Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 1

n. a. ao lb tX BACK TO HITTING Returning from neck injury, Bucs' Alstott faces competition for carries sports 1C CAR L1ATII Cash rebate or discount financing on a new vehicle? Find out how to drive a bargain Business IE ALAI1IS' EVOLUTION No longer angry, the singer is content in her own skin Poplife 5D T1 A "IT 1 www.TALLAHASSEE.com ixl Willi' Diramud Ion mmnL Oil si Groups say ballot's wording will take away teens' privacy Bush acts a 911 report President endorses new intelligence post take away the privacy rights guaranteed by the Florida constitution," said ACLU attorney Randall Marshall. A complaint in a lawsuit tells only one side of the story. Leon Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom will rule on the case, but the matter is expected to eventually reach the state Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has struck legislative measures from the ballot before in one case in 2000 after it had already been approved by voters. Unlike ballot initiatives proposed by the THE BALLOT LANGUAGE "Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to authorize the Legislature to require by general law for notification to a parent or guardian of a minor before the termination of the minor's pregnancy. The amendment provides that the Legislature shall not limit or deny the privacy rights guaranteed to minors under the United States Supreme Court. The Legislature shall provide exceptions to such requirement for notification and shall create a process for judicial waiver of the requirement for notification." require that parents be told before a minor can have an abortion, but the state Supreme Court found the legislation unconstitutional. So lawmakers are asking voters to change the constitution to say that a parent's right to raise a child outweighs the child's right to privacy when it comes to abortion.

The groups challenging the proposed amendment say the wording on the ballot inaccurately implies that it would increase constitutional guarantees of privacy. "What it fails to tell voters is that it will reverse Florida Supreme Court decisions and By Nancy Cook Lauer DEMOCRAT CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF Saying a proposed constitutional amendment requiring parental notice of abortion is deceptive, the American Civil Liberties Union and two Planned Parenthood chapters filed suit Monday to have it struck from the Nov. 2 ballot. The Legislature tried twice to Please see ABORTION, 2A Kerry's Fresh start for struggling school By Ron Hutcheson and James Kuhnhenn KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS WASHINGTON Warning that "we are a nation in danger," President Bush on Monday called for the appointment of a new national intelligence director as part of a sweeping overhaul of America's intelligence infrastructure. Bush embraced virtually all key recommen- bo unce JEFFEESOJf.

COUNTY i HIGH; SCHOOL uoktxcs ix flosuda one of smallest New polls mixed over convention's success By Steven Thomma KNIGHT WOOER NEWSPAPERS WASHINGTON Democratic presidential candidate- John Kerry is getting one of the small AFTER THE ALERT Information that led to the terrorism alert came from three sources. 3A Workers carry on at targeted buildings. IE dations from the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission and urged Congress to quickly approve legislation to make them happen, although he did substantially modify the recommended powers for the new intelligence director. Demo WW1 est boosts in post-convention popu-larity of any candidate in 30 years and may have actually lost ground to President 3 it cratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Bush should have acted sooner and criticized him for failing to call a special session of Congress to take action.

The national intelligence director would oversee an intelligence network that spans 15 government agencies, from the CIA to the Energy Department. The director would serve as the chief presidential adviser on intelligence matters, with, a specific cusn auring me four-day Demo- 4i Please see BUSH, 2A 1 1 L. The skinny on fat: It's not bad, say overweight activists CARRIE NIIAND Democrat Johnny Jackson, a maintenance worker at the new Jefferson County High School In Montlcello, loads a filing cabinet Into the building Monday afternoon. A tour of the modem, $17.2 million facility will be held today. history Jefferson High egins anew cratic National Kerry Convention.

Three new polls, conducted after the convention ended, came up with varying results. Two snowed Kerry gaining and adding to his narrow lead over Bush while the third showed Kerry losing support and his lead. Yet taken together, the three indicated that Kerry was unable to make the kind of dramatic breakthrough that would have turned the race in a radically new direction. A poll by CBS, which has Kerry leading Bush by a margin of 49 percent to 43 percent, gave Kerry a boost of just 1 percentage point the smallest post-convention gain in three decades. And if a Gallup Poll, which showed Kerry losing his lead over Bush and now tied at 47 percent, is correct, it would make Kerry the first candidate of either major party since Democrat George McGovern to lose support during his own convention.

Not surprisingly, the Kerry campaign is focusing its attention on an ABC-Washington Post poll, which found Kerry leading Bush by 50 percent to 44 percent with independent candidate Ralph Nader at 2 percent. That poll represented a net gain of 8 percentage points from before the convention. "We are extremely pleased," said Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill on Monday. The polling, however, does Montlcello By David Crary THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK Unashamed of their size, fed up with fat jokes and angry at the national obsession with dieting, overweight activists are mounting a feisty protest movement against the medical establishment's campaign against obesity. "We're living in the middle of a witch hunt, and fat people are the witches," said Marilyn Wann of San Francisco, a militant member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.

"It's gotten markedly worse in the last few years because of the propaganda that fatness, a natural human characteristic, is somehow a form of disease." The association, known as NAAFA, holds its annual convention starting Wednesday in move from a historic school in downtown Monticello to a modern, $17.2 million building on County Road 57A, four miles south of downtown. Throughout the' years, classroom wings were added to the old high school, which was built in 1852. Students haven't inhabited the original portion of the building since the 1980s, said Superintendent Phil Barker. The original structure was the first school in the state made of brick. And it's one of the oldest high schools in the Ribbon-cutting for new Jefferson County High School By Nm McCoy Vann DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER MONTICELLO Jefferson County High School students have a chance to begin a new legacy in the community.

Their new school opens Monday, more than 150 years after the old high school was built. It's an opportunity for the school, which has been labeled as struggling by the state, to have a fresh start. "The old school had a wonderful history and rich tradition," said Principal Michael Bryan. This school has no history except the history that we High-school students will Montlcello jtQeiva JOHN ROBERGEDemocrat Please see JEFFERSON, 2A Please see OBESITY, 2A Please see KERRY, 2A Food safety: Fresh fruits and Hp 1 veggies are the new frontier of Ks3 food-borne sickness. 3A Today: mid-903 Tonight mid-70s Rain: 30 Weather, 6C INDEX Advice 60 Bridge 6D Business IE Classifieds IF Comics 7D Corrections 28 Crossword 6D Editorials 4E Families ID Horoscope 6F LocalState IB Lottery 2A Mini Page 8D Nation 3A Obituaries BB Poplife 5D Sports 1C Television 6D FOR HOME DELIVERY, CALL 1-800-999-2271 Ufa amid the poor Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald says he admires how children in the slums of Sierra Leone keep scrabbling toward sunshine against all odds.

SE BUSINESS DJIA 39.45 500 4.90 NASDAQ 4.73 Details on page 3E LOCAL Call It August Despite the heat, life goes on at Lake Ella. IB Campaign 2004: Two Republicans hope to unseat the Leon County tax collector. IB Prominent pastor dies: The Rev. James Austin, who preached for more than 40 years, was 85. SB Sewer scrutiny: The state is investigating the release of partially treated sewage Into the city's wastewater spray field.

IB Courting Cuban-Americans: Vice-presidential nominee Edwards promises that Democrats would apply pressure on Fidel Castro. 4A Lady Liberty lonely no more: The Statue of Liberty will reopen today for the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks. SA Six sections How to contact the Democrat 2B Copyright 2004 TailahaaM Democrat Inc. tei'oioso' 12-.