INVERNESS – The body of a missing Miami-Dade County teenager was recovered Saturday morning at Big Lake Henderson, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office said.

Divers found Phillip Ledea, 17, of Pinecrest, who was last seen swimming Friday afternoon near his friends' motorboat. Authorities located Ledea about 9:20 a.m. by using side-scan sonar during an underwater search. Ledea, a Miami Palmetto Senior High School student, had come to Citrus County Thursday night with some friends and at least one adult to visit a summer home. Five teenagers had been out in the boat most of the day prior to his disappearance, the Sheriff's Office said.

An autopsy by the Lake County Medical Examiner is pending.

Two University Community Hospital employees were arrested early this morning and charged with second-degree murder.

Luis Omar Morales-Cora, 21, and Joseph Rodriguez Rivera, 20, were arrested at 12:15 a.m. and taken to the Orient Road Jail, where they remain without bond, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office reports state.

Both are floor technicians at the hospital, according to arrest records.

MADEIRA BEACH — A decision to go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico led to a man drowning Friday night near Archibald Park in Madeira Beach, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

The victim, a 66-year-old man, has not been identified.

Deputies said the man was walking with friends along the beach when he decided to go swimming. Shortly thereafter, witnesses found a man face down along the shoreline.

Rescue personnel took the victim to St. Petersburg General Hospital. He was later pronounced dead, deputies said.

Deputies said an autopsy will determine the cause and manner of death.

Archibald Park is at 15100 Gulf Blvd.

TAMPA — Repairs on Bayshore Boulevard will begin Saturday and continue on weekends through the fall. Hillsborough County Public Works Department crews will alternate between working on northbound and southbound lanes between Platt Street and Rome Avenue.

Alternate routes are recommended from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. to avoid traffic delays as crews smooth out the roadway. The estimated cost of the repair is $400,000.

TAMPA — It's the visit every military family fears.

Casualty assistance officers knock on the door, a letter bearing solemn news in hand: The war claimed a loved one.

Most families never experience such grief. At the ages of 6 and 9, Tyler and Jason Allen Fabrizi of Riverview have endured it twice.

Officers knelt to the boys' level Tuesday evening as they told them their father, Sgt. 1st Class Jason John Fabrizi, had died in Afghanistan.

Two years ago, their stepfather suffered a similar fate in Iraq.

"The kids were pretty close to both of them," said Dora Mae Anderson, the boys' maternal grandmother. "It's bad enough if you lose one in that war. But when you know two people, oh, man, it's sickening."

Fabrizi, 29, was stationed in Colorado with his second wife and third son before his most recent tour. The couple was expecting a daughter in October.

But Anderson said Fabrizi called the boys almost every day. They spent last summer with him in Colorado, playing Little League. He instilled in them a passion for sports and told them to mind their teachers.

"I think we are all still just in shock because it's so hard to believe," said Teri Bell, Fabrizi's ex-wife. "They talked to their dad just a week ago on the phone."

Bell's second husband, Ryan, was also in the Army. He was killed by an explosion in 2007.

Fabrizi had spent 30 months in Iraq over the course of three separate tours, collecting top military honors for his combat leadership.

"He led troops during all 30 months, whereas a lot of guys take the easy way out and they take an office job," said Timothy Hess, Fabrizi's stepfather and a retired Marine gunnery sergeant. "He loved doing his job and he went out on every patrol, every time."

But family members say his pending stint in Afghanistan left Fabrizi with an inkling he did not recognize. Something felt wrong.

So he planned a weeklong fishing trip to the Keys with Tyler, Jason Allen and other members of his family.

"He knew what it was like to be a child and to have me gone and in the combat environment," said Hess, who saw action in Somalia. "He knew what he was putting his kids through and he knew it wasn't good."

Though Fabrizi had survived the war multiple times, relatives still uttered words of caution before his deployment.

"I told him all the time, 'Keep your head down,' " Anderson said. "He said, 'Don't worry mom, I will.' "

Fabrizi's mounted patrol was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms in the Konar province Tuesday.

"I had talked to him about a week, week-and-a-half before it happened," said Jarrod Hess, Fabrizi's stepbrother. "He was in such good spirits. I just wish I would have talked to him longer. If I had just known."

For the adults, the loss is unsettling, but not unreasonable. It's easier to rationalize Fabrizi's decision to leave and the cause he championed wholeheartedly.

But for Tyler and Jason Allen, Anderson said they cannot yet fully comprehend what has happened. They know their dad left and will not come back. They know the same war has deprived them of two father figures.

Jay Wedel works with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, a group that mentors children who have lost parents to war. A retired Air Force honor guardsman, Wedel has worked with children for seven years and seen many grow into their teens.

He said many young children are left with feelings of confusion and anger over why they had to grow up without one parent.

"These kids kind of have that continual hole," Wedel said. "It stays with them, but they get to a point where they are healthy with their grief."

Anderson and other family members said they will one day share with the boys why Fabrizi's death was so valiant and how he benefited the country.

They will eventually describe how he earned a Purple Heart, two Army Commendation Medals, two Bronze Stars and more than a dozen other accolades during his military career.

But for now, Anderson said they have to explain Fabrizi's death in terms the boys can understand. Especially 6-year-old Tyler, who still idolizes action heroes like Spider-Man.

"He's a hero, too," Anderson said of Fabrizi.

"He's just like him?" Tyler responded.

"Yep," she said, "just like Spider-Man."

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

TAMPA — Even if prosecutors prove that Dr. David J. Ciesla concealed evidence from law enforcement, he isn't likely to receive jail time.

The head of Tampa General Hospital's trauma center, accused of removing a bullet from a suspect and keeping it as a souvenir, faces two misdemeanor charges that each carry up to a year in jail. But a prosecutor said Friday he thinks a plea agreement with no jail time has already been worked out.

"I think the offer is out there already, and I think the plea's been accepted," said Assistant State Attorney Douglas Covington, who is the misdemeanor bureau chief in Hillsborough County but isn't handling the case. "I don't think he's going to jail."

Covington would not discuss the terms of the plea offer, and the prosecutor assigned to the case could not be reached Friday. Ciesla's attorney, John Fitzgibbons, also was unavailable.

Ciesla, 42, was charged this week for his actions during an operation performed in April on a fugitive who had been shot twice by a deputy U.S. marshal trying to take him into custody.

Ciesla was able to extract one of the two bullets. But authorities say that instead of turning it over to the two Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents waiting outside the operating room, he slipped the bullet under his rubber glove and told the officers he was unable to retrieve the evidence from the suspect.

However, a medical resident who witnessed the surgery reported Ciesla to a supervisor. After being confronted by officials from the University of South Florida, Ciesla hired an attorney and turned the bullet over to FDLE.

Authorities have accused him of providing false information to law enforcement during an investigation and obstructing or opposing an officer without violence. He is set to make his first court appearance Aug. 17.

It is not unusual for first-time misdemeanor offenders to avoid jail. Yet little about this case, in which the whistle-blower was a surgeon-in-training in the surgery with Ciesla, amounts to business as usual.

Dr. Sergio Alvarez, who reported the incident to a supervisor at USF, just began the second year of a six-year residency in plastic surgery. He is way below Ciesla in physician hierarchies.

Alvarez has not responded to interview requests by the Times.

"The profession has not been particularly forgiving or supportive of people who have questioned more senior people, whether they steal bullets, or whether they come into the hospital drunk, or whether they have affairs with the patients," said Dr. Michael Wilkes, a professor of medicine at the University of California at Davis, who focuses on how doctors are educated about ethics.

"Not very long ago, the only surgery (Alvarez) would have would be cutting the eyes out of potatoes in the back room or something," he added. "What he did was notable."

Wilkes noted that the trauma surgeon is traditionally a very powerful figure in a hospital.

And the medical resident is somewhere between an employee and a student, noted Dr. Timothy Flynn, who oversees the residency program at the University of Florida.

Residents have their medical degrees, but practice under supervision during a period of intensive on-the-job training. It is a world in which many consider the relatively new requirement limiting residents to an 80-hour workweek to be humane.

For this, Alvarez, earns an annual salary of $45,600, according to USF.

Ciesla, medical director of the region's only Level I trauma center, is a figure already known in state trauma circles, although he has practiced here for only about 18 months.

His annual salary is $485,604, according to the university, where he also serves as division director for trauma/critical care.

Surgery, in particular, emphasizes supervisory roles in the operating room, where decisions can be a matter of life or death.

Yet as a resident specializing in plastic surgery, Alvarez may not have expected to work directly under Ciesla for the duration of his training. In general, plastic surgery residents spend a four-week rotation in trauma in their first year, according to USF.

"Even though resident physicians are in training, it's important to keep in mind that they've assumed the full mantel of the profession and take that very seriously, and particularly their obligations to patient safety," said Alexis Ruffin, director of resident relations at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The resident's whistle-blowing has prompted wide-ranging response. USF has started a disciplinary process, which will not be public until concluded.

In court, Ciesla's lofty position could be a double-edge sword, said defense lawyer Robin Fuson, a former misdemeanor chief for the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office.

On the one hand, he has saved many lives and done a lot of good in the community. On the other, people in authority are sometimes held to a higher standard.

"I would give any first-time offender the same options, whether he was a doctor or a dockworker," Fuson said.

Times researcher Shirl Kennedy contributed to this report. For more health news, visit www.tampabay.com/health.

TAMPA — Police have arrested a second suspect in the July 3 robbery of Gaspar's Cigar Shop.

Everaldo Alvarez-Burqueno, 18, is charged with two counts of burglary and two counts of third-degree grand theft.

Police say he and Jeremia Martinez Cotto, 18, broke into the store, 3675 S West Shore Blvd., between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., and stole a plasma television, bottles of liquor and more than a thousand high-end cigars, some of which sold for $35 each.

Alvarez-Burqueno, of 4014 W Waters Ave., was arrested on Wednesday after police served a search warrant on his home and vehicles. Police say Alvarez-Burqueno admitted to selling all of the stolen items to a single source — someone who previously owned a cigar shop.

