Digest

Dateline Florida

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 30, 2007

BAG THE DIAPER TALE, SAYS LAWYER FOR FORMER ASTRONAUT NOWAK

Former astronaut Lisa Nowak didn't wear diapers during her 950-mile road trip to confront a romantic rival, her lawyer said Friday, disputing one of the more bizarre details to emerge from the NASA love triangle. "The biggest lie in this preposterous tale that has been told is that my client drove from Houston, Texas, to Orlando, Florida, nonstop, wearing a diaper, " Donald Lykkebak told the Associated Press. A police report said she used the diapers during the trip to avoid stopping. But the lawyer says the toddler-size diapers found in her car were several years old. Nowak and her family had used them when Houston was evacuated in 2005 during Hurricane Rita, he said.

Fantasy Five yields two bay area winners

Repeat after me: 2-3-13-30-35. Do those numbers sound familiar? If they do, you may have won a lot of money - $111, 538.62 to be exact. Two winners of the Fantasy Five game each will collect that amount, the Florida Lottery said Friday. And the winning tickets were bought in Tampa and St. Petersburg, lottery officials reported. If you're the winner, just remember you heard it here first.

Columnist Steve Otto on recovery list

Longtime Tampa Tribune columnist Steve Otto is recovering following an emergency heart procedure. Otto was admitted to Tampa General Hospital after experiencing symptoms of dehydration while playing tennis Thursday, confirmed Dennis Joyce, Tribune metro editor. Doctors implanted four stents into the 62-year-old's heart to help open his arteries. A hospital official said he was in fair condition on Friday. Joyce said Otto is recovering well and is expected to return to his column in "a matter of days rather than weeks." Otto wrote for the Tampa Times for 13 years until it closed in 1982, when he joined the staff of the Tribune.

Correction

A story June 22 mischaracterized WFLA-Ch. 8 reports on a VA grant to the St. Vincent de Paul's Center of Hope in St. Petersburg. WFLA did not report that a portion of the grant was intended for job training.

[Last modified June 29, 2007, 23:32:10]