13th juror

• St. Pete police to homeless: Move your belongings or lose them

  Authorities are poised to confiscate the property of a group of homeless people camped outside the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen -- or at least those belongings the homeless can't carry off on their own.
  
  A posting outside the kitchen in downtown St. Petersburg gave the homeless' [...]
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  Posted: December 06, 2009, 8:12am EST
  

• Homeless man arrested for stealing a slice of pizza

  A 53-year-old homeless man was arrested for taking a slice of pizza from a buffet line in Fort Walton Beach.
  
  When a member of the wait staff told the man he would have to pay for the food, the man said, “No” and walked away, a police report said. [...]
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  Posted: December 05, 2009, 3:20pm EST
  

• Poverty keeps growing in the U.S. but the press is almost blind to it

  The American press follows the lead of politicians by zeroing out coverage of poverty at a time when ‘the U.S. has the greatest income inequality, highest per capita prison population and worst health conditions of all high-income countries,’ Jeffrey Sachs, a leading figure on world poverty, says Jeffrey Sachs, [...]
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  Posted: December 05, 2009, 10:06am EST
  

• Jesus Christ dumped from jury pool for disruption

  Jesus Christ was called for jury duty this week in Birmingham, Alabama.
  
  Court officials were skeptical at first when on Monday a potential juror submitted a name change form with "Jesus Christ" on it. But the 59-year-old Birmingham woman, who previously went by Dorothy Lola Killingworth, assured the presiding [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 11:21am EST
  

• Two teens get life for killing homeless men

  Bound by handcuffs and leg irons, Thomas J. McCloud Jr. and Dontez Tillman betrayed few emotions as they headed to prison for life for beating two homeless men to death in an attack described as "sport."
  
  The two 15-yesar-olds were convicted of first-degree murder in the separate August 2008 [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 8:52pm EST
  

• San Diego sued for trashing homeless people's belongings

  The city of San Diego has been accused of conducting “well-planned, ruthlessly executed and mean-spirited raids” to harass homeless residents and drive them out of town.
  
  The 26-page lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of homeless people who said their belongings were illegally confiscated and destroyed.
  [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 5:41am EST
  

• Cold night shelter named for -- get this -- a homeless man

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At age 60, Shakey Burnett has lived on the streets for nearly 20 years, a lot of it in Tarpon Springs.
  
  
  Too often, homeless people are overlooked when groups are put together to make decisions on [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 7:48am EST
  

• I skipped a meal to fight hunger!

  [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 9:34pm EST
  

• Google takes us all to law school

  You can now search Google Scholar to find opinions by searching specific cases (like Gideon v. Wainwright) or topics (like free speech). You can type a phrase like "right to counsel" and get results for cases in which such a phrase is in included.
  
  Google thinks being able [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 9:53am EST
  

• Low-wage workers are often cheated, study says

  Low-wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, according to a survey of workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
  
  The study, the most comprehensive examination of wage-law violations in a decade, also found that 68% of the [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 8:37am EST
  

• Can a wiki help homeless services collaborate?

  Tampa Bay Homeless Resource is a collaborative website for advocates, service providers, government and citizens to share and find help, services, resources, news and volunteer opportunities to help end homelessness in Tampa Bay.
  
  Started by the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County to be a vast collection of Tampa [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 12:56pm EST
  

• Suspect in homeless man's murder allowed to leave his house for one hour a day

  
  
  
  
  Joel Boner (center) was attacked outside his tent at an Ocoee homeless camp and stabbed in the back as many as seven times.
  
  
  For three months, murder suspect John Hawthorne has been confined to his family's Ocoee home, forbidden to go [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:56am EST
  

• 30 years later, she finds her father living on the streets of St. Petersburg

  
  
  For decades, Carl Schmidlin kept a photo of a daughter he hadn’t seen in 30 years. He lost the photo but has reconnected with the daughter.
  
