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Attorney general race on Rep. Negron's agenda

State Rep. Joe Negron, a Stuart Republican in charge of the House budget for the next two years, opened a fundraising account Wednesday to run for attorney general in 2006.

Negron, 43, would seek the job now held by Republican Charlie Crist, who is expected to run for governor.

Negron is a native Floridian and a 1986 graduate of Emory University Law School. He has been in the Legislature since 2000.

He is the first candidate from either party to move to seek the attorney general's post. He said he expects to formally announce his candidacy next summer.

Negron last year proposed a constitutional amendment to limit the growth in state spending to no more than the rate of family income growth in the state. The state Senate declined to consider it.

TALLAHASSEE - Thousands of felons waiting to get their rights restored, including the right to vote, would be cleared from the state's backlog of applications under a funding boost Gov. Jeb Bush recommended to state lawmakers.

The $61.6-billion budget plan Bush released Tuesday includes a $1.5-million increase to the budget of the Florida Parole Commission to tackle the backlog. The money would hire 40 more people to review felons' applications.

The proposed increase is good news, but Bush should go further, some critics said.

Randall Berg, a Miami attorney who runs the Florida Justice Institute, a nonprofit center working for the rights of prisoners, said a more fiscally sound policy would be to automatically restore the rights of felons upon release, which is the practice in most states.

Besides voting, other civil rights include serving on a jury, running for public office, and owning and possessing a gun. Often, felons must get their civil rights restored if they want to obtain a professional license.

Many Florida felons must seek a hearing before the Clemency Board, which consists of the governor and three Cabinet members, to regain their civil rights.

More than 4,000 people are waiting for a hearing as their applications are investigated. Several thousand more aren't even to that point yet but are waiting to have their applications reviewed.

SARASOTA - A judge set a Nov. 7 trial Wednesday for the man accused in last year's slaying of an 11-year-old girl whose abduction was recorded on a car wash surveillance camera.

The search for Carlie Brucia following her Feb. 1 disappearance captured the attention of the nation after the video was shown on television newscasts. Her body was found five days later on the grounds of a nearby church.

Joseph P. Smith, 38, whom numerous people identified as the man seen in the video pulling Carlie by the arm, faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual battery. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

TALLAHASSEE - Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson and the Attorney General's Office said Wednesday they will ask lawmakers to make price gouging a criminal offense in the aftermath of four major hurricanes last year.

Clay Roberts, executive deputy attorney general, said the Legislature will be asked to make price gouging a misdemeanor, punishable by six months to a year in jail.

Price gouging now is a civil matter carrying fines of as much as $10,000 in addition to restitution, but no jail time. If the victim is elderly, fines can be as much as $15,000.

The Attorney General's Office has received 8,738 complaints of price gouging related to the four hurricanes that struck Florida in August and September. Fourteen civil cases have been filed and two have been resolved.

State statute defines price gouging as an "unconscionable" increase over the average price in the 30 days before a disaster.

MIAMI - O.J. Simpson's 19-year-old daughter was arrested after she refused to stop yelling at officers summoned to a fight outside a basketball game involving her old prep school, police said.

Sydney Simpson faces charges of resisting arrest without violence, punishable by as much as a year in jail, and disorderly conduct, which carries a possible 60-day jail sentence.

Simpson yelled profanities at the officers called to Ransom Everglades School Saturday after a boys' basketball game against Gulliver Prep, according to a Miami police report. She graduated from Gulliver last June. Her brother, Justin, 16, attends the school.

While she was being taken into custody, she slapped another officer's hand, leading to the resisting arrest charge, the report said.

Simpson, who attends college in Boston, signed a notice to appear in court at a date to be set.

O.J. Simpson, the former football star, moved to Florida after he was acquitted of murder in the slayings of the children's mother, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman in California in 1994.