Year in photos
Around the nation
Images from around the world and nation

Times photographers offer their favorite images

Howard Troxler
• Part 1: Counting, recounting days of our lives, 2000
• Part 2: More of the year that was (and still is): 2000

Julius Caesar's old dictum continues to rule us
The fact that Jan. 1 is the first day of our calendar year is totally arbitrary, of course. There is nothing special about the day. If you could peer down on the Earth's orbit from above, you would not discern anything unique about our position. We do not pass over a big square that says, "GO -- Collect $200 Salary As You Pass."

Jan Glidewell
Celebration is actually just a rite of survival
Why, exactly, do we celebrate the new year?

What next? 2001
We guarantee this might happen
Trends for 2001 can't be any more weird than what has happened this past year. Or can they?

Sports

• Follow the leader
  There was grace and disgrace, life and death, crime and punishment, winning and losing. These are constants in sports.
• Passages in 2000
  We remember them when they were young -- or at least younger. Sometimes they fade from memory, to be recalled long after the pinnacle of successful careers. Sometimes they are snatched from us in an instant, their dreams unfulfilled or incomplete.
• Best of the rest
  JAN. 29: Andre Agassi wins the Australian Open, his third Grand Slam tennis title in less than a year.

Business

• A Painful Year
  From the demise of many dot-com darlings to a slip for some blue-chips, the stock market picture for 2000 wasn't pretty. But will 2001 be much better?
• A look at Florida
  Florida stocks provided no refuge for investors caught in this year's downdraft on Wall Street. Most state stocks finished the year in the red.

World and nation

• This time, new year is met with revelry
  A year after fretting about what the new year may bring, the world seemed ready to celebrate this time around. Instead of hoarding water and canned goods, people stocked up on champagne and fireworks.
• The unexpected newsmakers of 2000
  We should have at least been ready.

Tampa Bay and State

• 2000: A year in review
  In a year when the biggest news stories in the country emerged from Florida, you would think news of more local interest would look sleepy by comparison. You would be wrong.
• Choices, changes, chad
  Doomsayers said 2000 would wallow in chaos and confusion from the start, but who knew it would turn out like this?
• Revelers shrug off chills to enjoy First Night
  ST. PETERSBURG -- The hand-numbing, teeth-chattering cold was not going to keep the Evans family away from the First Night celebration.

South Pinellas

• Look, Ma: It happened
  BayWalk actually took shape downtown. People actually crowded the theaters. Pieces of the mountain of confidence began to jell.
• Hard hats mingled with suits downtown
  Condos sprang up and old hotels were dusted off downtown. Development also continued elsewhere.
• Year has an array of accomplishments
  During the year 2000, youth athletes have excelled in individual and team sports.

Hillsborough
2000 Whatever happened to ...
Fears about a Y2K bug (remember that?) vanished as quickly as firecracker smoke as we got down to the business of daily living in the first year of the 21st century.

• Verdant greens
  
• Murder remains unsolved
  
• Patrols successful at taming speeders
  
• Expert's job is to enhance drug enforcement
  
• He's driving force behind gift-giving project
  
• Once again driving in style
  
• Location sought for new library
  
• Explosion lawsuit is at a standstill
  
• Ambitious projects grow along with club
  

Pasco

• Service to others marked their lives
  Two former mayors died in 2000, as well as a devoted doctor and longtime city clerk.
• Sheriff shake-up among many
  Both elected and appointed officials made exits, some hasty, some planned.
• Election sets city hall's revolving door spinning
  The Port Richey mayoral race spurs an investigation and two resignations.
• New Port Richey fights difficulties with budget
  The City Council may have to cut more jobs or raise taxes again in 2001.
• Illicit acts claim young lives
  Pasco County saw a steady wave of deaths due to crimes against and by youths in 2000. Some were drug-related.
• Comical, wacky define news
  A dog named Cannabis. A pygmy goat named Gramatica. (And pets are only part of it.)
• 2000 A year in review
  Top 10 stories in the Pasco Times
• A look at year's tragedies, triumphs
  The end-of-the-year stories you've been seeing in the pages of the Pasco Times as we close out the first year of a new century fall into categories.
• 2000: So many fiascoes, so little newsprint
  What a year.
• Bulldogs' bats made for record season
  The top 10 county sports stories of the year: Zephyrhills is No. 1.
• Honorable mention top moments from 2000
  Former Gulf soccer standout Danny Andrews won gold at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Andrews kicked off his budding paralympic career in November's race, winning the 800 meters in a world-record time of 2:08.79 andestablishing himself as the event's new standard-bearer.
• Countdown recap
  NO. 2 -- DOMI-GATOR: Boys ruled at Land O'Lakes in 2000 as the baseball, basketball, soccer, wrestling and football teams all enjoyed fine seasons.
• Good news
  Happy stories were abundant in 2000, from miracle births, to unlikely lifesavers to instant millionaires.
• The arts thrive in Pasco
  Audiences are growing at a number of venues for concert acts and stage shows.
• Development marches across county
  Nothing, it seems, can stop the march of development into Pasco. And 2000 was no exception.
• Northeastern part of county faces changes
  Amid new faces and new events, city and town governments continue to deal with growth, working both internally and with each other.

Citrus

• Environmental issues cause debate
  From sandhill cranes to scallops to stone crabs, a wide variety of species once again created news in Citrus County during the past 12 months.
• Familiar cases of death and scandal re-emerge
  It was supposed to mark a new beginning. But 2000 was notable for familiar storylines that played out in the courthouse and on Citrus County streets.
• Noteworthy news, oddball occasions
  From out-of-control emus to the antics of an eccentric ex-judge, from Y2K bugs that didn't appear to a business-recruiting group that did show up and probably wishes it hadn't, the Year 2000 had it all. Here is a look at the oddball events that made headlines this year. And they say nothing ever happens in Citrus County!
• Story of the year
  For weeks, the Inverness Senior Softball All-Stars made a statement with their play.
• Business growth powered by chains
  Major retailers and restaurateurs -- Home Depot, Applebee's, Beef O'Brady's, Wal-Mart -- led the way in 2000.
• Parkway, politics kept us busy
  INVERNESS -- The election saga didn't touch Citrus County as much as it touched other parts of Florida. But Supervisor of Elections Susan Gill and her staff still had plenty of work to handle after Nov. 7 -- work that attracted almost as much attention as anything that happened during the 2000 campaign season.
• Staff turnover marks a year of the busy and the bizarre
  Four top county officials decide to leave their posts, and blunders plague a CD-ROM intended to showcase the area.
• Death robs Citrus of several leaders
  Among those who died this year are community activists, longtime politicians, pioneers and an animal lover.
• Year of drought plagues area
  Drought conditions spurred brush fires, tighter water restrictions and at least one political controversy in 2000.

Hernando

• Flashback
  Hernando Times photographers take thousands of pictures each year as they cover the news. A few of those photos make a lasting impression
• Best of the millennium
  Lists, lists. We all love them. The true close of the millennium seemed like the perfect time for another, and seemed to marry well with one of our other beloved topics: debating who are the great athletes of them all.
• New Year's Eves past make good memories
  Well, here we are, recovering nicely from too much of everything, and before we can catch our breath, we're faced with New Year's Day. I was remembering some of the parties we used to have on New Year's Eve and how simple they were in the '50s and '60s.
• A brush with superstardom
  John Capel's year has been full of highlights: the birth of a daughter, becoming engaged -- and, of course, reaching the Olympics in Sydney.
• In schools, a fall financial surprise
  Officials learn of serious problems from the district's new finance director, who calls into question the accounting methods of her predecessor.
• New county leaders off and running
  A somewhat resistant County Commission comes to appreciate the aggressive styles of a new county administrator and the first full-time county attorney.
• Election brings host of new leadership
  When the dust settles, the County Commission has three new members. The county also has a new sheriff, tax collector and supervisor of elections.
• Record-low rainfall brings severe drought
  Rivers reach their lowest levels ever, brush fires break out regularly and crops are damaged.
• Hardy bug kills acres of timber
  The pine beetles' alarming spread leaves large patches of clear-cut land throughout the county.
• Bubba pulls out of Hernando
  Complaints and constraints force the closing of the radio personality's nightclub.
• Plaza gives boost to shopping district
  The Coastal Way center makes the area the county's hottest spot for commercial development.
• Loss of HMOs galvanizes seniors
  After the only two companies offering Medicare HMO coverage pull out of the county, hundreds of seniors pack numerous community meetings.
• In 2000, 'big-time gifts' came in litle packages
  It's constant chaos, but joy many times over as the Somoano quintuplets are 8 months old and growing.
• 10 more compelling stories
  It was a newsy 2000 in Hernando County. Here are summaries of 10 other headline-grabbing stories of the year:

On Film
Best film of year not yet here
The year in film. Hmmm. Consider this: the best film of the year hasn't yet opened here.

TV
Hits and duds
We've got a bit of Survivor in us, coming out alive after a TV season of conniving hits and big misses (oh, Brother).

Pop Music
Pop goes the old year
From the best to the worst, a pop critic's gotta do what a pop critic's gotta do.

Art
Artful shows
What sizzled and what fizzled in the local art scene this year had a lot to do with planning and execution.

Stage
A little risk taking
If new work is any measure of vitality, then 2000 was a good year in the Tampa Bay area -- maybe one of the best ever.

Radio
Listen to changes
World radio has arrived. But even as we listen to sounds from around the world, we tune in to the continuing saga of comings and goings in our own market.

Pop Culture
Wrapping up the year that was
New highs (the Harry Potter frenzy), new lows (butterfly ballots) and all that's in between as 2000 nears its end.

Dining
Best restaurants of 2000: Outback trio in Top 10
Roy's, Zazarac and Lee Roy Selmon's Southern Comforts restaurants show that the Tampa-based chain has a way with new projects.