Around the state

Oil companies tell Crist they aren't fixing prices

TALLAHASSEE -- The threat of war with Iraq, a two-month strike in Venezuela and a cold winter are driving world gas prices up, oil company representatives told Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist on Tuesday.

Crist questioned officials from six companies on how pricing works in the petroleum industry as part of an informal inquiry into gas prices in Florida. According to the American Automobile Association, Florida's average cost per gallon for regular gasoline Monday was $1.69, up 19 cents from a month earlier and 56 cents higher than the same time last year.

Crist said his office has gotten 176 complaints from Floridians in the last week about gas prices.

"We felt an obligation to try to find out why that was happening," he said after meeting with officials from ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Amerada Hess, Marathon Ashland Petroleum and Chevron Texaco Corp.

Crist said he wasn't suggesting government interfere with the market's effect on prices, and only wanted to know if there were any violations of antitrust laws. He said he still has questions about whether oil companies are manipulating the supply getting to market.

None of the oil company officials would comment for the public before the meetings, and they left without talking to reporters.

Buddy Dyer wins runoff, is elected Orlando mayor

ORLANDO -- Former state Sen. Buddy Dyer defeated Pete Barr Sr. in a runoff election Tuesday to replace Glenda Hood as mayor of Orlando, the state's sixth-largest city.

Dyer, 44, who won 57 percent of nearly 30,000 votes cast, was expected to be sworn in today. Hood, who was mayor for 10 years, is stepping down during her third term to accept Gov. Jeb Bush's appointment as Florida's next secretary of state.

Dyer was the Democratic leader of the Senate until term limits forced him to leave the Legislature. He made an unsuccessful run for Florida attorney general candidate last fall.

After both candidates qualified for the runoff election by edging out six other candidates three weeks ago, Barr, 69, an advertising agency owner, was dogged by allegations, which he denied, that he uses racial and ethnic slurs.

Mothers of teen killers meet with pope today

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The mothers of young killers Nathaniel Brazill and Lionel Tate are scheduled to meet today with Pope John Paul II in Vatican City.

The mothers are part of a delegation of 34 people from around the nation who will push for changes in how children who commit serious crimes are treated in the United States.

Tate, 16, has served nearly two years of a life sentence without parole for the 1998 beating death of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick when he was 12.

Brazill, also 16, has served two years and nine months of a 28-year sentence for the shooting death of teacher Barry Grunow at a Lake Worth school in 2000. Brazill was 13 when he shot Grunow.

Tate's mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, and Brazill's mom, Polly Powell, will have a general audience with the pope.

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