Good timing: Earnhardt ends 4-year drought with win /B1 MONDAY CITRUS COUNTY TODAY & Tuesday morning HIGH 91 LOW Mostly sunny. PAGE A4 66 www.chronicleonline.com JUNE 18, 2012 Florida’s Best Community Newspaper Serving Florida’s Best Community 50¢ VOLUME 117 ISSUE 316 INSIDE WORLD NEWS: Whooping it up Need ID? Prove it Greece votes Birth mystery causes woman Greece will remain in the eurozone./Page A12 hassle to renew driver’s license NATIONAL NEWS: SHEMIR WILES voter, collects her deceased Staff Writer husband’s Social Security check along with hers, and CRYSTAL RIVER— In 71 has always had a driver’s li- years of living, Jeannie cense since the day she Collins never needed her turned 16 years old. birth certificate. However, recently when Her story is a fascinating the Crystal River resident one: She was born the child attempted to renew her li- of an unwed young mother. cense, she said she felt as if She never knew who her fa- she had landed on some for- ther was. eign planet, because she To keep the pregnancy a was denied a new license Pot lessons secret, she believes her all because she didn’t have The easing of marijuana mother gave birth to her in- her birth certificate. laws in many states side her grandmother’s “I can’t do anything,” poses a challenge for home. Whether her actual Collins wept. “I feel like an parents./Page A9 birth was ever recorded, illegal alien.” she’s not sure. In 2010, new documenta- OPINION: But she has Medicare and tion requirements took ef- a Social Security number. fect for Florida residents Let She’s never left the country wanting a driver’s license so she’s never applied for a this be a passport. She’s a registered See ID/ Page A2 “cautionary tale “ for mobile home park residents. Rodney King EDITORIAL, PAGE A10 dead at age 47 LOCAL EFFORTS: Give blood Find out where the LifeSouth Bloodmobile will be parked for donations during upcoming MATTHEW BECK/Chronicle weeks./Page A8 Levi, a male whooping crane, tidies up around his nest Thursday morning at the Ho- mosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Levi and his mate Peepers have recently pro- Get food duced two eggs and park managers have removed their eggs. In this case, park Area groups offer managers replaced it with a sandhill crane egg. low-cost food options and free meals each Associated Press week./Page A8 Migratory crane Rodney King poses April 13 for a portrait in Los Angeles. ONLINE POLL: answers siren call of King died Sunday at age 47. Your choice? Do you want the Crystal his captive mate Man was key figure in LA riots River nuclear plant fixed MATTHEW BECK Staff Writer Associated Press nounced dead at 6:11 a.m., and two new police said. nuke plants LOS ANGELES — Rod- in Levy — HOMOSASSA Police Capt. Randy De County built? nly one thing could prevent ney King, the black motorist Anda said King had been by A. Yes. We need a long- Levi from making his final Peepers prunes through her feathers. whose 1991 videotaped the pool throughout the term energy plan and destination — her name is beating by Los Angeles po- early morning and had been nuclear is the way to go. Peepers. vocalize in order to breed.” lice officers was the touch- talking to his fiancée, who O stone for one of the most was inside the home at the B. No. Nuclear energy For the past six years, Levi, an That fact left the proverbial door scares me and they still adult whooping crane, would make wide open for Levi, a bird named for destructive race riots in the time. A statement from po- don’t know how to the long migration from Wisconsin to his identification number 501 banded nation’s history, was found lice said the preliminary in- dispose of the waste. Citrus County’s coastline only to come to his leg. at the bottom of his swim- vestigation indicates a C. Yes. Not that I care up a handful of miles short of his sum- So, at the very end of Levi’s long mi- ming pool early Sunday and drowning, with no signs of how energy is produced, mertime haunts in the marshland of gratory flight, the sweet vocalizations later pronounced dead. He foul play. but it’s the best bet for the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife from Peepers was all it would take to was 47. Investigators will await the economy of our Refuge. bring him to the ground. King’s fiancée called 911 autopsy results to determine region. Each year he passed overhead, and “She would call out to him when at 5:25 a.m. to report that whether drugs or alcohol D. No. Natural gas the wild cranes would fly over and he she found him in the pool at were involved, but De Anda plants are the way to the repeated calls from his feathered would dive right in here,” Art Yerian their home in Rialto, Calif., said there were no alcoholic go. goddess