 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
2000: A year in reviewBy CRAIG BASSE © St. Petersburg Times, published December 31, 2000
Elian Gonzalez's stay in Miami dominated the national news in the first half of the year, and the presidential election hinged on Florida near year's end. But the state and the Tampa Bay area didn't stand still. It was a year of increased political activism, with protests in the capital over Gov. Jeb Bush's One Florida plan to remake affirmative action policies. And that wasn't the only big change in state policy. For one, 2000 saw the departure of the electric chair and the arrival of lethal injection on Florida's death row. In July, the Hillsborough state attorney committed suicide, adding to a year of scandal and investigations at the Hillsborough courthouse. From inside courtrooms themselves came some of the biggest stories of 2000. Major murder cases came to trial, including trials for Allen Blackthorne, the ex-husband of murder victim Sheila Bellush, and Valessa Robinson, accused of helping to kill her mother, Vicki. Judges made key decisions in the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case and in the adoption case of Baby Sam. And in August, a federal judge changed the face of Pinellas County schools by releasing the district from a court desegregation order and paving the way for a system of school choice in the coming years. Those are just a few of the important events of 2000 that we review here. In this annual recap, there's not one hanging chad. FloridaONE FLORIDA: Two black state lawmakers, Miami Sen. Kendrick Meek and Jacksonville Rep. Tony Hill, staged a 25-hour sit-in in Gov. Jeb Bush's Capitol offices over his One Florida initiative, which abolished affirmative action in university admissions and public contracting. The sit-in was a catalyst for a March 7 march, which drew about 11,000 protesters to Tallahassee, and a minority voter registration effort, which helped increase black voter turnout in the Nov. 7 election by more than 50 percent over 1996.
EVERGLADES RESTORATION: Overcoming political divisions, bureaucratic jealousy and scientific questions, Congress and the state Legislature both signed off on sharing the cost of a $7.8-billion project designed to restore the Everglades and provide water for South Florida's population, which is expected to double over the next several decades. EMISSIONS TESTS: Despite lobbying by asthmatics and the American Lung Association, the Legislature voted to end auto emissions testing in six Florida counties, including Pinellas and Hillsborough. The day the testing ended, state officials notified the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the air in Tampa Bay was bad enough to flunk tough new pollution standards.
MOTORCYCLE HELMETS: Although highway safety experts recommended against it, the Legislature voted to allow motorcyclists who are at least 21 years old to ride without helmets. The new law requires that bikers have at least $10,000 in personal injury insurance, but opponents say $10,000 will do little to pay the giant medical bills that come from catastrophic head injuries. HIGH-SPEED RAIL: Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment that orders the state to start building a high-speed rail network by 2003. Now it's up to the Legislature to come up with the money to fund the project and to decide which of the state's five biggest cities will be linked. Florida has flirted with high-speed rail for years. After Gov. Jeb Bush killed the latest bullet-train proposal, a Lakeland man, C.C. "Doc" Dockery, spent millions of his own dollars to get the issue on the Nov. 7 ballot -- where voters ordered up the fast train. ELECTING JUDGES: Floridians voted to keep electing county and circuit judges instead of changing the law to make them all appointed. The issue came up because a 1998 constitutional amendment gave voters around the state a chance to decide the issue this year. WILDERNESS CAMP DEATH: The state Department of Juvenile Justice sent 12-year-old Michael Wiltsie to a wilderness youth camp for rehabilitation after he was charged with several crimes beginning at age 8. Instead, the 65-pound boy was killed in February when he became disruptive and his 300-pound counselor, Joseph Cooley, restrained him. A Marion County grand jury did not indict Cooley, but the Department of Juvenile Justice later called Cooley's actions "improper, unauthorized and inappropriate." The Department of Children and Families classified the death as a case of abuse. Tampa BayYBOR FIRE: A forklift operator snapped a power line, and within minutes a 454-unit apartment complex under construction was on fire. The Park at Ybor City, a key element in Ybor's revitalization, was destroyed as five city blocks burned. A post office also burned, but no one was seriously hurt. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited apartment builder Camden Development, two subcontractors and the forklift operator, Jose Chirino, for safety violations. The complex is being rebuilt. DROUGHT CONTINUES: The La Nina-driven drought in west-central Florida reached disaster proportions as month after month set all-time records for low rainfall. Lake, stream and aquifer levels dropped lower than at any time in history. The situation got so bad toward year's end that water regulators openly talked about the possibility of proposing a total ban on outdoor watering early in 2001. BABY SAM: The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in November that Mark and Tracy Johnson must hand over Sam, their 4-year-old adopted son, to his biological father, Christopher Vietri of New Port Richey. Sam, who has lived with the Johnsons since he was 3 days old, had never met Vietri. In a highly unusual ruling this month, the Alabama court then directed Vietri and the Johnsons to work with a mediator to seek "a solution of this matter."