Alvarez-Burqueno was released from jail after posting $8,000 bail.

Police are continuing to investigate.

TAMPA — A federal judge sentenced three Tampa men Friday for participating in a gang-related murder-for-hire scheme.

Prosecutors say Caleb Michael Charles, 20, Jamar Black, 24, and Rashawn Eugene Adams, 21, members of the Tampa Bloods gang, conspired to kill two rival gang members of the Town & Country Boys in December 2008.

All three were convicted of using interstate commerce in the commission of murder-for-hire. Charles was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison. Black and Adams each got 10.

A fourth person, Niheeme Anderson, 37, also a member of the Bloods, according to prosecutors, was sentenced to 15 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

All pleaded guilty to their offenses on March 31 and April 1.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Tampa police and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Downing.

TAMPA — People who live around the Babe Zaharias Golf Course have won their battle to stop the Tampa Sports Authority from using a pesticide that some say has made them sick.

But it wasn't the authority that gave in to the group's demands.

Chemical giant Dow AgroSciences decided Thursday to cancel an application of the soil fumigant Curfew next week.

"In light of strong protests and threatened actions of a vocal group of residents and activists, Dow AgroSciences will not place the applicator, itself, or the product in a volatile situation that could result in unfounded allegations, the unnecessary expenditure of regulatory resources or potential litigation," Dow officials told the authority in a written statement.

Curfew applications will continue on other golf courses in Florida, the company said.

Robert Lawson was among those fighting the use of Curfew on North Tampa's Babe Zaharias Golf Course, which is owned by the city and managed by the Tampa Sports Authority.

There are about 1,100 homes in the neighborhood association that includes the course, and several hundred adjacent to it.

Lawson lives on the course's third fairway. In 2006, fumes from the chemical made him sick, he said. "I thought I was having a heart attack," he said.

But appeals to the Sports Authority, Tampa City Council, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, Gov. Charlie Crist and even President Barack Obama went nowhere.

"We got no response from any of the politicians. None," Lawson said. "It's unconscionable not only for them to use this stuff but to make us go through what we had to go through to prevent it."

Earlier this month, Lawson and his neighbors filed complaints with local, state and federal environmental regulators.

Curfew is used to control nematodes and mole crickets. Its active ingredient is 1,3-dichloropropene. The warning label says its vapors can cause kidney, lung and liver damage and death if inhaled. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies it as a probable carcinogen.

Curfew's active ingredient has been sold for use on farms since 1975. Dow won approval to sell Curfew for use on golf courses and sports fields in Florida in 2001. At the time, the label required a 100-foot buffer from homes and occupied buildings.

In 2007, Dow received approval from the Florida Department of Agriculture to reduce the buffer zone to 30 feet. Dow gave state regulators a report from the EPA that said, based on studies provided by Dow, Curfew could be safely used with no buffer at all.

But the research on Curfew and golf courses isn't conclusive. Most studies focused on farms, where it is applied differently.

The Tampa Sports Authority will explore other options for treating the golf course, said spokeswoman Barbara Casey.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.

SEMINOLE — Excessive speed is what killed four teens in the horrific April 10 crash that left two high schools in mourning, the Florida Highway Patrol confirmed on Friday.

The 16-year-old driver, Joseph Ruzecki, was driving more than 70 mph in a 25 mph zone before the crash, according to the preliminary results of the crash report the FHP released Friday.

The teen driver did not have any alcohol or drugs in his system at the time of the crash, the report said.

"It doesn't matter if you're a teenager, an adult or elderly," said FHP Sgt. Larry Kraus. "Speed is a problem regardless of age anytime you get into a traffic crash."

Ruzecki and four friends — Nathan Richardson, Keith MacCollom, LeShawn Smith and Corey Lepore — piled into a black Lexus and rushed to Ruzecki's house to beat an 11 p.m. curfew for unattended teen drivers, authorities said. They had been eating pizza and playing video games at MacCollom's house just three minutes away.

They were speeding west on 86th Avenue N, the report said, when they came upon a Chevrolet Lumina driven by 42-year-old Richard Allen Goltl. The Lumina ahead of them was slowing to turn left onto 141st Street N. The FHP said that Ruzecki tried to pass the slower vehicle on the left — and crossed into oncoming traffic.

The result: the two vehicles collided and both spun out of control.

The Lexus smashed into a pine tree and burst into flames. The impact ejected the engine — and four of the teens.

Ruzecki, Richardson, 15, MacCollom, 17, and Smith, 16, died.

The only survivor was Lepore, 17, who was thrown from the front passenger seat into a nearby yard. He was hospitalized with broken bones and a concussion.

No one will be cited or charged in the crash, the FHP said.

Goltl was not at fault, the FHP ruled. His blood-alcohol level that night was 0.049, below the 0.08 limit at which Florida law presumes a driver is impaired. Goltl showed no signs of impairment, the report said.

Ruzecki, Richardson and MacCollom attended Seminole High School. Smith attended Largo High School. The driver, Ruzecki, was the only one wearing his seat belt.

SAFETY HARBOR — Pinellas County sheriff's deputies have arrested a Safety Harbor man they say committed multiple sex crimes against two children, including sexual battery on at least one of them, during the past decade.

Jerome Alan Spencer, 55, of 3104 Avocet Place faces six felony charges: one count of capital sexual battery, three counts of lewd and lascivious molestation, one count of false imprisonment and one count of sexual performance by a minor. He is being held without bail at the Pinellas County Jail.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Spencer committed the offenses between December 2000 and July 3 of this year.

The victims are a 7-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl, authorities said. The crimes occurred at a private home in north Pinellas County. Their names are not being released because of their ages and the nature of the crime.

In August 2006, deputies say, Spencer committed sexual battery on a 12-year-old.

That same month, Spencer brought one of the girls into an empty apartment, threatened violence and told her "if she screamed he would duct tape her mouth shut," authorities say.

That victim was forced to take off her clothes, after which Spencer made a video of a sexual nature of the girl, deputies said. According to deputies, Spencer admitted after his arrest to bringing the child to the location and making a video.

From June 27 until July 3, Spencer committed lewd and lascivious acts against one of the girls "multiple times," deputies say.

Crimes against the 7-year-old occurred recently while her mother was out of the house, authorities say.

When the mother returned and discovered what happened, she contacted police. After interviews with detectives, the 15-year-old victim also was identified.

Spencer was arrested about 5:30 p.m. Thursday at 39650 U.S. Highway 19 in Tarpon Springs, where he is a maintenance worker for a condo association.

HUDSON — The body found in a submerged car last week has been identified as 64-year-old Juan Salgado.

Salgado, of 5915 Sea Ranch Drive, Apt. 304, was pulled from the water Friday when residents of the Gulf Island Resort saw the car in the canal, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

His cause of death is not yet available as deputies await toxicology results. Foul play is not suspected at this time.

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DUNEDIN — After nearly two years of negotiations with the Dunedin Country Club, city officials Thursday approved a search for professional firms interested in managing the financially ailing club and a nearby golf course.

City leaders hope their Request for Proposal will entice companies with sufficient capital to rejuvenate the consolidated Dunedin Isles Golf Club, composed of the country club and St. Andrews Links. Both lost a combined total of nearly $1 million between 2006 and 2008.

The request, or RFP, will be "advertised to the golfing world" starting next week, said City Manager Rob DiSpirito, noting that at least three firms have already contacted the city. The City Commission, which will review the firm offers in October, still has the option of pursuing a revised agreement with the current club board, which has consistently asked for a less expensive lease on the city-owned land.

Before the RFP was unanimously approved, commissioners pressed for continued cooperation with the club's board in spite of recent controversy. Club treasurer Jack Norton submitted a letter of resignation last week citing "serious doubt" from members over his commitment to the club's "continued independence." And earlier this month, when paying the city in full for two years of back rent, club leaders asked the city to withdraw their name from the RFP.

"For what it's worth, we care about them an enormous amount," said Commissioner Julie Ward Bujalski. "They're suffering, like we are."

Mayor Dave Eggers implored the club board, whom he called "good caretakers of our property," to "have confidence in who they are."

Richard Singer, a National Golf Foundation consultant contracted by the city, said Thursday that he thought the RFP approval was a successful step in turning "the risk onto somebody else" who could potentially find profits with different management.

A report he presented in 2007 suggested the city withdraw its demand for club rent in exchange for a well-run course with "a lot of public purpose." The "fiscal condition of the club has continued to deteriorate" in the 22 months since his presentation, he said.

Former mayor Bob Hackworth, a vocal opponent of leasing concessions to the club, said he was elated the RFP pursuit had begun. He added the negotiations had been an "excruciating process" with "a lot of drama."

"When the RFPs are back … you'll have the facts of what the private marketplace can do," Hackworth said. "Getting it out the door is the beginning of that drama part ending."

Drew Harwell can be reached at dharwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.

GULFPORT — A mother whom police witnessed leaving two infant children alone on the street to urinate in public was arrested late Thursday night.

Shawn Suzanne Lutz, 43, is charged with two counts of neglect of a child, disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer without violence and is being held in Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $2,250 bail.

According to a police report, Lutz left her children in a stroller at 3121 Beach Blvd. at 11:44 p.m. to walk 30 feet away and urinate. Police also observed her shaking one of the children and striking her with an inflatable float. The other child, according to police, had a diaper "soaked through with urine."

SPRING HILL — County Line Cafe and Grille chef Kevin Howe got the good news Friday morning in between cooking breakfast orders at his restaurant on U.S. 19 in southern Hernando County.

His recipe for Sesame Lime Ginger Grilled Pork Tenderloin was among the five finalists selected in the Live! With Regis and Kelly "Ultimate Hometown Grill-Off" competition this week.

"I'm thrilled," said Howe, 44, whose dish was introduced to viewers via a video. "I think we have a pretty good chance to win this."

Visitors to the show's Web site now have until 10 a.m. Sunday to vote for their favorite of five videos in the pork category, with the winner going to New York next week to grill on the show. Winners of various categories in the contest then will compete for the overall title of "Ultimate Hometown Grill Recipe."

Click here to vote for Howe's video.

ST. PETERSBURG — A man who apparently jumped from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge was pulled from the water alive but seriously injured Friday morning. Three men fishing underneath the span came to the rescue, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue authorities said.

The man, who is described as a white male in his 30s, was transported to Bayfront Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, according to information from Fire Rescue spokesman Lt. Joel Granata.

Witnesses said the man parked a Ford F-150 pickup near the top of the northbound span around 9:47 a.m. and jumped. It is unclear whether the fishermen aboard the 18-foot center-console vessel saw the man fall or heard a splash, Granata said. They told rescuers only that the man was bleeding when they pulled him aboard.

A search-and-rescue boat from Eckerd College was first to reach the fishermen, who were told to maintain position until authorities arrived.

The identity of the victim has not been released. The identities of the fishermen were not immediately available.

TAMPA — It's been over three years since her wedding, and Cathy Manzano Jones still can't bring herself to choose photos for an album.

Her mother would have been in nearly every shot, had she been there. Instead, a drunken driver killed 62-year-old Emily Manzano and four other members of the bride's family the day before the ceremony.

"They say forgiveness is part of the healing process," Manzano Jones told Hillsborough Circuit Judge Robert Foster Friday as he prepared to sentence the man responsible for the five deaths. "Right now, I do not have it in me to forgive him for what he did. Maybe one day I will."

Kenneth Delmar Stewart stood within arm's reach as one by one, relatives of those who died talked about the void he created in their close-knit Filipino-American family.

"I'm sorry for the grief and pain that I've caused you all," Stewart told them.

Last month, the 38-year-old Lakeland man pleaded guilty to five counts of DUI manslaughter in exchange for a 25-year sentenced and 10 years of probation. He faced up to 85 years.

Foster also revoked Stewart's Florida driver's license for life and ordered that he not drink while on probation. He will get credit for the nearly three years he's already served.

Prosecutors said that about 3 a.m. on April 21, 2006 Stewart ran a red light in Brandon and crashed into a Mercedes-Benz carrying the bride's relatives.

Investigators at the scene said they smelled alcohol on Stewart's breath. His blood-alcohol level at the time was 0.12. Under state law, a person is presumed to be too impaired to drive at 0.08.

At her father's urging, Manzano Jones carried on with the wedding the next day.

Stewart told the family he had wanted to apologize sooner, but his attorney advised him against it. He said he understood their pain because just weeks after the crash, his 4-year-old son drowned in a pool while in the care of a family member.

Carelessness caused his child's death, he said, but he stopped short of talking specifically about his decision to get behind the wheel the night of the wreck.

"What I'm asking today is if you can find it in your heart to forgive me and move on with your life," said Stewart, speaking to more than a dozen members of the Manzano family who came from across the country to attend the sentencing.

None of Stewart's relatives spoke on his behalf.

Assistant State Attorney Felix Vega called the tragedy one of the "most extreme" cases of DUI manslaughter. Vega displayed giant photographs of the victims on placards in court.

"Because of Mr. Stewart, those people are no longer here," Vega said.

The judge made Stewart stand face to face with each photo before sentencing him.

Though she and other relatives agreed to the plea deal, Alenor Stangle, whose mother, 58-year-old Sonia Medders, died in the wreck, called Stewart's punishment insufficient.

"Twenty-five years out of Stewart's life compared to the life he has taken away from my mother is nothing," Stangle said.

Like Manzano Jones, she too has yet to forgive Stewart.

Of all those who spoke in court, only Lydia Deguzman said she had found a small measure of peace, tinged with bitterness, in the aftermath the family's devastating loss.

"I have forgiven you for stealing the very last breath that each one of my family members drew," said Deguzman, Manzano Jones' godsister. "But know this: Forgiving does not mean forgotten."

For the bride, Stewart's sentencing seemed to bring no consolation. She spoke at length of the inner turmoil the killer's actions imposed upon her life.

Addressing the judge, she recounted the hours before the fatal collision, when her family had gathered at her Port Tampa home. She recalled being mad at her mother that night over last-minute changes for the wedding.

The two didn't speak before Manzano left with a carload of relatives and headed to her home in Brandon.

"Had I known that was the last time I would ever see her again, I would have given her a hug and a kiss goodbye," Manzano Jones said through tears.

She knows it's not her fault. But Manzano Jones said sometimes she thinks if she hadn't planned to have her wedding that weekend, her family would still be alive.

"I can't help but ask myself," she said, "what if those few minutes I would have taken to say goodbye that night could have prevented everything from going wrong."

Despite signs the recession is easing, Florida's unemployment rate made an unexpectedly large jump last month, fueling predictions the state could break modern-era jobless records set in 1975.

On Friday, Florida officials reported the state's unemployment rate catapulted to 10.6 percent in June, the highest in 34 years, with the Tampa Bay area among the leaders in job losses.

The Florida Economic Estimating Conference, consisting of various state economists and financial staff, met Friday to update an already-out-of-date prediction from March that unemployment would top out at 10.2 percent in early 2010. No consensus had been reached by late Friday, but some economists say it's increasingly likely state unemployment could top 12 percent.

Rebecca Rust, chief economist with the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, said it's possible unemployment will surpass Florida's 11.9 percent peak during the 1975 recession, "but we're going to hope stimulus funds help pull us out."

Prior to the '70s, analysts would have to stretch to the Great Depression for higher levels of joblessness. But the methodology for estimating unemployment was different then, making direct comparisons difficult.

The state's jobless figure for June, up from a revised 10.3 percent a month earlier, represents 970,000 out-of-work Floridians in a statewide workforce of 9.19 million.

In the Tampa Bay region, unemployment jumped a half percentage point, from an adjusted 10.6 percent in May to 11.1 percent. Hernando County, where unemployment reached 13.1 percent, continued to be the hardest hit in the region.

Michael McHugh, business development director for Hernando County, said Hernando's heavy dependence on the construction industry made it one of the first to feel the recession's bite. And a summertime drop-off in tourism hurts employment prospects even more.

"It's very hard to look at these numbers month to month,'' McHugh said.

Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Economic Competitiveness, was somewhat surprised by the latest numbers — not that unemployment continues to drift up, but that the jump was so sizable.

"If you're in search of green shoots in the economy, the labor market is not the place to look," Snaith said. "That earth has been salted by this recession."

Over the past year, the bay area has shed 55,400 jobs, second among Florida metro areas only to Miami-Fort Lauderdale's drop of 96,400 jobs. All told, there are about 147,000 bay area residents counted as unemployed.

Overall, Florida has been losing jobs at a quicker pace than the national average. The national unemployment rate was 9.5 percent for June.

Friday's news was simultaneous with national reports raising hopes that the recession may be in its final throes: an earnings boost at some megabanks and an unexpected jump in housing construction in June to the highest level in seven months.

Rust cited several economic pluses in Florida: housing starts and housing sales are both up month over month and foreclosures are down; tax revenues came in slightly higher than expected; and the state's employflorida.com job site posted 300,000 openings in the month of June.

But often in recessions, unemployment continues to rise or remains high even after the economy starts improving. Nationally, the unemployment rate is widely expected to top 10 percent early next year.

Florida's unemployment rate could rise another few percentage points before we're through, economist Scott Brown with Raymond James Financial in St. Petersburg said Friday.

"It's anybody's guess if it's going to top out at 12 or 13 percent. It's hard to put a fine point on it," Brown added.

"This may not be even a jobless recovery. This could be a job-loss recovery, like we saw after the 2001 recession where we kept losing jobs even after the economy recovered."

Adding to the job market frustration is the rising tide of long-term jobless. As part of the federal stimulus package, states are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to extend coverage for the unemployed who have exhausted regular insurance benefits while still unable to find work.

But a report Friday from the National Employment Law Project argues that aid isn't enough. Barring a dramatic turnaround in hiring, the group estimates that 540,000 Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of September, and 1.5 million, including more than 130,000 Floridians, will run out of coverage by year's end.

"It is clear we are coming up on a tidal wave of need for more extensions and help from the federal government," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of group, an advocacy group for low-wage workers that tracks unemployment data.

The housing bust paved the way into the recession three years ago, but it's since morphed into a widespread downturn.

One of the few exceptions in Florida, the health care and social assistance sector, is up a meager 1 percent in jobs year over year. One subset of that category sticks out: there are 6,100 more jobs in nursing care facilities than a year ago, a 6.5 percent increase.

Times staff writer Barbara Behrendt contributed to this report. Jeff Harrington can be reached at jharrington@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8242.

BARTOW — A 31-year-old man from Polk County died Thursday night of complications with the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu.

The Polk County Health Department said the man had preexisting conditions, though they would not say what they were.

There have been more than 2,000 cases of the virus in Florida so far.

A story in Friday editions of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune cited a Thursday report from county health officials there that an otherwise healthy man also died of the virus. He was 22.

Officials urge people to wash their hands frequently, stay home if they feel sick and cover their mouths if they cough.

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The Florida Highway Patrol is looking for someone who may have information about a robbery that took place immediately after the victims were in a highway accident.

On July 4, a couple from Georgia crashed a white 1997 Ford pickup truck into a silver 2003 Toyota on Interstate 10 near Tallahassee, resulting in several injuries, troopers said. A passerby stopped to help.

The couple had a large amount of cash in a locked box in their car that went missing while emergency medical workers tended to injuries.

FHP believes that the man who stopped to help may have information that can help troopers find the missing money. He's not a suspect, just a potential witness.

He's described as a black male, 5-foot-10, about 135 to 140 pounds with gold teeth. He was last seen wearing purple pants, a white shirt and a blue hat. FHP calls him a good Samaritan. They say he helped the injured drivers before medical help arrived.

