Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 28

Florida News 5b TIMES TUESDAY, JULY 28, 1998 1 ,000 mmoire acres bum in Birwaird 'wl 'i 1 Knight RlddNwpj5rf Site of fires IN Kennedy Space. Li TltllOul at -If ranlr nni unanoo Chi 5SS1 1 I in ExDWV. 1 I .4) Cocoa I 1 I 20 miles materials in the loose soil, are difficult to combat and can smolder and smoke for weeks. The fire crossed the St Johns and was burning in Orange and Brevard counties, Brown said. The same area burned for about two weeks in 1993, Brown said.

Sunday night, the fire burned to the southern edge of SR 50, where the smoke combined with river fog and caused officials to close the road because of low visibility. It reopened about 9 a.m. Monday. The fire became a spectator sport Sunday as drivers pulled off to watch the flames advancing on SR 50. The fire most likely was sparked by lightning during a thunderstorm that passed through the area early Sunday afternoon.

Forestry helicopters loaded with water and flame retardants bombarded the blaze's ragged perimeter Monday. Additional vehicles designed for swamp work and firefighters from Florida were scheduled to arrive by late Monday, Brown said. The fire burned across the St Johns, which in places is only small tributaries, Brown said. Grasses in the area are still dry despite recent rains. The tops of plants rooted in water will burn and spread the fires across wet areas, Brown said.

A persistent brushflre gobbled more than 1,000 acres of the Tosohatchee State Preserve Monday as it continued to burn in remote areas of the St. Johns River. The fire, which brought the closing of parts of State Road 50 about 5 miles east of Christmas on Sunday night through Monday morning, did not threaten any homes or people, forestry officials said. "We're trying to contain it, but once we get the surface out, we've still got muck to contend with," said Mac Brown, forestry area supervisor for Brevard County. Muck fires, the burning of organic 8roJksville, Christmasl grow? -Nv -in -a v.

etersburg 40miles Timet art mew. I it, 1 i "i r' A-fc i i Brogan. Academic gap is top priority Jeb Bush would reward progress in minority achievement, his running mate says. Rival MacKay says their plan ignores a lack of money for schools. 1 -Me i Wt I 1 An alligator enjoys the warm weather at the northeast boundary of Everglades National Park near Miami on Monday.

Everglades plan to be ready by fall A task force will present its first draft of the 20-year project for public review in October. Associated Prese Associated Prtss AP Jeb Bush's running mate, Frank Brogan, left, is praised by Gadsden County school Superintendent Harold Henderson, center, and Manty Sabates Morse, a Miami-Dade School Board member, in Tallahassee on Monday. Brogan proposed rewarding educators who raise the performance of disadvantaged students. TALLAHASSEE If elected, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush would reward teachers who help poor and minority students improve their performance, running mate Frank Brogan said Monday. Capitalizing on his Cabinet post as education commissioner, Brogan took on the role of the ticket's point man on schools, a top campaign issue.

Brogan said he supports a recognition program that gives an award and financial bonus to the Florida public school most successful in helping disadvantaged students perform competitively. To be eligible, a school must show it has had no critically low scores in reading, writing or mathematics for any economically disadvantaged group in the latest school year. Brogan proposed expanding on ithat, offering awards and bonuses to the teacher, the assistant principal and the principal who have the greatest success in improving quality of education for disadvantaged students. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Lt Gov. Buddy MacKay, said despite Brogan's claim that he and Bush would improve education for disadvantaged students, "Their plan says absolutely nothing about addressing the serious lack of funding in our public schools." Brogan cited statistics indicating HOLLYWOOD The task force developing the nation's largest ecosystem restoration project the saving of the Everglades will have a written draft of its plan ready for public review by mid-October.

