Dateline Florida

By Times Wires
Published January 29, 2008

It's business, but still a trip to Super Bowl

The Bucs may have fallen short of the 2008 Super Bowl, but a team of bay area leaders is headed to Arizona this week for festivities surrounding the big game. They're going on a reconnaissance mission to prepare for Tampa's turn to host the Super Bowl in 2009. Among the 60 or so folks making the trip: Hillsborough Commissioner Brian Blair; Tampa fire Chief Dennis Jones; Pinellas Commissioner Ronnie Duncan; Hillsborough County NAACP President Curtis Stokes; and businessman Dick Beard, who chairs Tampa's 2009 Super Bowl Host Committee.

Second dog dies from injuries in car fire

A Labrador retriever whose owner locked her in a burning car died Saturday. Honey was the second dog to die from the fire that authorities said John A. Paulette III set Thursday to get back at his estranged girlfriend. Paulette, 41, drove to the woman's Indian Rocks Beach house with the two dogs - Honey and Sweetie - and four propane tanks in his Ford Explorer. Paulette set himself on fire, then stepped out and closed the dogs in the burning SUV. Sweetie died at the scene. Honey died later at an animal hospital. Paulette, of Dunedin, was in fair condition Monday at Tampa General Hospital.

Bear sightings up; deaths, too

Add nuisance bears to your list of things to worry about in Florida. Reports of black bears in residential areas reached a high of 2,675 last year, twice the number in 2000, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Bear deaths, caused mostly by cars on Central Florida roads, increased 50 percent to a record 177 last year. The bears are also being killed by wildlife officers at a faster clip. Last year, officials killed 14 nuisance bears in Central and Northeast Florida, compared with three in 2006. Wildlife officials blame people for wiping out the bears' habitats with development.

Luckily for woman, at least one cop carries flippers

A woman stepped off the Howard Frankland Bridge into the cold, dark bay Monday night. Whatever was on her mind, it could not have been Tampa police Officer Ryan Jurvevich. The officer isn't on the police dive team, but he likes to dive. He likes it so much that on Monday, he just happened to have his flippers with him at work when he heard the call to the bridge. The woman in the water had found a piling, but her hold began to slip. That's when the cop who carries flippers appeared at her side with a lifeline. Both made it out okay. Maybe the police department has found its next dive team member, but for now, officers chuckle. Flippers? "We're not commenting on that," Officer Steven Cragg said with a smile.

[Last modified January 28, 2008, 23:56:27]