News Briefs

Local

Air Tran requests $1.5 million from cityAir Tran has asked for $1.5 million in guaranteed revenue after two and half months of service.Air Tran has a revenue shortfall of about 42.4 million from Nov. 15 through Jan. 31.City officials said the shortfall in revenue is understandable after the events of Sept. 11.Mayor Scott Maddox said, “We knew we’d have to pay the guarantee at some point, but Sept. 11 accelerated it. We made the decision to continue anyway, because we thought it was that important to make our airport a thriving enterprise.”According to Michael Wright, assistant city manager for development and transportation, traffic at Tallahassee Regional Airport was up 4 percent in December from the previous year and 7.5 percent in January from the previous year. Traffic is down at most airports nationwide because of Sept. 11, Wright said.

State

Reno stops at all-gay resort during pickup tourReno made a stop at the Suncoast Resort, which bills itself as the “world’s largest all-gay resort and entertainment complex. Too many this suggest that she won’t hide her liberal views to woo conservatives, and she’ll openly seek gay support.Some analysts said appearing too friendly with gays could hurt Reno among conservative Democrat in Central and North Florida, especially against Republican Gov. Jeb Bush.Verne Kennedy, a Pensacola voter, says, “It’s dangerous for her. But if she can’t get a crowd, her campaign is not going anywhere anyway. She didn’t draw much of a crowd up here” this week. Reno remarked that she’s not worried about how her courtship of gay voters will play with others. “All communities are important. My position is that all Floridians should be voting, should be participating and should have the opportunity to be heard.”

National

Archdiocese to handover list of sex accusersA month after the Archdiocese of Boston gave prosecutors the names of almost 90 active or retired Roman Catholic priests accused of sexually molesting children, the church agreed Friday to turn over the names of the people they are accused of abusing..

District attorneys representing the five counties of the archdiocese had complained that the church had inefficient and inadequate information that accuses the priests of any misconduct. Archdiocesan lawyers met with the prosecutors at the office of the state attorney general on Saturday morning and agreed the archdiocese would handover the names and addresses of the accusers by March 18.