Residents of Citrus county, and the surrounding areas should continue to be on the lookout for James Coursey, who escaped from the Citrus County Jail’s “trusty” program last week. A resident of a neighborhood near the jail had a close encounter with Coursey that led to a hammer in the head…yet one more reason to make sure your home isn’t built next to a jail or correctional facility.

Despite 100 offers, K-9 units, and bloodhounds searching for this guy, he hasn’t been seen since.

It’s been confirmed that the man who died this week on Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom (part of Walt Disney World) had a heart condition. An autopsy showed that Jeffery Reeb had an enlarged and weakened heart. Since visitors with high blood pressure, heart, back and neck problems are asked not to ride, I don’t think Disney will be getting sued over this one.

I just heard on the news that a man died yesterday after riding on Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park. This is without a doubt, one of our favorite rides at any theme park. Even my son, who is normally scared of larger coasters, goes on Expedition Everest. It’s not a wild ride, but it’s unique in that it goes backwards inside of the fake mountain at one point, with the track shifting behind you so that you go forward in another direction. At the end, you go down an 80 foot hill.

The name, Jeffery Reed, was 44 and I’m assuming in good health, as visitors with high blood pressure, heart, back and neck problems are asked not to ride. When the ride ended, he was no longer conscious, but he was alert during the photograph portion of the ride, which is done just before the 80 foot drop.

Disney officials verified that the ride is working properly, but it will remain closed. This is the most recent death at Disney since a small child died after riding Mission: Space at Epcot.

My fellow Floridians can vouch for me when I say that we’ve had a TON of rain this summer.

It’s rained almost every other day at my house, and if it’s not raining here, it’s raining somewhere in the state. Some might consider all of that rain to be a nuisance. You can’t go to the beach and get a tan in the rain, and it sure will put a damper on your day at Disney, but I personally love the rain. It means I don’t have to run my sprinkler and my grass stays lush and green. My husband has to mow it more often, and he’s probably not thrilled about that.

My grass hasn’t been the only thing benefiting from all of this wet weather. For the first time in 250 days, water is flowing from the Kissimmee River basin into Lake Okeechobee. With just 5 more feet of rain, the lake will be at normal levels. Not only is the lake home to fish and wildlife, it’s a backup drinking source for residents in South Florida. Hopefully the rain will keep coming!

If you flew out of Orlando airport recently on AirTran, you may be getting a call from the airline. It seems that a teenage girl left Orlando and went to Atlanta on Flight 862, and then on to Wichita on 687. Sometime during the flights, the girl got sick on the plane, and she was met in Wichita by an ambulance. At the hospital, she was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, and she’s in critical condition.

Due to the way that this disease is spread (close contact with discharges from the nose and throat of a sick person), AirTran officials are working to contact passengers from those 2 flights to alert them.

Bacterial meningitis is VERY serious if left untreated, and can result in death if not treated quickly enough. Symptoms include fever, severe headache, stiff neck, sensitivity to bright lights, confusion, drowsiness, nausea, and vomiting. If you were on the flight and note any of those symptoms, go directly to the emergency room and tell them that you may have been exposed to bacterial meningitis.

I’ve always wanted to learn how to scuba dive, but part of me is terrified about the dangers of diving. I know it’s rare that someone is hurt or injured, but it does happen. In fact, a man diving this week in Key West died. His name was John Lumley, and he was scuba diving at one of Florida’s popular artificial reefs. He was found unconscious and brought to the surface, but he couldn’t be revived with CPR. What a shame!

I just heard about a small plane crashing near Orlando, in the Sanford area. The plane was a Cessna 310 twin engine, and reports are saying either 2 killed, and 3 injured, or 5 killed. Two homes were damaged and are on fire. Three of the victims were residents of one of the homes.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened in Florida. Just a few years ago, a plane crashed into a home on Davis Island in Tampa, killing the pilot.

