The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • B1

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: LOC DATE: 08-22-2003 EDITION: FLA ZONE: FLA DEADLINE: 21.42 OP: rmccrory COMPOSETIME: 23.05 CMYK Local State Orlando Sentinel OrlandoSentinel.com Friday, August 22, 2003 Section INDEX IN TALLAHASSEE PURSUING A CLASS-SIZE REVOTE House Speaker Johnnie Byrd will try to repeal the class-size amendment. Page B2 IN ORLANDO COP TO MOVE DOWN I-4? Retiring Deputy Chief Frank Fink is a finalist forTampa's top job. Page B3 AROUND THE STATE PUSHING FOR MORE SECURITY Planned Parenthood will seek stepped-up patrols at abortion clinics. Page BS Central Florida B3 Deaths B6 Florida B5 Weather B8 United Way ends dollar goal Donations are down, and the agency plans to refocus on those served and lose the campaign thermometer. By STEPHANIE ERICKSON SENTINEL STAFF WRITER The organization may wish it had done that two years ago, when it fell $2.5 million short of its goal.

Last year, it met its target, but one that was set significantly lower. Heart of Florida's new strategy for Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties is to sell potential donors on the services and ultimately the people their dollars support rather than meeting a money goal. Hawkins said the plan isn't meant to make the group appear less desperate or to keep it from failing. He said he thinks focusing on need rather than dollars will inspire more giving. However, if a business feels strongly about setting a monetary goal and using the iconic ther- PLEASESEE UNITED, B7 the grand unveiling of a dollar goal will be missing.

"We want to get rid of this old image of campaign thermometers," said new Heart of Florida United Way President and CEO John coordinators local United When campaign gather today for the Way's annual fund-raising kickoff, the centerpiece of decades past Plan aims to force legislators to teach I v-) JOE BURBANKORLANDO SENTINEL Late-night thinker. Hank Green, 23, of Winter Park, who created the Web site I Hate was working as a cameraman for Orange TV when he had a vision for the online community. Caffeine, he said, played a role. You're late for work. A snail moves faster than the snarl of traffic in front of you.

Drivers ahead brake left and right to gawk at the morning's fender-bender. You're irked. Web site creator Hank Green says you aren't alone. Road rants go online Mike THOMAS SENTINEL COLUMNIST Path's proposal brings wealth of opposition It seems the mansion dwellers in College Park want to keep their lake off limits to the commoners. Orlando planners want to put a pathway around all of Lake Ivanhoe.

This will be possible when the state widens Interstate 4. The project would include paths under the road that would provide pedestrian access between the eastern and western sections of the lake. Planners want to take advantage of this and create a 212-mile loop trail. It could be wide enough to accommodate walkers and runners, as well as cyclists and skaters. Such a trail would be a rare amenity in an urban center, connecting College Park with shops and lake-front parks on Orange Avenue.

But now come those who live across from the lake, opposing the idea lest their view be tarnished by the sight of moms pushing strollers. Some people have absolutely no shame. These folks need to move to Isleworth because, last I checked, Ivanhoe Boulevard is not a gated community. This attitude does not cut it in an open downtown neighborhood. Lake Ivanhoe does not belong to them.

Commissioner Vicki Vargo has done much for College Park. Despite a huge backlash by shortsighted businesses, she stuck to her guns on the re-striping of Edgewater Drive, shrinking it from four lanes to two. What was a thoroughfare gutting the community is becoming a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood road. I only hope, for the sake of College Park, that she is as resolute in pushing for this path. If you live in the area, I strongly suggest you contact her, the neighborhood association and Mayor Buddy Dyer.

Otherwise, a very small but vocal minority will ruin this opportunity for the entire area. Jimmy vs. Jeb The column I wrote comparing Jeb Bush's political inability to get along with lawmakers to Jimmy Carter's inability to get along with Congress must have been posted on some WeLoveJimmy.com Web site. I got hammered by fans of the ex-pres. "Comparing former President Carter with Jeb Bush is rather like comparing Mahatma Gandhi with Al Capone," said one letter.

So, what did Al have to say? Dear Mike: I can assure you I am not aloof or arrogant regarding my relationship with the Legislature. Sometimes, we disagree. So what? Isn't that part of living in a democracy? I respect those who don't agree with me but that does not mean I will bend to the point of abandoning principle. The political press is exclusively focused on the horse race aspects of life in the bubble. They don't write what they hear if it doesn't fit their template.

Then this is read by the editorial page writers who don't do much more, it seems to me, than read their own paper to validate their already established views which, for all but one paper, are slanted to the left. I don't expect you to agree with all of my actions but I hope you respect my desire to change the things that I have believed needed to be changed. Without my leadership, even though it might have been perceived to ruffle feathers, it wouldn't have happened. JEB BUSH Dear Jeb: For fear of ruffling feathers, I won't point out our areas of agreement. Mike Thomas can be reached at 407-420-5525 or mthomasorlandosentinel.com.

