The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 112

SUNRISE 0 rz srrs Uj THE TAMPA TRIBUNE Monday, June 4, 1990 Section 10 is urn Amu vfiu Start lime Palm Tree Politics Howard Troxler Believing, and walking, one more time Under the bright sun the crowd walked. Pregnant women and old men, wearers of business suits and blue jeans, jaded veterans and idealistic newcomers. Shirts stuck to backs and hair wilted. The early June heat hit the pavement and bounced back into everyone's face. The air shimmered.

Noontime on Friday was not the ideal setting for a jaunt down the Franklin Street Mall in Tampa. But no one minded. Through the hoop Tribune photograph by JOHN STANMEYER Seals. For a $5 donation, divers maneuvered around obstacle courses and played tick-tac-toe in the pool. Gulf Coast Divers Inc.

donated equipment and diving instructions for the event Ron Burch, a Madeira Beach real estate agent, swims through a ring in the pool at the Tradewinds Beach Resort in St. Petersburg Beach on Sunday during a benefit for Easter for pair 2 killed, 2 injured in wrecks on bridge By KURT LOFT Tribune Staff Writer TAMPA The starting line for a drag race on the Gandy Bridge was the scene of two grisly wrecks early Sunday that killed two motorists and left two others, critically injured. It started when a Datsun truck swerved onto the shoulder of the highway and hit a Ford Mustang that police say was a "starter car" for the 2:50 a.m. race. The truck's driver, 38-year-old James Justus of Bay, Pines, was killed and the Mustang's owner was tossedj over his car and critically injured.

Two minutes later, a motorcycle carrying two people hit the wrecked truck and slid 400 feet The passenger, 21-year-old Shawna Ireland of St Petersburg, was killed instantly. A witness said he saw the truck swerving between lanes just before the accident police say. Police say the racers took off east on the bridge and were probably unaware of the carnage unfolding behind them. Tampa police said they are investigating "Local Trends," which they call a drag racing club made up mostly of Mustang owners. The Mustang hit on the bridge had the group's name painted on the rear window.

Police broke up a planned race on the bridge earlier in the evening but did not say if it involved club members. A full schedule of calls prevented police from watching the scene all night said T.A. Kester, a police spokesman. He added that the drag racers often hold their events near city limits where police don't patrol a often and would have to chase them into other jurisdic-j tions. The accident scene Sunday morning was at the1 border of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

"No matter where you go or what you do, they will not drag race where there's a presence of authority," he said. "And when you have inexperienced drivers in high-performance vehicles in uncontrolled conditions; you are asking for disaster." Tampa police Sgt. Drew Stertzer said drag racers 14 Mustangs ride at speeds exceeding 140 mph on the Gan See AFTERMATH, Page 7B At the front of the procession of some 300 people, surrounded by well-wishers and back-pedaling television cameras, strode two men in plaid shirts and casual slacks. Even the cynic has to admit that grassroots enthusiasm sur- rnunric nwtnn fhilpc Rare tiger dies at Busch Gardens said "Then a worker showed up, took his shirt off and waded into the pool and pulled the tiger out" said Cruze, who watched as park veterinarian Betsy Coville applied cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the tiger. Her efforts were in vain.

Mwelu, who had seemed healthy and active, was pronounced dead at 3:40 p.m, Con-rod said. Conrod said that John Olsen, the park's chief veterinarian, noted it was unusual that the stuffed toy had not either been digested or regurgitated. The stuffed animal had probably been bought at the park or won at one of the park's arcades, Conrod said. By LEE LANDENBERGER Tribune Staff Writer TAMPA A rare white Bengal tiger drowned Sunday afternoon in a pool at Busch Gardens after suffering severe stomach pains brought on by a small stuffed animal the tiger ate three to six weeks ago, park officials said. The toy animal had lodged itself in the upper portion of the 5-foot 2-year-old male tiger's intestines, said park spokesman David Conrod.