  
  Jenna Lombardi was 3 when Carl Schmidlin left. She didn't know he even existed until she was' [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 10:43am EST
  

• “I’m proud to go to jail for housing the homeless”

  
  
  
  
  
  A defiant Dan de Vaul stretched out his arms and let deputies place handcuffs on him before being led out of the courtroom.
  
  
  A Central California rancher who houses homeless people on his property has been sentenced to 90 days [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 1:32pm EST
  

• Church sells Tiffany window to help the homeless

  
  
  
  
  
  
  The stained glass window depicts St. John the Divine and was created by the Tiffany Studios. It was installed in the church in 1896.
  
  
  Proceeds from the sale of a Tiffany stained glass window will be used to [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 9:44pm EST
  

• But how do I tweet without my cellphone?

  A federal judge has banned tweeting in his courtroom, ruling that it violates Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53.*
  
  When I go to the federal courthouse in Orlando, I have to leave my cellphone in the car (unless I've obtained a special order from one of the judges' [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 10:16am EST
  

• UN investigator accuses US of shameful neglect of homeless

  A United Nations special investigator has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business while treating as "invisible" a deepening homeless crisis.
  
  Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 9:52am EST
  

• Why a church is banned from feeding the needy

  The kitchen is closed at a Phoenix church that fed the homeless.
  
  CrossRoads United Methodist Church lost an appeal over a city ordinance that bans charity dining halls in residential neighborhoods.
  
  The hearing officer, retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice Robert Corcoran, ruled that feeding the homeless at [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 3:31pm EST
  

• Do laws against camping in public spaces amount to cruel and unusual punishment?

  Seven homeless Boise residents are suing the city and the police department, saying that rules against camping in public spaces amount to cruel and unusual punishment in a city where shelters are overflowing.
  
  The lawsuit, filed in federal court, echoes similar cases popping up around the nation, all targeting [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 6:42pm EST
  

• Court ruling "basically knocks our legal arguments out right underneath us"

  
  Johnny Lee Smith holds a sign asking for donations as he stands on the side of a road in Medford, Oregon.
  
  
  The city of Medford, Oregon, has backed away from appealing a court decision that found the city's panhandling law unconstitutional. But the city's [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 9:13am EST
  

• Business owners plan memorial for homeless man

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Business owners in Fort Lauderdale repeatedly tried to convince Douglas Schutt to stop boozing and living outdoors, but he refused.
  
  
  Business owners on Las Olas Boulevard knew him as a helpful, homeless man who washed cars [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 8:20am EST
  

• Vote for the 13th juror!

  [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 2:30pm EST
  

• Jury awards $41K to homeless victim of frat shooting

  A jury awarded $41,421.06 in damages to a homeless man who was shot by an Oregon State University fraternity member in 2006. Dennis Sanderson, who since has found lodging, will receive $6,421.06 for his medical expenses and $35,000 for non-economic damages.
  
  The jury found that the Association of Alpha [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 1:28pm EST
  

• Teens plead not guilty in YouTube beatdown of homeless man

  Two teen-agers charged with an attack on a homeless man in Pompano Beach that was filmed and posted online have pleaded not guilty.
  
  Those men -- Nicholas Bakum, 19, of Lighthouse Point, and William Sleight, 19, of Deerfield Beach -- are among four suspects accused of roughing up 54-year-old [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 11:56am EST
  

• A twisted tale of government getting in its own way

  To see a twisted tale of government getting in its own way, look no further than Palm Beach County's efforts to turn $7.5 million in federal stimulus money into a homeless center.
  
  Federal restrictions on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant are so confining as to make success nearly' [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 9:38am EST
  

• Holidays soup up the debate about feeding Gainesville's homeless

  Public outcry against city laws limiting how many destitute people can be served at any one location is reverberating in Gainesville as the city's largest meal provider on Thanksgiving and Christmas grapples with a 130-meal limit.
  
  Kent Vann, executive director of the St. Francis House homeless shelter and soup' [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 8:34am EST
  

• Did fraternity cultivate "an environment of animosity towards homeless"?

  A jury will decide whether an Oregon State University fraternity is responsible for the shooting of a homeless man.
  
