Gov. Charlie Crist persuaded Florida’s clemency board Thursday to let most felons easily regain their voting rights after prison, saying it was time to leave the “offensive minority” of states that uniformly deny ex-offenders such rights.

The change is a major step for Florida, which bans more people from the polls than any other state, but it did not go as far as Mr. Crist had hoped. Two of his fellow Republicans on the clemency board rejected his original plan to grant speedy restoration to everyone except murderers and sex criminals.

Under the new rules, the roughly 80 percent of ex-offenders whose crimes were not considered violent will win automatic rights restoration after the state makes sure they have paid any restitution to victims and have no pending criminal charges.

Florida has as many as 950,000 disenfranchised ex-offenders — far more than any other state — the vast majority black. Other states have repealed or scaled back similar bans in recent years, but roughly five million felons remain barred from the polls nationwide.

Florida May Let Felons Vote

Customers at some suburban pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms — wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support.

The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza.

"It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza," said Brown, whose county is north of Cincinnati.

Enforcement agencies across the country use a variety of methods to locate support scofflaws and collect past-due payments. Virginia has issued subpoenas to cellular phone companies seeking addresses and phone numbers. California's Kern County seizes and auctions parents' vehicles, with proceeds going to the children, said Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association.

State child support agencies collected more than $23 billion in child support for 17.2 million children in 2005, but the cumulative past-due child support since the agencies were first formed more than 30 years ago is $106 billion, Cullen said.

"While we have made progress, putting the wanted posters on pizza boxes is an example of the innovation and commitment that we need," she said.

WOW......There are so many things to say but let's leave it at that

Pizza boxes carry wanted posters

More than five years in the making, PLANET EARTH redefines blue-chip natural history filmmaking and continues the Discovery Channel mission to provide the highest quality programming in the world. The 11-part series will amaze viewers with never-before-seen animal behaviors, startling views of locations captured by cameras for the first time, and unprecedented high-definition production techniques. Award-winning actress and conservationist Sigourney Weaver is the series' narrator.

PLANET EARTH airs on consecutive Sundays from March 25 through April 22

Planet Earth

The gethuman project is a consumer movement to improve the quality of phone support in the US. This free website is run by volunteers and is powered by over one million consumers who demand high quality phone support from the companies that they use.

The website contains a database of how to get a human on the phone when calling customer service numbers. It also contains a blog on what they are currently doing.

Human Please?!

The driver returned 31 diamond rings he found in his cab after dropping off the passenger, who had left him with a 30-cent tip on a $10.70 fare.

"All my life, I tried to be honest," said Osman Chowdhury, a native of Bangladesh. "Today is no different."

But the 41-year-old cabbie from Queens did have a message: "I'm proud of what I did so that people know New York taxi drivers are honest."

He said it never occurred to him to keep the diamonds.

"I'm not going to take someone else's money or property to make me rich. I don't want it that way," said the soft-spoken cabbie, who was a contractor in Bangladesh until he came to the United States 15 years ago.

He does not own a cab but rents one.

"I enjoy my life. I'm satisfied," said Chowdhury, who is single.

He didn't even mind the meager tip.

"I think some people might be broke," he said. "Or they're distracted."

Nice story

NYC cabbie returns bag of diamond rings

Mission specialist Lisa Nowak is alleged to have tried to kidnap Colleen Shipman, who she appears to have considered a rival for the affections of her fellow astronaut William Oefelein.

Nowak is reported to have driven 1,000 miles from Houston, Texas, to Florida's Orlando International Airport. She wore a nappy to avoid having to make toilet stops.

Once at the airport, she disguised herself in a trench coat, wig, and glasses, and waited for Shipman to arrive on a flight from Houston.

Nevertheless, according to Shipman's police report, Nowak followed Shipman as she travelled on an airport bus from the arrivals hall to her car. Shipman told police that when she was nearly at her car, she heard a woman running behind her. Alarmed, she hurried to her car, got in, and locked the doors.

Nowak then pounded on the car window asking for a ride, and then to use a cell phone. When Shipman cracked the window to tell her "No", Nowak sprayed something into the car, burning Shipman's eyes.

Quite understandably, Shipman drove off at this point and called the police.

Police said when she was arrested, a search of Nowak's car turned up pepper spray, a steel mallet, and a BB gun, as well as black gloves, a folding knife with a 4-inch blade, rubber tubing and rubbish sacks.

Nowak claims she only wanted to scare Shipman and confront her about her relationship with Oefelein.

Nowak last flew on the STS 121 Shuttle return to flight test mission in July last year. It was the second flight since the loss of the Columbia.

I hope we didn't jinx it by being there!! :P

Discovery astronaut charged with battery and kidnapping

Edge Designs is an all-women run company that designs interior office space. They had a recent opportunity to do an office project in NYC. The client allowed the women of this company a free hand in all design aspects. The client was a company that was also run by all women execs. The result, well, we all know that men never talk, never look at each other, and never laugh much in the restroom. The men's room is a serious and quiet place, but now, with the addition of one mural on the wall......lets just say the men's restroom is a place of laughter and smiles.

I was sent this image and figured I would share. Unfortunately there are not embedded images here so clink on the linky

Men's Room Mural

Ran acoss this in some research and it reminded me of a talk I saw at HOPE.

Celebration of Street Art

Interesting stuff. It started with a phone booth in the desert and has grown. The site had been dormant for awhile but it seems they are back at it.

Phoneswarm

Meetup.com helps people find others who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face. We believe that the world will be a better place when everyone has access to a people-powered local Meetup Group. That's our goal.

I thought some of you would find this site interesting. I ran across it when I was looking for info on ASL

Meetup