For starters, you have to understand that cops never, ever under any circumstance like to admit publicly when they have royally screwed up.
And that explains why, even as 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman was being laid to rest - a murder victim in a drug sting gone horribly awry, the Tallahassee Police Department was still reacting to the case as if it had nothing to do with this young woman’s demise.
Hoffman, a graduate of Florida State University was abducted during a Tallahasseee Police Department drug investigation. Her body was found several days later and two suspects - the focus of the original drug investigation - have been arrested.
By any reasonable standard in the hierarchy of drug trafficking Rachel Hoffman would never be confused with Pablo Escobar.
To be sure, Hoffman was no angel, having been busted on drug charges involving the possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and ecstasy. And, in looking to catch a break on a possible jail term, without the knowledge of her attorney, Hoffman agreed to become an informant in making a case against two alleged drug dealers under suspicion, Deneilo Bradshaw, 23 and Andrea Green 25.
As part of the drug sting, Hoffman allegedly arranged to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, some cocaine and a gun from Bradshaw and Green.
But something went horribly wrong. At the public park where the drug deal was supposed to go down, Hoffman called investigators to say the location had been changed. And despite warnings from detectives not to leave the park, Hoffman hung up. Her body was found two days later.
Rightfully so, the Tallahasseee Police Department has been criticized for its handling of the case.
Why was Hoffman not kept in visual contact with detectives during the operation?
Why was a young woman, who was hardly a career criminal, thrust into such a potentially dangerous criminal investigation?
Why did she hang up? Or did someone do it for her? We’ll probably never know.
And why was her legal counsel not consulted and informed about his client’s dealings with a police agency, which would have influenced the status of the criminal charges she was facing?
Meanwhile, a Tally department spokesman attempted to shift the blame to Hoffman for her own murder, citing the terminated phone call and the fact she violated “protocol” by leaving the park.
But how do police officials know she left the park voluntarily?
This was a young woman, a civilian untrained in police investigative procedures thrust into the middle of a drug sting because she was driven by anxiety over her own legal problem.
The Palm Harbor area woman was laid to rest earlier this week.
And perhaps the police will cynically argue that aside from the homicide thing, Rachel Hoffman turned out to be one swell informant.
After all, Bradshaw and Green are in jail aren’t they?
There are probably many reasons why the Italian airline Alitalia seems to be almost always teetering on the verge of bankruptcy - here is one of them.
To be sure, our family vacation in Greece was a dream trip.
We visited many of the country’s historical icons sucn as the Parthenon. We ate well. Drank well and even the Bombshell of the Balkans was able to reconnect with long-lost family members.
And to be more than fair, our flights aboard Alitalia from New York to Rome to Athens and returning back to the United States from Athens to Milan to New York, were very comfortable with commendable on-board service.
No problem - until we landed at JFK in New York.
It was then we discovered Zeus the Younger’s luggage, alas, had been lost.
And indeed is was the loss of his personal belongings, which prompted this letter from a Jessica Morales, Customer Relations Representative for the airline, dated May 5, 2008.
In the letter Ms, Morales stated that in order to process Plato the Younger’s lost baggage claim, the airline would require:
1) The original “property irregularity report” from JFK.
2) The original clear copy of his Alitalia ticket.
3) A copy his bag tag.
And 4) “Receipts where applicable.”
He was also told: “It is important that we receive this information within the next 30 days or your claim may no longer be honored. Upon receipt of the above requested information and documentation, we will investigate your claim. You will then be notified in writing as to how we will conclude the matter.”
Oh, did I mentioned the letter from Alitalia was dated May 5, 2008? And oh did I mention we took this ill-fated trip aboard Alitalia in - May, 2007?
It has taken Alitalia literally one full year to finally get around to dealing with a lost baggage claim - literally 365 days. And they were snitty about it, too!
It may come as something of a surprise to Alitalia, but hardly to the rest of us, that after a year since the flight home, the odds of a 21-year-old college student still being in possession of the paperwork demanded by the airline is about the same as Barry Bonds keeping a paper trail of every time he met with his, ... uh, “trainer.”
And now after 12 months of being treated with more indifference by Alitalia than George W. Bush eyeing the U.S. Constitution, the carrier is demanding we better come up with all the relevant documentation in the next 30 days - or else, they will continue to ignore us with even more fervent disreagrd than they have the preceding 12 months.
Tell you what Ms. Morales, it’s merely a sneaking suspicion but it’s become fairly apparent the recovery of our son’s luggage does not appear to be a big priority.
In the spirit of cross-Atlantic relations, we give up.
If you should happen upon the lad’s baggage, if you want, go ahead and keep it.
