For the second year in a row, Kiefer Village Jewels hid a one-third carat gem worth $700 among the hundreds of cubic zirconias passed out in the crowd lining the route of Dade City's Magical Night Parade on Nov. 30.

But just like last year, the real stone has been left unturned.

Although it created buzz around town, the holder of the real diamond never came into the store last year.

Now this year, two weeks after the promotion, things aren't looking so good.

"I guess people just don't believe that they could be holding a real diamond," said David Hevia, co-owner of the store, who has examined more than 40 fakes so far.

Hevia said he and his partners love the idea, and he hoped to increase size of the diamond every year.

"Eventually, believe it or not, we were hoping to be handing out a 1-carat diamond," Hevia said. "People might come from Orlando or Apollo Beach to watch the Dade City Magical Night Parade and maybe get a 1-carat diamond."

Bobcat claims whooping crane at Citrus wildlife refuge

CHASSAHOWITZKA -- One of the seven whooping cranes that earlier this month completed a historic human-led journey from Wisconsin was lost to natural causes: a hungry bobcat.

The loss, discovered Monday morning, was a blow to the project, but "predation has always been a possibility and is part of the natural order," said Jim Kraus, manager of the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge.

Crane No. 4 gained a certain celebrity because he made the migration on the back of a truck, not behind an ultralight aircraft like six other cranes. He was injured early in the trip and had a tendency to veer from the craft.

The rest of the cranes seem to be doing fine. They make short flights in the morning to forage for food but return to the pen for the rest of the day.

The hope is that the cranes will return to Wisconsin on their own in the spring. Ultralight aircraft will be used to teach new birds until the flock is self-sustaining.

St. Petersburg gives initial okay to rights ordinance

ST. PETERSBURG -- The City Council gave preliminary approval Thursday to banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

But activists who tried to get the same protection for transsexuals and others who face "gender identity" discrimination came up short.

The law would expand the city's discrimination protection in employment, public accommodations and housing beyond state and federal laws, which do not ban discrimination for sexual orientation.

About 50 people attended Thursday's discussion, and afterward several cross-dressers, transsexuals and others who identify themselves as "transgendered" approached the lectern to tell council members they had made a mistake by choosing the more limited definition of "sexual orientation."

"If you do not pass an ordinance that protects transgendered people, you are sending a message that transgendered people don't count," said Jessica Archer. Such an ordinance, she said, would contribute to the social climate that led to the recent slaying of a transgendered activist in Jacksonville.

The council's final vote is expected in January.

Man who voted illegally stands on principle, convicted on law

DADE CITY -- In the quiet before controversy broke over last year's presidential election, Edwin A. McGusty waged his own battle to vote for George W. Bush.

It could be the last ballot he will ever cast in this state.

A jury on Tuesday found the 30-year-old computer consultant guilty of illegally voting in the November 2000 election after he warred with Pasco elections officials over his residency and his right to vote at the Land O'Lakes precinct where he was registered.

McGusty voted last November after moving a year earlier from Pasco to Tampa. He claimed he was only in Tampa temporarily and planned to move back to Land O'Lakes, therefore the area was his permanent home and he had a right to vote there.

Elections officials, frustrated after rebuffing him repeatedly, told McGusty he could sign an affidavit stating he lived in Land O'Lakes and vote. But he was warned that he would be investigated and prosecuted if there were any violations.

After rejecting plea deals that would have spared him almost any penalties, he was convicted of a third-degree felony. Sentencing is Jan. 24.

Stauffer activist files lawsuit to stop EPA

TARPON SPRINGS -- Environmental activist Mary Mosley on Tuesday went to federal court to try to stop a move she thinks would silence the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's only true watchdog official.

Mosley credits EPA ombudsman Bob Martin and his former chief investigator Hugh Kaufman with getting the EPA to put the brakes on its controversial cleanup plan for the Stauffer Superfund site by exposing shortcomings in the plan.

Now EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman wants to move Martin's office to the EPA's inspector general's office. So Mosley, 63, is bringing a suit to delay the move, scheduled to take effect Jan. 2.

Mosley said she railed fruitlessly for years against the EPA's plan to mound up contaminated soil at Stauffer and cover it with an impermeable cap.

"We were in a headlong rush toward a mound and cap without adequate testing," she said. "The ombudsman stopped that."

Martin has said the move would prevent him from selecting the cases he wants to investigate and would "as a practical matter, dissolve the national ombudsman function at EPA."

In short . . .

TARPON SPRINGS -- A plan to bring a riverfront hotel, convention center and 800-passenger cruise ship to the historic Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks moved one step closer to reality when city commissioners voted Tuesday to approve the three main elements of Clearwater Beach hotelier Tony Markopoulos' proposal. Markopoulos wants to buy the landmark Louis Pappas Riverside Restaurant and add a hotel, parking garage and convention center next to the restaurant and on the parking lot to the south. The cruise boat would offer entertainment and gambling.

CRYSTAL RIVER -- Residents in Citrus and Levy counties, parts of which are within the 10-mile zone the government says is most at risk should radiation escape from Florida Power's plant in Crystal River, will be getting irradiation tablets from the government. A nationwide plan to distribute pills that can reduce cancer risks for people who live near nuclear plants has taken on new urgency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a federal regulator said Wednesday.

Coming up this week

Next weekend will be the last call for the Chatterbox Lounge, one of the oldest bars in Tampa. The bar, which opened during Prohibition, will be demolished to make room for a retail complex. The bar opened in 1930 as the El Dorado Club, two years before Prohibition ended. Groceries were sold as a front while the booze flowed. It was named the Chatterbox in 1940. When the place burned in 1947, two U.S. Air Force barracks from MacDill Air Force Base were moved to the spot and stuck together to form the building that now stands.

-- Compiled by Times staff writer Sharon Kennedy Wynne

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