Emmy Award-winning Feagler & Friends is a lively, weekly half-hour television discussion of local and national issues impacting lives in Northeast Ohio. Hosted by award-winning journalist and former Plain Dealer columnist, Dick Feagler, Feagler & Friends explores the various issues behind today's news. With a changing ensemble of "friends" ranging from journalists to community and political leaders, Feagler & Friends takes on issues from many different perspectives. Always entertaining and never boring, Feagler & Friends is the program for people "in the know" in Northeast Ohio.

Friday, February 17, 2006

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Roundtable panelists: Mark Naymik, politics reporter; Regina Brett, columnist, The Plain Dealer; Patrick Shepherd, Cleveland Stonewall Democrats.

Democratic Field Shrinks: Two Democratic candidates for statewide offices dropped out of their races this week. Eric Fingerhut withdrew from the Governor's race saying he'd have trouble raising money against another popular northeast Ohio Democrat, Lee Fisher, who's Ted Strickland's running mate. Cincinnati-area Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett ended his quest for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination, saying party leaders pressured him to get out so Congressman Sherrod Brown would have a clear run at the nomination.

Gay Adoption: An effort by a group of Republican lawmakers to push through a bill banning adoption by same-sex couples in Ohio hit a major snag this week. House speaker Jon Husted said he'd refuse to let the measure come to the floor for a vote. Husted himself is an adoptee who says he doesn't want to restrict any loving family's opportunity to adopt and care for a child.

Caged Kids: A grand jury in Huron County has indicted the adoptive parents of eleven "special-needs" children for making some of the kids sleep in enclosures authorities have called cages. The criminal charges included child endangering and lying under oath. A social worker was also charged. Sharen and Michael Gravelle call the charges a "vendetta."

Cheney Reaction: Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot hunting companion Harry Whittington during a quail-hunting expedition on a Texas ranch. Doctors say Whittington will recover, Cheney says he's taking responsibility for the whole thing, and the White House press corps is still annoyed it didn't get the story before reading about it in a Texas newspaper.

Ohio Curriculum Evolves: The Ohio board of education this week revoked a 10th grade science lesson plan that would have had students questioning the theory of evolution. Opponents said such a lesson plan would have opened the door to the intelligent design or creationist views of the origins of life and blurred the line between church and state.

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