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Firefighters are battling a two-alarm blaze that broke out this afternoon in a Pinellas Park warehouse, according to the Pinellas Park Police Department.
The chemical fire at 5260 113th Ave. E started just after 12:30 p.m. No injuries were reported.
Times staff writer
Pinellas high school principals today asked superintendent Julie Janssen to recommend a temporary suspension of the district’s exam exemption policy due to concerns about swine flu.
Rather than allowing students with A or B averages and good attendance to opt out of exams, Janssen instead will ask the board on Sept. 15 to consider requiring students to take a final exam in every course in which they did not maintain an A or B in each of the first, second and third six-week grading periods.
The attendance requirement would be removed.
“Our principals have had calls from parents who were concerned because they were afraid that what we had in place right now would encourage their children to go to school when they were sick,” Janssen said. “This is a much more reasonable policy for the short term.”
Later this year, a committee of parents, teachers and students will look at revamping the entire exam exemption policy, Janssen said.
“We can go from one end to the other on this,” Janssen said of the controversial exemption policy. “We may end up doing away with it altogether.”
Donna Winchester, Pinellas education reporter
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BRANDON -- A Brandon man forced a woman he knows off the road after an argument this morning, according to Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies.
Deputies arrested Jimmie Lee England, 43, of 207 Bryan Road, and booked him into the county jail on one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
At about 6:50 a.m., England was waiting outside the home of Nicole Costanzos near Magnolia Pointe Court and N Parsons Avenue and started an argument with her, according to an arrest report. When she became afraid and tried to drive away, he used his own vehicle to force her off the road twice, then struck her car from behind while she was inside, deputies said.
England, who is unemployed, was released from the Orient Road Jail this afternoon after posting $11,500 bail.
Richard Danielson, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA -- Police have charged two Tampa men with using a pistol to rob a Metro PCS telephone store Friday afternoon.
Melvin McQuay, 21, and Byron Jamal Brown, 22, were arrested Saturday night and were each booked in to the Hillsborough County jail on one count of armed robbery.
Police say the men went into the store, at 2100 Main St., Friday afternoon, brandished a black handgun at the clerk, then reached over the counter and grabbed $590 from the register before running out.
The robbery was captured on surveillance video, according to police, and both men were identified from photos. McQuay, of 1502 A Walnut Trail, and Brown, of 1720 W Arch St., were each being held without bail at the Orient Road jail today.
-- Richard Danielson, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA — Authorities say a fire that damaged a vacant home in West Tampa Saturday night is suspicious.
A passer-by called firefighters to the 3300 block of W Spruce Street at 9:19 p.m. They arrived within four minutes to find flames coming from the back of a single-story home near McFarlane Park. Firefighters brought the fire under control within 10 minutes, limiting the damage to a single room.
No one was hurt. Firefighters on the scene thought the cause of the fire was suspicious, authorities say, so they called in an arson investigator from the Tampa Fire Marshall’s Office.
Fire officials described the damage to the property as moderate but did not have an estimate to value of the loss.
-- Richard Danielson, Times Staff Writer
LARGO - Police have arrested a Clearwater man they say robbed a Belleair Bluffs bank in March.
Detectives from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office took Anthony Leon Monroe, 30, of 1105 Blanche Littlejohn Trail, into custody at about 3 a.m. today in the parking lot of the Just Chillin bar.
Continue reading "Clearwater man arrested, accused of March bank robbery" »
REDINGTON BEACH-- Joseph Foley went for a swim at about 3:30 a.m. this morning.
It nearly cost him his life.
After treading water for nearly five hours, the Coast Guard rescued Foley about 300 yards west of where he entered the water along Redington Beach early Saturday morning.
Foley, 32, was on the beach with two friends, a man and a woman, when he entered the water still smoking a cigarette. When his friends could no longer see the glow of his cigarette, they grew worried and the man entered the water to search for Foley.
He had no luck. The Coast Guard was called in at about 4:30. Crews in a 25-foot boat crew and an HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew searched for three hours before locating a pale and nearly lifeless Foley at 8:30 a.m. He was not wearing a life jacket and appeared to be suffering from hypothermia.
"He was slipping in and out of consciousness," said Petty Officer Heath Montembeault.
Foley was taken to the John's Pass shopping center in Madeira Beach, where paramedics were waiting.
Coast Guard officials said they are not sure what prompted Foley to enter the water in the front place.
"Who knows? At 3:30 in the morning on a Friday night, who wants to go swimming?" said Montembeault.
-- Cristina Silva, Times staff writer
Parking near the Tarpon Turtle bar and restaurant could earn you a ticket.
A real one.
The Tarpon Springs Police Department removed 22 unauthorized "no parking" signs Friday and replaced them with legitimate markers in hopes of ending a firestorm of controversy.
The unauthorized "no parking" signs (shown in photo) resulted in 221 tickets – at $20 a pop -- in two years beginning in April 2006. Developer Mike Bronson recently told police he put up the signs and thought that he had police approval. But no record exists of that approval and Bronson has agreed to pay up to $5,000 to refund the fees paid by cited people.
Continue reading "No parking near Tarpon Turtle – for real " »
CLEARWATER – The infant son of a couple in the area to visit relatives died this morning after being transported to a local hospital when he stopped breathing.
David Donnahue Gibson III was exactly 1 month old.
Detectives say the death appears to be accidental.
According to Clearwater public safety spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts, the parents of the infant were sharing a bed with him at Wellington Apartments, in the 2900 block of Drew Street, when they awoke around 2:30 a.m. to find he wasn’t breathing.
