New transitional apartments for veterans opens in Clearwater
Tampa Bay Times
By Keyonna Summers
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, October 21, 2012
CLEARWATER — Bruce Fyfe flits about the Homeless Emergency Project's newest apartment complex, chattering excitedly about this week's grand opening.
The apartment building's white and red facade with brown trim was finished ahead of schedule. The pungent smell of paint clings to the air as a contractor applies a fresh white coat to a stairwell while another worker tends a plush lawn.
Fyfe, the chairman of HEP's board, runs a hand across one of the new couches that await their first owners along with beds, kitchen appliances and other furniture lining the neutral-colored walls.
But Fyfe isn't focused on the material things inside HEP West — a new $3 million transitional apartment complex aimed at rehabilitating Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans who are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Rather, Fyfe is speaking excitedly about the onsite case managers and communal atmosphere that will steer life for these young men and women who are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
read more here
Showing posts with label Clearwater FL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clearwater FL. Show all posts
Monday, October 22, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Spirit Airlines didn't care Vietnam Vet dying and can't fly
UPDATE
Facebook users heap baggage on Spirit Airlines after dying vet refused refund
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published May 03, 2012
FoxNews.com
A Facebook campaign calling for a boycott of Spirit Airlines has taken off with jet-like propulsion since the carrier's denial of a refund to a dying former Marine made headlines.
The “Boycott Spirit Airlines” Facebook page has seen its number of "likes" soar in recent days, rising from roughly 700 earlier this week to more than 17,000 as of early Thursday.
The social network support has come as Jerry Meekins, a 76-year-old Vietnam veteran with terminal esophageal cancer, raised a fuss when the Florida-based airline nixed his request for a $197 refund. Meekins was going to fly to New Jersey for his daughter's surgery, but his doctor told him not to fly, citing his deteriorating health. The Facebook page blasting the much-complained-about airline already existed, but Meekins' plight has sent furious fellow veterans and concerned citizens flocking to it.
"This is a despicable act on their part," one post read. "They should have quietly returned the airfare and they could have avoided this. I will never fly this airline."
read more here
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published May 03, 2012
FoxNews.com
A Facebook campaign calling for a boycott of Spirit Airlines has taken off with jet-like propulsion since the carrier's denial of a refund to a dying former Marine made headlines.
The “Boycott Spirit Airlines” Facebook page has seen its number of "likes" soar in recent days, rising from roughly 700 earlier this week to more than 17,000 as of early Thursday.
The social network support has come as Jerry Meekins, a 76-year-old Vietnam veteran with terminal esophageal cancer, raised a fuss when the Florida-based airline nixed his request for a $197 refund. Meekins was going to fly to New Jersey for his daughter's surgery, but his doctor told him not to fly, citing his deteriorating health. The Facebook page blasting the much-complained-about airline already existed, but Meekins' plight has sent furious fellow veterans and concerned citizens flocking to it.
"This is a despicable act on their part," one post read. "They should have quietly returned the airfare and they could have avoided this. I will never fly this airline."
read more here
Spirit Airlines' refusal to refund vet's ticket earns it an 'F' in Public Relations
By Fraser Seitel
FoxNews.com
Published May 01, 2012
Ever shake your head, ruefully, and wonder why those Occupy Wall Street rabble rousers despise corporations so virulently?
Here’s the answer: Spirit Airlines.
And here’s a better answer: Lawyers.
Spirit, of course, is the airline that has been blistered in the media for refusing a dying Vietnam veteran a $197 ticket refund, because his doctor forbade him to fly. The 76-year-old esophageal cancer sufferer, Jerry Meekins, bought a ticket on Spirit to fly from Clearwater, Fla. to visit his daughter in Atlantic City – perhaps for the last time.
But then his doctor nixed the trip. And Spirit nixed the refund.
read more here
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Visitors to Vietnam memorial exhibit reflect and connect in Clearwater
Visitors to Vietnam memorial exhibit reflect and connect in Clearwater
By Mike Brassfield, Times Staff Writer
The black metal of the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall is polished to a gleaming reflective finish. When you look at the 58,260 names etched onto it, you see yourself looking back. • People who visit the memorial tend to use one word to describe it: Overpowering.
"It's unbelievable how many died. You don't really get a perspective until you see it," said Nancy Patterson of Clearwater Beach, who found the name of her younger brother, killed in an ambush near Da Nang at the age of 20.
The wall, a 3/5-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., continues to be on display today and Monday in the Carpenter Complex just north of Bright House Network Field.