BAYFRONT FIGHT: Bayfront Medical Center officially left the BayCare Health System today, after it was voted out of the hospital alliance in October following its lengthy dispute with the St. Petersburg City Council. The city and hospital had been in litigation since April, when the city sued over concessions Bayfront made to Catholic members of BayCare, including banning abortions. Bayfront had hoped that buying its land from the city would end the church-state conflict, but the city wouldn't sell. DEADLY ENCOUNTERS: The year 2000 was marked by several fatal animal attacks in the Tampa Bay area. In January, Kenya the elephant trampled to death former circus acrobat Teresa Ramos, 52, at a family circus compound in Hillsborough County. The elephant died nine days later, apparently of natural causes. In June, an 18-day-old baby was killed after being bitten by a family dog while she was sitting in her baby swing in St. Petersburg. And in September, Thadeus Kubinski, 69, was fatally bitten by a bull shark after he jumped off his dock in St. Pete Beach. It was the Tampa Bay area's first fatal shark attack since 1981. NIGHT LIFE: Long-awaited dining and entertainment complexes opened on both sides of Tampa Bay. In St. Petersburg, the downtown BayWalk complex with its cinema, restaurants and stores opened in November -- or at least some of it. About two-thirds of the shops and restaurants were expected to open over the next several weeks. Meanwhile, most of the new Centro Ybor complex, which also features theaters, restaurants and shops, opened in October in Ybor City, where it aims to draw more than just the bar crowd to Tampa's Latin district. AIR TRAVEL: Tampa International Airport recorded 40 percent growth in five years, making it the third fastest-growing airport in the country. Many of those passengers were fuming as they flew this year. Labor actions and severe weather caused massive flight delays and cancellations during the peak summer travel months of May through September. OLYMPICS: Tampa revved up its efforts to bring the 2012 Olympics to Florida, submitting a bid to the U.S. Olympic Committee that calls for a stadium to be built downtown on the site of some public housing. The mayors of every large city in Florida pledged their support for the bid, one of eight the USOC will choose from
TERRI SCHIAVO: A Pinellas judge granted Michael Schiavo permission in February to remove his wife's feeding tube almost a decade after the St. Petersburg woman suffered a heart attack and slipped into a a persistent vegetative state. Terri Schiavo's parents want to keep her alive in hopes that she will improve. They have appealed. TREEHOUSE BATTLE: Faced with a national media frenzy that included a public scolding from Today host Katie Couric, the Tampa Palms Owners Association, which had threatened to take down a sick child's treehouse in January, agreed to let it stay as long as the family got a doctor's note. "They said as long as it is deemed medically necessary, he can keep it," Tammy Sassin said of her then 6-year-old son Brage's backyard retreat, which helped him cope with his leukemia. "I am just so grateful."
