Dateline Florida

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 13, 2007

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Get them registered at 16 to vote at 18

The Hillsborough County supervisor of elections thinks young adults would be more likely to vote if they were registered at the same time they got their first driver's license, at 16. Buddy Johnson is working with members of the Florida Legislature to make that happen. Floridians who are 17 can register to vote, and Johnson would like to lower the age to 16. Of course, teens can vote only when they are 18. Once registered, a voter registration card would arrive in the mail near the prospective voter's 18th birthday. No additional sign-up would be needed.

Hurricane guru to offer predictions

Forecasters already have said the 2007 hurricane season will be a lot busier than last year. But how busy will it really be? You can get some straight answers today from Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for Weather Underground, who will share his 2007 predictions during a free lecture at Eckerd College, 4200 54th Ave. S, St. Petersburg. Masters, who co-founded wunderground.com, also will chat about what it was like to fly into the eye of Hurricane Hugo in 1989, which at the time was the most damaging hurricane ever. His talk starts at 4 p.m. in the Raymond James Room at Fox Hall.

Check your Lotto tickets

Somewhere between the Slurpees and Big Bites, a winning Lotto ticket worth $33-million was served at a Palm Harbor 7-Eleven this week. The winning ticket was sold at a store at 3398 Tampa Road, state lottery officials said Thursday. Wednesday night's winning Lotto numbers were 2-5-12-19-26-43. The winner had yet to step forward Thursday. The 7-Eleven will receive $40,000 for selling the winning ticket.