Panhandlers

ATLANTA - After listening to hours of heated opposition from homeless people and their advocates yesterday, city officials passed a tough anti-panhandling ordinance that forbids anyone from begging for money in most of downtown. The ordinance, approved 12-3 and backed by Mayor Shirley Franklin, has divided much of the city, with business and civic leaders firmly behind it and several religious and human rights groups opposing it. Opponents call it discriminatory because it will, in effect, ban homeless people from downtown.

ELECTED officials love ribbon-cuttings and groundbreakings. Such events help them get credit for brick-and-mortar victories in the pork barrel free-for-alls that pass for budgeting, especially in Congress. This affinity for the new and flashy explains why a $286 billion transportation bill including nearly 6,400 such pet projects, costing $24 billion, came up more than a third short of the $1.6 billion President Bush requested to repair and maintain the long-neglected national parks. Meanwhile, Congress mustered only one-tenth of the $600 million in additional annual operating funds parks need to pay rangers and other staff.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Hurricane Dennis pounded Cuba yesterday with 135 mph winds, killing at least 10 people, as it barreled northwest toward the Florida Keys and the Gulf Coast. Tens of thousands of tourists and residents fled Key West and the Panhandle, as Floridians who endured four hurricanes last year braced for one of the mightiest storms ever to strike so early. "Everybody's just so worn out," said Kris Lalumiere, a 57-year-old retiree who was buying extra dog food at a grocery store in Gulf Breeze, near Pensacola.

Leave it to the Internet to take panhandling to a new level. Laurentiu Mata (his friends call him Larry) tried to raise $2,700 for his wedding. (It was a bad idea, said Mata, 28. Nobody donated, but plenty gave him their two cents.) Joyce wants LASIK surgery. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of examples of cyberbegging, a trend made famous in 2002 when Karyn Bosnak created www.savekaryn.com to find donors to help her pay down $20,000 in credit-card debt. (She ended up with $13,323 in donations.

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Hurricane Ivan delivered its worst blows yesterday to storm-haunted Florida, brutalizing the state's Panhandle region with widespread flooding, a devastating band of tornadoes and at least 13 deaths. The powerful storm, the third hurricane to hit Florida in five weeks, left residents across the area without electricity, water or phone service. It washed out part of a major bridge along Interstate 10 here and left rescue workers digging through the rubble of tornado-strewn homes, fearing more deaths.

MOBILE, Ala. - Fierce winds and torrential rains hammered the Gulf Coast overnight as Hurricane Ivan barreled ashore with a frightening reach that extended to four southern states and threatened widespread destruction by dawn. As many as 2 million people had been evacuated from parts of Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana by late yesterday, leaving towns along 300 miles of coastline all but deserted as streets were turned into rivers, trees were blown down, power was knocked out and homes were wrecked.

APALACHICOLA, Fla. - The waters off of this southern spit of the Florida Panhandle already looked a little dark and worried yesterday, days before Hurricane Ivan is projected to deliver its beating. And if the weather's not yet to blame, perhaps the sea is catching a vibe from the wary and storm-weary people who live along its shores. It's not that residents here aren't willing to share the grief borne by their fellow Floridians in the state's southern peninsula, who have already suffered the fury of hurricanes Charley and Frances this season.

LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- Rain-weary residents dried out, cleaned up and surveyed the damage caused by Hurricane Frances' wide reach as the weakened storm took a second hit at the state yesterday, dumping more water and wind over the Florida panhandle before finally moving inland. The lumbering storm, which battered Florida for much of the holiday weekend, knocked out power to as many as 6 million people and was blamed for at least four deaths. It ripped off roofs, destroyed luxury yachts, caused heavy damage at the Kennedy Space Center and left waterlogged suburban parking lots looking more like the Everglades than strip malls.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Hurricane Frances left few parts of Florida untouched yesterday as its slow, cruel crawl across the peninsula left behind flooded roadways, downed power lines, uprooted trees and debris-strewn beaches. As many as 5 million people lost power, and the state's panhandle region braced to take its hit from the storm today. After pummeling parts of Florida's eastern coastline with rain for as long as 30 hours, the storm weakened as it crept west, with winds slowing to about 70 mph. By early evening, Frances was downgraded to a tropical storm as it approached Tampa en route to the Gulf of Mexico.

It's a common sight: church volunteers, school kids and homeless people pacing road medians, extending buckets and hands so that motorists stuck at red lights can donate money. In Anne Arundel County, where the practice is highly visible on major roads such as Ritchie Highway and West Street, some local officials say such soliciting is a safety hazard and a nuisance to drivers. So they're pushing to make Anne Arundel and Annapolis the latest jurisdictions to limit the practice. Five Maryland counties - Charles, Harford, Howard, Prince George's and Washington - have laws restricting solicitation on public roads.