FRONT PORCH FLORIDA: Gov. Jeb Bush's Front Porch Florida program to help the state's poorest urban areas ran into problems before it really got off the ground in St. Petersburg. During the summer, the state Department of Juvenile Justice hastily spent $500,000 on programs intended to help keep youths away from crime, but it made many questionable decisions, including giving a grant to a company owned by a felon on probation. Then, in November, the governor's manager of Front Porch summarily fired the community-appointed council in charge of Front Porch after the group spent much of its time fighting. FISCHER WON'T RUN: In December, St. Petersburg's mayor of 10 years, David Fischer, surprised many in the city when he announced plans to step down at the end of his term in March 2001 rather than seek re-election. AL-NAJJAR FREED: After being detained for more than three years by U.S. immigration authorities as a suspected terrorist, former University of South Florida instructor Mazen Al-Najjar was freed in December after supporters waged a long fight against the use of secret evidence to jail him. He still faces a deportation hearing in January. SCIENTOLOGY CASE: Pinellas prosecutors in June dropped two criminal charges against the Church of Scientology relating to the 1995 death of church member Lisa McPherson. The first criminal case ever filed in the United States against the church was dropped after prosecutors said inconsistent statements by Medical Examiner Joan Wood had jeopardized their ability to prove their case. LOTTO JACKPOT: Each week, 10 members of the staff at the Whispering Pines Nursing Center in New Port Richey liked to put a few bucks into a birthday pool to buy cakes, drinks and gag gifts for each other. Sometimes, they bought Lotto tickets. In March, the group discovered that it held a ticket worth $81.6-million -- the biggest single winning ticket in Florida Lotto history. ECKERD COLLEGE: The small private college found itself in troubled financial waters this summer after trustees found that nearly two-thirds of the college's $34-million endowment had been spent on various campus expenses without their approval. The sudden retirement of Eckerd's longtime president Peter Armacost followed the announcement about the endowment. DOWNTOWN PLAN: In July, Clearwater voters soundly rejected what would have been the largest redevelopment of the downtown's waterfront bluff in history. The $300-million deal would have created a new library, movie theater, restaurants, a hotel and apartments, but voters disdained the idea of leasing the city-owned land for 99 years at a $1 per year. NURSING HOME SUIT: Pinellas County jurors returned the largest verdict against a nursing home in Florida history when they socked Extendicare Inc. with $20-million in punitive damages and compensation after deciding the company left Charles McCorkle Jr. in a Kenneth City nursing home helpless, hungry and dehydrated, with bedsores that cut to the bone. Courts and crime
COE SUICIDE: Hillsborough State Attorney Harry Lee Coe killed himself in July, three days after news broke that he had asked for personal loans from his employees. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement found he had a negative net worth of $150,000. In the 15 months leading up to his suicide, Coe cashed more than $500,000 worth of checks at local dog tracks, bouncing $47,000 worth. COURTHOUSE INVESTIGATIONS: Two Hillsborough judges resigned amid scandal and others came under investigation. Judge Ed Ward announced his resignation in June after the JQC found probable cause to file charges that he sexually harassed four women at the courthouse. Judge Robert Bonanno came under scrutiny after a bailiff found him in another judge's darkened office after hours in July. The grand jury looking into the Bonanno matter started asking questions about Judge Gasper Ficarrotta's affair with a bailiff and allegations that he collected money from local lawyers for the sheriff's campaign. Ficarrotta resigned effective at the end of the year.
MEDICAL EXAMINER RETIRES: In June, Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood abruptly announced her retirement, ending a 20-year tenure as the circuit's chief medical examiner. The decision came after fierce criticism from prosecutors who dropped a criminal case against the Church of Scientology after Wood reversed her findings in the death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. BELLUSH MURDER: Allen Blackthorne was convicted of plotting the murder of his ex-wife, Sheila Bellush, a Sarasota mother of six, including quadruplets. It took three years to arrest and charge Blackthorne, a Texas millionaire. The guilty verdict came in July after 33 hours of deliberations and followed, by a few hours, an announcement in Florida by hitman Jose Luis Del Toro Jr. Del Toro confessed he murdered Mrs. Bellush. Blackthorne received two concurrent life terms. QUEEN SHAHMIA: It started with a simple arrest of three men. It later turned out, police say, they were stealing for the "daughter of God," as she called herself. Queen Shahmia, whose real name is Richell Denise Bradshaw, also was arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison for 25 years for orchestrating the robberies. One manservant and maidservant also have been convicted. Two other servants are scheduled to go to trial in February. ROAD RAGE TRIAL: A jury found two Tarpon Springs men not guilty of attempted murder charges for the shovel-beating attack during a traffic altercation of two unarmed men whose skulls were cracked. A third defendant had previously been acquitted after a directed verdict by the judge. HOUSING INDICTMENT: A federal grand jury indicts Robert Lee Norman, a home rehabber who arranged phony mortgage down payments and sold shoddy houses to dozens of low-income St. Petersburg residents. Norman subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to defraud the federal g
