Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 23

757 Tallahassee DcmocratThurs Jan. 1, 1987 Obituaries, 3 Meisburg announces, 5 Florida briefs, 12 astor takes oath for education post By Margaret Leonard Democrat Capitol bureau Castor clearly expects to lobby vigorously for more school spending with the Legislature she has just left. She was chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that handles money for schools. She said the Legislature next year should give teachers their normal annual 6-7 percent raises, plus about $170 million more to bring teachers' salaries up to the national average, which she said is about $28,400 a year. She said she has not abandoned the goal of raising Florida's teacher pay to the top 12 in the nation, but is setting the national average as a goal for next year.

She said Florida can also expect to spend $8.8 billion in the next 10 years just to build the new schools that will be needed to accommodate growth in the school-age population. She said the state also will need 10,000 new teachers. Castor's third goal for her first year in North Florida and the child of an investment banker in Miami are making the same high scores on achievement testa," she said. "I envision inner-city children coming through Head Start programs to hit first grade running abreast of the children of the well-to-do." Castor, a "first woman" in a series of elected offices, would not say whether she dreams of being the first woman governor of Florida. "I think my plate will be full being commissioner of education for the next eight years," she said.

The term is four years, but Castor said she hopes to serve two terms. Castor's inauguration ceremony included music by the Leon High School Choir, a pledge of allegiance led by Godby High School student Cholet Godwin and a prayer written and spoken by Lincoln student George Starr. office is to help "children with special needs." She quoted Aristotle that "poverty is the parent of revolution and crime." As a teacher in Liberty City, Castor said she saw "too many children start out from behind, and alienation and discouragement caught up with them before they could catch up with their friends." She said she will announce soon a plan to reorganize the Department of Education to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and be more helpful to school districts. Castor said some of Turlington's top administrators would stay, but would not say how many or which. Ultimately, the new commissioner said, she envisions good schools throughout Florida and "a renewed academic environment in our community colleges and unviersities." "My vision is that a child of a farmer in proud to be the first woman elected to the Cabinet but found it more important that "being a woman was not an issue in my campaign." "Fortunately, I had an opportunity to ride the crest of equal opportunity for women," she said.

"And I am proud to proclaim on this day that we truly have arrived." Speaking to about 250 supporters, members of the education establishment and employees of the department, Castor promised to "play the role of consensus builder" to bring all friends of education together in an effort to raise spending for schools. She proposed that $10 million to $20 million of the proceeds of the new state lottery be set aside in an endowment fund for public schools. Each school district would then have matching money for grants from the private sector for school improvements. In the Leon High School library, on a podium made from card-catalog files covered with a lavender cloth, Betty Castor was sworn in Wednesday as state commissioner of education, the first womnn elected to Florida's Cabinet. Castor took the opportunity of Ralph Turlington's retirement a week early to hold a separate ceremony with an educational theme.

Cus.tor and the rest of the Cabinet will be sworn in for four-year terms Tuesday. Justice Rosemary Barkett, the first woman on Florida's Supreme Court, administered the oath and Castor's mother, Gladys Evans, held the Bible. Two of Castor's children, Frank, 16, and Karen, 18, were at the podium with her. Frank will attend Leon High. The new commissioner said she is Grant to Martinez: Spend all lottery dollars on schools By Dave Bruns Democrat Capitol bureau chief Bob Martinez would break faith with Florida voters if he goes ahead with his idea to spend some money from the just-approved state lottery on health care for the poor, North Florida's new congressman said Wednesday.

ed to the seat of outgoing U.S. Rep. Don Fuqua, D-Altha, in November. Martinez said in mid-December that he's thinking about asking lawmakers to use part of the lottery money for indigent health care. Senate President John Vogt, D-Cocoa Beach, leader of a conservative Democrat-Republican coalition with which Grant was generally sympathetic while in the Senate, also has favored Martinez's suggestion.

Martinez stands by his suggestion that health care for the poor would be a good place to put some lottery profits, Martinez's press secretary, Doug Hoyte, said Wednesday. Hoyte added that the governor-elect hasn't yet made final plans for lottery proceeds. "No decision to my knowledge has been made on where that money should go," said Hoyte. "We welcome input from all people, See GRANT. 6B Instead, U.S.

