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
Tenth grader Noah Gray quietly pulled out his iPhone in English class and saw the e-mail he’d been waiting for. You’re in!” He smiled and hid his phone. The 15-year-old hadn’t gotten in to a party or a sports event. The e-mail was from a spokeswoman for Univision, the Spanish television station. The news: He’d have a press pass for Sunday’s Republican presidential debate in Florida......more
Florida's idyllic Gasparilla island has taken up arms against aggressive foreign intruders, but the Mexican spiny-tailed iguanas are putting up a tough fight, devouring landscaped gardens, munching on electrical cables and gobbling up turtle eggs.........more
Democratic presidential candidate frontrunners are pulling out the big guns this week to woo voters in Iowa. While Barack Obama leans on Oprah Winfrey's star power to pull in crowds, Hillary turns to support from daughter Chelsea Clinton and mother Dorothy Rodham to lend her campaign a softer 'family' feel..........here
Florida Progressive Coalition And Samm Simpson
"Republicans continue to prove that you just can't trust them with your money. The Bush Republicans in Congress can't claim to be fiscal conservatives one day and then block Democratic efforts to responsibly manage our country's finances the next. Democrats are absolutely committed to stopping a tax hike on millions of unsuspecting middle class Americans but Republicans are blocking efforts to do so responsibly. With our national debt rising by $1.4 billion a day and foreign governments controlling our debt, what will it take for Republicans to act responsibly?"
In a triumph of marketing over reasoning, the bottled water industry has turned us into conspicuously silly consumers.Controlled by a handful of global conglomerates (such as Coca Cola and Nestle), the water industry has created the fantasy that if it's in a bottle, it's purer than what comes out of the tap. But wait – the EPA stringently regulates the public water systems, requiring tests several times a day for bacteria and other contaminants, and these test results are public information. The corporate bottlers, on the other hand, are overseen by the more lackadaisical FDA, which requires them to test their water sources only once a week – and the results are kept secret by the corporations......here
Not surprisingly in a field of eight contenders, no candidate came close to gaining a majority of the total vote in PDA's recently completed presidential straw poll. But two candidates--Dennis Kucinich (41%) and John Edwards (26%)--combined for more than 2/3 of the total vote.......here
The scent of incense hangs in the air as one passes between the columns saying "Welcome Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp." So does a musty odor. The smells come from the small houses that line the narrow streets, the porches decorated with chimes and ornaments. The paint peels from many homes and some of the yards are unkempt and cluttered. The spooky atmosphere is appropriate — the Spiritualists who live here say they converse with the dead.......here
Justin Troller, a Lakeland High School teacher and tireless campaigner, easily defeated Brian Dockery in Tuesday's runoff election for a seat on the Lakeland City Commission. Troller won the nonpartisan race with 61 percent of the vote in an aggressive campaign that in its final days pitted unions vs. business leaders and Republicans vs. Democrats........here
Commissioners from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission unanimously voted to postpone a decision to downlist manatees from “endangered” to “threatened” Wednesday. Commissioners also approved the first ever management plan for manatees, which will not only develop better ways to count them but also beef up protections for the sea cow........here
The next intelligent design showdown will take place in Florida, where opposition is mounting to state -mandated emphasis on the importance of evolution to science education. The controversy comes on the heels of a Texas education official's firing for forwarding an email critical of intelligent design, which holds that some phenomena are too complex to be explained except by Godly manufacture.......more
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Democratic National Committee has every right to strip Florida of its 210 delegates as punishment for moving its primary date to Jan. 29. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle dismissed a lawsuit against the national party by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, ruling from the bench that ``Florida has to comply by the same rules as everybody else and does not get to insist on its own way.''........here
Liberal Hawk Says Iraq No Longer Matters
"President Bush has lost all credibility with the American people. We were misled on Iraq, now it's Iran. We need to get to the truth so our foreign policy is not only tough but smart. By electing a Democratic president, we can not only begin to renew the American people's trust in its government but also restore America's moral authority in the world.".......Howard Dean
The Christian Family Coalition announced that it has filed the remaining 3,300 petition signatures necessary to place the Florida Marriage Amendment on the November 2008 U.S. Presidential ballot.....here
Public school districts in two Florida counties are refusing to allow members of a peace organisation to counter the presence of military recruiters by talking with high school students about options other than joining the service, according to a spokesperson for the group........here
Trouble, a white Maltese who belonged to billionaire Leona Helmsley until her death in August, was flown by private jet under tight security two months ago after receiving around 20 such threats.........here%5B1%5D.JPG)
The 3,400 soldiers of the 53rd Infantry Brigade will "assume battle space in Afghanistan" to perform a range of operations starting in the summer of 2009, the Pentagon announced Monday. More than 1,200 members of the brigade, headquartered at Pinellas Park, returned from an active-duty tour in Afghanistan as recently as mid-2006.........here
The Jefferson County school district was forced to take out a short-term loan to cover payroll for the 220 teachers and other employees in the system after $2.7 million it held in the pool was frozen yesterday. At least five other districts also obtained last-minute loans.......more
Nearly 16 million Venezuelans will go to the polls to vote on a proposal to reform the 1999 constitution. The proposal would increase President Hugo Chavez's powers, and would allow him to be re-elected indefinitely.........here
"What Virginia Democrats have demonstrated is that if you show up and work hard, not just in Northern Virginia but everywhere, and speak about our values as Democrats and Americans, there is no part of America that Democrats cannot win,"........here
These people are no George Bush. I know George Bush. With George Bush the whole of this knowledge is contained within one person......here
Honestly, I'm sick to fucking death of the terrorism/Nazism comparisons. Hitler had the political intelligence and acumen to maneuver himself into a position of absolute control, with popular support, in a nation that was historically an industrial and military powerhouse........more
Mayor Rick just came onstage to stand and have his photo taken with all the candidates in the gaggle photo op and he wins the “I’m taller than Fred Thompson” award for tonight......here
