Friday's Top Stories

Matt Nelson | 10/9/2009

› Tampa Bay's Most Realistic Home Sellers in Pasco [Times]
James Thorner: Hillsborough County home sellers? Sorry. You're still a bit out of touch with the spending habits of the buying public. Sarasota: Realtor looks to short sales

› FPL Fined $25 Million for Massive Blackout Last Year [Sun Sentinel]
The outage was caused by a fault at an FPL substation west of Miami that rapidly cascaded through the system, disabling dozens of transmission lines around the state.

› Theme Parks Are Nothing New for SeaWorld's Buyer [Sentinel]
Through the years, Blackstone has acquired stakes in companies such as Universal Orlando, Merlin Entertainments Group, Harrah's Entertainment, La Quinta and LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels, a high-end hotel operator whose properties include nearly two dozen in Florida.

commentary
› For Sink, Politics Trumps Policy [St. Petersburg Times editorial]
Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is using the issue of civil rights restoration for ex-felons to position herself as a law-and-order candidate for governor in 2010. The Democratic candidate for governor should focus on the thousands of qualified ex-offenders who are still waiting for relief.

› NASA Craft Crashes into Moon [Florida Today]
NASA's $79-million Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission hopes to confirm the presence of water ice in freezing lunar craters that haven't seen sunlight for more than a billion years.

› Feds Auditing Florida Democratic Party [Times/Herald]
The Federal Election Commission has launched an extensive audit of of the Florida Democratic Party, after finding red flags in reviewing federal spending reports filed during the 2008 election cycle.

› Dynetech's Parent Company Files for Chapter 11 [Orlando Sentinel]
Under fire from regulators in Texas, the new parent firm of Orlando-based Dynetech Corp. — a big player in the infomercial and training seminar industry — filed bankruptcy Thursday to shield itself from creditors.