Bill Grant says, all of the estimated $369 million from the lottery should go to schools. "To divert the funds from their obviously intended purposes would be a breach of faith and a moral impingement of the people's right to petition their govern jfm ii iiimi ii I -1- a 4 rt I r--1 mmmmmJ ment," said Grant, D- Madison. Grant Grant, a former state senator, was elect- Honcho for a day or three? Requests pouring in for Mixson to appoint lieutenant governor By Albert Oetgen Democrat staff writer Lt. Gov. Wayne Mixson said Wednesday that he has been showered with letters and calls from people who want him to appoint them lieutenant governor during his three-day term as governor beginning Saturday.

I Some of the applicants and members of his staff have suggested that Mixson appoint a black, a woman or a Hispanic to the post as a symbolic gesture, the lieutenant governor said. Mixson said he has not decided whether he will appoint a lieutenant governor. Should he do so, he will make a de Associated Press Too big to beam up James Doohan, better known as beam up Lolita, a 5-ton killer whale at Bowl parade, made this appearance Scotty, the engineer of the Starship Miami's Seaquarium on Wednesday, to aid a center that provides care for Enterprise, makes an attempt to Doohan, who was to be in the Orange abused children. Tallahasseeans join in world prayer for peace Mixson's spokesman, Steve Liner. In that sense, any appointment Mixson makes would be symbolic, Liner said, because there will not be time for legislative confirmation.

"Dozens and dozens" of requests have been made by individuals interested in the office since he announced publicly that he will assume full responsibilities as governor between Jan. 3 and 6, Mixson said. Gov. Bob Graham was required by law to resign effective Jan. 3 when he qualified to run for the U.S.

Senate. Bob Martinez will not be inaugurated until Jan. 6. Lt. Bobby Brantley also will assume office on that day.

The Florida Constitution provides for the lieutenant governor to assume the duties of governor when a governor cannot complete the term of office, so Mixson will serve as governor in the interim. He has planned a scaled-down inaugural ceremony in which no public money is to be used for Saturday at 11 a.m. in the chambers of the House of Representatives. Mixson said many of the requests for appointment to the lieutenant governor's post have come from former legislators. Mixson served in the House of Representatives from 1967 to 1979.

The applicants include "many well-known names throughout the state," he said. He declined to say who any of them are. "I'm tempted to," Mixson said. "But not right now. One or two of them are very interesting." He said there has been "no group pressure" to appoint' a black, a woman or a Hispanic.

But, he added, "everybody's got their candidate," and he has been subjected to a great deal of lobbying. Mixson By S. Renee Mitchell Democrat staff writer Price and his organization, the Texas-based Quartus Foundation, began organizing the event across 44 countries about two years ago. News of the non-denominational, non-political affair called the Worldwide Healing Meditation for Peace spread mostly by word of mouth. "This is where the hope of the future lies," said R.

Gary Smith, who said he was a traveler from Lynchberg, Va. He wore a red button. "Enjoy life," it said. "This is not a dress rehearsal." Some said they had waited several years for that special hour. There were no cision Sunday and announce the appointment Monday, he said.

He said he is inclined to agree with the people who have suggested he use the appointment as a symbolic gesture by appointing someone to represent a group that has never held such high office in Florida. "I have given it some thought," Mixson said. "If I decide to make such an appointment, those are the considerations I am attracted to." Under the law, Mixson could only appoint a lientenant governor-designate. For that person officially to become lieutenant The Tallahassee Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) sponsored the hour of peace at the United Church in Tallahassee on Mahan Drive. A light breakfast was offered afterward.

In another church across town, at Unity of Tallahassee on Crowder Road, about 100 people gathered for the same purpose. Many others in their homes were expected to light a candle and offer a prayer for peace. The idea of the worldwide "mind link" was conceived by author John Randolph Price, who wrote a book on negative and positive thinking and its effects on energy. Not yet daybreak, Ross and Susan Flanagan helped prepare a church for silence. In less than 30 minutes, people around the world would seize the same 60 minutes to meditate and pray for peace.

