Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida • Page 17

STATE NEWS INSIDE Cult leader Tony Alamo remains in custody and is looking for a lawyer, 5B. Commissioner issues emergency rule to combat equine encephalitis, 5B. LOCAL NEWS INSIDE Brevard County officials demand overdue animal license fees, 1B. Builder continues 5-year battle for Cocoa Beach dock, 1B. SECTION Mil Chiles, Cabinet consider tough contribution rules Associated Press TALLAHASSEE Florida could soon have some of the strictest rules in the nation regarding political contributions from people who have state Fuchs said the governor's office is not aware of any opposition, although some people in the industry have raised the issue of their constitutional rights.

Another item on today's agenda involved a request from Jacksonville for early repayment from the state for land that had been taken for use in the Cross-Florida Barge Canal. Jacksonville wants the money to buy land for a project that would include a Hall of Fame for the Professional Golfers' Association. sion there be no unofficial communication between the parties of a pending bond issue. Another provision of the rule would require the state to hire an independent financial adviser to evaluate negotiated contracts for bond sales. The draft rule will return to the governor and Cabinet for final approval after being made available for public comment.

It could be several months before it takes effect. advisers in election campaigns for the governorship and Cabinet posts. "I don't think anyone's come out with a blanket prohibition," Bill Sweeney, executive director of the Division of Bond Finance, said Monday. "It does seem to be really at the cutting edge," said Danny Fuchs, a Cabinet aide to Chiles, who proposed the rule. In the last 12 months, the state sold nearly $2 billion in bonds to buy land or build schools and roads.

All bond sales must be approved by the governor and Cabinet at several different stages. The draft rule also forbids unofficial communications between those in the bond business and state officials during solicitation periods. Under a policy adopted several months ago, the state now includes in each contract a provi contracts for bond sales, officials said Monday. A proposal Gov. Lawton Chiles and the Cabinet are to vote on today would ban political contributions from bond underwriters and their attorneys and financial Murder trial begins FHP' targets ure 1 -r i5 I f', 1 "'J.

I 1 Vv Mu A 'V' M'4 -j toaiiiniimii ir. ELJkj. TUESDAY, July 9, 1991 6B Scam bilked $4 million from elderly, FBI says FLORIDA TODAY Wires FORT WALTON BEACH A 69-year-old man accused of swindling more than $4 million from mostly elderly people was arrested in Fort Walton Beach, the FBI said Monday. Gene Flannes was arrested without incident after a three-year search, said senior FBI agent Fred McFaul. He said Flannes was wanted on mail and wire fraud charges in Arkansas, where he is alleged to have swindled residents of the Hot Springs area out of an estimated $4 million.

Flannes made an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Susan Novotny in Pensacola on Monday. He is being held without bond by U.S. marshals until another hearing Wednesday. FMP official continues paid leave TALLAHASSEE The director of the Florida Marine Patrol, which is the target of four investigations, will stay on paid leave for another two weeks, a state official said Monday.

Tom Gardner, executive director of the state Department of Natural Resources, the parent agency of the patrol, decided to keep Don EHingsen on leave because of the continuing investigations, according a DNR spokeswoman. Ellingsen's top deputy, Clifford Kidd, also will stay on paid leave. I Gardner put the two men on two weeks of paid leave last month after reports EHingsen threatened to take down an internal auditor who is leading one of four probes of the patrol. Rail bidding process reopened 'TALLAHASSEE The state will again begin the process of selecting a franchise for a high-speed rail project, Gov. Lawton Chiles said Monday.

The state first began putting together a request for proposals from interested companies almost five years ago. Chiles said the state decided to begin fresh because of changes in technology, financing alternatives and routes as well as the observations made by state transportation officials on a recent visit to high-speed rail projects in Europe. 161 Haitian refugees turned back MIAMI More than 160 Haitian refugees were being sent back to their homeland Monday, while the two Cuban rafters they rescued were awaiting political asylum hearings in Miami. The U.S. Coast Guard came upon a leaky, 45-foot sailboat filled with 161 Haitians en route to Miami at 2 a.m.

Sunday. Also on board were two Cuban men they had picked up along the way. The Cubans were taken to shore. But most of the Haitians were sent back to Haiti. "I have fantasized about this happening," said Cheryl Little, an attorney for the Haitian Refugee Center in Miami.

