The Greater St. Petersburg Area Awesome Original Second Time Arounder Marching Band performs in this year's Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade. More than 500 'Rounders' musicians and auxilliary will participate. Watch this post throughout the day on Thursday for updates about their experience.
Continue reading ""Rounders" experience marching in Macys Parade" »
The Greater St. Petersburg Area Awesome Original Second Time Arounders marched in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City this morning. [AP Photo]
Continue reading "Photos: Local band marches in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" »
TAMPA -- Odyssey Marine Explorations has found two more shipwrecks in the Atlantic.
The Tampa-based underwater salvage company filed documents in federal court this week, serving notice of the find and asking the court to give it sole salvage rights to haul up and sell anything of value.
Both ships were steel-hulled, resting roughly 100 miles off the southwest coast of Ireland, court documents said. One was in 400 meters of water, the other 600 meters.
Neither ship has been positively identified, Odyssey attorney Melinda MacConnel said. She declined to provide many other details, except that "there is evidence of valuable cargo."
Odyssey, which made a splash by recovering Spanish gold and silver from colonial-era wrecks, has now filed salvage claims on 11 sunken ships, MacConnel said.
Under admiralty law, people who discover old wrecks can petition for salvage rights, blocking other salvagers from moving in.
According to Odyssey’s petition, the company used sonar and magnetometer equipment to find the vessel this fall. They have since surveyed and photographed the site and already spent considerable money on the project.
--Stephen Nohlgren, Times staff writer
Looks as if some crossword puzzle editors could use a new clue.
A few weeks back we reported that a Los Angeles Times puzzle that runs in our tbt* editions had mistakenly published "Tampa" as the correct answer to this clue: Home of the Rays.
Annnnkkkkk!!! Wrong!
On Tuesday, Tribune Media Services, which was the syndication service behind the previous gaffe, issued another puzzle with the same clue and the same answer. It was published Tuesday in the Baylink section of the St. Petersburg Times, which is an official sponsor of the Tampa Bay Rays -- who play their home games in St. Petersburg.
Adding even further irony to what many in St. Petersburg view as a slight? The second puzzle is edited by Wayne Robert Williams, a puzzle editor for Tribune who lives in Dade City.
Reached by cell phone Wednesday afternoon, Williams was apologetic but had an explanation for the five-letter answer.
"I apologize for the mistake," he said. "And clearly it is a mistake. ... I'm dumbfounded" that I did it.
He then went on to explain that in editing crosswords, the puzzle answers dictate the clues.
Since "Tampa" was the answer, he searched his personal database of clues that would match and found one that said "Devil Rays' bay." Knowing that the team had changed its name, he said, he toyed with just the clue "Rays bay." Sensing that people unfamiliar with the team wouldn't get the answer, he opted for "Home of the Rays."
"It's easy to step on a sensitive area," he acknowledged, noting that he plays golf with friends who follow the Rays, but he doesn't watch as closely.
He also noted that providing a clue for the word Tampa isn't as easy as one would expect because people across the country just don't know it well enough. In this case, he said, his editors are sending out a correction for those who might not have run the puzzle, substituting the clue, "Home of the Buccaneers."
He says he also often uses MacDill Air Force Base as a clue.
When asked about the Los Angeles Times crossword mistake, he said he didn't edit that puzzle and that the editor for it is under an entirely different editorial operation.
As for future clues that match the word Tampa, he might consider "Baseball's Rays' bay."
Somehow, we think the folks in St. Petersburg will still be a little unhappy over that.
Anne Glover, Times staff writer
1998 Times photo of Wayne Robert Williams
*
TAMPA -- An ex-Krispy Kreme driver swiped a delivery truck shortly before noon Tuesday, ran into a pedestrian and drove away, police say.
According to the arrest reports, Shelton Denard Reed, 38, of 307 E. Clinton St., took a white Krispy Kreme box truck from the parking lot, hit a pedestrian at Yukon St. and Central Ave. and fled.
He was stopped by Tampa Police at E. Fowler Ave and Gillette Ave and given a field sobriety test and was arrested after failing, the report said. He also refused a Breathalyzer.
Reed was charged with driving under the influence with serious bodily injury, grand theft auto and leaving the scene. He's being held at Orient Road Jail on $6,000 bail.
There was no information available about the injured pedestrian.
