The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 80

The Orlando Sentinel FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1999 Inside, D-3 Execution scheduled for killer of a Seminole County reserve deputy sheriff, Obituaries, D-4 Local DC State Orlando: 2000 and beyond drug Mayor wants to get tough on crime Glenda Hood said the future hinges on the safety and education of Orlando's youth in the new millennium. By Dan Tracy busted! By Maya Bell MIAMI BUREAU OF THE SENTINEL STAFF 1 1 I I MIAMI The word was out: At the barbershop on Miami's Flagler Street or at a nearby fruit stand, you could sell your prescription drugs as well as get a haircut or buy a mango. Hundreds of poor patients who received low-cost or free drugs courtesy of Medicaid did just that, supplying pharmaceuticals to black marketeers who recycled the drugs back to unsuspecting consumers and billing Florida for as much as $49 million. The scheme, dubbed Operation Black Market by the team of city, state and federal investigators who cracked it, was centered in 11 pharmacies in Miami and Hialeah, but authorities have little doubt similar scams are operating nationwide. "I believe we haven't even scratched the surface here in Miami, must less across the country," said Donald Pettit, the case agent for the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration. "The profits are so large and the payments so lucrative." This is how the scam worked. The patients got their medication for free because Medicaid paid for it. They, in turn, sold their prescriptions everything from anti-depressants, HrV inhibitors, dermat-ological creams, sleeping pills, indigestion medicine, even Viagra to street brokers for about 15 cents for every dollar Medicaid paid for the drugs. So, for instance, if a patient sold a 60-tablet bottle of Zyprexa, a medication for mood disorders for which Medicaid pays $438, the patient could pocket Accompanied by 41 second-grade students, Orlando Mayor Glenda Hood strode off the stage of the Bob Carr Performing Arts Centre on Thursday, seeking, in her words, "the dawn" of a new century.

"My vision and I hope yours as well is for Orlando to become the city of the new millennium," Hood said in her annual state of the city address. She invited children from the elementary school of the downtown First Presbyterian Church to illustrate the faces she hopes will benefit from three initiatives she announcedThursday. All three of her proposals, she said, should improve the lot of Orlando's youth by locking up guns, securing role models and penalizing drug dealers. The propositions, which should start taking shape within a month, are: Creating "zero-tolerance" zones against drug dealing within 1,000 feet around any parks, playgrounds, churches and schools in the city. Anyone in violation would have charges automatically made more severe.

For ex- PHEUAN M. EBENHACKTHE OHUNDO SENTINEL The Millennium Countdown Clock, unveiled Thursday and donated by Walt Disney World, shows the number of days remaining until 2000. The clock, which presumably is Y2K-compliant, is on the south side of Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. Boasting a 4-foot-high digital readout board and 441 light bulbs, the clock cost more than $23,000. Please see HOOD, D-5 Please see DRUGS, D-5 Gates' college fund described as Investment' William Gray III, head of the United Negro College Fund, touted the program.

By Joni James OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Fund and the American Indian College Fund. Under the scholarship guidelines, minority high school seniors must be nominated likely by a teacher or guidance counselor to compete for one of the 1,000 scholarships awarded annually. Candidates must have at least a 3.3 high school grade point average, have a record of community service and be eligi- Please see GRAY, D-5 another country Bill and Melinda understand that we had better start investing in them and educating them so we can remain competitive." Gates announced the $50-million-a-year commitment last week the largest pledge ever in higher education and among the largest ever designated for a specific cause. The 55-year-old United Negro College Fund will administer the program in conjunction with the Hispanic Scholarship fields where minorities are severely under-represented, Gates' program funded through his and his wife's philanthropic foundation will pay for that, too. "Bill and Melinda Gates understand that there is a revolution in this country a demographic revolution," Gray told the lunchtime crowd hosted by the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce.

"Fifty years from now, 50 percent of the people called Americans will be black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian or from dents hit closer to home Thursday when the man hired to run the program brought his message to Orlando. Former U.S. Rep. William Gray III, the president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund, won a standing ovation from nearly 450 local business leaders after he mapped out Gates' 20-year plan to provide 20,000 students a free college education. And if those Gates Millennium Scholars pursue a graduate degree in one of six The potential impact of Bill Gates' unprecedented $1 billion scholarship fund for high-achieving, poor minority stu 'No smoking gun' at casino hearings Mother detains suspect after assault on son feci''? 0 i I I i .4 By Gary Taylor A New Jersey official said there is a "gray area" in the case of payments to Bo Johnson.