That tells the story. The Cubans are brought to shore and welcomed, and the Haitians are treated as outcasts. Unfortunately, I'm not surprised." Study: Custody fights end in split GAINESVILLE Parents who fight for custody of a child in Florida courts are likely to end up with shared custody, a university study shows. Judges awarded shared custody with the mother as primary custodian in 43 percent of the cases and shared custody with the father as primary custodian in 33 percent of the cases, according to the University of Florida study. In 5 percent of the cases, parents split responsibilities as primary custodian, the study showed.

Only 8 percent of the mothers received sole custody and only 7 percent of the fathers received sole custody, the study found. Researchers studied judicial decisions in cases involving 60 families referred to Florida's Guardian Ad Litem program in the past two Associated Press TALLAHASSEE An experimental crackdown by the Florida Highway Patrol on repeat drunken drivers is expanding to the state's estimated 1.3 million uninsured motorists, a state official said Monday. A dozen state troopers specially assigned to Operation Roundup in January have arrested 83 motorists who were driving after their licenses were revoked following at least five drunken-driving convictions. The test program sent undercover troopers in unmarked cars and even on bicycles to track down the offenders in Dade, Broward, Orange and Hillsborough counties. The arrest total was lower than expected but demonstrated the value of concentrated enforcement, which might grow into a statewide program, FHP Director Bobby Burkett said.

"There is no silver bullet for this problem, but I think Operation Roundup is a moderate success," he said. "I'm leaning in favor of expanding it." In coming weeks, surveillance teams will start tracking down thousands of vehicle owners whose insurance has been canceled. "We're in a sense looking at taking it one step further," FHP spokesman Mike Boles said. "We have a responsibility to the uninsured motorist, and this is a means at our disposal." State law requires all drivers to carry proof of insurance, and insurers are required to notify the state about cancellations. Companies say the 11 percent failure to obtain coverage in Florida is a factor in high premiums.

A state computer lists 65,000 cars and trucks with tags that can be seized because their insurance policies expired, but less than 1 percent have been confiscated. "We're just taking Roundup one step further, adding a new phase to it and to see what type of success we have on it," Boles said. In the same four counties, troopers will use lists of canceled tag numbers, car owners and their last known addresses to hunt down offenders. UPI Fatality toll lower than predicted 26 died on roads during weekend Associated Press TALLAHASSEE The Florida Highway Patrol said 26 people, fewer than predicted, were killed on Florida's roads this Fourth of July holiday weekend. The FHP had estimated 36 people would die between 6 p.m.

July 3 and midnight Monday. FHP Lt. Ken Knowles said the last fatal accident reported over the long holiday was at 11:40 p.m. Sunday in Wakulla county. Six-year-old Tamara Renee Rhodes, a passenger, died when she was thrown from a car in a rollover accident on Otter Lake Road just west of Panacea, Knowles said.

"The vehicle was traveling eastbound, came round a curve at a high rate of speed, traveled off the road onto westbound shoulder, came back onto the road, traversed the road onto the eastbound shoulder and overturned twice. "It was a classic case of not having a seatbelt on," he said. The holiday's first accident involved similar circumstances. The accident killed two people at 12:30 a.m. on the Fourth of July in Deltona.

Troopers said Thomas Leroy Davis, 43, and passenger Scott Joseph Collins, 37, were fatally injured when an auto driven by Davis at a high rate of speed failed to make a curve, spun out and rolled over, ejecting both occupants. Knowles noted that out of 15 fatalities with seatbelts available, only two were wearing seatbelts. "The use of occupant restraints is one of your best defenses against another driver's mistakes," he said. OSCAR RAY BOLIN JR. watches jury selec- charged with one other Tampa slaying and is tion Monday during his trial in the 1986 suspected in the serial killings of 11 truck-slaying of Natalie Blanche Holley.

Bolin is stop prostitutes in five states, authorities say. Governor visits Kimberiy Bergalis you were in the presence of a saint." Bergalis became a national celebrity when she spoke out publicly for mandatory AIDS testing of health-care workers. "I told her how much I admired her," Chiles told reporters after a private meeting with Bergalis and her parents. "I told her I thought she'd already protected many lives that wouldn't have been protected before." Chiles said Monday he supports requiring health-care workers to report HIV infections to their regulating boards as well as notification of any patients. But the governor stopped short of all-out support for mandatory testing.

"I want to know a lot more about what the pluses and minuses are," Chiles said. "It's easy to kind of talk about mandatory testing, but what do you mean when you say that?" It may be difficult to design such regulations that are practical, Chiles said. He said two state agencies are currently studying the issue and will make recommendations soon. This year, a bill before the state Legislature would have mandated testing of health-care workers, but it was weakened to only permit regulatory boards such as those that make rules for dentists and doctors to enact new guidelines. Bergalis' attorney Robert Montgomery said Bergalis, while in extremely poor condition, was delighted the governor visited.

