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Gold/Mining/Energy : coastal caribbean (cco@) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwin S. Fujinaka who wrote (708)	3/2/1999 1:07:00 PM
From: Edwin S. Fujinaka	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4686

Still no news, but I saw this comment on Florida's political shift to the right. Hopefully, it will also mean that the rabid liberal environmentalists can be contained. The article was in Capitol Hill Blue: 03/02/99 12:22:50 Florida takes shart turn to the right Florida could take a sharp conservative turn as state lawmakers begin their annual session Tuesday with Republicans controlling the Legislature and governorship for the first time in more than 120 years. The Republicans in the Legislature passed a number of conservative social measures in recent years, only to see them vetoed by former Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles. But with last November's election of Republican Jeb Bush as governor of the nation's fourth most populous state, conservative groups are more confident about their prospects in this year's 60-day legislative session. ''If that tilts the balances in our favor, that's only because the balances were tipped so far against us in the past,'' said Matt Ozolnieks, government affairs director for Florida Right to Life, an anti-abortion group. ''Now we'll get an open hearing.'' John Dowless, president of the Christian Coalition of Florida, added: ''This is the beginning of a new era and we have a family friendly governor. He's not going to sign anything because we are the Christian Coalition. He will sign many of those items because he supports those issues.'' Bush, the son of former President George Bush and the younger brother of George W. Bush, the Texas governor seen as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination next year, defeated Democratic Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay for the governorship. In 1994, Bush lost the governor's race to Chiles, who died in December, a few weeks before his final term expired. Bush's election marked the first time since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era that Florida had a Republican governor and Republican majorities in the state House and Senate. Abortion is among the controversial issues that legislators are expected to revisit. Chiles supported abortion rights, while Bush opposes them. In 1998, the Legislature overrode Chiles' veto of a measure to ban the rarely used late-term technique that critics call ''partial-birth'' abortion. But a federal judge in November ruled the law was unconstitutional. Abortion opponents said they planned a new measure that would withstand a court challenge. Chiles last year also vetoed a controversial bill authorizing a ''Choose Life'' license plate. The measure was supported by abortion opponents and would have raised money for adoption programs. Florida already has 39 specialty plates to promote subjects from manatee protection to sports teams, for which residents can pay an extra fee. A bill that would require teen-agers to notify parents or guardians if they planned to have an abortion is also waiting in the wings. The measure failed in past sessions and raises constitutional issues in Florida, where the right of privacy is enshrined in the state constitution. ''In the last session, too many members were perfectly content to let TV preachers and religious fundamentalist politicians set the agenda for our state,'' the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement. ''Unfortunately, we can expect much of the same in 1999,'' they said. Among other issues expected to come before the Legislature are a bill sponsored by a Republican state senator allowing the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public buildings. Another bill would set standards under which school districts could require students to pledge allegiance to the U.S. flag. Home Capitol Hill Blue is published daily on the web. Some material is ©The Associated Press and © Reuters NewMedia.