TALLAHASSEE - Senate and House budget committees set aside $30-million from an unclaimed lottery jackpot for community colleges and universities on Wednesday.
A ticket sold in the Miami area last March was the sole winner of a $50-million jackpot, but nobody turned it in before a 180-day deadline. The total amount available from the jackpot is $30.1-million - the same as if the winner took a lump-sum payment instead of 30 annual payments.
Normally, unclaimed winnings are required to be put back into promotions and prizes. But Gov. Jeb Bush said the money in this case should go to schools, and several lawmakers also called for earmarking the money for education.
The Senate and House Appropriations Committees both unanimously approved the measures Wednesday. The bills could come up for a final vote as early as today.
DAYTONA BEACH - Several people who spent time in the ocean off Volusia County have been treated for a mysterious bacterial skin infection.
Dr. Jeff Parks, an Ormond Beach dermatologist, said he has treated eight patients over the past two months, including two who were hospitalized, for painful crater-like lesions that start as small blisters and can expand to the size of silver dollars within days.
The contagious, bacterial disease, known as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, was found in patients who had been in the ocean, Parks said.
"Whether or not it is related to the ocean, we do not know," said Volusia Health Department director Dr. Howard Rodenberg. "I suspect that this particular bacteria probably is not. We haven't found anything else going on in the state similar to this."
Four die, three injured in mobile home fire
IMMOKALEE - A fire engulfed a mobile home, killing a mother and her three sons and injuring three others.
Immokalee firefighters arrived at the Tara Park mobile home community about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and found the home in flames, according to the Collier County Sheriff's Office.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and found four bodies in one of the bedrooms. Officials have not yet released identities, but said two victims were 17 years old and the others were 23 and 37.
Three family members in another bedroom who escaped the blaze were taken to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers and later transferred to Tampa General Hospital. Gladys Hernandez, 25, was listed in critical condition Wednesday and Ronnie Morales, 30, was in fair condition. Eduardo Morales, 2, was not listed as a patient, said hospital spokeswoman Ellen Fiss.
Investigators hadn't determined the fire's cause.
Casey Rodgers confirmed as U.S. judge in Pensacola
PENSACOLA - U.S. Magistrate Casey Rodgers has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as a federal judge in the Northern District of Florida, which stretches from Pensacola to Gainesville and includes Tallahassee.
Rodgers, 39, has been a magistrate since May 2002. She will succeed the retiring U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier in Pensacola.
