11/15-state Page

8A S a t u r d a y >> N o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 8

N E W S C H I E F >> W W W. N E W S C H I E F. C OM

STATE

President of FIU stepping down DAMIAN GRASS

The Associated Press

MIAMI — Florida International University’s fourth president has announced his retirement to the Board of Trustees and said Friday he will serve long enough to give the board a chance to conduct a national seach for his successor. “It is with mixed emotions that I announce my decision to step down as president,” 68year-old Modesto A. Maidique said. “But I’m not in a hurry. I’m not going anywhere.” Maidique, who has headed the school since 1986, is the second longest-serving research university president in the nation. During his 22 years at the helm, the Cuban-born president transformed FIU into South Florida’s only research university, netting $100 million in grants, and securing an endowment of $100 million.

Budget cuts exhausting school funds By BILL KACZOR

The Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE — The state’s public schools have laid off lunchroom workers and bus drivers, slashed administration, put maintenance on hold and soon will exhaust their reserve funds. Any more budget cuts, though, would reach into the classroom, said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association. School districts will be at the bottom of their reserves after the latest round of cuts announced last week, Blanton said Friday. School districts began the year with almost 2 percent fewer dollars per student.

The Associated Press

Space shuttle Endeavour launches Friday at Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Endeavor is carrying supplies for remodeling the international space station.

Shuttle lights up sky on way to orbit Endeavor is carrying home-remodeling equipment to the international space station By MARCIA DUNN

The Associated Press

C A P E C A N AV E R A L — Space shuttle Endeavour and a crew of seven blasted into the night sky Friday, bound for the international space station and the most extreme home makeover project ever attempted by astronauts. The shuttle rose off its launch pad at 7:55 p.m. EST, right on time, in a brilliant flash of light visible for miles around. “It ’s ou r tu r n to take home improvement to a

new level after 10 years of international space station construction,” commander Christopher Ferguson radioed before liftoff. Ferguson and his crew will double as kitchen and bathroom installers once they arrive at the space station Sunday, hooking up extra cooking and sleeping equipment so the station’s crew can expand next year. They will deliver a new refrigerator as well, giving residents much-desired cold drinks for a change. The nighttime launch was

a special treat for onlookers. Only about a quarter of all shuttle flights begin in darkness, and this one made for a spectacular show. The moonrise that preceded the launch was an extra touch; the nearly full moon provided a breathtaking backdrop. The shuttle was visible for more than three minutes, resembling a bright star until it finally vanished. NASA almost called off the launch at the last minute because workers didn’t fasten a door on the pad. Launch controllers assured

Station Additions n Two bedrooms n Bathroom n Kitchenette n Exercise machine n NASA’s revolutionary new recycling system designed to turn urine and condensation into drinking water. everyone that the flapping door would not break off and strike Endeavour and that, at worst, the room used to gain access to the shuttle

would be damaged. “The vehicle’s in good shape, the weather’s beautiful,” launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts just before liftoff. “Good luck, Godspeed, and have a Happy Thanksgiving on orbit.” Endeavour and its crew will spend the next 15 days in orbit. The shuttle holds enough irradiated Thanksgiving turkey dinners for everyone, with plenty of space-style candied yams, corn bread stuf f ing and cranberry-apple dessert.

Woman attempting to swim across Atlantic Ocean By ANTONIO GONZALEZ The Associated Press

OFF THE COAST OF MIAMI — The Catamaran isn’t even out of Biscayne Bay yet, and already 56-year-old mother-turned-adventurer Jennifer Figge is giddy with excitement. She’s squeezing into her wetsuit for a final test before her latest endeavor — one that even her own crew calls crazy. The plan goes something like this. She will swim 2,100 miles, from the Cape Verde Islands off Africa to Barbados. She’ll do it in a shark cage attached to a sailboat, swim-

863-299-5808 FINANCIAL SERVICES Retirement Planning Employee Benefits Planning Health and Life Insurance

56 4th Street N.W. Suite 201 Winter Haven

ming for six to eight hours a day without rest. The journey will take about two months, and would make her the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. “I’m saving lots of money,” she jokes. “I only have to buy a one-way ticket.” The way Figge sees it, she’s been planning the expedition since she was 11 years old. During a flight to Italy with her mother, Margaret Roberts, a storm was brewing below the plane. While most children would have been scared, Figge had other thoughts. “I told my mother, ‘I hope that lightning hits the plane and we get to go down in the middle of the Atlantic and get into those cool life vests and swim the rest of the way,’” she said. She and her family have always lived a bit large. Her mother was a longtime professional opera singer. Her husband was a successful banker who is now retired. And Figge’s son, Alex, is a race-car driver in the Lemans Series. It was through him that she found endurance sports.

