8A S a t u r d a y >> N o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 8

N E W S C H I E F >> W W W. N E W S C H I E F. C OM

STATE
President
of FIU
stepping
down
DAMIAN GRASS
The Associated Press
MIAMI — Florida Inter-
national University’s fourth
president has announced
his retirement to the Board
of Trustees and said Friday
he will serve long enough to
give the board a chance to The Associated Press
conduct a national seach for Space shuttle Endeavour launches Friday at Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Endeavor is carrying supplies for remodeling the international space station.
his successor.

Shuttle lights up sky on way to orbit

“It is with mixed emotions
that I announce my decision
to step down as president,” 68-
year-old Modesto A. Maidique
said. “But I’m not in a hurry.
I’m not going anywhere.”
Maidique, who has headed
the school since 1986, is the
second longest-serving re-
search university president
in the nation.
During his 22 years at the
helm, the Cuban-born presi-
dent transformed FIU into
South Florida’s only research
university, netting $100 mil-
lion in grants, and secur-
ing an endowment of $100
million.
Endeavor is carrying home-remodeling equipment to the international space station
By MARCIA DUNN
The Associated Press
C A P E C A N AV E R A L
— Space shuttle Endeavour
and a crew of seven blasted
into the night sky Friday,
bound for the international
space station and the most
extreme home makeover
project ever attempted by
astronauts.
The shuttle rose off its
launch pad at 7:55 p.m. EST,
new level after 10 years of
international space station
construction,” commander
Christopher Ferguson radi-
oed before liftoff.
Ferguson and his crew
will double as kitchen and
bathroom installers once
they arrive at the space sta-
tion Sunday, hooking up
extra cooking and sleeping
equipment so the station’s
crew can expand next year.
a special treat for onlookers.
Only about a quarter of all
shuttle flights begin in dark-
ness, and this one made for
a spectacular show. The
moonrise that preceded the
launch was an extra touch;
the nearly full moon provid-
ed a breathtaking backdrop.
The shuttle was visible for
more than three minutes,
resembling a bright star
until it finally vanished.
Station Additions would be damaged.
“The vehicle’s in good
shape, the weather’s beau-
n Two bedrooms tiful,” launch director Mike
n Bathroom Leinbach told the astronauts
n Kitchenette just before liftoff. “Good
n Exercise machine luck, Godspeed, and have
n NASA’s revolutionary new a Happy Thanksgiving on
recycling system designed to orbit.”
turn urine and condensation Endeavour and its crew
into drinking water. will spend the next 15 days
in orbit. The shuttle holds
enough irradiated Thanks-

Budget cuts right on time, in a brilliant

flash of light visible for miles
around.
They will deliver a new re-
frigerator as well, giving
residents much-desired cold
NASA almost called off
the launch at the last min-
ute because workers didn’t
everyone that the flapping
door would not break off and
strike Endeavour and that,
giving turkey dinners for
everyone, with plenty of
space-style candied yams,

exhausting “It ’s ou r tu r n to take

home improvement to a
drinks for a change.
The nighttime launch was
fasten a door on the pad.
Launch controllers assured
at worst, the room used to
gain access to the shuttle
corn bread stuf f ing and
cranberry-apple dessert.

school funds
By BILL KACZOR
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE — The
state’s public schools have
laid off lunchroom work-
ers and bus drivers, slashed
administration, put main-
tenance on hold and soon
will exhaust their reserve
funds.
Any more budget cuts,
though, would reach into
the classroom, said Wayne
Blanton, executive director
of the Florida School Boards
Association.
School districts will be at
the bottom of their reserves
after the latest round of cuts
announced last week, Blan-
ton said Friday.
School districts began the
year with almost 2 percent
fewer dollars per student.
863-299-5808
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Retirement Planning Employee Benefits Planning Health and Life Insurance
56 4th Street N.W. Suite 201 Winter Haven
Securities Provided Through SECURITIES SERVICE NETWORK, Inc., Member NASD, SIPC, MSRB
Woman attempting to swim across Atlantic Ocean
By ANTONIO GONZALEZ
The Associated Press
OFF THE COAST OF MI-
AMI — The Catamaran isn’t
even out of Biscayne Bay
yet, and already 56-year-old
mother-turned-adventurer
Jennifer Figge is giddy with
excitement. She’s squeezing
into her wetsuit for a final
test before her latest endeav-
or — one that even her own
crew calls crazy.
The plan goes something
like this.
She will swim 2,100 miles,
from the Cape Verde Islands
off Africa to Barbados.
She’ll do it in a shark cage
attached to a sailboat, swim-
ming for six to eight hours a
day without rest. The journey
will take about two months,
and would make her the first
woman on record to swim
across the Atlantic Ocean.
“I’m saving lots of money,”
she jokes. “I only have to buy
a one-way ticket.”
The way Figge sees it, she’s
been planning the expedition
since she was 11 years old.
During a flight to Italy with
her mother, Margaret Roberts,
a storm was brewing below
the plane. While most chil-
dren would have been scared,
Figge had other thoughts.
“I told my mother, ‘I hope
that lightning hits the plane
and we get to go down in the
middle of the Atlantic and get
into those cool life vests and
swim the rest of the way,’” she
said.
She and her family have
always lived a bit large. Her
mother was a longtime profes-
sional opera singer. Her hus-
band was a successful banker
who is now retired. And Fig-
ge’s son, Alex, is a race-car
driver in the Lemans Series.
It was through him that
she found endurance sports.
Swimmer Jennifer Figge poses Oct. 31 inside a shark cage that she will
use for her 2,100 miles trans Atlantic swim. She will swim six to eight
hours a day without a rest in the cage attached to her boat.
He asked her to stop smoking
for his 7th birthday, and when
she did, she had to replace her
cigarette addiction with an-
other habit.
The answer? The Daven-
port, Iowa, native completed
the Register’s Annual Great
Bike Ride Across Iowa in 1990
with her husband.
She was hooked.
The Associated Press
In all, Figge has now con-
quered more than 3,000 miles
running and crossed almost
25 channels swimming (they
have ranged from eight miles
in length to a few hundred
miles), battling the elements
all over the planet.
She fought through eight-
foot-swells and was stung
by a man-of-war on her left
leg during a 52-mile, three-
day swim from Cay Sal Bank
north of Cuba to Marathon
Key last year. She dodged
rock-throwing Gypsies and
outran hungry dogs during a
350-mile run across Romania.
She swam through waters con-
taminated with sheep manure
when she crossed the Straits
of Tiran off Egypt, and wind
gusts near 80 mph lifted her
off her feet in the Black Sand
Desert during a 300-mile run
across Iceland.
Each time, she was left
wanting more.
“I haven’t really had many
challenges in life, so I have to
challenge myself,” Figge said.
“Pushing myself to the limit is
the only way I know how.”
Figge would not be the first
to swim across the Atlantic,
but she would apparently be
the first woman.
Frenchman Benoit Lecomte
is believed to have been the
first to record a trans-Atlan-
tic swim. He swam 3,716 miles
from Cape Cod, Mass., to the
Brittany region of France in
1998. The journey took him 73
days, stopping along the way
at the Azores Islands.

