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What is it about denim, spandex, and sweatshop labor that makes finding the right pair of jeans so difficult? It's a topic tackled by Oprah, countless websites, Saturday Night Live, and my friends.......here
Adam Nystrom remembers being taunted by classmates in middle school for needing so many special-education courses. "They'd say, 'Oh, that's the retard class,' and everybody would laugh," recalls Adam, who suffers from a learning disorder that impedes reading ability. "I wouldn't really say anything because there isn't anything funny about it.".......more
"I'm so happy to be out, I'm the happiest girl in the world right now.".........Mindy McCready
Several members of a Palm Beach County, Florida family were taken into custody by police last week after they protested the arrest of one of their members over the issue of baggy pants. The family claims they were arrested by close to two dozen deputies because they were upset with the 20-year-old's arrest.......here
Jose Rizal (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896)
It was typical Charlie Crist. The 51-year-old first-year governor prefers cajolery to confrontation, a sunny smile to sweeping condemnations. His centrist policies and corny aphorisms -- calling Floridians "the boss," and himself "the people's governor" -- are delivered with warm sincerity. But as Crist enters his second year in office, he's finding that sincerity may not be enough -- and his personal warmth is being met by increasingly icy responses......here
Loxahatchee rock miner Enrique Tomeu looks more comfortable in a hard hat than a tuxedo. "All I am is a hardworking guy who has busted his butt all his life," he says humbly. But in 2005, he schmoozed at the highest levels of the Republican elite - at George W. Bush's second inauguration, a $42 million cavalcade of power brunches, candlelight dinners and nine inaugural balls. To attend the four-day fete, Tomeu contributed $50,000 to Bush's inaugural committee, more than most Palm Beach County families earn in a year......more
It was a year that strode boldly into the stall of human events and took a wide stance astride the porcelain bowl of history. In short, 2007 was a year of deep gloom, pierced occasionally by rays of even deeper gloom. Oh, sure, there were a few bright spots.......more
When Bill Clinton appeared in Winter Park recently to raise money for his wife's presidential campaign, he slipped into town behind the tinted windows of a sport utility vehicle. When he left two hours later, he pulled out with a quick wave to onlookers, leaving reporters cooling their heels on the curb........here
The Lower Florida Keys is a roughly 36-mile stretch of Florida islands between Marathon and Key West......here
Florida strawberry growers, almost all within 30 miles of Plant City, planted a record 8,320 acres this year after a sixth consecutive record sales year of $273 million. Those figures represent a 14 percent increase from $239 million in sales in the 2005-06 season and an 11 percent increase in the 7,500 acres planted last season, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture......here
House members spent $20.3 million in tax money last year to send constituents what's often the government equivalent of junk mail - meeting announcements, tips on car care and job interviews, surveys on public policy and just plain bragging..........here
Less than a month ago, Pakistanis living in Central Florida were protesting President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule. Now, they're wondering what the latest turn of events -- the assassination of opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- means for their homeland, and the United States........here
He fled Cuba in 1961, but still calls Fidel Castro his friend. He can't stand communism, but bitterly opposes the U.S. embargo. He lives in Miami, but travels regularly to Havana, even appearing on state-run television. Max Lesnik always has an opinion, and often makes someone mad — no matter which side of the Florida Straits he's on.........here, Interview with Amy Goodman........here
Between the alligator-infested Florida Everglades and the craziness of Miami Beach lies a peaceful center surrounded by tomato and fruit farms.Wat Buddharangsi, a Thai Buddhist temple, is unexpectedly found on five-acres in the rural town of Homestead, a short drive from Miami.........here
A video delivered by her kidnappers shows her sitting in a jungle clearing on a roughhewn bench, legs crossed, hands motionless on her right knee over shapeless dungarees. Her chestnut hair drops over a shoulder to her waist. She has been a prisoner of the FARC for nearly six years since venturing into rebel territory while campaigning for the presidency, and this is the first proof that she is alive to surface since a 2003 video.......here 
Florida, well-known for its theme parks and beaches, has another - more dubious - distinction, a tendency toward bizarre news and 2007 was no exception. There was the battle over former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith's body, the city manager who was fired after he became a she, and the love triangle involving the female astronaut who drove 1 609km, allegedly using diapers to save time, to confront a romantic rival........here
Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space will be speaking at 7:00 P.M. Friday evening, January 4th. 
Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits “tent city”, a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city centre, but in the once-booming suburbia of southern California. The unraveling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck’s novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression........here
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, has identified five groups of waterbodies that are impaired and in need of water monitoring, cleanup and restoration. In the latest round of evaluating impairments in the surface waters of Florida, DEP Deputy Secretary Mimi Drew signed a final order on December 12 targeting 272 impaired waters for cleanup in the Everglades, Indian River Lagoon, Perdido, Springs Coast and Upper East Coast Basins........here
I believed that we had to stay steady and hang in there, donate to the party and vote loyally...that we would make a difference. I am trying to still trust, but it appears lately there is an agenda already pre-set that doesn't need us and in fact finds the netroots rather cumbersome to have hanging around. I hope I am wrong.......here"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
--Edmund Burke
We have just been informed by Alan's life partner, John Wilsusen, that our dear friend, Alan Wright, died early this morning at Melech Hospice in Temple Terrace. We feel blessed to have known this pure soul. Our gratitude for his friendship and tireless work for the Hillsborough River is beyond words......here, Story.....here
Police used chemical spray and stun guns Thursday on protesters who tried to force their way into a City Council meeting, the latest strife over plans to demolish some 4,500 public housing units in a redevelopment project that council members ended up unanimously supporting.......here
Top Florida officials say they treated the politically charged custody fight over a young Cuban girl like any other case, but documents obtained by The Associated Press show they took extraordinary steps to stop the youngster's father from taking her back to the communist island.........here
The Archbishop of Canterbury 
"The economy is really alarming a lot of Americans," he says, noting that people are afraid of losing their homes and their jobs. In a year-end interview with U.S. News, he added that the party of an incumbent president usually pays a severe price when the economy goes bad—and that's what will happen to the Republicans in next year's election........here
I smell a false-populist, false revolution. Recognize Ron Paul's phony rallying cry to protect the constitution as a ploy by the "Republican" party to continue their destruction our republic....... Mark Frankenberg
Gov. Charlie Crist has asked three trial lawyers to build a case for a possible class-action lawsuit against property insurers, alleging that the industry hasn't passed on savings to consumers as required by a new Florida law.......more
Little did University of Florida student Andrew Meyer know back in September that his 15 minutes of fame would live on in the pantheon of dubious utterances after he disrupted a speech by Sen. John Kerry......here
Weeks before Iowa voters trudge through the snow for the presidential caucuses on Jan. 3, thousands of Florida voters will get the first crack at casting a ballot, thanks to Florida's early-voting laws. The Republican Party traditionally has dominated the absentee voting wars, but the Democrats will compete with them this year, said state Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski. Republicans "have reached a ceiling as far as how many guaranteed early voters they've got," he said, and for Democrats, who have not, "the sky's the limit."........here
BG&E, based in Atlanta, Ga., plans to build a power plant in north or Central Florida that will use waste wood products -- such as yard trimmings, tree bark and wood knots from paper mills -- to create electricity. It would generate about 75 megawatts, or enough electricity to power 46,000 homes........here
A federal judge ordered state election officials to stop enforcing a 2-year-old voter registration law, ruling Tuesday afternoon that there is already proof that the change put in place by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature has resulted in actual harm to real individuals.......here
Barack Obama's rise in the polls has many pundits comparing him to JFK. But maybe he's just a more charismatic Howard Dean.......here
"This party is a party that includes everybody and Guam is not going to be an exception. One of the first things I did when I was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee was make sure that territories had the same voting power as states,"............here
With a public fuming over congestion and sprawl, state planners and legislative leaders are again seeking ways to better manage Florida's growth. But unlike years past -- when politicians and planners passed tough growth laws only to water them down afterward 
Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Speech at Free Indoor Event, Saturday December 15, 2007
Using a curious tactic in a Democratic primary season dominated by liberals, Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday accused Barack Obama of being too far left to be elected president -- citing a decade-old questionnaire indicating Obama once opposed the death penalty and backed socialized medicine.......here
Asher Wright, 20, a corrections officer with the Walton County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office, was arrested about 8:30 p.m. Friday during a road check at Smith Avenue and Kern Street. Asher’s two citations were among 47 issued during the Smith road check and another later Friday night at Cairo Road and the west bypass. The road checks had been planned for about two months. The events were designed to send a message to the public that Thomasville Police Department is serious about highway and vehicle occupant safety........here
Florida's governor was in Fort Lauderdale Monday for the ribbon cutting of a business that will run completely on solar power. Advanced Green Technologies Advanced Green Technologies at 2100 N.W. 21st Ave. has the largest solar-power roof in the Sunshine State for its 10,000-square-foot building........here
One Of America's Most Influential Politicians
Puerto Rico officials have a new plan to solve their monkey problem: export them to Central Florida. About 30 patas monkeys have been shipped to the Florida International Teaching Zoo in Sumter County as part of a larger strategy to capture, neuter, track and export packs of monkeys that have invaded the island from a defunct research facility........more
Thirty-five years after she straddled an enemy cannon in defiance of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda has vets in a frenzy about a visit to Palm Beach for a fund-raiser next week. Some of the 7,000-plus members of the American Legion in Palm Beach, Martin and Okeechobee counties were expecting to be called to picket Tuesday's luncheon of the YWCA at The Breakers........here
Thursday, Dec. 13 will be the day Florida Forever, a state land conservation program, will designate its acquisition and restoration council to decide whether or not to purchase 18,743 acres of environmentally sensitive land for about $80 million.......here
I still wish I could turn back the clock to the Summer of 1980. I remember everything - sharing our morning coffee, walking in the park together on a beautiful day, and seeing your hand stretched to mine - holding it, reassuring me that I shouldn't worry about anything because our life was good.........here
For years, the back pages of The Orlando Weekly were filled with ads for naughty nurses, sultry coeds and girls with come-hither names like "Rush" and "Roxie." But the saucy escort-service advertising came to a halt this fall. Vice squad officers arrested three of the paper's advertising sales reps in a sting operation and secured an extraordinary racketeering indictment against the Weekly, accusing it of knowingly profiting from prostitution.......here