By Mike Oliver OF THE SENTINEL STAFF OF THE SENTINEL STAFF pi volves a "gray area" between what is "legal and what is corrupt." Fogarty's words came at the end of a three-day hearing Thursday before the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. Now the question: What's to be done about it? The four commissioners, listening to explanations from Bally CEO Arthur Goldberg and other Bally employees and lawyers, were dragged through this muddled gray area, often stopping to express incredulity at the testimony. "Somehow I think we've been off in Alice in Wonderland," one commissioner said. It's the same gray area that confronted federal authorities in Florida, who apparently looked for corruption but ultimately convicted Johnson and his wife of hiding more than $450,000 in consulting Please see BALLY, D-5 LONGWOOD A mother Thursday evening struggled with a registered sex offender at a Long-wood business long enough for police to arrive and charge the St. Cloud man with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy inside the store's restroom.

Jason Brubacher, 27, was charged with capital sexual battery, said Longwood police Investigator Karl Strohsal. Brubacher was being questioned Thursday night at the Police Department before being transferred to the Seminole County Jail to be held without bail. The attack occurred at the Big Lots on U.S. Highway 17-92 near State Road 434, Strohsal said. The boy went to the restroom about 5:20 p.m.

while his mother was shopping in the store. As the child started to leave, a man pushed him back inside and sexually assaulted him, Strohsal RED HUBERfTHE ORLANDO SENTINEL ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. Nearly everyone agreed that something stinks in the case of a casino company paying Florida House Speaker Bo Johnson $170,000 for doing virtually nothing. But as hearings ended on the business practices of gambling giant Bally Entertainment, "there is no smoking gun," said James Fo-garty, deputy attorney general for New Jersey, who helped lead the probe. "There is no singular damning event." Instead, he said, the case in Let the Games begin Former Miss Olympia Cory Iverson tosses T-shirts to Orange County schoolchildren at the opening of the Inner City Games on Thursday morning at the Orlando Arena.

An estimated 10,000 middle schoolers listened to celebrities and politicians at the kickoff of the 5th annual games, a competition of athletics and scholastics. Please see ARREST, D-4 Hurricane Floyd-related disaster-relief money could be on the way Nine counties could be eligible for at least a partial reimbursement of expenses and damage incurred from the storm. By Lynne Bumpus-Hooper OF THE SENTINEL STAFF about $5.7 million in emergency-response expenses. Those figures are not available in Brevard yet. The storm did not cause enough damage to individual houses in Brevard to rate presidential assistance in that area, Lay said after a federal team completed an inspection last week.

Volusia County may be eligible for a Small Business Administration low-interest loan program, he said. Brevard businesses could apply for the same loans. ded to evacuation orders. Those actions cost the county an additional $250,000, said county spokesperson Ben Hardcastle. In Brevard, the county encountered about $8.5 million in damage and other expenses, Lay said.

The majority of the damage was to the county's beaches. Damage estimates are not complete for the cities, he said. In Volusia, the storm caused $11.2 million worth of damage in beach erosion, and damage to houses ancfHjusinesses. The storm also cost the county the counties up to a 75 percent reimbursement. State agencies can provide an additional 12.5 percent reimbursement, Lay said.

Even counties not designated part of the disaster area, such as Orange, may receive some money for their expenses incurred during the storm, said Jim Loftus, state spokesman for the division of emergency management. In Orange County, shelters were opened and emergency workers including police, deputies and firefighters respon ceived a promise of federal assistance in covering the cost of protecting the public from the storm. Those costs include overtime for law enforcement and emergency personnel, debris removal and other measures, such as sandbagging to protect property. County and city managers will meet next week to finish estimates of the damage, said Bob Lay, Brevard County emergency manager. Then the Federal Emergency Management Agency will examine those results before giving problems caused by Hurricane Floyd's near miss last week.

Nine coastal counties, including Brevard and Volusia, may be eligible to recoup up to $15.3 million of the estimated $18.5 million the storm cost them in damage to public property, state emergency managers said Thursday. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush asked President Clinton to help the counties find out how much federal disaster money they could receive. The counties already had re COCOA Relief may be on the way for Central Florida counties that must reitair damaged roads, beach erosion and other.