The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced that it will be making a $500 million grant to an international fund, the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, that provides AIDS assistance in poor countries.

This will be the third major contribution that the Gates, of Microsoft fame, will be making to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The Gates Foundation previously made a donation of $150 million to the Global Fund, and last month the foundation gave $287 million to speed development of an AIDS vaccine.

Bill Gates referred to the Global Fund, which also fights the world-wide spread of Tuberculosis and Malaria, as one of the jost important initiatives in the world today, and further stated that every thing should be done to support its continued success, as that success will save millions of lives. The Fund has so far assisted people in 132 countries. Those assisted include about 544,000 for the treatment of AIDS and over 1.4 million for tuberculosis.

Governments have been the main contributors to the Global Fund, which has a total income to date of $9 billion. However, this seemingly large sum is non-the-less short of the funds required to meets its objectives.

Melinda Gates, Bill’s wife and co-chair of the Gates Foundation, said she hoped the grant given by the Gates Foundation will spur money from both public and private donors.

Florida commence housing grants program

A program created by the Florida Legislature, earlier this year, as part of the states insurance reform package, providing over $250 million over three years to homeowners is expected to be launched in Miami shortly.

Under this programs Floridians can apply for grants of up to $5,000 in matching funds to enable their homes to be more windstorm resistance, by the means of adding storm shutters, reinforcing roof-to-wall connections and replacing vulnerable windows, with windows with impact-resistance ones.

Tami Torres, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Financial Services says that the Department plans to be in Miami later this week to commence the program. She also stated that more than 23,000 e-mails expressing interest in the program has been received by the FDFS.

Under the program homeowners can also seek and get advice on how to strengthen and mitigate their homes. The first phase of the program involves the free inspection, which will determine if homeowners if they require mitigation and if they are eligible for matching funds. By September 1, FDFS plans to commence the second phase, under which applicants can apply for the matching rants. Besides being determined to be eligible for grants through the inspection process, those who have homes in high-risk hurricane-vulnerable areas of the state will be best positioned to receive these grants. Grant applications are available by calling 1-800-342-2762 or online at www.mysafefloridahome.com.

Broward Sheriff Office Sued

According to reports in the Miami Herald, a federal civil rights lawsuit has been filed by a Boca Raton attorney, against the Broward Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Ken Jenne and others, alleging that BSO illegally recorded privileged attorney-client conversations at the Broward County Jail.

The report stated that BSO recorded two weeks of inmate-attorney calls before an attorney filed a complaint on July 20. The BSO jail telecommunication system was shut down the same day. BSO officials claimed that the recordings were the result of a glitch in the system.

The attorney, Stuart Davidson, who filed the suit on August 7, did so on behalf of two inmates, and others, for unspecified damages, and is seeking a class action lawsuit. The suit claims that BSO recorded conversation between inmate Joseph Sawchuck and his lawyer Brian Simon. The other plaintiff, Richard Spencer contends in the suit that because of the taping, he refused a call from his attorney, as he knew that it would have been recorded.

The company responsible for setting up and servicing the jail telecommunication system, T-Netiz Telecommunications Services, is also named as a defendant in the suit.

Stolen laptops has ID info for thousands of Floridians

The personal information of about 133,000 Floridians are in the database of a laptop computer stolen from a government SUV that was parked in front of a cafeteria in Doral in late July.

According to Todd J. Zinser, Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the laptop contained names, birth dates, Social Security

Numbers and addresses for 80,677 holders of commercial driver’s license in Miami-Dade County.

The laptop also includes information relevant to 42,792 Floridians holding pilot’s licenses, 9,006 people who received Class E driver’s licenses from an examining office in Largo and 471 who received commercial licenses in St. Petersburg.

DOT officials has stressed, that to date, there is no evidence that any of the data on that laptop has been used illegally.

It has also been reported that last April a laptop that had been in the possession of Barbara L. Barnet, special agent-in-charge of the DOT inspector general’s Miami office went missing. Barnet was reported to have left the computer inside a locked conference room at an Orlando hotel. When she returned to the conference room she found it open and the laptop missing. That computer contained several case files, which were not encrypted.

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