Last yr, two p.e. teachers at Ernest Ward Middle School in Escambia County
pleaded no contest to schemes charging students a buck a day to get credit
for class without dressing out. It was reported that one of 'em, Terence
Braxton, had made $230. Braxton got probation and
teaching-license-revocation, and yesterday the other one got the same. One
has sympathy for the woman yesterday, in that she, year after year, had to
address class after class of middle schoolers when her name is Ms. Tootle
(Tamara Tootle). [Pensacola News Journal]

More Wounds from Celebratory New Year's Eve Gunfire The body count is coming in across the state now. In addition what what was
mentioned in The F State yesterday, it turns out that a falling
bullet in Lakeland crashed through a roof and missed by inches three
sleeping kids. [WKMG-TV (Orlando)]. And it turns out that a 69-yr-old man in
Margate, who friends and family thought had suffered a fatal heart attack at
a New Year's even party when he dropped dead, actually died of a falling
bullet that got him in the heart. [Miami Herald]

Suspicions Confirmed: Florida Kids' Chances for Success Are Medicore An Education Week statistical juggle found that gov't services and
demographic breakdown for pre-school through secondary education give
Florida urchins a slightly worse than average shot at success (number 31,
ahead of Georgia urchins at 38, and New Mexico's at 50). Florida scores high
in "standards and accountability" (thanks to Jeb) and would have scored
higher than 31st but for the large immigrant population. (Not that there's
anything wrong with immigrants, but fresh arrivals tend to exhaust social
services.) [Florida Times-Union]

Duval County Flooded with Sex Offenders Fla. Dept. of Law Enforcement statistics show one registered pervert for
every 510 residents of Duval County (versus 1:785 in Hillsborough, 1:1,150
in Miami-Dade, and 1:1,729 in Orange). [Those were the only four counties
reported in the article, and a little rummaging around the FDLE website
convinced me that they don't much care whether I find a complete list.]
[First Coast News]

Your Daily Loser The Mug Shot Says It All: Mark Pavlasek, er, "Buzzy," was
charged late last month with the murder of a flea market operator in
Tavares, and authorities now say he was also building a crude "bomb" to try
to blow up his girlfriend. [WKMG-TV (Orlando)]

More Things To Worry About Today A Tampa judge reduced bail on a child-porn/child-molest defendant from
$904,000, to, er, $5,000 (but he said the sheriff made him!) [WTSP-TV (St.
Petersburg)] . . . . . 29 people got sick shopping at Wal-Mart in
Summerfield (Marion County), but they so far haven't figured out why [WFTV
(Orlando)] . . . . . Yet another lawsuit was filed against wayward,
boy-oriented ex-priest Neil Doherty of the Archdiocese of Miami (6th
lawsuit, 28th "John Doe"), and criminal charges are already pending [Miami
Herald] . . . . . Disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff quickly
confessed to his multitude of sins last year, but one of the people he set
up, U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney of Oviedo, remained in denial for months, until
yesterday, when he finally agreed that yes, Jack and I were bad [Associated
Press via Sarasota Herald-Tribune] . . . . . Recipe for Disaster: Take one
part "Pasco County" plus one part "6-year-old boy" plus one part "front-end
loader" [St. Petersburg Times] . . . . . Sex offender James Couch got 25 yrs
in prison in Inverness yesterday and, seriously, he couldn't have been more
grateful to Judge Howard [St. Petersburg Times].

This article appears in Jan 3-9, 2007.