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Reeling in News

Some 2005 themes from the bay area and beyond.

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published December 26, 2005

	[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]
	Terri Schiavo: After her death on March 31, those holding vigil outside the Hospice House Woodside mourned, including siblings Ben and Lauren Murch of Virginia.
	[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]
	Gay Pride: The "Pride is Back" march in June protested Hillsborough County's actions.
	[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]
	Bodies: The controversial exhibit of human cadavers had its 100,000th visitor in October.
	[Times photo: Ken Helle]
	Sami Al-Arian: His wife, Nahla, left, prayed for her husband's release after his trial ended.
	[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]
	Jennifer Porter: At her sentencing with her parents, she learned she would avoid prison.
	[Times photo: Chris Zuppa]
	Ford Amphitheatre's neighbors complain, so the county reaches a deal with the amphitheater to make improvements within a year.
	[Times photo: John Pendygraft]
	Devastating Hurricanes: It was a record-setting season. In Immokalee, Beatrice Gonzalez covers the body of Mary Howell, 65, who was killed during Wilma, a storm that knocked out power for millions in South Florida.
	Troubled Schools: Pinellas schools faced criticism for two incidents in which students were handcuffed, including one in April involving a kindergartener.
	Multimedia report

So, here is my fantasy ending to 2005.

County Commissioner Ronda Storms is leading an anti-gay, anti-birth control, anti-tolerance protest march through Hillsborough County, joined by protesters against the phrase "Happy Holidays." Coming in the opposite direction are supporters of Sami Al-Arian, gay rights advocates, BayWalk anti-war protesters and Joe Redner.

The two columns collide at a four-way intersection, where they meet up with two other parades representing each side of the Terri Schiavo case. Confusion reigns when nobody knows what day it is under the Hillsborough School Board's calendar.

The mob panics and tramples over TV news crews breathlessly reporting the latest in the Debra Lafave and Carolina Panthers cheerleader cases. Bill O'Reilly accidentally gets into a fight with himself on national television. ("Shut up! No, YOU shut up!") The Ocean Jewel is converted to an oil-drilling rig.

The Legislature meets in emergency session to double everybody's phone bill again. Bulldozers show up to begin another Wal-Mart. At the last second, Hurricane Omega arrives and destroys every condo in West Central Florida, curing the Red Tide.

Just a fantasy.

But it wasn't that bad a year, was it? It could have been worse - think about New Orleans. We should be grateful to be here, happy still to have houses on which to pay ridiculous insurance rates, happy to have a new Devil Rays ownership and a Bucs team with a winning record.

Some themes from 2005:

On March 31, the 13th day after her feeding tube had been removed, and more than 15 years after she had collapsed, Theresa Marie Schiavo passed forever beyond the reach of family, friends, and a world that had made her a household name.

Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, fought in court for years against the efforts of her husband, Michael Schiavo, who said he was carrying out her wishes. Despite a last-minute act of Congress, the courts at every level refused to set aside the ruling of Circuit Judge George Greer removing the tube.

The Hillsborough County Commission, led by Ronda Storms, set its sights on "gay pride" events and Planned Parenthood. Others targeted gay-straight clubs in public schools and PFLAG, while a campaign to ban gay marriage got under way.

In October, the Hillsborough School Board set off a mini-war by adopting a new school calendar without religious holidays, then reversed itself. That fight was resolved just in time to start complaining about store clerks not saying "Merry Christmas."

Her lawyer said Debra Lafave, the former Hillsborough teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old, was too pretty to go to prison. But at the last minute, a judge shot down her plea bargain.

The Hillsborough County Commission balked at supporting a charity event because nude dance club king Joe Redner was a sponsor. In an unrelated lawsuit, Redner declared he was gay. The year also featured mobile strippers, bikini bars and Carolina Panthers cheerleaders in restroom hijinks.

The six-month trial of Sami Al-Arian, the former USF professor accusing of helping the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, ended this month with acquittals on some charges and a hung jury on others.

