Florida to use online registry to shame people who buy sex

The database will become effective Jan. 1, 2021, according to the law. People who are found guilty of soliciting prostitution will have their color photo, full legal name, last known address and their offense entered into the database for five years. Repeat offenders will be permanently listed in the database, which must be reauthorized by the Legislature by 2024 to continue operating. ... Read More

A ‘poll tax’ by another name is just as unjust | Editorial

Defendants include DeSantis’ chief elections officer, Secretary of State Laurel Lee, and 10 county election supervisors including Pete Antonacci in Broward, Christina White in Miami-Dade, and Bill Cowles in Orange County, where people with felony convictions, acting in good faith, have registered to vote since Jan. 8 when Amendment 4 took effect. Only later, some said, did they learn they still owe fees, fines or victim restitution. (SB 7066 included a grace period for people who... Read More

Kid-focused Peter Piper Pizza opening three new locations in South Florida

“Everything about South Florida makes perfect sense for our popular and growing brand,” Sherri Landry, chief marketing officer for Peter Piper Pizza, said in a prepared statement announcing the expansion. “We are all about food, family, and fun, so we couldn’t think of a better place to bring the Peter Piper Pizza experience of affordable family entertainment paired with handcrafted food, fun and celebration than Miami.” ... Read More

Having Fruitful Conversations When You are in Majority Culture

We need to break through the majority culture worldview for the sake of the Kingdom. I’m a white male who teaches at a prestigious college. There’s much to unpack in that sentence, but it’s certainly a position of cultural power. As a white male, I’m certainly representative of the majority culture in the contexts where I live. So, I think part of the question is: How is the conversation different when you, and those with whom you closely identify, are in members of... Read More

Why ‘Let Go and Let God’ Is My Lifeline

Trusting in the Lord has made my life both easier and harder. Not long before his death, Henri Nouwen wrote in Sabbatical Journeys about some friends who were trapeze artists. They shared with Nouwen about the special relationship between flyer and catcher on the trapeze. The flyer lets go, and the catcher catches. As the flyer swings high above the crowd on the trapeze, the moment comes when she must let go. She arcs out into the air, where her sole job is to remain as still as possible as... Read More

Admissions to Florida’s public universities are getting more competitive. But schools still admit students lacking basic qualifications.

Nearly 1,000 students who lacked the grades or test scores to get into the state’s four-year universities were admitted and enrolled in the fall 2018 freshman class, data obtained through a records request shows. These so-called “alternative admits” represent about 3 percent of the 30,670 freshman who entered the state’s universities last August. ... Read More

Where you can watch fireworks in South Florida

Fourth of July Parade and Fireworks, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.. The parade will be along El Mar Drive between Pine and Hibiscus Avenues, starting on Bougainvillea Drive and ending at Hibiscus Avenue. Family activities 11 a.m.-3 p.m., include face painting, a water slide, music, food, a clown and equipment demonstrations by the Volunteer Fire Department. Fireworks after dark. El Prado Park, 4500 El Mar Drive, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. 954-640-4209. Free. ... Read More

Died: Apologist Norman Geisler, Who Didn’t Have ‘Enough Faith to Be an Atheist’

The masterful theologian leaves behind nearly 130 titles and a global impact. Just two months after his retirement from public ministry, evangelical theologian Norman Geisler died Monday at age 86. He had been hospitalized over the weekend after suffering a blood clot in his brain. Described as “a cross between Thomas Aquinas and Billy Graham,” Geisler was a prolific author, apologist, and professor, as well as the co-founder and former president of Southern Evangelical Seminary... Read More