Jackie Alexander Portfolio

SUMMER CAMP, MINUS THE BUGS AND SUNBURNEver envy the kids for the goofing off they get to do during the summer? This week offers several oppor-tunities for grownup goofing off. One is Summer Camp, a phrase that takes on a whole different meaning at Stu-dio@620 in St. Petersburg. Thursday through Saturday, this “event of semi-epic proportions” includes live music, spontaneous theater, carved tikis, exotic fashion and a Camp Film Festival featuring perfectly awful movies like Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Plan 9 From Outer Space. Find information at www.studio620.org.

‘Championship’for 26 pointsMany of us whiled away summer afternoons over board games, but some people take such things seriously. A horde of those cutthroats will gather at the Royal Pacific Resort in Orlan-do on Friday through July 29 for the National Scrabble Championship. Live cover-age can be found at www2.scrabble-assoc.com.

Funny how the subjects stay sameLate-night goofing off is on at American Stage, with An Evening Wasted With the Songs of Tom Lehrer at 11 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The show celebrates one of the best musical satirists of the 1960s, who took on subjects like nuclear proliferation, racial discrimination and politics with the sharp edge of humor.

Can they take the calories out of cake?Three performers associ-ated with special powers have birthdays this week. On Wednesday, the movie incarnation of wizard Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, turns 19. Lynda Carter, who to us will always be Wonder Woman, is 57 on Thursday. And on Saturday, Mick Jag-ger, whose superpower is simply being Mick Jagger, turns 65.

By Colette Bancroft, Times staff writer, [email protected] or (727) 893-8435.

Forward thinking

. tampabay.com

People are talking about . . .

Prince Charlie: Out of town, out of touch (The Buzz, July 18)The news: The governor and his fiancee hobnob with Prince Charles while state economy tanks.“Why has it taken so long to see that our esteemed governor wears no clothes? Stop calling him an empty suit. The naked truth is that he does not have a suit to be empty.”“Since when do fiancees attend meetings with for-eign dignitaries? Now I am beginning to think it is more of a vacation then an actual business trip.”“As I’ve been saying all this time, he is a photo-op gov-ernor. All he cares about is how good (yuck!) he looks in the pictures.”

Timeout for you(Whoa, Momma!, July 18)The news: A 2-year-old boy has new habit of hitting his mom.Dan had one word for our mommy blogger: “Spank.”Another reader says: “2’s are tough? Wait until he tells you he wants to go to Harvard, needs a car, a pad, some folding and those dukes are at eye-level.”

After watching Texas outfielder Josh Hamilton redecorate Yankees Stadium with his 28 wall-crushing home runs in the All-Star Home Run Derby, I’m convinced the Rays need to trade for him.

I want to be fair about this, so I say we go beyond players and pros-pects. I say we offer the Rangers …

… the ring Charlie Crist gave Carol Rome (he can get another one).

… Debra Lafave and Stepha-

nie Ragusa.… Buddy Johnson’s cattle.… The Hogan Family (you can

have them even if the trade falls through).

… plans for a new waterfront baseball stadium.

… naming rights to the St. Pete Times Forum.

… one Canadian mullet hair-cut and the profits from Saw IV and V.

… enough sand and saltwater to create your own beach.

… Dinosaur World.… one gigantic Confederate

flag.… government in the Sunshine

manuals (they’re collecting dust in St. Petersburg).

… the Trump Tower Tampa penthouse.

… exclusive membership to Caliente.

… a Sun Pass with a $25 limit.… one semifunctioning desali-

nation plant.… a bitten fingertip recently

found in a Tampa meat market

(when we say meat market, we don’t mean the Hyde Park Cafe).

… the french-fry lady.… Don Wallace’s sister.… Brian Blair’s original Killer

Bee wrestling trunks.… one classic rock station (we

have 16, so we can spare one).… and finally, Forever Plaid!By the way, we’ll throw in a

crazed sex master if you give us Brad Richards back.

That’s all I’m saying.

For All-Star Josh Hamilton, bay area has much to o! er

ERNEST [email protected]

Antennas

Lightningarresters

Meterologicalinstruments:Barometric pressureRelative humidityAir temperatureWind speed and direction

12-volt rechargable battery

Mooring chain Anchor

Surlyn foambuoy

COMPS stationAs part of the Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System, an array of o!shore buoys measure such things as current, temperature, salinity and meteorological conditions. The data is transmitted to the shore by satellites.

Sources: Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System, University of South Florida/College of Marine Science; buoy illustration by Rick Cole Times

ST. PETERSBURG

A fi erce wind, a blanket of fog, rain spraying like bullets. ¶ The sud-den squall that whipped over Tampa Bay on May 9, 1980, became an indelible part of this region’s history. Inside the storm, the

freighter Summit Venture veered o! course, a section of the Sunshine Skyway collapsed, and 35 people fell to their deaths. ¶ What’s less well known about the Skyway tragedy is one of its legacies: a network of sen-sors, buoys and computers that now watch over Tampa Bay. ¶ Another network monitors the wind and waves of Florida’s Gulf Coast, and it’s a legacy of the 1993 no-name storm. ¶ While little known, the two systems provide a surprisingly public way of watching subtle changes and urgent dangers o! the Tampa Bay area’s shores.

BY CURTIS KRUEGER | Times Staff Writer

But a loss of funding soon could make it difficult to find equipment and staff to keep the wind and wave sensors operating.

Gulf monitors gauge potential for disaster

Times files (1980)

A car stopped on the edge of the Sunshine Skyway in 1980 after the Summit Venture, right, hit the bridge, causing its southbound span to collapse.

See for yourselfFor a closer look at the information provided by the COMPS West Florida Shelf Observing Stations, go to comps.marine.usf.edu .To get information from the PORTS monitors in Tampa Bay, go to the COMPS site above and click on PORTS.

. See MONITOR, 7B

Room, board, books and debtSchools and students face higher hurdles to pay for college.BY TOM MARSHALLTimes Staff Writer

Students and families trying to pay for college are facing a com-plex financial puzzle that rou-tinely requires a dizzying com-bination of grants, loans and money earmarked for retire-ment.

“It’s crazy,” said Trisha Brew-ton, a Tampa beautician who has been trying to find the money to send her daughter, Brialle, to Florida A&M University this fall.

It’s no cakewalk for schools, either.

Over the past year, about 120 lenders have suspended all or part of their federal loan busi-ness, citing the loss of federal subsidies or an inability to resell loans. Others have cut discounts or ended their participation at certain schools.

At least one local school, Stet-son University College of Law in Gulfport, has lessened its reli-ance on private lenders.

And students who began their college years with traditional lenders have been forced to look elsewhere.

Brewton and her daughter have cobbled together all but $4,000 of a total annual bill she estimated at $17,500. They’re using federal Pell Grants, schol-arships, and Stafford Loans, and can tap into savings if they must.

“I didn’t want her to have the responsibility to have to pay money back,” she said. “Why pay for that the rest of your life, if you don’t have to?”

The Brewtons are in good shape compared with some of the families Congress targeted for help last spring.

Under emergency legislation passed in May, parents who fall behind up to 180 days on mort-gage or medical payments can still qualify to take out college loans under the federal PLUS program.

That’s an improvement on the previous limit of 90 days. But it’s cold comfort for families already head over heels in debt, said Bil-lie Jo Hamilton, director of stu-dent financial aid at the Univer-. See COLLEGE, 5B

Lawmaker criticizes fellow Democrats’ politicking at Raytheon meetings. 3B

tampabay.com * * * * Monday, July 21, 2008 | 1B

Troubled dad, deadly end BY JACKIE ALEXANDER, RITA FARLOW AND DOUG CLIFFORDTimes Staff Writers

PINELLAS PARK — From inside his Shadow Run apart-ment, Edwin Nunez heard a man cry for help Saturday night.

Why me? Why me?An unidentified neighbor heard

the screams of a man deranged.Kill me. Just kill me.Neighbor Glendale Stephens

heard the shouts of a man in pain.Stop, stop, you’re hurting me.They all heard deadly gunfire

late Saturday when their neigh-bor, 44-year-old Dallas Carter, stepped out of his apartment, a pistol and a rifle in hand, to con-front the police.

• • •

Pinellas Park police came to Shadow Run Apartments at

12001 Belcher Road, apartment B28, after a caller told a 911 dis-patcher at 10:58 p.m. that he was disturbed and armed with a .40-caliber pistol. His said his two children, 8- and 13-year-old boys, were in bed. He hung up when asked his name.

Police tried Carter’s cell phone, but their calls went to voice mail. As officers arrived minutes later, and as a negotiator attempted to

get in position to speak to him, Carter fired at least 30 rounds from the pistol and a .30-30 hunting rifle. Police said he fired from inside his apartment in var-ious directions.

Soon afterward, the chil-dren ran from the apartment. At 11:32 p.m. Carter came out of his apartment with the guns point-ing at officers in the breezeway, according to police. The officers

ordered him to drop his weap-ons. When he did not, three offi-cers reportedly fired 10 rounds, killing him.

Pinellas Park police Officers Michael Erwin, Adam Smotrich and Alexandro Aguilar have been placed on administrative leave while investigations by police and the Pinellas Pasco State Attorney’s Office continue.

With debts and eviction looming, the man calls 911 and dies in a shootout with police.

. See SHOOTOUT, 7B

Jackie Alexander

* * * * St. Petersburg Times | Monday, July 21, 2008 | 7B

Based at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg, the sys-tems can provide instant infor-mation to emergency managers, boaters and windsurfers. Web sites show the water levels beside the Skyway or the wind speed at Picnic Island Park, as they are changing.

But state and federal budget woes are creating stormy seas for the network that monitors the gulf.

Because of a loss of funding, it soon could be difficult to find equipment and staff to keep the wind and wave sensors in good operating condition, said USF marine science professor Mark Luther.

“We’re hanging on a precari-ous thread,” Luther said.

• • •

Giant freighters chug under the Skyway bridge, and follow the 600-foot wide shipping chan-nel that extends for miles up Tampa bay to the Port of Tampa. Some of the ships are two foot-ball fields long. Some of them draft 42 or 43 feet in a channel that can be less than 45 feet deep, Luther said.

The Tampa Bay monitoring system, called PORTS, can help. It features wind and wave-checking devices at locations such as the Skyway, Egmont Key and near the Port of Tampa. Data on tides, currents and winds is fed into computer models which helps harbor pilots know when a big ship can safely pass or is likely to get stuck. A paper Luther recently co-authored said ship groundings have dropped 60 percent since PORTS was created.

The data provided by ther-mometers, sensors, wind gauges and other devices also has allowed scientists to learn more about the movement of water through Tampa Bay. It has helped in such diverse tasks as following spills of sewage and other hazardous materials, track-ing the movement of fish larvae and evaluating flooding dangers, Luther said.

“It’s a system that provides real-time environmental infor-mation for better-informed deci-sionmaking on all aspects of what people do in and around the water,” he said.

• • •

When Hurricane Ivan churned up the Gulf of Mexico in 2004, Tarpon Springs Fire Division Chief Rick Butcher could detect a slight surge in the city’s coastal waters.

Butcher, who also serves as the city’s emergency management director, was looking at the Web site for COMPS, which is the net-work that monitors wind and water up and down Florida’s Gulf

. MONITOR continued from 1B

From the front page> tampabay.com for the latest news

Monitors gauge disaster potential

Coast.“It’s a wonderful resource,”

Butcher said, because the data from stations on or near shore allow him to fine-tune informa-tion about nearby storms that he already receives from the Nation-al Hurricane Center and Pinellas County.

The system is not just for emer-gency managers. The same data is available to the public on the COMPS Web site.

The COMPS system also has helped scientists paint a picture of how water circulates in com-plex ways up, down and across Florida’s Gulf Coast. It has helped with studies of Red Tide, with safe navigation and other issues.

“What we’re trying to do is build a comprehensive coastal observing system,” said Robert H. Weisberg, USF marine science professor.

Weisberg recalls a hot July day when he was standing in water off Sanibel Island and felt cool rivulets at his toes.

Because of his studies with COMPS data, Weisberg knew the cool water at his toes had come from the Panhandle and down along the gulf floor toward Sani-bel. “We’re able to trace the origin of that,” he said.

In recent years, COMPS has received regular appropriations of $750,000 from the federal government and $200,000 from state government to maintain the system. But the state’s budget crunch and the increasing fed-eral reluctance to approve “ear-marked” funds from Congress means those monies have largely dried up at this moment, Luther said.

Luther said COMPS does have an adequate supply of spare sen-sors but needs more money for such hardware as batteries, solar panels and connectors, plus staff time to fix the devices.

“We’re kind of in dire straits,” Luther said.

Curtis Krueger can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 893-8232.

The children are in the cus-tody of Florida Department of Children and Families. Sunday morning, their bikes, one red and one green, were parked on the patio in the broken glass.

