Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 24

SECTION MFTROMTATE 5T0 CONTACT US ABOUT NEWS: By phone: 893-821 5 By fax: 893-8675 By e-mail: localsptimes.com THE TIMES TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9 1999 build Wtty for many atosos Tags Protect the Panther jessna K2J Two groups involved with panther issues are asking for an audit of the profits from the plates. P.1 r. porting the Florida panther," said Jack Pons of the state's Panther Technical Advisory Committee. "In reality, what's going toward the panther is maybe $5 out of the $25." Pons' group requested an audit a year ago, noting that panther-plate money was needed for preserving panther habitat from development And in July and again last month, an organization called Sarasota in Defense of Animals requested that the state Auditor General's Office investigate how the state Fish and Please see TAGS 4B But in truth, much of the money goes to other programs such as monitoring water quality along the Hillsborough River and teaching bird-watching to Hernando County elementary and middle school pupils that have nothing to do with panthers. As a result, an animal rights group and a state advisory committee on panther issues have asked for an audit of the profits from the $25 panther plates.

"The people of Florida are paying extra money to get a panther tag because they feel like they're sup By CRAIG PITTMAN Timet Stiff Writer MARY JO MELONE COLUMNIST Learning how a child can change your life iruciT.M.ty; it, i. I When motorists walk into their local tag office and plop down $25 for a license plate featuring the Florida panther, they are told that most of the money goes to benefit the endangered cat. State residents who pay $25 extra for tags featuring the Florida panther may not know some of the money goes to teach bird-watching to state schoolchildren. Top of the world our child is a great teacher. She teaches you about yourself.

Last week, my daughter had a Charges dropped against father Gregory Rodriguez still faces charges in Georgia of interstate interference with custody and escape. By KATHRYN WEXLER, Times Stafl Writer TAMPA Ajucfge on Monday dismissed interference with custody and false imprisonment charges against a man who absconded with his 2-year-old daughter in 1985 and raised her in secret until FBI agents caught up with him in I 1 i fS Times photo AMY NEWMAN Arthur Mills gives his son Allen, 1, a ride on his shoulders as they stroll along Ballast Point Pier in Tampa on Monday afternoon, -Mills, who had just returned from a three-week military trip to Egypt, was enjoying the weather with his wife, Yosun, his son Arthur 3, and Allen. Mills had been given Monday and Tuesday off to recover from his traveling. August. Prosecutors decided to drop the charges after Rodriguez's ex-wife told them she no longer wished to see him jailed.

Though she had pursued justice and her daughter's return for 14 years, Jean-ine Hicks decided recently that pressing the case against Rodriguez was destroy Gregory Rodriguez remains jailed in Georgia, where he faces charges. Court rejects appeal of death row inmates Tougher window code set by panel The rule for coastal areas must still be approved by the Florida Legislature. brief, even routine, surgery for toddlers, involving her sinuses. I was asked to accompany the doctor to the operating room to reassure my daughter when he administered the anesthesia. Her dark eyes went wide, and her face was one wordless accusation as the doctor brought a clear plastic mask, with a tube attached, toward her perfect tiny face and placed it over her nose and mouth.

Co-conspirator that I was, I leaned over her face and whispered what struck my own ears as wildly inadequate, absurd. Youll be okay. Mommy's here. Hove you. In seconds, her eyes closed.

Her restless expression was gone. Her flushed cheeks went pale. The last thing I saw as a nurse hurried me out was one tiny foot, sticking out from a blanket In the days that followed, I was edgy around her. When she overturned the dog's water bowl or stuck her fingers in the margarine or wouldn't go down easily for a nap, my patience ran out faster than it should have. I was angry.

Anger sure beats tears. Anger looks tough, tears weak even though the reverse is true. Five days passed before I could say it: I had been afraid my daughter would die. Before then, all I could do was get mad. My mother was good at getting mad.

If she were alive, she'd tell me I blame her for everything, including this habit. This was true. I did blame my mother for everything. 1 was sure she was not like other mothers. She was a coal miner's daughter, and the pain in her life was etched too early in the lines in her face.

She was not a cookie baker, nor much of a hugger, nor a reader of chil-drens' stories. These things still haunt me, but don't hurt so much now. The passing of time has helped, but not so much as my teacher, my child. Last week, she showed me that no child knows just how much a parent loves him or her, and that there can be very little connection between how much parents love their children and how well they show it My mother was often lousy at showing it. Her own troubles, fueled by alcohol but still largely mysterious after her death, took up so much palpable space in our family we might as well have always had an extra person at the table.

But there are other memories. Hand-sewn Halloween costumes and Easter outfits. Her nerve as she calmly squashed a wasp in a wad of paper because I was terrified of them. How hard she cried after she visited the first shabby apartment I rented after college. I never saw her tears that day.

She never told me. My father shared the story after she died. That was the way she was. For many years, and for many incidents, I couldn't forgive her. I couldn't find the way.

