In brief: Welfare applicants passing drug tests

Tallahassee, Fla. – Preliminary figures on a new Florida law requiring drug tests for welfare applicants show that they are less likely than other people to use drugs, not more. One famous Floridian suggests that it’s the people who came up with the law who should be submitting specimens.

Columnist and best-selling author Carl Hiaasen offered to pay for drug testing for all 160 members of the Florida Legislature.

“There is a certain public interest in going after hypocrisy,” Hiaasen said Tuesday, two days after he made his proposal in a Miami Herald column.

Gov. Rick Scott and other supporters of the law – the only one of its kind currently on the books in the U.S. – say the tests will save the state cash by weeding out people who would use welfare money on drugs. Critics say that just a few months after it went into effect, the law has already refuted the idea that people receiving public assistance are more likely to use drugs.

Preliminary figures show that about 2.5 percent of up to 2,000 applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families have tested positive since the law went into effect in July. Another 2 percent declined to take the test, Department of Children and Families officials say.

The Justice Department estimates that 6 percent of Americans 12 and older use illegal drugs.

Navy satellite could help troops

Anchorage, Alaska – A rocket launched from an Alaska island Tuesday is carrying an experimental Navy satellite designed to provide safer combat communications.

The satellite will allow troops with radios to communicate without the need to position antennas in dangerous settings, said Peter Wegner, director of the Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space Office.

Texas official against tuition law

Austin, Texas – Texas’ second highest-ranking official has come out in opposition to a 2001 law that Gov. Rick Perry supported to allow in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, further compounding what has become one of Perry’s most troublesome issues in his race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, said in a TV interview over the weekend that he would have rejected the bill that Perry signed into law a decade ago. But in a subsequent interview, Dewhurst reaffirmed his support for Perry’s presidential bid.

Perry’s support of the measure has prompted concerns among conservative GOP voters who are demanding tough measures against illegal immigration. Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and several other Perry rivals have cited the law in an attempt to portray Perry as being weak on illegal immigration.