How the heck does an Arctic seal wind up in a South Florida river? I don’t have a clue, but the little seal, named Hope, was removed for his safety and later died. The seal was spotted in the Indian River Lagoon and go away from rescue workers - keep in mind, this is a species normally not seen south of Boston. How did he ever survive the trip, let alone the 78 degree temps in the water? Living in the Tarpon River wasn’t doing him any good either. He couldn’t find the right food, and the warm temps were taking their toll, so he had to be grabbed in order to be given a chance. Unfortunately, the little guy died once he got to Sea World in Orlando.

Some residents of Orange County woke up to find the SWAT team camped out in their neighborhood this morning.

That’s because 56 year old Michael Zuzio, who happens to be a retired deputy sheriff from Nassau County, broke into his ex-girlfriend’s (Julie Bender) Orange County home and threatened to kill her. The break in set off an alarm at her house which prompted law enforcement to arrive on the scene.

What followed was a 5 hour standoff between Zuzio and the law. He ended up releasing Bender and then killed himself.

Those fires finally made the news in my neck of the woods, and it turns out they’re in central Florida. Most of the fires are in heavily wooded acreage, but one fire this weekend surprised residents of Orange County when it came too close to their homes. Thanks to Orange County Firefighters, the homes are safe, and the fire is out there. Fires continue to burn in just the wooded areas.

I was surprised to hear about Governor Crist calling for a state of emergency for the entire state today, due to wildfires. I didn’t read the paper today, so I don’t know where the fires are, but it seems a little extreme to put the whole state into a state of emergency when we’re not all experiencing the problem, doesn’t it? Yes, it is dry out. But there are no fires in my area, as far as I know.

Overkill, much?

When I went to Grad Night at Disney, back in 1983, we were bused to the event, and we left our cars in the school parking lot, and drove ourselves home in the morning when we returned. Seniors from Ocoee High School weren’t so lucky this weekend, because when they returned to the school after a night of fun and frolic, they found their cars vandalized. What a bummer! And what a shame that someone chose to ruin a great night for these kids by having them come home to broken windows and items stolen from their vehicles.

A man was arrested this weekend after molesting a girl at a hotel pool at Walt Disney World. The man (William Bishop, a 61 year old Florida resident) not only molested the child, but he videotaped it as well. The act occurred in some bushes located poolside at the Walt Disney World Swan hotel.

This should serve as a reminder to parents that just because you’re in the “happiest place on Earth”, you shouldn’t let your guard down. Being at Disney doesn’t guarantee your safety, or your child’s safety. I can’t even tell you how many times we’ve seen small children unattended at the pools and on the grounds of hotels in Orlando, and this act proves that it only takes a minute to turn a happy kid into a victim of a crime.

A jury found sex offender John Evander Couey guilty this week of kidnapping and raping 9 year old Jessica Lunsford. The sentencing phase of the trial will start this Tuesday.

The death toll for the storms across central Florida earlier this week is up to 19. My mom tried to call my godparents and couldn’t reach them, but she did get voice mail. I’m not sure if they have voice mail through the phone company (which I’m assuming would still be in service) or if it is an answering machine in their home. If it is a machine, then I’m taking the fact that we got it as a good sign. Their son lives south of us so we need to call him and see if he has been in touch with his parents. A lot of retirees in that area, specifically a large community known as “The Villages” lost their homes.

I was watching CNN last night and saw Anderson Cooper interviewing folks in that area…it’s a bit surreal knowing this happened so close to home, but our area was spared. I found the following numbers on Anderson Cooper’s 360 Blog - they may be of us if you’d like to help folks who were hurt or lost their homes in the storms.

