Top stories in Tampa Bay and Florida

© St. Petersburg Times
published December 29, 2002

It began with a grim reminder of 9/11 as a suicidal teen flew a small plane into a Tampa skyscraper. It ended with the first re-election of a Republican governor in state history, and a whopping raise for University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft. In between, there was plenty to talk about.

... Ted Williams died, and his body was frozen while a bitter family dispute played out in court.

... Former USF instructor Mazen Al-Najjar found a way out of prison.

... A land speculator tried to turn cheap tax deeds into fat profits, alarming property owners in several counties.

... Several priests with ties to the area were accused of sexual misconduct.

[Times photo: John Pendygraft]

... A radio shock jock went on trial over the on-air castration and slaughter of a wild boar.

... Darryl Strawberry ran out of chances.

... Tampa Mayor Dick Greco had an audience in Cuba with Fidel Castro, then returned home to face criticism over the trip.

... Several laptop computers went missing at MacDill Air Force Base, one with classified information.

... A podiatrist from Seminole was charged with plotting to blow up Islamic mosques and education centers in retaliation for 9/11.

... After 56 years, electric streetcars returned to Tampa.

... Voters went against the wishes of their governor, amending the state constitution to limit public school class sizes.

... And after a problematic September primary, a smooth November general election helped erase the "duh" from Florida.

PLANE HITS SKYSCRAPER

Less than four months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a 15-year-old student pilot named Charles Bishop took off without authorization from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport on Jan. 5. He buzzed a tower at MacDill Air Force Base and came close to a passing jet, then crashed the Cessna 172 into the Bank of America Plaza in downtown Tampa. Bishop, a freshman at East Lake High School, was killed. No one else was injured. In a suicide note, he claimed sympathy for terrorists and Osama bin Laden. The teenager's family has since sued the maker of the prescription acne drug Accutane, contending it left Bishop "severely psychotic." Hillsborough medical examiner's tests showed no evidence of the drug in Bishop.

LAND GRAB

Connolly

Land speculator Don Connolly showed that pink fences don't make good neighbors. His strategy of turning cheap tax deeds into fat profits got the attention of homeowners, county officials, prosecutors and legislators after the Valrico businessman bought a lake bottom in north Pinellas, erected a pink fence on the shoreline, then demanded lakefront residents pay him a combined $350,000 to get their view back. Connolly's tactics led to a state investigation that showed he had perjured himself on a notary license and ignored $750-a-month restitution payments while snapping up dozens of tax deeds. Facing the possibility of prison, Connolly softened his demands, took down the fence and sold the lake bottom back at cost. State Sen. Jim Sebesta followed up with a proposed bill requiring better notification of property owners when a tax deed goes on the auction block.

EDUCATION

F SCHOOLS

The state's new method for grading schools meant bad news for 64 schools that got F grades from the state. Four of those schools were in Hillsborough County -- Lockhart, Oak Park, Robles and Shaw elementary schools. Two were in Pinellas County, Gulfport and Blanton elementary schools, though Blanton was later taken off the original F list. Neither school district had ever had an F-rated school before. The spate of F's resulted in an expansion of the state's school voucher program. Ten schools around the state got their second F rating in four years, so their students qualified for vouchers to pay their tuitions at private schools.

SAMI AL-ARIAN

Al-Arian

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa announced in February that controversial USF professor Sami Al-Arian was under investigation. Al-Arian has been accused of having ties to terrorists, but no charges have been filed. Al-Arian has denied any wrongdoing. He remains suspended with pay by the university, which has announced that it would like to fire the professor. Earlier this month, a federal judge denied the school's request for a ruling on whether firing Al-Arian would violate his constitutional right to free speech. The school must now decide whether to appeal the judge's ruling, fire Al-Arian and face an almost certain lawsuit, or delay a decision until the federal investigation is completed.

PRESIDENTS RETIRE

University of Florida president Charles Young and Florida State University president Sandy D'Alemberte announce their retirements, leaving the state to hunt for new leadership at its two flagship schools. This month, FSU chose former House speaker T.K. Wetherell as its president.

HINESLEY TO RETIRE

Howard Hinesley, the nation's longest-serving urban school superintendent, will retire at the end of his contract in 2004. He has served as superintendent since 1990. His departure comes at an awkward time, as the district grapples with tight finances, the new choice plan and a number of retirements of top-ranking administrators.

