HNS REPORTS---THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2010
NUGENT AND SAGER SQUARE OFF AGAIN, TALK ISSUES AND BUDGETS
Congressional candidates Rich Nugent and Jason Sager debated issues and budgets for an hour Wednesday night. Even though the latest debate was in central Pasco County, the Hernando sheriff's increasing budgets were a major point of contention. Moderator Tom Jackson posed the question of Nugent's operating budgets to the sheriff, and Nugent said the takeover of central dispatching and emergency management accounted for part of the increase.
He noted that the last two budgets he submitted were each three percent lower than the previous year, a move he described as "being conservative." And he cited a 15 percent decline in the crime rate last year and a 6.5 percent drop in newly released figures for the first half of this year.
Sager responded that the sheriff's budgets have increased 67 percent over his two and a half terms, in a county with a population increase of 26 percent over the same period. He also criticized the sheriff over the County Jail, saying Nugent "convinced the county to take over the privately operated county jail," and he said the sheriff claimed a need for the takeover "because government can do it cheaper." Sager told the 200 or so at the Central Pasco Republican Club that the sheriff's transition plan would put 40 people out of work and using the savings to give the remaining employees $7,000 raises.
Nugent's response was to note that the jail contract had never been rebid and that there was no alternative when private operator CCA told the county it was walking away from the contract. He said the county asked the sheriff to come in and that he planned to operate the jail for the same amount of money as CCA got last year, with a hope to return as much as a half million dollars at the end of the year. He also noted that CCA allowed the county's multi-million dollar jail buildings to "fall apart."
Sager said then, "It's a jail, they're prisoners, put them in tents with pink underwear."
A few other more or less familiar issues came up, with more or less familiar responses from the two candidates seeking the GOP nod in the Fifth District August 24 primary. Nugent was asked about an assault rifle ban he once supported, and he said he was having second thoughts, noting that he originally signed off on the position in the emotional aftermath of the Hank Earl Carr incident but that he now was a strong supporter of Second Amendment gun rights. And Sager, when asked about race relations, said he doesn't "see black, white, green, purple or yellow, just red, white and blue." The candidates agreed that race relations are for the people to work out and not a job for the federal government.
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CANDIDATES ANNOUNCE ENDORSEMENTS
The Orlando Sentinel has become the first major newspaper to endorse a candidate in the Republican Congressional primary, and it's come down on the side of Hernando Sheriff Rich Nugent. The Sentinel serves Lake County communities on the eastern edge of the sprawling Fifth District.
An editorial Wednesday in the Sentinel says Nugent's entry into the race "stinks to high heaven," but it also called him "far more qualified than his GOP primary opponent...he at least has a realistic grasp on the issues he would face in Congress."
An announcement on the editorial from the Nugent campaign tactfully omits the editorial's comment on Nugent opponent Jason Sager. The paper's editorial board actually said: "[Nugent] speaks knowledgeably about taxes and energy policy, and he has dealt with the federal government in his position. Mr. Sager speaks far more authoritatively about sin than he does policy."
Asked about the endorsement at Wednesday night's debate, Sager said he thought voters should note that the same newspaper endorsed John Kerry for President in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Meanwhile, Sager's campaign released a letter from prominent Brooksville businessman Tommy Bronson, endorsing Sager as "young, energetic, intelligent, articulate, and passionate about the ideals that we hold dear" while saying of Nugent that his "record as a law enforcement officer has been outstanding—he’s a fine man, no doubt about that." But the former mining executive and current developer also said that "Washington is overrun with career, college educated politicians—look where it has gotten us. We’re ready for a change." Bronson's letter said that Sager "has more in common with the citizens of District 5 and therefore, can relate in a way that a retiring government employee can’t."
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Listen to Nugent and Sager at the Sentinel editorial board interviews (20 mins.) >
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SPRING HILL SOLDIER KILLED IN SHOOTING NEAR TEXAS ARMY BASE
A Killeen, Texas, TV station reported Wednesday that the shooting death of Sgt. Derek Peter Schicchi of Spring Hill Monday in Killeen is under investigation. The report said details of the shooting were not released. The victim was apparently stationed at Fort Hood, near Killeen in central Texas.
Schicchi reportedly joined the Army in February 2003 and had been assigned since July 2007 to the 1st Cavalry Division’s Company D, 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. He deployed to Iraq from August 2007 to January 2008 and from January 2009 to January 2010.
Investigators told other media outlets Thursday that the death did not appear to be the result of foul play.
POLICE CHARGE TEEN WITH STALKING FOR RACIAL SLURS, THREATS
Brooksville police said Thursday they arrested 18-year old Nicholas Nazar this week and charged him with aggravated stalking. Nazar, whose address was given as 3 Pine Street in Brooksville, allegedly threatened to beat up an unidentified juvenile and harassed the juvenile by "continuously making racial slurs." Police said the incidents were witnessed by the juvenile's mother and other family members. Nazar was reportedly arrested at his home after a judge signed an arrest warrant, and he was booked into the Hernando County Jail on an initial bond of $5,000.