By MARY SHAN KLIN SENTINEL STAFF WRITER Dazed stares, smart-aleck cracks and kids with body piercings. Florida lawmakers would get a good look at all of that and more if a proposed constitutional amendment succeeds in forcing legislators to work four days a year in public schools three of them as substitute teachers. The Real Hero Foundation of Apopka has launched a petition drive aimed at exposing state senators and representatives to the realities of teaching. "I want them to see how disrespectful so many kids are to their teachers. They're going to have kids who tell them where to go.

You're going to see legislators ask if it's safe," said security consultant Wolfgang Halbig, who launched the initiative. "You're going to see every one of them legislators say it's a bad idea," he added. The idea is that if the people who make the rules for schools spend four days a year there, they may support educators more. Halbig said he will try to get the required 488,722 signatures of Florida registered voters by working with teacher unions, parent organizations and others. If he succeeds, the measure could go on the ballot in fall 2004.

If voters support the idea, legislators would head to the classroom starting in 2005. They would have to spend one day each in an elementary, middle and high school. The fourth day would be spent riding school buses. Halbig said he got the idea from years of watching U.S. Sen.

Bob Graham, who has spent hundreds of "workdays" with men and women in various jobs. The consultant envisions having politicians take their school assignments anonymously so students and school employees would not treat them differently than typical substitutes. Halbig said he doesn't want principals assigning the legislators to gifted and advanced classes but instead wants them in regular classes so they will get a more realistic picture of public-school education. School districts would have to PLEASE SEE TEACH, B7 Orange TV, and had spent hours filming community meetings for the county's "Mobility 2020" transportation-improvement plan. Lying in bed, he thought there should be a place where people could vent their collective frustrations about the interstate, which was built in the early 1960s.

"I had too much caffeine, and I couldn't get to sleep because I had this great idea," Green said. At first he thought it would be a great way to make a few bucks. He designed stickers and planned to sell them at about $5 each, hoping they would become a hot item. That night, Green came up with the site's moniker and design for its logo an 1-4 sign he morphed into a creature with evil eyes and devilish horns. To generate good buzz for the site, Green with the help of his father undertook a guerrilla marketing campaign.

He swiped about 10 commercial signs, which he thought were "distasteful" and were stuck in the ground PLEASE SEE 1-4, B7 By ETAN HOROWITZ SENTINEL STAFF WRITER Commuters sitting in Interstate 4 traffic may have peered over from the bumper of the car in front of them and spied a sign that articulates their thoughts at that exact moment: www.ihatei4.com. About 10 such placards have sprouted up in the past few weeks at 1-4 exits, including those at Lee Road, Fairbanks Avenue, State Road 436 and Maitland Boulevard. They are the creative genius of 23 -year-old Hank Green of Winter Park, advertising what he calls "an Internet community for the disgruntled commuter." "It's a great example of a way to bind the community," Green said. "It's something everyone can relate to." And with one-third more vehicles traveling on 1-4 every day than the highway was designed to accommodate, hating 1-4 is easy. The Web site was born during the wee hours of the morning.

Green had been working as a cameraman for Orange County government's station ON THE SITE At Green's Web site, you can share 1-4 horror stories and post on message boards. You also can buy stickers, including the design above, for about $5. The site provides links to transportation-related sites. The address is ihatei4.com Slaying of homeless man in Melbourne leaves others on edge Bread. "When I heard, it gave me a knot in my stomach." Witnesses led police to two teenagers who have been arrested on charges of second-degree murder and aggravated battery in the beating that also left another homeless man, James Marshall Williams, 52, please see HOMELESS, B7 where Burge was a regular for the past two years.

"He had a drinking problem, but he was an all-right guy," Gray said Thursday. "And what happened to him was just pure meanness." Burge, 50, was found dead Tuesday morning near St. Paul Lutheran Church on Hibiscus Avenue in Melbourne. He was brutally beaten Monday night outside a 7-Eleven, police said, and it appears he died trying to make his way to his home the church three blocks away where he slept nights on a cardboard box beneath an overhang. Church officials could not be reached for comment Thursday.

"It's such a shame," said Sue Ho-laday, executive director of the Daily By LAURIN SELLERS SENTINEL STAFF WRITER They called him "Dollar Bill." One of the most prolific panhandlers in the Melbourne area, Bill Burge was always scamming. "He would hit you up for a dollar in a heartbeat," said Lee Gray, a visitor to the Daily Bread soup kitchen 1 COLORSTRIP: I.