A lost cockatiel gets help finding its way home after a month.
Tampa Bay, 1B
In the
know
RAYS, PROSPECT
TOOK RISKS, NOW
AWAIT REWARD
Leslie Anderson took a big
chance when he left Cuba
to measure his skills as a
baseball player against the
world’s best. And the Rays
took a big chance in signing
him. Columnist John Roma-
no says that by the end of the
season, we’ll know if it pays
off for everyone. Sports,1C
More Rays: The starting
rotation is locked in a battle
of healthy one-upsmanship
that makes it among the best
in the league. Sports,1C
Florida still No. 1 ...
in mortgage fraud
The new rankings are out,
and Florida tops the list
— by a wide margin — for
the fourth consecutive year.
Columnist Robert Trigaux
looks at some of the reasons
why. Tampa Bay,1B
Senate works on
finance compromise
Debate on new regulations
on the financial industry is
blocked, but a bipartisan deal
still could be reached this
week. Nation, 2A
Bucs cut Hovan,
Sears, four others
The team drops former start-
ers Chris Hovan and Arron
Sears as the restructuring
of the roster continues after
the draft. Among the other
cuts was running back B.J.
Askew. Sports,1C
In the park, ‘Hair’
is still a hit
American Stage’s production
of the counterculture touch-
stone not only withstands the
test of time but is one of its
best park offerings ever, critic
John Fleming says. Etc, 2B
. TODAY’S WEATHER
Sunny
8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.
��° ��° ��°
0% rain chance.
More, back page of Sports
. tampabay.com
Gator at the door
A Clearwater woman
got an unexpected
guest at her door
Monday — a 6- to 8-foot alli-
gator. Watch an animal con-
trol officer wrangle the beast
at tampabay.com/video.
INDEX
Astrology 4F Etc
Business 4B Lottery
Classified F Movies
Comics 3F Puzzles
Crosswords 4F Television
Editorials 8A Weather
Vol. 126 No. 277
© Times Publishing Co.
Simple thank you would suffice
A judge scolds a mother of 12 who shows no gratitude for profuse aid.
BY JOHN BARRY
Times Staff Writer
TAMPA — A courtroom full
of people who paid off Angel
Yulee Adams’ debts and found a
rent-free, six-bedroom home for
her and a dozen of her children
waited Monday morning for a
sign of gratitude, a clue of coop-
eration. They waited for a thank
you.
They didn’t get it. Angel
Adams, 37, said she was glad to
have the home. But she wanted
Florida’s Best Newspaper tampabay.com Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | 50¢
No time
Gulf oil spill could limits
on sex
threaten Florida
crimes
So far workers haven’t been able to stanch 42,000 gallons Catholic opposition
a day of crude spewing into the gulf after an oil rig exploded. fails to derail bill on
sex crimes involving
children in Florida.
BY JOHN FRANK
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE —Michael
The spill’s reach Containment and cleanup Dolce took 20 years to tell his
Four planes and 32 vessels have been sent story. And by then it was too late.
AL
MS 0RELOH FL The neighbor who raped him
to mop up the spill and spray chemicals that
LA %LOR[L
FL will disperse the oil. The Marine Spill
at age 7 never saw a courtroom
3HQVDFROD because the time limits to file a
Oil spill Response Corp., an energy industry cleanup case expired.
1HZ “I was absolutely terrorized,”
consortium, also brought in equipment. So
2UOHDQV Gulf of Mexico the 41-year-old said. “And it took
far, crews have retrieved about 1,052 barrels
a long time to get to a place in
of oily water. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
Gulf of Mexico recovery where I could even say
CUBA asked the Coast Guard to deploy oil the name of the man who did
Oil rig containment booms in the Pass A Loutre this to me.”
explosion Dolce began telling Flor-
35 miles
MEX. Loop current wildlife area, a 115,000-acre preserve that is
ida lawmakers this story six
home to alligators, birds and fish near the
years ago, and it was recounted
Approximate oil locations The loop current drives the
circulation of water in the
mouth of the Mississippi River. one final time Monday as the
April 22 Saturday Monday House and Senate unanimously
Gulf of Mexico.
April 23 Sunday Today approved a measure to eliminate
Sources: U.S. Coast Guard; ESRI
time limits for filing criminal and
civil cases in sex crimes involving
Officials predict winds will push the oil spill closer to Florida by today. children.
Oceanographers fear that if the spill gets caught in the gulf's powerful The effort met stiff resistance
loop current, the oil could wind up on the beaches of the Keys and then for years from a controversial
be swept north along the state's Atlantic coast. player: the Catholic Church.
Even amid the widening sex
abuse scandal concerning church
Shutting off the oil clergy, the Florida Catholic Con-
Using submersible robots, officials hope to shut down the well at the ference worked behind the scenes
this year to defeat the bill.
blowout prevention valve located on the ocean floor. This could be
Mike McCarron, a lobbyist for
completed by today. . See SEX CRIMES, 10A
If that doesn’t work, a dry relief well would be drilled at an angle U.S. Coast Guard
into the cavity of the well and heavy mud and concrete used to seal
The well is leaking 42,000 More from Tallahassee
off the leak. This could take up to three months.