AMENDMENTS

Florida voters approved three constitutional amendments related to education, including a controversial multibillion-dollar class size reduction plan. Opponents, including the governor, cited the potential $27.5-billion price tag over eight years. But in the end, the simple attraction of smaller classes appealed to voters. Voters also approved a revamping of Florida's higher education system, recreating a statewide board to oversee the state's 11 public universities. And they passed a measure to offer voluntary prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds.

HISTORIC VOTE

[Times photo: Michael Rondou]

In November, Mary Brown, right, a quality improvement specialist for Coordinated Child Care of Pinellas County, became the first African-American elected to the Pinellas County School Board. Two other black members have served, but both were appointed and later lost their elections. In the same election, Pinellas voters approved single-member districts for the School Board. Activists and legislators pushed for the change from members who were elected countywide as a way to increase minority representation.

CHOICE APPLICATIONS

The Pinellas school district's first choice application process ended earlier this month. The 2002-03 school year is the last year of traditional neighborhood school zoning for most students. The beginning of 2003 will find the School Board grappling with choice's price tag and transportation system, as well as its pledge to improve black student achievement.

GENSHAFT RAISE

President Judy Genshaft signed a five-year $1.6-million contract with the University of South Florida this month. It includes an $87,200 pay raise, a 37 percent increase that will bring her annual salary to $325,000, behind only the president of the University of Florida's. The deal also provides tuition to a state university for her two children, $2,500 worth of financial advice annually and one to three years of salary if she is fired without cause.

FLORIDA

FLAWED PRIMARY VOTE

[Times photo: Michael Rondou]

Election woes continued with a disastrous Sept. 10 primary, but the state rebounded for a mostly problem-free general election Nov. 5. The state's two most populated counties -- Broward and Miami-Dade -- faltered when ill-trained poll workers couldn't start new touch screen voting machines. Polls opened late and results got scrambled, leaving the gubernatorial primary between Janet Reno and Bill McBride in doubt for a week.

RENO LOSES

[Times photo: Michael Rondou]

Former Attorney General Janet Reno, considered unbeatable when she entered the race for the Democratic nomination for governor, was defeated in the September primary by political rookie Bill McBride in one of the biggest political upsets in modern Florida history.

GUARDS ACQUITTED

After a four-week trial in January and February, a North Florida jury cleared three prison guards in the 1999 stomping death of death row inmate Frank Valdes. Despite evidence that Valdes was fatally pummeled by someone within Florida State Prison in Starke, it was impossible to pinpoint the blame on individual guards. Later, prosecutors abandoned plans to try five additional guards with the same evidence. Thus ended a case that rocked the Florida prison system and led to some reforms.

SOCIAL SERVICES TURMOIL

Department of Children and Families officials admitted in April that Rilya Wilson, a 5-year-old Miami girl supposedly under state supervision, had been missing for as long as 15 months. Rilya, right, has not been found. Then, a Polk County DCF caseworker was fired for falsely stating she had visited a child who was later found dead, allegedly killed by a babysitter. Another caseworker was fired for allegedly driving drunk with a child in the back seat of her car. The scandals led to the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney. Afterward, Gov. Jeb Bush quickly found a replacement: Jerry Regier, a former federal and Oklahoma state official. This sparked its own controversy when it was revealed Regier had had ties to an organization that had advocated corporal punishment. Regier, however, disavowed some of the group's views. This month Regier accepted resignations of eight top DCF officials.

EVERGLADES DEAL

Despite complaints from more than 100 civic and environmental groups, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill that provides $100-million a year for restoring the Everglades but also makes it harder for the average Floridian to challenge developers. Bush said he believed the law would have only "minimal impact" on citizen rights, but five environmental groups have sued to overturn that part of the law.

PHONE RATE VETO

In a move that stunned legislators, Gov. Jeb Bush vetoed a contentious phone rate increase that produced more consumer opposition than any other issue this year. The bill likely would have increased monthly local rates by as much as $5 over five years in the Tampa Bay area, and as much as $7 in other parts of the state.

OIL DRILLING

Gov. Jeb Bush and his brother, President George W. Bush, announced a deal to prevent drilling for natural gas close to Florida's Gulf Coast and block the expansion of oil wells in the Big Cypress National Preserve next door to the Everglades. The president agreed to pay Chevron and two other companies $115-million for oil and gas leases in the gulf and to pay $120-million to the Collier family to stop drilling in the Big Cypress preserve.

