A federal child-porn ring turned up several F-staters, including
Associate Dean Pat Shannon at the University of Florida law school, who quickly
resigned. In what is apparently a separate federal child-porn investigation,
a police captain at the Haley VA Hospital in Tampa, Bruce Scheller, was also
charged and is outta there. Father Adrian Parry was nailed after his nude
photos showed up on a "gay wrestling" website in Palm Beach County, where he
was a history teacher and chaplain at an Episcopal school. And Ralph
Mervine, executive director of the expressway agency in Tampa, resigned
after he was outed for his side interest as owner of a gay porno website.
[FirstCoastNews.com] [Tampa Tribune] [WPEC-TV (West Palm Beach] [Tampa
Tribune]

Hate! Get Yer Hate Right Here! The Phelpses of Topeka, Kan., plan another one of those ha-ha-you're-dead
demonstrations tomorrow at a funeral for a fallen soldier (this time in
Jacksonville), who they believe was killed (by Iraqi insurgents/Muslim
militants) on orders from the Christian God, solely to punish America for
being gay-tolerant. The Rev. Fred Phelps operates under cover of the "Westboro
Baptist Church," but his message is apparently the least effective one in
the history of religion, in that he's been on these jags for years but his
only disciples remain other Phelpses by blood or marriage. As usual at these
demonstrations, a group of bikers will be on hand to unfurl American flags
to shield the mourners. Also, supposedly, a new state law will kick in which
makes it illegal to disturb a military funeral (which the Phelpses say, of
course, is unconstitutional). [WJXT-TV (Jacksonville)] [Westboro Baptist]

Don't Get Me Started on Glitzy Pro Wrestling Like, in the 1970s and earlier, pro wrestling was king in Florida. No rock
music, no pyro, no steroid freaks, no cover-girl models. Just, y'know,
well-done carnival. (What? Wrestling is fake? Hey, I can tell you how
Hamlet turns out, too, pal.) A couple of independent circuits still
run small shows in the state, such as American Combat Wrestling, setting up
at a nightclub in New Port Richey. And two artists have combined for a
showing this weekend in Hollywood paying tribute to the "Championship
Wrestling from Florida" era. [St. Petersburg Times] [South Florida
Sun-Sentinel]

Constitutional Crisis Over Mentally Ill Prisoners Broward County Circuit Judge Martin Bidwill gets first crack next week at
bending the Department of Children and Families over a barrel and firing up the
drill, over DCF's blatant refusal to obey judges' orders to keep mentally
ill prisoners in jail for no more than 15 days before moving them to state
hospitals. DCF says they can't do it because all 1,416 hospital beds are
full and there's no more money, which sounds like a good excuse except that
DCF takes orders from the top, and the governor has long kept DCF's budget
down. So the Jeb/DCF position is that Saving Taxpayer Nickels takes
precedence over decency for the mentally ill, and that anyway, the gov't is
still housing the mentally ill but just, y'know, in a place that assures
they'll get no treatment and maybe regular beatdowns. Bidwill has the
authority (but maybe not the gumption) to send a DCF exec or two to jail
over this. A decision is due next week. [Miami Herald]

There Are a Few Major St. Petersburg celeb Jimmy Wales, who is the creator of the utterly
indispensable Wikipedia but who doesn't get out much around home, was
finally honored at a dinner. He said it was the first time he'd ever met an
actual local techie. [St. Petersburg Times]

Your Daily Loser
Christopher Golden, 23, is looking at serious prison time after he took an
SUV at knifepoint in Deltona but then realized that since he's not from
around there, he didn't know how to get back to I-4. So he asked the guy he
was stealing the SUV from for directions, which the victim was happy to give
(so that he could tell the cops exactly where Golden was headed). But Golden
missed two turnoffs to I-4, was chased down by deputies, and crashed into a
pole. Bunch of crime charges and two open warrants from Ohio await his exit
from the hospital. [Orlando Sentinel]

More Things To Worry About Today It didn't seem like a fair chase, but police in squad cars caught up to a
Miami thief making off with a golf cart, on an entrance ramp to Florida's
Turnpike [WPLG-TV (Miami)] . . . . . A federal court upheld the firing of a
TV cameraman employed by Hillsborough County (fired when he boldly and
gratuitously posed a super-vulgar question to county commissioner Ronda
Storms) [St. Petersburg Times].

This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2006.