Digest

Dateline Florida

By Times Wires
Published September 18, 2007

Televangelist to terrorist: Convert, or else you burn

St. Petersburg televangelist Bill Keller has a message for Osama bin Laden: Convert to Christianity or face an eternity in hell. Keller flooded nearly 200 national and international Web hosting sites with a 10-minute video sermon over the weekend in hopes that it would reach bin Laden. In it, Keller, 49, calls bin Laden "a tool of Satan" who could escape the wrath of God by turning his life over to Christ and urging other Muslims to do the same. "You can become one of the greatest soul winners in human history," he said. "God could use you to deliver hundreds of thousands from the flames of hell to the glories of heaven." Keller said he chose the video format because it's bin Laden's preferred communication tool.

More at FAMU pass bar

The good news: The bar passage rate for FAMU's law school is up to 60 percent on the most recent sitting, after several past tests resulted in a little more than half the students passing. The bad news: FAMU's bar passage remains the lowest among public and private law schools in Florida by 12 percentage points. The Florida Board of Bar Examiners released the results for July's test Monday, a few days after FAMU trustees approved a $250,000 yearly contract for the law school's first permanent dean in two years, Northern Illinois University law school dean LeRoy Pernell.

Snakes in the flames

The hissing coming from a smoky warehouse in Delray Beach on Sunday wasn't from the fire. Firefighters found more than 100 boa constrictors and pythons inside the rented unit, the Palm Beach Post reported. Some of the snakes were loose, others were locked in cages that had started to melt. No one was injured, but one firefighter got pretty personal with one of the reptiles. "When he came out, he had this boa all wrapped around his neck," Battalion Chief Russ Accardi told the Post. "It just points out, firefighters never know what they are crawling into."

[Last modified September 17, 2007, 23:32:14]