boston To House Nation's Biggest Gay Health Complex
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
September 20, 2006 - 12:01 am ET
(Boston, Massachusetts) When it is completed a community health center inBoston will be the largest clinic and research facility targeting gays inthe country.
The Fenway Community Health Center, already known as one of the bestfacilities of its kind, is planning a $55 million dollar expansion.
The addition will increase its size fivefold.
Fenway is associated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of anumber of teaching hospitals in the Boston area. The center is one of onlyseven health centers in the United States with a major focus on treating theLGBT community.
Since it was opened in 1992 the center's client load has steadily increasedto about 11,000 patients who make 56,000 clinic visits a year.
Fenway is the largest provider of outpatient HIV care in New England, withmore than 1,100 clients. Its HIV counseling, testing, and referral programconducts 2,000 HIV tests annually.
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The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Gay-Governor.html?pagewanted=print
September 19, 2006
McGreevey Hopes Book Brings Acceptance
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:56 p.m. ET
PLAINFIELD, N.J. (AP) -- Former New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey said he has no desire to return to politics since he left office two years ago amid a sex scandal but hopes his new tell-all book leads to public acceptance of his homosexuality.McGreevey, who announced his resignation in a televised speech on Aug. 12, 2004, said Tuesday that he felt he had to come clean about his personal and political life.
''The danger is when people have to act out in dark shadows,'' McGreevey said. ''If people can be who they are in the bright light of day, can celebrate their uniqueness ... that's what promotes a moral fabric in a society.''
He also said his book contains some ''messy, shameful, sinful'' passages, including details of his relationship with an Israeli that he says began when he was governor, then married and a brand new father.
McGreevey's estranged wife, Dina Matos McGreevey, moved into her own home in Springfield after her husband left office.''Over the past two years my focus has been on protecting my daughter and establishing our lives as private citizens, and I will continue to do so. I have no further comment at this time,'' she wrote in an e-mail to the AP on Tuesday.
=
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-mcgreevey.html
September 19, 2006
Ex New Jersey Governor Publishes Gay Memoir
By REUTERS
Filed at 4:14 p.m. ET
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - For disgraced Americans, memoirs can offer a path to rehabilitation, but for the New Jersey governor who announced he was gay when he resigned on national television, his book has led to even more polemics.
James McGreevey -- who stepped down in August, 2004 -- said he had a passionate affair that finally made him proud to be gay. But his purported lover calls the book a pack of lies and says McGreevey sexually assaulted him.
Critics are also not impressed at McGreevey's attempt to restore his reputation. Ken Auletta, media critic for The New Yorker, called the memoir ``a fraudulent book and a fake.''
``Essentially this book puts him forward as some sort of civil rights leader, which is ridiculous'' Auletta said.
``Let's not forget he was forced from office because he made some terrible errors of judgment which approach corruption, not because he had a homosexual affair,'' he said.
McGreevey was accused of hiring Golan Cipel as a security adviser on the basis of his relationship with the man, not on his qualifications.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
VA: Editorial--The anti-family amendment
Roanoke Times, VA, September 19, 2006
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-83321
Editorial
The anti-family amendment
The amendment is meant to strengthen families. Instead it will strip manyVirginians of rights they enjoy and set the stage for family court battles.
When a state's attorney general interprets the marriage amendment one wayand a hundred-plus attorneys view it another, Virginians can be sure of onething: Much time, money and brainpower will clog the state's courts foryears to come if that amendment passes in November.
All those resources would be wasted on a measure that isn't even needed.Virginia law already clearly bans marriage between same-sex couples. Unlessthat law is repealed -- an extremely unlikely scenario-- the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman won'tchange.
Unfortunately, the full force of the law isn't comforting enough to theanti-gay crowd. They pushed for an amendment to Virginia's constitution thatwould not only bar same-sex marital unions but invalidate other legalarrangements by unmarried people, whether they are gay or straight.
