1. law, govt and politics
2. politics
3. elections
4. presidential elections

Bucs lose another late lead, fall to Falcons 27-17. 1C
tampabay.com
FLORIDA’S BEST NEWSPAPER
F
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2014 | $1
House has big spenders
In the
know
STAMKOS NETS
PAIR AS BOLTS
BEAT RED WINGS
State candidates spent $24 million in a cycle where few races were competitive.
BY KATHLEEN MCGRORY
Tampa Bay’s captain reaches double digits in goals and
Ryan Callahan scores in the
shootout in the Lightning’s
4-3 victory. Sports,1C
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — State
Rep. Dana Young spent nearly
$250,000 on her re-election
campaign this year, including
$14,067 for printing and postage,
$5,450 for events and more than
$75,000 for advertising.
It made no difference on Elec-
Recruiting effort
reaches the pews
Tampa police officials are
visiting churches to help
diversify the ranks. Local,1B
Fate of ISIS leader
remains unclear
tion Day. The Tampa Republican
had no opponent.
Young wasn’t the only candidate to spend big on her campaign. Politicians seeking a seat
in the Florida House spent a
combined $23.8 million on their
races this year, elections records
show. That doesn’t include the
dollars spent by the parties and
outside groups.
Candidate spending, up 23
percent from 2004, did little
to change the landscape. Only
about 10 of the 120 House races
were competitive this year. The
vast majority of state representatives were re-elected to their
seats.
The spending was good news
for political consultants across
the state, who raked in millions
of dollars.
DRC Consulting took in about
$1.15 million in business, records
show. The Miami firm’s owner,
David Custin, said at least 85 percent of that money went directly
to mail pieces, phone banking
.
See HOUSE, 6A
“If anybody would have told me this is going to ruin your life, this is
going to make you withdraw, this is going to make you live on the street,
I would have never done it.” Stephanie Otero, recovering heroin addict
Answers on whether Islamic
State leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi was hurt in an airstrike are elusive. World, 4A
Wave crests in
St. Petersburg
Actor Jeremy Irons helps
wrap up the Blue Ocean
Film Festival and Conservation Summit. Local,1B
Another sign that
Jeb Bush may run
Former President George
W. Bush, his brother, said
chances for a presidential
nod are “50-50.” Nation, 4A
An updated Tampa Hillsborough Action Plan delights its
co-founder. Local,1B
Kevin Harvick wins his way
in, joining Denny Hamlin,
Joey Logano and Ryan
Newman. Sports,1C
Silent treatment
for North Korea
A mission by the United
States’ top spy to the communist nation will not lead
to any diplomatic opening,
officials say. World, 4A
OCTAVIO JONES | Times
Stephanie Otero, 23, right, holding her 4-month-old son, Matthew, talks to Julia Prince, 68, of Tampa, before worship service
starts at City Life Church in north Tampa on Oct. 22. Otero gets treatment for her addiction to heroin and Roxicodone.
On a long road from ruin
TODAY’S WEATHER
Warming trend
Noon
73°
4 p.m. 8 p.m.
74°
68°
20% chance of rain
More, back page of Sports
.
As heroin makes a resurgence in Tampa Bay, addicts have
ways to get help in the difficult process of recovering.
tampabay.com
Bucs Turning Point
BY LAURA C. MOREL | Times Staff Writer
S
Tampa Bay fell
apart after Austin
Seferian-Jenkins’
fourth-quarter touchdown,
Times staff writer Thomas
Bassinger says in his analysis at tampabay.com/bucs.
INDEX
Astrology
4F
Crosswords 13A, F
Business
6B
Editorials
Classified
F
Lottery
4A
3F
Puzzles
4F
Comics
Vol. 131 No. 109
© Times Publishing Co.
12A
tephanie Otero sat on a bucket behind a duplex with a needle
and two plastic bags of heroin.
She was addicted to Roxicodone, also known as roxies, but the
pills were hard to come by that summer day last year in Tampa.
“I had never tried heroin in my life,” Otero said, but she’d heard it had
the same effect as roxies.
Since the eradication of pill mills and law enforcement’s crackdown
on prescription drugs in recent years, authorities in Tampa Bay are now
seeing a resurgence in heroin, an older and sometimes deadlier drug.
Otero, 23, mixed the heroin with water and shot it into her arm.
