It looks like Florida is just a signature away from banning texting while driving, joining 39 other states and D.C with having laws against texting and driving. Maybe this is better late than never as accidents and sadly deaths have skyrocketed in recent years.

Thursday, the Senate passed a House-amended version of Use of Wireless Communications Devices While Driving bill, which makes texting, instant messaging, or emailing a secondary offense with a $30 fine. Subsequent violations result in a $60 fine and drivers will be assessed points if they have a repeat offense within five years.

The bill allows for texting at red lights, while pulled over, and if a voice texting system is used.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, texting while driving makes crashes 23 times more likely.

Meanwhile Tallahassee has voted down any texting bans for the past five years, making Florida one of the very last states to restrict cell phones behind the wheel.

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SAN FRANCISCO —In one of the more odd moves and decisions for a Pride Parade the city of San Francisco has picked an unlikely Grand Marshall. Racing to stanch a flow of criticism, the president of San Francisco’s annual gay pride celebration said Friday that the U.S. Army private charged in a massive leak of U.S. secrets to the WikiLeaks website will not be an honorary grand marshal after all.

SF Pride Board President Lisa Williams said in a statement that an employee of the organization had prematurely notified imprisoned intelligence specialist Bradley Manning this week that he had been selected for the distinction, which recognizes about a dozen celebrities, politicians and community organizations each year for their contributions to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

“That was an error, and that person has been disciplined. He does not now, nor did he at that time, speak for SF Pride,” Williams said.

A committee of former San Francisco Pride grand marshals did select the 25-year-old Manning, who is openly gay, for the honor, but the Pride Board decided his nomination would be a mistake, Williams said.

Manning’s lawyers have argued that his experience as a soldier before the repeal of the U.S. military’s ban on gay service played an important role in his decision to pass hundreds of thousands of sensitive items to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

“In point of fact, less than 15 people actually cast votes for Bradley Manning,” Williams said. “However, as an organization with a responsibility to serve the broader community, SF Pride repudiates this vote.”

While the event’s grand marshals are typically celebrated as they wave from convertibles during a downtown San Francisco parade, naming Manning as one was destined to be a symbolic gesture. He is in custody at a military prison in Kansas while he awaits court-martial and would have been unable to attend the June 30 parade.

Earlier Friday, Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who in 1971 leaked the classified information about the Vietnam War that became known as the Pentagon Papers, had agreed to participate in the San Francisco parade on Manning’s behalf, said Rainey Reitman, a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network who had cheered the short-lived recognition.

But other gay rights activists were less enthusiastic, saying that Manning should not be honored either as an individual or as a representative of the gay rights movement.

Not so sure that this will be one of their better prides nor will avoid controversy that they don’t need.

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