“He was just trying to do the best he could by his kids,” said Melissa Harper, a resident of the apartment complex. “My heart breaks for those boys.”

Carter left a note, but police have not released its contents.

• • •

Neighbors said Dallas Carter was a single dad who constantly struggled to pay the bills and put food on the table. He had a pronounced limp from a dis-abling back injury that forced him to use a cane to get around, they said.

“He always talked about need-ing help — financially and help with the kids,” said neighbor Kevin Luster, 23.

Carter lost his job several months ago after he reinjured his back while working, said neighbor Melissa Velez.

Recently, he seemed even more upset. He told neighbors his food stamps had been cut back and he couldn’t pay his water bill.

On Saturday , Carter came over to see Velez, 27, who lives across from him. He had an eviction notice with him, she said.

Velez and Luster said the apartment complex requires tenants pay their water bill with their rent.

A few times over the past year, Carter’s electricity had been

shut off, though he still had power at the time of the shoot-ing, Velez said. When it was off, Velez would let him use her microwave to heat up meals for the children.

Velez said she tried to help the family, most recently bringing over a chicken and rice dinner. This past Christmas, she and her mom bought presents for the kids. They delivered them anon-ymously, she said, to make sure the boys had a present to open.

“I haven’t slept very much because of this,” she said.

Neighbor Kna Krajan, 24, said Carter’s sons were at her house almost every day to play with her children. Carter was a dot-ing father, she said.

“He wants what’s best for his kids, he just doesn’t have the

finances to do it,” she said.Krajan was home at the time

of the shooting and heard the gunshots — one of which hit her screen door.

“He’s just been so depressed,” she said. “He kept telling us he doesn’t know what to do.”

Neighbor Laura Miller reached the same conclusion.

“He seemed very, very down, and like he didn’t know where to turn next. He didn’t know what to do,’’ said Miller, 42.

Edwin Nunez said he sat awake with his wife and 6-year-old son, George, as gun-fire erupted below them. He told George that the screaming man went to the hospital.

“He’s too young to explain it to,” Nunez said. “I don’t know how to.”

. SHOOTOUT continued from 1B

Troubled dad dies in shootout

DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

Melissa Velez, 27, peers into the porch of her neighbor, Dallas Carter, who was killed by Pinellas Park police in a shootout late Saturday. His two children were in bed when he called 911. Carter fired at least 30 rounds from his home, police said.

Jackie Alexander

I NDEXAbby F Etc 2B

Astrology 4F Lottery 2A

Classified F Movies F

Comics 3F Puzzles 4F

Crosswords F Television 2F

Editorials 12A Weather 6C

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Grillin’ and chillin’Memorial Day is just around the cor-ner, and you might

want to picnic in a park. Find one near you in our new Attractions search at events.tampabay.com.

. TODAY’S WEATHER

SEN. KENNEDY DIAGNOSED WITH BRAIN CANCER

The prognosis for the sec-ond-longest serving U.S. senator is not good, although doc-

tors report that he is walking and hasn’t suffered any more seizures. Times 2, 4A

For Rays late score, see tampabay.comThe Tampa Bay Rays played a late-night game in Oak-land on Tuesday night. For the result and details on the game, see our coverage at rays.tampabay.com.

Yamaguchi wins ‘Dancing’ fi nale

Figure skat-ing cham-pion Kristi Yamaguchi becomes the first woman to win Danc-

ing With the Stars since the show’s first season in 2005. Hollywood, 2A

Likely Civil War relic found in HillsboroughA marine archaeologist thinks he has found what’s left of the Kate Dale, a Con-federate ship, sitting on the bottom of the Hillsborough River. Tampa Bay, 1B

Iraqi troops take position in Sadr CityAbout 10,000 troops enter the Baghdad enclave, which has been under the control of Shiite Muslim militias since 2003. No problems are reported. Times 2, 4A

The best sports jobs, and the worstThere are jobs that a sports fan would kill for. And there are others that, well, you could be killed in. Tom Jones gives his Two Cents on the best and the worst. Sports, 1C

Wii Fit hits the shelves todayNintendo’s $90 offering into fitness gaming will probably not appeal to hard-core gam-ing, but likely will appeal to the company’s core demographic: everyone else. Business, 5B

Our columnists dish out adviceCarolyn Hax, Dear Abby and Action Line weigh in on pick-ing up the check, hair loss and some hot cotton candy. Inside BayLink, Section F

20% rain chance.

In the know

© Times Publishing Co. Vol. 124 No. 302

tampabay.com F LO R I D A ’ S B E S T N E W S PA P E R * * * * Wednesday, May 21, 2008

• Weekly restaurant reviews and a new star rating system• Taster’s Choice in a new, handy chart form• Signature Dish, featuring local cooks and their favorite recipes

A better, bolder Taste

check outthe comics

3F, 4F, & INSIDE BACK PAGES

BY DAVID ADAMSTimes Latin America Correspondent

MIAMI — In a speech marking Cuba’s independence day, Sen. John McCain told a cheering crowd of supporters Tuesday that if elected president he would “not passively await” the arrival of democracy in Cuba.

Nor would he sit down with Cuban President Raul Castro until Cuba emptied its jails of political prisoners and held free and fair elections, he said in Miami.

“Make no mistake, Cuba is destined to be free,” he said, drawing chants of “liber-

tad, libertad” from the crowd of 400.There was little new in what McCain

said, except he pledged that he would “vig-orously prosecute” Cuban officials found to be involved in the shoot-down in 1996 of two civilian planes off the coast of Cuba. That won him a standing ovation, but some Republican activists noted that the Justice Department had already investigated the incident and brought no charges.ON THE CUBAN EMBARGO: Distancing himself from his Democratic rivals, Sen.

McCain swipes at Obama over U.S. policy on CubaGOP hopeful urges democracy and extension of embargo.

Associated Press

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, visits Cafe Versailles while campaigning in Miami on Tuesday.. See MCCAIN, 2A

Winning here won’t come easy to Obama

Hispanic votersMcCain is a proven vote-getter among Hispan-ics, who could account for 15 percent of the elector-ate. Obama has struggled to win over Hispanics in places like California and Texas, and unlike Clin-ton, he has no history with Florida’s diverse Hispanic community. On tap: Town hall meeting today in Orlando targeting non-Cuban Hispanics. Also, he’s speaking Friday to the Cuban American National Foundation in Miami.

Jewish votersRepublicans have been cutting into this once overwhelmingly Demo-cratic bloc, which is about 5 percent of Florida’s elec-torate. Obama has to con-tend with an Internet smear campaign depict-ing him as a closet Mus-lim, bad for Israel and the preferred candidate of Hamas. On tap: Cam-paigning with Rep. Rob-ert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, including a stop with Jew-ish voters in Palm Beach County.

Uncounted votesMany Clinton support-ers remain genuinely livid about Obama refus-ing to acknowledge votes from Florida’s dis-puted primary. “He’s dug his heels in the sand, and it’s hurting him here,’’ said Millie Her-rera, a Clinton supporter who leads the Demo-cratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida. On tap: Rally Friday night in Bro-ward County, a Clinton stronghold.

North FloridaDemocrats lose Florida when they get crushed in North Florida, and so far there’s little sign of enthusiasm for Obama (or Clinton) among white Panhandle voters. If he can’t at least get near 40 percent in places like Escambia County, he’ll lose the state. On tap: It will have to wait for another trip.

Rally in Tampa today Get there early if you want to park and get a seat inside the St. Pete Times Forum. Tips, 5A

The delegate leaderClinton wins big in Kentucky, but Obama claims a majority of pledged delegates. 5A

BY ADAM C. SMITH | Times Political Editor

If anyone doubts that Barack Obama is shifting his attention from Hillary Rodham Clinton to John McCain and the general election, just consider where he’ll be the next three days: Florida, Florida, Florida. Obama must over-come real challenges to win Florida’s 27 electoral votes, and his tentative schedule seems to acknowledge that, as he’s reaching out to key demographics. Here are four of Obama’s hurdles, and what he’s doing to address them:

BY HELEN HUNTLEY AND JACQUELINE ALEXANDERTimes Staff Writers

CLEARWATER — The Fed-eral Trade Commission zeroed in on Pinellas County as a hot-bed for fraudulent telemar-keting schemes Tuesday as it announced the largest telemar-keting sweep in its history.

The federal agency filed three lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Tampa against Pinellas companies selling advance-fee credit cards targeting consumers with poor credit. The agency said the cards were misrepresented as general purpose cards, similar to a Mas-terCard, but in reality, they could be used only to order items from the companies’ own catalogs.

In each case, the FTC says the company got consumers to reveal their bank account information, then debited their accounts for upfront fees of $200 to $300. The FTC said some of the companies also debited consumers’ accounts for $30 quarterly maintenance fees without their knowledge, and some required consumers to pay 35 percent of each catalog purchase in cash in order to use their cards. Consumers found it difficult to impossible to cancel and get a refund.

The FTC filed lawsuits and obtained temporary restraining orders against:•USA Financial LLC of Clearwa-ter, American Financial Card Inc. of Largo (formerly Capital Finan-

FTC raid snags Pinellas outfitsThree telemarketers are sued, accused of misrepresenting the credit cards they sold.

Getty Images

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama speaks to a crowd at a rally recently in Eugene, Ore. He will be in Florida today.

. See SWEEP, 8A

Questions for ObamaA Times editorial outlines Flo-ridians’ concerns. Opinion, 12A BY SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN

Times Senior Correspondent

HANOI, Vietnam — For cen-turies, Vietnamese have worn the non la, the distinctive coni-cal straw hat that shields the face from tropical sun and monsoon rains.

But now the non la is being supplanted by another type of headgear: the motorcycle hel-met.

In a country gone crazy over motorbikes and motor scooters, Vietnamese have shown remark-able compliance with a new law requiring all drivers and passen-gers to don helmets.

“I think when you wear a hel-met it is for your safety,” says Lam Thanh Manh, a 23-year-old deliv-eryman who gets around on an ancient Sym motorbike made in Taiwan. “It is a little hot, though.”

While the car is the vehicle of choice in many develop-ing nations, motorbikes have

Everybody, it seems, rides scooters. And head gear is the law.

The new ‘look’ for Vietnam: helmets

. See SCOOTERS, 10A

Jackie Alexander

8A | Wednesday, May 21, 2008 | St. Petersburg Times * *

in the morning. A prosecu-tor said Blackwelder, 25, tried to kick in the door of the home where George Anthony Stewart Jr., 24, and his wife, Brittani Key Stewart, were with their toddler twin daughters last year.

Blackwelder fired one shot into Stewart’s chest with a gun that belonged to his mother’s boyfriend, Assistant State Attor-ney Jalal Harb said. He fled to Georgia with Stewart’s wife in her van.

Littman said his client was not the shooter and only a “specta-tor” to the crime. He didn’t say who he thought killed Stewart.

He asked jurors to scrutinize the testimony of Brittani Stew-art, who married her husband in February 2007, but began a sexual relationship with Black-welder soon after. She contin-ued that relationship and indi-cated plans to start a new life with Blackwelder in another state even after obtaining a restraining order against him, the defense attorney said.

“While Brittani Key certainly cared for her husband, George Stewart, she loved Mr. Black-welder,” Littman said.

Before the prosecution played the 911 tape, the judge warned Stewart’s family members that they might not want to hear its dramatic contents.

They stayed put.George Stewart had placed his

first call to authorities Dec. 7 at 3:42 p.m. He sounded calm as he reported that Blackwelder was violating the restraining order by standing on the back porch of the home where Stewart’s wife had been living.

On Tuesday, Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said the call was not designated as top priority at that point.

Things became more urgent when Stewart called back at 3:47 p.m. He said Blackwelder had just stolen his wife’s van. While Stewart was still on the phone, Blackwelder returned.

Stewart said he was going to beat up Blackwelder, but the 911 operator told him to stay inside.

“He’s threatening,” Stewart said.

“We’ve got an officer on the way,” the operator said.

“He better not step one foot in this house,” Stewart said.

The operator urged him to be patient. “Don’t do anything stu-pid,” she said.

“Now he’s got a gun pointing at me!” Stewart said.

“Oh, my gosh,” the operator gasped.

Stewart yelled twice more that Blackwelder had a gun. The operator asked if Blackwelder was inside or outside of the house and — bang — a gun fired. Stewart’s agonizing screams fol-lowed.

“He just shot me!” Stewart said.

Jurors were cleared from the courtroom before hearing the tape end with his moans and labored breaths.

McElroy said officers arrived at the scene four minutes after the call was dispatched. Stew-art was dead; the toddlers, unharmed.

Foster asked the 14 jurors individually whether the chaos would affect their ability to remain fair and impartial. He dismissed one woman from the panel, the only juror who said her opinion might be affected by what she had seen.

The defense will argue for a mistrial this morning. Foster seemed disinclined to grant the motion, leaving the issue vulner-able to appeal.

