Nation digest 01/21/03

Record $100 million raised in Florida election

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Political parties raised more than $100 million during Florida's 2001-02 campaign cycle, a state record, and most of it came in the form of soft money, according to election records.

Florida Republicans raised a record $55.4 million in soft money during the cycle.

Democrats in Florida raised $27.7 million in soft money, most often large, unregulated gifts from corporations and wealthy individuals.

Gov. Jeb Bush raised another $7.5 million in individual contributions, compared to $6 million raised by Democratic opponent Bill McBride. Other money raised for statewide races pushed the total past $100 million for the first time in Florida's history.

Business groups were the largest GOP contributors. The heftiest Democratic soft money donations came from trial lawyers and unions.

Missing family found after two days in snow

TROUT LAKE, Wash. -- A couple and their two young children were rescued Monday nearly two days after they failed to return from a day trip to play in the snow in the Mount St. Helens area.

Billy Buzzini, 24, his wife, Sarah, 23 and daughters Kaleigh, 4, and Madison, 1, were in good condition, said a dispatcher with the Skamania County Sheriff's Office who would not give his name.

Shortly before they were located, undersheriff Dave Cox had said their car was found stuck in the snow on a U.S. Forest Service road about 15 miles northwest of Trout Lake in the Lewis River Valley, southeast of Mount St. Helens. It appeared the Buzzinis had abandoned their car after it got stuck, Cox said.

The family had food, water, blankets and extra clothing but did not return calls to two cell phones. Cell phone service is unpredictable in mountain areas.

Extra marble, granite from WTC in archive

NEW YORK -- Leftover marble door frames, granite slabs and porous stone countertops found in the basement of the felled World Trade Center are being saved by preservationists and could be used in a memorial at the site.

The materials were found mostly intact, in stacks bound by metal straps, when rescue workers reached the bottom of the pile of rubble last year.

Planners generally order about 15 percent more of these materials than they need so that they have a supply of matching replacements, said Mark Wagner, part of the team of architects overseeing the project to archive hundreds of trade center relics.

Preservationists are cleaning and photographing the items to make a catalog for museum curators and memorial planners.

Study: Women with heart disease fail to get drugs

PHILADELPHIA -- A new study adds to the evidence that many women who suffer heart attacks are not getting adequate treatment.

The study found that doctors often fail to prescribe aspirin, beta blockers and cholesterol-lowering drugs to these women, even though the medications have been shown to prevent further heart attacks or other heart trouble.

The researchers did not look at how often these drugs were offered to men. But other studies have shown that men and women alike are undertreated for heart disease, and women are treated even less aggressively than men.

Study co-author Dr. Michael Shlipak of the University of California at San Francisco said there could be a number of reasons for the findings. There is a lingering myth that heart disease is primarily a man's disease, he said.

-- From wire reports