Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Dateline Florida

By TIMES WIRES
Published January 30, 2007

GHOUL BOWL?

Miami is planning a big party at the Orange Bowl Stadium with a theme, T-shirts and music. No date has been set. Reason being, everybody is still waiting ... on Cuban President Fidel Castro to die. When he does, Miami will get its party on. The after-Castro bash has been talked about for a while, but plans are being firmed up now that he's ill, according to a story Monday in the Miami Herald. It won't be an "official death party," City Commissioner Toms Regalado told the Herald, just a venue for people who want to "show their emotions."

'I'm never giving up' dogs

The legal saga over ownership of two dogs that were rescued after Hurricane Katrina and adopted returned to court Monday, with the sides trying to resolve several issues before the scheduled April trial. By day's end, Circuit Judge Henry Andringa dismissed one claim by the defense and is expected to rule on other motions in the next few days. Steven and Dorreen Couture, of St. Bernard Parish, La., sued in July to reclaim two dogs displaced during the hurricane and adopted by Hillsborough prosecutor Pam Bondi and Rhonda Rineker of Dunedin. The Coutures eventually tracked the dogs - a St. Bernard and a shepherd mix - to the Tampa Bay area. But by then, Bondi had adopted the St. Bernard and Rineker the shepherd mix. The Coutures were in court Monday, making the trip from Louisiana with their two grandchildren. "I never expected this to go on like this," Steven Couture said after the hearing. "But I'm never giving up. They're my dogs."

Carwash case puts husband in the national spotlight

McNeil "Mac" Brown's case against a Town 'N Country car wash goes national tonight. Inside Edition will air a story about Brown, right, with his wife and son, who ended his fight for punitive damages last week after a jury awarded him nearly $7.6-million in the death of his wife. Brenda Lee Brown, 43, pushed her son's stroller to safety before being hit by a car wash worker without a driver's license. The show airs at 7 p.m. on ABC.

Backpacks, blankets sought for homeless

Worried about homeless people braving the cold this winter? Tampa's St. Lawrence Catholic School and St. Petersburg's St. Raphael Catholic School have teamed up with St. Vincent de Paul to collect backpacks and blankets. The collection ends Friday. To donate, call St. Lawrence at (813) 879-5090 or St. Raphael at (727) 821-9663.

[Last modified January 30, 2007, 01:04:00]