ROSIE JOINS FRAY

Former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, a Miami Beach resident, emerged in the spring as a chief opponent of a Florida law that bans gay people from adopting children. The popular star of TV and movies also acknowledged her own homosexuality as part of a media blitz with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is fighting the ban in federal court. O'Donnell adopted her three children in New York. The issue came up briefly in the governor's race but mostly languished in court. A Miami judge is scheduled to take it up in March.

HISPANIC NAMED

Jeb Bush appointed Miami lawyer Raoul Cantero to the Florida Supreme Court, the first Hispanic member of the court.

SMOKING AMENDMENT

Florida voters outlawed smoking in restaurants and other indoor workplaces as they overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment designed to protect people from secondhand smoke. The amendment, championed by a coalition of health organizations, will have the greatest impact on restaurants and bars that serve food. However, bars that serve virtually no food and are not attached to restaurants will not be affected.

WEST NILE VIRUS

Florida had more than two dozen confirmed cases of humans infected with the West Nile virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health officials. The health department placed 39 Florida counties on the medical alert list for West Nile and other mosquito-borne diseases this year. On Dec. 8, a 74-year-old man died at a Marion County hospital from complications from the virus, the first death attributed to the virus.

CRUISE VIRUS

A gastrointestinal virus sickened hundreds who boarded cruise ships out of Florida ports. The highly contagious Norwalk-like virus thrives in places such as cruise ships, where people sit cheek-to-jowl playing slot machines or line up to use the same serving spoon on a breakfast buffet line.

OBITUARIES

Jimmy Mann, 76, a leading Suncoast golf figure and co-founder of the County Golf Association in Pinellas County, died Dec. 9.

David Fred Patterson, 63, a former chief judge of the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court and 2nd District Court of Appeal, died Dec. 6.

Carlos Alfonso Sr., 78, designer of some of the Tampa Bay area's more recognizable structures, including Tampa International Airport and the University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus, died Nov. 29.

Winnie Kelley, 71, a Spring Hill documentary filmmaker who traveled the world to promote the Peace Corps, died Nov. 29.

Harry W. Scott, 87, a former postmaster noted for his efforts to preserve the open air post office in downtown St. Petersburg, died Oct. 31.

Mary L. Parr, 113, briefly declared the oldest person in America and the second-oldest in the world, died Oct. 29.

Maurice W. Shinners, who ran the landmark Showboat Dinner Theatre in mid-Pinellas County for some 20 years, died Nov. 18.

Dorothy E. Sample, 91, a Republican civic activist and longtime conservationist who served in the Legislature from Pinellas County for a dozen years, died Sept. 1.

John E. Lerro, 59, who piloted a 608-foot freighter into the Sunshine Skyway bridge in 1980, killing 35 people, died Aug. 31 in Tampa.

Laxer

Bern Laxer, 78, founder and longtime owner of the landmark Bern's Steak House in Tampa, died Aug. 31.

Alan Lomax, 87, a legendary figure in blues and folk music who roamed the world's back roads and recorded the songs of working people, died in Safety Harbor on July 19.

Col. Floyd "Jimmy" Thompson, 69, a decorated U.S. Army veteran who was the longest-held American prisoner during the Vietnam War, 10 days short of nine years, died July 16 in Key West.

Thomas C. "Tom" Todd, 73, a colorful Pinellas County School Board member who was seeking a second term, died June 28.

Ruby Tiger Osceola, 106, the oldest living Florida Seminole and matriarch of the tribe's Hillsborough reservation, died June 13.

Herman Kemper Wallace, 83, co-founder of Lazy Days RV, one of the nation's leading recreational vehicle dealerships, died June 6 in Tampa.

Dr. Charles E. Aucremann, 85, a prominent St. Petersburg physician and champion of family medicine, died May 26.

Andrew A. Orsini, 82, rehabilitation expert and former leader of the Easter Seal Society of Pinellas and West Pasco, died May 18.

Allen Morris, 92, clerk of the state House of Representatives for 20 years and creator of the Florida Handbook, the bible of state government, died in Tallahassee April 22.

Dessie Smith Prescott, 95, an outdoorswoman immortalized in Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' book Cross Creek, died April 19 at her Citrus County home on Lake Rousseau.

Charles L. "Chuck" Fisher, 88, three-term member of the St. Petersburg City Council, died April 11.

Dr. Fred W. Alsup, 88, said to have been St. Petersburg's oldest black physician and a civil rights leader, died April 11.