The judge refused outright Lit-tman’s request for Joshua Stew-art to be held in contempt of court, but banned him from the rest of the trial.

Pamela Sansom, Joshua and George Stewart’s mother, tried to make sense of her living son’s actions.

“All I can tell you is he’s hurt-ing,” she said. “He lost his only brother.”

Colleen Jenkins can be reached at [email protected] or (813) 226-3337.

. EMOTION continued from 1A

Emotion erupts as 911 tape is played

Timothy Blackwelder is on trial for first-degree murder for the death of George Stewart.

also debited consumers’ accounts for $30 quarterly maintenance fees without their knowledge, and some required consumers to pay 35 percent of each catalog purchase in cash in order to use their cards. Consumers found it difficult to impossible to cancel and get a refund.

The FTC filed lawsuits and obtained temporary restraining orders against:• USA Financial LLC of Clear-water, American Financial Card Inc. of Largo (formerly Capital Financial Inc.) and principals Jeffrey Deering, Richard Gua-rino and John Buschel Jr. The company is still operating and says the three men no longer work there.• Integrity Financial Enter-prises LLC of Clearwater, which also did business as Infinite Financial and National Bene-fit Exchange; National Benefit Exchange Inc. of Indian Rocks Beach and officer Robert James Fischbach. The company could not be reached.

• Financial Advisors and Asso-ciates Inc. of Largo, which also operated as Freedom Financial and MyUnsecuredCreditCard.com, and company president James Sweet. The company could not be reached.

The three lawsuits were among 13 FTC actions and more than 180 cases across the country announced Tuesday in “Opera-tion Tele-PHONEY.” The FTC said the actions in the United States and Canada involve more than $100-million in fraud.

FTC regional director Brad Elbein said the American Finan-cial Card scheme alone defraud-ed consumers out of as much as $15-million and the two other Pinellas cases involved similar large sums.

Why would Pinellas County attract so many schemers?

“The answer could be as sim-ple as this is a beautiful place to live,” Elbein said.

Although the telemarketers operated in the area, officials said there were no local victims

identified.“They don’t hunt where they

live,” said Elbein, explaining that they target out-of-state consum-ers.

Half of the 180 cases the FTC cited were in Florida, brought by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Com-missioner Charles Bronson and local law enforcement. The cases include a dozen arrests for illegal telemarketing announced last month, including seven people in Pinellas County.

“This was just the tip of the iceberg,” said Victoria Butler, chief of the attorney general’s economic crimes division.

Other agencies involved in the effort include the Pinellas Coun-ty Department of Justice and Consumer Services, the Clearwa-ter Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

Helen Huntley can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 893-8230.

Avoiding scamsProtect yourself from tele-marketing fraud:•Get all offers in writing and read them carefully before giving someone your credit card or bank account num-ber.•Watch out for common scams such as lotteries, free trips, credit offers and work-at-home opportuni-ties.•Put your phone number on the government’s do-not-call list by going to www.donotcall.gov or call-ing toll-free 1-888-382-1222 .

On the WebFor more on scams and how to avoid them, go to money.tampabay.com

Nation > tampabay.com for more national news

. SWEEP continued from 1A

FTC raid snags Pinellas companies

Jackie Alexander

University Board of Governors to push for more power today. 3B

tampabay.com * * * * Thursday, June 19, 2008 | 1B

G asoline that costs $4 a gallon is the wrong reason for Florida

to change its mind about off-shore oil drilling.

Offshore oil drilling is a long-term proposition. It is not going to do much about our short-term pain of $4-a-gallon gasoline — it will not keep it from $5, or $6.

Neither is this election-year stuff about U.S. “energy inde-pendence” any reason for Florida to change its mind.

Offshore oil drilling is not going to make us “energy independent.” Not even the oil industry claims such a thing. Only politicians do.

And yet, Florida suddenly seems on the verge of aban-doning a firm bipartisan con-sensus against offshore drill-ing that has governed this state for decades.

John McCain, the Repub-lican presidential candidate, says we ought to do it — citing, yes, gas prices and “energy independence.” The current president says so, too.

So now Florida’s governor, Charlie Crist, has weakened his own long-term opposition, presto, change-o! He has set off a chain reaction of lesser copycats, too. Yet these still are the wrong reasons.

They are pandering rea-sons. They are sloganeering reasons. They are short-term, political exploitation.

Is there a case for expand-ing offshore drilling? You bet.

The U.S. uses something like 20-million barrels of oil a day and imports most of it.

If we import less, the trade deficit gets better. There are more jobs, more investment. States get royalty checks, too.

But we ought to use that breathing room to get better. We have to have a comprehen-sive strategy to move us away from what we do now.

If we just foolishly burn up what we’ve got, in the name of cheap energy, we end up in the same boat, except worse.

Independence? Phooey. The estimated U.S. offshore reserves are 86-billion barrels. Assuming we could actually get to it, it would be enough to run the place “independently” for, say, 11 years.

And even if the U.S. policy changed today, it would take years to produce new oil.

So this is neither a quick fix for today’s gas prices, nor a path to “independence.”

This ain’t just whiny me saying this. The oil industry itself and the American Petro-leum Institute are careful not to make such claims. The institute says there are many good reasons to drill and to expand domestic production, but it also should be part of a bigger strategy.

“We’re going to need more energy of all types,” John Felmy, the institute’s chief economist, told me. “We can’t just stand still. We have to be going forward with a bal-anced energy policy. Supply is one component of that policy.”

Agreed. Yet this still brings us back to Florida and its unique situation.

What has changed, really, in this debate? Only the short-term political clamor.

The tradeoffs that Flor-ida faces today are the same as always — the same that led every previous leader, Repub-lican and Democrat, to say Florida can’t afford the risk.

Drilling advocates from some other states sometimes accuse Florida of thinking that it is special.

You know what? It is. Yessir.It is too special to succumb

to false promises of cheaper gas and “energy indepen-dence.” Florida is too special to sell out its coast for a roy-alty check.

So, let’s go ahead with it. Let’s pander, let’s make fake promises. And let’s drill, for the benefits that we do get.

Just not here.

Drilling?Maybe.Florida?No way.

HOWARD [email protected]

BY JACKIE ALEXANDERTimes Staff Writer

LARGO — Olga Miladinovic heard a whistle about 3 a.m. Wednesday but couldn’t figure it out. Then her boyfriend went outside and saw smoke.

Their building at the Belleair Oaks condominiums was in flames. The whistle was the fire alarm.

“I didn’t even grab my things,” she said. “My mom was my main concern.”

Miladinovic, 32, ran from her first-floor condo upstairs to her mother’s place. But thick black smoke forced her to her knees. She went back down-stairs, where she called her

mother on the phone and told her to get out.

Nina Miladinovic, 61, said she grabbed her Yorkie, Moose, and opened the door to smoke “so hard and thick on my face I couldn’t breathe.” So she cov-ered her face with a towel before feeling her way out.

About 30 residents of the complex on West Bay Drive were left homeless after a three-alarm fire ripped through their building.

Largo fire Chief Michael Wal-lace said firefighters responding to a report of a porch fire found the unit’s roof ablaze.

Firefighters focused on evac-

. Mayor’s choice goes before councilThe St. Petersburg City Council this afternoon is scheduled to decide whether to support Mayor Rick Baker’s choice of companies to redevelop Tropicana Field. Developers Arch-stone and Madison Marquette propose to build more than 1.1-million square feet of retail and almost 2,000 apartments as part of a $1.2-billion overhaul of the site if a new water-front stadium for the Rays is built. Follow the City Council debate starting at 3 p.m. at the Times’ online stadium blog, Ballpark Frankness, at blogs.tampabay.com/ballpark.

Don’t fi ll that bill, even if bird begsFeeding the birds isn’t a pastime anymore. It’s a crime. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Com-mission has made it illegal to feed brown pelicans, which can become so dependent on humans that they abandon their winter migration pat-terns. The law, which takes effect July 2 and makes the act a second-degree misdemeanor, is directed at large operations like fish houses that dis-pose of large amounts of scraps. “Our officers aren’t going to be sitting out there watching for little Timmy with his grandfather to feed a pelican,” said FWC spokeswoman Karen Parker.

Talk of the BayYBOR CITY SITE PICKED FOR OBAMA CAMPAIGNOfficials with the Barack Obama cam-paign this week signed a lease to house the campaign’s state headquarters in Ybor City. Offices will fill space in Centro Ybor once occupied by Big City Tavern. “We’re going to take over Cen-tro Ybor,” said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, who cochairs Obama’s Florida cam-paign. Meanwhile, two new polls show Obama leading Sen. John McCain in Florida. A new Quinnipiac University poll has Obama at 47 percent, McCain at 43 percent. And a poll by the Ameri-can Research Group, also out today, has Obama at 49 and McCain at 44.

CorrectionKirk Lyons, an attorney and co-founder of the Southern Legal Resource Center, was married by Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler to the daughter of anoth-er Aryan Nations leader, Charles Tate. A June 14 story about the Sons of Con-federate Veterans identified the bride’s father incorrectly.

BY MARIANA MINAYATimes Staff Writer

The young woman standing at the door of East Lake Fire Sta-tion No. 56 needed help.

Do fire stations still take unwanted babies?

Yes, said Lt. Doug Stryjew-ski, who followed her to a car, where a newborn was wrapped in a towel on the front seat. The

woman, pale and in her 20s, had given birth that morning.

As he took the baby, he asked if she was okay.

“I’m fine. I just can’t handle this right now,” she said. Then she got in the car and drove away.

That May 30 exchange was remarkable for firefighters, who took turns holding the infant until hospital workers arrived.

But it also was a landmark for the state’s Safe Haven for New-borns program.

“Nicholas” was the 100th baby to be dropped off at a fire station or hospital in Florida since the law was passed in 2000 amid numer-ous reports of babies discarded in trash bins and bathrooms.

At the time, Florida was one of 15 states to create such a law.

Now, every state has one. Flor-ida recently expanded its law to allow mothers to leave babies up to 7 days old without fear of crim-inal prosecution. Previously, the limit was three days.

The baby left at the Pinellas County fire station was named after Nick Silverio, who created a nonprofit foundation in 2001 to

In 8 years, 100 babies savedGroup works to make sure people know where to take unwanted newborns.

JOSEPH GARNETT JR. | Times

Investigators with the Largo Fire Department and the Largo Police Department sift through the debris after the fire.

Fire rips through condos

One resident of the Largo complex is hurt; dozens are left homeless.

Trump builders file for Chap. 11The developers of the stymied condos owe up to $50-million.

BY JAMES THORNERTimes Staff Writer

Harried by creditors and lashed by lawsuits, the develop-ers of Trump Tower Tampa have sought the haven of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Though SimDag-Robel LLC has yet to give up on building the 52-story condo tower, the bank-ruptcy all but ensures the luxury skyscraper is a long shot.

Bankruptcy papers filed Tues-day mention debts of up to $50-million spread among more than 200 creditors. Among the biggest: Colonial Bank, which holds a $3.2-million mortgage on the building lot at 111 S Ash-ley Drive, and New York tycoon Donald Trump, owed more than $1-million in overdue licensing fees from SimDag.

SimDag bankruptcy attorney Jeffrey Warren said clients Jody Simon and Frank Dagostino will try to maximize the value of the lot for creditors. They include dozens of condo buyers who placed 20 percent deposits on units costing from $700,000 to $6-million.

“It could be a sale, it could be development of Trump Tower Tampa,” Warren said. “The filing of the bankruptcy doesn’t stop any of the other activities.”

Chapter 11 was the crown-ing blow to three jarring years for Trump Tower Tampa. Trump formally launched the project in early 2005 when he rolled into Tampa with his new bride on his arm. A licensing deal with the New York real estate big shot would give the 190 units instant

Crist recovering after operation on ailing kneeIt’s from an old high school football injury.BY JENNIFER LIBERTOTimes Staff Writer

Gov. Charlie Crist’s weak left knee forced him to give up gov-erning Florida for roughly 90 minutes Wednesday, while he underwent minor emergency surgery under anesthesia.

The governor had to officially give Florida’s reins to Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp from 12:30 to 2:10 p.m.

It’s the same knee he injured playing quarterback at St. Peters-burg High School at 16. The knee that ended his football career as a walk-on quarterback at Wake Forest University. The knee that made him a swimmer instead of a runner.

“He should be fine, he’ll just be on crutches for a couple of days,” said the governor’s father, Dr. Charles J. Crist, who got a call

from his son Tuesday afternoon about the ailing knee.

The whole episode was a sur-prise. The governor didn’t fall or hit his knee, Crist’s father said. He felt something “sort of stick” in his knee and to clear it up, he popped it. “Over-extended his knee violently,” his father said.

After that, there was lots of pain and instability, Crist’s father said.

So the governor saw radiolo-gist Dr. Manuel Rose at his Palm Harbor office late Tuesday night

JOSEPH GARNETT JR. | Times

Michelle Mann, left, and Jocelyn Kelder, in the white shirt, comfort friend Nicole Vitadamo, whose home was damaged by fire at the Belleair Oaks condominiums in Largo on Wednesday. Vitadamo and her fiance were asleep when the fire started.

. See SAFE, 8B

. See TRUMP, 5B

Gov. Crist “over-extended his knee violently,” said his father, Dr. Charles Crist.

. See FIRE, 5B

By the numbers2000: Year Florida’s Safe Haven for Newborns law was passed100: Babies who had been surrendered safely as of May 3039: Babies who have been abandoned in unsafe places since 200015: Number of those who survived7: Days a woman has to surrender a baby, recently expanded from 3

. See CRIST, 5B

Jackie Alexander

* * * * St. Petersburg Times | Thursday, June 19, 2008 | 5B

Remembering > tampabay.com/obits to search our obituaries database

clout. In return, Trump would get half the profits.

But as SimDag pressed bankers and investors for a $200-million loan, the Florida condo market was collapsing. Construction deadlines passed, and buyers, many of them spec-ulators keen on quick returns, began to drop off.

The partnership fractured in May 2007 when Trump, frus-trated by unpaid licensing fees, sued SimDag. The parties are in mediation.

Tuesday’s bankruptcy filing listed creditors with the 20 larg-est claims, but a more exhaustive list is due in about two weeks. SimDag has already refunded half of some buyers’ deposits.

Tampa Bay

. TRUMP continued from 1B

Bankruptcy for Trump developers

. FIRE continued from 1B

3-alarm fire rips through Largo condosuating residents, who cried as their homes went up in flames.

More than 60 firefighters bat-tled the fire for nearly two hours, cutting a trench in the roof to stop the blaze from spreading. Wallace said the fire, presumably started by a discarded cigarette, spread through a common attic that did not have fire walls.

The building, constructed in 1970, was up to code and was not required to have sprinklers, Wallace said. Each unit had fire alarms.

One resident, 81-year-old Wilma Bayer, suffered a bro-ken shoulder, hurt her back and breathed in smoke during the fire. She was taken to Sun Coast Hospital in Largo.

No one else was hurt. But five units were destroyed, Wallace said, and the 16-unit building won’t be habitable for months.

“It appears that the building will end up being demolished and … will have to be rebuilt,” said Debbie Reinhardt, an owner of Resource Property Management, which manages the complex.

Times staff writer Jon Abel contrib-uted to this report. Jackie Alexan-der can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 445-4167.

. CRIST continued from 1B

Crist recovering after operation on ailing kneeand had an MRI, which revealed he had torn some cartilage in his knee, his father said.

On Wednesday morning, Dr. William Lowry of All Florida Orthopaedic Associates examined Crist’s knee and decided he need-ed surgery immediately. They headed for Columbia Center for Special Surgery in St. Petersburg.

Doctors removed “tears in both his medial and lateral meniscus,” according to the gov-ernor’s press office. The menis-cus is the cartilage in the joints that buffer bones that join at the knee. It distributes body weight across the knee joint.

“The doctor told us he antic-ipates a very expeditious recov-ery,” said Crist spokeswoman Erin Isaac.

Times Staff Writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this story.

Condo fire

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A fire on Wednesday morning destroyed five units in a building at the Belleair Oaks condominium complex.

Jackie Alexander

8 | Sunday, June 22, 2008 | St. Petersburg Times R LAR


Before Wednesday meverything she needed.

Maxie, her talking pwhile she watched hercollection.

But Wednesday nighher condominium at Be

Maxie is dead. Inchbelongings.

“Now, this” is the onsaid, looking down at body.

Bayer, 81, whom poof her burning condo, der, injured back andis just one of 30 residelives back together aftedestroyed five condos aat 1975 West Bay Drive i

“When I heard the pwas half asleep,” she sai

Largo Times >

JIM DAMASKE | Times

Salvage crews board up damaged units Friday and assess the damage of a fire that gutted units at the Belleair Oaks condominiums.

Before Wednesday, Wit’s all gone, including

Fire Wilma Bay

“There’s never go

LAR R St. Petersburg Times | Sunday, June 22, 2008 | 9

morning, Wilma Bayer had

parrot, kept her company r Charlton Heston movie

ht, a fire ripped through elleair Oaks.hes of ash cover Bayer’s

nly thing she has left, she her broken and bruised

olice officers pulled out suffered a broken shoul-

d smoke inhalation. She ents trying to piece their er the early-morning fire and left 11 uninhabitable in Largo.pounding on the door, I id.

As she struggled to get out of bed, she fell and crawled through the smoke-filled condo.

Bayer said she could hear people, but she just wanted to sleep.

“I wanted to lie down and get away from everything,” she said.

The American Red Cross is working with sev-eral fire victims.

Mary O’Geary, a volunteer case worker, said she can relate to their plight. When she lived in North Carolina, her home was hit eight times by hurricanes.

“When you see people in need, you have to do something about it,” O’Geary said.

O’Geary said she overheard an 88-year-old woman, who had nothing but a nightgown, tell a friend she didn’t want to get dinner.

“So I went shopping and got her a pair of slacks and a shirt so she could go to dinner,” O’Geary said.

Kenneth Niami, Bayer’s son, said he doesn’t know where his mother will go once she leaves the hospital.

Niami said he would have to buy a bigger house to make room, but Bayer said she prefers living alone.

“She wakes up one day and everything is gone,” Niami said.

Going home won’t be an option for several months. Rob Smith, project manager for Bay Area Disaster Kleenup, said it will likely be at least six months before repairs are done.

Debbie Reinhardt, an owner of the complex’s property management company, said the group doesn’t have a final determination on the build-ing’s status.

“To us it appears that the building will end up being demolished and the building will have to be rebuilt,” Reinhardt said. “(But) it has not been determined yet.”

Reinhardt said the group estimates the loss at $1.7-million. Homeowners with insurance will be fully covered. She said only four units were uninsured.

But money won’t bring back everything that was lost.

Niami said a woman who saw Bayer on TV after the fire wants to give her two songbirds.

“But there’s never going to be another Maxie,” Bayer said.

The Rev. George Hubbell, a chaplain at Sun Coast Hospital, stopped by Bayer’s room Friday. The hospital has a clothes closet to help disaster victims like Bayer.

“We have everything you need,” he told her.Bayer said now she has to focus on recovery,

not the things she lost.“I can’t think about it,” she said. “I don’t want

to think about it.”It was a busy week for the Largo Fire

Department, said Chief Michael Wallace. Hours after the blaze at Belleair Oaks, a lawn care business at 204 Woodrow Ave. NW caught fire.

“We have several fires a day,” Wallace said. “It’s unusual to have them so dramatic.”

Jackie Alexander can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 445-4167.

pinellas.tampabay.com for more Pinellas County news

JIM DAMASKE | Times

Wilma Bayer, 81, had all she needed. Now g Maxie, her beloved pet parrot.

survivor puts focus on recovery yer, 81, lost everything — even Maxie, her talking parrot. But she can’t think about that.

EAMONN KNEESHAW | Special to the Times

Residents said they had only moments to scramble to safety as a fire ripped through their condominiums Wednesday.

oing to be another Maxie.” Wilma Bayer, fire victim who lost everything, referring to her parrot.

Walk. Run. Swim. Pick an event and get out there. Sports, Page 4

pinellas.tampabay.com Wednesday, July 23, 2008 CLWCLEARWATER

BLOCKBUSTER THIEF STILL FREE; POLICE NEED TIPSA robber with a knife hand-cuffed the manager of a Blockbuster video store during a holdup Tuesday morning, police said. The 25-year-old manager, whose name the Times is withholding because the robber has not been caught, was unlocking the store at 2045 Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. about 9:30 a.m. when the robber forced him inside, locked the door, handcuffed him and put him in a back room while the robber tried to get into a safe. Investigators think the robber may have had some “indirect contact” with customers at the front door because the business was scheduled to open at 10 a.m. The robber removed the handcuffs before fleeing with an undisclosed amount of money. The manager called police at 10:44 a.m. Police described the robber as a clean-shaved black man 22 to 26 years old, standing about 6 feet, 2 inches tall, weighing 175 to 180 pounds and wearing his hair in a short Afro about an inch to an inch and a half long. He was wearing a blue dress shirt and khaki or gray pants. Police ask anyone with information about the robbery to call their tip line at (727) 562-4422.

MID PINELLAS

Man, 78, accused of soliciting minors Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies Thursday arrested a 78-year-old mental health

counselor, accusing him of arranging for the sexual abuse of two children. Charles J. Friedlander of Fort Myers

was charged with seduction of a child using the Internet and traveling to meet a minor. Friedlander used an Internet chat room to solicit another person to engage in physical and sexual abuse of two boys, ages 10 and 11, according to an arrest report. Friedlander was chatting with an undercover investigator who played the role of the boys’ parent. Friedlander was arrested Monday after driving to an unspecified location in Pinellas to carry out the plan and bringing along unspecified “implements” of physical abuse, officials said. His arrest culminated a monthlong investiga-tion by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforce-ment. Friedlander, who was released from jail Tuesday after posting $20,000 bail, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

TARPON SPRINGS

SCORE with a free business seminarThinking about starting a small business? Mem-bers of the Service Corps of Retired Executives are offering a free seminar on “Ten Steps to Starting Your Own Business” from 7 to 9 p.m. July 29 at the Tarpon Springs Library, 138 E Lemon St. Registration is requested. Materials and handouts will be provided. To sign up, call the library at (727) 943-4922.

Pinellas deathsApergis, John Brady, Richard H . Byford, Ruth M. Conforti, Margaret Davis, Gloria J. East, Harold L. Freborg, Florence Gold, Sandra Bea Hooper, Matthew Leonard Line, Richard F. Medves, Albert J. Novak, Elizabeth L. “Betty” Orellano, Kaylinn M. “KK” Riddle, Nina M. (Flink) Schwartz, James H. “Jim”

This list is from detailed obitu-aries published in Section B.

In the know

Friedlander

BY SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADATimes Correspondent

The Belleair Causeway Bridge — a major route to the gulf beaches — will be completely closed to traffic Saturday in a move that officials say could significantly reduce the time needed to complete construction of the new bridge.

“We are closing the causeway to shift traffic to the north side of the newly constructed relief bridge,” said Tony Horrnik, proj-ect manager for the Pinellas County public works department.

The causeway will close at 7 p.m. Saturday and will reopen to traffic 24 hours later at 7 p.m. Sunday , when motorists will be driving over the north half of the new relief bridge.

The complete closure was pro-posed by the project contractor to reduce future traffic delays caused by construction.

“While this closure is a tem-porary inconvenience, it will sig-nificantly decrease the need for future one-lane closures on the relief bridge,” Horrnik said. “The 24-hour closure will keep con-

struction time as short as possible, keep workers and motorists safer during construction, and reduce the number of lane closures that would otherwise have been neces-sary to complete construction of the new relief bridge.”

When completed, the $72.2-million, fixed span bridge will rise about 75 feet above the Intra-coastal Waterway.

The project includes several public leisure enhancements: water access, docks, a recon-structed boat ramp facility, a dog beach and parking.

The north side of the bridge will have several floating docks and a new water access area for vehicles that is ideal for loading. The 300- by 28-foot water access area will be laid with articulated block, allowing grass to grow through for a more natural envi-ronment.

A new parking area will be constructed on the east side of the causeway, next to the future bait house concession.

“The project is now about 50 percent completed,” Horrnik said. “All 30 piers and the two

end bents have been erected, and the last 30 feet of the east approach are nearly finished. Work on the northern half of the relief bridge, including slabs, is wrapping up.

“The project is on time and on budget.”

Construction of one-quarter of a mile of the road is using an innovative incremental launch method, the first to be used on a concrete structure. Horrnik lik-ens it to a slow rocket launch.

The bridge is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.

The idea is to decrease future one-lane closures during construction.

Belleair Causewayto close for 24 hours

JIM DAMASKE | Times

Crews are completing the last 30 feet of the east side of the Belleair Causeway. All the piers are completed and the bridge is now 50 percent complete. When finished, the $72.2-million, fixed span bridge will rise about 75 feet above the Intracoastal Waterway. The bridge is scheduled to open in the fall of 2009.

. BY THE NUMBERS

1.5 miles Total project length

2,748,741 Pounds of reinforcing steel

21,937 Cubic yards of concrete

3,350 feet Length of main bridge

100 feet Horizontal navigational clearance


The original medical examiner who did the autopsy on the victim has been dead for 20 years. The supervising police officer has retired to a cabin in Montana. And the primary officer now works somewhere else.

But those who know the case best came to a Pinellas County courtroom Tuesday to testify at the trial of a man Largo police spent 18 years investigat-ing before arresting.

And although it has been two

decades since Susan Heyliger died, her relatives filled nearly three rows of seats behind the prosecutors’ table.