Anyone with information regarding the man or the crash should call Chief Kevin Guidry with the Bureau of Investigations at (850) 617-2331.

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Like yesterday? Hope so. Expect highs around 91 degrees and a heat index as high as 100, according to the National Weather Service.

Rain chances are 30 percent, but only about a tenth of an inch is expected unless you find yourself under a locally heavy storm.

Lows will drop only to 78 degrees, with rain chances decreasing overnight.

This weekend, temperatures are forecast to remain within a degree or two of this week's highs, but rain chances will improve, with a 50 percent chance on Sunday.

In tropical news, Dr. Jeff Masters helps you with your hurricane fantasy league draft.

BROOKSVILLE — A man was airlifted to a local hospital early Friday morning after his sport utility vehicle overturned on Interstate 75, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.

The man, whose name has not been released, was heading north on I-75 in a white SUV when he ran off the road, jerked back and flipped, a Highway Patrol dispatcher said.

It's not yet known how badly he's injured or to which hospital he was taken.

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TAMPA — Police found a 16-year-old autistic boy reported missing Thursday night a few hours later at Ballast Point Park and reunited him with his father.

Matthew Hoffman was riding his bike at the park's pier. Someone at the park recognized him from a photo aired on the news and called police. He was not injured.

Matthew was reported missing about 9:15 p.m. and was found near midnight. He had no history of running away.

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A 29-year-old soldier from Seffner died in Afghanistan, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Thursday.

Sgt. 1st Class Jason John Fabrizi was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in the Konar province Tuesday when his mounted patrol was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.

In a phone call from Chillicothe, Mo., Fabrizi's stepfather, Timothy Hess, said this was Fabrizi's fourth tour of duty.

"He went to Iraq three times before," said Hess, who is a retired Marine gunnery sergeant. "He was a hero in the Army. He had a chest full of medals."

Fabrizi was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo. The Department of Defense said he had earned a Purple Heart, two Army Commendation Medals, two Bronze Stars and more than a dozen other honors during his service.

His mother, Mary Hess, is also a retired Marine gunnery sergeant, so his decision to join the military was no surprise.

"We lived all over for a time," Timothy Hess said. "But we moved to Seffner in 1993, and Jason went to middle school and high school there."

Hess said his stepson enlisted two or three days after he graduated from Armwood High in 1998 and loved what he did. The former high school wrestler also made great friends in the service, he said.

"I imagine his men are taking it really hard," Hess said. "They really loved him, and he would have done anything for them."

But more than anything Fabrizi love his family.

When he married his first wife, Teri Anderson, in 1999, he had his grandfather, the Rev. George Hess, come down from Missouri to perform the ceremony, according to Hillsborough County records.

The couple had two sons, Jason Allen and Tyler, who are 9 and 6, respectively. Hess said the boys stayed in Riverview with their mother after a 2006 divorce but remained close to their father.

The boys played lots of sports with their father, including spending the summer of 2008 playing Little League in Colorado, where he was stationed.

"He loved sports, and the boys played baseball with him," said Dora Anderson, Teri's mother. "He was a great guy, and we couldn't have asked for a better son if we had had him ourselves."

Fabrizi later married Kristie Kool, of Fort Carson, Colo., and had another son, 2-year-old Layne Timothy, and has a daughter due in October.

Hess says that before Fabrizi deployed in June, he traveled to the Florida Keys with his current wife and youngest son to visit his mother. He was met there by his brother, Jarrod Hess of Valrico, and his-ex wife and sons.

"It was a little family reunion down there for them. And then I took my parents to Colorado to visit with him before he left," Hess said. "Family was really important to him, so I'm glad they got to see him."

Army officers in Valrico, the Florida Keys, Colorado and Missouri went to the family's homes to deliver the news of his death.

Anderson said her daughter brought the officers to her house because the boys were with her so they could deliver the news.

"Jason (Allen) took it the hardest because he understood fully what had happened," she said. "Tyler asked the soldiers if his dad had been shot or blown up like Ryan (his step father)."

Anderson said her daughter Teri's second husband was also in the military and was killed in Iraq in 2007, so the boys have now lost both their father and stepfather to the war.

"We were devastated to hear the news (about Fabrizi)," she said. "We loved him very much."

Funeral arrangements have not been set, but the family has decided Fabrizi will be buried in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was born.

His remains are set to arrive at Dover, Del., Thursday night.

Robbyn Mitchell can be reached at (813) 226-3373 or rmitchell@sptimes.com.

TAMPA — The directors of a community service group in east Tampa were arrested Thursday, accused of dealing cocaine in the same neighborhood where they mentored children and families.

The men told detectives they were selling the drugs to finance a new center for disadvantaged children, said Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy.

Detectives investigated Michael Brown and Romey Battle over the course of three months, during which undercover officers purchased crack from the men several times, police said.

A search of three homes in April yielded 167 grams of cocaine, 83 grams of crack cocaine, $1,800 and two vehicles used in the sales, police said.

"They told detectives that they were selling the narcotics to raise money for disadvantaged kids in the neighborhood, which is inconsistent considering their criminal activity is one of the things that would put these kids at risk," McElroy said.

Battle, 36, of 3103 E 27th Ave., Tampa, and Brown, 34, of 6836 Dartmouth Hill St., Riverview, are charged with trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy.

Brown and Battle are still listed as the executive director and program director, respectively, of the Center for Urban Programs and Services in Tampa. State records show the organization is active, and a media report says a camp with local athletes was held last weekend.

However, both men are described as unemployed on arrest records, and they told detectives they had lost their jobs, McElroy said.

Attempts to contact the men were unsuccessful Thursday.

"The goal for the Center for Urban Programs is to create education, employment and housing opportunities for youth and their families," the Web site states.

Battle has previously worked for the Audrey Spotford Youth and Family Center in Tampa and is a longtime youth mentor. In 2007, he received a Bank of America Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Award.

State records show Battle also registered Goal Line Sports Foundation in March, which works with high school athletes and coaches to build character.

The case is "disheartening," McElroy said, with a community role model's reputation sullied.

"Battle was trafficking cocaine in the very neighborhood where he was a role model for the kids and trying to help them make the right choices in their lives," she said.

Based on the police investigation, she does not believe Battle's illegal activities crossed into his work.

"During our investigation, he was not involved in selling drugs to kids," she said.

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

LARGO — A man accused of shooting his girlfriend to death in their St. Petersburg apartment three days after Christmas in 2007 will spend the rest of his life in prison, a judge decided Thursday.

A jury on Thursday convicted Troy A. Sierra, 41, of first-degree murder for the killing of 27-year-old Kelly D. Burgess. Afterward, a judge sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors said Sierra went after Burgess, who was breaking up with him, while she was moving out on the morning of Dec. 28, 2007. Burgess was planning on moving from the couple's apartment at 540 Carillon Parkway N to Clearwater Beach, police said.

Sierra fired three shots, hitting the woman twice in the head.

Assistant State Attorney Loren Pincus told the jury Sierra fled after the crime, and was found later passed out and drunk at an Orlando gas station.

During the trial, which began Tuesday, neighbor Anthony Bodtmann testified that he heard gunshots and footsteps that morning. He also said he saw a man matching Sierra's description leave the apartment.

PENSACOLA — Byrd and Melanie Billings were "loving, caring, giving people," his adult daughter said this week.

The slain parents of 17 children, 13 of them adopted, "wanted to be the voice for children without a voice," said Ashley Billings Markham. "They wanted to give these children a chance, and they wanted to give them a childhood."

That deep desire may have been the motivation for a 1989 crime for which Byrd Billings, his former wife Cindy Reeve and another woman were sentenced to two years probation on charges of violation of adoption, fraud to obtain birth certificate and forgery of birth certificate.

Court records show that 20 years ago a debt-ridden and pregnant Pensacola woman named Vickie Taylor checked into Sacred Heart Hospital under the name Cindy Reeve. She delivered a baby boy June 4 and listed the father's name as Byrd Billings. Taylor told deputies she had agreed to the fraud in exchange for a $2,100 loan, so the Billingses could claim the baby as their own.

Sheriff's deputies learned of the plot when someone with knowledge of it called authorities, the documents say. A deputy found the baby, named Justin, when he went to interview Reeve and Billings.

All three pleaded nolo contendere, which means they did not admit guilt but agreed to a punishment.

According to the Pensacola News-Journal, the Billingses adopted a boy named Justin in 1989. He is now 20 and lives in Pensacola.

Prosecutors have not suggested the fraud had any bearing on the killing of Byrd Billings and his current wife, Melanie, a well-off couple with business ties to pawn shops and auto dealerships. The two were found dead in their spacious home July 9. Authorities have arrested seven people they believe invaded the house wearing commando clothes and shot the victims.

State Attorney Bill Eddins said yesterday that investigators have recovered a safe stolen from the house as well as several guns, including at least one they believe was used to kill the Billingses.

"This was a home invasion robbery where the people stole a safe, and we recovered the safe," Eddins said. "We think it is as simple as that in terms of the motive."

Eddins said investigators continue to follow leads, but believe they have arrested those responsible.

Six men and a 16-year-old boy each face two counts of murder. Another woman, 47-year-old Pamela Long Wiggins, was arrested Wednesday and charged with being an accessory to the crime. Wiggins was freed on a $10,000 bond, the teen is being held in detention, and the six men are jailed without bail.

"This concludes the major part of our investigation," Eddins said. "There are still some loose ends to tie up."

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan has said the case is complex, and the assailants may have connections outside the state and outside the country, which has led to speculation about the motive.

Morgan said the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the Drug Enforcement Administration are involved in the investigation.

Times researcher Shirl Kennedy and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Ben Montgomery can be reached at bmontgomery@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8650.

CLEARWATER — Police have arrested a fourth man in connection with the recent rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Ernesto Panzo-Temoxtle, 24, of 505 Fairwood Ave. in Clearwater faces the charge of lewd and lascivious battery.

