DAYTONA BEACH -- Gov. Jeb Bush said Saturday the state was in a recession, but that a plan to pump millions into tourism marketing and highway and school construction would soon result in thousands of new jobs for Floridians.

"We are accelerating these projects. That acceleration will help jump-start the economy," Bush said Saturday during remarks before members of the Florida Home Builders Association.

The stimulus package includes $20-million in state funds for a tourism marketing campaign, $68-million for school renovations, $192-million for university and community college renovations and construction, and $668-million in road projects.

Major highway and bridge projects around the state are expected to generate 25,000 jobs, Bush said.

Unemployment claims in Florida are the highest they've been in 10 years. The number of Floridians filing unemployment claims has increased by 55 percent since the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush said.

He asked members of the home builders group to connect with the unemployed as quickly as possible to fill new jobs created by the stimulus package.

Most of the road and school projects were already planned but wouldn't have started until much later.

The Department of Transportation identified 62 projects that could be bumped up to begin as early as the first of the year using cash the department already has on hand. The department would issue bonds in a couple of years to recoup that money.

Bush also expressed concern for the state's tourism and aviation industries, which were already coping with the national economic slump before the attacks.

He has proposed spending $20-million in state money to pay for tourism advertising to help the industry.

"If the tourism industry does not get back to full capacity by January or February, a lot of families will be hurt," Bush said.

Yankees owner helps keep parade for veterans on tap

TAMPA -- Thanks to the efforts of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, the only parade honoring veterans in Tampa will be held this year after all.

In August, the Greater Town 'N Country Chamber of Commerce said financial troubles meant the Veterans Day parade it sponsored every year for the past decade would have to be canceled.

But Steinbrenner read about the troubles in the Tampa Tribune and wrote a letter to the newspaper expressing his outrage and rallying support.

"I am personally embarrassed that the one parade in this area that remains to honor our veterans should have to beg for assistance and support just to continue," he wrote.

Thursday, officials from a committee formed at Steinbrenner's urging to save the parade held a news conference at Legends Field to announce the parade on Hanley Road will be Nov. 10 this year and will be bigger than ever.

West Nile virus infects 31 more Florida horses

MIAMI -- The West Nile virus has infected 31 more horses in the state, bringing the total of infected horses to nearly 200, the head of the state's West Nile surveillance program said Saturday.

"As far as the horse cases are concerned, we have had a lot of quick dissemination of the virus," said epidemiologist Carina Blackmore.

Since the first confirmed case of the virus in Florida was discovered in Jefferson County in July, 196 horses in the state have contracted the potentially fatal mosquito-borne disease, according to the Florida Department of Health.

The total number of infected horses in the United States for 2000 was 58, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Blackmore said the speed with which the disease has spread among horses in Florida is cause for concern, because the same mosquitoes could spread the disease to other mammals.

Across the state, 51 of Florida's 67 counties from the Panhandle to the Keys were under a medical alert for the virus. The virus has infected 11 people in Florida this year. There has been at least one death from West Nile this year, a woman in Atlanta.

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