Alfred A. McKethan, 93, a Hernando County banker pegged as one of Florida's 10 most powerful people during the early 1950s, died April 1.

Farris Bryant, 87, a Florida governor celebrated as a master builder of highways and universities who served during years of explosive growth and racial tension, died March 1.

Hampton "Hamp" Dunn, 85, a journalist and historian, died Feb. 3 in Tampa.

Alan C. Sundberg, 68, a former St. Petersburg lawyer and Florida Supreme Court justice, died Jan. 26.

Dr. Richard S. Hodes, 77, a former Democratic leader of the Florida House of Representatives and a prominent Tampa physician and educator, died Jan. 18

TAMPA BAY

BAYSHORE PATRIOTS

[Times photo: Stefanie Boyar]

Although rain fell on the Flags Along Bayshore event on the anniversary of Sept. 11, spirits were not dampened. Some 15,000 flag wavers lined Bayshore Boulevard in a tribute that included Gen. Tommy Franks and Gov. Jeb Bush. "Even in the rain these colors don't run," said Julie Whitney, an original Bayshore Patriot, a group who started waving flags on Bayshore after the attacks, won the admiration of Gen. Franks and raised money for charity.

DISCRIMINATION LAW

St. Petersburg became one of a handful of Florida cities to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and it did so with far less rancor than other cities in the Tampa Bay area that have debated such a law. Sexual orientation joined other protected classes including race, religion and national origin.

CHARITY BOARD CHANGE

Metropolitan Ministries, a well-known charity for the poor, agreed to let non-Christians on its board of directors after it became public that they had been excluded. Most didn't know about the restriction until the charity told TECO Energy it wouldn't consider a Jewish woman, who was married to a TECO vice president, as a board member. Even as the charity was raising thousands from non-Christians, it had enforced a rule barring them from serving on the board. The change came after months of internal debate.

SHOCK JOCK TRIAL

In a case that pitted animal lovers against free-speech advocates, Tampa Bay's rudest shock jock, Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, went on trial in February on charges he presided over the on-air castration and slaughter of a wild boar. Clem, his producer, and two listeners faced as much as five years in prison on felony animal cruelty charges. Clem fans bellowed support outside the courthouse; pro-pig people carried pictures of the deceased hog. Clem's legal team ridiculed the state's case as claptrap about "a pig's feelings," and the jury took less than an hour to acquit.

MAJOR ROADWORK

Over the next 10 years, more than $1-billion will be spent on Tampa's highways, eliminating hassles in the long run but causing long delays in the meantime. Construction began on a four-year, $80-million untangling of he notorious downtown interchange of Interstate 4 and Interstate 275. The DOT is also looking at plans for a $133-million widening of I-4 from 14th Street east to 50th Street; a $202-million widening of I-275 from the Hillsborough River to the bay; and a $158-million project designed to smooth the stretch of road near Tampa International Airport connecting Spruce Street, State Road 60, the Courtney Campbell Parkway and Veterans Expressway. Finally, a $350-million, reversible-direction elevated highway over the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway will feature three new lanes connecting Brandon and Tampa during rush hour, and a net that would drop to catch drivers heading the wrong way.

BABY SAM

The legal battle over a child known as "Baby Sam" ended in March when the two families vying for custody reached a settlement. The agreement kept Joseph "Samuel" Johnson of Tuscaloosa, Ala., with his adoptive parents while allowing visitation rights to the biological father, Chris Vietri, a former New Port Richey resident. The case gained national attention and fueled debate on the rights of biological parents.

MUSEUM ON NOTICE

St. Petersburg declared the Florida International Museum in default of its lease for most of a city block downtown because it failed to host the "blockbuster" exhibitions the lease requires. The city later rescinded the notice of default and began negotiating for a new deal where the museum will share only part of the block with a new St. Petersburg College classroom site.

PRIEST SCANDALS

Dozens of parishioners broke decades of silence and accused seven Catholic priests who had served in the bay area of molesting them while they were children. Father Robert Schaeufele and Father Polienato Bernabe were charged with capital sexual battery. A Minnesota lawyer sued the Vatican over a priest who had taught school in Tampa, a suit later gutted by the statute of limitations. The Diocese of St. Petersburg appointed an assistance minister to tend to victims' needs. Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) formed a Tampa Bay chapter. Robert Lynch, bishop of the St. Petersburg Diocese, faced his own personal crisis after a adult employee who had accused him of sexual harassment received $100,000 in severance pay. Meanwhile, Richard Pollard, former priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Tarpon Springs, was accused by four men and charged with capital sexual battery.

