Tampa Bay RW Steve Downie was handed a 20-game suspension by the American Hockey League on Thursday after the league reviewed his actions in Saturday's AHL game against Norfolk. ...more

March 6, 2009

OBAMA'S ORDERS •Close the much-maligned Guantanamo facility within a year, a complicated process with many unanswered questions. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals. ...more

January 23, 2009

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects Thursday, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, review military war crimes trials and ban the harshest interrogation methods. ...more

January 22, 2009

TAMPA A 78-year-old mental health therapist faces up to life in prison after being convicted this afternoon of a federal charge that he drove to the Tampa area to sexually and physically abuse two boys he thought would be made available by their father. After the verdict was read, Charles Friedlander was overcome with emotion, according to his attorney, George Tragos. He was led away to jail in a wheelchair. ...more

December 16, 2008

Charles Friedlander is "a 78-year-old lonely man whose only social life is on the Internet," and not a pedophile who attempted to sexually and physically abuse two boys, Friedlander's lawyer told a jury today. ...more

December 15, 2008

Fort Myers mental health counselor Thomas Jackson Friedlander was described today as being either a sadistic pedophile or a lonely 78-year-old homosexual who was arrested for describing his corporal punishment fantasies. ...more

December 8, 2008

A judge today barred attorneys for Charles Friedlander from presenting expert testimony that Friedlander is not a pedophile or a sexual sadist. ...more

November 17, 2008

Around the same time a mental health counselor was talking online to an undercover detective in Pinellas County about having sex with the detective's fictional young sons, he was chatting with another undercover detective about having sex with that detective's fictional mentally handicapped daughter, a prosecutor said in court this morning. Charles Jackson Friedlander, 78, is scheduled to go on trial Monday on a charge he used a computer to arrange sex with the first detective's fictional 10- and 11-year old boys. Friedlander, of Fort Myers, could face between 10 years and life behind bars if convicted. ...more

November 14, 2008

In a brief response to Bill Youngman and anyone considering a yes vote on Amendment Two: Yes, I am a gay man who currently gets no financial or social legal benefits from my union with my partner of 27 years and I am fine with that. But in your defense, Mr. Youngman, the thought of marriage makes me sick and only brings up historically negative connotations such as divorce, spousal mental and physical abuse, drug and alcohol addictions, dead-beat dads, mothers working three jobs or relying on the government to support them. I believe only a very small portion of the gay community wants a home like their friends and neighbors. Yes, judges can overturn current laws, but like California, then Florida residents can vote and decide a less divisive amendment. ...more

October 24, 2008

There was a full moon out last night. I checked the almanac to see if it was one of those "once in a blue" moons, but it was not. ...more

October 15, 2008