Dateline Florida

By Times Wires
Published December 12, 2007

Make your voice heard in picking new state song

Three final entries are vying to replace Old Folks at Home as Florida's official state song. Floridians now will pick the winner. You can hear and vote for your favorite at www.JustSingFlorida.org. The incumbent, also known as Way Down Upon the Suwannee River, is a Stephen Foster classic, but it's been shunned because of its racial if not racist lyrics. One of the contending songs makes only a brief mention of the Suwannee River, another extols Florida as the place "Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky," and the third hails the "Land of the sunshine, by flowers defined."

Compensation for Crotzer gets new push

Alan Crotzer spent more than 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. On Tuesday, the Florida Baptist General Convention teamed with state lawmakers to try to get the former St. Petersburg man $1.25-million for his time served. "How do you provide complete justice to a man who was deprived of 24 years, six months and 13 days of his life for a crime he never committed? But at least we can restore a measure of justice to this man," said Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, who is sponsoring the legislation along with Rep. Luis Garcia, D-Miami Beach. The bill was introduced in the last legislative session but did not pass the Senate.

Fantasy comes true for lottery player

Someone who bought a Fantasy 5 lottery ticket in Sun City Center is a happy camper today. The winning ticket is worth $226,261.50, lottery officials said Tuesday. The 256 tickets matching four numbers won $142.50 each. The 9,079 tickets matching three numbers won $11 each, and 95,938 tickets won a Quick Pick ticket for picking two numbers. The numbers drawn Monday night were 4-5-18-20-32.

[Last modified December 11, 2007, 23:05:38]