Spirit Airlines’ decision to begin charging passengers for carry-on luggage — while lowering some fares to a penny — has caught the attention of the federal government, as many predicted it would. Christopher Elliott interviews Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood about this and other airline issues.

“You know, Bulgarians are the first European people in the world,” an older gentleman tells me just minutes after stepping off of my bus. “We also invented the saddle and horseback riding.”

These first few moments are telling of the national pride and history this once mighty and now re-emerging Eastern European nation possesses. Nowhere is that past more apparent than in the country’s bustling capital - Sofia.

For those who think that South Florida’s gay scene is confined to South Beach, a trip north to Delray Beach is like a breath of fresh air.

Delray Beach provides a sunny, relaxing, slower-paced getaway only an hour’s drive north of Miami. Delray Beach has a quiet, small-town feel, but no one will give a second glance at a same-sex couple holding hands on the beach. There’s plenty to do in town, and the club scene, when you want it, is no more than half an hour away.

I am back ashore, my weeklong Caribbean cruise with Atlantis events over, the reality beginning to settle in.

More than 2,400 gay men (along with some lesbians and straight family and friends) came together on the most beautiful cruise ship on the high seas (according to
Conde Nast Traveler and other authorities) in a surge of the positive, creative energy unique to the gay community.