HIT-RUN INVESTIGATION CONTINUES: Hillsborough County sheriff's officials last week continued to investigate a deadly hit-and-run accident in the University of South Florida area even after a school teacher acknowledged her involvement.
Bryant Wilkins, 13, and his 3-year-old brother, Durontae Caldwell, died in the March 31 accident on N 22nd Street. The crash also injured their siblings, 8-year-old Aquina Wilkins and 2-year-old LaJuan Davis.
Deputies were requesting a call from anyone who saw Jennifer Porter, a Muller Elementary School dance teacher, or the car she was driving, a silver 2000 Toyota Echo, between 7 p.m. March 31 and 6 p.m. April 2.
They also were interested in anyone who saw Porter or the vehicle at the Shoppes at New Tampa strip mall where she owns a dance studio. They were taking calls at (813) 247-0600.
Porter, 28, offered a public apology at a news conference Monday. Her lawyer has said she was the driver of a Toyota Echo involved in the accident.
Separately, Hillsborough County commissioners considered how they might make the stretch of road near the University Area Community Center safer.
A long-term plan to improve 22nd Street from University Mall north to Bearss Avenue isn't supposed to be completed for more than two years.
Sen. Victor Crist asked for temporary safety measures - among them speed bumps, flashing lights, lower speed limits and repainted crosswalks.
NO SAME-SEX HEALTH BENEFITS: A narrow majority of county commissioners Wednesday rejected the idea of extending health benefits to the domestic partners of county employees. The vote was 4-3.
The vote came a month after Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio extended benefits to domestic partners of city government employees, including those of the same sex.
"I see this as (leading) to gay marriage next," said Commissioner Jim Norman. "This is not going to be San Francisco east. That's the way I see it."
Norman and Ronda Storms were joined by Commissioner Ken Hagan and Chairman Tom Scott.
Like the city of Tampa, Hillsborough commissioners in the early 1990s passed a human rights ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. Unlike the city, the county rescinded the ordinance four years later when the commission makeup changed.
MORAL COURAGE IN EGYPT LAKE: The County Commission offered residents of the Egypt Lake area its Moral Courage Award for their fight against huge power poles installed there last year by Tampa Electric Co.
The Moral Courage Award is the highest honor the commission presents to citizens. The recognition was given despite a recommendation from the commission's citizens advisory committee that none of this year's 11 nominees were worthy.
Commissioner Kathy Castor, who has been a champion of the neighborhood's cause, disagreed with the recommendation.
"They've continued to fight. They continue to fight today," Castor said. "Their actions have resulted in protections for neighborhoods throughout Hillsborough County."
Residents in the Egypt Lake area have been protesting the installation of nearly 80 power transmission poles - some as tall as 125 feet - in their northwest Hillsborough neighborhood since last year. The case is now in court.
Commissioners were powerless to order the removal of the poles because there were few regulations governing where poles can be erected. But as a result of the dispute, commissioners passed new rules governing where such tall pillars may be located and requiring public notice and hearings.
A proposal from Tampa Electric to remove some of the poles and replace them with slightly smaller ones goes to commissioners May 11. Residents in the area immediately affected oppose the plan and want them removed altogether.
THE END OF ECKERD: CVS Corp. and the Canadian Jean Coutu Group early Monday agreed to pay a combined $4.52-billion in cash to acquire and split up Eckerd Corp.
After buying 1,269 Eckerd stores in the Sunbelt and Eckerd's $1.3-billion mail-order pharmacy, CVS will begin changing all of them to the CVS brand this summer.
The Eckerd name then will vanish from the Florida pharmacy arena for the first time since Jack Eckerd bought three run-down Tampa Bay area drugstores in 1952. They were the foundation of an empire that became the biggest drugstore operator in the South.
The divestiture by J.C Penney Co. will leapfrog CVS (which stands for Consumer Value Stores) past Walgreen Co. as the nation's largest drugstore chain with more than 5,400 stores. In retiree-rich Florida, one of the nation's most lucrative prescription drug markets, the deal sets the stage for a showdown between CVS and Walgreens, which after a building binge became the state's dominant drugstore chain a few years ago.
CVS plans to spend $350,000 enhancing each of 622 Florida Eckerd stores with new fixtures, dark beige carpeting, extended hours and beefed-up staffing that Eckerd had cut to enhance its profitability in recent months.
