Florida slashes sugar land deal  Bid to restore Everglades
suffers  The Associated PressApril 2, 2009   — Gov. Charlie
Crist's celebrated $1.34 billion deal to buy 180,000 acres of
U.S. Sugar Corp. land to help restore the Everglades is being
scaled back by more than half because the state can't afford the
original deal, the governor announced Wednesday.  The reduction
means the state will now buy 72,500 acres of land for $533
million, and hold a 10-year option to buy the remaining land.
The decision means the original deal -- hailed by
environmentalists -- will be far less ambitious than planned.
"The economy has been what it has been, and we have to deal with
the parameters that we are given," Crist said.  U.S. Sugar, the
nation's largest cane sugar producer, owns a vast amount of land
between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. Environmentalists
have long criticized the sugar industry for cutting off the
natural flow to the Everglades and contaminating it with
fertilizer.   In June, Crist announced a $1.7