Last week, after my daughter's surgery, I went to the drugstore. While I waited for her prescription, I dawdled at the lipstick displays. I found a color I hadn't seen in years, Revlon's Love That Red. It's a brash '60s red, meant to brighten up a middle-aged face on the verge of losing its freshness. It was the only lipstick I ever found rooting around in the bottom of my mother's purse.

It was right there with her cigarettes, her hard candies, and the nickels and pennies that had slid out of her change purse. There was a time I wouldn't have worn a thing of my mother's, or anything that reminded me of her. But wouldn't you know I bought that lipstick that day at the drugstore, and I've worn it. The impossible has begun. 1 have begun to forgive my mother.

For I know a little better how much she must have loved me, no matter what she said or did. She must have loved me the way I love my own daughter. Fiercely. The nation's high court refuses to hear arguments that many years on death row amount to cruel punishment ing her relationship with her 16-year-old daughter, Angela, who blames Hicks for her father's legal woes. "It reminds me of the story of King Solomon," said Assistant State Attorney Nick Nazaretian, referring to the biblical parable of two women who each claimed she was the mother of a newborn until the king said he'd split the baby in half.

"Maybe it shows she's the one who really loves the child." Hicks, 37, had tears in her eyes as she left the courtroom. Associated Press IN FAVOR OF EXECUTION: Poll shows death penalty still has strong support. 5B row. The two appeals each rejected by an 84 vote raised a sweeping capital punishment issue: Is it a violation of the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment to execute someone so many years after his conviction and death sentence? Muhammad, then known as Thomas Knight, was convicted of abducting and killing Sydney and Lilian Cans in Miami in 1974. He later was convicted of killing prison guard Richard Berke in 1980.

Please see COURT 4B Askari Muhammad argued that 24 years on Florida's death row amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and that his life should be spared. Associated Press WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the appeal of Askari Muhammad, a convicted Miami killer who argued that 24 years on Florida's death row amounts to cruel and unusual punishment and his life should be spared. The justices also turned away a similar plea from Carey Dean Moore, who has spent 19 years on Nebraska's death "It'll be okay," she said. "It'll be okay." Please see RODRIGUEZ 48 Florida Democrats hand support to Bush The GOP presidential candidate and Texas governor tours with his brother, collecting endorsements. TALLAHASSEE A state panel on Monday approved a plan to require hurricane shutters, plywood or impact-resistant glass on windows of all new homes built in coastal areas.

By a 12-2 margin, the Florida Building Commission, meeting in Naples, approved making the window rule part of a statewide building code that could go into effect on Jan. 1,2001. The vote required approval by 75 percent of board members, or 11 of 14. In a series of flip-flop votes, the commission initially defeated the rule by a 10-4 vote, but two members then switched their votes to "yes." The window rule was first approved Saturday by a commission committee. The Florida Building Commission will meet again in early December, and could vote on the matter yet again.

The window rule must still be approved by the Florida Legislature, which convenes in March. The Legislature called for the creation of a statewide code in part to appease builders who argued that there were too many sets of rules to follow. The Building Commission was established to sort the rules into a simple format and to have a recommended code ready for 2001. Please see WINDOW 4B By TIM NICKENS Times Political Editor former Gov. Wayne Mixson; Board of Regents member Steve Uhlfelder; and Fort Lauderdale Mayor James Naugle.

Tampa Police Chief' Bennie Holder also has endorsed Bush, the campaign said. The new endorsements underscore Bush's dominance in Florida. A new St. Petersburg Times Miami Herald poll shows Bush leading Vice President Al Gore in a hypothetical match-up, 49 percent to 34 percent. Bush raised niore than in Florida by the end of September, three times what Gore raised.

With Monday's take, which included more than $200,000 in Jacksonville and more than $400,000 in Orlando, Bush could hit $5-mil-lion here by the end of the year. "If this governor of Texas is half as good of a president as this governor is in Florida," Uhlfelder said, "we will be in great shape." Bush, in an apparent dig at GOP challenger Steve Forbes and others who contend the Texan is not emphasizing his opposition to abortion and other hot-button conservative issues, said his agenda has bipartisan appeal. Please see EUSH4B Yth i- sAlv' j' AP ORLANDO On his third campaign swing through Florida, Republican front-runner George W. Bush on Monday scooped up more than $600,000 and endorsements from several prominent Democrats including Tampa Mayor Dick Greco. Bush and his younger brother, Florida Gov.

Jeb Bush, called the endorsements more evidence that the Texas governor's presidential campaign unites people rather than divides them. Greco said at a news conference that he has voted for both Democrats and Republicans over the years and that party affiliation is irrelevant. "That doesn't matter," the mayor said. "The person does. The only way to get something done in government is as a con- Tampa Mayor Dick Greco talks to Texas Gov.

George W. Bush in Orlando on Monday after endorsing his candidacy. sensus builder. He has done that." Joining Greco in endorsing Bush were Democrats Bob Crawford, the state agriculture commissioner who endorsed Jeb Bush over Democrat Buddy MacKay last year;.