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Briefs

Harris to announce new campaign team

By Times Staff
Published April 4, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - Rep. Katherine Harris will announce today a new team to help her effort to unseat Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, a spokesman said Monday.

The positions she is filling are campaign manager, communications director, national fundraiser, field operations director and media consultant, said Brian Brooks. He didn't provide any more details.

Harris lost what was left of her core campaign team over the weekend when political adviser Ed Rollins, campaign manager Jamie Miller, press secretary Morgan Dobbs and others resigned.

DAYTONA BEACH - A freshman was arrested at Mainland High School Monday with marijuana and an unloaded .22-caliber handgun in his pocket, officials said.

The gun was not displayed at school and investigators don't believe he planned to use it there, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.

School officials confronted the 15-year-old after receiving a tip he had drugs. The teen allegedly ran away from an assistant principal questioning him but was stopped by campus advisers who discovered a bag of marijuana.

School resource deputy Steve Dovi arrested the youth for the drug possession and found the gun during a search. He also found a magazine separate from the weapon with eight bullets.

He told police he was holding the weapon for someone else, officials said.

TALLAHASSEE - The state plans to begin releasing Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores to parents on a secure Web site for the first time, officials announced Monday.

FCAT paper reports will continue to be delivered to schools, but the Web site will give parents quicker access and include tools to improve student performance and other resources.

Schools will send letters to parents with login and password information. The site will provide information in English, Spanish and Haitian-Creole.

Writing scores for students in the fourth, eighth and 10th grades are expected to be released in mid or late April. Math and reading scores for third- and 12th-graders are anticipated in mid May.

TALLAHASSEE - A new advertising campaign is boosting enrollment in the state's subsidized health insurance program for children, and more kids will be able to sign up despite a legislative proposal to decrease funding for KidCare, an official said Monday.

Florida Healthy Kids was responding to criticism from advocates who have blasted plans by lawmakers to reduce funding, said Rose Naff, director of the agency. KidCare covers uninsured children of eligible families for a small premium.

Lawmakers last year put $162.5-million in the budget for KidCare, which when combined with federal matching money would have been enough to cover about 404,000 children. But current enrollment is only 212,121 .

So lawmakers have proposed reducing the money going into the program to between $93.3-million and $103.5-million.

Naff said the proposal would be enough to cover at least 252,700 children, about 20 percent more than now enrolled.

MARCO ISLAND - An 11-year-old tourist was cut on his right hand and thigh in a reported shark attack Monday.

Authorities said the boy, who wasn't immediately identified, dove into a school of fish just before he was bitten.

He was being treated at Marco Urgent Care, where his father said through a nurse the family would have no comment, the Naples Daily News reported.

The most recent known shark bite in southwest Florida happened off Boca Grande in Lee County in early July 2005.

[Last modified April 4, 2006, 03:00:35]