NEW PORT RICHEY -- Corrections officials thought it was a good idea: Get pedophiles off the streets on Halloween night. And it had been successfully tried before, two years ago in Hillsborough County.

This year, the state Department of Corrections wanted to try the same thing in Pasco County, ordering every convicted child sex offender on probation in west Pasco to a mandatory counseling session on Halloween during the hours when most children would be out trick-or-treating.

But on Wednesday -- as the Times began asking questions about it and a defense attorney prepared to challenge the plan as a mere disguise for a mass illegal detention -- the department abruptly canceled the whole thing.

Joseph Papy, the regional director of the department's Community Corrections program, defended the plan as just another mandatory counseling session. But the timing was no coincidence.

"We chose Halloween for obvious reasons," Papy said.

Official tries to smooth over his choice of words

INVERNESS -- Citrus County Property Appraiser Ron Schultz spent the week cleaning up after he stunned an audience at the Greater Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Inverness on Monday with what some said were insensitive remarks.

When Schultz was asked why there were few minorities in county positions, he replied that language skills were a problem with job applicants in Citrus County. He went on to say that job candidates with a "patois," or a thick accent, have difficulty being understood by people on the phone.

His answer had a darker tone to it than Schultz will acknowledge, said Judy Groner, who attended the forum.

"Without a transcript or a tape, it is hard to say the exact words he said," Groner said Wednesday. "But the way he said it, we were talking about not hiring black people, and he said nobody can understand you. If that wasn't what he meant, that was certainly the inference."

Schultz said he may have confused the audience about his meaning, but he insisted he is not a racist.

School Board debates: Should kids sell door-to-door?

INVERNESS -- First a needle was found inside a chocolate bar that was sold as part of a school fundraiser. Then a 9-year-old girl who was helping her brother sell candles for school was mauled by a dog.

The Citrus County School Board these days is taking a dim view of turning students into an unpaid sales force peddling overpriced trinkets. It may consider banning such sales.

With so many families in the county needing free and reduced-price lunches, parents shouldn't feel coerced to buy the candles, wrapping paper and sweets to support their school, officials said.

"These are obscene profits going to these companies," said board member Carl Hansen. "They're just preying on the kids. . . . We don't need to have our children participating in that scam."

Board members may favor more family friendly fundraisers such as school fairs and pizza parties. But they put off a decision until spring so the staff can offer alternatives.

Bucs quarterback funds class on civil rights

ST. PETERSBURG -- Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Shaun King will pay for a class on civil rights for students of Academy Prep Center for Education, the small private school for disadvantaged boys and girls in King's hometown of St. Petersburg.

The class will feature a trip during spring break to famous sites of the civil rights movement, including visits to Atlanta and Birmingham and Montgomery, Ala.

King and other family members plan to accompany the students and staff.

"He came over here one day last spring with Bucs staff," said headmaster John Effinger. "I think they dragged him here. He was thinking it was an elite school of some kind. He became enamored of it and has been thinking about what's possible."

Course topics will include a discussion of prejudice, historical overviews of African tribes and colonialism, cultural movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and the development of the civil rights movement through the 20th century.

Tampa swingers club gathers powerful enemies

TAMPA -- About 10 months after they arrived, the swingers' haven in Old Seminole Heights, called Taboo Tampa, has become the latest battleground in Tampa's sex wars.

The mayor calls it an embarrassment. Police want it closed. State Attorney Jack Rudy is prosecuting the owner, John Melfi, for violating zoning regulations.

The patrons say the legal attacks have less to do with the city code than with their lifestyle, which they call deeply misunderstood but far more common than city leaders think.

Melfi, who used to work in the nightclub business, is now appealing the city's ruling that he runs an adult-use business.

He calls it a private, European-style social club. The city, noting that swingers must pay to get in -- $50 for a three-month membership, plus a "mandatory donation" on entering, which is waived for single women, but ranges from $25 to $70 -- calls it an adult business, even though swinger clubs aren't specifically mentioned in the city code.

Pasco is limited without industrial parks, brokers say

LAND O'LAKES -- Pasco County will limit itself to being little more than a jobs-poor bedroom community unless the county sets aside more land for business parks and industry, according to several Tampa Bay real estate brokers.

Pasco has squandered prime land along Interstate 75, letting housing developers buy land better suited for large office parks, they said.

"More than 50,000 people a day leave Pasco County to work in Tampa," said Eric Eicher of Commercial Brokerage Co. in Tampa. "If Pasco wants to be able to turn that around, it should set aside some large tracts for business parks." Without it, the Pasco tax base and job market will suffer, he said, and commuter roads will experience bottlenecks.

The brokers, part of a national trade group searching for business property, made an impression on Mary Jane Stanley, the county's economic development director. She suggests that the county amend its planning maps to reflect the need for more industry and business.

Coming up this week

A new ban on longline fishing in 32,000 square miles of the eastern Gulf of Mexico goes into effect Wednesday. In longline fishing, portrayed in the film The Perfect Storm, fishing boats deploy lines several miles long with hooks every few feet. The boat later runs along the length of the line, taking fish off at the bow and redeploying the line at the stern. The technique, however, often snags turtles, some of which are considered in jeopardy under the Endangered Species Act. Fishers and fish sellers, however, say the bans are misguided. They say that if American fishers decrease their take, fishers from other countries will step in, taking just as many fish and killing even more turtles.

Stars of country music will be taking the stage starting Friday at the Crystal River Jam at Rock Crusher Canyon, which this year will feature Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker, Bellamy Bros. and Johnny Paycheck.

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