Two gall stones had formed next to the toy, further blocking proper digestion for the tiger and creating what must have been painful stomach attacks, Conrod said. About 3:15 p.m., the tiger, Mwelu, was swimming in a pool at the park and apparently suffered an attack of stomach pain and drowned, Conrod said. "It's unimaginable someone threw the toy in on purpose," Conrod said. "It's rare that things are dropped into the pens." Larry Cruze of Brandon was one of about 20 onlookers who saw Mwelu struggle in the pool at Claw Island, the tiger's habitat at Busch Gardens. "This tiger looked like it was trying to swim, but it went under.

It came back up and looked like it was trying to get to shore," Cruze said. "The other tigers were watching, like they were concerned." Mwelu again disappeared under the water and never came up, Cruze said. It took 15 minutes to clear the remaining tigers from the area so park employees could safely enter the pool where the tiger was last seen, Conrod StlNR! ee BENGAL, Page 4B fc Spanish TV network eyes adding station in Tampa "it- By TIM COLLIE Tribune Staff Writer TAMPA A major Spanish-language television network soon may open a new station here, sparking a competition with an existing station for the area's small but affluent Latin market Telemundo, the nation's second-largest Spanish broadcaster, confirmed that it is involved in negotiations to finalize a deal for an affiliate in Tampa, but refused to give details. "We may be making an announcement next week," said Rosemary Ravinal, a Telemundo spokeswoman in New York City. Ravinal declined to identify with whom the company is negotiating.

Several owners of broadcast licenses said they had been contacted by Telemundo over the last month, but declined their offers. The deal apparently involves an mission say there are no pending applications for construction of a new station or licensing of a new channel. Telemundo apparently is going after a low-power broadcasting facility, since the holder of the only available high power license WTTA, Channel 38 has rejected their offer. Channel 38 also is new and plans to start broadcasting in the Tampa area by the end of the summer. "They called us twice over the last month, but we're not going to do anything with them," said Dave Smith of Sinclair Broadcasting, which holds the license for Channel 38.

The station will be a full-power UHF station when it comes on the air. "Their interests and our interests were so far apart that we just didn't really get very far," Smith See TELEMUNDO, Page 6B and Buddy MacKay wherever they go in their campaign to be governor and lieutenant governor. A different style Chiles' style is not the style of the governor, Bob Martinez, who has built a smooth money machine, into which Republicans pump $3,000 a pop as they applaud politely in posh hotel banquet halls. Nor can he match his fellow Democrat, well-groomed Bill Nelson, who has his own money machine and is busy using his dollars to air well-made commercials. So Chiles scrambles from town to town, employing old-fashioned handshakes and baby-kissing and his trademarks the walk, the folksy remarks, the appeal for contributions of no more than $100.

A gimmick, opponents call it A gimmick, maybe. Maybe also a symbol. An image. A man with a slightly crooked grin wearing a plaid shirt, standing in the noontime heat on a downtown corner and asking for $100, and saying: "People ought to count more than money." The underdogsfavorites Maybe Chiles and MacKay are both the favorites and the underdogs. The man who served 18 years in the U.S.

Senate and the former congressman from Ocala are beloved in the Democratic Party, and the leaders in the public-opinion polls. But their walk is all uphill. The younger Nelson has impressed many with his plain-talking commercials. Thousands who have moved to this fast-growing state will soon know Nelson better than Chiles. Night after night, in millions of Florida living rooms, Nelson will walk down the beach.

He will boost gun control. He will speak of the environment. He will subtly, oh-so-politely criticize Chiles. Who will speak for Chiles in those living rooms? Waiting for the autumn is the incumbent Martinez, quietly stockpiling his millions for his own campaign. The Republican has his record death penalty, prison-building, budget-cutting, no new taxes, and can campaign on the traditionally Democratic issue of the environment What's more, Martinez will have no reservation about attacking Chiles.

Chiles, who quit the Senate when he could have helped Florida the most. Chiles, the tired and depressed old man (he is only 60). Chiles, the Democratic budget-writer, author of the national debt (never mind Reagan). The critical summer Chiles said recently that he's not worried about his opponents' media. His media, he said, would come at 6 and 11.