Lake County
Lake County Emergency Management: 352-343-9442
Red Cross of Lake and Sumter Counties: 352-314-0883
United Way in Lake County: 352-223-2173 or 352-409-1860
Salvation Army of Leesburg: 352-365-2540

Volusia County
Red Cross of Volusia and Flagler counties: 386-226-1400 or toll free: 1-866-245-9180
United Way of Volusia County: 386-253-0563
Salvation Army: 386-236-2020

Other counties
Red Cross of Marion County: 352-622-3457
Red Cross of Citrus and Hernando Counties: 352-564-8455
Catholic Charities: 407-658-1818
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida: 407-295-1066

The wind was howling here last night, and we didn’t even get the worst of the storms. I read on Yahoo this morning that 14 people in the Lady Lake, FL area are dead. My godmother and godfather live in a mobile home retirement community in that area, so I’m planning on calling them this morning and making sure they’re ok, as dozen of mobile homes were damaged. 20,000 people were also left without power. We’re very, very lucky it was just “wind” in our area.

We can only hope that insurance rates for Florida homeowners will soon be on the decline, as Gov. Charlie Crist and others passed insurance reforms on Monday, January 23, 2007. Most homeowners in Florida were hit hard after the hurricanes of 2004 and 2005, and lawmakers have responded by reducing homeowners insurance premiums by 5 to 20 percent.

When we lived in evacuation zone “C”, in our former house, our insurance (through Citizens) was less than $1000 per year. After the storms, and just after we sold, I received a notice that our premiums were going up to $2400 a year! At that point, we were quite glad that we had sold and moved to higher, dryer ground. At our new home, we were able to get coverage from a company other than Citizens, for less than $2000 a year. Not back when you take into consideration that our current home is worth twice as much as our former residence.

The snow was falling during the Bears & Saints game tonight in Chicago, which may have given the Bears the edge they needed to win, 39-14. The Colts then made a huge comeback against the Patriots, sending them to Super Bowl XLI. This year also marks the first time that two black coaches have been at the Super Bowl - heck, there’s never been ONE black head coach at the Super Bowl, in 41 years!

The Super Bowl will be held in Miami this year, at Dolphin Stadium, on Sunday, February 4th. Hopefully the Bears will use this time between games to come up with a better version of 1985 “Superbowl Shuffle”. If they need help with moves, Prince is the featured half time act.

I read this article last night in the St. Pete Times - did you know that Florida law ALLOWS sex offenders to visit a school, if the sex offender has a child at the school? My stomach turned as soon as I read it, as I live not too far from the area where a sex offender kidnapped and killed Jessica Lunsford.

My husband and I actually had a disagreement of sorts over this article. He feels that if a sex offender has a child, that gives them the right to be on campus. I disagree. Regardless of whether or not a sex offender has been a sperm donor, or is father of the year, he has no place on a school campus around MY child.

Let me clarify that I also believe the Florida laws don’t use common sense when dictating who is a sex offender. Take the case of Emilio Johnston, who was mentioned in the article. At the age of 18, he was arrested for having sex with a 15 year old girl, and was ordered to register as a sex offender. I believe that people like Mr. Johnston are simply victim of a bad law. I see jim much differently from someone who was 30+ and had sex with a 15 year old. Or someone who is a sexual predator. I take no issue with “Romeo & Juliet” sex offenders being on campus, as long as they are supervised at all times. I do take issue with sexual offenders who fall into other catagories being on campus. I can not believe that after all the press regarding John Couey (who murdered Jessica Lunsford) working ON CAMPUS at a school, that Florida continues to permit sex offenders on school grounds, and in some cases, does not supervise them.

How does that protect my child? What are you going to do, Governor-Elect Charlie Crist, to protect our kids at school?

EDITED TO ADD: I’ve started a petition to send to Mr. Crist - please consider signing it so we can change the law to KEEP dangerous sex offenders out of our schools:

Ban Sex Offenders Who Are Parents From Coming To Florida Schools Petition

Did you hear about this off the wall kidnapping in Fort Myers? The mom got into a car with a stranger to provide directions (uhh…WHY?) and the stranger kicked mom out and kept the kid. The police think the baby was taken to satisfy a debt, but the parents deny that.

It’s definitely a head scratcher, and I don’t think we’re hearing the whole truth on it at this point.