Boca Raton News from Boca Raton, Florida • 9

wwwbocaratonnewsconi Boca RatonDelray Beach News Wednesday July 3 2002 9 lorida THE TOP STORIES ROM AROUND THE STATE 1 Bush still leads in gubernatorial poll but his job approval ratings decline same period IN BRIE had raised more than 41 mil lion and the state Democratic date making gains "Despite a $2 million advertis ing campaign and the full weight of the hile House liehind him Jeb Bush's numbers are slipping and that's not a good sign for Reno campaign manager Mo Elleithee said McBride showed an increase in name recognition Six months against Bush Party officials have privately complained that the Reno cam paign has been disorganized and underfunded while failing to gain significant traction against the brother Through late March Bush had raised more than $4 million and punishment law in an appeal by condemned killer Timothy Ring Last week the nations high court ruled that the death penalty statutes in Arizona and four other states were unconsti tutional because judges rather than juries decided facts used to justify death sentences A few' days later the US Supreme Court lifted the stays it had granted King and Bottoson While state officials say the lifting of the stays signified that capital punishment law' is sound attorneys for death row inmates say the court was just sending the legal ques tions back to state courts to be hammered out to the House plan by the US Department of Justice black voters replacing two staffers who have worked early on in the campaign in any organization always some degree of Democrats who view the Voter which conducted the poll and had a margin of error of 35 should have gone up If McBride wins the Sept 10 pri mary have an opportunity to define himself and in a better position to challenge Qiich enmminn rxT ri nl a flrwm UUOII vuiviuio uvnu played the numbers been saying all along that these poll numbers are going to bounce all over the place between now and election said Todd Harris a Bush Reno 53 percent to 37 percent with 10 percent undecided But the survey also shows a slight dip in the approval ratings job approval rating is 52 percent down from 5fi nercent in the last lorida Voter survey in reuruaiy aiiu ms lavurauie rat ing among voters is down to 59 percent from 66 percent in the earlier poll Among Democrats the poll showed Reno leading Tampa lawyer Bill McBride by 45 per cent to 1 8 percent support drops below 50 percent against McBride who remains unknown to nearly half the voters polled Bush leads McBride 49 percent to 31 per cent but 20 percent remain undecided according to the sur vey fact that the governor drops when put an unknown campaign spokesman me pou oi ou registereo voi said Jim Kane editor of lorida ers was conducted June 18 26 percentage points Reno showed the highest unfa vorable ratings of all of the can didates with 48 percent of those polled saying they had a mostly unfavorable or very unfa vorable opinion of her has incredibly high unfavorable ratings and that hurts her against Jeb Bush ago the poll found that 62 per Kane said does better against Bush But people still know him well So time is really becoming his Reno campaign officials said the survey showed their candi Students in failing public schools signing up for private school vouchers TALLAHASSEE Parents of 374 students in failed public schools have notified education officials that they intend to use state vouchers to send their children to private schools his fall Some 8900 students at 10 public schools in Miami Dade Palm Beach Orange and Escambia counties were eligible for vouchers because their schools earned a second failing grade in four years Seventy four private schools in the four counties have signed up to take voucher students In all the state has about 1600 pri vate schools which enroll about 350000 students staff changing These people who are leaving are still very close to the campaign They helped get the ball rolling for campaign Mo Elleithee said bringing on people who are able to pick up the ball and run with It But the shuffling brought grumbles from some prominent the Republican Party $208 mil lion for state campaigns and has raised millions more with the help of President Bush The Bothersome bear caught in Wellington relocated to wildlife preserve WELLINGTON State wildlife officers caught a 211 nound black: bear that had wandered for the associated press two weeks through Palm Beach TALLAHASSEE Gov Jeb County neighborhoods after it Bush has maintained his large was spotted Tuesday on a front lead over his Democratic rivals porch for governor but a new poll shows that his job approval rat ing has slipped A lorida Voter poll released Tuesday by the South lorida Sun Sentinel and the Orlando The bear who had evaded cap ture tin doughnut baited traps climbed 15 feet up a pine tree when officers with the lorida ish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived The bear Sentinel show Bush leading for was shot with a tranquilizer dart mer US Attorney General Janet and fell asleep within 17 min utes but fall out of the tree commission spokesman Jim llufistodt said The bear was taken by truck to the Okaloacoochee Slough Wildlifp Management Area a 35 uutJ acre wilderness in Pnlliorforrel ITondm rnnn anH reieasea Three judge panel upholds congressional state Senate maps TALLAHASSEE A panel of three federal judges Tuesday upheld new boundary lines for congressional and state Senate districts In an order from one of the judges US District Judge Adalberto Jordan of Miami the panel said it was holding off on a ruling on state House districts because of a pending objection against him is not a good sign cent of the voters had never heard of him compared with 46 percent now Only two percent say they never heard of Reno "All I've got to do is let people know who I McBride said Attorneys work on execution appeals the associated press granted' both men as it TALLAHASSEE Lawyers for considered a constitutional two men scheduled for execu challenge to capital tion next week worked Tuesday on how best to persuade a state court that death penal ty law like is uncon stitutional Linroy Bottoson is scheduled to die by lethal injection Monday at 6 pm and Amos King 48 hours later Both men are condemned for the murders of elderly Central lorida women nearly a quarter of a century ago King for a 1977 murder in Tarpon Springs and Bottoson for a 1979 murder in Eatonville Gov Jeb Bush signed death warrants for the two in November and executions were scheduled for earlier this year But the US Supreme Court Reno makes changes on her campaign staff THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MIAMI Janet Reno has jug gled her campaign staff two months before the Democratic primary raising concerns from some Democrats that her orga nization may not have the strength to defeat Gov Jeb Bush nextYall campaign announced Tuesday that it had hired a new deputy campaign manager and turnover as another ominous a new director of outreach to sign for the campaign Recent poll numbers show Reno with a former US attorney general sizable lead over her nearest competitor in the primary Thmpa lawyer Bill McBride but Party $54 million through the facing a double digit deficit Reading time a Iwcw1! if 1 ASSOCIATED PRESS lorida Gov Jeb Bush sits next to Yinan Zhang 6 of Miami to read him a short story as his momJMei Han looks on at the West Dade Regional Library in Miami on Tuesday Bush announced the names of students selected to serve as the first teen trendsetter reading mentors IN BRIE.