But we would advise you, whatever you do Ms. Morales do not open the bag. It’s contains mostly the dirty laundry of a college student accumulated after a 10-day Greek vacation - a year ago! No good will come of this.
And you think the canal of Venice are, uh, gamy!
It was just another assignment when I went down to the old Trailer Park gym on Rome Ave. to do a story on the Florida Wheels. This was back in the dark ages of the ‘70s and even being sportswriter I couldn’t work up a whole lot of enthusiasm for wheelchair basketball.
It was Chuck Porter, a member of the Wheels squad, who had lured me onto the court, loaning me his chair so I could experience a little bit of the game.
It took about five minutes to realize that this was a different game requiring different skills. While the two teams raced up and down the court I made one trip and was out of gas. Not only that my hands were getting raw from trying to twist the chair around. And I was getting banged around by other players in chairs. In short I was getting mugged on the court.
But the experience also allowed me to feel a little of the bonding of the players, men who had decided to take on their special challenges to the fullest. I did my story and then found myself coming back to the gym and even borrowing a chair now and then to worked with the team, even if I was no match for their skill level.
After a couple of hours in the unairconditioned gym they would roll over to Leos bar for a couple of beers. It became a weekly ritual. The Wheels played in a national league and traveled around the South playing in their division.
The Wheels disbanded years ago but Porter, who has worked as chairman of the Mayor’s Alliance on Disabilities, called to tell me they will have a reunion next Wednesday, May 14th at 1 p.m. at the Embassy Suites out on Fowler Ave. by the USF campus. He’s looking for former players, coaches, refs, anybody who was a part of that special time. If you want some more information, you can call Chuck Porter at (813) 886-4163.
Sorry I’ve been a little slow with the blog this week. I want to blame it on the crash. My youngest was driving back from FSU at the end of the semester last weekend when he was slammed into by an 18-wheeler. He climbed out of the little Mazda with only a couple of bruises and a sore neck. The car looked like what happens when you’re through with a sheet of aluminum foil and crush it up into a ball. I haven’t been able to shake the image all week.
Your emails have been very kind although the dozens of you who have shared similar experiences is almost scary.
Here is a sampling of some of your notes:
My old friend and former Tampa Times’ colleague Mike Sherard wrote, “...Know the phone call all too well. Judy and I still dread the phone even ringing at night…Our son rolled his car getting on the interstate in October and I swear we went through everything you did. I was so grateful he was alive, I was giving money to the trash guys, paid a guy’s bill at the grocery store and on and on. So hang in there; there’s a bunch of us that know how you feel…damn kids.’‘
From John Swann: “First let me say I am very glad your son is OK. I am a father with a daughter in college in Arkansas and have spent many a night worry about that same call. Your article could not have come at a better time for me. I was having a really bad day and very worried about things going on right now (lack of money) and your article shook me to the core. How dare I be concerned about things like that when I have so many things to be grateful for in my life. P.S. I think I’d be looking at a bigger used care this time.’‘
Mark Tenney knew our feelings well: “Steve,...Your experience and the feelings evoked hit really close to home for Kathy and me. About three and a half years ago we had an eerily similar experience. Our oldest son John was driving home from school for Christmas break. He was involved in a serious car accident on I-75 at Payne’s Prairie (just north of the Citra exit) and his car was totaled very similar to your son’s car.
“Once we arrived in Gainesville and saw the extent of the damage to his car we wondered how he escaped unharmed. As we rummaged through all of his so-called valuables, we quickly realized how unimportant ‘stuff’ is and just how precious your children are. As we prepare to drive to Gainesville this weekend to watch John graduate from UF, your column reminded us that this blessing came very close to never being realized. Thanks again for the reminder of what is truly important in life and how quickly it can be lost.’’
Jay Botsch, who is General manager of WestShore Plaza, wrote, “Hi Steve, “This past Monday afternoon my cell phone rang with a very upset 18-year-old high school senior girl on the other end…sitting in her car moments after being struck by a vehicle that failed to stop at a traffic signal on East Lake Road. As you’ve guessed, the 18-year-old is my daughter Jennifer. I soon learned that parental helplessness is not a familiar, comfortable or welcome state for me.
“The good news is that my daughter seems to be okay. And we’re happy the other drive is okay as well…though that’s a tougher lesson to learn for an 18 year old that just lost her car/freedom. We’re also grateful to the numerous passersby that assisted my daughter from the car leading her to safety. I actually spoke with one person, a parent as well, assuring me that Jennifer was okay (never learned her name which I’m sorry about). Our thanks and praise are also extended to the Sheriff’s Dept., East Lake Fire and Rescue and Mease Countryside Emergency personnel. Simply terrific professional service at a time when you really need it.
