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No fast track in disputed race for congress

By TIMES STAFF and TIMES WIRES
Published November 22, 2006

Leon Circuit Judge William Gary is in no rush to decide the rightful winner of a controversial congressional race. Gary ruled Tuesday that Democrat Christine Jennings' lawsuit seeking a new election in District 13 should not be expedited. Gary did speed up the deadlines that defendants, the secretary of state and others, must respond to by 15 days. The judge also said both parties - Jennings and Republican Vern Buchanan, who won the seat - should be allowed to observe audits of Sarasota County voting machines scheduled to start Nov. 28.

Baby's body found in recycling rubble

A worker found the body of a newborn girl Tuesday amid rubble at a recycling plant, shortly before the pile of concrete and rock was to be pulverized. Authorities said the infant, its umbilical cord still attached, was delivered full-term but could not yet say whether it was a live birth, pending an autopsy. They sought the public's help in identifying the mother. The body was on one of 369 trucks hauling construction waste from Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Coin scam earns 5 years and change

A former attorney and rare coin dealer was sentenced Tuesday to 63 months in prison after admitting he stole more than $1-million from more than 100 people who bought collectibles from him on the eBay online auction site. Martin Eugene Haber, 59, was the subject of 188 complaints between 2001 and 2005 from buyers who did not receive the coins they purchased, U.S. attorneys said. Haber, who has resigned from the Florida Bar, was twice arrested locally but continued selling under other names. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Donald Graham, Haber said he was taking prescription drugs for depression and the time, and "I was in a spiral that I didn't know how to control." Graham will hold another hearing Jan. 4 to determine restitution.

Proposed artificial reef still nameless

None of three bids posted on an eBay auction site for naming rights to a proposed artificial reef project was valid, but the project will move ahead, organizers said Tuesday. The bids ranged from $900,000 to $900,200 in the Nov. 8-15 auction. "None were serious," said Joe Weatherby, a project organizer with Artificial Reefs of the Keys. The project has the $5.7-million in commitments needed to clean, tow and sink the retired Air Force missile-tracking ship Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, but Weatherby is still shopping for a major naming sponsor to reduce Key West's costs.

Drug overdoses kill two in FAU dorm

Authorities Tuesday identified two teenagers found dead of apparent drug overdoses in a Florida Atlantic University dormitory suite. Freshman Nicole Phillips, 18, of Weston, Conn., and Richard Cardindale, 19, were found dead Sunday. Phillips' friends said Cardindale was not a student and had recently moved to Boca Raton from Tampa and was working as a roofer. The drug wasn't specified, pending autopsies.

[Last modified November 22, 2006, 00:12:26]