State briefs

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 13, 2000

Child born to dead parents still in critical condition

Jacob Conner Gadd remained in critical condition at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women in Orlando on Tuesday, three days after he was born an orphan.

Jacob was delivered by Caesarean section Sunday after a car crash killed his parents.

The baby's mother, Devyn Lynn Farina, 25, died in an ambulance en route to Orlando Regional Medical Center shortly after the midnight crash north of Orlando. Bryan Gadd, 35, the child's father and Farina's fiance, was driving the car. He was killed on impact.

The baby was named Jacob, the name his parents had chosen.

Witnesses said Robert Justin Palmer, 28, ran a red light and struck Gadd's car, according the Florida Highway Patrol. Palmer was charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter.

Palmer had been driving recklessly 15 minutes before the crash, witnesses told the FHP.

Lobbying of Legislature cost $4.34-million in 2000

TALLAHASSEE -- The lobbying corps spent $4.34-million to influence the Legislature this year -- an average of $27,168 for each of the state's 160 lawmakers.

Much of the money is spent to wine and dine legislators. Also included is what lobbyists spend to research issues and travel throughout the state to meet with lawmakers. But the law doesn't require lobbyists to declare who received money.

This year's reports, required of those who spent anything to influence state legislation from Jan. 1 through the end of June, were filed by 484 lobbyists out of the nearly 2,000 registered.

The largest amount reported spent was $836,676 by John LaCapra of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, which fought a proposal by the Florida Marlins to tax cruise passengers to raise money for a new baseball park.

The second-biggest spender was Michael Hightower of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, with $550,000. The company again fought a patient's bill of rights that would make it easier to sue HMOs and an increase in mandated insurance benefits while lobbying to expand children's health coverage.

Abandoned newborn's mother, 15, charged

ORLANDO -- Prosecutors have charged the mother of a newborn baby abandoned at a downtown Orlando hotel with attempted second-degree murder.

The baby was found in July on construction materials in an out-of-the-way area of a parking garage at the Sheraton's Four Points hotel. The girl and her mother were visiting from Texas.

Police think the 15-year-old girl left the baby where it was unlikely to be found, said Randy Means of the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office. Workers for a company renovating the hotel heard the baby's cries and rescued him.

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