Recount, Elian state's big stories

Associated Press Writer
Published Sunday, December 24, 2000

MIAMI -- One of the biggest stories in the nation's history topped what was a hectic news year in Florida, according to Associated Press newspaper editors and broadcasters.

Here are other top stories of 2000, as voted on by AP member editors and broadcasters:

- Prison guards indicted in beating death of death row inmate. Jury acquits one guard accused of beating inmate.

- Florida State football team wins national title.

- Kidnapping, return of 10-year-old girl near Gainesville.

- White man convicted in two bombings at predominantly black Florida A&M University.

- Orlando hostage slaying.

- FPL, Entergy merger would make largest provider of electricity to retail customers in the United States.

- U.S. Sen. Connie Mack retires, Bill Nelson elected to replace him.

- First term-limit election.

- Voters approve high-speed rail.

- Disappearance of Julius Erving's son.

The presidential election between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore became the story of the year when Florida was forced to do a mandatory recount to decide the winner. The narrow vote margin made the recount necessary to determine who won the state's 25 electoral votes.

What followed was a series of legal fights over recounts and disputed ballots, triggering calls for election reforms and protests by Republicans and Democrats, and providing endless fodder for political talk shows and comedians.

Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris awarded Florida's electoral votes to Bush on Nov. 26. But Bush had to wait until the U.S. Supreme Court denied the last of the Democrats' recount attempts to claim victory. The decision became official when the electoral college awarded Bush the presidency on Dec. 18.

Here are the other top stories of 2000, as voted on by AP member editors and broadcasters:

(2) The international custody dispute over Elian Gonzalez, the young boy taken from Cuba by his mother to the United States, captured America's attention for much of 2000.

After months of legal wrangling, armed federal agents snatched the 6-year-old by force on April 22 from his great uncle's home in Miami and flew him to Washington, where he was reunited with his father and ultimately returned to Cuba.

(3) Florida Gov. Jeb Bush would take criticism for his proposed One Florida initiative to overhaul the state's affirmative action program and eliminate racial quotes for state contracts and university admissions.

Bush's plan led to several sit-ins and protests at his Tallahassee office and the state capital by minority lawmakers, residents and college students from around the state.

(4) A six-person Miami jury in July awarded $145 billion in punitive damages to 300,000 to 700,000 sick Florida smokers, who claimed tobacco companies knew of the danger in their products.

Six tobacco companies, who were defendants in the case, complained that the award would bankrupt the industry, but Circuit Judge Robert Kaye disagreed and upheld the ruling in November.

(5) On Dec. 11, President Clinton signed the $7.8 billion Everglades restoration bill enacting a 25-year plan to restore water flow in the ''river of grass.'' The costs will be split between the federal government and Florida.

(6) The U.S. Department of Agriculture named 59 of 67 Florida counties disaster areas because of drought. The current water shortage, which has lasted for over two years in Florida, led to many cattle farmers in those counties to ask for federal assistance.

The region received temporary relief in the fall when tropical storms dropped considerable rain on the state for the first time in months, but the drought persisted with no consistent rainfall.

(7) Nathaniel Brazill, a 13-year old seventh-grade student at Lake Worth Community Middle School, shot and killed 35-year-old English teacher Barry Grunow with his grandfather's .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun. Brazill has since been charged with first-degree murder and awaits a court date.

(8) Florida lawmakers, meeting in special session in January, switched the state primary method of execution from electrocution to lethal injection. Lawmakers decided to drop their loyalty to the electric chair after the U.S. Supreme Court was poised to review allegations that death in the chair is cruel and unusual punishment.

Terry L. Sims, 58, became the first inmate to be executed in Florida by lethal injection. Sims was executed for the slaying of a volunteer deputy sheriff in 1977.

(9) The state Department of Agriculture came under fire in late 2000 for its effort to eradicate citrus canker in South Florida by destroying trees in neighborhoods and other areas, whether or not the trees were infected. Canker leaves lesions on fruit and leaves, but does not kill the tree.

Crews chopped down and shredded about 830,000 citrus trees in South Florida. In Broward County, circuit Judge J. Leonard Fleet ended what he called the state's ''scorched earth policy'' at least temporarily, ruling that the state can destroy only infected trees in the county. The state plans to appeal.

(10) The 1st District Court of Appeal overturned a Tallahassee trial judge who ruled that school vouchers violated Florida's constitution because state money was going to private schools. Under a 1999 law, students at schools deemed to be failing by state officials can seek vouchers financed by tax dollars to pay for private school.

Despite the ruling, no students qualified for vouchers this year. Fifty-one students at two Pensacola elementary schools, which qualified for vouchers last year, were able to continue to use them. Voucher opponents have appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.