She was hooked.
•••
The number of heroin submissions to
Pinellas County’s forensic lab has more
than doubled since 2012. At the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, detectives are investigating about a dozen
more cases than in 2013.
“Heroin is a very despicable drug,”
said Pinellas County Sheriff ’s Office
Capt. Mark Baughman, who oversees
the narcotics division. “We don’t want it
to get out of control. We want to get in
front of it.”
At the St. Petersburg Police Department, Lt. Antonio Gilliam said heroin
is the drug with the highest demand in
the city. Investigators have seized larger
quantities of the drug, priced at about
$100 per gram, equal to 0.03 ounces.
.
See HEROIN, 8A
After trip, a Bondi offer to lobbyist
Florida’s attorney general reportedly opened her home.
New York Times
Health
website
opens
today
New York Times
Final four set for
Sprint Cup crown
8 a.m.
58°
Top five spenders, 6A
Healthcare.gov allows
window shopping
before enrollment
starts on Saturday.
New vision for
creative incubator
.
• Dana Young,
Republican
incumbent,
unopposed
in race for
House District
60, spent
$250,000
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi,
after taking a free ride on a chartered jet
last year to a resort island far from her
home state, made an unusual offer to one
of the corporate lawyers from Washington
who helped foot the bill: an invitation to
stay at her Tampa home while recuperating from surgery.
The hospitality was extended to Lori
Kalani, a lobbyist and lawyer from Dickstein Shapiro, the Washington-based firm
that specializes in building personal relationships with state attorneys general to
help corporate clients avoid becoming targets of investigation.
The circumstances of the trip to Mackinac Island, Mich., and the subsequent
offer to host Kalani in convalescence were
uncovered as part of a continuing investigation by the New York Times into the
relationship between private lawyers and
state attorneys general. They make vivid
how aggressively Dickstein and firms like it
have worked in recent years to try to influence top state law enforcement officials.
Representatives from Dickstein Shapiro did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Bondi declined
to comment for this article.
The Florida Commission on Ethics is
reviewing a sworn complaint filed by a
Florida resident asking it to investigate
whether Dickstein violated state law by not
registering as a lobbying firm in the state.
.
See BONDI, 11A
WASHINGTON — The Obama
administration said Sunday
that consumers could shop for
health insurance and compare
their options on healthcare.gov
starting today, even before the
open enrollment period formally
begins on Saturday.
Andrew Slavitt, the No. 2 official at the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services, said the
new website would have more
information and would be easier
to use than the one that frustrated millions of consumers last fall.
Consumers will be able to sort
plans not only by the amount of
the premium, but also by the size
of the deductible, Slavitt said. He
said consumers also will be able
to see all health plans that have
special programs to manage conditions like asthma, heart disease,
depression, diabetes, high blood
pressure and high cholesterol.
The announcement came
as the Obama administration
ramped up preparations for the
second open enrollment period
under the Affordable Care Act.
People will be able to see prices
and other details of health plans
today, but would not be able to
buy insurance until the open
enrollment period starts Saturday. To see plans today after the
new feature is live: healthcare.
gov/see-plans/.
By contrast, consumers last
year could not see details of the
available health plans until the
first open enrollment period
began Oct. 1. Even then, consumers could not engage in anonymous “window shopping.” They
had to create accounts, providing
personal information in response
.
See HEALTH, 11A
Obama’s claim on jobs
in U.S. is only half true
BY LAUREN CARROLL
AND AARON SHAROCKMAN
Times Staff Writers
EVE EDELHEIT | Times
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi took
a free ride on a chartered jet last year to a
resort island in Michigan. Corporate lawyers
sponsored the gathering, record shows.
President Barack Obama made
a rare appearance on Sunday television, telling CBS’s Bob Schieffer
that Democrats lost last week’s
midterm elections because his
party failed to articulate the economic progress the country has
made over the past six years.
“The message that I took from
this election, and we’ve seen this
in a number of elections, successive elections, is people want to
see this city work. And they feel
as if it’s not working,” Obama
said in a taped interview from
the Oval Office.
“The economy has improved
significantly. There’s no doubt
about it,” Obama said. “We had
a jobs report for October that
showed that once again over
200,000 jobs created. We’ve
now created more than 10 million. The unemployment rate’s
.
See POLITIFACT, 5A