diverted his course. said of the park he manages. beverages or paraphernalia To vote, visit www. Peepers, a resident at the Ho- police Lt. Dean Hardin mosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, Whooping cranes get their name said. found near the pool. chronicleonline.com. Authorities didn’t identify Click on the word since the spring of 2003, has had other from their strong vocalizations used Officers arrived to find the fiancée. King earlier “Opinion” in the menu suitors. Before Levi there was Rocky. to communicate and aid in the breed- King in the deep end of the to see the poll. But like many males, Rocky had ing ritual. pool and pulled him out. said he was engaged to Cyn- Yerian said Levi’s annual arrival at thia Kelley, one of the jurors Results will appear poor communication skills. King was unresponsive, the park had the potential to compro- in the civil rights case that next Monday. Find last “Rocky couldn’t vocalize,” Park and officers began CPR week’s online poll Manager Art Yerian said Thursday mise the bird’s well-being and that of gave King $3.8 million in until paramedics arrived. damages. results./Page A4 morning. “And they need to be able to See WHOOPING/ Page A7 King was taken to the hos- pital, where he was pro- See KING/ Page A6 COMING UP TOMORROW: So long Everyone’s all-around Nature Coast EMS wins top place in state good guy and longtime area law enforcement CHRIS VAN ORMER officer Capt. Charlie Simmons is hanging up Staff Writer his badge./Tuesday Any county resident who antici- INDEX pates calling 911 should feel confi- dent about the responders. Comics ....................B7 Nature Coast Emergency Med- Crossword ................B6 ical Services (EMS) Team Staying Editorial..................A10 Alive just won the 2012 State Team Entertainment ..........B5 Showcase Competition hosted June Horoscope ................B5 12 in Orlando by the Florida Ster- Lottery Numbers ......B4 ling Council. Lottery Payouts ........B5 Movies ......................B7 The annual Sterling Conference Obituaries ................A6 Team Showcase provides a public TV Listings................B6 forum for participating teams to Classifieds ................B8 demonstrate the principles and Special to the Chronicle techniques of improving organiza- Nature Coast Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Team Staying Alive recently won the 2012 State Team Showcase tional performance through em- Competition. From left at the June 12 meeting of the Citrus County Board of County Commissioners are: Kristin Daw- ployee participation, and presents iczkowski, operations administrative assistant; Todd Hockert, quality improvement director; Dr. Mary Ann Kolar, med- ical director; Wayne Martin, operations chief; BOCC Chairman Winn Webb; Mike Hall, CEO and president; and John See EMS/ Page A6 Pieno, Florida Sterling Council chairman. A2 MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012 STATE CITRUS COUNTY (FL) CHRONICLE Injury no match for amputee veteran’s“ attitude R. NORMAN MOODY “I want to get other dis- Merritt Island when trans- challenge, but it was a chal- Florida Today abled people, especially dis- If I can do it, why can’t ferred to Cape Canaveral lenge like everybody would abled veterans, up in a Air Force Station to serve as have, not because I’m an MERRITT ISLAND — A plane,” he said. another person do it? assistant chief of operations amputee.” prosthetic leg could not stop At first, handling the ped- for the 45th Security Andrew Lourake, a re- Anthony Pizzifred. It simply als on the small airplanes “ Anthony Pizzifred Squadron. And he has con- tired Air Force lieutenant meant adapting. was a challenge, as both feet lost left leg in 2004 during deployment in Afghanistan. tinued his flight lessons. colonel who continued pi- After having his left leg are needed to control the “I had no idea he was an loting airplanes after a leg amputated by a land mine at rudder. But it soon became nel. A few weeks later, many and when he woke up, amputee,” said Marlene amputation, said Pizzifred the age of 19 while pa- second nature. Pizzifred began to plot his he didn’t even recognize Dusz, a dispatcher at Voyager has not let anything stand in trolling the perimeter of his Pizzifred said his desire course. me.” Aviation on Merritt Island, his way. base in Afghanistan, to help others comes partly “I was 20,” he said. “I did- Turnock said she knew where Pizzifred completed “Tony is an example for Pizzifred persuaded Air because other military serv- n’t know anything, no other her son would overcome the his lessons to receive his pri- not only people with griev- Force officials to allow him ice members reached out to thing besides being an MP loss of his leg and succeed.