A6 NATION Sunday, August 7, 2016 Arizona Daily Star Florida officials go into damage -control mode over Zika corridor that runs through Orlando. He said tourists should use caution and not worry about mosquitoes, adding that Florida knows how to prepare for crises because of its hurricanes. "We will make sure all the tourists feel comfortable coming to Florida," he said Thursday in Wynwood, site of the first mosquito-transmitted cases of Zika on record in the continental U. S. He said the state is doing everything it can to test people, spray against mosquitoes, get rid of the standing water in which they breed, and encourage people to use insect repellent.
The Visit Orlando tourism board issued a statement noting that no locally acquired cases of Zika have been reported in the Orlando area, which is over 200 miles from Miami. The board gave assurances that "safety is the top priority for our region." The next few months will be crucial, said Henry Harteveldt, founder of the San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group, a travel-industry watcher. "If Florida is able to address this efficiently and quickly and be able to pronounce with confidence that they've been able to eradicate, there won't be long-term consequences," he said. "If Zika remains a long-term challenge, it's possible some potential tourists might think twice." Federal health officials have warned pregnant women to avoid Wynwood because the virus can cause severe birth defects, including stunted heads. England's public health agency is advising mothers-to-be to postpone non-essential trips to Florida.
U.S. experts say expectant mothers planning a visit to the state should consult with their doctor. Theme park visitors should be fine, said North Carolina State University entomologist Michael Reiskind, because the mosquito species most likely to spread the disease is less prevalent in Orlando and the theme parks are likely to spend heavily on insect control. ByTamaraLush THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TAMPA, Fla. Thank goodness it's the slow season in Florida.
At least that's what officials and representatives of the state's mul-tibillion-dollar tourism industry are thinking in the wake of the news that 16 people have been infected with Zika in a small, trendy neighborhood in Miami. The outbreak has sent another chill through the Sunshine State's all-important tourism industry just weeks after the Orlando nightclub massacre and the killing of a 2-year-old boy by an alligator at nearby Walt Disney World. Florida officials have gone into damage -control mode, with Gov. Rick Scott insisting, "We have a safe state!" during a tour of the Zika hot zone in Miami's Wyn-wood district. Tourism is Florida's biggest industry.
Visitors spent some $89 billion here last year. And Disney is America's No. 1 tourist draw. Outside of a few business owners in the affected square -mile ALAN DIAZ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A tour bus stops at the Wynwood Walls in the Wynwood area of Miami, which has yet to see a drop in tourism despite growing Zika fears. neighborhood, however, Zika appears to have done little damage to tourism so far.
"We have not had anyone cancel a trip to Florida because of Zika," said Jenny Cagle, vice president of Elm Grove Travel in Wisconsin. "It's definitely a conversation. People are talking about it." Demetra Prattas, vice president of Turon Travel, a New York-based company that books art tours and trips, including the annual Art Basel festival that includes events in Wynwood, said: "I don't think it's a factor in deciding where to go. We've had no cancellations." The governor has been on something of a statewide Zika tour, meeting with county health officials and business owners in Miami and along the Interstate 4 In town that saw 'monkey a statue for evolutionist Darrow First family arrives on Martha's Vineyard for two-week break that erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, following the fatal shooting of an unarmed, 18 -year- old black man by a white police officer. National security adviser Susan Rice and deputy chief of staff Kristie Cane-gallo accompanied the president to help keep him up to date on events.
The Obamas are staying in the town of Chilmark, located on the more remote western end of the island, but the White House did not disclose the specific home. On recent trips, they have rented a seven-bedroom, residence featuring views of Vineyard Sound, an infinity pool and a dual tennis-basketball court. The Obamas flew aboard Air Force One to the Coast Guard station on Cape Cod, then boarded helicopters for the short hop to Martha's Vineyard, the summer hangout for the wealthy just to the south. They were greeted by about 80 well-wishers under blustery, gray skies. The Obamas have summered every August on the famous resort island since the president took office in 2009, except when he was campaigning for re-election in 2012.
