News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 1

NO DEAL Military policeman with SW Florida ties faces arraignment on Iraqi abuse charges Local State Bl EMUW I FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2003 PUBLISHED SINCE 1884 BONITA COLLIER 25t fZZTl fWf GREEN WAVE IN FINALS Sports Fort Myers advances to state volleyball title game CI TOGETHER AGAIN GULF COASTING Underground 70s band Thundertrain reunited GC1 CI Bush talks in grand party Business fueling Estero's growth in. 3 BY DENISE L. SCOTT About two hours of statistics, charts and anecdotes during Estero's first real estate review Thursday night boiled down to one thing: Estero may be a village, but it's a village to be reckoned with as commercial growth begins to chase after the boom in populatioa The event lasted twice as long as scheduled with seven speakers and attendance of more than 200 community leaders including bankers, developers and real estate brokers. US. Census figures presented show a population growth of permanent residents in Estero from 3,177 in 1990 to 17,082 in March of this year.

Part-time residents grew during that time from 1,885 to 10,147. Estimates for 2007 jump to 23,800 permanent and 14,000 part-time residents. The growth is reflected in trends at nearby Florida Gulf Coast University, as noted by President William Merwin in a pre-recorded message. He was attending President Bush's fund-raiser in south Fort Myers. Merwin said the university has tripled its population to 6,000 students since 1997.

Projections call for 10,000 students by 2008 and 15,000 to 18,000 by 2015. Stephanie Miller, whose company Se CUNT KRAUSETHE NEWS-PRESS PrivateSky CEO Vincent Wolanin, left, talks with President George W. Bush after he arrived at Southwest Florida International Airport on Thursday afternoon. Bush was attending a fund-raiser at the home of Al and Dawn Hoffman in south Fort Myers. 7 President raises $1.7 million in Fort Myers J(C ISA 1 1 i i itssi iiim C5 Do YOU 1 1 lect Real Estate By Stephanie Miller Inc.

was the primary sponsor of the event, said the exponential growth of the university will have a huge impact on the surrounding community. Speaker Joe Pavich, broker and See ESTERO A2 r' i VO? Bush did not mingle with the crowd at Hoffman's home, but people present said he spoke for about 25 minutes and shook hands with people as he left. "I'd do it again in a second," said Jim Sublette, co-owner of First Homes who attended with his wife, Donna; daughter, Susan; and partner, Pat Logue. "It was quite a crowd, so not everybody could press the flesh. But the most important thing is that we got to see the sitting president of the United States.

I'd do it again in a second." Susan Sublette, 22, said they were sitting about eight rows back, "so we had a good view. It was really exciting. People yelled and cheered like he was a rock star." The Hoffmans set up a large tent outside their house along the Caloosahatchee River, where Bush addressed the crowd. "I moved around because there were so many people there I know, but it was crowded, so not everybody moved around a lot," said state Rep. Carole Green, R-south Lee County.

See BUSH A3 Also see Graham attacks bill B4 BY BETTY PARKER President Bush collected $1.7 million in his Fort Myers visit Thursday, bringing his re-election wax chest to an estimated $100 million with the election still a year away. About 700 people paid $2,000 each to attend a two-hour fundraiser at the home of Al and Dawn Hoffman in south Fort Myers. That party came at the end of a day that started with another lunch in Orlando, where Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the campaign raised about $860,000. As of Sept 30, the end of the last official reporting period, the campaign had brought in a total of $83.9 million since starting in June. Stanzel declined to give any more recent totals, but most esti-jnates indicate that Bush has raised enough since Sept.

30 to top the $100 million mark. 1 Hoffman, who also had a fund-raising breakfast for Bush in June 1999, is finance chairman of the Republican National Committee and CEO of WCI Communities a development company. I 1 i yjiiHiriMr MARC BEAUDINTHE NEWS-PRESS Burnell Andrews of LaBelle gestures in the direction of Gulf Harbour in south Fort Myers, where President Bush visited for two hours Thursday. Meanwhile, protesters and supporters mingled peacefully along Bush's motorcade route. See A3.

