Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Judge: Let gay-straight group meet at school

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 7, 2007

OKEECHOBEE

A club that promotes tolerance of gays must be allowed to meet at Okeechobee High School while a lawsuit is pending, a federal judge ruled Friday. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the school board in November on behalf of the Gay-Straight Alliance after school officials said the group was a "sex-based" organization that would violate its abstinence-only education policy. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore ruled Friday that the school must grant the same privileges to the Gay-Straight Alliance that it grants other clubs, as mandated by the federal Equal Access Act. In his ruling, the judge said the school showed no evidence to back its concern that the group would encourage students to share "obscene or sexually explicit material."

TALLAHASSEE

TaxWatch pushes sales tax reform

Florida TaxWatch, a budget watchdog group, resumed its campaign Friday to collect billions of dollars of sales taxes on mail-order, Internet and other remote purchases from out-of-state companies. The existing tax law is nearly impossible to enforce. TaxWatch estimates Florida will lose $2-billion in sales tax this year. The Legislature has repeatedly refused to pass such a law, arguing it would amount to a tax increase.

MIAMI BEACH

Girl falls 5 decks on cruise ship

A 13-year-old girl was evacuated from a cruise ship early Friday after she fell five decks down an interior stairwell, officials said. The girl received immediate medical attention from the ship's doctor and was taken by the U.S. Coast Guard to a Miami hospital as a precaution, according to AnneMarie Mathews, a spokeswoman for Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Lines. The girl suffered mild head trauma, according to the Coast Guard.

WINTER PARK

DCF worker accused of lying

A former child-welfare worker was arrested because she lied about conducting dozens of day care inspections, authorities said. Department of Children & Families investigators began looking into Kimberly Crawn, 38, of Winter Park, after receiving an e-mail complaint from a day care owner in July 2005. An internal investigation uncovered 66 falsified inspection records at 33 day care centers in Central Florida, according to a report from the agency's Office of Inspector General. Crawn was arrested Wednesday on 65 charges of official misconduct and 58 charges of falsification of state documents, FDLE spokeswoman Susie Murphy said.

ORLANDO

Airline passengers held up by security

Passengers aboard five flights from New York City - including two bound for Orlando and Fort Lauderdale - were evacuated and screened at their destinations as authorities tried to find a man who breached security at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said Friday. No arrests were made and no one was detained at any of the five airports where the flights landed Thursday, Transportation Security Administration spokesman Christopher White said. "We had no specific intelligence indicating the suspect was on board one of the flights," White said. "But there was the small likelihood that the individual could have gotten on a flight, he said."

[Last modified April 7, 2007, 01:40:40]