============================================================ DIGITAL DIGEST � http://www.marconews.com � October 24, 2004 ============================================================ Subscribe to the Naples Daily News: http://web.naplesnews.com/circulation/
ELECTION 2004: BUSH STIRS UP CROWD IN SHORT FORT MYERS CAMPAIGN STOP President George W. Bush said Sen. John Kerry has a "Sept. 10 point of view" and has forgotten his former belief that Saddam Hussein is a threat. Bush made the comment during a Saturday morning rally in Fort Myers. "You might call it election amnesia," Bush said to the cheering crowd gathered around him on the ballfield at the City of Palms Park. FREQUENT GOP VISITS MEANT TO ENERGIZE BASE, BOOST TURNOUT In the last days of a heated and impossibly close presidential election, the Republican bastion of Southwest Florida has been inundated by several high-ranking political figures � from both parties. It is a battleground where even Democrats acknowledge that Republicans surely will win on Nov. 2. But with Florida's 27 crucial electoral votes at stake, apparently even a sure thing is worth fighting for. MINORITY GROUPS NOW IN THE MAJORITY IN COLLIER SCHOOLS It was a quiet tipping of the scales, so subtle no one noticed. Minority groups in Collier County public schools are now the majority. A student head count taken this month shows that for the first time in the history of Collier County, whites make up less than half of the total student population at 47.8 percent. The second most populous group is Hispanics at 38 percent. AMENDMENTS COULD CHANGE LANDCAPE OF MEDICAL CARE Big money, emotionally charged television commercials and a confused public. Those are three ways to characterize three medical malpractice-related constitutional amendments before Florida voters Nov. 2. What physicians and trial attorneys agree on in this otherwise complicated and bitter fight is that passage of any of the amendments could alter profoundly the landscape of patients' rights and medical care in Florida. The big unknown is: for better or worse? VOTER EDUCATION EFFORTS REACH PAST LANGUAGE BARRIERS An offer to ride in Liza McClenaghan's car elicits questions from passengers about the pile of red, white and blue papers that slide around in her back seat as she drives. They are voter registration forms. Toting them around is part of McClenaghan's long-running voter education effort. It's nonpartisan, though she is active in the local Democratic Party. Get details on all these stories and more at http://www.marconews.com IN PERSPECTIVE: BEN BOVA: SCIENCE FICTION CAN TEACH US SOMETHING IF WE STOP TO LEARN A few months ago the once-and-present mayor of Naples wrote an editorial piece for the Daily News in which he twitted my political opinions on the grounds that I am a writer of science fiction. The mayor's implication was clear: science fiction, in his view, is outlandish, silly stuff, not to be taken seriously. I disagree. In fact, I think that if more people read science fiction we would have a much clearer understanding of today's world and tomorrow's possibilities, both for good and ill. Read more commentary and get local editorials and today�s Letters to the Editor at http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/perspective/ IN FLORIDA EDWARDS BASHES BUSH WITH REPORT ON HIGHER RETIREMENT AGE Seizing on a report that plans to privatize Social Security could include raising the retirement age by five years, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards hammered President Bush at a rally of union members Saturday. Fortune magazine, in its issue dated Nov. 1, reports the Social Security Administration is considering an idea that calls for early-retirement accounts that begin paying at age 62 by setting aside one-sixth of the money that employees and employers pay to Social Security. Get details on all these stories and more at http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/florida/ IN NEAPOLITAN: PHILHARMONIC CELLIST SPENDS OFF TIME HARMONIZING WITH HONEY BEES There's a muffled buzzing coming from Tom May's kitchen countertop and it's not his wife Kirsten cleaning up after a day at home with their toddler daughter. "They came in the mail today," he says, waving off the oddness of this announcement as he picks up several tiny wooden coffin-looking boxes that contain none other than bees. He places one in the palm of his hand. "They were two weeks late. I'm surprised they weren't all dead." Get details on all these stories and more at http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/neapolitan/ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Click on the link below to be removed from the marconews.com mailing list. http://web.marconews.com/cgi-bin/[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