But free press is fickle. Chiles is still completing his descent from the mountain-top; as the weeks pass he will be less and less the statesman-messiah and more and more a candidate. The mere fact that he hits town will move from the front pages inside the newspaper, from the top of the newscast to sometime just before the weather. More and more Chiles will be called upon to outline his specific vision in other words, exactly what he intends to do as governor. His crisis is yet to come.

For now it is a refreshing and exciting thing to see the crowds swarm around him. Politicians come and go, making and breaking campaign promises, becoming en-snarled in scandal and arrogance and human weakness. So many people have become bitter and frustrated, some vowing never to care, never to believe again. Yet they were there to walk for Chiles, even those who said they knew better, even those who said they'd never help another politician. They answered a tug in the gut, a little voice somewhere inside that said: Maybe this is the one.

Maybe this time. i Tribune photograph by FRED FOX grees above the average for this date. Scattered showers and thunderstorms dotted the Tampa Bay area during the afternoon and early evening. Seeking solar solace Umbrellas offer some protection from the sun's heat Sunday at "Taste of Pinellas" in St. Petersburg's Straub Park.

Sunday's high was 91 degrees, two de- lit-. i .9 Disabled veteran caught in cracks of insurance law existing channel, since officials with the Federal Communications Com- Agency has set long-term goals to clean up bay By NANETTE HOLLAND Tribune Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG Local environmental leaders are counting on the future of Tampa Bay looking more like its past. They envision seagrass once again carpeting the shallows along the bay's shoreline. And they see life-giving tidal creeks weaving like arteries through salt marshes and mangrove forests to pump clean water to the bay.

Environmentalists are so determined to make that fantasy a finality that they've given themselves deadlines to complete their task. They've even printed the timetable in a report called "Goals and Strategies for Tampa Bay," recently released by the Agency on Bay Management. The document is the result of a brainstorming conference in December by members of the bay management agency. The members who represent a broad spectrum of environmental, scientific and regulatory groups sequestered themselves for a day to talk about the bay's future. See GROUP, Page 7B By ORVAL JACKSON Tribune Staff Writer ST.

PETERSBURG Andy Cox's eyes darted back and forth in terror as two strangers entered the living room converted into a hospital-like room. Once his wife, Terry, calmed him with a kiss and assured him everything was all right, his eyes stopped darting, but he kept a tight grip on her hand. "It's all right Andy. They're not here to take you away," she said soothingly. Cox, who will be 53 Tuesday, was left a quadriplegic when he suffered head injuries in a 1987 fall from a ladder while painting a room in a house he and his wife had closed on two days earlier.

Cox spent a year in rehabilitation programs in St Petersburg, Braden-ton and Orlando before his wife decided to bring him home Oct 25, 1988, even though he was semicomatose. By then, home was with her mother five houses down the quiet street in the Pinellas Point area from where he was injured. Faced with massive medical bills, Terry Cox had to sell the house she and her husband never got to live in. A 1977 retiree after more than 22 years of military service including 16 years in the Army, four in the Navy and more than two years in the reserves Cox had medical insurance under the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS). The coverage included a cost-share with an annual cap of $10,000 paid by the recipient But on April 1 this year, Andy Cox.

became a victim of a provision of federal law, many military retirees are not aware of until after the fact. Terry Cox learned that on that date, her husband no longer qualified for the CHAMPUS insurance because after 29 months of total disability, he qualified for Medicare coverage. To her dismay, she learned Medi-' care provides far less coverage than CHAMPUS and because of Cox's military pension, he does not qualify lor Medicaid, which would cover medicines. When she learned Medicare would not provide the coverage Cox had had, as his legal guardian she sought to reject Medicare coverage and stay See VETERAN'S, Page SB 1 a. Tribune photograph by JIM REED Like ducks to water The third annual American Cancer Society Great Florida Duck Race took place Sunday at Adventure Island in Tampa.

Valerie and Tim Kelly of Brandon won a Hawaiian vacation. SUNRISE.