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Al-Arian enters Day 39 of prison hunger strike
By TIMES WIRES
Published March 1, 2007
BUTNER, N.C. Sami Al-Arian passed the 38th day of his prison hunger strike Wednesday. The former Univeristy of South Florida professor has lost 43 pounds and was having great difficulty standing up in a federal prison hospital in Butner, N.C. "We will intervene. We will not let him die," said Federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley. But as of Wednesday afternoon, no intervention to force feed Al-Arian, 49, had taken place. He is drinking only water to protest being held beyond his sentence for refusing to testify before a Virginia grand jury. After pleading guilty in May to aiding associates of a terrorist group in nonviolent ways he was due to be released in mid-April and deported. Unless he agrees to testify, he could be held another 18 months. LAND O'LAKES Pasco County rejects teacher merit pay plan Keep the money. That's the message the Pasco County School Board sent on Special Teachers Are Rewarded, the state's controversial teacher performance pay plan. The board rejected the plan - and the $3.5-million Pasco would have received to give bonuses to 25 percent of teachers - on a 3-2 vote Wednesday night. "Other districts had the guts to stand up," said Vice Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey. "We need to stand with them." Eight other counties, including Pinellas and Broward, have decided not to participate. Their complaints? Many teachers have not seen the end-of-course exams that will be used to measure their performance, for one. In Pasco, teachers couldn't even win a concession that the exams would affect their students' grades. CLEARWATER Construction to snarl parking at the beach Construction pains along Clearwater Beach are about to worsen in the midst of tourist season. Starting Monday, construction crews take over the 200-plus parking spaces at Pier 60 to start the second phase of the vaunted BeachWalk revitalization project. The parking spaces will be unavailable for four months. But Clearwater is leasing about 100 nearby temporary spots to make up some of the difference.
[Last modified March 1, 2007, 00:53:41]
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by John
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03/01/07 09:29 AM
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39 days? He can't last much longer.
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