Hyslop was undermining their authority, they said, and regularly violating rules of procedure. After talking with the accused, he routinely lowered the bail that had been specified on arrest warrants.

The issue stewed for several years as circuit judges asked Hyslop privately to stop. In fall 1997, an assistant state attorney and two circuit judges made their complaints public, suggesting Hyslop was endangering the public.

His pattern of lowering bail became the main issue in Hyslop's 1998 race for re-election.

The next year, Judge William Swigert, the administrative judge for the 5th Judicial Circuit, issued an order forbidding any judge, other than the one who had signed the warrant, from changing the bail.

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday backed Hyslop.

Setting unreasonably high bail, in effect, imposes a sentence without a trial, Hyslop said, calling the ruling "a victory for all the citizens of the state of Florida."

In 1998, the St. Petersburg Times analyzed 31 cases where Hyslop had lowered bail against the wishes of circuit judges. The analysis found that when the defendants were eventually sentenced by the circuit judges, more than half were sentenced to probation rather than prison terms. Also, none of them had committed violent crimes while out on bail.

Pasco board wants tourism for the binocular set

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Pasco County tourism boosters are thinking birds, in hopes of attracting seasonal visitors equipped with sun hats, expensive binoculars and cameras.

The Tourist Development Council agreed last week to co-author a bird-watching book with the West Pasco Audubon Society. The details are still to be ironed out, but members said focusing on the variety of birds that call Pasco home will bring well-heeled travelers to the county.

If Pasco could get the word out about its feathered attractions, serious birdwatchers would flock there, Audubon president Ken Tracey Tracey told the TDC.

Tracey said he'll probably highlight the Bachman's sparrow in the county book because it likes the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, and it is relatively easy to spot.

"It has a beautiful song and it's a bird people easily will travel to see."

Latvala pledges support for gas pipeline opponents

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Opponents of a proposed natural gas pipeline gained a powerful new ally: state Sen. Jack Latvala.

Latvala, R-Palm Harbor, said he'll fight to keep the Buccaneer gas pipeline from crossing Pasco County as it stretches from Mobile, Ala., to Cape Canaveral.

And he won't do it by appealing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Senate majority leader said he'll focus on the other agency that must sign off on the project: the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

"I'm going to marshal my forces to try and block it at the state level," Latvala said Wednesday, promising to use the "full force" of Florida law to slow the approval process.

About 25 sign-toting, anti-pipeline protesters converged on U.S. 41 before Wednesday night's FERC public hearing at Land O'Lakes Community Center.

Latvala said his constituents are afraid of a second pipeline crossing central Pasco, especially after a natural gas explosion killed a dozen campers in New Mexico.

Council limits spread of fliers in Ybor City

TAMPA -- Men and women, some scantily clad, walk up and down Seventh Avenue, handing out fliers advertising cheap beer and low cover charges. It's a staple of the Ybor City party scene.

Well, it used to be a staple of the party scene.

The Tampa City Council passed an ordinance Thursday prohibiting businesses in the booming entertainment district from passing out fliers in areas beyond their property. City officials say people are being pestered by those who pass out the fliers, which contribute to the post-party mess the area is left with.

Though the vote was unanimous and some business owners showed up to support the ban, not everybody likes the idea. Some complained that the policy has less to do with eliminating litter and more to do with making Centro Ybor's owners happy.

The huge project is seen by city leaders as the linchpin of redevelopment in the area.

"Whatever they want, they get," said David Taylor, who owns Platforms and Kaos, two of the area's popular nightclubs. "It's kind of ridiculous. Every week, there's a new law, a new something we can't do."

Hernando postpones its swimming pool enforcement

BROOKSVILLE -- Hernando County commissioners decided to flout the state's new swimming pool safety law, which goes into effect today, stating the law is unconstitutional as written.

While county commissioners applauded the law's intent, they said it unfairly hurts people who started construction under the old regulations.

The law calls for specific safety features on all residential pools that have not passed final inspection or received a certificate of completion by Oct. 1 -- regardless of when construction began.

Hernando had 275 pool permits active and open as of Tuesday. So the commission unanimously agreed to implement the law beginning with any pool permit pulled on Oct. 1 or afterward.

Gun lobby letters inundate Pinellas mayors' mailboxes

LARGO -- The typewritten, 4-by-6 cards started arriving at Largo Mayor Bob Jackson's office in mid September. A week later, he had gotten 1,516 of them.

"It's the most mail I've ever received," said Jackson, who had been a commissioner for 26 years before his April election as mayor.'

Besides Jackson, St. Petersburg Mayor David Fischer, Clearwater Mayor Brian Aungst and Seminole Mayor Dottie Reeder got them. Fischer and Aungst said they lost count of how many they received, but they number in the hundreds.

What in the world could have motivated that many people? Smith & Wesson, the White House and the NRA.

The four mayors are among 16 in Florida caught in the cross hairs of a nasty fight involving the trio.

The National Rifle Association claims the Clinton administration has waged "war" against its 3.5-million members by encouraging cities to buy police weapons from gun companies such as Smith & Wesson that agreed to a series of federal gun-safety measures.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department has contacted mayors across the country, encouraging them to do business with gun manufacturers that signed the covenant.

The NRA calls the agreement an affront to the Second Amendment.

Some mayors thought the NRA took their support for the HUD pledge out of context. Who wouldn't support safety measures involving guns, they said.

Coming up this week

The dedicated voter will be headed to the polls Tuesday for the little-noticed runoff election. Turnout is expected to be light, but these voters will be deciding, among other things, the Republican candidate for Pasco sheriff, Hernando County Commission candidates, a Hillsborough Commission seat and, in Pinellas, the new representative from state House District 54, where two Republicans will vie to win in a universal primary.

In what's sure to be a political hot potato, Pasco County commissioners, who have opposed the project for most of the year, will be asked to vote on an agreement with Buccaneer gas pipeline on Tuesday. Some commissioners have argued that if they can't stop the pipeline, this is their best chance to address safety and environmental concerns.

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