Victorino Panzo-Panzo, 37, and Abel Calihua-Macuixtle, 30, were arrested Monday and face second-degree felony charges.

Jorge Temoxtle-Calihua, 23, also was arrested for obstruction for providing a false name to police.

According to authorities, Panzo-Temoxtle engaged in sexual activity with the juvenile victim, who police describe as a runaway. He was arrested without incident at his home Thursday afternoon.

The investigation began when police located the girl, who is not being identified because of the nature of the crime, at an apartment complex in Clearwater on Monday, Clearwater public safety spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts said.

The girl was found in the company of several men, and had engaged in "consensual" sex acts, according to authorities. Under Florida law, a girl that young cannot legally consent to have sexual relations.

Watts said the victim exchanged sex for money.

Detectives are still trying to determine if other individuals were involved.

TAMPA — They were their own motley crew, investigators say — most members of different gangs — all charged with serious crimes.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's detectives charged five juveniles Thursday whom they say spent two weeks to a month inside the Orient Road Jail hatching an escape plan that included murdering a detention deputy.

"We were close," said Col. Jim Previtera, the jail's commander. "We have reason to believe they were going to execute their plan not long after we discovered what was going on."

Ronald Ball, 17, had someone on the outside devise an escape route from the jail by scanning the building on Google Earth, Previtera said.

Detectives said Ball went to work assembling a team to pull off a daring getaway.

Keen skills of observation by the deputies, Previtera said, foiled the attempt. Only 18 hours earlier, they noticed small changes in attire and behavior of some of the inmates in the 48-prisoner pod.

On March 15, some inmates had clogged the toilets and flooded their cells, leading deputies to wonder why they would want to get deputies into the cells, Previtera explained.

"So they started asking questions," he said.

It became evident something bigger was going on, so the deputies called Previtera in at 1 p.m. and he ordered the Hillsborough County Jail Tactical Apprehension and Control Team to lock down the pod and search it.

TACT turned up razor blades hidden beneath toilet paper molded to look like caulk on the window sills, and they found a home made knife or "shank" on "Note 14'' gang member Luis Adam Juarez, 16, Previtera said.

When sheriff's detectives began questioning everyone in the pod, several witnesses came forward, said Detective Wayne Bunton, who took the lead on the case.

Bunton said during the investigation that Juarez, who was already charged with attempted first degree murder, told investigators he had been recruited by Ball, 17, a Bloods gang member, and 17-year-old Esteban Rivera, a Raw Dawgz gang member, to slash a deputy's throat during an escape attempt.

"He basically volunteered," Previtera said.

Detectives said Ball also recruited 17-year-old David Serrano, the pod trustee responsible for helping deputies manage activities such as meals and clean up, to provide the plotters with disposable razors he issued and then collected from inmates.

Eric Munoz, 17, a member of the Latin Life gang, was responsible for using the razors to make the shank, deputies said.

The plan was to lure a deputy into the cell, tackle him, slash his throat, take his keys and escape through the recreation yard, Bunton said.

"To be honest, it just wouldn't have worked," Previtera said. "We have many more layers of security than that." But he admitted that they may have been able to murder the deputy.

The frightening plot changed a number of jail policies including: inmates are now only given disposable razors when they have a court appearance; juveniles in lockdown are taken to the Falkenburg Road Jail; and juvenile detention deputies now oversee pods two at a time.

Rivera, Juarez and Munoz remain in lockdown in the Falkenburg Road Jail awaiting trials on other charges. Ball and Serrano are in the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections, but will return to Hillsborough County to face the new charges.

All the young men were charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree of a law enforcement officer and conspiracy to escape from confinement.

Munoz faces the additional charge of introducing contraband into a facility.

Times staff writer Robbyn Mitchell can be reached at (813) 226-3373 or rmitchell@sptimes.com.

TAMPA — The surgeon wanted a souvenir.

A homicide suspect lay on his operating table, shot twice by a deputy U.S. marshal. Two law enforcement agents waited nearby to collect the bullets as evidence.

But as colleagues looked on, Dr. David J. Ciesla, medical director of the trauma center at Tampa General Hospital, plucked a bullet from the suspect's liver and hid it under his rubber glove, authorities say.

Afterward, he told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agents that he was unable to retrieve either of the slugs because of their location in the man's body.

"He's a doctor, so we take that to be the truth," said Bob Ura, the FDLE special agent supervisor in Tampa.

Ciesla, 42, apparently didn't count on one of the other doctors in the operating room — a surgeon he was supposed to be teaching, Ura said — telling supervisors otherwise.

Seven days after the April 21 surgery, with an attorney by his side, Ciesla returned the bullet to FDLE agents, Ura said. But that didn't keep him from getting charged Wednesday with providing false information to law enforcement during an investigation and obstructing or opposing an officer without violence, both misdemeanor offenses.

Ciesla, hired by the University of South Florida on Jan. 1, 2008, also serves as division director of trauma/critical care for the medical school and as a medical consultant to the state's trauma system.

He provides training for Special Operations Command medics preparing for service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As of Thursday, when the FDLE announced the charges, he had not been removed from those positions. Reached by phone, Ciesla referred questions to USF administrators.

"It's not a resolved situation, so I really don't have much to say about it," the doctor said. "I can't really comment on anything that's going on."

His attorney, John Fitzgibbons, could not be reached.

USF officials said the medical school and hospital have worked closely with law enforcement on the case.

"We are very saddened by this incident," a joint statement read. "It is our understanding that Dr. Ciesla indicated that he had made a mistake and had apologized for his error. Dr. Ciesla is an extremely talented surgeon and in the 18 months he has practiced here has become an invaluable asset to the Tampa Bay community."

University and hospital officials characterized the situation as an isolated incident for a doctor with no obvious blemishes in his history. Ciesla has a clear and active license in Florida, and records indicate no problems with his licenses in Colorado and Washington, D.C., where he previously practiced.

USF spokesman Michael Hoad noted that no final court judgment has been made. The university has started a disciplinary process, which will not be public until concluded, he said.

Complaints against doctors are vetted by the Florida Department of Health, which determines probable cause of wrong-doing. Such complaints are confidential, said department spokeswoman Eulinda Smith, noting that disciplinary actions are imposed by the Board of Medicine if a complaint is found to be legally sufficient.

How unusual — and ethical — is it for a surgeon to take a bullet from a patient as a personal keepsake?

"Never had this kind of question asked to me, to be candid with you," said Bob Harvey, noting he never pondered the legality of such an allegation in his role as executive director of the Florida Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons.

He noted that Ciesla, while fairly new to Tampa, is highly respected as a trauma surgeon.

Tampa General has "one of the largest trauma centers in the state, and you don't get that job by being average," he said. "I don't imagine Tampa General Hospital would have him running their trauma center if he wasn't considered a top-notch trauma surgeon."

Bill Allen, director of the bioethics program at the University of Florida College of Medicine, said physicians have an ethical obligation to be honest and truthful.

"The part of this issue and this case that is serious is lying to law enforcement," he said. "The keeping the bullet is odd in some ways, but not nearly as serious an ethical issue."

It would not be unheard of, he noted, for a trauma surgeon to keep a relic from an especially unusual case, perhaps as a teaching tool. But bullets are standard fare in trauma units, making this situation seem particularly odd.

Ciesla performed surgery April 21 on Thomas Ford McCoy Jr., a 42-year-old man who had been accused earlier that month of killing a Coca-Cola employee who was stocking a vending machine in the Florida Panhandle.

McCoy was shot by a deputy U.S. marshal outside a Tampa hotel. Officials said he pulled a gun on members of the marshals' fugitive task force as they tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant. The shooting was later determined to be a justified use of deadly force, Ura said.

Two FDLE agents who were investigating the marshal shooting waited outside the operating room for four hours before Ciesla told them he was unable to remove the bullets, Ura said. Using "doctor speak," Ura said, Ciesla told them that one bullet was lodged in McCoy's liver, the other near his spine.

The same day, Dr. Sergio Alvarez, a second-year plastic surgery resident who witnessed the surgery, reported to his supervisor at USF that Ciesla had one of the bullets. Subsequent interviews with other medical personnel supported Alvarez's claim, Ura said.

He did not respond to an interview request by the St. Petersburg Times.

After being confronted by university officials, Ciesla admitted he took the bullet, Ura said.

DNA tests showed that the bullet still had McCoy's tissue on it, Ura said. The other bullet remains in McCoy's body.

Ciesla didn't provide much of an explanation, Ura said, but interviews with witnesses led investigators to believe that Ciesla "intended to keep the bullet as a type of souvenir."

Ura said agents never imagined their shooting investigation would take this turn.

"I think now he realizes the gravity of the situation," Ura said. "I think it's probably fair to say that at the time, he didn't realize the ramifications of his actions. It's a very, very bizarre case."

Times researcher John Martin and staff writer Rebecca Catalanello contributed to this report. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at cjenkins@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3337.

Correction: Dr. Sergio Alvarez is a plastic surgery resident in his second year at the University of South Florida. USF provided incorrect information to the Times on his affiliation late Thursday.

TAMPA — The man who robbed a Tampa 7-Eleven on Sunday with a sawed-off shotgun has apparently struck again, police say.

This time, he robbed the Sunoco at 401 S MacDill Ave. about 2 a.m. Wednesday. Police said the man entered the store, browsed the aisles, waited for one of two employees to leave and went to the front counter. He pulled a sawed-off shotgun from his pants and demanded money from the clerk. Then he drove away in a silver or gray 1990s pickup.

The man is described as white, 50 to 60 years old, 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 8 with a medium build of about 200 pounds.

He has salt-and-pepper hair and a short scruffy beard. He was last seen wearing a red shirt, possibly with "Pelle Pelle" on the front, denim pants and a black Bucs hat.

In the first robbery at 3101 Gandy Blvd., the man wore a blue hoodie and denim jeans.