The 20-year project aims to undo the damage caused by a half-century of man's handiwork in the delicate ecosystem that covers 18,000 square miles from Orlando to Florida Bay. The plan, referred to as the Central and Southern Florida Project Restudy, has been developed during the past 10 months by a multi-agency committee. It will be implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the federal government is expected to pick up half the tab. "I think we're there with a plan we can be very proud of," Michael Davis, deputy assistant secretary of the Army, told a biannual meeting of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force on Monday.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt planned to attend the second day of the task force's meeting today at the Anne Kolb Nature Center. In the past 50 years, about 1,600 miles of levees and canals and another 150 water-control structures have been carved into the Everglades, interrupting the natural flow of water. Combined with the needs of growing urban areas and agriculture, the Everglades began to die. The plan calls for a massive network of reservoirs and an as-yet untested process of storing water underground. Hundreds of billions of gallons would be held 1,000 feet beneath the surface, then called back up when needed.

MacKay criticized Bush and Brogan for favoring school vouchers that would allow some parents to receive tax dollars to send their children to private schools. "The irony is that although they admirably talk about wanting to help all children, in reality they will only provide funds to aid a select few," MacKay said. Brogan said the Bush campaign is working on its proposal on vouchers. The plan would focus on helping children in low-performing schools, he said, and would be designed not to drain money from public schools. conference on "Closing the Gap." When 158 Florida schools were identified as critically low-performing schools in 1995, the state and school districts focused more resources on those schools, and parents and communities became more involved, Brogan said.

Nearly all the schools had large numbers of low-income and minority students and nearly all have shown significant improvement, he said. "It is clear that if we provide focus, support and specific goals, children in difficult circumstances can achieve at higher levels," Brogan said. wide gaps in the achievement of different student groups. Last year, for example, 79 percent of white students passed Florida's High School Competency Test compared with 60 percent of Hispanic students and 44 percent of blacks. The high school dropout rates that year: Hispanics, 8 percent; blacks, less than 7 percent; whites, just more than 4 percent.

Brogan held a "Closing the Gap" conference in November in Miami to explore ways to cut down on the discrepancies. He said Bush, if elected, would start an annual governor's Democrat Mixson endorses Bush, vouchers By PETER WALLSTEN Timet Steff Writer Kids campaign puts pressure on candidates Ay While Mixson supports Bush this year, he is not crossing over to support every Republican. He said he still supports Graham, who is running for re-election against Republican state Sen. Charlie Crist of St. Petersburg.

During a swing through the Panhandle on Monday, Bush picked up endorsements from more than a dozen other Democrats, including sheriffs Frank McKeithen of Gulf County, Buddy Smith of Calhoun County and John McDaniel of Jackson County. "Well take our teachers and working folks over a group of county politicians any day," MacKay spokeswoman Michelle Ku-cera said. assertion that the overhaul of the civil justice system approved by the Legislature several months ago should have become law. MacKay opposes vouchers. He also agrees with Gov.

Lawton Chiles' decision to veto the civil justice changes, which the governor concluded would be unfair to plaintiffs. "I really believe in the things he's saying and his energy and enthusiasm," Mixson said of Bush. Mixson, who said he voted for Chiles over Bush in 1994, was lieutenant governor under Bob Graham between 1979 and 1987. He served three days as governor in January 1987 when Graham resigned to be sworn in as a U.S. senator.

MARIANNA Wayne Mixson, the only Democrat besides Buddy MacKay to serve two terms as lieutenant governor in modern political history, is supporting Republican Jeb Bush over MacKay in the governor's race. Mixson attended a Bush campaign rally here Monday and said he favors Bush over Lt. Gov. MacKay. He said he supports Bush's plan to experiment with vouchers, which would provide public money for private tuition in areas where public schools are inadequate.

He also agrees with the Republican's Associated Press Former Lt. Gov. Wayne Mixson says he won't cross over to support every Republican. AROUND THE STATE TALLAHASSEE Politicians will have to do more than kiss babies to impress the Florida Children's Campaign. Seeking specifics instead of such euphemisms as "children are our most important asset" and "they are our future," the group is polling office seekers on topics such as immunization, child-care staffing ratios and money for abuse prevention.

