Dateline Florida

By Times Wires
Published February 26, 2008

Governator urges crowd: 'go all out' for Young

Rep. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores got some love from a celebrity friend and fellow Republican on Monday: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger headlined a $1,000- to $2,500-per-plate fundraiser for him on Capitol Hill. It turns out Schwarzenegger has been pals with Young and his wife, Beverly, since 2003, when he was lobbying Congress for after-school programs. Beverly Young recruited Schwarzenegger to visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, a favorite cause of the Youngs. "Go all out for this man," Schwarzenegger told the crowd of 150. "Whatever you've done today, double it." Young, 77, is seeking his 20th term.

Bad news: Sun, fun less popular

If you're hoping growth will pull Florida out of the economic doldrums, this won't please you. State economists, in an e-mail to legislative leaders, warned they were reducing their 2008 estimates for population growth, from 300,000 new residents to 171,608, or just under 1 percent of Florida's 18,680,367 people. That works out to about 470 new people every day, down from the longtime trend that Florida's sun and fun were attracting 1,000 a day. But more growth is expected in 2009.

Cheerier after drive? Here's why

Call it the Monday morning miracle. A tweak in the road work pattern that caused massive traffic jams last week appeared to help Monday, with rush-hour traffic on northbound Interstate 275 in Tampa on its usual slow crawl instead of all-out gridlock. Tampa-bound traffic on the Howard Frankland Bridge was backed up to the hump, but not all the way to Pinellas County this time.

[Last modified February 26, 2008, 00:03:20]