“So I find that my wife and I are in the same reflective state about life and priorities…just as you are. I understand fully. So now that we’re bonded, let me in on any good used car leads you hear about through this story. Ha! Enjoy your son this summer.’’
Forget the wheel. Forget sliced bread. Forget scotch.
This may well go down as the greatest invention in the history of the world.
All hail - Kids Be Gone, a new device being installed at various locales around the nation designed to make teenagers, and other annoying children - go away.
I’ll take two.
According to its creators. Kids Be Gone is a wall-mounted box that emits loud, horrible, irritating sound at such a high-frequency decibel level only people roughly between the ages of 12 and early 20s can hear.
About a 1,000 units of Kids Be Gone have been sold in the United States and Canada, where they have been placed in areas where the youthful louts tend to congregate and loiter, generally just about anywhere I happen to be.
On second thought, I’ll take three.
Now if only the company that makes this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful item, could also produce a portable, hand-held version. Imagine the endless possibilities!
You are at a baseball game and there in front of you are two perfectly loathsome children engaged in beating each other up. ZAP! And off they go whining and holding their ears. And life is good.
You are in a movie theater trying to enjoy the film when a bunch of teenagers start babbling in total indifference to the rest of the patrons. Yep, this sure sounds like a call for Kids Be Gone! Ba-Bye.
Bratty children in the grocery stores, doltish kiddos with skateboards, even the misbehaving child in church - our prayers have been answered.
Really now can you think of a more important technological advance worthy of a Nobel Prize for something, than Kids Be Gone?
Come to think of it, I’ll take four.
It was Friday night and I was taking the Frau to one of those overpriced French (which is redundant) restaurants downtown. I mean tthe entire downtown was jumping. After dinner we cruised along the waterfront and there were crowds of people strolling and lining up to go into one of the dozens of restaurants and outdoor cafes. The blue lights hanging in the tress made the entire strip look as if it were decked out for the holidays.
We were, of course, in St. Petersburg where up and down Beach Drive there was that vibrancy you only get in a big town.
We drove by the elegant Museum of Fine Art, which just opened its new 33,000 square foot wing and past the site of the proposed “Placa Dali’’ that will house their great Salvador Dali collection.
The new Dali museum, by the way, is being designed by HOK Florida in Tampa, the same design group that recently completed the $43 million expansion of the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota.
Meanwhile back in Tampa, where there is no traffic problem in downtown Tampa at night, they have at least broken ground on the city’s museum, the boxy design of San Francisco architect Stanley Saitowitz.
It’s been said silence is golden - and deafening, too!
You could say, state Sen. Ronda Storms, R- You’re Alllllll Going To Hell!!!, has been hoisted on her own tongue.
Storms was being confronted last week on the Senate floor over her disingenuously titled “Academic Freedom Act,” which is little more than a ham-handed effort on her part to eventually wheedle the teaching of so-called “Intelligent Design” into the state’s biology classrooms, which just this year were allowed to enter the 21st Century to start teaching the settled science of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
The Tug-Boat Annie of the Bible has denied in the past that her bill was indeed a stalking horse for the wizard-in-the-sky “Intelligent Design” advocates and it certainly would have been easy enough to merely restate her dubious position for the sake of her fellow senators.
Yet when she was asked repeatedly no fewer than four times by her colleagues whether, quite simply, the intent of her “Academic Freedom Act” (hardy-har-har) would allow science teachers supposedly teaching science to instead also teach “Intelligent Design” each time Maybelline’s worst nightmare ducked providing a direct answer.
Or perhaps, Valrico’s answer to the Tower of Babel preferred to that old adage, often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than speak out and remove all doubt.”
In any event, you could say, by her vow of silence Storm’s fellow senators received their answer loud and clear and - scary.
You know, we had those rascals for about four innings. I’m talking about us - The Media All Stars - and how we had that team from the Lighthouse for the Blind on the ropes in 20th annual Beepball Classic at the New York Yankees Community Field this afternoon.
I think they were a tad overconfident. Maybe it was winning the first 19 years in a row. Beepball is a variation of baseball - a pretty strange variation at that . The idea is to hit a beeping ball while you are blindfolded and then to try and find the beeping base before the outfield finds the beeping ball. There’s more but you get the picture.
I knew it was going to be a close game when their big hitter Lee Kimbrell slashed a hit up the middle That
s traditionally been the beginning of the end, but this time our own Alicia Roberts, WFLA’s morning traffic person deluxe, sacrificed her body, diving to the ground to scoop it up.
