ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday pounced on rival Rick Perry’s record on illegal immigration to try to raise doubts among conservatives about the front-runner for the party’s 2012 nomination.

A day after a Republican presidential candidate debate on Orlando, Romney clearly believed he had found a weak spot in Perry’s tenure as Texas governor — a policy that allows the children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at Texas colleges.

At the debate Perry had defended the policy as appropriate for a state with a long border with Mexico and said to those who oppose it, “I don’t think you have a heart.”

Romney, speaking to the Conservative Policy Action Conference of Florida, rejected that view with a shake of his head.

“I think if you’re opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a heart. It means that you have a heart and a brain,” he said.

Legal immigration, he said, is good for the country but illegal immigration is “something I will stop if I’m president.”

Another candidate, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, also seized on the issue in her address to the conference.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Republican Rick Perry headed into a U.S. presidential debate on Thursday looking to put more distance between himself and rival Mitt Romney and rebound from two uneven performances with his competitors.

Perry, Romney and six other candidates take the stage in the third in a series of debates aimed at helping Republicans decide who they want as their nominee to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.

So far Perry, the Texas governor and Tea Party movement favorite, holds the front-running position but his lead is considered fragile over Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the choice of many mainstream Republicans.

“We believe in the conservative principles that made our country great. Our founders didn’t need a nanny state to carve out the greatest civilization known to man,” Perry told a Faith and Freedom Coalition Rally before the debate.

Republicans increasingly see a good chance to oust Obama from the White House with the U.S. economy struggling to rebound from 9.1 percent unemployment and chronic debt and deficits.

But a 391-point drop in the stock market on the very day of the debate was likely to increase pressure on the candidates to explain how they would rebuild the economy if elected. Foreign policy and social issues were expected to get a full airing as well.

The two-hour debate, sponsored by Fox News and Google, begins at 9 p.m. EDT.

, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Republican Rick Perry headed into a U.S. presidential debate on Thursday looking to put more distance between himself and rival Mitt Romney and rebound from two uneven performances with his competitors.

Perry, Romney and six other candidates take the stage in the third in a series of debates aimed at helping Republicans decide who they want as their nominee to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election.

So far Perry, the Texas governor and Tea Party movement favorite, holds the front-running position but his lead is considered fragile over Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the choice of many mainstream Republicans.

“We believe in the conservative principles that made our country great. Our founders didn’t need a nanny state to carve out the greatest civilization known to man,” Perry told a Faith and Freedom Coalition Rally before the debate.

Republicans increasingly see a good chance to oust Obama from the White House with the U.S. economy struggling to rebound from 9.1 percent unemployment and chronic debt and deficits.

But a 391-point drop in the stock market on the very day of the debate was likely to increase pressure on the candidates to explain how they would rebuild the economy if elected. Foreign policy and social issues were expected to get a full airing as well. [ID:nS1E78L1UK]

The two-hour debate, sponsored by Fox News and Google, begins at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT Friday).

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry sounded a more temperate note on Social Security on Thursday as he greeted Florida Republican convention delegates with a promise to secure and fix the pension program that he has called a Ponzi scheme.

Analysts say the Texas governor has no choice but to tone it down as he goes head-to-head with rival Mitt Romney in what could be a protracted battle for the Republican nomination in retirement haven Florida, the most populous of the presidential swing states.

In a letter distributed to 3,500 Republican delegates who will vote for their favorite candidate in a nonbinding straw poll on Saturday, Perry said, “I will keep our promise to seniors so their Social Security and Medicare benefits are secure.

“But I won’t allow these programs to collapse under their own fiscal weight for future generations. … I will fix entitlement programs.”

Perry, who has moved past former Massachusetts governor Romney to take the lead in polls in the 2012 Republican nominating race, has previously called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and a failure and said states should be able to opt out.

Mac Stipanovich, a Republican strategist and campaign manager for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, said Perry’s earlier statements, such as calling Social Security unconstitutional, have been too dogmatic and careless to play well among graying and risk-averse Floridians.

“I don’t think it works in Governor Perry’s favor,” said Stipanovich, who is not involved with any of the campaigns.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Florida seniors were so rattled by proposed changes to Social Security emerging in the U.S. political debate that their consumer confidence levels plunged more than that of any other age group in August, an economic survey showed.

And that was before Texas Governor Rick Perry called the popular retirement program a “Ponzi scheme” during last week’s debate among Republican presidential candidates.

It would be difficult to overstate the impact of Social Security in Florida, a longtime retirement haven that is the most populous of the political swing states.

Consumer confidence among Floridians over 60 plunged nine points to 57 in August, according to the latest monthly survey conducted by the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

It was the biggest drop among any age group in the survey, which put the overall Florida confidence score at 62, barely above recession level.

“A lot of that had to do with the frank and open candidate discussions about including modifications to Social Security and Medicare as part of the solution” during the contentious debt limit debate in July and early August, said bureau director Chris McCarty, who conducted the survey.

“As the discussions and the media attention and all that rolled out, people became increasingly nervous. … In Florida, obviously, we’re disproportionately seniors.”

MIAMI, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Nate sprang to life in the western Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, Tropical Storm Maria formed in the Atlantic and Hurricane Katia churned up surf along Bermuda and the U.S. East Coast, forecasters said.

The trio of tropical cyclones came during what is traditionally the busiest part of the June-through-November hurricane season in the Atlantic basin.

