Word: coliseum
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...glimpse of the Sarah Palin rally in Fort Wayne last Saturday night. The cars rolled up the main road here, past the Hooters and Showgirl III, the violet-colored strip club with tinted windows and a sign that read "SARAH PALIN LOOKALIKE 10 p.m." Just beyond it was Memorial Coliseum, where the vice-presidential nominee herself was appearing, taking the stage after Hank Williams Jr. revved up the crowd. After giving a shout out to the campaign's growing cast of real Americans like "Doug the Barber" and "Chris the Electrician," Palin blasted Barack Obama for "talking about redistributing...
...Tuesday a Rome court ordered a trial for two men arrested in July 2007 outside the Coliseum. Michele F., 36, and Roberto L., 28, contend they were caught sharing a passionate kiss; the arresting officers from the carabinieri say they were engaging in oral sex. Defense lawyers have asked for the charges of lewd public acts to be dropped, having sought in vain to get access to footage from nearby security cameras that they say would show the kiss was just a kiss...
...homophobic thugs. Earlier this month, two 28-year-old men who'd been holding hands were beaten by a gang shouting "Faggots Get Out of Italy." This and other attacks, including a fire in February set at the "Coming Out" gay club, have occurred in the neighborhood near the Coliseum. The road in front of the ancient monument, via San Giovanni in Laterano, has been dubbed Gay Street for the prevalence of gay clubs and bars situated there...
...trial in the Coliseum case is scheduled to begin in February, and the defendants face maximum prison sentences of three years. At this stage it looks like a their-word-against-ours standoff, unless the security camera footage can be marshaled as evidence for one side or the other. Defense lawyer Daniele Stoppello has demanded access to the footage, even as he conceded that since the lighting was poor, the carabinieri could arrive at a "different interpretation" of what the camera showed the two men doing. Currently it's a moot point, since the prosecuting magistrate has ruled the footage...
...presence of security cameras has become an issue beyond this specific case. In the wake of the anti-gay violence, Alemanno recently called for more video surveillance near the Coliseum, but gay rights groups oppose the measure as a violation of their privacy. But if what the two defendants shared was indeed just an innocent kiss, an extra camera or two might have been an invasion of their privacy that could set them free...