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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 17, 2003
TITUSVILLE -- U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney said he has received assurances that NASA's administrator is trying to avoid layoffs at the Kennedy Space Center in the wake of the Columbia disaster.
Feeney spoke to about 150 area residents, including some space center employees, a day after touring the hangar where shuttle wreckage is being cataloged and reassembled.
"I was assured by (NASA administrator) Sean O'Keefe there are no plans for work slowdowns and layoffs," the Oviedo Republican, whose district includes the space center, said on Saturday. "When you have slowdowns, you lose the best talent."
The shuttle fleet was grounded for more than two years after the Challenger disaster in January 1986. Key contract workers were laid off and didn't return when shuttle missions resumed.
Feeney was joined by Jim Kennedy, space center deputy director, who said NASA is not sure when the shuttle will fly again.
About 1,800 NASA staffers and 12,000 contract employees work at Cape Canaveral.
EDGEWATER -- A 4-year-old girl died after a seat belt in her family's minivan became tangled around her neck, authorities said on Sunday.
Thomas Moseley, 39, was driving north on Interstate 95 on Saturday when he discovered his daughter Emily's head was tangled in the back seat safety belt and she was not breathing, said Gary Davidson, Volusia County sheriff's spokesman.
Moseley pulled to the side of the road, hailed assistance from a passing car, cut Emily out of the seat belt and called 911, authorities said.
Paramedics found the girl in cardiac arrest when they arrived at I-95 and State Road 442, said EVAC spokesman Mark O'Keefe.
She was taken to Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach, where she died. Davidson said investigators did not know how Emily's neck got stuck in the seat belt.