-- Robbyn Mitchell, Times Staff Writer
Contestants scheduled to compete in Saturday's Flugtag extravaganza in downtown Tampa were forced to wait out heavy downpours today as they checked in their flying machines for weigh-in. The Convention Center was filled with organizers and teams who could do nothing but wait it out. It was sort of like an airport delay, but without the bar at the end of the terminal to help you pass the time. This was the scene around 3 p.m.:
For more info, profiles and a video about one of the local teams, go here.
[Luis Santana | tampabay.com]
ST. PETERSBURG -- Think you're having a good morning? James Green Jr. is probably having a better one.
The St. Petersburg man's bank account is a half-million dollars fatter today after claiming a Florida Lottery jackpot.
He won the $750,000 July 8 Mega Money drawing, opting for a lump sum payment of $513,364.13 after claiming the prize Monday, state lottery officials say.
Green, 47, bought the winning Quick Pick ticket from the Skyway BP at 6191 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St. S. Store owners will get a $2,000 bonus for selling the ticket.
- Casey Cora, Times staff writer
HORSESHOE BEACH -- A troublemaking black bear will not be euthanized, and he has FWC biologist Adam Warwick to thank for his life. Again.
Last month, Warwick hauled the tranquilized bear to shore after it ran for the Gulf of Mexico in the Panhandle. Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials were trying to relocate it because the bear was getting too close to people, hanging around stilted houses in the neighborhood. They shot it with a tranquilizer but feared it would drown trying to swim to escape.
On Monday, about two weeks later, they found it 110 miles from where Warwick and a colleague re-released it in the Osceola National Forest in a residential area in Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County.
Usually, the FWC follows a three-strikes rule for dealing with bears. On the third time they're found near people, the agency considers them unfit to live in the wild, where they're free to come into contact with people and could pose a threat.
But this bear, who wears the tag W007, was a national news story, so the FWC called about 20 zoos. It found a home for him at the Hardee County Animal Refuge.
“The bear has learned that populated areas are an easy source of food from garbage cans, barbecue grills, pet food and, in some cases, deliberate feeding by residents,”
said Tim Breault, director of the FWC’s Division of Habitat and Species Conservation. “The potential threat to human safety from
this bear is too great to allow it to continue to venture into populated areas. This is not a pleasant decision for us to have to make, but it is what happens when people feed bears or other wildlife.
--Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer
Photo by Becky Bickerstaff, courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
ST. PETERSBURG -- Survival of the fittest is an enduring theory that many believe has carried man and beast from one generation to the next.
What about surviving a two-minute audition for Survivor?
"They don't tell you anything, just 'Talk for two minutes,' " said Raechele Wemken, 29, of Seminole, shown on right sitting on the steps of the Venue early today after mugging for a camera crew during her audition. "It went okay. I was talking a little fast."
Nerves?
"Yeah. That light is really bright."
Wemken, 29, was just one of about 150 hopefuls who arrived at the new Ulmerton Road hot spot this morning looking to land a spot on an upcoming season of the adventure-reality series.
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Tony Elijah Barney helped try to put out a house fire early this morning on Sutherland Ave.
The problem, witnesses told deputies, is that they saw Barney leave the home while it was on fire.
Barney, 26, was arrested by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office on a charge of arson. He remains in the county jail today, held in lieu of $5,000 bail.
The fire occurred around 1:20 a.m., according to a sheriff's report, which offers no other details about the blaze. During an interview with deputies, the report said, Barney denied being near the home before the fire began. After he was read his rights the report said he also gave deputies several conflicting stories.
Barney's address is listed as 6521 Sutherland Ave. The fire was at 6520 Sutherland Ave.
-- Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
LUTZ -- For more than a month, Kimberly and Alan Whitehill watched and worried over the depression in their back yard. It was an inch deep in April, then knee deep earlier this week.
"We knew something was going to happen," said Kimberly Whitehill, 38.
They found out what at 5 a.m. Thursday.
"You know when you hear the shuttle, the sonic boom?" she said. "That's what it sounded like."
The Whitehills discovered a sinkhole 30-feet wide and nearly as deep. The corner of their back porch dangled over one side. The shed housing their printing business dangled over the other. PVC irrigation pipes, which had laced their back yard, pointed into the watery bottom.
The first load of fill dirt arrived around 4:45 Friday. The dump truck driver peered into the sinkhole.
"Holy s---!" she shouted. "We need help, don't we."
