PLANTATION -- A man who owns a group of lakes here wants homeowners along the water to pay him for their view, but city officials call the request a scam.

Ted Nadel of Gulfstream Land and Lakes Inc. bought the lakes in a delinquent tax sale in January. He has since offered to sell them back to the more than 80 lakeside homeowners, according to a letter from David Feldheim, Nadel's attorney.

Nadel's company also has applied for a permit to build fences around the lakes, but homeowners successfully lobbied the Plantation City Council at a meeting Wednesday to delay the permit.

Nadel declined to comment Friday, saying he would release a statement in the next few days. Nadel's actions are similar to those of Don Connolly, a Tampa Bay area developer who earlier this year purchased a Pinellas County lake at a tax sale, erected a fence around it and asked homeowners to pay more than $10,000 each to buy the property back.

After mounting pressure from politicians and the media, Connolly agreed to sell the lake in August at the same price he paid.

Zookeeper mauled by lion is improving in hospital

SOUTHPORT -- A zookeeper's condition was upgraded to serious but stable Friday, a day after he was mauled by a 500-pound African lion while posing for a picture in the big cat's cage.

George Koll, owner of the 77 Zoological Park in this Florida Panhandle community, was improving at Gulf Coast Medical Center in nearby Panama City, said zoo volunteer Denise LaPointe. He was hospitalized in critical condition Thursday.

The male lion, Samson, grabbed Koll, 61, by the neck and dragged him across the cage after the zookeeper slipped and fell in the cage, said employee Steve Kirk.

Samson never has been aggressive, and there are no plans to euthanize him, LaPointe said.

She said Koll was giving a tour to several reporters from Awake magazine, published by the Jehovah's Witnesses, when a photographer asked him to get in the cage with the lion for a picture.

The photographer jumped into the cage with a stick and pushed the lion away from Koll, said employee Bill Allison.

Barry University professor killed in murder-suicide

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- A Barry University psychology professor was apparently killed by her estranged boyfriend, a convicted sex offender who later fatally shot himself, police said.

Marie-France Desrosiers was shot and stabbed to death Thursday afternoon in her home by Mike Oliver Holliman, whom she had been living with until recently, Hollywood police said.

After the killing, police said, Holliman drove his van to rural west Palm Beach County and fatally shot himself in the head.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk