Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. - With the Florida Democratic Party meeting here over the weekend to showcase a host of 2004 presidential hopefuls, there was news from Washington to reassure them that the election fiasco of 2000, which centered on this state, will be avoided. By a vote of 99-1, the Senate had just passed a five-year, $3.5 billion election reform bill designed to help states correct the faulty voting machinery and other flaws in the process that contributed to the November 2000 confusion that put George W. Bush in the White House over Al Gore.

WASHINGTON -- Viewed on your television screen from a safe distance, Tallahassee looks like a loony bin. If you think the events of the past four weeks have been odd, consider the possible alternatives now being offered. One moment we are watching the attempt by supporters of Vice President Al Gore to convince a county judge that she should throw out 15,000 absentee ballots because they were handled improperly by local Republicans. The result presumably would be to move Mr. Gore into a lead over Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, who has been certified as the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida. -- I am in southern Florida, where the talk is all of murder. This is where 10 tourists have been killed in recent months. The results of that kill rate are registered at the gun stores. Business has never been so good. New gun stores are opening at a record rate. They, too, are ''making a killing.''With what result? Consider the case of Ed Connors, from the Fort Lauderdale area.Last week, two robbers came up to his car. One reached through the window for the car keys.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- -- Hillary Rodham Clinton turned up here last week at one of her favorite political venues -- Century Village, a community of some 12,000 elderly Americans, more than 9,000 of whom are registered Democrats.As candidate Bill Clinton's wife, the first lady came here four years ago just before election day and then again, with the president, as part of their kickoff for their health-care reform campaign in 1993. She is so popular here the community's medical center has been named for her.There were all the trappings of big-league politics -- 2,500 people waving Clinton-Gore signs and chanting ''four more years'' for a half-dozen television camera crews.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Gary Alexander scored 28 points, hitting seven of them with two minutes remaining in the game, to give South Florida a 92-88 victory over Florida State last night.South Florida (6-1), which beat the Florida Gators in Gainesville 73-71 Sunday, defeated Florida State (4-2) before a SunDome record crowd of 10,411.Sam Cassell (Dunbar) scored 22 points to lead the Seminoles. But Cassell fouled out with 4 minutes, 22 seconds remaining and Alexander's seven points in the last two minutes sealed the win for South Florida.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The recent epidemic of mosquito-borne St. Louis encephalitis has claimed its first victim in Florida, the state's first death caused by the virus in 13 years, a state health official said yesterday.Alvena Patton, a 58-year-old Brevard County woman who has been in a coma since Aug. 21, died Saturday, according to Ernie Durfee, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.The death rate from St. Louis encephalitis typically is 7 percent.

While vacationing at the home of family friends in Miami on Monday night, Melanie Sabelhaus watched with heightened interest Florida State's 23-17 Sugar Bowl victory over Florida."

KEY WEST, Fla. -- A Florida law prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children has been ruled unconstitutional by a Monroe County judge.Key West resident Ed Seebol sued the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services last year after he was barred from adopting a son because of the state law.Judge Ignatius Lester decided in Mr. Seebol's favor, ruling Friday that the statute violated Mr. Seebol's right to privacy and denied him equal protection under...

Representatives and players from predominately white Florida State and historically black Florida A&M met yesterday to try to put an ugly basketball court fight behind them."