TOBACCO VERDICT

The first tobacco liability case to go to trial in Pinellas County ended with a jury deciding in May that lifelong smoker Robert M. Tune doesn't deserve any cash from Philip Morris for the cancer that took his voice box.

JUDGE COPE TRIAL

A Judicial Qualifications Commission panel in June cleared Pinellas-Pasco Judge Charles Cope of four counts of improper judicial conduct for an incident in which he got intoxicated while in Carmel, Calif., attending a judicial conference. He was found guilty by the panel of public intoxication and inappropriate conduct of an intimate nature. In August, Cope pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor public intoxication charge in California, ending a case that had imperiled his career. He was fined $1,000 and agreed to donate $5,000 to a charity of the victim's choice.

TAMPA MUSEUM DESIGN

Internationally renowned architect Rafael Vinoly unveiled his vision for a new $52-million Tampa Museum of Art. Many agreed that the building looked swell, but what about that roof? Vinoly's design called for a flat metal grid that would arch over the new museum and hang over Ashley Drive, the main thoroughfare into downtown. Vinoly later modified the idea after being bombarded by e-mails.

FATAL CONDO FIRE

A fire in June at the Dolphin Cove condominiums in Clearwater killed two elderly residents and badly burned three firefighters. Questions were raised about how firefighters fought the blaze, and why it took nearly 28 minutes to get water onto the fire. An independent review by experts hired by the Times was critical of the tactics firefighters used and of the command, training and staffing levels at the Clearwater Fire Department.

GRECO'S CUBA TRIP

Without a word to the public, Tampa Mayor Dick Greco flew to Havana in July with a group of leading business executives. While there, he met with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Upon his return days later, he found a city stirring over his mission. Anti-Castro groups called him a traitor; while other Cubans lauded his bravery for doing what no other major Florida political figure had done. Protest over Greco's trip eventually fizzled.

TAINTED BLOOD

Florida Blood Services in St. Petersburg announced in July that a blood donor had infected two transfusion recipients with HIV. The blood center's tests had failed to detect tiny levels of the virus that causes AIDS in the donor, who regularly gave blood but did not know he or she was infected. One of the transfusion recipients, a man in his 20s who had undergone stomach surgery, has sued Florida Blood Services.

TED WILLIAMS DISPUTE

Ted Williams, the former Boston Red Sox great whose retirement home was in Citrus County, died in July. Two of Williams' grown children cryonically preserved his remains, a move they said was consistent with his wishes. Williams' third child said the Hall of Famer wanted to be cremated and his ashes spread at sea. That child, a daughter, gave up her court fight to have her father cremated this month and the family reached a settlement. Williams' body remains frozen.

DANCE STUDIO CHARGED

State officials investigated the Safety Harbor Dance Place studio, determining it used high-pressure sales to coerce 30 elderly customers into signing 328 sales contracts totaling $3.5-million. David B. "Vic" Andrews, general manager of the studio, and Dance Place owner Michael Pasquarelli were charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO.

MACDILL LAPTOPS STOLEN

An intensive search for laptop computers missing from MacDill Air Force Base ended in August after a military man confessed to taking them. The laptops, one of which contained classified information, were recovered at a private residence. MacDill officials said there was no evidence the computers were taken for purposes of espionage. The man who confessed, Staff Sgt. Sheridan R. Ferrell II, had access to a secure room where the computers had been stored. Ferrell is accused of stealing four laptops, two personal data assistants and a case for one of the pieces of computer equipment, and a removable hard-drive for a laptop.

BOMB PLOT EXPOSED

Deputies answering a domestic disturbance call in August at a condominium in Seminole stumbled upon a cache of bombs and weapons, along with evidence that suggests the condo owner planned attacks on dozens of Islamic centers and mosques in retaliation for 9/11. Robert Goldstein, a 28-year-old Jewish podiatrist who owned the condo, was charged with plotting to blow up the centers. Federal agents said he "wanted to do something for his people." His wife, Kristi, was also charged, along with Temple Terrace dentist Michael W. Hardee, who prosecutors said agreed to drive Goldstein to an Islamic education center on 66th Street N in St. Petersburg and pick him up after the bombs were planted. A Dunedin resident, Samuel "Val" Shannahan, also was charged as an accomplice.