MISSING BOY: Zachary Bernhardt, 9, has been missing since Sept. 11, when he vanished from his Savannah Trace apartment in Clearwater, and police don't know whether he is dead or alive. Zachary's mother, Leah Hackett, reported going for a 15-minute walk around the complex at about 4 a.m. When she returned, her son was gone. Police say it's one of the most vexing cases they've encountered. EducationSCHOOL VOUCHERS: Florida's controversial school voucher program didn't have much impact on schoolchildren in 2000. But it certainly kept the lawyers busy. In March, a judge ruled the voucher program violated the state's constitution by providing taxpayer dollars for students to attend private schools. In October, however, an appeals court said the program passed constitutional muster, and that the state could spend public dollars to send kids to private schools. The case is expected to be decided by the Florida Supreme Court eventually. FCAT TESTS: Despite all the court action, the voucher program for children at chronically failing schools didn't grow at all in 2000 -- because no new schools qualified for vouchers. Scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test were way up in 2000. Some of the improvement was eye-popping. Two elementary schools jumped from an F grade last year to an A grade. That led critics to question whether the test is arbitrary. The same evidence led Gov. Jeb Bush to declare his A+ Education plan a success in motivating schools to improve. SCHOOL DESEGREGATION: In August, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ended a 1964 desegregation lawsuit filed against the Pinellas schools. Merryday declared Pinellas schools free of discrimination and accepted a negotiated settlement between the district and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Two months later, the School Board approved a plan to let parents start choosing their children's schools in fall 2003. In Hillsborough, the School Board approved a similar school choice plan in November and submitted it to the federal judge overseeing the district's desegregation efforts. NEW SCHOOLS: Florida lawmakers approved a new medical college for Florida State University and new law schools at heavily Hispanic Florida International University and historically black Florida A&M University. FAMU had a law school until the mid-1960s, when it was shut down by the state and moved to predominantly white FSU. Tampa lobbied hard to become the FAMU law school site, but lost to Orlando. REGENTS TO GO: The Republican-led Florida Legislature approved a restructuring of the state's education syste
USF PRESIDENT: The state Board of Regents named Judy Genshaft the sixth president of the University of South Florida in March. Genshaft, the provost at the University at Albany, State University of New York, succeeded Betty Castor. ObituariesRobert Ray, 22, one of three young Florida brothers who gained nationwide attention after being infected with the AIDS virus from tainted blood, died Oct. 20 Robert A. "Bob" Pfeiffer, 86, St. Petersburg High School's "Mr. Green Devil" mascot and an inspiration for the newsboy statue that graces the bayfront near The Pier, died Oct. 4. Jan Abell, 55, a Tampa architect who long helped save historic homes and buildings, died Sept. 30 while on a fox hunt near Dade City. Jim Ward, 83, of Seminole, one of the best-known triathletes in the world, collapsed and died 5 miles into a long-haul bicycle ride on the Pinellas Trail on Sept. 5. A. Reynolds Morse, 85, who, with his wife, Eleanor, founded the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, died Aug. 15. Retired Episcopal Bishop James L. Duncan, 86, a former rector of St. Peter's Cathedral in St. Petersburg, died July 20. Art Pepin, 78, known as much for his philanthropy as for his Anheuser-Busch distributorship in Tampa, died June 7. Dorothy Walker "Dot" Ruggles, 59, Pinellas County's supervisor of elections for 12 years, died May 16. Fran Sutcliffe, 87, an advocate of elderly rights in Pinellas, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., died April 30. "Salty Sol" Fleischman, 89, a longtime radio and TV personality known as much for his fishing enthusiasm as his sports broadcasts, died April 20. Mary Smith McClain, 97, a blues legend known to her fans as Diamond Teeth Mary, died April 4. Clarence W. "Mac" McKee Jr., 75, a retired top executive of Florida Progress Corp. and once a force in St. Petersburg's political, civic and business life, died March 27. E.R. Beall, 85, who created the chain of Beall's department stores and outlet stores, died March 22. Alvin J. "Al" Downing, 83, an influential jazz musician, band leader and teacher in the Tampa Bay area, died Feb. 19. John B. "Jack" Lake, 79, retired publisher of the St. Petersburg Times who helped build both the newspaper and the community it serves, died Jan. 15. James W. "Jim" Walter, 77, who built one of the country's largest home-building companies from scratch, died Jan. 6.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times state desk
From the state wire
|
