Digest

Dateline Florida

By TIMES WIRES
Published July 10, 2007

IT'S NOT SO GOOD TO BE NO. 1

FLORIDA LEADS THE NATION IN BOATING DEATHS. LAST YEAR, 69 PEOPLE DIED IN BOATING ACCIDENTS AROUND THE STATE, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST STATISTICS FROM THE FLORIDA FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSERVATION COMMISSION. TEXAS FOLLOWED WITH 47 FATALITIES, TRAILED BY CALIFORNIA WITH 44. ALL BUT EIGHT OF THE FLORIDA VICTIMS DROWNED. NONE WAS WEARING A LIFE JACKET. THE MOST DANGEROUS COUNTY FOR BOATING? MONROE. NEXT IN LINE: PALM BEACH, MIAMI-DADE AND PINELLAS. SLIGHTLY MORE PEOPLE DIED BOATING IN FLORIDA'S RIVERS AND CREEKS THAN IN THE OCEAN OR GULF OF MEXICO AND SMALLER VESSELS (SHORTER THAN 18 FEET) WERE MOST AT RISK. CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE 85-PAGE REPORT ON 2006 BOATING ACCIDENTS AT MYFWC.COM/LAW/BOATING.

Mayor can cross toilet paper off shopping list

Gay activists are outraged over Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle's comments about gay sex in public restrooms. Naugle told the Miami Herald that a new $250,000 self-cleaning robotic toilet for the beach could cut down on sex in bathrooms because it would be single-occupancy. Now the gay rights group Equality Florida is encouraging people to mail toilet paper to the mayor. Group spokesman Brian Windfield told the Herald it would help the mayor "wipe his dirty mind clean." One nifty feature is an optional timer that opens the stall door after a set period.

Lake Okeechobee's latest woe: toxic muck

The good news: Workers spent six weeks cleaning muck from Lake Okeechobee to help rejuvenate the lake. The bad news: They don't know what to do with it. Scientists found elevated levels of arsenic and other pesticides in the thousands of truckloads scooped from the lake, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. The newspaper's independent tests found some of the muck is too polluted for use on agricultural or commercial lands. In all, workers removed 1.9-million cubic yards of muck from the lake, enough to fill roughly 950 swimming pools.

[Last modified July 9, 2007, 23:31:48]