Alabama justice removed from office I SEE FOR YOURSELF: Watch NBC2 video of President Bush at the airport I A and in the motorcade, i it Japan delays troops; U.S. strikes Iraqi insurgents The Associated Press MONTGOMERY, ALA. Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who became a hero to religious conservatives for refusing to remove his granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse, was thrown off the bench Thursday by a judicial ethics panel for having "placed himself cies in Iraq including Spain, the Netherlands, the United Nations and the international Red Cross have been reconsidering their presence since they became targets. The reassessments came a day after Wednesday's suicide truck bombing at a base for Italian forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah killed at least 32 people 18 of them Italians and wounded more than 80. deployment, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said in Washingtoa "We understand that." South Korea also decided to limit its contribution to 3,000 troops, President Roh Moo-hyun announced.

Denmark also rejected a push by two Danish soldiers' unions to bolster its 410-member force by 100 more troops. Many countries and agen Donald H. Rumsfeld, Japan decided the time isn't right to send its forces to Iraq, indicating its deployment might be delayed until next year. Japan had hoped to send troops to Iraq to help rebuild the country by the end of 2003, but chief Cabinet Secretary suo Fukuda backed off, saying Iraq is still too unstable. "Japan has said it wants to think about the timing" of its pected guerrilla targets in the capital for a second straight night under a new "get-tough" campaign against the insurgency.

And the top American administrator, Paul Bremer, headed back to Baghdad after two days of White House talks with orders that Iraqis should take more responsibility for governing. On the eve of a visit to Tokyo by Defense Secretary The Associated Press BAGHDAD, IRAQ Japan put off a decision Thursday on sending troops to Iraq, a day af-jer the deadliest attack on coalition forces since the war, and South Korea capped its contribution at 3,000 soldiers t- new setbacks to US. hopes for easing the, pressure on its forces. US. troops pounded sus 4 above the law.

"I have absolutely no regrets. I have done what I was sworn to do," Moore said afterward, drawing applause from dozens of supporters at the courthouse. "It's about whether Jeb revels in 4th-grade reading scores INSIDE WEATHER High 79 Low 59 Sunny, no charfce of rain; complete forecast B12 or not you can acknowl- MOORE edge God as a source of Says he has our law and our liberty, no regrets That's all I've done." The nine members of the Court of the Judiciary handed out the harshest penalty possible, saying Moore left them with no choice by repeatedly insisting he would never obey a federal judge's order to move the 2'2-ton block of granite from the courthouse rotunda. "Anything short of removal would only serve to set up another confrontation that would ultimately bring us back to where we are today," the panel said. Moore spent eight months designing the monument and helped move it into the building in 2001.

INDEX Dear Abby E2 Classifieds Fl-20 Comics Community Crossword E6, F6 Horoscopes E2 Lottery B2 Movies GC18-19 Nation A4 Obituaries B7-9 Opinion B10-U Sports Cl-10 Stock Market D2, D4-5 TV E7 Buena Vista. He said he thought the results prove "beyond any reasonable doubt" that the changes he has made to Florida schools grading schools, issuing vouchers to students of failing schools, focusing on reading and ending social promotion have worked. See EDUCATION A2 cording to the latest results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. But the improvement in fourth-grade reading thrilled Gov. Jeb Bush, who has made "Just Read, Florida" his motto.

"It gave me a little bit of joy, I have to tell you, when the preliminary numbers were advanced," Bush said Thursday during a speech in Lake The News-Press, A Gannett Newspaper Staff and wire reports TALLAHASSEE Florida fourth-graders made history Thursday by posting a higher reading score on the nation's report card than students in the country as a whole. Eighth-graders still lag behind their peers in other states and students in both grades still have ground to make up in math, ac t. jus-Homeft 5 prinp 7-.