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Foley: 'It's just been a real hard time'

By TIMES WIRES
Published November 18, 2006

Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley attended funeral home visitation Friday for his father, who died of complications from cancer this week.

Foley had been in seclusion since checking himself into an Arizona facility for treatment of alcoholism Oct. 1.

"It's just been a real hard time," Foley told the Associated Press.

Reporters and photographers were camped out on every corner around the Quattlebaum-Holleman-Burse Funeral Home in West Palm Beach. Services for Edward Foley are today.

Mark Foley resigned from Congress Sept. 29 after being confronted with sexually explicit computer messages he sent to male teenage pages who had worked on Capitol Hill. His attorneys announced later that Foley was gay, suffered from alcoholism and had been molested by a priest as a teenager.

Florida authorities said Thursday they had opened a criminal investigation into whether Foley broke any laws.

Teen going to prison in school bus shooting

A teenager was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison for shooting a classmate on a school bus.

Miramar police say Camille Alicia Burke and Kaliesha Cheatham, both then juniors at Parkway Academy, got into a fistfight on the bus last November. The next day Burke boarded the bus, pulled out a .32-caliber handgun and shot Cheatham in the shoulder.

Burke, now 18, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and possession of a firearm on school property. She was ordered by Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy to serve 10 years' probation after her release.

Pet store camera sees dog snatchers' act

Three men broke into a South Beach pet store and snatched two teacup-sized Yorkshire terriers worth $2,500 each in a heist caught on video, police said.

The alarm company called the owner of Pets on South Beach shortly after midnight Wednesday. "I rushed to my store and found the front door smashed and police everywhere," owner Alex Herrero said. "These guys used a concrete block to get in."

Surveillance video showed a white Jeep Liberty backed up to the store as two of the men rushed straight to the rear where the high-priced puppies were housed. In a matter of minutes, they walked away with male and female purebred puppy Yorkies.

Herrero showed police another video of what appeared to be the same men visiting Monday during store hours and giving particular attention to the same puppies.

"I feel bad for these puppies, because they are very sensitive," Herrero said. "The people who stole them to make money are not going to worry about how to care for them (and) they can easily die."

Gatorland reopening is reset for Friday

Gatorland officials say the 57-year-old attraction damaged by fire Nov. 6, will reopen Friday, two days later than originally expected.

Guests will use an alternate entrance rather than the trademark giant alligator mouth that was charred in the fire.

A crocodile and two pythons died in the blaze that also ruined Gatorland's 7,000-square-foot gift shop and some offices. A faulty heater in a reptile enclosure was found to be the cause.

[Last modified November 18, 2006, 00:53:48]