Testing For All Adults On Welfare Is Unconstitutional, A Lawsuit Says TALLAHASSEE - A state law that requires poor Floridians to pass a drug test before receiving cash welfare assistance - a key tenet of Gov. Rick Scott's campaign - is now being challenged in federal court. The complaint, from a Navy veteran in Orlando and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, acknowledges that the state can drug test in specific instances, such as when there are public safety issues or in cases affecting certain public school children. [continues 713 words]
TALLAHASSEE - A black Delray Beach family trumpeted their faith in God and the U.S. legal system after a jury awarded them $2 million in damages Thursday upon deciding that five white North Florida sheriff's deputies had violated their civil rights. "I am happy that I came and did what I had to do," 20-year-old Cynthia McCloud said. "It's been really hard to sit and listen to everything again. I got through it because my mom and my family were here supporting me." [continues 703 words]
TALLAHASSEE -- After a nighttime traffic stop in North Florida, a Delray Beach family waited for about an hour as they let sheriff deputies search the car. The search turned up nothing, both the McCloud family and Jefferson County sheriff's deputies agree. But what happened next on that July 2001 night is the subject of a jury trial that started Monday in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee, where Arnetta McCloud and her daughter claim deputies abused, illegally searched and falsely imprisoned them. [continues 539 words]
Federal Drug Agency Seeks $17.4 Million To Fight Opium Production, Heroin Trafficking In Central Asia. WASHINGTON -- As part of the war on terrorism, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration Wednesday called for reopening the DEA office in Kabul, which was closed after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. "The DEA has received multi-source information that (Osama) bin Laden has been involved in the financing and facilitation of heroin trafficking activities," Asa Hutchinson told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. [continues 200 words]