“At this time of year we are essentially at the peak of the hurricane season,” said John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Tropical Storm Nate formed in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche, prompting the Mexican government to issued storm warnings for its coast from Chilitepec to Celestun.

Nate was about 125 miles (200 km) west of Campeche and had sustained winds of 45 miles per hour (75 kph). It was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane by Friday and move slowly north and then northeast toward the Mexican coast, the U.S. forecasters said.

Coastal residents in the warning area could start feeling its gusts and rain by Wednesday night, they said.

“Data from the Pemex PEMEX.UL oil rigs in the Bay of Campeche measured sustained winds of 43 mph (70 kph), gusting to 50 mph (80 mph),” the U.S. forecasters said.

MIAMI, Aug 17 (Reuters) – The United States has already tied its yearly record for billion-dollar weather disasters and the cumulative tab from floods, tornadoes and heat waves has hit $35 billion, the National Weather Service said on Wednesday.

And it’s only August, with the bulk of the hurricane season still ahead.

“I don’t think it takes a wizard to predict 2011 is likely to go down as one of the more extreme years for weather in history,” National Weather Service Director Jack Hayes told journalists on a conference call.

The agency’s parent organization, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, launched a campaign on Wednesday to better prepare Americans for violent weather.

There have so far been nine separate disasters this year that caused an economic loss of $1 billion or more in the United States, tying the record set in 2008, NOAA said. The most recent was the summer flooding along the Missouri and Souris rivers in the upper Midwest.

The “new reality” is that both the frequency and the cost of extreme weather are rising, making the nation more economically vulnerable and putting more lives and livelihoods at risk, Hayes said.

The number of U.S. natural disasters has tripled in the last 20 years and 2010 was a record breaker with about 250, according to property and casualty reinsurer Munich Reinsurance America.

MIAMI (Reuters) – Heat and drought are parching the southern U.S. plains, floods and tornadoes have shattered long-standing records, and the tropical Atlantic is steaming into the traditionally busiest part of the hurricane season.

With commodity markets across the globe in the thrall of extreme weather, private-sector meteorologists are increasingly providing custom-tailored weather intelligence to the financial world. This time of year their services are in high demand.

“It grows quiet down here from 11 to 12 and it’s because they’re waiting for the midday weather update, waiting for the next piece of information,” said Matt Pierce, analyst for GrainAnalyst.com who has been on the trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade for more than 10 years.

While government forecasters provide broad public advisories, traders, hedge funds and corporations are employing their own staff meteorologists or relying on the 300 U.S. commercial weather vendors for forecasts targeting specific locations and industries.

“We let our customers know so they can hedge their risks long in advance, before many in the market are even aware a weather-related event is on the horizon,” said Matt Rogers, a long-range forecaster at Commodity Weather Group LLC.

Airlines need to know where the winds might carry a cloud of volcanic ash and construction firms want to avoid pouring concrete when it could be weakened by rain. Utilities rely on bespoke forecasts to predict the load on the electric grid at any given moment.

“Those are easily million-dollar decisions,” said Peter Neilley, vice president of global forecasting services for The Weather Channel Companies.

MIAMI, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Heat and drought are parching the southern U.S. plains, floods and tornadoes have shattered long-standing records, and the tropical Atlantic is steaming into the traditionally busiest part of the hurricane season.

With commodity markets across the globe in the thrall of extreme weather, private-sector meteorologists are increasingly providing custom-tailored weather intelligence to the financial world. This time of year their services are in high demand.

“It grows quiet down here from 11 to 12 and it’s because they’re waiting for the midday weather update, waiting for the next piece of information,” said Matt Pierce, analyst for GrainAnalyst.com who has been on the trading floor at the Chicago Board of Trade for more than 10 years.

While government forecasters provide broad public advisories, traders, hedge funds and corporations are employing their own staff meteorologists or relying on the 300 U.S. commercial weather vendors for forecasts targeting specific locations and industries.

“We let our customers know so they can hedge their risks long in advance, before many in the market are even aware a weather-related event is on the horizon,” said Matt Rogers, a long-range forecaster at Commodity Weather Group LLC.

Airlines need to know where the winds might carry a cloud of volcanic ash and construction firms want to avoid pouring concrete when it could be weakened by rain. Utilities rely on bespoke forecasts to predict the load on the electric grid at any given moment.

“Those are easily million-dollar decisions,” said Peter Neilley, vice president of global forecasting services for The Weather Channel Companies.

MIAMI (Reuters) – A spike in gold prices prompted the U.S. Mint to suspend the online sale of gold collector coins on Tuesday for the first time in recent memory, a mint spokesman said.

The move affects only the gold numismatic products sold to collectors and not the gold bullion coins sold to investors, Mint spokesman Mike White said from Washington.

Sales were suspended at midday for re-pricing, which was expected to be completed by late on Wednesday, he said.

Asked when that had last happened, White said, “not in recent history that I can remember.”

The American Eagle bullion coins for investors are sold only to authorized wholesalers — not directly to the public — and move with the London spot prices. Their sale was not affected, White said.

Prices for the gold numismatic coins sold directly to collectors and hobbyists include a surcharge and are based on a weekly average. The Mint has always reserved the right to halt those sales when the market price for bullion approaches the price of the collector coins, but no one could remember when — if ever — it had actually exercised that right, White said.

It happened on Tuesday, as worries of more government intervention in European and U.S. debt crises pushed gold prices to a record near $1,800 an ounce before settling lower as the stock market bounced higher.