The Associated Press

Swimmer Jennifer Figge poses Oct. 31 inside a shark cage that she will use for her 2,100 miles trans Atlantic swim. She will swim six to eight hours a day without a rest in the cage attached to her boat. He asked her to stop smoking for his 7th birthday, and when she did, she had to replace her cigarette addiction with another habit. The answer? The Davenport, Iowa, native completed the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa in 1990 with her husband. She was hooked.

In all, Figge has now conquered more than 3,000 miles running and crossed almost 25 channels swimming (they have ranged from eight miles in length to a few hundred miles), battling the elements all over the planet. She fought through eightfoot-swells and was stung by a man-of-war on her left

leg during a 52-mile, threeday swim from Cay Sal Bank north of Cuba to Marathon Key last year. She dodged rock-throwing Gypsies and outran hungry dogs during a 350-mile run across Romania. She swam through waters contaminated with sheep manure when she crossed the Straits of Tiran off Egypt, and wind gusts near 80 mph lifted her off her feet in the Black Sand Desert during a 300-mile run across Iceland. Each time, she was left wanting more. “I haven’t really had many challenges in life, so I have to challenge myself,” Figge said. “Pushing myself to the limit is the only way I know how.” Figge would not be the first to swim across the Atlantic, but she would apparently be the first woman. Frenchman Benoit Lecomte is believed to have been the first to record a trans-Atlantic swim. He swam 3,716 miles from Cape Cod, Mass., to the Brittany region of France in 1998. The journey took him 73 days, stopping along the way at the Azores Islands.

Securities Provided Through SECURITIES SERVICE NETWORK, Inc., Member NASD, SIPC, MSRB

floridabriefs Fla. GOP legislative candidate concedes

Microdermabrasion Facial Rejuvenation Laser Hair Removal Spider Veins & Broken Capillaries Botox: Crows Feet, Forehead and Neck Radiesse: Fine Line Injection Correction for Moderate to Severe Facial Wrinkles and Folds Juvederm: Parenthesis on Face Cosmoderm: Wrinkles Around Lips

say bye-bye /+
0*2*/#"
('*#.

"'+.
0
-#1+'-
--'1#"#-!' /
'.
/')#
/+
'"
$-#2#((
/+
/&#
.'%*.
+$
%'*%
+*"
('*'!
*+2
+6#-.
/&#
(/#./
'*
+.)#/'!
.#-
&#-,4
$+-
4+0-
,#-.+*(
#*&*!#)#*/
+-
)+-#
'*$+-)/'+*
+-

FREE
!+*.0(//'+*
!((
/+"4


#3/

*"
(#-*
 +0/
+0-
(/#-*/'1#.
/+
!+.)#/'!
.0-%#-4


Laser Resurfacing

ESTHETICS   
 
    
  

5

   
  


>> TALLAHASSEE — The Republican challenger in Florida’s only previously undecided legislative race has conceded. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Debbie Boyd of Newberry led by 176 votes over Republican Elizabeth Porter, a Columbia County commissioner, after a machine recount. Due to the slim margin of less than a quarter of a percent, the state Elections Canvassing Commission then ordered a manual recount. Porter, though, asked the panel headed by Gov. Charlie Crist to stop the second recount Thursday.

3rd-grader shows up with gun >> FORT LAUDERDALE — Police say a third-grader brought a gun to school and showed it off to a classmate in Fort Lauderdale. The incident happened about 10:45 a.m. Friday at Walker Elementary School and came just two days after a student across town at Dillard High School was killed in a school hallway.

The child allegedly showed a 9 mm handgun to a classmate, who then reported it to a teacher.

Bone found inside shark not human

>> POMPANO BEACH — A fishing boat charter captain discovered a bone inside a 9-foot long shark. Broward County Sheriff’s >> FORT LAUDERDALE — Officials deputies said the captain are probing whether a teacher thought the bone was human and called police Friday mornor staff member at a Fort Lauderdale high school knew a ing. The six-inch bone turned young woman had a gun before out not to be human, however. Captain Mark Quartiano she fatally shot her classmate. — who is known locally as Broward Schools Superin“Mark the Shark” — was guttendent James Notter conting the fish Friday morning. firmed the investigation into whether Teah Wimberly’s possession of a weapon was known by someone at Dillard High and went unreported to authorities. MIAMI — The alleged ringleader of a plot to destroy Chicago’s Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices won’t be released on bail before a third trial begins in January. >> MIAMI — A federal judge A federal judge in Miami in Miami has ordered work refused Friday to grant bail for stopped on a proposed one-mile 34-year-old Narseal Batiste. bridge on a road through the He’s been jailed for 29 months Everglades so that environin the so-called “Liberty City mental impacts can be studied. Seven” terrorism case, which U.S. District Judge Ursula has had two mistrials because Ungaro issed an order Friday jurors could not come to unanihalting the U.S. Army Corps of mous verdicts. Engineers project on Tamiami From News Chief wire reports Trail west of Miami.

Police continue to probe shooting

Still no bail in Liberty City case

Judge halts work on 1-mile bridge