After New York Yankee’s Phil McNiff scored our first run, Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda whacked one down the first base line and for the first time in a dozen or so years we were leading.
I think we might have pushed our luck later on when our Pinetop Peterson set his mystical Mojo Hand, which comes in a giant jar, behind home plate.
The mojo worked against us and the Lighthouse team, led by Kimbrell, scored five runs, finally winning for the 20th consecutive time 7-3.
Hey it was a beautiful day, the hot dogs were great, the Coleman Middle School Orchstra was super and there is always next year.
It wasn’t exactly breaking news, but the source was a little surprising when Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda announced that the council is “dysfunctional.’’ For several reasons Charlie is my favorite councilman and one of them is his ability to cut to the chase. On Thusday they managed to drag out a discussion on limiiting their own campaign contributions for what seemed hours.
It finally got to that point where Charlie lost it and declared the whole crowd dysfunctional and announced he was goign to run for county commssion. Should all that happen and he gets a seat on the county board, you have to wonder how long it’s going to take for him to realize he has fallen into the Black Hole of dysfunction.
- Actually my personal concern is that Charlie and Councilwoman Mary Mulhern are in my starting lineup in tomorrow’s Beepball game against the Lighthouse for the Blind (10 a.m. at the New York Yankees Community Field right next to Legends Fieldy. The last thing I need is a dysfuntional infield as we try to snap or 19-year string of losses to the Lighthouse.
Not a very catchy headline is it? thought I might try some daily ramblings and see how it goes. They probably won’t be anything too heavy, just ramblings.
We watched the latest Presidential debate last night, this one from Philadelphia. I’ve been wondering when the candidates might get down to something substantial. It didn’t happen last night, although I can’t blame the two Democrats who were at the mercy of the ABC network’s moderators. They were more interested in the cult of personality that has become the trademark of our media and they worked it mercilessly.
- Today has been such a day of contrasts as the media focuses on that bizarre Texas cult and the coming of the Pope to the United States. It is on days like this we are reminded of our diverse and different we really are.
Come this January, upon assuming office the next president of the United States will have to confront (in no particular order):
1) The war in Iraq.
2) An economy in free fall.
3) Rising gas prices.
4) Terrorism.
5) Global warming.
6) A crumbling infrastructure.
7) Restoring American credibility around the world.
8) A disgraceful public education system.
9) Rebuilding a stressed military.
10) A variety of complex multinational trade issues.
And then on the second day in office, things will really get busy.
So on Wednesday evening what consumed nearly the first 50 minutes of the ABC News Democratic presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama?
Who said what when? Whose preacher is an moron? What did so and so mean when he or she blah-blahed this, or yada-yadaed that?
Nearly half of a two-hour debate was preoccupied with the dodging sniper gaffe, the crazy minister rants and serving on the board of some organization with an old, radical hippie.
It was embittering, is what it was.
At the same time, George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson, who proved to be about as effectively inquisitive as Barney Fife, treated the debate as if this was an election for Moose Lodge president.
Roughly 12 minutes was spent on Iraq, about 15 minutes on the economy. Another 12 minutes was dedicated to gun and gun control, about the same amount of time allotted to affirmative action.
Or put another way, this debate was more fixated on Obama’s comments on the non-issue of the bitterness or lack thereof of Pennsylvania voters than the candidate’s views on the matters of state, they as president would have to deal with after the swearing in.
There is a reason so many people distrust the news media.
Wednesday night, thanks to ABC’s treatment of a presidential debate as if it was the Q&A portion of the Miss American contest, the public has one more - legitimate - beef.
Just as it is probably true that no good deed goes unpunished, so too is it fair to say that on the campaign trail no attempt at candor goes undemagogued by one’s opponents.
In recent days, Democratic presidential candidate, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has had his head handed to him for committing two of the most cardinal sins one can commit on the stump.
First he spoke, with unabashed premeditation, the truth. Next, he had the audacity of hope to treat voters as if they were mature and intelligent enough to understand what he was saying. Uh-oh.
And for that, he has been accused of “elitism” by both his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, both of whom have been part of the Washington “elite” for more than three decades. Go figure.
Even worse for Obama, he made his remarks in San Francisco, which the drive-by bloviators regard as more communistic than Ho Chi Minh City.
But what really was Obama’s so-called gaffe?
We hear politicians claim constantly about how they offer straight talk, an honest view, unabashed candor. And when they do, the pol gets slapped around like Curly Howard.
In speaking to a group of supporters at a fund-raiser, Obama observed he had sensed a growing feeling of anxiety among the electorate, noting: “And it’s not surprising then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
And they problem with the truth is ...?