He reportedly drove away in a gray four-door, 1990's model Toyota, perhaps an Avalon, with a white oval sticker on the bumper.

Police ask anyone with information to call them at (813) 231-6130 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay toll-free at 1-800-873-8477.

TAMPA — They had the suspects and the stolen goods. Now all police needed to do was figure out who'd been burglarized.

About 3 p.m. Thursday, police got a call from someone in Sulphur Springs reporting a suspicious sight: three young men carrying black garbage bags that appeared to be filled with items.

A massive search began, including 16 cars, police dogs and a helicopter.

The three suspects were soon spotted running down N Mulberry Street and police took them into custody. Officers found a gun and a safe, but no plastic bags.

Then came the big mystery: Where did these belongings come from? With no reports of a burglary, police started knocking on doors, asking if anyone was missing anything.

Eventually they found their way to 1741 Mulberry Drive. Its residents weren't home.

Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said police are still interviewing the suspects and taking inventory of the items.

They did charge one 16-year-old, a neighbor of the victim, with armed burglary and grand theft. McElroy said he stole a 9mm gun during the crime.

More arrests are expected as police continue to investigate.

McElroy said it was thanks to the citizen tipster who noticed something wasn't right that police were able to respond quickly and stop a burglary in progress: "We applaud the citizen who called us."

Staff writer Rebecca Catalanello contributed to this report.

TAMPA — Hillsborough County commissioners had no power to rescind the 10 percent raises County Administrator Pat Bean gave to her two recently-appointed assistants — but they did have a loophole.

They took advantage of it Thursday and revoked Bean's appointments altogether, which now leave two top deputy positions unfilled and the raises that came with them in limbo.

The move means Eric Johnson and Mike Merrill, appointed as assistant county administrators in November, get back their respective former titles of budget director and debt management director.

While it might seem like the raises would evaporate along with the promotions, that isn't necessarily the case, said county attorney Renee Lee. Ultimately, Bean has the final say in her employees' salaries.

What she's done with that say has riled one commissioner, Mark Sharpe, to publicly state that Bean should no longer be in charge during this difficult financial climate and others to call her decisions morale-crushing, bad management and sloppy.

Amid countywide layoffs and pay cuts, Bean gave raises ranging from 7 to 17 percent to her six top deputies, including one that totalled $20,000. She justified them with job consolidations and the elimination of positions, which she said saved the county $700,000.

She said Johnson and Merrill's appointments, to administrator titles in management services and utilities and commerce, brought on responsibilities that merited a 10 percent increase.

Commissioners argued that everyone is working extra and being told to do more with less.

At a Wednesday meeting, Commissioner Rose Ferlita caught Bean by surprise when she dug up a procedural error Bean made when asking the commission to approve the two appointments.

Bean did not provide the necessary information, like their resumes or their actual salaries. Wednesday, she said she thought she had.

But at Thursday's budget workshop, she admitted to the omission.

That mistake gave commissioners an opportunity to re-vote on the appointments and reject them. Bean argued that filling those two positions with new recruits would cost upwards of $200,000. But Ferlita noted Bean could re-approach the commission with the same two appointees — at lower salaries, of course.

Six commissioners voted to revoke the appointments, with Jim Norman dissenting. He argued that the problem was systemic and shouldn't single out two good employees. Ferlita countered that the decision wasn't personal.

After the meeting, Bean said she was very upset.

"I heard the board say several times that in this period, one should be looking for ways to downsize and save dollars. That's exactly what I did," she said.

She didn't know what would happen to the raises, or even if the newly demoted employees would take on the higher positions for less money.

"They've already said they couldn't believe they took them as it was," Bean said. Merrill and Johnson declined to comment. Johnson got $163,092 following the promotion. Merrill got $166,566.

Human resources director George Williams says it's against policy to allow employees to take on promotions but not get paid accordingly. Ferlita said she will research that.

"Dear God," Ferlita said, "how long have we talked about people who are suffering out there? What kind of a signal does this send out?"

Ferlita has said that if it were her business, she would fire Bean. But she hesitates to make that same decision with taxpayer money, since the administrator's contract calls for a year's salary in severance, $226,366, if she is terminated before the end of 2011.

Reporters awaited Bean before Thursday's meeting, seeking her response to signals that her job may be in danger.

"If I had done something illegal, I'd say absolutely I should be fired. … I'm going to do my job the way I always do my job," she said. "I don't know that anybody has said there is any real serious thing wrong here."

Of the commissioners, she said "they've been unhappy before. …

"I don't have time to look over my shoulder."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.

CORRECTION: Eric Johnson and Mike Merrill were appointed assistant county administrators in November. Earlier versions of this story that appeared in print and online gave an incorrect title.

With the subtlety of a cement sack loosed from a bank skyscraper, another 7,200 foreclosure cases dropped into our courtrooms last month.

That's 7,200 houses — the residential stock of a typical small town — plunged into mortgage default in a single month in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties.

But after digging through charts put out by RealtyTrac, the California company that publishes market-by-market foreclosure data, June could be the month when foreclosures began beating a retreat.

As I've repeated in earlier columns, home sales and prices have already begun to right themselves in the Tampa Bay area. Sales have risen in nine of the past 10 months. Prices seem to have stabilized — and even risen a smidgen — since January.

What's been lacking is evidence that insolvent homeowners would bleed fewer of their deeds onto the foreclosure market. That evidence might have emerged from June's foreclosure report.

After a punishing sequence of months in which local foreclosure filings, measured year over year, rose by 30 to 50 percent, foreclosures in June posted a gain of only 12 percent.

The number was impressively modest for several reasons. Foreclosures across Florida rose 31 percent to reach 52,899 in June. Nationally, June's 336,173 foreclosure filings represented an increase of 33 percent from a year earlier.

On top of that, at the start of the year economists predicted a wave of summer mortgage defaults as unemployment deepened and the state's foreclosure moratorium petered out. But June came and went without any spikes on the chart.

Why the reprieve? The government's foreclosure prevention programs, for all the initial hoopla about helping millions of hard-pressed homeowners, have served a piddling number of mortgage borrowers so far. At last count, loan restructuring has benefited fewer than 100,000 across the country.

A better explanation lies with the housing market itself. According to the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, home sales in June totaled 1,714. That's a decline of almost half since June 2005, but monthly home sales haven't been that high since December 2006. Sales of distressed properties — bargain priced and attractive to cash buyers — have led the way.

Nevertheless, national economists remain pessimistic about foreclosures. The latest prediction, which has grown to mythic stature among national reporters, is the wave of "Alt-A" foreclosures that's supposed to capsize our market anew.

These were loans made to middle-of-the-road borrowers. Strapped to the hilt in the recession, these homeowners are supposedly about to mail their house keys back to the bank all at once.

Or so the money gurus inform us.

Dub me unconvinced. At least in our neck of the woods, foreclosures have been far more than just a subprime phenomenon the past two years. They have already cut into many middle-of-the-road borrowers around here. Those not peddling their distressed homes on the cheap are lobbying their banks for easier terms.

Yes, foreclosures in the Tampa Bay area are still rising, but they're rising at a dramatically slower rate. If we're lucky, June will mark the start of the Summer When Losing Your Home Lost its Groove.

BELLEAIR — Arson investigators are taking a look at three suspicious vehicle fires discovered in north Pinellas County early Thursday morning.

Two of the burning vehicles were found in Belleair and a third in Largo. All of the vehicles were parked and no one was injured, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies were called out around 7 a.m. to two locations in Belleair: 1703 Belleair Forest Dr. and 1709 Cypress Dr.

The address of the third vehicle found in Largo was not released because it belongs to a law enforcement officer.

Investigators are asking for the public's help. Anyone with information about these incidents is asked to contact Detective Larry Mclean of the sheriff's arson unit at (727) 582-6200 or they can anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-8477.

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ST. PETERSBURG — With questions swirling a day after the federal raid of Conax Florida Corp., U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young on Thursday withdrew support for a $4 million funding request for the defense contractor.

The move puts some distance between Conax and Young, who has secured $28.5 million in federal "earmarks" for the company since 2005.

Young's spokesman said he did not pursue the money during a key budget hearing in Washington because of the investigation, the scope and nature of which remain unclear.

"They decided they would see what develops with what (investigators) are looking at," spokesman Harry Glenn said.

Conax was open for business Thursday, one day after federal agents raided its St. Petersburg complex on 75th Street N. On Wednesday, agents with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and several other agencies searched the building and carried out boxes and files. They would not comment on what prompted the raid or what they found.

Conax, the official legal name of Cobham Life Support Systems, is a division of British defense firm Cobham. Cobham released a statement Thursday to its investors on its Web site.

"Initial indications are that the investigation is focusing on the specifications, manufacture and origin of parts used in the manufacture of products supplied to the U.S. government," the statement said.

It went on to say that the company is cooperating fully and that the investigation could take some time.

The $4 million "earmark" request Young, R-Indian Shores, had supported was for a "belt tensioning" restraint system for Air Force aircraft platforms. Conax produces life-support and personal-survival equipment for the military and NASA. Last year, it generated $96 million in revenue, representing just more than 3 percent of Cobham's total revenue.

Young is the ranking Republican on the House Defense Appropriations Committee, which met in private Thursday morning to work out details for the 2010 budget. His clout would have almost certainly ensured inclusion of the request, which he supported, had it not been for the investigation.

Young told the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday that he was not sure what authorities were looking for but that the company had performed well in the past.

Products created for the government have to follow strict specifications that are identified during the bidding process and then spelled out in a contract. If a contractor supplies a product such as a computer that fails to meet one of the requirements like having 10 chips instead of a dozen, it doesn't automatically trigger a federal raid, said former Tampa defense contractor Robert Castro. The government could just alert the seller and tell it to correct the mistake before legal action is taken, he said.

In the Conax investigation, based on the number of agencies involved, "it leads one to believe that this is something far more serious than just an oversight," Castro said.