  One of its members, Josh Grimes, shot Dennis Sanderson in the leg in October 2006 with a .22-caliber rifle, aiming from a window of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house. [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 7:51am EDT
  

• Teens busted for YouTube beat down of homeless man

  Four young men accused of roughing up a homeless man in Pompano Beach and then posting videos of the beating on the Internet are facing charges of kidnapping and battery.
  
  Detectives found the videos online while investigating a deadly Oakland Park beating.
  
  James Cunningham, 54, was attacked in [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 9:31am EDT
  

• Arrestee in Ocoee homeless man's murder wants more freedom

  
  
  
  
  Joel Boner (center) was attacked outside his tent at an Ocoee homeless camp and stabbed in the back as many as seven times.
  
  
  John Hawthorne, 19, faces a second-degree murder charge in the Ocoee slaying of homeless man Joel David Boner. [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 7:43pm EDT
  

• 2 teens convicted in beating death of homeless man

  A second teen was convicted this morning in the beating death of a homeless man in Pontiac, Michigan, more than a year ago.
  
  Dontez Tillman and Thomas McCloud, both 15, face life in prison without parole for first-degree felony murder. The two were convicted in Wilford Hamilton's death.
  [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 12:01pm EDT
  

• Changing the subject: From welfare to poverty to a living income

  "For nearly forty years, the dominant political discourse about poverty in the United States has focused on welfare rather than poverty itself, even as disparities between the wealthiest and those at the bottom widened spectacularly," writes Peter Edelman, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center.
  
  He says we need [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 10:56am EDT
  

• Beating victim testifies in homeless men's murders

  He described it as a night of terror.
  
  Anthony Pace, a warehouse manager of a Salvation Army store in Pontiac, Michigan, took the witness stand and and described how he was brutally beaten in a random attack by a group of teen boys as he walked home from work [...]
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  Posted: October 25, 2009, 9:28am EDT
  

• Is Hillsborough's proposal for a homeless shelter "half-baked"?

  In the opinion of the St. Petersburg Times, it has become increasingly clear why Hillsborough County has the worst homeless problem of any county in Florida.
  
  "Just a week after derailing a thoughtful, detailed plan by Catholic Charities for a homeless camp east of Tampa, the County Commission's follow-up'" [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 10:26pm EDT
  

• Poverty is up, but how much?

  The way you measure poverty makes a big difference in the results you get.
  
  The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 15.8% of Americans lived in poverty last year, using an alternative gauge that differs sharply from the 13.2% official poverty rate the agency released last month.
  
  Why [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 11:49am EDT
  

• Thousands wait in line for Section 8 housing

  

  Photo by the Daytona Beach News-Journal

  Thousands of people lined up today in Daytona Beach and DeLand for a chance to apply for government-subsidized housing.
  
  It's the first time in five years that new applications for the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly known as Section' [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 2:41pm EDT
  

• Should attacks on the homeless be added to hate-crime laws?

  There's momentum building around the country to include people who are homeless in state and federal hate-crime law.
  
  Maryland, Maine and Washington, D.C., have added attacks against homeless people to their hate-crime laws. Florida is considering harsher penalties for attacking homeless people.
  
  But is being homeless a' [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 11:20am EDT
  

• Homeless woman dies in jail cell

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  With 63 arrests since 2004 and at least 16 convictions, all for misdemeanors or violations of city ordinances related to public intoxication or trespassing, Sunny Swanson was well known to police.
  
  Around campfires deep in the woods, sometimes with [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 11:27pm EDT
  

• Random beating illustrates vulnerability of a silent population, experts say

  The attackers came from all directions, as best that Darrick can remember.
  
  It was early, 4:30 a.m in Chicago. Darrick, 37, who was homeless, was on his way to the "L" so he could nap on a train.
  