AL-NAJJAR DEPORTED

Former University of South Florida instuctor Mazen Al-Najjar was deported in August after spending years in prison on classified evidence allegedly linking him to terrorist groups. A stateless Palestinian jailed in 1997, Al-Najjar secured a two-week visa to Bahrain and left a Sumter County prison escorted by Immigration and Naturalization Service agents. But en route to Ireland, they found that Bahrain would reject Al-Najjar. After negotiations, Al-Najjar and his escorts flew to Italy, and 25 hours later went on to Lebanon, which granted him a six-month visitors visa.

DODGE FIRED

Rick Dodge, the point man for Pinellas County's economic development, was fired in August by County Administrator Steve Spratt. Dodge's firing was the end of a weeks-long slide for the man best known for helping bring Major League Baseball to Pinellas. Dodge came under fire for offering $2.5-million in county money to help a private development company. Commissioners never approved that deal and said they didn't know about it. Spratt demoted Dodge and cut his pay. Then Spratt suggested a way out: Dodge would resign from the county and work for St. Petersburg College on the startup of the Epicenter, a business technology and training center. The county would even pay his salary for 15 months. Dodge initially agreed. But when he balked at signing county legal documents, college president Carl Kuttler withdrew the job offer and Spratt fired him.

TAMPA MARINE KILLED

Cpl. Antonio J. Sledd, a 2000 graduate of Gaither High School in Tampa, was killed Oct. 8 when two Kuwaiti civilians opened fire on members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit training in the Persian Gulf. A fellow Marine was wounded in the ambush during an exercise in Failaka, any island 10 miles east of Kuwait City. Kuwaiti officials said the two gunmen had trained in Afghanistan and had fought against anti-Taliban forces. Sledd had said he hoped to become an FBI agent someday. In the spirit of that dream, a Gaither High School scholarship fund was established in his honor.

STREETCARS RETURN

After 56 years, electric streetcars returned to Ybor City in October. The TECO electric streetcar system, which cost $53-million, opened in October. The last streetcar, a staple of Tampa life in the first half of the century, had closed in 1946. Mayor Dick Greco heralded the new system as a way to tie Ybor City and downtown together. It will also move tourists at the Tampa Convention Center to Ybor nightlife.

HIGH-RISE FLOP

Plans for a huge waterfront condominium development in downtown St. Petersburg fell apart amid concerns about the developer, Paul Morris. It turns out Morris had declared personal bankruptcy shortly before moving to town, could document no development experience and had paid bills with close to $1-million in bad checks. In December the family that owns the site of his proposed development said he had defaulted on his lease and that they would find another developer.

PASCO SHOOTINGS

Pasco sheriff's deputies hadn't killed anyone since 1999. But it happened three times in 2002. A suicidal Zephyrhills jewelry store owner, a suspected drug dealer from Dade City and a probation violator in Holiday all died when they pulled guns on deputies. Each officer was exonerated in the shootings.

AUTOPSY QUESTIONS

John W. Peel, sentenced to 10 years in prison for the shaken baby death of his 8-week-old son, was freed after a review of an autopsy by former Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood. State Attorney Bernie McCabe said problems found in Wood's autopsy made him doubt Peel's guilt, forcing him to seek Peel's release.

TERRI SCHAIVO

A Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge ruled in November that modern medical treatments offer no hope of reversing Terri Schiavo's persistent vegetative state. Judge George Greer said Schiavo's feeding tube can be removed Jan. 3, allowing the woman to die in a case that has drawn national attention. But Greer stayed his own order while the ruling is appealed.

ALBERT WHITTED DEBATE

St. Petersburg spent much of the year debating the future of Albert Whitted Airport, which occupies more than 100 acres of publicly owned waterfront land. By the end of the year, the City Council had rejected the idea of closing the airport completely, and Mayor Rick Baker had suggested shrinking it from two runways to one.

TALL SHIPS SAIL IN

[Times photo: Michael Rondou]

Americas’ Sail 2002 brought tens of thousands of visitors into downtown St. Petersburg in June to see assorted boats, including two classic three-masted ships.

BID FOR GOP BASH

Tampa was still waiting to hear if it had won the right to host the 2004 Republican National Convention. Tampa had earned a spot as one of three finalists, along with New Orleans and New York. Tampa Bay Republicans led by Al Austin, Dick Beard and Rick Michaels visited the White House in December to make a case to the president's top political aides. But at year end, senior Republicans were still studying New York's proposal, a sign that the Big Apple remained a strong contender.

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