The infant was taken to Mease Countryside Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A preliminary investigation revealed no signs of trauma or criminal activity, Watts said. The cause of death is pending autopsy and toxicology results.
Keith Niebuhr, Times staff writer
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SEMINOLE -- The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal accident involving a motorcycle.
The crash occurred shortly after 9 p.m. at Starkey Road and 109th Avenue N. Emergency officials said a second crash occurred when a vehicle hit an ambulance headed to the hospital from the crash scene.
No details on injuries in that crash were available. The southbound lanes of Starkey Road near 109th Avenue N are blocked as authorities work the scene.
Kameel Stanley, Times Staff Writer
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TARPON SPRINGS – Pinellas County sheriff’s detectives raided an illegal Internet gambling business this afternoon, seizing 41 personal computers, a laptop, a shuttle bus and $1,500 in cash.
The raid wrapped up an eight-month investigation that began in October 2008 after a tipster told the Sheriff’s Office that illegal gambling was taking place at the Endless Fun Entertainment and Cyber Center at 38541 U.S. 19 N.
Patrons would purchase a game card, put money on it and use it to access the games, which the Sheriff’s Office described as “Vegas-style” games.
No arrests were made, because the business owners were not there when the search warrant was executed, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda.
“The ultimate responsibility falls on the owners of the business,” Barreda said.
Rita Farlow, Times Staff Writer
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DUNEDIN – A homeless man was arrested today, accused of masturbating on the roof of the Pink Panther Nightclub and Showbar, according to a police report.
Bryan Treloar, 42, (at left) was arrested by a Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy on charges of lewd and lascivious behavior, loitering and prowling about 11:30 a.m.
Four employees of an adjacent business witnessed the act, the report said.
Treloar has been arrested several times in Pinellas County over the past three years, including arrests in May on charges of assault on a law enforcement officer and trespassing.
He was taken to the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $750 bail.
Rita Farlow, Times Staff Writer
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ZEPHYRHILLS -- Gary Thomas, 53, told Pasco sheriff’s deputies he didn’t believe he was doing anything wrong, according to an arrest report. His neighbor’s home was under foreclosure, the report said, and Thomas wanted a new aluminum screen door.
So there he was Wednesday night, on the back porch with a power drill, when a deputy responded to a call that a burglar was inside the vacant house, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Thomas (pictured), of 37224 Kossik Road, was charged with burglary, grand theft and possession of burglary tools. He is at the Land O’Lakes Jail in lieu of $17,000 bail.
Times Staff Writer
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ZEPHYRHILLS -- A 19-year-old laborer was charged with child abuse after Zephyrhills police officials say he broke the arm of a 6-month-old boy.
On May 19, William Kyle Parks (pictured), of 6020 14th St., twisted the baby’s wrist, fracturing the infant’s left forearm, because the baby would not stop crying, police said. Officials did not release the relationship, if any, between Parks and the child.
Parks was released Wednesday on $5,000 bail after spending five hours in the Land O’Lakes Jail.
Times Staff Writer
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PALM HARBOR -- The two outside northbound lanes of U.S. 19 north have reopened after being blocked by a car accident as of 6:30 a.m., according to Florida Highway Patrol. One minor injury was reported.
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CLEARWATER -- A disabled vehicle has been removed from the left southbound lane of U.S. 19 at 126th Avenue, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
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LARGO -- A Largo man wanted in Georgia was arrested Tuesday and accused of breaking into an apartment and pistol-whipping a man, Largo police said.
Dwight E. Green, 20, (left) was charged with home invasion robbery in the April 29 attack.
According to police, Green was armed with a handgun when he and several other people “forced their way into an apartment, where a fight ensued,” the report said.
Green pistol-whipped a victim, who is not named, before he and the other suspects fled in a red Chrysler Sebring, the report said.
One witness identified Green, and another said Green admitted his involvement. He is wanted in Georgia on 2008 charges of burglary and possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.
The report does not say what was stolen during the Largo robbery.
Green was being held without bail Wednesday at the Pinellas County Jail.
Rita Farlow, Times staff writer
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HUDSON -- A 2-month-old girl was taken to the hospital May 25 for vomiting. Doctors there noticed blood spots on her brain and sent her to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. There, she was diagnosed with neurological damage and hemorrhaging in her brain and eyes, all the symptoms of shaken-baby syndrome.
“I did it,” Anthony B. Curatolo told authorities, according to his arrest report. “I was too rough with her.”
Continue reading "Hudson man accused of shaking baby: 'I was too rough,' report says" »
Hillsborough County will now have an internal performance auditor who does no audits.
County commissioners voted unanimously today to have the clerk of the circuit court hire private consulting firms to do performance audits for the county. The clerk already has an office that does financial audits for the county.
Financial audits analyze whether county government programs properly account for the money they receive and dole out. Performance audits generally are deeper, sometimes more nuanced inquiries into whether a business or government entity effectively spends its money.
Hillsborough voters approved creation of the internal performance auditor position, but past St. Petersburg Times stories found that the office has completed few audits. The stories showed that Internal Performance Auditor Jim Barnes is often dispatched by commissioners to investigate pet causes.
With the commission vote, Barnes will be in charge of ensuring that audit recommendations are carried out. He will still serve as a budget analyst for county commissioners.
"It gives me clearer direction with what this office needs to do," said Barnes, who will soon see his staff of four cut in half. "I have no problem with it."
Bill Varian, Times staff writer
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