The night of June 7, 1987, Hey-liger, 42, was cleaning up after clos-ing the Country Club Lounge on East Bay Drive. Unknown to her, someone was hiding in the ceiling above the men’s bathroom. He hit her, strangled her and slit her throat, authorities say, before getting away with $600.

Two years later, Largo police found a prime suspect, Jeffrey Lobik, now 41. He had been drinking at the bar

that night. He had no alibi for the early morning hours. His tennis shoes matched a shoe print found at the scene. And his criminal record included a charge of burglary.

But it would take another 16 years and a slipup in his story before Lobik was arrested, officials said.

At first, Lobik consistently denied that he was in the crawl space. When questioned in 2004, however, Lobik told a detective he had gone into the crawl space to smoke crack that night.

Two-decade trail finally leads to trialA shoe print, a change in story, and a suspect faces a judge in a bar worker’s killing.

. See SLAYING, 4

JIM DAMASKE | Times

Jeffrey Lobik, 41, is on trial in the 1987 murder of Susan Heyliger, whose throat was slit, at the Country Club Lounge in Largo.

Land sales may go to votersThe County Commission plans a meeting Aug. 5 on a charter change to protect sensitive preserves.BY THERESA BLACKWELLTimes Staff Writer

CLEARWATER — Pinellas County commissioners moved closer Tuesday to giving voters the authority to kill any future sales of the county’s environmen-tal lands.

The commission voted to hold a public hearing Aug. 5 on a pro-posed charter amendment that would be on the ballot in Novem-ber.

If approved by voters, it would

require a referendum any time county officials wanted to sell, convey or transfer more than 1 acre of the county’s environ-mental lands.

At that Aug. 5 hearing, com-missioners could decide whether to go forward with the amend-ment.

“Hopefully, this will pass and this conversation can be put to rest once and for all,” Commis-sioner Susan Latvala said.

Latvala first proposed an ordi-

nance to protect park and envi-ronmental lands after an uproar from environmentalists about projects the county had pro-posed in the Brooker Creek Pre-serve. But last year the commis-sion scrapped the ordinance in favor of a charter amendment.

If the amendment is passed as now written, county commission-ers would have to ask the voters for approval before disposing of more than an acre of any environmen-. See LANDS, 4

ATOYIA DEANS | Times

Brooker Creek is home to many flowers, including Nymphaea odorata, commonly known as the American white water lily.

Jackie Alexander

4 | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | St. Petersburg Times CLW

Sports >

The West Florida Y Runners Club had another healthy crowd — 203 runners — for the second installment of the Sunsets at Pier 60 Summer Series at Clear-water Beach on Friday night.

Seventeen-year-old Wes Reynolds, who will start his senior year at St. Petersburg High in August, ran the fastest 5K in 17:02.

Kenneth City’s Mark Benja-min, 19, an assistant cross coun-try coach at Dixie Hollins High, finished second in 17:24. Round-ing out the top three was Thomas McGrath, 17, of Largo in 17:43.

In the women’s ranks, Christa Benton, a five-time high school Florida state champ and former All-American for USF, had the fastest time in 17:56. The 18-year-old is the only woman ever to run a sub-18:00 at any of the West Florida Y’s beach races.

Other male winners included: Rayce Peters, Belleair, 33:32 (10 and under); Hunter McCann, Treasure Island, 21:00 (11-12); Cameron Wheeler, St. Peters-burg, 19:31 (13-14); Rick Pluta, Clearwater, 18:12 (15-19); Joe Palmer, Palm Harbor, 18:56 (35-39); Daryl Mullholand, Clearwater, 21:11 (40-44); Keith Sawayda, Clearwater, 17:45 (45-49); Dennis Byron, Palm Har-bor, 18:39 (50-54); Duncan Cam-eron, Palm Harbor, 21:17 (65-69).

Female age group winners included: Julia Siegel, Tarpon Springs, 27:58 (10 and under); Bobbi Marie LaBrant, Largo, 27:17 (11-12); Ashley Forn-shell, Clearwater, 22:06 (15-19); Nika Merta, Palm Harbor, 22:16 (20-24); Ali Smith, Clear-water, 22:06 (25-29); Christy Ford, Clearwater, 28:53 (30-34); Pamela McCann, Trea-sure Island, 25:09 (40-44); Patti Spence, Belleair, 22:09 (45-49); Vickie Krivacs, Palm Harbor, 29:51 (50-54); Karen Alexeev, Gulfport, 26:36 (55-59); Millie Hamilton, Redington Beach, 28:42 (60-64); Annette Frisch, St. Petersburg, 27:50 (65-69).

Traveling triathletesPatricia and Tom Hoffman,

two triathletes from Pinellas County, recently made a trip to Fort Lauderdale to compete in the Publix Family Fitness Triath-lon. Patricia, also an avid open-

water swimmer, finished first in the 55-59 division in 1:19:18, despite losing five minutes to a bike crash. Tom finished sixth in the 40-44 division in 1:03:17.

Traveling runnersMadeleine Zolfo, 43, of Trea-

sure Island was the first female finisher on July 12 at the E.L. Bing Beat the Heat 5K in Thono-tosassa. Zolfo finished in 19:12.

Swimming newsTim Kennedy, 51, of St.

Petersburg traveled to Man-hattan on July 5 for the annual 28.5-mile swim around the island. The event’s organizers limit the field to the fastest 25 swimmers who apply. Kennedy said that at the pre-race meeting, one of his fellow contestants told race officials, “It’s harder to get in the Manhattan swim than it is to get into college.”

Kennedy’s goal was to com-plete the counter-clockwise cir-cumnavigation of Manhattan in eight hours or less. He finished in 7 hours, 51 minutes, 28 sec-onds — just 20 minutes behind the winner.

The performance put him in sixth place overall — he was the third male and first in his age group. His secret: just zone out.

“You try not to think too much. Otherwise, you know how far you have to go and how cold the water is,” he said. “So I just zoned out, let time go by and kept my rhythm.”

The St. Pete Mad Dog Triath-lon Club member and St. Mas-ters Team swimmer was accom-panied by his daughter Lauren and girlfriend Carolyn Kiper.

Do you have running, swimming, biking, triathlon or adventure rac-ing news? Send it to Terry Toma-lin at [email protected] or call (727) 893-8808. You can also submit news online at community.tampabay.com.

Reynolds, Benton continue 5K success

. FAST FACTS

Upcoming events Today • Take the First Step, Sum-mer Series No. 4, 5K, 6 p.m., Al Lopez Park, Tampa. Call Lynn Gray at (813) 453-7885 or (813) 398-2217.Friday• Picnic Island Adventure Run No. 3, 5K, 6:45 p.m., Pic-nic Island, Tampa. Call (813) 232-5200 or visit active.com.Saturday• Gaither workout (for experienced bikers), 7:45 a.m., behind Gaither High. Call Richard Johnson at (813) 238-2464 or visit tbfreewheelers.com.• Marathon training, various group runs, 5:30 a.m., Downtown YMCA, Tampa. Contact Fred Vasconi at (813) 222-1334 or [email protected].• Stanley Breakfast Ride, 7:45 a.m., Seffner Elemen-tary, 109 Cactus Road, Seffner. Contact Terry Farrell at (813)684-3503 or [email protected], or visit tbfreewheelers.com.• West Florida “Y” Runners Club, 6 a.m. at City Hall Plaza in Clearwater, 7 a.m. at John Chesnut Park in Palm Harbor. Call Michael Weiss at (727) 644-7702 or visit wfyrc.com.Tuesday• Progressive Training Team, track workouts, 6:30 p.m., Coleman Elemen-tary, Tampa. Contact Dror Vaknin at (813) 846-5021 or [email protected]. 1• Sunset at the Pier Series No. 3, 7 p.m., 5K, Pier 60, Clearwater Beach. Contact Michael Weiss at (727) 644-7702 or [email protected]. 2• Top Gun Triathlon, 7:30 a.m., quarter-mile swim, 10-mile bike, 3.1-mile run, Fort DeSoto, St. Petersburg. Call (813) 874-7223 or visit topguntriathlon.com.

TERRY TOMALINRun, bike, swim

DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

Swimming toward triathlon success From right, Dylan Powers of New Port Richey, Jessica Henslee of Clearwater Beach, Cody Downes of Barstow, Calif., Noah Snare of Tarpon Springs, Nicole Winter of Sarasota and Breanna Lifand of Tarpon Springs demonstrate swimming with their fitness coach, Celia Dubey, left, at Total Fitness Health Club and Spa’s children’s triathlon clinic. Kids were taught the fundamentals of swimming, cycling and running for triathlon competitions.

FOR THE RECORDBaseballTampa TarponsThe adult 18-and-over Clearwater team is looking for former high school, college and minor-league players for the summer league. Please call Kevin Minto at 742-6192. USA PatriotsThe 9-and-under AAU team is looking for players. For informa-tion, call coach Mike Galinski at 556-3200.

BasketballCity of Largo CampThe city of is offering a summer camp Aug. 4-8 at Indian Rocks Baptist Church. For more infor-

mation call 460-1904 or visit www.largoyouthbasketball.com.

MiscellaneousSYAA meeting, electionsThe Seminole Youth Athletic Association will hold a general membership meeting and elec-tions Aug. 3, 2 p.m., at the conces-sion stand at 12100 90th Ave. N. Any family associated with foot-ball, soccer or baseball is encour-aged to attend. For more informa-tion, call Steve Kemp at 391-8679. SYAA is a volunteer organization that depends on donations to maintain the facility. To make a donation, contact Bob DeKorte at 397-3928.

SoccerSYAA soccerRegistration dates for the Semi-nole Youth Athletic Association are Aug. 6 from 6-8 p.m., Aug. 9 from 11-2 p.m., Aug. 13 from 6-8, Aug. 16 from 11-2 p.m., Aug. 23 from 11-2 p.m., Aug. 27 from 11-2 p.m.) and Aug. 30 from 11-2 p.m. Registration takes place at the SYAA Field, 12100 90th Ave. N., Seminole. For more information, visit www.syaa-soccer.com or call 398-3699.

SubmissionsAnnouncements should be mailed to Times Sports, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731-1121 or e-mail [email protected].

That inconsistency led author-ities to charge him with first-degree murder a year later.

Defense attorney Kandice Friesen said Lobik, who lived in Largo at the time of the killing but later moved to Ocala, never confessed to police or in letters to family.

On Tuesday, medical exam-iner Jon Thogmartin testified instead of John Gallagher, who performed the autopsy in 1987 but died a year later.

Thogmartin said Heyliger was hit behind the head and on the forehead, leaving bruises and cuts.

But it wasn’t enough to kill her.

Thogmartin said Heyliger was choked so hard, her neck-lace left an impression in her skin.

But it wasn’t enough to kill her.

It was the three slashes to the throat that killed her, Thogmar-tin said, but not before she took a few breaths and bled to death.

“She was alive after the stran-gulation and she was alive after the throat cut,” he told jurors.

Allen Kough, who has 11 fel-ony convictions, said in his tes-timony that he was in the van transporting him and Lobik to jail. Lobik told him about Hey-liger’s murder “like he didn’t care at all,” he said.

“They couldn’t prove it then

and they’ll never prove it now,” Kough said Lobik told him.

The trial is scheduled to con-tinue today.


. SLAYING continued from 1

Two-decade trail finally leads to trial

JIM DAMASKE | Times

Retired Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime scene technician Joel Carey goes through evidence during the trial of Jeffrey Lobik. Some involved in the case have died.

From the front page >

tal land the county owns in the Brooker Creek, Mobbly Bayou, Shell Key and Weedon Island pre-

serves and in 15 other man-agement areas throughout the county.

But the Friends of Brooker Creek, a non-profit group organized to advocate for and support the Brook-er Creek Pre-serve, say the charter amendment doesn’t go far enough.

The rea-son: Voter ap-proval would not be need-ed before leas-ing preserve lands, as com-missioners did when they

leased 38.5 preserve acres on Old Keystone Road to the East Lake Youth Sports Association for youth sports fields.

Will Davis, the county’s direc-tor of environmental manage-ment, confirmed the Friends’ take on the charter amendment in a discussion with Tom Reese, a St. Petersburg attorney, and Barbara Hoffman, a member of Pinellas County’s advisory Envi-ronmental Science Forum and

vice chairwoman of the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve.

“It stops the sale of the land — period,” Davis said of the charter amendment.

Hoffman said the Friends want to see a vote required for leasing, donating or licensing environmental lands as well as selling them.

And she said the vote should be required for any interest to be transferred, not just the transfer of “fee simple” inter-est — in essence, the transfer

of all property rights — as the amendment now reads.

The ordinance abandoned a year ago contained six excep-tions that would have allowed commissioners to take big steps affecting parks and environmental lands without getting voter approval first. Commissioner Calvin Harris and residents objected to the loopholes.

Opponents of the ordinance hoped the charter amendment would include language pre-venting commissioners from unilaterally approving proj-ects — like an equestrian cen-ter and the ballfields — once proposed in the Brooker Creek Preserve.