=
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South Africa: Allow us to marry -
Citizen, South Africa, September 19, 2006
http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=24271,1,22
Allow us to marry - gay star
By Vicky Somniso, victorias@citizen.co.za
JOHANNESBURG - A gay socialite and member of award-winning music group 3Sum,Amstel Maboa, set to be married to a foreign Muslim man once the law allowsit, says Christians are promoting living in sin.
This follows Christian marches across the country against the amendment ofthe Marriage Act to include same-sex marriages.
The marches were organised by the Marriage Alliance of South Africa, andsupported by other Christian movements as well as the African ChristianDemocratic Party (ACDP).
Maboa yesterday said: "As Christians they are not supposed to judge, becausethat in a way is spreading a message of hatred and prostitution.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
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AK: Judge finds same-sex benefits too restrictive;Court--policy holds same-sex couples to higher standards
Juneau Empire, AK, September 19, 2006
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/091906/loc_20060919012.shtml
Judge finds same-sex benefits too restrictive
Court: policy holds same-sex couples to higher standards
By TONY CARROLL,
JUNEAU EMPIRE
An Anchorage judge has found the state's proposed rules on benefits forsame-sex couples too stringent.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Stephanie Joannides earlier this month alsofound the state's view of an Alaska Supreme Court decision on the types ofbenefits to be offered too narrow.
The Alaska Department of Administration will hold public hearings in Juneauand Anchorage next week to take comments on the proposed regulation.
The state has never had a policy extending partner benefits to same-sexcouples, but an Alaska Supreme Court ruling last fall required it establishone before the end of the year. Following an action filed by the AmericanCivil Liberties Union and nine Alaska couples, the high court ruled thatbecause the state prohibits same-sex couples from marrying, denying gay andlesbian couples rights extended to married couples deprives them of equalprotection guaranteed under the Alaska Constitution.
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Costa Rica: Congress to Study Bill on Homosexual Civil Unions
Inter Press Service, Italy, September 19, 2006
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34776
SAN JOSÉ, Sep 19 (IPS) - The Diversity Movement in Costa Rica is sponsoring
a draft law on civil unions for same-sex couples which will be presentedformally to the legislature this week.
The civil unions initiative is aimed at ensuring equal rights for CostaRican homosexuals, granting each partner in stable same-sex couples theright to social security (if they are not economically self-sufficient), andthe right to inherit, among others..
More controversial issues, such as full marriage and adoption, have beenleft out of the bill. Abelardo Araya, president of the Diversity Movementwhich represents the homosexual and lesbian communities in the country, said that "these are issues that would create difficulties, rather than bringbenefits."
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
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Associated Press, September 19, 2006
http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/091906evang.htm
Liberal Evangelists: Ease Up On Gay Marriage by The Associated Press
(Washington) Liberal evangelicals, weary of a Republican-centric image,launched a campaign Monday to promote Christian values beyond the issues ofabortion and same-sex marriage.
Red Letter Christians, a project of Sojurners/Call to Renewal, announcedplans to establish a grass-roots network of 7,000 moderate and progressiveclergy members.
"A debate on moral issues should be central to American politics, but howshould we define religious values?" said Jim Wallis, an activist andexecutive director of the Christian ministry, which also publishes theliberal Sojourners Magazine.
=
Forwarded from Ken's List <Kenneth.Sherrill@hunter.cuny.edu>
To: kenslist@groups.queernet.org
New Zealand: Press Release--Civil union numbers steady
Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand, September 19, 2006
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0609/S00224.htm
The 600th civil union has been registered today. Civil union services havebeen available since April 2005. In the first year, till April2006 there was a total of 460 civil union registrations.
The Registrar General for Births Deaths and Marriages, Brian Clarke saysthere have been 226 civil unions between males, 264 between females and 109between males and females.
"The registrations show that couples from all over the country have chosencivil union, from Punakaiki to Kerikeri. Most civil unions were registeredin Auckland where there have been 128 in 18 months. I'm pleased with therole of the Department of Internal Affairs in delivering the smooth runningof this service."
#####
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