-- Bill Coats, Times Staff Writer
Nancy Paradis, who wrote the St. Petersburg Times Action column, died Tuesday afternoon at Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park. Ms. Paradis, 56, had been battling a brain tumor for more than two years.
Ms. Paradis was born in Paris, France and lived in Ethiopia, England, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. She once worked as a long-distance truck driver. She joined the Times in 1988 as an editorial assistant in the features department. In 1997, she began answering reader questions about consumer problems in Action.
Visitiation is from 2-4 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. May 23 at Brett Funeral Home, 4810 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. A funeral mass is scheduled for 11 a.m. May 24 at the Most Holy Name of Jesus Christ, 5800 15th Ave. S., Gulfport. Click here to leave your memories in our online guest book, or browse tributes from other readers.
Stephanie Hayes, Times Staff Writer
BRANDON -- Customers at a Mobil gas station on Bloomingdale Avenue say they got cash from a well-dressed mystery man while filling up at the pump, according to a store clerk.
Two people, a male cabbie and a woman driver, reported receiving cash from a man wearing a shirt and tie. The woman told clerks at the Mobil station, 936 E Bloomingdale Ave., she received $55. One customer refused the money.
The man hopped in a pickup truck and drove off around 8:45 a.m.
Assistant manager Francisco Espel said nothing like that's happened during his three years at the Mobil station. Clerks at nearby gas stations said no one handed out money to their customers today.
According to the MJ radio show on WFLZ-93.3 FM, callers also reported the same thing happening at a St. Petersburg-area RaceTrac gas station. Reached this morning, clerks at several RaceTrac stations in St. Petersburg said their customers are abuzz with the prospect, although no one has seen the man.
-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer
Have you seen the mystery donor? Let us know. Send an email to ccora@sptimes.com
Click to enlarge comic strip and photo below.
TRINITY — Move over, Katie and Lucy. Make room for Missy and Trigger.
A week after the two yellow Labrador retrievers found fame in the funny papers for serving as mascots in the fundraising efforts of the Pasco Humane Society, two Boston terriers have hit the big time posthumously for amusing their masters.
Missy and Trigger (left), the pets of Bruce and Jeanne Kettler who retired to Trinity, were the second Pasco dogs in back-to-back Sundays who graced the panels of the comic strip Marmaduke. They died in the early 1990s around age 14.
In the words of the late Alpo spokesman Lorne Greene, that’s 98 for you and me.
The Kettlers, who lived in a suburb of Phoenix, bought Trigger from a breeder in 1978 when he was a pup. The story of how they acquired Missy was far more original, and featured in the comic strip.
Continue reading "2nd Pasco family featured in 'Marmaduke' comic strip " »
TEMPLE TERRACE -- Police are trying to sniff out a shoplifter who got away with $1,900 in perfume from a local pharmacy.
The thief (left) walked into the CVS Pharmacy, 110 Bullard Parkway, on Jan. 21 about 9 p.m., talking on his cell phone and browsing before picking up a basket and filling it with perfume products, authorities say.
"Some of the perfume is locked up in a case," said Temple Terrace police Detective Patricia Stanton. "But some of the gift sets were not locked up, and to my understanding some of them were pretty high dollar."
He then walked out of the store with the basket and got into a late-model, black four-dour sedan with a license plate number beginning with X81.
Stanton said she thinks the products will be resold, but she doesn't know where.
"This is the second time this has happened at this particular store," she said. "The first time was on Jan. 8, but we're not aware if it was the same suspect."
Police ask anyone with information to call (813) 989-7090.
- Robbyn Mitchell, Times staff writer
By next October, the state could be running the Weeki Wachee mermaid show and the water park as a state park.
But Weeki Wachee officials say that they're far from a done deal with the state.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole told the Florida Cabinet on Tuesday that they received notice Monday that Weeki Wachee Springs, LLC plans to donate the springs and water park to the state. The state would turn Weeki Wachee Springs into a state park and would keep the mermaids and their show.
"Absolutely, we'll keep the mermaids; that's part of the historical character of that facility and part of why it actually merits, not just the springs, but the culture and history, becoming a state park," Sole said.
After hearing about the announcement this morning, Weeki Wachee spokesman John Athanason said that no definitive agreement has been drafted to "sign, seal and deliver" the proposal discussed by Sole, which he called a simple letter of intent.
He added that Hernando County commissioners are thinking about taking over the park, as they discussed the topic during a Tuesday morning meeting.