Last year, environmental activist Lorraine Margeson of St. Petersburg gave commis-sioners a proposed charter amendment based on the provi-sion in St. Petersburg’s charter that gives city voters there sim-ilar authority over the down-town waterfront.

The charter amendment now under consideration is not the one she proposed, she said, but it’s much better than the coun-ty’s discarded ordinance.

Charter amendments put vot-ers in the driver’s seat, she said.

“With the stadium, if we had not had the charter amend-ment protection, we’d probably already be building a baseball stadium,” she said.

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 445-4170.



Brooker Creek offers visitors an array of landscapes, such as the xeric hammock, left, and a field of the Xyris species, commonly known as yellow-eyed grass.

. LANDS continued from 1

Future land sales may go to voters

Commissioner Susan Latvala backs the idea of an amendment.

Activist Lorraine Margeson is supporter too.

. FAST FACTS

If you goWhen: 9:30 a.m. Aug. 5Where: Commission assembly room, fifth floor, Pinellas County Court-house, 315 Court St., Clear-waterWhat: A public hearing on whether to amend the county’s charter to require a referendum before selling more than an acre of the county’s environmental lands. It will be the only public hearing if commis-sioners vote on the issue that day. If commissioners move ahead, county voters would consider the charter amendment during the general election Nov. 4. If passed, the charter amend-ment would take effect Jan. 1.

Jackie Alexander

Coke to outsource 15% of jobs at Brandon accounting center. 7B

tampabay.com R * * * * Friday, July 11, 2008 | 1B

T heir stories, bound by a single, terrible thread, kept coming.

A woman and two friends shot dead by her estranged husband on a Saturday morn-ing in a quiet Carrollwood neighborhood.

Another who never made it to a court hearing for an injunction meant to protect her from her ex-boyfriend, found strangled in her West Tampa home.

A mother and her two small children, murdered on Moth-er’s Day in their mobile home in Lutz — and later, detectives say, a confession from her live-in boyfriend.

To most of us, they were headlines that played out over the last two months. To some who work daily in domestic violence, they may seem like something more, even a grim sign of the times.

Advocates will tell you they don’t have hard numbers, just a feel for it. Calls to their hot-lines are up. The level of bru-tality they hear about — the rapes and threats and beat-ings — seems worse.

Maybe it’s too simple to blame the economy, or the way the world feels right now, but some things seem ele-mental. People are dealing with foreclosures and gas and food prices and paycheck-to-paycheck choices that surely ratchet up frustration and anger, at least in some quar-ters.

And always, victims of spouse abuse have stayed because they had no money to go.

“We have a perfect storm,” says Joanne Olvera Lighter, president of the Spring domestic violence shelter in Tampa.

The 102-bed Spring was emergency shelter to more than 1,000 people last year, more than half of them chil-dren. Usually, the place is 60 to 70 percent full. But since late April, it has been near or at capacity — though they would want me to say very quickly that there is always room, always help at the end of the phone line.

Lighter, who runs a shel-ter in a county with a domes-tic violence rate second only to that of Miami-Dade County, has the most fitting analogy I’ve ever heard about who the victims really are.

Spouse abuse is as indis-criminate as cancer, she says, its victims poor and not. More than once at a fancy fund-raiser or luncheon, a well-heeled attendee has whis-pered in her ear about help she once got when she needed it.

“The old adage, why do we hurt the ones we love?” Lighter says. “Well, they’re the ones in the room.”

We can even blame the heat. Linda Osmundson, exec-utive director of the CASA shelter in St. Petersburg, says summer brings a jump. It’s hot, and kids are home. Par-ents, too, particularly if they can’t find work.

“The climate is so ripe that anybody who’s inclined to be abusive has more excuses,” she says.

So they try to move road-blocks that keep people from getting help. The Spring has a K-12 school. Advocates know some people will not leave their pets — not for a hurricane, and not for an abuser who would use some-thing you love as leverage or worse. Shelters on both sides of the bay have pet foster families or animal shelters willing to temporarily take them in until the owners are back on their feet.

So here’s the word they want out there to fight head-lines no one wants to see: Help is there.

The Spring: (813) 247-SAFE.CASA: (727) 895-4912.Florida’s domestic violence

hotline: 800-500-1119.

For abuse victims, help is a call away

SUE [email protected]

BY KEVIN GRAHAMTimes Staff Writer

TAMPA — A former employee of a St. Petersburg check verifica-tion company was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison Thursday for stealing millions of Americans’ personal financial information from a database and selling it.

William “Gary” Sullivan, 54, of Largo also was ordered to pay more than $3.97-million in resti-tution.

Sullivan pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspir-acy to defraud the United States and one count of fraud activity connected with computers. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday

gave Sullivan 57 months for each count but ordered that he serve the sentences concurrently.

Sullivan worked for nine years as a database analyst for Certegy Check Services, which advises retailers whether a customer’s check is likely to bounce. From about 2002 until June 2007, Sul-livan stole customer information

and resold it to others, including telemarketers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Palermo said investigators never uncovered information to suggest that third parties who bought the data used it to incur credit charges under the victims’ identities.

“Well, Mr. Sullivan, you’ve cre-ated quite a stir, and over a long

period of time caused a lot of peo-ple a lot of trouble,” Merryday said. “I’m certainly glad that the offense was not worse and its victims were not more seriously penalized than they were.”

Prosecutors said Sullivan made nearly $600,000 by sell-ing the personal records. Sulli-

Data thief gets 57 monthsThe Largo man is ordered to repay $3.97-million in a case that spawned seven suits.

BY MIKE DONILATimes Staff Writer

CLEARWATER — Criss Angel, often described as a postmod-ern Harry Houdini, is in talks to bring his hit cable TV show to Clearwater Beach for a spectacu-lar live stunt.

His goal: apparently to survive the implosion of the old Spyglass Resort, known for its 100-foot-tall mural of a hot-air balloon.

The vacant nine-story hotel is scheduled to be demolished on July 30.

Clearwater officials and Angel’s representatives will meet this morning to discuss the details. If everything goes well, the Las Vegas illusionist would perform the televised act live on his show Criss Angel Mindfreak.

It would be the latest in a career of death-defying feats, some of which he barely survived.

A goth figure who sports rings, necklaces and bracelets, Angel, 40, has set himself on fire, walked down the side of a build-ing and flown across a desert hanging from a helicopter with hooks pierced in his back.

Mindfreak’s fourth season debuts on the A&E network on July 23, when Angel is expected to walk on water.

Earlier this month, the Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, reported that at the end of the month “he will do a dice-with-death stunt … entitled ‘Implo-sion,’ in which he will be locked inside a building that is about to be blown up.”

That could be the Spyglass, built in 1971 on S Gulfview Bou-levard near the Clearwater Beach roundabout.

“They’re looking seriously at the site to feature on their show,” said Eric Fordin, vice president of development for the Related Group, a partner to Tampa’s Dr. Kiran Patel in the planned Clear-water Beach Resort.

Builders want to raze the Spy-glass to make way for a mega hotel.

Fordin said the groups have held extensive talks, but “noth-ing’s been signed.”

Although some city officials

Will he survive death of hotel?A TV illusionist wants to be inside when Clearwater implodes the Spyglass Resort.

She is acquitted after being embroiled in a flareup with a cop at McDonald’s.


Jean Merola reacts to a not-guilty verdict at the Pinellas County criminal courthouse on 49th Street. She was charged with violating a city ordinance by obstructing a public place Jan. 17 while waiting in a McDonald’s drive-through for french fries.


The judge said Jean Merola was loud, ill mannered and abusive.

But not guilty.“If rudeness and inconsideration of oth-

ers were a crime, this would be a felony,” county Judge Patrick Caddell told the grandmother of eight Thursday.

But they aren’t, and after a one-day trial, Caddell found Merola, 76, of Clearwa-ter not guilty in a controversial case that started with an order of french fries.

Merola had faced an $88 fine on a charge of violating a Clearwater city ordi-nance in January when she parked her car

in the drive-through lane of McDonald’s, blocking police Officer Matthew Parco’s cruiser.

It took a moment for the verdict to sink in for Merola.

“Did you say I’m not guilty?” she asked.“You’re guilty of a lot of things,” Caddell

said. “Just not this.”McDonald’s employees had asked

Merola to pull her car forward to wait for a special order of unsalted fries on Jan. 17.

Parco, who was behind her getting an iced coffee, asked her to move her car far-ther because he couldn’t get by. Parco said Merola cursed at him and called him

names. Merola said the officer blasted his horn and harassed her.

Merola was arrested, initially on a count of disorderly conduct, handcuffed and booked into the Pinellas County Jail. Later the charge was changed to violating a city ordinance by obstructing a public place.

Assistant State Attorney Robin Allweiss said that although the fine was small and the violator elderly, the state had to prose-cute when Merola refused to pay.

“We don’t selectively prosecute,” she said. “We’re just doing our job.”

During the trial, six state witnesses tes-

Associated Press

Criss Angel has held talks with the company that owns the Spyglass site, but “nothing’s been signed.”

. Fleeing car kills 1, hurts 4One person was killed and four others were hospitalized Thursday night in a police drug bust that went bad. Pinel-las Park police were conducting an undercover drug arrest about 9 p.m. when the two male suspects fled in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, said Capt. Sanfield Forseth. Police were unable to stop the car but did not chase it, Forseth said. The Monte Carlo sped south on U.S. 19 and slammed into a Ford Taurus traveling on 70th Avenue N. The car was carrying two adults and three children. The driver, whose name was not released, was killed. The female passenger and three children, ages 8, 9, and 12, were taken to local hospitals. The suspects fled on foot. Police believe they have cap-tured both men. The crash blocked southbound traffic on U.S. 19 for more than an hour.

CorrectionA visitation for the late Velma Mims will be today from 5 to 6 p.m. at Bethel Community Baptist Church, 2901 54th Ave. S, St. Petersburg. A prayer service will be today from 6 to 8 p.m. The address for the church was incor-rectly reported in a story Sunday.

SHORT OF MONEY, SHERIFF CUTS JOBS OF 25 DEPUTIES Pinellas County will be short 25 more depu-ties this summer after Sheriff Jim Coats announced a new round of layoffs Thurs-day. The layoffs, effective Aug. 8, will slash 22 patrol deputies and three court deputies. Officials say the deputies with the least time at the Sheriff’s Office will be the ones laid off. The Sheriff’s Office plans to cut 275 cer-tified and civilian positions. The cuts come at the request of county commissioners who asked Coats to trim his budget by 10 percent — roughly $26-million. Coats said Thursday that restoring $3-million of that planned cut would undo much of the dam-age to public safety.

Attacked biker backBicyclist Rich-ard French is healed from getting hit with a base-ball bat and is riding again. But he wants his attacker caught. 5B

Talk of the Bay

French fry grandma wins

BY MEG LAUGHLIN AND KEVIN GRAHAMTimes Staff Writers

CAIRO — The family of Sami Al-Arian reacted with joy Thursday to news from Virginia that a federal judge had granted the former University of South Florida professor bail as he awaits trial on contempt charges.

“We’re almost afraid to have hope,” said Leena, Al-Arian’s 23-year-old daughter, “because every time we do, we get knocked down. But, maybe, this time will be differ-ent.”

But their joy was tempered by subsequent news that immigration officials would keep Al-Arian in custody for the time being. Al-Arian has been held in prison since February 2003, when he was charged with multiple ter-rorism-related counts.

Al-Arian granted bail, but not yet his freedomHe has remained in custody since ’06 despite his plea deal.

Sami Al-Arian was acquitted on eight counts in 2005.

“If rudeness and inconsideration of others were a crime, this would be a felony.”Patrick Caddell, the county judge who acquitted Jean Merola in the french fry case.

. See SENTENCING, 8B

. See MINDFREAK, 8B. See AL!ARIAN, 8B

. See FRIES, 8B

Photo by Donna French

Jackie Alexander

8B | Friday, July 11, 2008 | St. Petersburg Times * * * *

van said he did it because he was desperate. His wife was unem-ployed and he had no money in his 401(k), he said.

“I (in) no way intended to cause anybody any grief or hardship,” Sullivan said in court. “Every week it hap-pened, I regret-ted it … but it didn’t stop me from doing it.”

Sullivan’s actions caused Cer t eg y to notify about 8.4-million Americans — includ-ing 460,000 Floridians — that their data had been methodically stolen over a five-year period.

Seven class-action lawsuits resulted, and six remain, which are in various stages of being set-tled, Palermo said.

The people who sued Certegy over their information being sold have won a judgment for attor-neys’ fees of about $2.35-million, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said victims included residents of all 50 states, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and military personnel overseas.

57 months for data thief

. SENTENCING continued from 1B

have talked about today’s meet-ing, Angel’s representatives this week performed their own disap-pearing act. Contacted Wednes-day, they said they would call right back. They never did. They also didn’t return calls Thursday.

