Officials may evacuate New Orleans as Gustav nears
National Guard troops stand ready, batteries and water bottles are selling briskly, and one small-town mayor has spent a sleepless night worrying. The New Orleans area is watching as a storm marches across the Caribbean on the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary.
Florida will make it easier for ex-convicts to vote
Gov. Charlie Crist ordered Florida's parole agencies Wednesday to make more information -- including voter-registration forms -- available to ex-convicts to enable them to exercise their newly restored civil rights.
Man wins control of incapacitated wife
An Okeechobee judge has granted temporary guardianship to the husband of a woman on a feeding tube in a case that is similar to the legal dispute over whether Terri Schiavo should be kept alive. Karen Weber, 57, has been in and out of a nursing home and hospital since a stroke in December. She is now hospitalized and has meningitis. Weber's husband, Raymond, sought earlier this year to have the feeding tube removed and his wife transferred to a hospice ward, where she would likely die. But Weber's mother is fighting to keep her alive, arguing she has been alert and responsive at times and doesn't want to die. She insists her daughter can recover. Another guardianship hearing is set for next week.
Out of jail, out of luck at the polls
Gov. Charlie Crist won national praise last year when he sped up Florida's much-maligned clemency process and returned the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of ex-convicts.
Biker killed in I-95 crash
The Florida Highway Patrol said a motorcyclist has died after he crashed into a concrete barrier wall and then plunged off a ramp in South Florida. FHP spokesman Lt. Mike Brown said Errol Michael Etosha Dodd, 24, was riding on Interstate95 when he hit a sport utility vehicle while trying to pass the vehicle. Brown said Dodd lost control of his motorcycle, hit the wall and fell down to a riverbank. Dodd was pronounced dead at the scene.
Keller will face surprise Democratic winner Grayson in November
U.S. Rep. Ric Keller barely held off a lesser-known and mostly self-funded opponent in the Republican primary Tuesday, raising questions about whether the four-term incumbent could survive his Democratic challenger in November.
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