In Tallahassee, it happened Wednesday from 7 to 8 a.m. Around 6:40 a.m., the participants began trickling in. Some Protestants. A few Jews. A handful of Christian Scientists.

Several professed Christians. And a couple of men and women who practice Zen Buddhism. About 50 people in all. governor, he or she would have to be PEACE, 3B firmed by the state Senate, according to Some frayed ends, worked into the weave of 1 986 Fraud suspect in HRS case has bad-checks record By Albert Oetgen Democrat staff writer s- ui Mary Ann Lindley If you believe that little things mean a lot, maybe you'll agree that 1986 was a lot more than the Challenger, Chernobyl or the contras. The year held a trillion nuggets of human endeavor, some of them fantastic, some of them brutish and a lot of them good for nothing but scratching your head in wonder.

But since the librarian and the history books will take care of those memorable moments, I decided to keeD a record of some truly Wednesday, however, that he is not certain what action he will take, or when it will be taken. No charges have been filed. Mashburn resigned his job with HRS on Dec. 10. He had been suspended in the wake of the investigation, according to sub-district Administrator Richard Russell.

Barkley said Mashburn's scheme fell apart in November after one of the women went to the state attorney to force collection on a worthless check. The state attorney's office called the Quincy Department of Public Safety and asked for an investigation. Investigators said they uncovered a pattern under which Mashburn would help welfare recipients qualify for payments, then borrow money from the recipients after the payments were made. Mashburn allegedly would then write a check for $100 more than the amount of the loan. At least three women told investigators that they tried to cash the checks, and found them to be See EX-WORKER, 4B QUINCY A public-assistance adviser who allegedly bilked at least three welfare recipients of payments he arranged for them is on probation for passing a worthless check in a separate case, Assistant State Attorney Richard Combs said Wednesday.

Combs' office is reviewing a report prepared by the Quincy Department of Public Safety on allegations that Earnest B. Mashburn, a former Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services welfare counselor, passed five worthless checks to three women he had advised on public-assistance payment programs. Also Wednesday, Robert Bark-ley, the investigator who prepared the report, said Mashburn had paid at least $50 back to one of the women. Barkley said Monday that he expects the state attorney's office, which initiated the investigation, to file charges this week. Combs said Democrat fries Princess Diana, Christiaan Barnard: They should have kept quiet tients.

But condoms made a comeback last year, possibly because of the AIDS scare, and good old American entrepreneurs were there to make a buck on rubber. In West Palm Beach, two businessmen came up with contraceptives wrapped in packages with cute messages such as "Yuppie Love," and "First class male," so they'll be cool for the youth of America to carry in their pockets or purses. And at the University of Texas, three enterprising juniors began offering door-to-door condom delivery through their little company, The Protection Connection. (I wonder how those guys' grades were last semester.) Surely they made enough to pay their tuition, which leads us to the subject of money: forgettable ones, Take Sex: 1986 was the year they came up with a birth-control spray for roaches that really works. And in Europe the first sex-selected baby was born in macho Italy and, by golly, they chose a girl.

In Brazil, a 9-year-old child named Maria Eliane Jesus Mascarenhas became possibly the world's youngest mother, giving birth to a healthy 9-pound girl in March. Back in the nervous United States, we learned that six out of 10 expectant fathers harbor secret fears that they are not the real dad, and that 6 percent of psychiatrists admit to having sex with their pa- child in 1986 was getting an allowance of $3.34 a week, with 5-year-olds getting $1.40 and 16-year-olds getting $8.13. (My, how time3 change. Until I got my first job at the Dairy Queen making 45 cents an hour plus all the ice cream I could eat I just got 10 cents a week from the folks.) See LINDLEY, 2B Last year the super rich just kept getting richer, to the point that the top one-half of 1 percent of the population now holds 35.1 percent of the nation's wealth. That's up 10 percentage points from 20 years ago, when the last such survey was taken by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

Even kids are richer than they used to be. The average American.