Asked about the secrecy, Mayor Frank Hibbard said, “They don’t like divulging what they’re doing for preparation purposes.

“They don’t want people watching the process, watching what they do,” he said.

Hibbard, who has long wanted the rundown building removed, said he is not concerned with the methods, only the results.

“All I care about is that the Spyglass disappears,” he said. “Whether it’s a bulldozer, dyna-mite or an illusionist, it better disappear.”

City officials say they aren’t quite sure how the Clearwater made the list of cities the enter-tainer is considering. They only know an A&E producer con-tacted them about it recently.

The show would reimburse any city costs to stage the event, city spokesman Doug Matthews said. He said he understands that A&E wants to start promot-ing the show’s fourth season in the next week or so.

“It would be extraordinary publicity because it’s a popular show,” Matthews said. “To do it live and feature Clearwater and the new BeachWalk and all the things we’re doing — you can’t put a price on that.”

Times researcher Caryn Baird con-tributed to this report. Mike Donila can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 445-4160.

. BIOGRAPHY

Criss Angel(Christopher Sarantakos)Age: 40.Residence: Las Vegas.Career: Learned his first magic trick from his aunt at age 6. Performed at par-ties and restaurants, a local cable TV show and some television specials before staging 600 off-Broadway performances in New York. Then created Criss Angel Mindfreak, which debuted in July 2005. Last season the show attracted 2.7-million viewers. Also has appeared on late-night talk shows, Larry King, Oprah and CSI: New York.Quote: “I consider myself an artist who uses many differ-ent paintbrushes to create the image I want, whether it’s using illusions, magic, mentalism, hypnosis, escapes, performance art or music.” (Chicago Tribune, Aug. 6, 2006)

From the front page > tampabay.com for the latest news

Will he survive the blast?

. MINDFREAK continued from 1B

tified that Merola was visibly agitated and ver-bally abusive to Parco.

Parco told the court Merola said she hoped he was Christian because he was “pure evil and going to hell.”

Merola did not testify, and the defense did not present any witnesses.

Sue Cushell, whose daughter videotaped the arrest, said Parco was very calm throughout the ordeal.

Merola, on the other hand, “wagged her fin-ger in his face and gave him a piece of her mind,” Cushell said.

McDonald’s shift manager Sarah Curtis said she had to deliver food for nearly an hour to stuck patrons. And it took her two tries to get Merola to take her unsalted fries.

Police Cpl. Carl Conyers said he advised Parco to arrest Merola, despite his repeated attempts to defuse the situation.

“He did not want to take her to jail,” Conyers said.

Parco was later cleared by police supervisors of any policy violation in the way he handled Merola’s arrest.

But in May, Parco resigned from the Police Department during an internal affairs investi-gation of allegations that he behaved inappro-priately March 29 when responding to a child-custody call.

Witnesses told investigators that he offered a 15-year-old girl chewing tobacco, fired his Taser into his cruiser windshield to demonstrate how it worked and showed the teen a computer video of a cow being Tasered. He denied doing those things, but electronic usage logs on the com-puter and Taser indicated otherwise.

Defense attorney Steven Andrews said he and Merola learned a lot throughout the trial and felt sorry for Parco in the end.

“There’s no winners here,” Andrews said. After the verdict, Merola said little herself and was cut off by her attorney several times when she began to speak.

. FRIES continued from 1B

French fry grandmother is acquitted

In late 2005, a Tampa jury acquitted him on eight of the charges and dead-locked on nine others. In May 2006, Al-Arian accepted a plea agreement for helping associates of a terrorist organization with nonviolent activi-ties. He finished serving his 57-month sentence in April.

Under the terms of the plea deal, Al-Arian would have been deported “expeditiously” as soon as the sen-tence was done, but a federal prosecu-tor in Virginia wanted him to testify before a grand jury investigating an Islamic think tank in Herndon, Va. Al-Arian refused, saying it violated the terms of his plea agreement.

Al-Arian’s trial on the criminal contempt charges is scheduled for mid August. If found guilty, he could remain in prison for years.

Al-Arian’s attorney, Jonathan Turley, said, “The government has painted itself into a corner with Dr. Al-Arian. … Either it must release him on bond or deport him very soon.”

What “soon” means is not clear.Arturo Rios Jr., a St. Petersburg

lawyer specializing in immigration issues, said it’s not uncommon for a judge to grant bail and then for immi-gration officials to take custody of an individual.

Once Al-Arian is in the custody of ICE, authorities will have 48 hours to give him a notice to appear, which Rios described as a summons to begin the deportation process. He said deportation could happen within 60 days from that point or take up to a year, depending on the case.

In a separate order from Al-Ari-an’s conditions of release, which include him posting $340,000 he has in his retirement pension, U.S. Dis-trict Judge Leonie Brinkema said that ICE has filed an immigration detainer with the U.S. Marshal Ser-vice. Brinkema ordered that once Al-Arian posts bail, he must be released into the custody of ICE. Officials are to

make Al-Arian available for all hear-ings in his criminal case.

After court Thursday, Turley called the contempt case is “a ruse.” Al-Arian has spoken with prosecutors about the think tank and has even agreed to take a polygraph test. What the pros-ecutors really want, said Turley, is Al-Arian to answer questions about the Florida case, “which is a clear viola-tion of the plea agreement.”

Prosecutors in Virginia could not be reached for comment.

Linda Moreno, who represented Al-Arian at his 2005 trial, cheered the judge’s ruling. “I’m so happy that Judge Brinkema restores the confi-dence that Americans are due in our system of justice ,” she said.

Becky Steele, regional director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said the judge appears to be holding the executive branch account-able.

“The heartening thing for me here

is that the system seems to be working and that the judge is making an inde-pendent assessment of what seems to be persecution by the government,” Steele said.

But lawyer Eddie Suarez said he doesn’t think the ruling does much.

“At the end of the day, I’m not sure we’ve accomplished a whole lot,” Suarez said. “He’ll still be held on these immigration issues.”

If Al-Arian is released on bond, his wife, Nahla, 47, said she and two of her children will return from Cairo to the United States to reunite with her husband and their three other chil-dren.

On the other hand, the family will wait to reunite in Cairo if Al-Arian is deported soon.

“Either way, it looks as if we will finally be a family again,” Nahla said.

Meg Laughlin can be reached at [email protected].

MEG LAUGHLIN | Times

Nahla Al-Arian and Leena Al-Arian, Sami Al-Arian’s wife and daughter, who live in Cairo, react with joy to a federal judge granting bond.

. AL!ARIAN continued from 1B

Judge grants Al-Arian bail

Sullivan

Jackie Alexander

pinellas.tampabay.com Sunday, July 27, 2008 CLW

Pike Place Market provides a one-stop shop for all that is Seattle. Latitudes

PALM HARBOR

MAN ARRESTED IN BURGLARY, SEXUAL ASSAULTDeputies have arrested a man suspected of slipping into the home of a 57-year-old Palm Harbor woman

around 2 a.m. Friday through an unlocked door, binding her hands, beating and kicking her in the face

with enough force to break bones, and raping her. Christopher Lee Granado, 40, of 706 Sparrow Ave., Palm Harbor, was arrested about 9 p.m. Friday near the Pinellas-Pasco county line. He was charged with sexual battery with intent to commit great bodily harm, burglary and false imprisonment. The victim’s adult daughter was also struck after walking in on the assault, Pinellas County Sheriff officials said. Gra-nado was being held in the Pinellas County jail, with bail set at $500,000.

CLEARWATER

Event for homeless needs 500 helpersOrganizers of Project Homeless Connect are looking for 500 volunteers to participate in a one-day effort Sept. 27 to help those on the street and those in need. The one-day service fair will run from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Harborview Center, 300 Cleveland St. Its goal is to connect the homeless and others in need with professionals who can provide services such as medical and dental screenings; job and housing assistance and social, legal and transportation services. Volunteers must attend one of six training sessions prior to the event. Visit www.pinellasconnect.org for the schedule or to register as a volunteer. For informa-tion, call Betty Moran at the American Red Cross, (727) 446-2358.

LARGO

Green Armada needs helpers, tooIf you’d rather volunteer for an environmental cause, the nonprofit Green Armada, along with the city of Largo and River Quest, is looking for people to help clean up the shores of the Largo pad-dling trail Aug. 9. The event is scheduled for 8 a.m. at the Largo Central Park Nature Preserve, 150 Highland Ave. SE, south of East Bay Drive and behind Everest Univer-sity. Volunteers are urged to bring their own kayaks or canoes, but organizers do have 77 seats available on vessels for those who don’t have their own. All volun-teers are asked to register at www.GreenArmada.org. To reserve a seat, call Joe Gonzalez toll-free at 1-800-496-9161; press 1 for Tampa Bay, then 3 to volunteer.

CLEARWATER

Saturday picnic celebrates culturesThe city of Clearwater is hosting a multicultural back-to-school picnic that will combine school supplies, hot dogs and traditional cultural arts into an exercise in community-building. The free picnic will be from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Glen Oaks Park, 1345 Court St. One of the goals is to celebrate the diverse popu-lation of the East Gateway District, which is between Drew and Court streets and Highland and Missouri avenues. The picnic will fea-ture performances by Sun-drummers drumming circle and the Folklorico Mexico dance troupe. Children’s activities will include the art of papel picado, or paper cutting, T-shirt tie-dying and games. School supplies will be distributed to children while they last and there will be drawings for prizes. For information, call (727) 562-4047 or visit www.myclearwater.com/eastgateway.

In the know

Granado

BY RITA FARLOW Times Staff Writer

A decade ago, during his first campaign for the state legisla-ture, a volunteer came up with U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis’ slogan: Gus is for Us.

It may not be the sexiest motto, but Bilirakis said he’s kept it because it speaks to his primary mission: remembering the con-

stituents back home each time he steps on the House floor to cast a vote.

“ I want to continue to live up to that because it means I’m fighting for the people in my dis-trict,” Bilirakis said.

In the freshman incumbent’s bid to retain his seat, Bilira-kis has name recognition on his side. His father, Mike, held the

seat from 1983 to 2006.But Bilirakis, 45, could have

some heavy competition this year in U.S. House District 9, which covers northern Pinel-las, western Pasco and suburban Hillsborough counties.

John Dicks, 55, has caught the attention of Democratic Party strategists .

First the former Plant City mayor will take on Tampa law-yer Bill Mitchell and Hispanic advocate Anita de Palma in next month’s primary. But Bilira-

kis’ name recognition — and the money he’s been able to collect — could prove to be the greatest hurdle for challengers in this his-torically conservative district.

Based on the June 30 cam-paign reports, Bilirakis has raised $1.05-million in contribu-

tions.Dicks has brought in $104,651

and loaned himself another $320,000.

Mitchell has collected about $70,000 in contributions and loaned his campaign another

BY LORRI HELFANDTimes Staff Writer

Two weeks ago, Pinellas County officials said full fund-ing for paramedic services next year was in jeopardy because of Amendment 1.

Last week, county commission-ers solved the problem by voting to tap into about $970,000 in emer-

gency medical services reserves.With the bump from reserves,

county funding for first respond-ers next year is about $41-million, which is generated by a separate EMS property tax.

Commissioners didn’t stop there.

To make the system more effi-cient and less costly, officials

plan in coming months to review the first-responder program and EMS transports and start talk-ing about consolidating services, interim County Administrator Fred Marquis told commission-ers last week.

And in October 2009, the county plans to terminate all the five-year contracts it signed with

cities last October and renegotiate future contracts.

Paramedics respond to med-ical emergencies from 19 fire agencies, and Sunstar Emer-gency Medical Services has an exclusive contract with the

county for its ambulances to take people to the hospital.

The St. Petersburg Times reported in April that officials acknowledge that the current system of sending both fire-res-cue and private ambulances to virtually every medical call is costly. Sending fewer fire units to minor medical calls could save up to $10-million over a decade, advocates say.

The possibility of changes — especially the idea that fire

Interim County Administrator Fred Marquis: A review and talks about consolidation are planned.

Consolidate fire departments?For the sake of efficiency, fire chiefs and county officials appear to be more willing to compromise.

. See FIRE, 5

Courtesy of Zach Railey

Railey, who is 6 feet 4, will go up against 24 other sailors on Finns, heavyweight single-man boats. He says he’s lost 20 pounds in preparation for the Olympics.

Courtesy of Zach Railey

Zach Railey, 24, who first learned to sail at the Clearwater Yacht Club, will represent the United States at the Olympics in China this summer.

In the U.S. Olympic sailing trials, there are only two options. ¶ Win or go home. ¶ At Olympic tri-als last October in Newport Beach, Calif., Zach Rai-

ley won, realizing a dream he fi rst had a dozen years ago. ¶ Now the 24-year-old Clearwater native is in Qingdao , China, making fi nal preparations to compete in the Finn-class sailing race on Aug. 9.

