* Romney Flip-Flops Again on Abortion:
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide.Romney's new campaign slogan: "Make Up My Mind!"
In an interview with a Nevada television station on Tuesday, Romney said Roe. v. Wade should be abolished and vowed to "let states make their own decision in this regard." On Aug. 6, he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he supports a human life amendment to the Constitution that would protect the unborn.
"I do support the Republican platform, and I do support that being part of the Republican platform, and I'm pro-life," Romney said in the ABC interview, broadcast days before his victory among conservative Iowa voters in the Ames straw poll.
The two very different statements reflect the challenge for Romney, who has reinvented himself as a champion of the antiabortion movement in recent years and is seeking to become the conservative alternative to former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination.
* What a Blast: Blow up a mountain to get to the coal.
The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams.Next, the Fish and Wildlife Commission will issue rules on using dynamite to catch trout.
It has been used in Appalachian coal country for 20 years under a cloud of legal and regulatory confusion.
The new rule would allow the practice to continue and expand, providing only that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined and to some extent merely restate existing law.
The Office of Surface Mining in the Interior Department drafted the rule, which will be subject to a 60-day comment period and could be revised, although officials indicated that it was not likely to be changed substantially.
The regulation is the culmination of six and a half years of work by the administration to make it easier for mining companies to dig more coal to meet growing energy demands and reduce dependence on foreign oil.
Government and industry officials say the rules are needed to clarify existing laws, which have been challenged in court and applied unevenly.
* Keep On Truckin': Coral Gables, my home town, is told by a court that laws against parking a pick-up in your driveway is a violation of the Constitution.
The City Beautiful is going to have to make room for trucks ugly.If the rule was applied to SUV's -- which technically are trucks -- the right to park one in your driveway or on the street would be sacrosanct.
In an opinion peppered with jabs at one of Miami-Dade County's most restrictive hamlets, the state Third District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that a Coral Gables ordinance prohibiting pickup trucks from parking in residential areas overnight is unconstitutional.
The opinion, written by Senior Judge Alan Schwartz, paraphrases a 1960s folk song popularized by Pete Seeger about cookie-cutter communities: "Perhaps Coral Gables can require that all its houses be made of ticky-tacky and that they all look just the same, but it cannot mandate that its people are, or do," the opinion reads.
"Our nation and way of life are based on a treasured diversity, but Coral Gables punishes it."
Gables Mayor Don Slesnick was careful to say he respected the court's opinion, but he was taken aback by a ruling that said owners of pickup trucks are important to diversity.
"When I think of diversity, I think of race, color, creed, national origin, sex, etc., etc.," he said. "Ownership of trucks is not within that realm."
The suit was brought by Lowell Kuvin, who received a $50 ticket in 2003 for parking his Ford F-150 in front of his home overnight. The city ordinance allows residents to own trucks, but they must be kept in garages or outside the city between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. Kuvin didn't have a garage.
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In a city that restricts paint colors both outside and inside homes, the truck ordinance had achieved symbolic importance: It has even been mentioned in The New York Times as an example of how truly exclusive the Gables is.
The mayor said the city is still considering whether to appeal the ruling.
"The majority of Coral Gables citizens support that ordinance," he said.
Kuvin and Robert Glazier, the city's attorney, disagreed on how the ruling might be applied. Kuvin said he thinks it could be extended to homeowners associations if someone ever challenges their rules on pickup trucks.