American Data & Computer Products, Castro's now-defunct company, went out of business because of a debacle involving what Castro believes to be counterfeit switches installed in several U.S. submarines.

"It's one thing to counterfeit a DVD or purse in New York's Chinatown," he said. "It's a different thing when you have something counterfeited being installed in sensitive operational equipment."

If a company didn't recognize it was dealing with counterfeit parts, then sometimes it can get off the hook, said lawyer David Sugden, who deals with copyright and counterfeiting issues as the managing partner for Call, Jensen & Ferrell in Southern California.

"If the government concludes that the company was acting in good faith, and they did not know, the government may simply require them to replace the counterfeit goods with genuine goods, and perhaps the matter will end there," he said.

However, Sugden pointed out, when it comes to counterfeit products that affect safety, it could become a bigger deal.

"If we have a company that is manufacturing vehicles such as airplanes, and there are counterfeit products, it puts into question the entire integrity of the product," he said.

Contractors who work with the military have to adhere to contracts but also follow a strict set of guidelines called the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which are issued by the General Services Administration.

Nicole Norfleet can be reached at nnorfleet@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8785.

CRYSTAL RIVER — A national environmental organization has asked the federal government to prohibit all swimming with manatees, citing increasing harassment of the endangered species.

While many manatee advocates over the years have urged the government to stop the practice, this is the first time any group has formally petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to end the controversial "swim with manatees" experience.

Citing the antiharassment requirements in the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility threatens to sue the federal agency if it does not enforce the rules more stringently.

PEER works with anonymous government workers seeking to expose environmental wrongdoing. In January 2008, the organization sued the FWS to obtain public records on manatee harassment and protection. The filing on Wednesday is an outgrowth of the group's study of those records.

Thousands of people visit Citrus County every year to swim with manatees in the springs at the headwaters of the Crystal and Homosassa rivers. It is a huge economic windfall for Citrus County, the only place where the federal government sanctions such activities.

In recent years, area residents concerned about manatee harassment have been filming in the area and distributing videos of visitors riding, feeding and chasing manatees in violation of the manatee interaction rules.

Both the FWS and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission held a public meeting in Crystal River last month seeking suggestions from the public on ways to fix the problem.

Pat Rose, executive director of Save the Manatee Club, called PEER's action a formal notice that "time's up'' on the talk about ending the harassment.

"I welcome it,'' Rose said. "While I believe we've been making some progress . . . I'm very frustrated with the pace of that progress.''

The FWS questioned whether PEER followed the correct procedures to challenge the "swim-with" program and plans to respond to the filing in the coming weeks, said spokesman Chuck Underwood.

Matt Clemons, who operates a kayak business in Crystal River, said he hopes the action forces some compromise that will end the harassment of area manatees. "I've been predicting all along that this industry needs to evolve,'' he said.

But Jerry Hogan, owner of the Crystal Lodge Dive Shop and a 30-year operator of swim-with-manatees tours, said hundreds of manatees come to the area because they enjoy the protection and interaction with swimmers.

"It's working here,'' he said. "We should be the poster child of what to do with manatees, not what not to do.''

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1434.

ST. PETERSBURG — Police are investigating another rash of church burglaries, the pace of which has accelerated in recent weeks.

The first of the eight break-ins took place March 30. But the most recent five started June 25 and occurred over 18 days.

Church administration manager Connie Gregg remembers what it felt like when parishioners discovered that Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, 4901 Fifth Ave. N, had been broken into on June 25.

"You get that feeling in the pit of your stomach before you even enter the building," she said. "You think, what did they get?"

Nothing, it turned out. The burglars smashed the glass pane on a door and stood on the church piano in an unsuccessful attempt to steal a 42-inch flat-panel TV mounted to the ceiling.

Police are seeking a transient they suspect was involved in at least one burglary. St. Petersburg burglary detectives believe Robert Earl Warren, 42, was involved in a July break-in at Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church.

The five burglaries from June 25 through Sunday shared circumstances with three break-ins reported earlier this year.

Cash, tools, a camera and televisions were stolen, according to St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt. The burglar used similar means — breaking a window or prying open a door — to enter each building.

Court records indicate Warren was serving 30 days of a 90-day sentence for commercial burglary until April 14, but police would like to see if he knows anything about the earlier burglaries. Warren is being sought on a charge of burglary.

"He could have been working with someone else, he could have been solo," Proffitt said. "Those are things we won't know until we find him."

Proffitt pointed out several factors that makes churches especially vulnerable: They're infrequently occupied, usually they're not as secure as businesses, and their attempts to help the less fortunate can expose them to potential criminals.

Here is a list of the break-ins:

March 30: New Life Powerhouse Church of God, 3711 Fifth Ave. N.

April 18 to 19: Temple of Love and Healing, 3700 40th Ave. N.

May 4: Lion of Judah Ministry, 3251 Third Ave. N.

June 25: Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, 4901 Fifth Ave. N.

July 1 to 2: Cornerstone Community Church, 6745 38th Ave. N.

July 10 to 11: Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, 4000 Fifth Ave. S.

July 5 to 11: Anointed Church of the Living God, 4834 18th Ave. S.

July 11 to 12: Albright United Methodist Church, 2750 Fifth Ave. N.

HERNANDO BEACH — Residents of Hernando Beach and visitors to the waterfront have been patient.

For more than a dozen years, they have endured the ups and downs of a proposed dredging project tied up in one legal or environmental challenge after another.

Now that the Hernando Beach Channel actually is about to be dredged, people want to know just how the work will affect them.

More than 200 of them jammed into the Coast Guard Auxiliary building Wednesday evening to find out themselves. Most were delighted to hear that the project is expected to be done by February, ahead of schedule.

The work to widen, straighten, lengthen and deepen the channel might cause some slowdowns for boat traffic. But the crowd was told there is no plan to close the channel, a busy artery for recreational and commercial boaters, unless there is an emergency.

County Public Works Director Charles Mixson explained the scope of the work and the details of how the sand and muck from the channel will be sucked out and piped to a disposal site at the county's old wastewater treatment plant on the east side of Shoal Line Boulevard. Rocks will be removed and placed on existing spoil islands close to the shore.

New channel markers will be installed. There will be fewer signs, but they will be larger, Mixson said. New areas will be set aside for sea grass, and boaters won't be able to use those areas.

Sea grass will be harvested from the existing channel and replanted in those new areas beginning next month.

Dredging is set to begin in two to three months. Workers are expected to be on site seven days a week from dawn to dusk to get the job done.

When completed, the channel will be 6 feet deep, 60 feet wide and extend about 3 miles to Watts Tower. The channel will also be straightened to eliminate a dangerous blind turn.

The dredge operator will work with area boaters to maintain safe passage during the work, according to Curtis Huggins, president of Orion Marine Group, the contractor. "We're not going to stop up the channel. We're not going to eliminate access.''

But he asked for help from boaters as well, noting that he has seen some operators moving quickly in the waters. "Give us some notice before you blow up on us,'' he said.

The contractor introduced the audience to "Mr. O," the name of the dredging equipment. Huggins and the others answered a series of questions about the equipment and about the operation.

County Commissioner Rose Rocco voiced the same sentiment that had been whispered through the room before the meeting started.

"We're all very happy to see this project go forward,'' she said.

The only moment that hinted at the division that the legal issues created within the community was some laughter after a comment by Mixson that, once the dredging is done, a maintenance dredging should follow within 10 years, as the permits would be easier to obtain.

Likening the dredging to a road project that leads to short-term inconvenience and delays, Mixson urged residents to be understanding.

"It's going to take a little bit of patience on your part,'' he said. "Be patient with us and work with the contractor.''

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1434.

ST. PETE BEACH — K. Kringle's Christmas & Holiday Shoppe is expected to reopen for business a week after a truck crashed into it.

The shop, 400 75th Avenue, was shored up by Pinellas County fire rescue officials after a county utilities truck crossed several lanes and took out one of the main support walls on July 13. No one was hurt, though several customers were shopping at the "Chistmas in July" sale during the crash.

The truck hit a support wall, raising concerns about the integrity of the building.

The driver of the truck was not seriously injured, and Pinellas County Utilities officials, whom the driver works for, are investigating.

K. Kringle's co-owner Deb Hartigan said the store will have the county's clearance to reopen once they get everything cleaned up and fix the support wall by this weekend. She expects to re-open the store Monday, she said, and the Christmas in July sale will be extended to make up for lost time.

"We'll call it the 'Christmas in July Sale in August' or something cute like that," Hartigan said.

Emily Nipps can be reached at nipps@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8452.

ST. PETERSBURG — The group studying stadium options for the Tampa Bay Rays said Thursday that any new ballpark should have a retractable roof.

"We need to have a fully air-conditioned interior," said Alan Bomstein of the community task force called A Baseball Community.

The recommendation is preliminary, and could change. But the group's chairman, Jeff Lyash, said an air-conditioned stadium is consistent with Florida's muggy summer climate.

Bomstein also said a stadium should be built for 37,000 people and be incorporated into any light rail or mass transit project.

The ballpark "should be the first of the next generation of stadium design," Bomstein said, with wider concourses, ergonomically designed seats with storage for personal belongings and clear views of the field from almost anywhere.

A Baseball Community was formed in 2008 at the behest of St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker to study ways for the community to better support the Rays. While the focus of the committee's work largely has centered on a new ballpark, it also hopes to increase the team's fan base.

The group later on Thursday is expected to discuss where in the Tampa Bay area a ballpark might be located.

Lyash said he hopes to have final recommendations for local government leaders by late this eyar or early 2010.

Today is expected to be a little hotter and drier, according to the National Weather Service.

Expect highs to top out around 92 degrees (heat index as high as 101) and chances of precipitation are estimated at 30 percent. Rainfall amounts are predicted to be less than a quarter inch.

Some isolated thunderstorms could roll through, but should end by 11 p.m. Lows should be around 77 degrees.

For the unhappy eventuality of more extreme tropical weather — read: "hurricane" — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released a newly updated tip sheet of valuable emergency numbers, contacts and information.

