March 22, 2001 - The
Inc. 500 Companies Headquartered in Florida, 2000
-
"Florida is home to 27 companies on this year's Inc.
500 list, up from 18 companies last year. This 50%
increase represents the biggest gain in companies for any
state in the country. These 27 companies are some of the
leaders in the entrepreneurial movement that is alive in
Florida..."
March 27, 2001 -
Groundbreaking
Digital Hospital -
"BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Two leading
visionaries in their respective industries are entering
into a strategic partnership that will raise hospital care
to an unprecedented level. HealthSouth Corporation
diagnostic imaging and rehabilitative healthcare services,
is joining with Oracle Corp. to build the world's first
all-digital, automated hospital..."
March
14, 2001 - Bureau crash the parties...
Let's talk about activism: its aims, its tactics, its
impact. The whole point of political activism is to
change things - to change policies, to change cultures, to
change minds. But in reverse order. If the sixties taught us
anything, it should have been that once people become
engaged, once they change their way of thinking, then and
only then can we expect the culture and its political
machinery to follow suit...
March
01, 2001 -
Fragile
- "How the $8-billion restoration deal will work, and how it could fall apart
- By Cynthia Barnett
and Mike Vogel, Florida Trends, No wonder the
champagne corks were popping. An unlikely group of
environmentalists, water managers, political appointees
and industry representatives celebrated in January at an
Everglades Coalition meeting on Hutchinson Island in
southeast Florida. Just the month before, then-President
Bill Clinton, with Gov. Jeb Bush in attendance, had signed
into law a $7.8-billion program to save the Everglades —
presumably ending years of fighting among environmental
groups, the sugar industry and urban water users..."
March
16, 2001 - Southern
Storms cause damage, Kill One
- (AP) - Severe storms, including at least one tornado,
lashed the Florida Panhandle and southwestern Georgia
early Thursday, killing one person, injuring more than a
dozen others, and toppling trees and mobile homes...
November
03, 2001 - Rape suspects videotaped attack
- MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - The suspects accused of raping and
molesting a 13-year-old mentally disabled girl videotaped
part of the crime, authorities said. District Attorney Pat
Head would not say what the videotape revealed, but said
he did not plan to show it to the grand jury. Up to 25
males - ages 12 to 25 - raped and molested the girl for 12
hours after luring her off of a bicycle and into an
apartment building, police said Wednesday. Eleven suspects
have been arrested in the Oct. 13-14 attack. Police said
four men leaving a high school football game met the girl
on her bicycle and persuaded her to accompany them to an
apartment. They raped the girl and then took her to an
abandoned apartment in the same complex, whereas many as
20 males attacked her, police said. The victim's mother
took her to a hospital, where she was treated and
released. Arrested were Christopher Wyatt, 24, Cornell
Lyons, 17, Jamon Aiken, 17, and Charles Grant, 19, all of
Marietta, Taurean Green, 17, and Issac Anthony Cummings,
18, of Smyrna, and five juveniles. Police have issued
warrants for two others.
November
03, 2001 - 18 charged in drug trafficking ring
- MIAMI (AP) - Federal agents have broken up a heroin
smuggling ring that included a flight attendant who taped
drugs to her undergarments and couriers who swallowed
contraband, prosecutors said. U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis
announced Thursday a seven-count indictment charging 17
defendants for their role in the smuggling of virtually
pure heroin through Miami; New York; San Juan, Puerto
Rico; Colombia; Venezuela and Mexico for distribution
along the U.S. East Coast. Lewis said agents put the ring,
which possibly included airline pilots, "out of
business." Many named in the indictment were arrested
Wednesday in Miami and New York. Others were arrested
earlier in Mexico and Venezuela. A criminal complaint also
was filed Thursday against an additional defendant
arrested in New York. Operation Aeromoza began last
November when the leader of the ring, Carlos Ruiz-Patino,
allegedly talked with undercover agents about using
Servivensa Airlines workers as drug carriers, Lewis said.
November
03, 2001 - Jury mulls church women's deaths
- WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Jurors deciding whether two
ex-Salvadoran generals are liable for the 1980 slayings of
four U.S. church women were told Thursday the men did not
have to order their killings to be held responsible. U.S.
District Court Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley, responding to
jurors' questions, said former Defense Minister Jose
Guillermo Garcia and former Salvadoran National Guard head
Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova are liable if they knew or
should have known that their soldiers were killing
civilians and did nothing to stop them. To find the men
liable, the judge said, jurors must conclude the men did
nothing to stop a pattern of violence and that doing
nothing caused the deaths of the Americans. The jurors
adjourned Thursday and were to resume deliberations
Friday. Five Salvadoran National Guard members were
convicted of the Dec. 2, 1980, killings and sentenced to
30 years in Salvadoran prison. The generals are being sued
by the women's families, who are seeking at least $100
million.
November
03, 2001 - Texas millionaire gets life sentence - SAN
ANTONIO (AP) - A millionaire businessman was sentenced
Thursday to life in prison for arranging the murder of his
ex-wife while she was home with her toddler quadruplets.
U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado gave Allen Blackthorne
two life prison terms, fined him $250,000 and ordered him
to pay $17,000 restitution for his role in the death of
Sheila Bellush, who was shot and whose throat was slit in
her Sarasota, Fla., home in 1997. After the killing, two
of Bellush's 2-year-old quadruplets by her second husband
were found crawling in her blood. Blackthorne has
maintained his innocence. Bellush and Blackthorne divorced
in 1989 and had a bitter custody dispute over their two
daughters. In 1997, Bellush moved to Florida, and six
weeks later, she was killed. Prosecutors said Blackthorne
offered $54,000 for the murder plus a bonus if he regained
custody of the girls, who had been adopted by Jamie
Bellush. Blackthorne made his fortune selling medical
devices.