Jennifer Porter avoided prison in November when a judge sentenced her to community control, probation and community service for leaving the scene of a March 2004 accident that left two children dead and two injured.

Other high-profile defendants: John Couey, accused of the murder of Jessica Lunsford of Homosassa; David Onstott, accused in the death of Sarah Lunde of Ruskin; and Joseph P. Smith, awaiting sentencing in the murder of Carlie Brucia of Sarasota. John and Linda Dollar of Citrus County took a plea bargain for 15 years in prison for the torture and starving of their five children.

The Planet Strikes Back

By the time the 2005 hurricane season was done, we had zipped through the alphabet and started over with Greek letters, ending with Epsilon. Although New Orleans took the worst, our state still felt effects. Wilma plunged millions in South Florida into darkness. At year's end we got another nice round of rate increases from scandal-ridden Citizens Property Insurance Co.

Our coast was bedeviled by a stubborn Red Tide. There was a spate of shark attacks and even an outbreak of iguanas. Maybe nature was trying to tell us something while we fought over whether to expand oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, continued to destroy wetlands and failed again to do as much as we should to fix the Everglades.

All year, there were headlines like these:

New condo project planned

Mobile home residents fight sale of park

Residents oppose redevelopment plan

Record housing prices reported

The same underlying cause for all of it: red-hot land prices and pressure to redevelop. Everybody from Donald Trump down got in on the action. With teachers, nurses and police officers increasingly unable to buy houses, policymakers were asking what to do about affordable housing.

At least we had Florida politics for comic relief. Two of our bay area lawmakers, state Sen. Dennis Jones and state Rep. Frank Farkas, were among the beneficiaries of a $48,000 trip to Toronto, which, of course, a Senate lawyer ruled was okay. But heck, that's nothing. We learned that U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis has taken eight trips to Las Vegas since 1997, all paid for by private groups that wanted his vote.

Our local lawmakers got in on the action, with the Pinellas County Commission taking a trip to Hawaii and the Tampa City Council voting to get rid of any limits on gifts. The St. Petersburg City Council got re-elected and gave itself a 40 percent raise.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio lost a battle on where to locate a new art museum, after spending political capital to shoot down an earlier plan. But the hot museum ticket in town was "Bodies, the Exhibition" at the Museum of Science and Industry. At least no one had to go through a patdown like at the Bucs games.

St. Petersburg's mayor and City Council were nowhere to be seen when the Ocean Jewel gambling ship quietly pulled out of town. Maybe they were still basking in the glow of the Grand Prix. The city also dealt with anti-war protesters and a brawl at BayWalk.

In January, more than 400 angry residents of Tarpon Springs packed into a meeting to oppose a proposed Wal-Mart on the Anclote River, but lost. But Wal-Mart withdrew its proposal for a site on Gandy Boulevard in St. Petersburg.

At least Wal-Marts aren't loud. Neighbors of the Ford Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds continued to complain. The county struck a deal giving the amphitheater a year to make improvements. A month later, the noise limits were blown away by country star Alan Jackson.

In April, a videotape showing St. Petersburg officers handcuffing a kindergartener at Fairmount Park Elementary School made national news. There was deja vu in November, when another officer handcuffed a disrespectful 13-year-old on a school bus.

But much worse happened. In February, 8-year-old Brooke Ashlee Ingoldsby was killed after getting off her school bus, and 6-year-old E'Traveon Johnson faces permanent brain and spinal injury after being struck by a car after dashing out of Fairmount Park Elementary in April.

Disappointments:

Inspirations:

Posthumous Medal of Honor winner Paul Smith; the return to flight of the space shuttle; the Hall of Fame induction of Wade Boggs; Kerry Reardon and Kelli Earle, who jumped off the Howard Frankland Bridge to save a boy trapped in an SUV in the water; the local support for victims of Hurricane Katrina. And, though it stemmed from a tragic cause, the strength of feeling our community expressed for former Bucs and current Colts coach Tony Dungy and his family.

[Last modified December 26, 2005, 11:53:37]