LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I don’t know that anyone believed.We had never seen a storm like this. So it is very hard to anticipate something that you have never experienced.”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo,
on decades-old legislative reports that warned state politicians to prepare for a storm of historic proportions Article, this page
Florida’s Crist becomes Democrat
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was elected the state’s chief executive as a Republican and then ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as an independent, announced on Twitter that he’s switching to the Democratic Party.
The announcement Friday night fanned speculation that Crist would seek to regain his old job from Republican Gov.
Rick Scott in 2014.
Crist sent out a Tweet that said, “Proud and honored to join the Democratic Party in the home of President @BarackObama!”
The Tampa Bay Times newspaper reported that Crist signed the papers changing his affiliation from independent to Democrat at a Christmas reception at the White House. President Barack Obama greeted the news with a fist bump.
Crist cited the Republican Party’s shift to the right on a range of issues, including immigration, education and the environment.
Messages left for Crist weren’t immediately returned.
Crist was elected Florida governor in 2006 while in the GOP. As he moved to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010, he faced a tough primary challenge from the right and bolted the GOP to run as an independent. He lost a three-way Senate contest in 2010 to Republican Marco Rubio.
Louisiana’s Boustany wins House seat
BATON ROUGE - U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany will return to Congress for a fifth term after defeating his fellow Republican congressman, Jeff Landry, in a runoff election.
Boustany had 60 percent of the vote with 85 percent of precincts reporting Saturday night.
The two men were forced into the same congressional district when Louisiana lost a seat because of anemic population growth in the 2010 Census.
Boustany will represent the 3rd District covering southwest Louisiana and Acadiana in Congress next year. Republicans will control five of the state’s six seats in Congress.
Puerto Rico sets session on statehood
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico’s governor will hold a special legislative session to push for approval of a resolution urging the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama to honor the results of a recent referendum that would change the island’s political status.
Gov. Luis Fortuno said Puerto Rican voters embraced statehood and rejected U.S. commonwealth status during a Nov.
6 referendum. He said Saturday that Congress and Obama pledged to respect the results of the two-part referendum.
In the first question, more than 900,000 voters, or 54 percent, said they were not content with the current status.
On the second question, about 1.3 million voters made a choice. Of those, nearly 800,000, or 61 percent, chose statehood. About 437,000 backed sovereign, free association and 72,560 chose independence. Nearly 500,000, however, left that question blank.
USDA changes school-lunch rules
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is responding to criticism over new school-lunch rules by allowing more grains and meat.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of Congress in a letter Friday that the department will do away with daily and weekly maximums of meats and grains. Several lawmakers wrote the department after the rules went into effect in September, saying children weren’t getting enough to eat.
School administrators also complained, saying set maximums on grains and meats are too limiting as they try to plan daily meals.
The new guidelines were intended to address increasing childhood-obesity levels. They set limits on calories and salt and phase in whole grains. Schools must offer at least one vegetable or fruit per meal. The department also dictated how much of certain food groups could be served.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 12/09/2012