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TEENAGER ACCUSED OF SEXUAL BATTERY ON SEVEN-YEAR OLD
Sheriff's deputies said Thursday that they arrested a 15-year old Brooksville youth on 11 counts of sexual battery. An arrest affidavit said the suspect admitted to oral and vaginal penetration of the seven-year old victim on multiple occasions over a period of at least 18 months, beginning in 2009. The teen was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center in Ocala after his arrest earlier this week.
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COUNTY PARKS WORKER ARRESTED, FIRED FOR GASOLINE THEFTS
A Hernando County Parks Department maintenance worker was cited by sheriff's deputies Wednesday for petty theft in connection with stolen gasoline, and county human resources staff confirmed that the suspect was terminated the same day. Sheriff's reports say 60-year old Gerlando "George" Caruana was seen on video surveillance filling a five gallon plastic container with gasoline from a county fuel tank in Delta Woods Park on two separate occasions. Parks supervisors installed the video after a tank measurement showed missing gas. When confronted with the video evidence, Caruana reportedly claimed he took the gas for a friend who needed it for a leaf blower but had no money.
County officials said Caruana was terminated from parks maintenance job on Wednesday.
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DEPUTIES CHARGE MAN WITH INTENT TO SELL MARIJUANA
A tinted windshield led to charges of possessing marijuana with intent to sell after a deputy said that 23-year old John Andrew Wright of 9331 Bobcat Lane in Weeki Wachee had individually packaged bags of pot in his car and almost $500 in cash. An arrest affidavit says a deputy spotted the windshield tint Wednesday as Wright left a Portillo Road apartment complex in Spring Hill but lost sight of the vehicle. He later saw the vehicle again leaving the same complex and conducted a traffic stop. The affidavit says a bag with 28 grams of pot was found in the vehicle after Wright gave search consent. He was placed in the back of the deputy's cruiser but removed a few minutes later when he complained about tight handcuffs. The affidavit says the deputy then spotted another bag in the cruiser's back seat, with individually packaged smaller bags of pot. Wright allegedly had $482 in cash on him. He was booked into jail on the intent to sell charge, as well as a violation of probation on a prior cocaine charge.
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ROWDEN BLASTS SCHENCK FOR "54-MINUTE WORKDAY" ON DRILLING
Though Spring Hill State Representative Rob Schenck said beforehand he would vote against a constitutional amendment to ban oil drilling in state waters, his top Democratic election opponent blasted him Thursday for "a 54-minute workday in Tallahassee ignoring the Gulf oil crisis." Diane Rowden said the incumbent legislator she hopes to unseat in November "is one of the poster boys for drilling off our coasts." Rowden called Schenck's actions in supporting the Republican-controlled House adjournment "a huge waste of taxpayer money and opportunity." She said when Schenck and fellow Republicans refused to debate the issue and agreed to "break for lunch without getting any work done," they left "Hernando County's seafood fishing and harvesting industries once again without a voice."
Schenck, whose office was asked to comment on Rowden's blast, said before the session that he was satisfied with statutory law that banned drilling in state waters and would not support a constitutional amendment to do what's already covered in law.
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ROGERS PARK SWIMMING ADVISORY LIFTED
Come on in, the water's fine, according to the Hernando County Health Department announcement lifting a swimming advisory for coastal Hernando's Rogers Park. Signs went up at the park earlier this month after testing showed levels of fecal coliform bacteria higher than was considered safe. Health Department Environmental Manager Al Gray said Thursday that the latest test results now show the water quality along the Weeki Wachee River at Rogers Park is now in the acceptable range, and the July 7 advisory has been rescinded.
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HUMANE SOCIETY DIRECTOR NOTES LESSONS FROM CAT'S PASSING
Nature Coast Humane Society Director Joanne Schoch announced Thursday that Chloe the cat died last week. Schoch said Chloe's story demonstrated how one person's love for a cat helped save many other felines.
Chloe was brought to the Society after her owner, Dorothy Huitfeldt, died. A veterinarian said the frail and incontinent elderly probably had only a few months to live. Because Huitfeldt was a Humane Society supporter and left the bulk of her estate to the Society's animal shelter, Schoch says the staff decided to care for the cat for the supposed short time she had left. That time turned into more than three years, when Chloe was given free reign over the shelter's cat cottage as "official greeter."
Schoch noted the pre-planning of Huitfeldt's estate made a big differnce in the lives of animals passing through the shelter over the past three years. And she says the Society staff chipped in for cremation and an urn for Chloe, who is still in her favorite sunny spot on the cat cottage copy machine.
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