The race before the race

Bilirakis (R) de Palma (D) Dicks (D) Mitchell (D)

Three Democrats in the August primary fight to run against Gus Bilirakis in November.

Congressional District 9

. See PRIMARY, 6

Setting his sights on the gold

At age 8 his dad put him in a sailing class to keep him out of trouble, now this 24-year-old is …

BY JACKIE ALEXANDER | Times Staff Writer

Only the top American sail-or in the Finn, a heavyweight single-man boat, gets an Olym-pic berth. Railey will face a field of 25 sailors from around the world, including 2004 gold medalist Ben Ainslie of Eng-land and current world cham-pion Jonas Hoegh-Christensen of Denmark.

Railey said a dozen sailors have the mettle to win one of the three medals.

And he thinks he is one of them.

• • •

Railey’s sailing career started at age 8.

His father, Dan, said he was sitting in the chair of the family dentist.

“What are the children doing for the summer?” dentist Pete Crawford asked Dan Railey.. See SAILING, 5

Jackie Alexander

CLW St. Petersburg Times | Sunday, July 27, 2008 | 5

TodaySwap stories: The Tampa Bay Storytellers Guild Story Swap meets at 3 p.m. today and the fourth Sunday of every month at Park Station, 5851 Park Blvd. Come and hear tall tales and interesting yarns. The Story Swap is free and open to anyone who wants to listen or come and share a story. Call Billie Noakes at (727) 647-8057.‘The King and I’: This is the last weekend for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s opulent musical The King and I, featuring fan-favorite songs like Hello, Young Lovers; Getting to Know You; and the resounding Shall We Dance? at the Tarpon Springs Perform-ing Arts Center, 324 Pine St. The show is 2 p.m. today . Tickets are $18 for adults, $12 for students, $16 for center members, reserved seating. Call (727) 942-5605.‘The Fantasticks’: The Eight O’Clock Theatre presents The Fantasticks, the classic musical about two meddling, matchmak-ing fathers who scheme to get their children together, at 2 p.m. today at the Largo Cultural Center, 105 Central Park Drive. Tickets are $26 for adults, $16 for students 19 and younger, and $23.50 for group rates. Call the box office at (727) 587-6793. Sunday bingo: Games start at 12:30 p.m. every Sunday at the Knights of Columbus, 1251 San Christopher Drive, Dunedin. Free coffee and doughnuts with sign in, hot dogs and sloppy joes $1. Chips and drinks available. Smok-ing and nonsmoking halls. Call Jerry at (727) 216-3859.

MondayLacrosse camp: Boys ages 6-15

will learn how to play lacrosse at a week-long camp from 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday at Canal Park, 3120 Tampa Road, Oldsmar. Cost is $50 with a rec card, $75 without. Bring a snack, lunch and water. Register at Cypress Forest Recreation Cen-ter, 650 Pine Ave. N, Oldsmar, call (813) 818-0149, or visit www.ci.oldsmar.fl.us .Family Movie Night: Bring the family, relax in bean bag chairs and watch a movie on Fam-ily Movie Night at 6 p.m. in the Largo Public Library’s Children’s Program Room, 120 Central Park

Drive. Popcorn included. Call (727) 587-6715.Sing along: Palm Harbor Men’s Barbershop Chorus meets at 6:45 p.m. Mondays at the Palm Harbor Senior Activity Center, 1500 16th St. Tenors, leads, baritones and bass-es needed. Call (727) 771-6000.Trace your roots: Free genealogy help with volunteer genealogist John Kiwala from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Tarpon Springs Public Library, 138 E Lemon St. Call (727) 943-4922. Dixieland dance: The Bayside Banjo Band plays Dixieland and

old-time songs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. every Monday at Ameri-can Legion Post 7, 1760 Turner St., Clearwater. Call (727) 447-9204.

TuesdayGardening course: Learn Florida-friendly landscape design and maintenance principles from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Pinellas County Extension, 12520 Ulmer-ton Road, Largo. Classes also offered Aug. 19 and Sept. 9 and 23. Tuition $15 per class. Call (727) 582-2673.Dinner dance: Indulge your con-tinental tastes with a pasta dinner and dance from 5 to 8:30 p.m. every Tuesday at the Italian Ameri-can Club of Greater Clearwater, 200 McMullen Booth Road. $7 members, $9 nonmembers. The Club also hosts dinner and danc-ing from 6-10 p.m. every other Saturday. $13 members, $16 non-members. Call (727)791-8698.Trace your roots: Free genealogy assistance with volunteer gene-alogist Ken Nichol from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Tarpon Springs Public Library, 138 E Lemon St. Call (727) 943-4922.Double art openings: Dunedin Fine Arts Center will host opening receptions for “Wearable Art: The Exhibition” and “Down the Rab-bit Hole: Vivian Ruegger’s Alice Project” from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at 1143 Michigan Blvd., Dunedin. Call (727) 298-DFAC (3322) or visit www.dfac.org.Business advice: The Pinellas chapter of SCORE will host a free seminar on “Ten Steps to Starting Your Own Business” at 7 p.m. at Tarpon Springs Public Library, 138 E Lemon St. Register at the library or call (727) 943-4922.

Out & About

Art explained

Special to the Times

TodayThe Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art offers a docent tour at 2 p.m. every Sunday. Meet in the lobby of the museum, which is on the Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg College, 600 Klosterman Road. Admission is free on Sundays. For information, call (727) 712-5762.

Clearwater Times > tampabay.com for more Pinellas County news

Coast Guard Seaman Eric T. Foster, brother of Derrio D. Fos-ter of Largo, graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Recruit Train-ing Center in Cape May, N. J.

During the eight-week pro-gram, Foster completed a train-ing curriculum consisting of aca-demics and practical instruction on water safety and survival, mil-itary customs and courtesies, seamanship skills, first aid, fire-fighting and marksmanship .

Foster is a 1997 graduate of Parker High School, Birming-ham, Ala.

• • •

Airman 1st Class Blake T. Borrack, a 2004 graduate of

Clearwater Central Catholic, graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas.

During six weeks of train-ing, the airman studied the Air Force mission, organization and military customs and courtesies, per-formed drill and ceremony

marches and received physical training, rifle marksmanship, field training exercises and spe-cial training in human relations.

He is the son of Ted Borrack of

Palm Harbor.

• • •

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Rebecca S. Kaiser has retired from the Navy after 24 years of military service.

Prior to retiring, Kaiser was the country director for Tajiki-stan, U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa.

She is the daughter of John and Tamara D. Badders of Largo, and wife of Jack G. Kai-ser Jr.

The lieutenant commander graduated in 1980 from Largo High, and received a bachelor’s degree in 1984 from the Univer-sity of Florida. She earned a mas-

ter’s degree in 1997 from the Uni-versity of South Florida.

• • •

Army Pvt. Richard J. Bush, son of Richard Bush Sr. of Largo, graduated from basic infantry training at Fort Ben-ning, Columbus, Ga.

During nine weeks of training, the soldier received training in drill and ceremonies, weapons, map reading, tactics, military courtesy, military justice, physi-cal fitness, first aid and Army his-tory, core values and traditions. Additional training included development of basic combat skills and battlefield operations and tactics.

Military news

Borrack

. FIRE continued from 1

Zach Railey was playing base-ball and tennis. He was a good kid, but he had his run-ins with his mom and dad, Dan Railey said.

Crawford suggested the Rai-leys send their three children to sailing camp at the Clearwater Yacht Club.

Zach fell in love the first day.“It was the attraction of being

near the water that pulled me toward sailing,” he said.

But his life changed in a golden flash on a track far from home.

In 1996, when Michael John-son sprinted his way into history with those golden shoes, Railey stared in amazement along with millions of other TV viewers watching the Atlanta Olympics.

He called a meeting with his parents. He was only 12, but he announced his goal: the Olym-pic Games.

In setting his sights high and devoting his teenaged years to sailing, Railey said he missed out on movies with friends and homecoming dances.

“I was so concentrated on my sailing that I didn’t have a lot of free time,” he said.

Railey graduated from Clear-

water High School and headed to the University of Miami. He con-tinued sailing while in college, but not with the ’Canes. The col-legiate boats were too small for Railey, who stands 6 feet 4 and weighed 215 pounds in college.

He graduated in May 2006 with a degree in sports administra-tion and business management — tools Railey said have helped him raise the money necessary to continue his racing career.

His family, including sisters Paige and Brooke, have been there every step of the way.

Paige Railey, 21, also sails, rising quickly in the ranks of female Laser sailors. She quali-fied as the alternate for the Bei-jing Olympics. In 2006, the Inter-national Sailing Federation and Rolex named her women’s World Sailor of the Year.

Her twin sister, Brooke, sailed in her childhood, but now serves as Railey’s anchor, grounding him when necessary.

Zach Railey credits his mother, Ann, with much of his success.

“She does everything we have to have done behind the scenes before we go on the water,” Rai-ley said. “It’s her full-time job.”

Ann Railey said raising two

world-class athletes is simply a matter of keeping organized, which can be hard when her chil-dren are on different continents competing.

Zach Railey said he spends a lot of time away from home, but his natural friendliness helps him along the way.

“It gets pretty lonely pretty quick,” he said.

On the racing circuit, Railey passes time with his competi-tors, going out to dinner with them and comparing schedules.

And because of his demand-ing schedule, Railey, who is sin-gle, said he rarely dates.

But when he does get a chance to go home, Railey said he tries to be as normal as possible.

“Outside of all this Olympics stuff, yeah, I’m a normal guy,” he laughed.

• • •

The Olympics will be anything but normal. Only a few seconds separate the winners from the losers. Sometimes, it’s mere inches.

But Railey said his plan is to sail a focused, disciplined race.

“In sailing you have to be very consistent,” he said. “You don’t

have to win every race to do well in the regatta.”

Finn-class sailors are the big-gest in the games. Light-wind courses like Qingdao favor boats that weigh less and make racing tough.

“It’s a mental game for sure in light wind,” said Railey, who has dropped about 20 pounds to pre-pare for the Olympics.

But Railey said he’s more than ready. He follows a strict train-ing regimen, starting with an hour of cardio exercise in the morning, three to five hours out on the water and ending with a two-hour session in the gym before bed.

When he gets back from China, Railey said he’s going to take a few months off. He’ll start with catching up with college friends in Miami.

Then, his sights will be focused on 2012 and another Olympic berth.

“My sister and I are definitely going again,” he said.

But first, he plans to come home a winner.


. SAILING continued from 1

Setting his sights on the gold

departments could transport some people to hospitals — appeals to some local officials. They’re ready to talk.

“It’s an opportunity for us to sit down together and put together a plan that works for everyone,” Largo fire Chief Mike Wallace said.

• • •

A few years ago, Marquis’ comments about consolida-tion might have riled local fire chiefs. But not now.

“I don’t know that consolida-tion is a bad word from a gen-eral perspective,” said Seminole fire Chief Dan Graves, presi-dent of Pinellas County Fire Chiefs Association.

Chiefs have been talking about the possibility of regional consolidation, maybe grouping area departments or smaller departments with larger ones.

But despite being open to some concessions on consoli-dation, fire officials still oppose creating one countywide fire district, an idea floated time and time again by county offi-cials.

“If you were to look at mak-ing Pinellas County one fire department, you end up with a money-guzzling behemoth, kind of like the School Board,” Graves said.

Fire chiefs say they felt the concept was forced on them in the past.

In 2005, as part of the county charter review process, the county asked for the third update of a previous study on fire service. That update found that the county could save more than $15-million a year by con-solidating into one district.

But the chairman of the review commission, Alan Bom-stein, said such a system might cost hundreds of millions to implement if it required the consolidated district to buy the

assets of the municipal depart-ments.

• • •

Now fire officials say Mar-quis and other county leaders are making more of an effort to include them in discussions about fire service.

“It’s the first time I’ve heard a willingness to discuss the transport issue at his level. It’s the first time I’ve heard the consolidation talk go from all or nothing to a more concep-tually practical approach,” said St. Petersburg fire Chief James Large.

“Nobody until now wanted to be a partner in trying to fix this,” Graves said. “The winds are changing and the county administration has some new people and they’re very inter-ested in trying to fix it.”

While both sides appear in a mood to compromise, Graves acknowledged that there may be some past animosity to work through.

“You can’t take years of get-ting beat up and turn that off in one day,” Graves said. “We’re moving in a good direction, but I’m sure there’s going to be some speed bumps.”

Lorri Helfand can be reached at [email protected] or (727) 445-4155.

“It’s an opportunity for us to sit down together and put

together a plan that works for everyone.”Mike Wallace, Largo fire

chief

“Nobody until now wanted to be a partner in trying to fix this. The winds are changing and the county administration has some new people and they’re very interested in trying to fix it.”Dan Graves, president of Pinellas County Fire

Chiefs Association

Consolidate fire departments?

Jackie Alexander

Jackie Alexander Portfolio

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