LONGWOOD -- David Mixon was driving on Interstate 4 when another vehicle drew up beside his. The other driver lowered his window, displayed a badge and turned on flashing patrol lights. The cars pulled into a rest area.

Daniel Blais identified himself to Mixon as a "bond enforcement officer." Then Mixon identified himself to Blais as an off-duty Orlando police officer.

Mixon was telling the truth. Blais wasn't, Seminole County Sheriff's Office investigators say, and quickly admitted it.

Blais, 19, of Daytona Beach, was arrested and charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer. He was taken to jail and later released on a $1,000 bond.

Investigators said Blais altered his car to look like a police vehicle.

Denny's chain expected to make law school gift

TALLAHASSEE -- Denny's Restaurants is expected to make a "major gift" to Florida A&M University's law school that could total at least $1-million, an Orlando official said Thursday.

The deal is not yet final, but Kathy Russell, who is leading Orlando's efforts to lure the school to that city, said Denny's will allow the city to use the restaurant company's pledge in Orlando's financial proposal.

Russell would not say how much Denny's may contribute but said the company is expected to give enough to possibly have the law library named in its honor or that of a beneficiary. For that to happen, the pledge must be at least $1-million, according to FAMU's "gift naming" criteria.

It's unclear whether the contribution would be contingent upon the law school's being in Orlando. Denny's operates in both Orlando and Tampa, the other major contender to host the law school. In the early 1990s, Denny's suffered national scorn when black Secret Service agents and a group of black students filed two class-action discrimination lawsuits against the chain. The suits led to a record $54-million settlement in 1994. Three years later, Denny's parent firm gave $1.5-million to nine civil-rights organizations.

Jury recommends death in rape, murder of lawyer

MILTON -- A jury recommended a death sentence Thursday for an ex-convict who raped and murdered his next-door neighbor, a lawyer whose body was stuffed into a garbage bag and found in Pensacola Bay.

The recommendation came after the jury convicted Norman Grim of first-degree murder and sexual battery in the death of Cynthia Campbell, 41, of East Milton.

Fishermen found her body, wrapped in bed sheets and a green carpet, inside the garbage bag on July 27, 1998.

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