"Sure, we've been talking with the state for the last couple of months," Athanason said. "But it might come to pass that we'll be a better county park than a state park. That way money would stay here in the county. This is not a done deal."
See a photo gallery of the mermaids
Watch video from Weeki Wachee
The Pasco County Sheriff's Office is conducting an investigation into the death of a woman at 16034 Frost Drive in Hudson.
Sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin said the initial investigation did not show any signs of foul play -- deputies received a call from Pasco Fire Rescue shortly before noon Wednesday after someone visiting the home found the resident, a woman between 70 and 80 years old, dead.
The victim's name has not been released pending notification of her next of kin and positive identification.
Deputies investigating the death are contending with at least 20 dogs kept in the house, which had not been cleaned in quite some time.
"Dog feces filled the home," Tobin said in his statement. "One detective working the case said it was the worst condition he's ever seen in a home. The indication at this point is that this woman had moved into her garage and let the dogs live in the main house. It appeared the house had not been cleaned of dog feces for some time."
Animal Control and Hazmat officials were called to the scene to help with the investigation. County officials may have to decide whether the home will be condemned.
Watch a tampabay.com video report here.
Times staff writer
TAMPA -- Jittery? Alert? Makes sense. The Tampa Bay area is one of the most caffeinated cities in America, according to a new study published today.
The study, conducted by the discount health care service HealthSaver, determined the coffee consumption and caffeine consumer habits in 20 major American cities, placing the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area second in the nation, behind Chicago.
How did the Tampa Bay area, a region no known for its coffeehouse culture, rank near the top? According to the survey, we drain lots of caffeinated teas and down caffeinated pain relievers. We're no. 2 in consuming both. We're fifth in soda consumption.
"We have a lot of exercisers and old people here," said Dr. Laurel Graham, a University of South Florida
sociology professor. "Plus, there's long commutes."
Todd Smith, a HealthSaver spokesman, said the study, which surveyed about 100 people in each of the 20 cities, shows that responsible caffeine intake can have positive effects. Health benefits range from protecting cirrhosis of the liver to preventing Parkinson's disease, Smith said.
He also said the results show a boost in consumption of high-end coffees and sodas, revealing an "American fascination" with caffeine.
"Obviously, we are a fast-paced, gridlocked, stressed-out society," Smith said. "It's a vivid reflection of our culture."
The study considered numerous sources of caffeine, including coffee, tea, sodas, energy drinks, chocolate, pain relievers and caffeine pills. Not surprisingly, the Seattle/Tacoma area, home to Starbucks, ranked tops in the most coffee consumption.
The least caffeinated? San Francisco/Oakland, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit and Baltimore.
Despite widespread caffeine use, the survey says most American citizens don't think they're addicted.
Bay area folks are the fifth-most likely to deny their caffeine addiction.
- Casey Cora, Times staff writer
It
wasn't hard for thieves to guess when Charles Billi would be out. The
Miami newsman anchors WSVN's weekend news shows at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
After Saturday's last broadcast, a police officer called to tell Billi
his Miami Shores home had been hit. "He said, 'Charles, you're not
going to like this. Your TV is in the middle of your front yard,' "
Billi recounted to Florida Today.
The thieves apparently dropped
Billi's high-def TV after being seen by a neighbor. They took about 300
DVDs, watches, electronics and a big jar of spare change, Billi said.
"Every piece of furniture was flipped upside down," he said. "They
trashed the place."
LARGO -- Police said Dana Shelton did all the right things when officers approached a quarrel outside the tavern around midnight Sunday.
Shelton, 38, kept his hands up when asked. Police said a quick check revealed a clean record, and officers told the Largo man he was free to go.
Shelton, who police said had been intoxicated, could have walked right back into JJ's Sports Lounge on the corner of Clearwater Largo Road and Rosemary Blvd. NW.
So they were baffled when he dialed 911 and told a dispatcher he was surrounded by police with guns drawn and needed help.
"Our officers were standing there scratching their heads," said Largo Police Sgt. Melanie Holley. "He called, standing there in their presence."
Booked into the Pinellas County Jail, Shelton now faces a misdemeanor charge of misuse of 911.
"It's one of our truth is stranger than fiction cases," Holley said.
-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer
Surveillance video shows the leaf-clad robber exiting the bank.
Tree huggers and bank tellers rejoice.
A man who tried to disguise himself with tree branches while robbing a Manchester, N.H. bank was arrested by police on Monday, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports.