Sinkhole that swallowed Tampa man in bedroom grows deeper

AP

Jeff Bush's family and friends hug outside of the house where a sinkhole swallowed Bush in his bedroom.

SEFFNER, Fla. — Engineers worked gingerly Saturday morning to find out more about a slowly growing sinkhole that swallowed a Florida man in his bedroom, believing the entire house could eventually succumb to the unstable ground.

Jeff Bush, 37, was in his bedroom Thursday night when the earth opened and took him and everything else in his room. Five other people were in the house but managed to escape unharmed. Bush's brother jumped into the hole to try to help, but he had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy.

AP

Jeff Bush

Engineers began doing more tests at 7 a.m. Saturday. Crews with equipment were at the home next door, one of two that has been evacuated. By 10 a.m., officials moved media crews farther away from the Bush house so experts could perform tests on the home across the street. It's unclear how large the sinkhole is, or whether it leads to other caverns and chasms throughout the neighborhood. Experts say the underground of West Central Florida looks similar to Swiss cheese, with the geography lending itself to sinkholes.

PHOTOS: INCREDIBLE FLORIDA SINKHOLES

Experts spent the previous day on the property, taking soil samples and running various tests — while acknowledging that the entire lot where Bush lay entombed was dangerous. No one was allowed in the home.

"I cannot tell you why it has not collapsed yet," Bill Bracken, the owner of an engineering company called to assess the sinkhole, said of the home. He described the earth below as a "very large, very fluid mass."

"This is not your typical sinkhole," said Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill. "This is a chasm. For that reason, we're being very deliberate."

Officials delicately addressed another sad reality: Bush was likely dead and the family wanted his body. Merrill, though, said they didn't want to jeopardize any more lives.

"They would like us to go in quickly and locate Mr. Bush," Merrill said. Officials added Saturday morning that a fund had been set up to help the families affected by the sinkhole.

On Saturday, Jeremy Bush — who tried to rescue his brother when the earth opened — lay flowers and a stuffed lamb near the house and wept.

Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Roger called the situation "very complex."

"It's continuing to evolve, and the ground is continuing to collapse," he said.

Sinkholes are so common in Florida that state law requires home insurers to provide coverage against the danger. While some cars, homes and other buildings have been devoured, it's extremely rare for them to swallow a person.

Florida is highly prone to sinkholes because there are caverns below ground of limestone, a porous rock that easily dissolves in water.

"You can almost envision a piece of Swiss cheese," Taylor Yarkosky, a sinkhole expert from Brooksville, Fla., said while gesturing to the ground and the sky blue home where the earth opened in Seffner. "Any house in Florida could be in that same situation."

A sinkhole near Orlando grew to 400 feet across in 1981 and devoured five sports cars, most of two businesses, a three-bedroom house and the deep end of an Olympic-size swimming pool.

More than 500 sinkholes have been reported in Hillsborough County alone since the government started keeping track in 1954, according to the state's environmental agency.

The sinkhole, estimated at 20 feet across and 20 feet deep, caused the home's concrete floor to cave in around 11 p.m. Thursday as everyone in the Tampa-area house was turning in for the night. It gave way with a loud crash that sounded like a car hitting the house and brought Bush's brother running.

Jeremy Bush said he jumped into the hole but couldn't see his brother and had to be rescued himself by a sheriff's deputy who reached out and pulled him to safety as the ground crumbled around him.

"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," Jeremy Bush said through tears Friday in a neighbor's yard. "But I just couldn't do nothing."

He added: "I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him."

A dresser and the TV set had vanished down the hole, along with most of Bush's bed.

A sheriff's deputy who was the first to respond to a frantic 911 call said when he arrived, he saw Jeremy Bush.

Deputy Douglas Duvall said he reached down as if he was "sticking his hand into the floor" to help Jeremy Bush. Duvall said he didn't see anyone else in the hole.

As he pulled Bush out, "everything was sinking," Duvall said.

Engineers said they may have to demolish the small house, even though from the outside there appeared to be nothing wrong with the four-bedroom, concrete-wall structure, built in 1974.

Jeremy Bush said someone came out to the home a couple of months ago to check for sinkholes and other things, apparently for insurance purposes.

"He said there was nothing wrong with the house. Nothing. And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole," Bush said.

AP

Engineers talk in front of Jeff Bush's home, where a sinkhole opened up underneath his bedroom and swallowed him Thursday night.

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Tom Hudson: China’s new leaders plan quiet transition

If everything goes smoothly, you won’t hear much out of China in the new week. And that’s the way its new leaders want it. Even though the world’s second largest economy officially seats a new president and premier, the beginning of China’s parliamentary session on Tuesday comes without the usual pomp and circumstance. Instead, China’s new leaders hope to show their own version of austerity. For instance, there will be no booze at official meals.

The party leaders want a sober beginning to their terms as the hope for a more sober Chinese economy. They want to avoid any significant pronouncements that could threat China’s gentle economic recovery. The country’s biggest trading partner, Europe, continues to struggle, tensions with Japan have been rising and Chinese workers have been demanding (and in some cases getting) pay raises. Chinese home prices have heated up again as the Beijing government moved late last year to stimulate its economy.

It came after China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in 13 years. The new government knows that its political stability depends upon a steady economy. With choking air pollution, a horrendous record on food safety and sanctioned corruption, the new slate of leaders taking their seats this week would like to reduce China’s reliance on exports to fuel its economic expansion, reassure its trading partners it wants to play fair and stoke a steady and sustainable rise of living standards.

Since early December as the stimulus efforts began, the Shanghai Stock Exchange index has shot up 21 percent. Electricity production is rising and manufacturing has rebounded too. But the political volume has been muted.

Tom Hudson is a financial journalist based in Miami. He is the former co-anchor and managing editor of Nightly Business Report on public television.

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Life after death: For wife, son of slain Nova Southeastern University professor Joseph Morrissey, the nightmare goes on

Joe Morrissey loved country music, but his wife, Kay, never paid much attention to it until after he died.

How could the cheery mom of an adorable 5-year-old, who thanked God morning and night for the blessings of a loving husband and a comfortable home, relate to those weepy lyrics about tragedy and heartbreak?

Before April 5, 2010, Kay and Joe couldn’t have been happier. They so adored little Patrick, whom they’d adopted as an infant from South Korea, that they’d playfully fight about who’d get to feed and change him.

Money wasn’t a problem either. Kay, who came to the United States as a child from Peru, has an MBA and is director of operations, finance and human Resources for Jewish Family Services of Broward County.

Joe, a cancer researcher with a doctorate from Stanford University and an international reputation, taught pharmacology at Nova Southeastern University. Their combined incomes afforded a $393,000 house in Plantation, ice hockey and kung fu lessons for Patrick, foreign travel, and donations to the Catholic church.

They were planning to adopt a second Korean baby: a little girl with a cleft palate.

But something unthinkable shattered that blissful life nearly three years ago, and suddenly, those weepy lyrics made perfect sense.

The night of April 5, a homicidal father/son duo broke into the Morrisseys’ home, restrained Joe and Kay with plastic zip ties, then forced them, at gunpoint, to drive to the bank and withdraw $500 from an ATM.

Kay, hysterical, pleaded to take Patrick. But he was the assailants’ trump card. Don’t try anything, the man in the car told Joe and Kay, because someone’s at the house with your son.

On their return, one of the men hacked at Joe with a Bowie knife. Kay, re-restrained, lay next to her son on her bed, listening to her husband beg for his life. Patrick pretended to be asleep, like Daddy told him to do.

“Out of the whole crime, the worst for me to deal with are Joe’s last minutes,’’ she said. “He suffered.’’

The attackers splashed gasoline around the house and set the kitchen alight. After a fire alarm scared them off, Kay sent Patrick, who had not been tied up, for scissors to cut the zip ties, then grabbed him and ran screaming toward a neighbor.

As Patrick scurried across the street, Kay — barefoot, in her pajamas — ran back and pulled Joe’s body from the burning kitchen onto the pool deck.

The ordeal had dragged on for 90 minutes.

Then began what Kay Morrissey calls “the crime after the crime,’’ the emotional, financial and legal consequences that burden victims long after the yellow police tape comes down and leave a law-abiding, middle-class mom wondering what in the world her family did to deserve this.

Now, Kay Morrissey starts every day listening to a country-Western song: Stand, by Rascal Flatts.

You feel like a candle in a hurricane

Just like a picture with a broken frame

Alone and helpless, like you’ve lost your fight

But you’ll be all right, you’ll be all right.

The song has become her anthem.

On your knees you look up

Decide you’ve had enough

You get mad, you get strong

Wipe your hands, shake it off

Then you stand. Then you stand.

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Siobhan Finneran Leaves Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey fans were rocked by the deaths of Lady Sybil and Matthew Crawley after actors Jessica Brown Findlay and Dan Stevens asked to leave the uber-popular show, and now another actor has asked to exit Downton: Siobhan Finneran, who plays O'Brien!

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"I'm not doing any more," she said. "O'Brien is a thoroughly despicable human being -- that was great to play." A spokesperson for Downton confirmed the news to HuffPo UK.

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The good news is The Grimm Reaper will most likely stay away this time as creator Julian Fellowes previously said, "When an actor playing a servant wants to leave, there isn't really a problem -- [that character gets] another job," he says. "With members of the family, once they're not prepared to come back for any episodes at all, then it means death. Because how believable would it be that Matthew never wanted to see the baby, never wanted to see his wife? And was never seen again at the estate that he was the heir to? So we didn't have any option, really. I was as sorry as everyone else."

The fourth season of Downton Abbey is currently filming in England.

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Coca-Cola paid CEO $21.6 million for 2012

REUTERS

Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent at Davos in January

Coca-Cola Co. gave Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent a pay package worth $21.6 million last year, as the world's biggest beverage maker navigated shifting drinking habits in the US and sold more of its drinks overseas.

The compensation is up from the $21.2 million Kent received in 2011, according to an Associated Press analysis.

The bump in pay was mostly the result of Kent's salary of $1.55 million, which was up 15 percent from the previous year. Stock and option awards were about even at $13.1 million. Incentive pay, which is based on formula tied to the company's performance, was unchanged at $6 million. All other compensation came to $963,816 and included costs for use of the company plane, a car and drive and contributions to retirement plans.

In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Coca-Cola noted that the company delivered profit growth in a year "marked by continued uncertainty in the global economy." The Atlanta-based company's profit in 2012 rose 5 percent to $9.02 billion, with global sales volume up 4 percent.

Kent, 60, took the helm as Coca-Cola's top executive in 2008. About a year later, he unveiled a plan to double the company's revenue by 2020, fueled by growth in China, India and other countries where the ranks of middle-class people are growing. At the time, Kent noted that Coca-Cola had to pay attention and react to changes in the world, which he said it hadn't done from 2000 to 2004.

Kent first joined Coca-Cola in 1978 and served in a variety of positions until 1998, when he left to become president and CEO of Efes Beverage Group. He returned to Coca-Cola in May 2005 and was named president of Coca-Cola International in January 2006 and appointed president and chief operating officer of the company in December 2006.

The Associated Press calculation of CEO pay is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonus, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with regulators.

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Florida class-action case takes aim at Citizens’ reinspection program

Thousands of Florida homeowners buffeted by higher windstorm premiums have sued state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to recover potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in “back-door” rate increases driven by “arbitrary” reinspections of their residences.

The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in Broward Circuit Wednesday, aims to halt Citizens’ reinspection program, claiming it has illegally stripped discounts from homeowners who had earned them under a 2007 inspection program approved by the Florida Legislature. Their original inspections were supposed to be valid for five years.

But in 2010, Citizens violated the due-process rights of homeowners, who had submitted official inspection forms, by arbitrarily reinspecting their properties to boost lost revenue that the agency could not generate lawfully through premium hikes, the suit said.

Lawyers who filed the suit, whose class representative is a Broward homeowner, said Citizens violated the due-process rights of its policyholders, costing each higher premiums averaging upwards of $1,000 — and possibly more — a year.

The collective cost to homeowners throughout Florida exceeds more than $100 million, said attorney Todd Stabinksi, whose Miami law firm, Stabinksi & Funt, filed the suit with Farmer, Jaffe of Fort Lauderdale and Kula & Samson of Aventura. They gathered Thursday for a press conference outside the West Broward County Courthouse in Plantation.

“Citizens got the benefit of lowering their risks, but Citizens’ policyholders did not get the benefit of lower premiums,” Stabinski said. “It should have been a mutually beneficial bargain.”

Consumer advocates have accused Citizens of using the reinspection program to impose “massive” rate hikes on homeowners. Citizens has denied the charge, saying that it is simply trying to get accurate information about the homes it insures.

“Since at least 2010, Citizens has used a wind mitigation reinspection program to systemtically deprive policy holders of legitimate wind mitigation credits,” said a nonprofit group, Florida Association for Insurance Reform, which praised the legal action.

A spokesperson for Citizens said the company has been operating under the law, and that the reinspections came after regulators changed the mitigation criteria. “Our position is Citizens’ reinspections were conducted under statutory authority afforded any insurer to verify, at the insurer’s expense, the accuracy of inspection reports submitted for a mitigation discount,” said spokesman Michael Peltier.

Discontent has been widespread among Citizens’ policyholders, who spent large sums of money on roof, window and other upgrades to earn windstorm mitigation discounts while protecting their homes against potential hurricane damage. In response, Citizens unveiled major changes to its home reinspection program last August, after consumers expressed outrage over media reports about a staggering $137 million in premium increases generated by the unpopular program.

Under its new plans, homeowners who lose insurance discounts because of a reinspection can receive a second inspection free of charge. They will have new tools to dispute the findings of the first reinspection. That decision could impact more than 200,000 property owners, who have already seen their premiums go up by an average of about $800 after the initial reinspection.

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South Florida has groups for cyclists of every stripe

For George Feliciano riding his bicycle is not just an escape. It’s a way of life.

He has spent at least $15,000 on bicycles since he adopted the hobby in 1999. And he now owns five: two road bikes, two mountain bikes and a special edition retro bike.

As he gained expertise, Feliciano began to ride with friends. In 2003, he co-founded Team Sindacato, a group of about 25 aficionados, ages 35 to 55, who wear professional cycling clothing and are not afraid of speed. With the help of sponsors, they have traveled to competitions in places like Mount Dora, in Central Florida, and La Vuelta, Puerto Rico.

“We are enthusiasts,” Feliciano, 51, said. “Some of us are fitness freaks, but it’s really about adopting a lifestyle.”

For those like Feliciano who enjoy the camaraderie of riding in a cycling group, there are thousands of choices in Miami-Dade. Some ride for exercise or to socialize, while others see cycling a way to promote issues like environmental conservation.

In the streets of Miami-Dade, there is safety in numbers. Cyclists say South Florida is among the most dangerous areas in the country in which to ride a bike.

“It feels safer to ride in a large group because people definitely see you and people work to give you more room,” said Collin Worth, the bicycle coordinator for the city of Miami. “Where if you ride alone they might harass you and not treat you with the dignity that you deserve.”

Before joining a group, experts suggest, beginners should buy an inexpensive bicycle and try short distances on easy trails. As the comfort level increases gradually, the need for a better bike will too. Riding groups usually require some safety training.

“You need to understand how to ride with people who are in front or behind you. You don’t want to hit some one’s wheel, because it can cause an accident,” said Xavier Falconi, the president of the Everglades Bicycle Club.

The Everglades Bicycle Club, founded in 1976, has a reputation for embracing beginners. The group of about 500 has several subgroups. Members pay a $25 annual fee or a $30 fee for a family of more than two.

“We classify the groups according to the speeds people ride,” Falconi said. “There is a lot of communication in a group. Others have to know if I’m turning or if a car is passing by. Over time we grow to trust each other. Our lives depend on it. It’s like being in a relationship. You slowly grow into knowing the other person.”

Worth, 32, likes groups that “grow organically” and considers himself a hipster when it comes to his preference for old bikes that are rebuilt.

The reason why many cycling enthusiasts own more than one bike, Worth said, is because there are so many different types of trails. A mountain bike is used in rough terrain, so it has suspension on the frame, gears, powerful brakes, larger tires, and heavier wheels.

In Miami-Dade the best place for this type of bike, Worth said, is at trail that the Virginia Key Bicycle Club put together at the historic Virginia Beach park. Worth and other club members worked to get the trails in 2011. The park now has a reputation among riders for having some of the most beautiful views in the country.