This is probably why I would make for a lousy political consultant, because if I were advising Obama, my only advice would be that the senator didn’t go far enough.
Does anybody seriously doubt there isn’t a wave of anger, discontent and yes bitterness out there among the voting public?
We are bogged down in a debacle in Iraq, which was based on a tissue of lies and has cost more than 4,000 American lives, more than 30,000 casualties and has displaced almost five million Iraqis.
The war and occupation has been administered by a level of incompetence rivaling Laurel and Hardy trying to push a piano up a flight of stairs. More than $18 billion in taxpayer monies have been lost to corrupt Iraqis officials and indeed in some instances has been used to fund the insurgency.
Economists estimate the ultimate financial price for George Bush’s phony war in Iraq with cost three trillion dollars - and that money will be borrowed.
Bitter? You better believe it.
In 2002, oil cost around $25-a-barrel. It is now $110-a-barrel, helping to fuel a recession.
Americans are losing their jobs and their homes to foreclosure.
It costs more to fill your tank, buy a loaf of bread or send your kid to school.
Bitter? Duh!
It is also true that in difficult times, people in small towns and large cities tend to turn more inwardly to their faiths.
Church attendance spiked in the weeks and months after the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11.
And it also true that in times of economic uncertainly, when people worry about their jobs, their futures, those fears are often self-defensively directed toward all manner of groups or issues.
Flip around the radio dial at almost any given moment and the anti-immigrant blabbering is cacophonous. Barack Obama simply dared to call attention to it.
It is certainly probable Obama’s remarks may well damage his poll numbers and perhaps even widen the gap of his likely defeat in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary.
No doubt, for the Obama camp that will be a disappointing, but hardly a bitter moment.
For how can you be bitter when you’re right?
A very simple question.
When the first work place murders occur as a result of the passage of the Florida’s newly legislated “Take Your Guns To Work” law, who should the grieving surviving family members send the burial expenses? Gov. Charlie Crist, who is expected to sign this nonsense into law? The Florida Legislature, which now made it easier for nut jobs in the office to start killing people?
Or perhaps the National Rifle Association and its Steve and Eydie of the Lock & Load crowd, former Florida House member, mortician Dennis Baxley and lobbyist Marion Hammer, who argued people with concealed weapons permits could take their weapons to the workplace, thus trumping the private property rights of employers to set the ground-rules of what is acceptable conduct on company grounds.
If you needed any argument about the rank hypocritical stupidity of this law, consider that the new statute would exempt certain workplaces like nuclear power plants, hospitals, jails and schools to continue to ban employees from bringing their weapons to work.
Why is that?
If the notion that citizens should be free to take their little guns onto the grounds of their employer as some sort of perverse adherence to the Second Amendment, why then shouldn’t that same “right” also extend to schools, nuclear power plants, jails and hospitals?
Well there’s a very simple reason why.
Workplace violence is a serious, national problem. The exemptions underscore rather vividly that the authors of the “Sucking Up To The NRA” bill understood quite clearly that there are indeed crazy, twisted, unhinged people in the workplace, who if they had easy access to a weapon would become even scarier whack-jobs who talk to themselves in the next cubicle.
So if it’s worth protecting employees who work in schools, power plants, hospitals and jails, why are other workers suddenly so expendable simply to lather up a powerful special interest group?
Even more surreal. The new law could well be found unconstitutional, as it was in Oklahoma.
Or put another way, this damaged, ridiculous legislation might already be legally DOA.
Well, better dead in the courts before the body bags start to pile up.
So Farmer Buddy has been late or has not completely paid his property taxes for four years in a row. And this is the same Farmer Buddy who was looking for some exemptions on his property because he let someone else graze twelve cows there.
Farmer Buddy is hardly unique in Hillsborough County in being late or in working the rules to try to save a few bucks.
But Buddy Johnson is also the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. Maybe we shouldn’t try to hold elected officials to higher standards or even as models of anything because we are so frequently disappointed . Buddy has a right to work the system as much as anyone else.
At the same time this is the same guy repsonsible for huge amounts of your tax dollars and for operating an elections department that needs to not only be efficient but squeaky clean. Historically this office has failed at both and something like this doesn’t do much to raise anybody’s confidence level in what’s going on down there.
Did you catch the Olympic torch todayas it made its one and only appearance in the United States in San Francisco?
With protest crowds lining the streets of the city, the torch bearer made her way off the platofrm, into a warehouse, into a motorcade and was last seen leaving the country faster than last year’s Christmas toys.
Most telling was the Chinese news agency, which reported back home that everything went just swell over in America.
It is going to be an interesting summer as China attempts to let the world in without the politics and winds of free speech that come with it..
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