TALLAHASSEE - Antigambling advocates have launched a campaign to identify the scope of alleged fraud they say allowed a progambling initiative onto the November ballot.
Thousands of black-and-white postcards from the "Florida Slot Petition Verification Project" began arriving in mailboxes across Florida this week, including St. Petersburg.
The cards ask voters to call a toll-free phone number if they didn't sign petitions that set up a Nov. 2 ballot measure that allowed slot machines in South Florida.
As of late Thursday, organizers said they had received hundreds of calls from people saying they didn't sign the petition. About a half-dozen also called the St. Petersburg Times saying the same thing.
"There is no one in this household of two who would vote for slot machines being allowed in Florida," said retired executive Basil Weedon of St. Petersburg. He called the Times after his, wife, Betty received a postcard and he confirmed with Pinellas County elections officials that her named had appeared on a petition.
"We're 100 percent against it. There's no way she signed a petition supporting it," said Weedon, 77.
The postcard campaign is under way despite a legal setback this week.
Leon County Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark on Tuesday tossed out a lawsuit by antigambling advocates because she said there is no legal precedent to intervene if there is no evidence the election was tainted.
The plaintiffs plan to appeal and would use the data gathered from the postcard campaign in a trial, if their case gets that far.
"We're hoping to show, in a very quantifiable way, the scope of the fraud that exists," said Mark Schlein, a Tallahassee attorney for the trio of antigambling groups financing the mailings.
Gambling advocates called the move "a last-ditch, bogus effort" to stop Amendment 4. Approved by 51 percent of voters, the constitutional amendment allows slot machines at existing dog and horse tracks and jai alai frontons in Miami-Dade and Broward counties if local voters agree. If the Legislature taxes the machines, the revenue must go to public schools.
"We did everything proper and ran a legal campaign and we won," said Daniel Adkins, chairman of the parimutuel-backed Floridians for a Level Playing Field and vice president of Hollywood Greyhound Track. "The issue as far as I'm concerned has been resolved."
The pro-gambling group says it submitted more than 700,000 petitions, far more than the 488,722 needed to qualify for the ballot.
"There is a fair percentage of voters who sign these things who don't even remember within two weeks of signing it," said Earl Bender, campaign manager for Yes for Local Control, which backed Amendment 4.
The postcard campaign is financed by the Humane Society of the United States, Floridians Against Expanded Gambling and Grey 2K USA, a group that opposes dog tracks, who were also the plaintiffs in the Leon County lawsuit.
"This issue is bigger than just this amendment," Schlein said. The court ruling "opens up the proverbial Pandora's box for fraud that says the requirements for qualifying an amendment for the ballot are meaningless as long as you commit it early enough and you win the election," Schlein said.
Fraud has been alleged in other citizen initiatives from the Nov. 2 ballot. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has an ongoing investigation into multiple campaigns.
Joni James can be reached at 850-224-7263 or jjames@sptimes.com
Source: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/01/14/State/Groups_question_petit.shtml
From The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance Comes.........
Anti-Hunter Arrested for Protest
Maryland
A Maryland animal activist welcomed in the New Year by harassing people hunting near his property. He now faces a series of criminal charges including hunter harassment.
On January 1, Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) arrested Allan Pulliam, Mechanicsville, after he verbally confronted law abiding goose hunters on a neighboring property and drove back and forth along his property line while firing a .30-30 rifle. When NRP officials arrested Pulliam, they found marijuana in his vehicle.
Pulliam was charged with interfering with hunters, carrying a loaded weapon in a vehicle, reckless endangerment, disturbing the public peace, and possessing a controlled dangerous substance.
In Maryland, interfering with hunters and carrying a loaded weapon in a vehicle both carry a $1,500 fine.
Hunter harassment laws have been enacted in all 50 states. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance drafted the legislation in the early 1980s which was used by a majority of states. In 1995, Nebraska became the 50th state to approve legislation making hunter harassment illegal.
If you ever experience hunter harassment, report the incident to your local conservation officer or any other law enforcement official. Be sure to give a description of the offender as well as a license plate number and vehicle description if possible.
A group called In Defense of Animals found itself on the defensive after it mistakenly declared Cameron Park Zoo one of the nation's "10 worst zoos for elephants."
The California-based animal rights group, which opposes elephant exhibits in urban zoos, sent out a nationwide news release Jan. 4 stating that Cameron Park Zoo had only one elephant. It has two.
"Even though companionship is essential to elephants' psychological health, this Texas zoo displays and keeps a single elephant," the release said. No other reasons were cited for the listing.
The natural habitat zoo has kept two African elephants since it opened in 1993, except for one month in 1996 after an old elephant died.
Another news release the next day removed Cameron Park Zoo from the list, acknowledging that when it comes to elephants' social life, "two is definitely better than one."
In Defense of Animals said it relied on wrong information from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's database of animals. Zoo director Jim Fleshman said the group's officials called him to apologize, but by then animal lovers around the country had sent him e-mails asking about the list.
"I would say they didn't do their homework," Fleshman said.
He said he was "shocked" by the listing, and worried that it would hurt the zoo's reputation.
"It's obviously not one of the worst zoos in the country for elephants," he said. "I don't think it damaged us locally, because everybody here knows we have two elephants. Could it have hurt us on a national level? Yes, I think it could have hurt us."
In Defense of Animals spokeswoman Catherine Doyle said she doesn't think many news outlets mentioned the Waco zoo in their early stories on the list.
The Houston Chronicle focused on the inclusion of the Houston Zoo on the list and mentioned that Waco's zoo was exonerated. The New York Times ran a story Sunday on the controversy about elephants in zoos, but didn't mention Waco or In Defense of Animals, a 22-year-old animal rights organization with 80,000 members nationwide.
It focused on another list target, the Anchorage Zoo in Alaska, which is under fire for keeping its lone elephant indoors for long periods of time.
Doyle acknowledged that her organization didn't call the zoos to confirm the information it received from the zoo association.
"It wasn't meant to be a scientific study," she said. "It was an opinion piece. . . . The most important thing is that the public be educated about issues with elephants in zoos. These animals are suffering in zoos and dying in zoos because of captivity-induced conditions."
She said elephants in close captivity don't get enough exercise and tend to develop crippling arthritis and infections.
Fleshman said he agrees that elephants shouldn't be held alone, and he said doing so might risk the zoo's accreditation from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. He said he is considering buying a third elephant to keep Cameron Park Zoo's elephants company.
He said he believes the elephant area, at nearly one acre, is sufficient for three elephants.
"Our elephant yard is so big, we actually have to mow it, even though elephants graze," he said.
J.B. Smith can be reached at 757-5752 or jbsmith@wacotrib.com.
Courtesy: Marc R.
Two tidal waves of death: the tsunami late in December and 32 years of massive abortion since the Roe vs. Wade decision on Jan. 22, 1973.
Television images and Internet blogs have brought home to Americans the reality of one disaster. Ultrasound images have shown many young women and their boyfriends the reality of lives that can be saved. We have fewer excuses than we once had for not loving our neighbors as ourselves, no matter how far away or how small they are.
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Source: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/marvinolasky/mo20050113.shtml
Courtesy: Jim D.