Your daily look at news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today.
PRICE TAG FOR NEW TAMPA AREA EXPRESSWAY IS $454 MILLION
Florida Department of Transportation officials say a new expressway linking two major roads in the Tampa Bay area will cost about $454 million — about $116 million more than first announced. Most of the extra expense is from buying right-of-way along the route, a cost estimated at $93.5 million. The expressway will eventually link Interstate 275 and U.S. 19, and the unfunded project has been moved forward by as much as 20 years.
WOMAN, 2 CHILDREN KILLED IN I-10 CRASH
Authorities say a woman and two children from Alabama are dead following a crash on Interstate 10 in the Florida Panhandle. The Florida Highway Patrol reports that 64-year-old Diane Downey was heading east in a Chevrolet Impala, just a few miles east of Tallahassee, on Tuesday when her back end hit the front of a Honda Accord. The collision sent the Impala spinning into oncoming traffic, where it crashed head on with a semi-trailer. Downey and her passengers — a 10-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy — died in the crash.
CHARGE DROPPED AGAINST STATE OFFICIAL
Prosecutors in Orlando have dropped a misdemeanor charge of violating public meeting law against a former official with the Florida Department of Transportation. Prosecutors said Wednesday they have dropped the charge against former public affairs worker Rebekah Hammond, and she will now be available to testify against the two remaining defendants.
CONVICTION OVERTURNED IN MURDER FOR HIRE CASE
An appeals court has overturned the conviction of a South Florida woman sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to hire someone to kill her husband of just six months. Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal released an opinion Wednesday, ruling that the judge in 31-year-old Dalia Dippolito’s first trial was wrong for not questioning prospective jurors individually about pre-trial publicity. Dippolito was convicted in 2011 of solicitation to commit first-degree murder.
COP ONCE DREW GUN ON SQUIRREL-HUNTING QB WINSTON
Police say Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston and Florida State teammate Chris Casher were held at gunpoint by campus police nearly two years ago while hunting squirrels with a pellet gun. A police report said an officer responding to a call found the pair on a campus bike path with a long-barreled pistol. He drew his gun and ordered the players to the ground. They dropped the gun and complied. He and another responding officer determined it was a pellet gun and confiscated it. No charges were filed.