. TEXTING BAN IN A DITCH:
In the meantime, while the relief well is being drilled, officials intend gallons, or 1,000 barrels of oil Unlike 23 other states, Florida like-
to place a large dome directly over the leaks to catch the oil and ly won’t ban texting while driving
route it to the surface, where it could be collected. This has been per day. At this rate it would because of one powerful House
done before, but only in shallow waters. member who says current laws
take 262 days to reach the are enough.1B
. POWER PLAY: The Senate’s
11 million gallons spilled by budget writer wants the Tampa-
Hillsborough County Expressway
Leaking oil the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Authority to pay $69 million it
owes the state by July15 or be put
What’s left of the oil rig rests The drilling riser is kinked and leaking oil in out of business. 1B
1,500 feet from the well. two places near the ocean floor at 5,000 feet. . BUDGET HURDLE: Law-
The riser contained the drill and was attached makers reached a deal on a new
to the surface rig before it sank. budget shortly before midnight
Blowout prevention valve
��° Drawing is schematic, not to scale. Monday after bargaining over
everything from workers’ pay to
health care appropriations. 7B
. TIMES EDITORIAL: Bring
the texting ban up for a vote. 8A
DON MORRIS, STEVE MADDEN, CRAIG PITTMAN, RON BRACKETT | Times
Epilogue
But the owner of the rig has been water. If that fails, then they will drill
BY CRAIG PITTMAN
Carl Demoray
A
Times Staff Writer unable to shut off the oil flowing from new wells on either side of the leak to
Sobriety,
n oil spill from a rig that 5,000 feet below the surface, so the relieve the pressure there — a process
sank off the coast of Louisi- slick continues to grow. that could take months.
ana is threatening marshes The marshes of southern Louisi- “If it goes on for four months, then
and beaches across the Gulf ana and Mississippi appear to face yeah, we’ve got a problem,” Crozier
2B
Coast, and unless it’s con-
tained it could wind up tainting the
Florida Keys and perhaps the state’s
the most immediate risk from the
spill because they are closest to it, said
George Crozier, director of the Dau-
said. “But if they’re able to shut it down
after a day or two, then the risk is min-
imal.”
with side
of humor
2A Atlantic coast, oceanography experts phin Island Sea Laboratory in Mobile, “We can only hope that they can
10F said Monday. Ala. make that sucker stop very soon,” said
4F As of Monday, the slick was about 48 What happens after that depends on Wilton “Tony” Sturges, a retired Flor-
2F miles by 39 miles, lying some 30 miles how quickly the owners of the rig can ida State University oceanographer.
6C off the coast of Louisiana. So far high shut off the flow of oil. On Sunday they The winds that would push the spill BY RON MATUS
winds have kept the spill away from began using robot submarines to try to toward Tampa Bay’s beaches do not Times Staff Writer
land. It’s about 80 miles from the near- shut off a valve called a blowout pre- normally start until midsummer, he A few months after he joined
est Florida beaches in Pensacola. venter on a leaking pipe deep under- . See OIL SPILL, 10A Alcoholics Anonymous, Carl
Demoray was stone-cold sober,
driving down the street and
humming a tune. The next thing
he knew, his
car was headed
for a ditch.
This was a
good thing.
“I almost
drove off the
road I was so
happy,” he told
them all out of her life. was evicted from a two-bedroom people. “And Carl Demoray,
“I’ve been railroaded since day rental apartment. All her things I didn’t have 91, a World
one,” she said. were dumped on the curb. She a belly full of War II vet,
The state says day one was 21 and 12 children wound up in a sauce.” was sober for
months and 28 hearings ago, small motel room on E Busch When they 62 years.
when Adams first landed in the Boulevard. come in droves
courtroom of Hillsborough Cir- Her situation looked a lot bet- this week to celebrate his life, Mr.
cuit Judge Tracy Sheehan. Ever ter on Monday, thanks to the Demoray’s friends will toast him
since then, Sheehan said, the combined efforts of the Hillsbor- again and again, bottled water
state has tried to keep Adams ough County Sheriff’s Office, the raised high.
and her children together. state Department of Children SKIP O’ROURKE | Times Mr. Demoray died April 14 in
But Adams lost her home after and Families, Hillsborough Kids Angel Yulee Adams looks away from Judge Tracy Sheehan Largo at the age of 91. He was
failing to pay rent to the Tampa Inc., the Children’s Home Society Monday as officials tell of the home, furnishings and relief a World War II bombardier, a
Housing Authority, then recently . See GRATITUDE, 6A given to her in Tampa. She complains about the agencies. . See EPILOGUE, 10A