Adam Schachner, the co-founder of Emerge Miami, a group of about 150 that has been around since 2007, said Miami has some of the most exciting neighborhoods to explore.

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JWOWW Duct Tapes Breasts For NOH8 Campaign

That's one way to get people's attention. Jenni "JWOWW" Farley strips down in support of gay rights and marriage equality for the latest ad campaign for the organization NOH8. Posing in nothing but a duct tape bra that she, according to the organization's website, crafted, this scantily-clad photo comes just a week after the reality star revealed her own sexual encounter with another female.

During a recent appearance on Logo TV's That Sex Show, JWOWW, 27, confessed that at age 21 she engaged in a very enjoyable same-sex romp with an exotic dancer. "I ended up in a New York City strip club and I hooked up with a Russian stripper in the Boom Boom Room. The room that they say doesn't exist-- It exists."

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For more pics from JWOWW's NOH8 photo shoot, click HERE.

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Space artifacts including Apollo 11 log entry to be auctioned off in NY

A sale of space artifacts, including the so-called Space Magna Carta, is coming to New York.

The Bonhams sale will be held March 25.

The 1975 certificate has a pre-sale estimate of $60,000 to $100,000. It marks the first successful docking of America's Apollo and the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz.

The text, in Russian and English, advocates peace and cooperation.

The astronauts signed the document in space. It includes an illustration of the Apollo and Soyuz locked in orbit.

The certificate is one of four in existence; one is at the Smithsonian.

Another lot features a two-page Apollo 11 log entry.

It describes the computer procedures that allowed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to lift off from the moon. Its presale estimate is $70,000 to $90,000.

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Don’t get too personal on LinkedIn

Have you ever received a request to connect on LinkedIn from someone you didn’t know or couldn’t remember?

A few weeks ago, Josh Turner encountered this situation. The online request to connect came from a businessman on the opposite coast of the United States. It came with a short introduction that ended with “Let’s go Blues!” a reference to Turner’s favorite hockey team in St. Louis that he had mentioned in his profile. “It was a personal connection … that’s building rapport.”

LinkedIn is known for being the professional social network where members expect you to keep buttoned-down behavior and network online like you would at a business event. With more than 200 million registered users, the site facilitates interaction as a way to boost your stature, gain a potential customer or rub elbows with a future boss.

But unlike most other social networking sites, LinkedIn is all about business — and you need to take special care that you act accordingly. As in any workplace, the right amount of personal information sharing could be the foot in the door, say experts. The wrong amount could slam it closed.

“Anyone in business needs a professional online presence,’’ says Vanessa McGovern, the VP of Business Development for the Global Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs and a consultant to business owners on how to use LinkedIn. But they should also heed LinkedIn etiquette or risk sending the wrong messages.

One of the biggest mistakes, McGovern says is getting too personal — or not personal enough.

Sending a request to connect blindly equates to cold calling and likely will lead nowhere. Instead, it should come with a personal note, an explanation of who you are, where you met, or how the connection can benefit both parties, McGovern explains.

Your profile should get a little personal, too, she says. “Talk about yourself in the first person and add a personal flair — your goals, your passion … make yourself seem human.”

Beyond that, keep your LinkedIn posts, invitations, comments and photos professional, McGovern says.

If you had a hard day at the office or your child just won an award, you may want to share it with your personal network elsewhere — but not on LinkedIn.

“This is not Facebook. Only share what you would share at a professional networking event,” she says.

Another etiquette pitfall on LinkedIn is the hit and run — making a connection and not following up.

At least once a week, Ari Rollnick, a principal in kabookaboo, an integrated marketing agency in Coral Gables, gets a request to connect with someone on LinkedIn that he has never met or heard of before. The person will have no connections in common and share no information about why they want to build a rapport.

“I won’t accept. That’s a lost opportunity for them,” Rollnick says.

He approaches it differently. When Rollnick graduated from Emory with an MBA in 2001, he had a good idea that his classmates would excel in the business world. Now, Rollnick wanted to find out just where they went and reestablish a connection.

With a few clicks, he tracked down dozens of them on LinkedIn, requested a connection, and was back on their radar. Then came the follow-up — letting them know through emails, phone calls and posts that he was creating a two-way street for business exchange. “Rather than make that connection and disappearing , I let them know I wanted to open the door to conversation.”

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