By Kevin Freking THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHILMARK, Mass. -President Obama's seventh and final summer vacation at Martha's Vineyard has begun with hopes of getting in some relaxing time with his family before the busy fall leading up to November's presidential election. Obama will fill the next two weeks with leisurely rounds of golf, beach outings, bike rides and hikes with his wife and daughters, and dinner with Mrs. Obama and their friends at some of the island's top restaurants. Congress is also on an extended summer break from Washington, something the White House has chided it for as the nation deals with the Zika virus arriving in Florida.
The Obamas like to keep a low profile on the island and were successful last summer, but past trips have not always been so re -laxing. The president interrupted the vacation several times in 2014 to address political developments in Iraq, the beheading of American journalist James Foley by Islamic State militants and violent protests ROSALIE FRUDAKIS VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Zenos Frudakis works on a statue of attorney Clarence Darrow in his studio in Glenside, Penn.The statue is to be placed near a statue of William Jennings Bryan in Dayton, Tenn. By Travis Loller THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DAYTON, Tenn. In 1925, two of America's most renowned figures faced off in Dayton to debate a burning issue whether man evolved over millions of years or was created by God in his present form. Today, only one of the two, the Christian orator William Jennings Bryan, is commemorated with a statue on the courthouse lawn.
A group of atheists hopes to change that. Bryan defended the Biblical account while trial lawyer and skeptic Clarence Darrow defended evolution in the "Scopes monkey trial" formally, Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes. The case became frontpage news nationwide and is memorialized in songs, books, plays and movies. Nearly a century later, the debate pitting evolution against the biblical account of creation continues nationally and locally.
Nearly all scientists accept evolution, but many Christians see it as incompatible with their faith. Just two years ago in Dayton, professors at a Christian college named for Bryan were fired in a dispute over whether Adam and Eve were historical people. One might expect a town that reveres Bryan to resist efforts to memorialize Darrow, but Reed Johnson, managing editor of The Herald-News in Dayton, said vocal resistance hasn't materialized. He doesn't recall angry letters to the editor. County Commissioner Bill Hollin said he doesn't think many people are aware of the effort, but he's against it and thinks others will join him.
"I don't see where it would help the community MARK HUMPHREY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A statue of Christian orator William Jennings Bryan stands outside the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tenn. tion, which Tennessee had outlawed, but it actually began as a publicity stunt for Dayton, Larson said. Larsen explained that locals had responded to a newspaper advertisem*nt by the American Civil Liberties Union looking for someone to test Tennessee's anti-evolution law in court. No one had complained about Scopes or his teaching; he was recruited to be the defendant, Larson said. Scopes never spent time in jail and was offered his job back after the trial, Larsen said and Bryan even offered to pay his fine Evans said part of the trial's legacy has been negative: a lasting sense that belief in evolution conflicts with Christianity, something she no longer believes.
But many say part of the legacy is positive: Dayton has seen a stream of visitors to the red-brick courthouse in the town square that still looks much as it did when the judge moved the trial onto the lawn worried the floor would cave in from the weight of spectators. at all to put it up there," he said. Bryan, on the other hand, represents more than the Scopes trial, Hollin said. His legacy includes the college that was founded in 1930 and educates many of the area's young people. Still, townspeople are resigned to the idea of a Darrow statue, said Christian writer Rachel Held Evans, a Bryan College alumna.
"I think there is a sense that, 'Oh, it's only fair. We have our side, and they have their side. We have our statue, and they have their statue," she said. Ed Larson, who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the trial called "Summer for the Gods," said Dayton has historically been hospitable to both sides, and that outrage over the teaching of evolution in 1925 was manufactured. The trial is often remembered as the persecution of Scopes for teaching evolu- MANUEL BALCE CENETA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama greet the crowd as they arrive in West Tisbury, Mass.
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