Posted on 10/19/2003 9:28:56 PM PDT by JulieRNR21
Edited on 10/20/2003 7:12:52 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
TALLAHASSEE, FL -- According to a news release sent by the Terry Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, Florida Speaker Johnnie Byrd will introduce "Terri's Bill" during the special session Monday.
The bill would put an immediate moratorium on all dehydration and starvation deaths in Florida. Meanwhile, supporters of Terri Schiavo showed up Sunday outside a Pinellas Park hospice.
Doctors say Schiavo has been in a vegetative state since complications from a heart attack in 1990. Her husband was granted a court order that her feeding tube be removed, saying his wife wouldn't have wanted to be kept alive.
Bump!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1004121/posts
Apparently the special session was called on October 9, to deal with a completely unrelated matter. It can only take up additional subjects by a 2/3 vote of the members.
Posted on Thu, Oct. 09, 2003
Bush calls special session to lure biotech firm to Palm Beach
DAVID ROYSE
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Aiming to make Florida a major player in the burgeoning world of biotechnology, Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday called lawmakers into special session for later this month to get a major California research institute to build a new facility in Palm Beach County.
Bush said the agreement with Scripps Research Institute would bring 6,500 jobs to Florida over the next 15 years, but more importantly would signal a transformation of Florida's economy into one with ties to high-tech industry. He likened the prospects of bringing the institute to Florida to decisions by Disney and NASA to make the state their home in earlier decades.
"It will shape the future of Florida," Bush said of Scripps' decision.
The governor said having Scripps, the country's leading nonprofit biomedical research organization, expand into the state would also allow Florida "be part of something where you are improving the human condition."
"We are committed to making sure that Florida is not left behind in (biotechnology)," Bush said. "We will be a leader."
He said he called the special session to begin at noon Oct. 20 and end at 5 p.m. Oct. 24 so legislators can work on an incentive package aimed at securing the deal.
It was expected to pass. Bush's fellow Republicans widely praised the deal and Democrats, some of whom have criticized Bush's spending priorities and called for more money to be spent on education, were generally supportive.
"Bringing Scripps to Florida is probably a good investment," conceded House Democratic Leader Doug Wiles of St. Augustine. Still, Wiles renewed a call for Bush to commit to spending more money on public schools and universities.
Bush said he would like the Legislature to stick largely to the economic incentive package at hand when they returned to town.
"We're not going to include the ongoing needs of the state in the special session," Bush said.
Bush was joined by Scripps officials, including its president, Dr. Richard Lerner.
Lerner said the institute had been approached by a number of states and foreign governments over the years, but that the offer from Florida was one that the center's scientists wanted.
"We've never felt comfortable going anywhere else," Lerner said.
Bush said he would propose that the Legislature designate $310 million from one-time federal economic stimulus dollars to provide initial seed money to bring Scripps to Florida. Other local incentives will be temporary laboratory space and about $140 million for a new, 360,000-square-foot research unit.
"This is the best possible use of the one-time federal stimulus money because it will energize the Florida economy," said Dominic Calabro, president of the state spending watchdog group Florida TaxWatch. "This provides the necessary seed capital for economic and tax revenue growth to finance Florida's much-needed investment in Florida schools, health and human services and the environment."
Scripps, which is based in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, is expected to generate $1.6 billion in additional income and boost the state's gross domestic product by $3.3 billion over the next 15 years.
The California institute is known for groundbreaking work in leukemia, ovarian cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, Alzheimer's disease and AIDS. It has become internationally recognized for research into immunology, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases and synthetic vaccine development.
Scripps employs 2,900 people in La Jolla and is the largest institute funded by the National Institutes of Health. In the past 22 years, it has been responsible for 40 biotech startup companies. It's also the home of three Nobel laureates.
The exact location where Scripps will build its permanent center has not been made.
GLORY TO GOD.
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