- Florida's WildFires (With data & photos!)
- Clintonites Close In On Our Medical Records
- NW Florida's Environmental situation
- Deadly Louisiana Tornado
- Fla. Study: Garbage Jobs Hazardous
- Tanker Full of Gas Crashes in La.
- New Web Site Offers Underseas View
- Anti Spam War Gear!
- From Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC
- Tribute to a Vet...
- Eglin AFB's Official website
- Local Movie Showings (Great Site)!
- Tired of being SPAMED to death? Forward your Spam to the FCC and report them to uce@fcc.gov
- District 14 AA Meeting Schedule

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The news - NPR's Cheryl Devall reports dozens of homes have been damaged or destroyed by wildfires in eastern Florida. The fires have forced an estimated 500 people from their homes in Port Saint Lucie. Blazes in other parts of the state have also forced evacuations.

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Rescue crews in Benton, Louisiana, are still searching for survivors of a tornado that tore a deadly path through the northwestern Louisiana town Saturday. At least six people died, and about 100 others were injured when the twister ripped through the area. State police said the tornado swept through trailer parks just north of Shreveport, flattening homes and trapping people inside when walls collapsed around them. Local officials said the death toll could rise as rescue efforts continue.

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MIAMI (AP), The job not only stinks, but it's dangerous. The rate of on-the-job deaths in Florida is 90 per 100,000 garbage collectors, according to a new study by University of Miami researchers.

That's almost twice the national average - 49 deaths per 100,000 and more dangerous than piloting a plane and cutting timber, two of the most hazardous jobs in the nation. ``It's always a dirty job. We have gotten people hit by cars and bit by dogs,'' said James Stephens, 62, a garbage collector in Miami for 28 years who's suffered bumps and bruises but no serious injuries.

The researchers, funded by the Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management, spent a year watching Florida sanitation workers haul heavy bags and dodge cars. They analyzed five years of injury reports full of cuts, knee sprains, bruises and back spasms.

The study found the rate of injuries to be five to seven times higher than the average for other types of workers. That's 52 injuries per 100 municipal solid-waste workers a year. Lead researcher James Englehardt could not say why Florida's rate was so much higher than the national average. ``What we observed is back-breaking work,'' he said. ``It's extremely heavy labor with a potential for serious injuries.''

About two-thirds of the garbage collectors who died nationwide perished in accidents involving automobiles and other vehicles. The UM study found that between 1993 and 1997, five of the 11 workers who died in Florida were killed in vehicle-related accidents. ``Some have slipped off the back of the truck and the truck ran over them,'' said Willie Seabrooks, president of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees for Miami-Dade County. ``Another guy ran away from a dog and jumped in the back of the truck and he got crushed.'' Cars can be deadly, though injuries more commonly are due to bags filled with broken glass, poison ivy and live animals.

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VIOLET, La. (AP), The Coast Guard shut down a 21-mile stretch of the Mississippi River Saturday to clean up oil spilled when a tanker filled with gasoline lost power and hit a series of boats.

The crash about 11 p.m. Friday knocked a hole in one of the fuel tanks of the 551-foot, Liberian-flagged Hyde Park, but the Coast Guard said the 25,000 metric tons of gasoline it carried remained safe. It wasn't clear how much oil had spilled. The tanker was headed downriver when it lost power and hit a tug pushing 12 loaded barges loaded with coke, damaging one and sinking another. It also hit a dock, a crewboat grounded on the bank and two more barges. No one was hurt, but crews set up booms around downriver water intakes to keep oil out of them. The Hyde Park was carrying pyrolysis gasoline, a refined petroleum product used for a variety of chemical processes.

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FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) - Imagine coming grin-to-grin with a yellow shark off the coast of Brazil, then watching as it is gently forced to expel its stomach contents for tests that could save the threatened species.

Or peering over the shoulder of world-renowned marine scientists at the moment they discover a sea sponge containing a compound for new medicine that could slow the development of cancer. Starting Friday, it will all be possible, and no scuba gear or shark repellent is necessary.

The Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution is launching a new Web site www.at-sea.org that will post daily dispatches from its marine expeditions worldwide. ``We want to cover ocean science adventures real frontier stuff,'' said Sean Kelley, Web master at Harbor Branch. ``People we run into in the lunch line just came back from 3,000 feet below the ocean. We want to get those stories out.''

The first dispatches will come via e-mail from the research ship where Sam Gruber, a University of Miami scientist, is studying yellow sharks off the coast of Brazil. In addition to written reports, the daily updates will include video clips. The chance to give the public an up-close look at the expeditions was welcomed by Shirley Pomponi, director of Harbor Branch's division of biomedical marine research. Her work relies on funding through private and government grants. The camera crew from At Sea will accompany Pomponi in August on a drug discovery mission in the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Keys and the Bahamas.

At Sea also is planning to broadcast dispatches from a research buoy in the Bahamas. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to use the buoy to record the sound of rain on the ocean's surface and measure rainfall amounts in remote areas, said Mary Clark, director of the Harbor Branch media lab. The researchers at the facility about 150 miles north of Miami have long been known for their cutting-edge work. A submersible acrylic sphere developed there was used to help search for the remains of the space shuttle Challenger after it exploded off Florida's coast. The submersibles also allow researchers to troll the depths for undiscovered species.

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"It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag."

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