The poll, announced Monday, is the third annual effort to pin candidates down on issues affecting children. In its effort to increase awareness about children's needs, the campaign will use an "I'm for kids And I vote" sticker for political contributors to put on the checks they mail to candidates. It also will use convey sation guides to give community leaders information on the campaign's top issues. The campaign is a nonpartisan organization and says it doesn't care which candidate wins. Its goal is to make all candidates more aware of the needs of children.

To do that, it developed a political strategy two years ago that focused on voters, political contributors and community leaders. The campaign hopes to raise to spend on its outreach projects, campaign director Roy Miller, said. The campaign spent a year developing a consensus platform with the help of 350 people around the state. They identified the top three issues as: Parent training and support services. Quality child care, school readiness and after-school care.

Vocational training and job preparedness. Miller credited the campaign for an increase in the number of voters who rank children's issues as a top concern. tickets may want to call to check the validity of their ducats before packing up the family and heading to either of the attractions. A number of tickets stolen earlier this summer are showing up, and Sea-World is not accepting them. "Unfortunately, we have to turn them away.

The guests are extremely unhappy, but it is something we have to do to protect our business and the other attractions in the area," said Nick Gollattscheck, SeaWorld spokesman. The tickets were part of a batch of 16,000 worth more than $l-million stolen from a warehouse in Orlando. The theft was discovered and one man was arrested early this month. About 4,000 of the tickets have been recovered, but the others keep drifting in. said Orange County Sheriffs Sgt.

Bernard Presha. The missing tickets have been identified through serial numbers and are void. Anyone who has tickets they believe may be from the stolon batch mav call (407) 363-2200. Compiled from Time wires Hawkins caught up, Troiano said, Robinson grabbed the deputy's semiautomatic pistol. Hawkins drew his secondary gun and fired twice, hitting Robinson at least once.

Robinson died after being flown to a hospital in Gainesville. Hawkins was put on administrative leave while the department invesugates the shooting. Troiano said preliminary findings suggest Hawkins acted appropriately. Richard Jones, who said he watched the shooting from his car, and other witnesses had a different account, however. Jones said Robinson put his hands over his head when the deputy drew his gun and told him to stop.

Jones said that after Hawkins used pepper spray, Robinson ran onto the vacant lot and fell down. "He was getting up and he was shot," Jones said. Parks warn ticket holders that some passes might be stolen ORLANDO Holders of Sea-World-Busch Gardens tickets especially advance-purchase, discounted Haitian man seeks apology after Domino's Pizza incident LAUDERHILL A Haitian family is seeking a public apology from Domino's Pizza after finding insulting language printed on a pie box delivered to their home. Kesner Pascal said when the pep-peroni and cheese pizza he ordered to celebrate his daughter's 11th birthday was delivered, "DIRTY HAITIAN" was printed on the computerized label where his name should have been. "It's a regrettable incident," said Domino's spokesman Tim Mclntyre at the company's headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"Our company is the victim of one individual's stupid act." No one has confessed to entering the computer system and writing the slur, but Mclntyre said any employee can manipulate the customer list. A security team investigated the incident at the store where Pascal's stepson once worked and the company has apologized to the family. Although the company has offered Pascal and coupons for free pizza, attorney Richard Buckley said Pascal wants a publicized written apology stating that discrimination is not permitted at Domino's stores. Witnesses', official accounts differ after fatal shooting ARCHER A man suspected of stealing cigarettes was killed by an Alachua County sheriffs deputy after he took one of the deputy's guns during a struggle, sheriffs officials said. Deputy Donald L.

Hawkins wanted to question Lawrence "Pop" Robinson, 42, after several packs of cigarettes were stolen from a convenience store. Sheriffs spokesman Jim Troiano said Robinson assaulted Hawkins shortly after the deputy stopped him at about 8 p.m. Saturday. Robinson then ran about 20 yards into a wooded vacant lot, and when.