Owners get more time to recover refugee pets
By Times Staff
Published June 21, 2006
CLEARWATER - Pets that end up in area shelters after natural disasters may have a better shot at reuniting with their owners under a new law approved Tuesday by the County Commission.
The law requires area shelters that take in animals after events such as hurricanes to wait three months before adopting them out permanently. During that time, if an original owner locates a pet, it can be reclaimed.
After Hurricane Katrina, animal rescue groups went to the disaster zone and collected refugee animals. These animals were dispersed across the country, and nearly 300 came to Pinellas.
Some were adopted out after what was then a 30-day waiting period, even as their owners continued to search for them.
County officials had proposed a six-month period, but local animal rescuers said people might be unwilling to adopt refugee pets that could be taken away from them at any point over so long a period, and that those who do will become too attached to them and not be willing to give them up.
Storms again cleared of wrongdoing in bar case
TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Commission on Ethics has cleared Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms after another complaint that she improperly tried to interfere with the opening of a Valrico bikini bar.
Bar owner Jamie Rand complained that Storms attempted to get a building official to delay the bar's opening at the request of residents in her district.
The Ethics Commission found that the complaint was legally insufficient to prove probable cause on wrongdoing on Storms' part.
Activist Marilyn Smith had filed a similar complaint, which the Ethics Commission dismissed in March.
"Representation of constituents is part and parcel of an elected official's responsibilities," the commission's order read.
Pinellas circuit judge wins judicial excellence award
ST. PETERSBURG - Pinellas Circuit Judge Nelly N. Khouzam has been presented with the William Castagna Award for Judicial Excellence, which recognizes Pinellas judges for their legal knowledge, ethics, civility and demeanor.
Khouzam, the administrative judge for Pinellas' civil courts, received the award Saturday from Barney Masterson Inn of Court, a legal mentoring organization.
Khouzam was appointed to a judgeship in 1994, and in 2002 was named the American Board of Trial Advocates' Florida Jurist of the Year.