HEMPFEST PLAN BURNED OUT BY ORGANIZERS

Since 1989, marijuana legalization advocates have gathered yearly in
Gainesville to celebrate the weed - despite a series of legal battles with
the city.

But this year, there will be no Hempfest.

Kevin Aplin, head of Melbourne-based Cannabis Action Network, said Hempfest
2000 organizer Dennis "Murli" Watkins has moved to Colorado, and scheduling
of Hempfest has been turned over to a fledgling group at the University of
Florida. That group has a week of events planned for April. But there won't
be a pro-pot rally this year.

Aplin said the Sept. 11 attacks had nothing to do with the decision. But,
he said, legalization advocates are concerned about the expansion of police
powers.

"We're always concerned about civil rights," Aplin said. "More people are
going to be subject to police searches, and we find that disturbing."

* Whose land is it anyway?: For the past 28 years, the Alachua County
School Board thought it owned the land on which the Hawthorne High School
football stadium and a parking lot were built. It was wrong.

Apparently, the property was deeded to Alachua County by a timber company
in 1973. The county intended to give the land to the School Board, and all
these years it has been listed as School Board property by the Property
Appraiser's Office. But a recent title search by the state Department of
Transportation, which is reconstructing Hawthorne Road, showed that Alachua
County still owns the property.

"We were flabbergasted," said Bob Wigglesworth of the county's Public Works
Department. "It was an oversight by everybody."

Last week, the county officially deeded the land to the School Board.

* Moot compromise for homeless: Under pressure from homeless advocates, the
City Commission has explored the idea of allowing more people to stay at
St. Francis House - only to find that the shelter doesn't have room.

For the past two months - ever since the city told homeless people they
can't spend the night in the St. Francis House parking lot - homeless
advocates have been pressuring commissioners for emergency solutions to the
city's shortage of shelter beds. Some have suggested opening the Alachua
County Fairgrounds to overnight sleepers, and others have asked
commissioners to allow nighttime sleepers in city parks.

Commissioners asked staff to consider a change to the special use permit
for St. Francis House, which limits the shelter to 30 beds. But shelter
director Bob Tancig said state codes would still limit the number of beds.

"We'd only be able to add two beds," he said.

* Quote of the week: "The kids, believe it or not, are excited to get
them." - Doris Edwards, a resident of Lincoln Estates who gives out dental
floss and toothbrushes along with candy to Halloween trick-or- treaters.