TAMPA — A chemical spill and explosion caused second degree burns to an employee at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute on Wednesday night.

The employee was mixing three chemicals under a ventilation hood at about 6 p.m. when the mixture exploded and burned the employee's right hand. University of South Florida Police and Tampa Fire Rescue responded and took the employee to the University Community Hospital, USF police said.

The lab was cleaned up and the center is open for normal business.

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TAMPA — The Hillsborough County Commission took two votes about the names of awards Wednesday.

Commissioners voted to remove the name of Ralph Hughes from its Moral Courage Award, which honors those with integrity and ethics who stand up to the government for the community good.

And they created a separate We the People Award in honor of former Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky, who died last month.

Both decisions were unanimous.

Hughes was a Republican advocate of smaller government who financially backed political candidates who shared his views and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on conservative political causes and campaigns.

He was 77 when he died in June 2008 and the subject of controversy when Commissioner Jim Norman suggested his name for the county's most prestigious citizen award, which was established without a name in 1991.

One recipient even returned her award in protest over the decision.

In May, the Internal Revenue Service filed a claim saying Hughes and his business owed $69.3 million in unpaid taxes and interest when he died. His family disputes that claim.

But Tuesday, his family requested that his name be taken off the award.

"In our view," said Hughes' son Shea Hughes, in an e-mail Tuesday to Norman, "instead of the honor and respect intended, naming the award after him has resulted in people who neither knew my father well nor had any idea of what he did for his community disparaging his name and making statements that are untrue and hurtful."

Wednesday, Commissioner Rose Ferlita made a motion to take Hughes' name off the award, not because of the tax claims, but because she said the Moral Courage Award was never intended to be named after a specific person.

"Moral courage comes in many fashions, many degrees, many arenas," Ferlita said. She said that naming it after someone defines it narrowly and diminishes its value.

Norman, who still insists that Hughes embodied the spirit of the award, said he would honor the family's wishes when he voted to remove Hughes' name.

In contrast to the controversy over naming the award after Hughes last fall, the discussion of an award honoring Busansky was a nostalgic parade of anecdotes about the Democrat's passion, good humor, dedication and spunk.

Presented every June, it will recognize those committed to ethics and good government.

Commissioners also voted to rename the Westshore Senior Center after Busansky, who started in the county as the Aging Services Director.

Busansky's husband, Sheldon, extended the family's thanks to the board in a statement.

"Phyllis loved Hillsborough County and lived her life with passion and commitment . . .

"It is our hope that Phyllis' legacy for transparency and good government will live on."

Reach Alexandra Zayas at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.

TAMPA — The family of Britney Mills, the fifth-grader who drowned in a municipal pool on July 8, has announced that there will be a candlelight vigil in her honor at 6 p.m. today at Jackson Heights Park, E Lake Avenue and 34th Street.

Her funeral will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Northside Missionary Baptist Church, 5706 N 40th St.

TAMPA — After more than an hour of impassioned speeches from fishermen, bicyclists, nature lovers and advocates for the disabled, Pinellas County Commissioner Calvin Harris said the Friendship Trail Bridge oversight committee will recommend that the ailing structure be repaired and preserved.

Around 250 people tried to cram into a meeting room built for 150 at Jan K. Platt Library in South Tampa on Wednesday night to show support for the 54-year-old landmark. The pedestrian bridge has been closed since November 2008 because of structural and safety issues outlined by county contracted engineers.

The crowd listened to a presentation by KCA engineer David B. Thompson as he laid out four options for the bridge's future.

One option would be to find $15 million to repair the entire structure, giving the bridge about 10 more years of life, he said.

The other options were tearing down the bridge's center leaving catwalks, tearing it all down and adding fishing piers, tearing it down and building piers someplace else or just tearing it down.

Ben Ritter, speaking for the local Paralyzed Veterans of America, said demolishing the bridge would be paid out of county budgets, but there is a federal grant that could pay for repairs.

"The government is going to spend that pork money somewhere. We might as well bring on home the bacon and fry it up," quipped committee member Tom Bryan.

The committee, appointed by Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, took no formal vote. Harris said members had a "consensus'' that the counties should try to salvage the entire bridge, and will recommend that to their commissions. But two Hillsborough commissioners serving on the committee sounded skeptical.

Commissioner Al Higginbotham said it was troubling that $15 million would extend the bridge's life only a decade.

"I'd always heard about the old Gandy bridge, but it was just a slab on concrete to me," he said. "But then I heard all the impassioned stories. … I'm most concerned with, if we spend that money and we still have to tear it down in 10 years."

Commissioner Jim Norman also raised fiscal concerns. "When I voted against this project all those years ago, it was because I knew this would happen," he said.

When the idea of a pedestrian bridge was first proposed, he wanted to approach the state about declaring it a state park.

Frank Miller, executive director of the Friendship Trail Corp., said advocates preferred more local control at the time.

Norman urged that the counties try to get the state and the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg involved.

"We heard two things from all of you tonight. You want us to keep the bridge and apply for the grant, and Commissioner Norman has just added a third with the state part," Harris concluded.

ST. PETERSBURG — Pinellas deputies arrested a mother and her two daughters on charges that they attacked another woman in her home Wednesday afternoon while two young children sat in a nearby car.

Pinellas sheriff's officials said 48-year-old Shirley Ross and her daughters Tessa Ross, 28 and Krystal Ross, 23, all of 4455 1/2 Emerson Ave. S, burst into the victim's apartment shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday.

The three women then beat the victim, identified as 45-year-old Monica Simpson, with their fists and a broom handle. Shirley Ross and Tessa Ross also had knives, officials said.

After the attack, Simpson called 911 and gave authorities a description of the white Ford Tempo the women had fled in.

The trio was stopped a short time later at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue N. Inside the car, deputies found two boys, ages 9 and 6, who had been in the women's care.

Police believe the motive for the beating is a long-standing feud between Simpson and Shirley Ross. Police are still looking for an unidentified fourth suspect.

Simpson was treated on the scene for her injuries.

Shirley Ross faces charges of burglary-battery, armed burglary and aggravated assault with a knife. Tessa Ross faces charges of burglary-battery, armed burglary, and aggravated assault with a knife and broomstick. Krystal Ross was arrested on a charge of burglary-battery and accessory to armed burglary.

TAMPA — Gay rights advocates showed up with red shirts and matching flags in protest of an hourlong anti-gay-rights segment aired by WFLA-Ch. 8 the night of St. Petersburg's Gay Pride parade.

The crowd of about 70 demonstrators cheered at honking rush hour drivers on W Kennedy Boulevard. They chanted, "Shame, shame, Channel 8. Make your money and spread your hate."

They wanted an apology.

The American Family Association, a conservative Christian organization that opposes gay rights, paid WFLA to air a segment called, "Speechless: Silencing the Christians."

Activists arrived at two protests in red in response to a WFLA executive quoted in the Tampa Tribune saying the program did not "raise a red flag."

In a prepared statement e-mailed from WFLA, John Schueler, president of Florida Communications Group, the company that oversees Media General's area outlets, including the Tribune and WFLA-Ch. 8 said: "Our overriding mission is to provide platforms for the broadest points of view and be responsible to the community we serve. We understand that doing so can cause strong disagreement. We screened this program and ran a disclaimer before and after it ran noting that this does not reflect the views of WFLA."

R. Zeke Fread, an organizer with Pride Tampa Bay, said he watched 10 minutes of the June 27 program and couldn't stand any more, calling it an infomercial.

"It was like a 180 slap in your face," said GaYbor District Coalition president Carrie West.

Signs around West read: "News Channel H8, integrity at what price? $35,000."

Another sign put the NBC peacock over a swastika.

Ileana Morales can be reached at imorales@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3403.

CAPE CANAVERAL — On its sixth try, the space shuttle Endeavour managed liftoff at 6:03 p.m. on Wednesday.

The launch means the Endeavour didn't make the record books for the most number of scrubbed attempts. Those were in 1995 and 1986, when it took seven tries to get off the ground. In 1986, Bill Nelson, who now represents Florida in the Senate, and Charlie Bolden, Barack Obama's nominee to lead NASA, were on board.

This mission, originally scheduled for flight last month, was delayed three times because of bad weather and twice because of hydrogen fuel leaks.

Each delay costs about $1 million for fuel and employee overtime, said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel. But the cost can easily be absorbed by the $3.6 billion budgeted for five shuttle missions in the 2009 fiscal year.

"It just means you can't use that money somewhere down the line," he said.

Astronaut Mark Polansky registered his thoughts on the repeated delays via Twitter.

"Scrubs aren't fun," he wrote at 10 p.m. Sunday, a few hours after the crew climbed out of the shuttle. "I've been in this situation before. You just have to roll with it."

At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, he wrote: "Hope the next tweet is from orbit."

By 4 p.m., the seven astronauts were strapped into the shuttle and ready to head to the International Space Station while NASA weather experts monitored storms in the area.

But none came close enough to delay the launch.

During the 16-day mission that includes five space walks, astronauts will install a platform outside the space station that's part of Japan's Kibo laboratory. The so-called front porch will allow experiments that require direct exposure to space. The platform can hold 10 experiments at a time. A robotic arm will transfer experiments to and from the platform from inside the shuttle, reducing the need for space walks.

The seven-member team on the Endeavour will join six resident astronauts on the space station. It will be the largest number of people on board the craft at the same time.

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.

TEMPLE TERRACE — A 70-year-old woman who was involved in a minor three-car crash Wednesday afternoon died. Authorities think a prior medical condition may have been a factor.

City police said Henrietta G. Howell, of 1105 Eskimo Ave., was driving south on 56th Street just north of Fowler Avenue when her 1999 Cadillac Coupe de Ville rear-ended a car stopped at the traffic light.

That car rammed into the car in front of it, but damage to the vehicles was minor and no one else was injured.

Traffic is no longer blocked on 56th Street.