Around the state

Early head count gives Foley lead over McCollum

In the 2004 Republican race for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Rep. Mark Foley Wednesday trumped former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum in the push for support from state lawmakers.

McCollum called a press conference with Reps. Connie Mack, R-Fort Lauderdale, Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, and Fred Brummer, R-Apopka. Mack said six other members of the House had been scheduled to join them but it was pouring rain and a busy day at the Capitol so they failed to make it.

A short time later Foley announced the formation of a state legislative steering committee that includes nine senators and 24 members of the House.

Mack said McCollum shares the views of mainstream Florida because he is "a strong fiscal conservative and a hawk on defense issues." Foley said the lawmakers on his team "want a senator who will support President Bush's agenda of lower taxes, less government and a world free from terror."

Branchout of Innocence Project coming to FSU

Attorney Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, will be at Florida State University today to help launch a similar effort in Florida.

FSU law students will work on a pro bono basis to investigate the claims of convicted inmates who say they can prove their innocence through DNA testing.

The Florida project is headed by Jennifer Greenberg, a 1988 graduate of FSU's law school and former director of the Battered Woman's Clemency Project and the Volunteer Lawyers Resource Center, which has provided legal help to death row inmates.

Florida already has more than 500 requests from inmates seeking assistance.

Scheck and Peter Neufield created the original Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

Likely new SARS cases in state include 4-year-old

TALLAHASSEE -- Eleven Florida residents, including a 4-year-old boy, are suspected of being infected with the new SARS virus, state health officials said Wednesday.

That is four more cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the state than officials knew about the day before. SARS is a newly recognized viral disease that apparently originated in eastern Asia.

The 4-year-old from Miami-Dade County is the youngest victim identified in Florida. Tuesday, officials reported a 6-year-old boy from Niceville in Okaloosa County and a related caretaker, a 51-year-old woman from neighboring Santa Rosa County, likely were infected.

Other new cases reported Wednesday: a woman, 47, and a man, 39, both in Alachua County, and a Miami-Dade woman, 72.

The Alachua County woman was in contact at work with the first SARS case in that area, a 70-year-old diagnosed last week. Previous cases identified in the state involved only people who had traveled to countries that are SARS hotbeds and their family members.

None of the 11 have been affected critically, and only one is hospitalized, state epidemiologist Steven Wiersma Wiersma said.

Department of Health Secretary John Agwunobi said there has been no evidence of "clusters" of SARS exposure in any area.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright