| Bears risk lives by invading human territory
Central Florida leads the state in bear reports and nuisance complaints as well as accidental deaths, mostly because of development around the Ocala forest area, which is estimated to have more than 1,000 bears, according to reports.
Last year, 29 bears were killed in Lake County -- most by vehicle collisions. Marion County had 25 deaths and Volusia 14.
Marion topped bear sightings and complaints with 544, followed by Lake with 478. Seminole had 263 and Orange 102.
Robert Sargent can be reached at 352-742-5909 or rsargent@orlandosentinel.com.
For complete chart see printed copy.
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Bush prods Congress on AMT, mortgages
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 U.S. President George W. Bush Saturday urged Congress to act on fixing a potential middle-class tax problem and reform mortgage lending laws.
Bush used his weekly radio address to congratulate the Senate for passing legislation to prevent an unexpected tax bill for millions of middle-income Americans, who could get hit with a bigger federal tax liability this year because a decades old law -- the Alternative Minimum Tax, intended to force the wealthy to pay taxes -- was not indexed to inflation.
"As a result, the AMT's higher tax burden is creeping up on more and more middle-class families, and as many as 25 million Americans would be subject to the AMT," Bush said.
He accused the House of delaying the AMT fix, although the House has already passed legislation to address the problem.
Crisis: America's missing cukes!
Why are these ads significant? 1) They seem to me to be surprisingly effective as a way of spreading dirt. 2) They seem to represent a surprisingly large hole in the campaign finance laws. After all, they are advertisements for a publication. They aren't campaign expenditures. They're simply telling potential customers about an article, which just happens to be an article spreading scandal about the Clintons. In the same way, ads for some Michael Moore films just happen to undermine George Bush. But, unlike Michael Moore films, the enterprise these Google ads are promoting is itself typically exempted from the campaign finance regime under the so-called "media exemption." So why doesn't some unabashedly non-neutral rich person buy up a lot of media properties--and then start spending tens of millions on ads promoting "scoops" that just happen to damage candidates the rich person opposes? Ron Burkle may be on to something.
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