floridabriefs
Fla. GOP legislative
candidate concedes
>> TALLAHASSEE — The Repub-
lican challenger in Florida’s
only previously undecided
legislative race has conceded.
Incumbent Democratic Rep.
Debbie Boyd of Newberry led
by 176 votes over Republican
Elizabeth Porter, a Columbia
Microdermabrasion County commissioner, after a
machine recount.
The child allegedly showed
a 9 mm handgun to a class- Bone found inside
mate, who then reported it to a
teacher. shark not human
>> POMPANO BEACH — A fishing
boat charter captain discov-
Police continue ered a bone inside a 9-foot long
shark.
to probe shooting Broward County Sheriff’s
>> FORT LAUDERDALE — Officials deputies said the captain
are probing whether a teacher thought the bone was human
or staff member at a Fort and called police Friday morn-
Lauderdale high school knew a ing. The six-inch bone turned
young woman had a gun before out not to be human, however.

say bye-bye
Facial Rejuvenation Due to the slim margin she fatally shot her classmate. Captain Mark Quartiano
of less than a quarter of a Broward Schools Superin- — who is known locally as
Laser Hair Removal percent, the state Elections tendent James Notter con- “Mark the Shark” — was gut-
ting the fish Friday morning.
Spider Veins & /+
0*2*/#"
('*#. Canvassing Commission then
ordered a manual recount.
firmed the investigation into
whether Teah Wimberly’s
Broken Capillaries

Botox: Crows Feet,

"'+.
0
-#1+'-
--'1#"#-!'
Porter, though, asked the
panel headed by Gov. Char-
possession of a weapon was
known by someone at Dillard
Still no bail in
Forehead and Neck
/
'.
/')#
/+
'"
$-#2#((
/+
/&#
.'%*.
+$
%'*%

lie Crist to stop the second
recount Thursday.
High and went unreported to
authorities.
Liberty City case
Radiesse: Fine Line Injection MIAMI — The alleged ringlead-
Correction for Moderate to +*"
('*'!
*+2
+6#-.
/&#
(/#./
'*
+.)#/'!
.#-
er of a plot to destroy Chicago’s
Severe Facial Wrinkles
and Folds
&#-,4
$+-
4+0-
,#-.+*(
#*&*!#)#*/
3rd-grader shows Judge halts work Sears Tower and bomb FBI
offices won’t be released on bail
Juvederm: Parenthesis
+-
)+-#
'*$+-)/'+*
+-

FREE
!+*.0(//'+*
up with gun on 1-mile bridge before a third trial begins in
January.
on Face !((
/+"4


#3/

*"
(#-*
>> FORT LAUDERDALE — Police >> MIAMI — A federal judge
A federal judge in Miami
say a third-grader brought in Miami has ordered work
 +0/
+0-
(/#-*/'1#.
/+
!+.)#/'!
.0-%#-4
refused Friday to grant bail for
Cosmoderm: Wrinkles a gun to school and showed stopped on a proposed one-mile
Around Lips 34-year-old Narseal Batiste.
it off to a classmate in Fort bridge on a road through the
He’s been jailed for 29 months
Lauderdale. Everglades so that environ-
Laser Resurfacing in the so-called “Liberty City
The incident happened about mental impacts can be studied. Seven” terrorism case, which
10:45 a.m. Friday at Walker El- U.S. District Judge Ursula has had two mistrials because
ESTHETICS ementary School and came just Ungaro issed an order Friday jurors could not come to unani-
  
 
  
 
   

5

   

  
two days after a student across halting the U.S. Army Corps of mous verdicts.
town at Dillard High School Engineers project on Tamiami
was killed in a school hallway. Trail west of Miami. From News Chief wire reports