  Someone poured a beer on him, then broke the bottle [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 10:44pm EDT
  

• "Criminalizing panhandling does nothing to address the state of homelessness"

  Alan Graham, President/CEO of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, has a great response to Austin's plan to expand its ban on panhandling:
  Panhandling is a symptom of homelessness. Criminalizing panhandling does nothing to address the state of homelessness. Study after study supports that. The answer to homelessness is long-term, affordable,' [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 10:43am EDT
  

• Church wins fight for homeless ministry

  Just for Jesus serves mostly disabled veterans, low-level offenders, evicted homeowners and renters, and people referred by mental-health agencies.
  
  
  A Pennsylvania church that houses homeless people has won $100,000 in damages and attorneys' fees from the borough that tried to shut down the program.
  [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 9:07am EDT
  

• A giant step backwards: Hillsborough commissioners reject tent city plan

  Mimi Paez (center) claps after a request for a homeless encampment was turned down.
  
  Photo by
  The New York Times
  
  When retirees say they have bought guns to protect themselves from a plan to house the homeless a quarter mile from their neighborhood, Florida politicians [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 1:02pm EDT
  

• Whose sensibilities would be spared by an expanded ban on panhandling?

  Whose sensibilities would be spared by an expanded ban on panhandling?, asks The Austin American-Statesman.
  
  "We can't get past this: If a well-dressed person has the right to ask you for change for a meter, then a poorly-dressed person has the right to ask you for change for food'" [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 10:37am EDT
  

• Mistake sends 700 gourmet meals to soup kitchen

  A mix-up over dates ended up sending 700 gourmet meals intended for the Presidents Cup golf tournament to a San Francisco soup kitchen.
  
  It started Wednesday morning, when city event coordinator Martha Cohen tried to find out what smelled so good at one of the tournament tents. Lunch, [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 1:36am EDT
  

• DeLand may outlaw panhandling downtown

  The City of DeLand is drafting a new law to regulate panhandling.
  
  In its draft form, the new law draws a distinction between panhandling, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is a form of free speech, and “aggressive panhandling,” which is defined as panhandling by a group, or [...]
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  Posted: October 11, 2009, 10:18am EDT
  

• Florida ranks nearly last for percentage of kids covered by health insurance

  Florida ranked 50th in the nation for the percentage of its children
  covered by health insurance, according to a scorecard released
  by The Commonwealth Fund.
  
  Overall, Florida ranked 44th among all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the performance of its health system, based on [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 9:07pm EDT
  

• They still don't want you to sleep on the beach, so they're fixing up a parking lot

  A temporary sleeping area for the homeless in a parking lot is being created in Laguna Beach, California. It's expected to open next month.
  
  Laguna Beach repealed a ban on sleeping on the street earlier this year after the ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging the rule was unconstitutional. [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 10:44am EDT
  

• Home runs for the homeless

  The Philadelphia Phillies and the Colorado Rockies have a chance to hit a home run for the homeless in their playoff series that begins today.
  
  The mayors of Denver and Philadelphia are this year eschewing the traditional gimmicky playoff sports bet — Philly cheesesteaks! Rocky Mountain [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 10:00am EDT
  

• Homeless man gets 15 years for stealing cereal and milk

  
  
  
  
  
  
  Mark Anthony Griffin leaves the courtroom after being sentenced.
  
  Photo by
  The Ledger
  
  
  A homeless man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after trying to steal a box of Lucky Charms and a can of milk [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 6:03pm EDT
  

• Confessing to mixed feelings about panhandlers

  "Do they really need the help?" asks Allen Johnson, a reporter in Greensboro, North Carolina.* "Am I simply providing drug money?
  
  "Of course, there are ways to give so you can be sure your money goes to a good cause: United Way, food banks, the Salvation Army and myriad [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 10:02pm EDT
  

• Fort Lauderdale cops cleared of charges they unfairly targeted homeless people

  Broward prosecutors have dismissed a claim that Fort Lauderdale police officers unfairly targeted homeless people to win days off or gift cards to a movie theater.
  
  The complaints were brought last year by veteran officer Michael Hennessy, who said senior officers developed incentives that resulted in the unfair treatment [...]
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  Posted: October 03, 2009, 11:37am EDT