Around the state

Bush: Special session should tackle slots issues

By wire services
Published June 1, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday he is trying to persuade legislative leaders to convene a special session to decide how to regulate slot machines at Broward County parimutuels.

"We need to reach common ground; if not, it will be taken over in a fashion by unelected folks ... probably the judiciary at some point," Bush told reporters. "It doesn't have to be in the next month ... but there needs to be a good-faith effort."

Bush said he has talked by phone with House Speaker Allan Bense and Senate President Tom Lee since last week, when gambling opponents and supporters filed competing lawsuits in two state courts in response to the Legislature's inaction.

Lawmakers adjourned May 6 still at odds about what kind of slot machines should be allowed at dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons and at what rate they should be taxed.

JACKSONVILLE - Police officers on patrol will again be armed with Tasers after new guidelines are set for their use and officers are trained to deal with medical emergencies the stun guns may cause, Jacksonville's sheriff said.

Sheriff John Rutherford said officers could be ordered to use the devices only where lethal force otherwise would be needed. He also said he hopes to decide before the start of the new school year whether to arm school resource officers with Tasers.

Reacting to reports of dozens of deaths after stun gun shocks nationally, Rutherford ordered officers in February to shelve the 1,800 stun guns bought for $2-million in January.

A Taser temporarily incapacitates a person with 50,000 volts of electricity. Taser Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz. says it is a nonlethal alternative to a firearm. But more than 100 people have died in the United States and Canada since 2001 after being shocked with a Taser. Many were drug users.

COCOA - A tutoring company will change how it monitors after-school instructors after one was arrested on charges of sexual abuse.

Todd Walden, supplemental services director for Club Z!, of Tampa, said the company plans to have a supervisor on school sites next year. The change is the result of the arrest last month of Daniel Cliatt, 29, who was alone with students for after-school tutoring at Endeavour Elementary.

Cliatt, who also worked as a teacher at the school, was charged with 35 counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and 15 counts of sexual battery. Cliatt also worked for Conquest Learning Solutions, a Georgia company that tutored 21 students. The tutors are monitored through weekly reports and unannounced visits, said Terrance Mackey, Florida regional director.Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, tutoring companies are paid to help students whose parents request it.

INDIALANTIC - A 64-year-old woman fatally shot a man who broke into her home.

Judith Kuntz was awakened by glass breaking late Sunday. She fired her revolver from about 10 feet away as Jason Lewis Preston, 33, of Eaton Rapids, Mich., entered her bedroom.

Preston arrived in Brevard County a week ago and was staying with a relative who lives close to Kuntz, according to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office. Kuntz had never seen him before.

"I'm doing fine under the circumstances," Kuntz said Monday. "I don't take any joy in somebody being dead. My self-preservation instinct took over."

The case was being treated as a lawful shooting, said Agent Lou Heyn of the Sheriff's Office.

"The bottom line is that when somebody enters your home like that, it's self-defense," Heyn said. "Breaking into the house obviously shows some intent."

[Last modified June 1, 2005, 00:38:18]