Associated Press FORT PIERCE Gov. Law-ton Chiles said visiting a 23-year-old Fort Pierce woman who is near death after contracting AIDS from her dentist was like being in the "presence of a saint" Chiles and his wife, Rhea, spent about 15 minutes Monday night at the home of Kimberiy Bergalis, thought the first patient in the nation to be infected with the AIDS virus by a health-care worker. The governor said Bergalis should be credited for bringing attention to the problem of AIDS-infected health professionals nationally. "She's a very, very brave person," Chiles said. "It's a lot like Whales released amidst controversy Box of cough lozenges could cost man $2,500 years.

The cases had been referred because of contested custody disputes. N.C. man drowns in Tampa Bay TAMPA A North Carolina man drowned while fishing on a sandbar in Old Tampa Bay, authorities said. The body of a man who fit the description of raiser. "Dolphins Plus is taking something that does not belong to them," he said.

"The water does not belong to them." Winselmann and Clarence Hobdy, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain whose property abuts the holding pen, are leading the battle against Dolphins Plus. "They are erecting a smoke screen of save-the-whales propaganda," Hobdy charged. Hobdy, Winselmann and four other property owners filed suit June 4 asking a Monroe Circuit judge to order the fence removed altogether. "It's a frivolous lawsuit, and I'm going to seek fees and costs when we win," said Donna Albert, a Fort Lauderdale attorney representing Dolphins Plus.

"We'll probably be able to buy a lot of whale food when this lawsuit is resolved." Associated Press KEY LARGO The first short-finned pilot whales to survive a stranding are healthy enough to be released, and some neighbors cannot wait to see two leave their pen. Five whales were suffering from malnutrition and shark bites when they beached in March and April in the lower Keys. Two were moved to a newly-built pen for dolphins in Key Largo and nursed back to health. But residents living near the holding pen, located at the end of a public canal, have taken the pen's owners to court, saying the enclosure interferes with their boating, fishing and swimming rights. They say they're all for saving the whales as long as we do it someplace else," said Dol phins Plus owner Lloyd Borguss, recalling heated exchanges with neighbors.

"I was told to my face to let them die." The whales, Dawn and Karen, are set for release today with two others treated at Miami's Seaqua-rium. Another whale, Poseidon, died of a heart attack at Dolphin Plus after tangling herself in a net at the end of the canal. The beaching survivors unwittingly became the focus of debate about the care and treatment of captive sea mammals. The National Marine Fisheries Service closed a Dolphins Plus fund-raiser that attracted hundreds of people, reminding the hosts their permit to aid the whales does not allow them to exhibit the animals for profit Kurt Winselmann, who lives on the canal, argues the rehabilitation pen is actually a money Virgil Hawthorne, 27, of Charlotte, N.C, was pulled from the bay Sunday afternoon. Tampa police said the man apparently drowned after he, a cousin and a friend, slipped beneath the charged with shoplifting, Feiler, 58, of Boca Raton, signed a statement admitting he took the Sucrets, according to court records.

But because Feiler refused to pay the $200 in damages, Publix sued him in small-claims court and wants Feiler to pay its legal fees and court costs as well. Publix officials say the company is experimenting with a new law allowing them to collect a minimum of $200 and legal fees from suspected shoplifters. "We consider shoplifting ah expense," said Bob McDer-mott, director of public relations for Publix. Associated Press WEST PALM BEACH A man who says he was ill and forgot to pay for a $2.98 box of Sucrets before he walked out of a grocery store has been handed a $2,500 bill for the box of lozenges. In March, Walter Feiler walked out of a Delray Beach Publix without paying for the lozenges.

The store now wants him to pay $200 in damages and $2,300 in legal fees. "Its just utterly, utterly ridiculous," said Feiler, who claims he was feeling ill when he walked out of the store and forgot he had the Sucrets in his pocket Although he was not water after a long day of fishing Saturday night Kevin Washington, Hawthorne's cousin, and Sonia Henry, were rescued by a man who heard screams for help and two police officers who used the back seat of their cruiser as a life preserver. Washington said Henry, 21, can barely swim, but described Hawthorne as an experienced swimmer and former lifeguard. iir i ail mm i 1 1 m-m i i pr rt.n i wmm.