We were remiss not to tell you about this sooner, but on the last day of February, a Palm Beach County judge handed down yet another win to Fane Lozman, the Marine Corps pilot turned millionaire stockbroker turned houseboat owner turned hero for the Little Man everywhere.

Lozman made national news in January when he won a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2006, Lozman had been living on his houseboat in Riviera Beach, at the city marina -- one of the few remaining places in South Florida where dockage remained affordable to the average boater. But of course, developers wanted to use the public property for private, commercial enterprises.

Lozman attended city meetings and fought politicians' last-minute efforts to sell the property to developers using eminent domain.  For this, he suffered nasty retaliation from city officials, who had his houseboat seized and towed away under maritime law.

Lozman argued that they didn't have jurisdiction -- that his houseboat was a "floating home" and not a "vessel." That's the case he won in the Supreme Court.

As Lozman was fighting for his home, his cohorts back in Riviera Beach were also carrying on with another court battle to keep hungry profiteers at bay.

More »

Planting Peace

The timing couldn't have been better for the shenanigans local activist Aaron Jackson and his non-profit, Planting Peace, pulled off in Topeka, Kansas yesterday.

If you managed to avoid social media or the internet in general over the last 24 hours, the Destin-based activist, along with friends and partners involved in his organization, converted an average-looking two-bedroom house, located across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church, into a symbol of gay pride. This rainbow-colored "Equality House," which will serve as a base of operations for Planting Peace's antibullying intiative, now sits as a direct and visible challenge to the infamous compound's hate and bigotry.

The "God Hates Fags" clan will have to look at it every. single. day.

Jackson, who purchased the house about a year ago through Planting Peace and had been keeping the plan under wraps, knew the response would be swift and sizable. But he didn't expect it to be so massive that he'd hear from international media outlets within the first few hours.

"A lot of papers I've never heard of called," Jackson said Tuesday night.

See Also:
-Activist Painting House Like a Gay Rainbow, Across Street From Westboro Baptist Church

More »

via Barefoot Intactivist

Update, 10:34 a.m.: This post was updated with quotes from Anthony Losquadro, executive director of Intaction.

Surely, President Clinton was a little freaked out last night when in the middle of his event -- a Clinton Foundation Millennium Network talk in New York featuring the former president, Chelsea Clinton, and actor Ed Norton -- a whistle blew and a group of men stood up, held hands, and chanted, "Stop exploiting Africans; circumcision does not stop AIDS!"

The protesters were self-described "intactivists" -- those who believe that circumcision is actually a mutilation of the genitals.

Although circumcision is routinely performed on infants in the United States, it is not in other developed countries. Germans even moved to outlaw the practice last year (though Jews stopped the law on religious grounds), and it is banned in some Australian hospitals. Circumcision became widely popular as a means to prevent males from masturbating. Today's medical establishment generally supports circumcision, arguing that it has preventive effects for penile cancer and other diseases, though some studies say it leads to erectile dysfunction and other problems.

See also:
-- Anticircumcision Activists Say Trimming a Bit off the Top Is Too Much
-- Circumcision and AIDS: Harvard Doctors Respond to Criticism

More »

Welcome back!

Tuesday, March 5, is the first day of the legislative session for Florida lawmakers.

And rabble-rousers are not letting it go unnoticed.

People affiliated with a progressive group called Awake the State, whose emphasis is on protecting middle-class families, intend to rally at 5 p.m. outside the Supervisor of Elections, office at 240 S. Military Trail in West Palm Beach.

Their demand: Make it easier to vote.

More »

Stamp Stampede

More »

Lokie says: Bring it.

UPDATED: Our source, Rebecca Marie Knox, responds to our story this morning:

Please be aware,your reporter is a joke,,,he spams are accounts,acting as a friend???but is really a reporter???low lifes.....please keep my name out of your paper,your paper is a racist joke,,,bullies,,,privacy please...

ORIGINAL POST: Loki Boy isn't going anywhere.

The 23-year-old Brazilian, Andre Barbosa, who overtook a $2.5 million mansion by means of "adverse possession" -- an antiquated quirk in Florida property law -- at the end of last year, was served an eviction notice yesterday by Bank of America "without incident."

Dude's response? You're going to have to kill me.

"He is different," said friend Rebecca Marie Knox of Springfield who's spoken with the reclusive Barbosa every day by telephone. "He is very different. He is very quiet. This is something that he has against Bank of America. He has a big thing against Bank of America. He mentions them a lot. But he so quiet -- and most 23-year-olds aren't that quiet."

Knox, who met Barbosa on the Internet, said his obsession with Loki is rooted in Nordic mythology. Loki is the brother of Thor, the Thunder God.

More »

C. Stiles

James Randi

Though he lives quietly in Plantation, Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, AKA "The Amazing Randi," has a cult following around the globe.

In one of the greatest about-faces ever performed, Randi was a nationally famous magician (he appeared on the Today Show, broke at least one of Houdini's records, and toured with Alice Cooper) who saw that charlatans were using industry-standard magic tricks to con people. So, he made it his life's mission to become a professional debunker and reveal to people how they get duped. As he employed his powers for the forces of good, he ruined business for "psychics" (including Uri Geller), was featured on shows with Barbara Walters, started his own foundation, and attracted legions of brainy admirers in the skeptic community who rally around this sort of thing. (For more on Randi, see our 2009 feature profile of him.)

More »

Patricia Atkins-Grad

Just because you're a public official once accused of corruption, doesn't mean you can't pick make a comeback.

Tamarac city commissioner Patricia Atkins-Grad in December was acquitted on corruption charges stemming from a 2010 indictment. The commissioner, a realtor who goes by the nickname "Positively Patte, had been accused of bribery, official misconduct, receiving unlawful compensation, and conspiring to commit unlawful compensation. During her ordeal, she was suspended from the dais for two years. After her acquittal, she was reinstated as a commissioner.

This upset some residents, who are launching a campaign to see Atkins-Grad recalled. Even though recall efforts are underway, City Attorney Sam Goren on Tuesday said that Atkins-Grad can continue acting in her official capacity so long as she holds office.

More »

On the national stage, Florida has a golden reputation for its broad-ranging public records laws, called "Sunshine Laws." But in practice, our government institutions are often piss-poor, stonewalling citizens with noncompliance and intimidation when they request to see certain documents.

Proving that point has become the life's work of Joel Chandler, an open-government activist and the proprietor of FogWatch.org. A former copy-machine salesman and business consultant, the Lakeland resident has spent the past four years roaming from public institution to public institution, dropping public records requests along the way. If he's met with resistance, he files a lawsuit -- and he's filed more than 100 so far.

"I've only lost two at the trial level," he says. "I don't make a habit of filing a lawsuit unless I'm absolutely certain I'm going to win."

More »

Joni Albrecht

Gun lovers around the country designated this past Saturday, January 19, a "gun appreciation day." In Utah, a guy celebrated by bringing an assault rifle into a JC Penney, and five others celebrated by getting shot at gun shows in Ohio, Indiana, and North Carolina. Locally, the Delray Shooting Center did bang-up business (pun intended), as evidenced by its Facebook page.

More »