INVERNESS -- The cost of being a smart aleck may be a second-degree felony charge and up to 15 years in prison for a 15-year-old Citrus High School student.

Before Sept. 11, a comment by a student about anthrax may have gone unnoticed. Not now.

When a Citrus High student on Tuesday wrote on a school computer: "Anthrax is here and in this school, bye now," students and adults reacted with alarm. The 15-year-old, whose name is being withheld by the St. Petersburg Times because of his age, has been arrested and faces possible charges. If prosecuted as an adult, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

Citrus Superintendent David Hickey said the district must take such incidents seriously. The student faces at least a 10-day suspension from school. The prank was not a bomb threat, which carries a state-mandated one-year expulsion.

The larger question is how to get the message to children that now is not the time for such pranks or jokes.

"The secondary message would be, understand that terrorism is here. Terrorism is real. Anthrax is real and this hoax is real, and we take this hoax very seriously," Hickey said. "This is real life. This is what's going on in our country and in Citrus County."

'Death row' dog dies as appeal lingers

Beethoven

CLEARWATER -- After six years of making headlines as the longest-running member of Pinellas County's version of death row for dogs, Beethoven was quietly euthanized last month.

It was old age and mercy, not county justice, that finally sealed the Great Dane's fate.

Though the dog's appeals were still unfolding, Pinellas County Animal Services officials called his owner, Lorraine Blackwood, in early September and told her the 11-year-old's dog's health was rapidly declining.

"She was able to hold the dog's paw through the process," her attorney David Plante said. "He went peacefully."

Plante said the six-year legal battle over the dog, impounded after he bit a child, which included an unsuccessful appeal to Gov. Jeb Bush for clemency, was not all for naught. The lawsuit has changed the way animal services does business, he said.

Dog owners are now entitled to a hearing before the animal services director determines whether a dog should be destroyed, and they can subpoena witnesses.

For Dunedin officials, no more free games

DUNEDIN -- From now on, Dunedin officials will either buy their own tickets or bill the city if they want to attend Toronto Blue Jays baseball games.

They will no longer accept tickets, watches or other gifts from the team, or from anyone doing business with the city.

As for accepting tickets, hotel stays, meals and other perks from the city of Toronto, that's still okay.

Those are the highlights of a new gift policy for top city officials informally approved by the Dunedin City Commission.

Dunedin officials have accepted gifts from the Canadian city and the baseball team since the team opened a spring training headquarters here in 1977.

Records show that the current mayor, city manager, city attorney and city commissioners have accepted gifts from Toronto and its baseball team worth from $1,886 to $8,506 during the past 10 years.

"We have been criticized publicly on this, and other cities have more restrictive gift policies than we," Mayor Tom Anderson said at Thursday's commission meeting.

Largo may ease up on juvenile curfew

LARGO -- Changes may be in the works for Largo's juvenile curfew.

The city staff has proposed changes that include allowing youths with permission slips from their parents to stay out past the curfew, reducing the fine for violating the curfew from the current maximum of $500 to $50 and changing the daily end of the curfew from 6 a.m. to 5 a.m.

The Largo curfew was based on one enacted in Pinellas Park. Enforcement of that curfew was suspended in May while an appeals court decides whether the ordinance is constitutional. A lower court already ruled the ordinance unconstitutional.

While Pinellas Park officials await the outcome of the appeal, they apparently have no intention of changing the ordinance before a decision is made, said City Manager Jerry Mudd.

Largo commissioners will discuss the changes at their Nov. 6 meeting.

Pappas to sell landmark Tarpon Springs restaurant

TARPON SPRINGS -- Restaurateur Louis Pappas on Wednesday announced the sale of his landmark restaurant, and the buyer's plans would change the face of the Sponge Docks, one of Tampa Bay's biggest tourist destinations.

Pappas said he will sell his Louis Pappas Riverside Restaurant and 1 1/2 acres on the southwest corner of Dodecanese Boulevard and Pinellas Avenue to Clearwater Beach hotel owner Tony Markopoulos.

Along with taking over the restaurant, Markopoulos proposes to build a $50-million hotel and conference and convention center that would straddle Dodecanese Boulevard.

Although a name has not been chosen, Markopoulos plans to retain the Pappas name for the complex. The staff and management of the restaurant also will not change.

Over the course of more than 75 years, three generations of the Pappas family have added much to the culture of the Sponge Docks.

The Americanized Greek salad -- you know, with potato salad nestled amid iceberg lettuce? Louis Pappas' grandfather invented that.

Pappas, 45, said Wednesday that his decision to sell stemmed from a desire to reprioritize his life.

"I've been trying to balance my family and a desire for expansion, and I realized I couldn't do both," he said.

In short . . .

CHASSAHOWITZKA -- One of the whooping cranes flying to Citrus County from Wisconsin died after crashing into a power line Wednesday night. That leaves seven of the endangered birds and raises the stakes even higher for the researchers who are guiding the cranes with ultralight aircraft, a novel approach that worked last fall using sandhill cranes.

BROOKSVILLE -- Chinsegut Nature Center, once considered a prime target for state budget cuts, looks like it will survive. Area lawmakers lobbied heavily to keep the center open and it escaped both House and Senate budget cuts so far.

CLEARWATER -- Real estate heavyweight Lee Arnold, chairman of Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Services, announced plans to build an upscale, 17-story condominium and a luxury "boutique" hotel in an $80-million project that could boost downtown redevelopment in Clearwater.

Coming up this week

The special session of the Legislature is scheduled to end Thursday, but with the debate over severe budget cuts heating up, a quick ending looks unlikely

-- Compiled by Times staff writer Sharon Kennedy Wynne

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