Monday Newsbreak: 2/4

--Retired Florida Democratic Senator Bob Graham recently wrote an opinion piece listing issues that our next president will need to address during the next administration. Homeland security, accessible health insurance, and an effective energy policy were some of the issues he enumerated. But Graham also made a good suggestion regarding future presidential debates as well: let each debate focus on a single predetermined topic, in order to keep the candidates from dodging questions and avoiding addressing difficult issues. Bob Graham was one of the early presidential candidates in 2004 who dropped out of the race early due to lack of support. Too bad. Had his campaign taken off, he would have been a much more viable candidate than John Kerry, and would have probably defeated George W. Bush had he been the Democratic nominee.

--Steve Newman's Earthweek newspaper feature revealed that a special vault has been constructed on the remote, far northern island of Svalbard (in Norway) and filled with more than 200,000 varieties of food crop seeds. The idea is to have a gene supply of crops should a global catastrophe wipe out agriculture on Earth. Norway is responsible for this wonderful humanitarian project.

--The Gainesville City Commission, by a 4-3 vote, approved an ordinance to protect the rights of transgender citizens. Although the ordinance was comprehensive, including areas like housing, employment, and obtaining credit, it was the part of this law that allowed people to use the public restroom of their own gender identification (even if they were physically of the other gender), that drew heated opposition to it. This didn't have to happen, in my opinion. Other communities have passed similar ordinances protecting transgenders while making certain exceptions for public accommodations. The fear of abuse of this ordinance that I've heard from others is not that transgenders would abuse the law: it is that people posing as transgenders would abuse it in order to prey upon others. From what I've read about transgender ordinances, though, nothing serious has ever been reported to have arisen from them to this effect.

--In yesterday's Super Bowl, the unlikely New York Giants capped the National Football League season with a dramatic come-from-behind last-minute win over the previously undefeated and thoroughly self-absorbed New England Patriots. New England quarterback Tom Brady was able to engineer a late fourth quarter drive with little pressure from a pass rush that the Giants had been plaguing him with the entire game. The drive was capped off by a touchdown pass from Brady, who set an NFL single-season record of 50 touchdown passes, to Randy Moss, who set an NFL single-season record for his 23 touchdown pass receptions. That gave the Patriots a 14-10 lead, but it wasn't enough, as Eli Manning lead his team back, culminating in a last-minute touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress for the winning touchdown and a 17-14 Super Bowl victory. Considering the arrogance of this New England franchise along with their casual belittling of the video-taping scandal that showed them to be cheating in order to give them an unfair advantage over their opponent, I felt that it was perfectly fitting that their so-called "perfect" season was taken away from them with just a few seconds to go! Time to break out the champagne, Dolphins! As for the Giants, I don't think I'll ever forget the great favor this franchise did for me in defeating the Patriots. I'm probably going to end up rooting for them in years to come, even when they're lousy (the true mark of a loyal fan).