A steady stream of people are making pilgrimages to it. They drive up in Harleys, minivans, Porsches and beat-up pickups. They have McCain and Obama bumper stickers.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Body of young man found beneath Memorial Causeway Bridge
Body of young man found beneath Memorial Causeway Bridge
By Jonathan Abel, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
CLEARWATER — Police are investigating the death of a young man who washed up beneath the Memorial Causeway Bridge on Tuesday afternoon.
Police have identified the body as Taylor Ryan Jones, 25, of 27 Heilwood Street No. 6 in Clearwater Beach. A passer-by found him face down. Police are investigating, and the medical examiner's report on the cause of death was not expected today.
Police were called to the scene on the west end of the bridge where Jones' body was found face-down on the rocky beach. His feet were toward the shore; his head was pointing north toward the water.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article824614.ece
By Jonathan Abel, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
CLEARWATER — Police are investigating the death of a young man who washed up beneath the Memorial Causeway Bridge on Tuesday afternoon.
Police have identified the body as Taylor Ryan Jones, 25, of 27 Heilwood Street No. 6 in Clearwater Beach. A passer-by found him face down. Police are investigating, and the medical examiner's report on the cause of death was not expected today.
Police were called to the scene on the west end of the bridge where Jones' body was found face-down on the rocky beach. His feet were toward the shore; his head was pointing north toward the water.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article824614.ece
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Timely patrol saves 7 from Clearwater fire
Timely patrol saves 7 from Clearwater fire
By Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, September 14, 2008
CLEARWATER — Police patrolling near Drew Street and Jupiter Avenue stumbled across a duplex fire around 4:25 a.m. Saturday and rescued seven people, including a 9-month-old baby.
Flames were spreading in front of one-half of the duplex at 220 N Jupiter Ave. when four officers from the Clearwater Police Department pulled up. Officer Nick Giordano smashed a window in the unit with the flames, and he and another officer, Doug Bailey, helped five people out of the window, including the baby.
click post title for more
By Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, September 14, 2008
CLEARWATER — Police patrolling near Drew Street and Jupiter Avenue stumbled across a duplex fire around 4:25 a.m. Saturday and rescued seven people, including a 9-month-old baby.
Flames were spreading in front of one-half of the duplex at 220 N Jupiter Ave. when four officers from the Clearwater Police Department pulled up. Officer Nick Giordano smashed a window in the unit with the flames, and he and another officer, Doug Bailey, helped five people out of the window, including the baby.
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Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Clearwater Florida "Taliban Tom" murder suicide
Police: Man acted erratically before killing family, self
By Times Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, April 2, 2008 3:10 PM
CLEARWATER — In the days after Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff murdered his family, acquaintances said they were stunned that a man who talked about how much he loved his children could shoot them in cold blood.
But Clearwater police investigative records released today show that Bernsdorff, 36, showed signs of increasingly erratic behavior in the weeks and days leading up to the Dec. 14 shootings:
• Bernsdorff, a GED teacher for Pinellas County schools for 13 years, was disliked by his coworkers and apparently hated women, according to a school district employee interviewed by police. In the last weeks of his life, Bernsdorff began dressing all in black, sometimes wearing robes and head wrappings. That prompted coworkers to start referring to him as "Taliban Tom."
• Bernsdorff dated a woman he met online during the final 2 1/2 to 3 months of his life. After an incident where he kicked his ex-wife while picking up the children from a visitation, he became paranoid that police would come for him, according to the girlfriend, Melissa Redding. At one point, he also told her that he had two options: to take the children and flee the country, or to kill them, his ex-wife, her new girlfriend and himself. Then, three days before the shooting, he seemed to have had a breakthrough and seemed calm and happy.
• The day Bernsdorff picked up the 9mm semiautomatic pistol used in the murders, he declined the pawn shop owner's offer of a gun lock and pamphlet on gun safety and children, leaving them both on the counter.
•Bernsdorff told one of his co-workers, Nancy Hopp, that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder about a year ago. A doctor put him on medication, but Bernsdorff didn't like the way it made him feel and stopped taking it after three weeks, she said.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article440759.ece
also
Bernsdorff's twisted letter plots family's murders
By Times Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, April 2, 2008 3:10 PM
CLEARWATER — In the days after Oliver Thomas Bernsdorff murdered his family, acquaintances said they were stunned that a man who talked about how much he loved his children could shoot them in cold blood.
But Clearwater police investigative records released today show that Bernsdorff, 36, showed signs of increasingly erratic behavior in the weeks and days leading up to the Dec. 14 shootings:
• Bernsdorff, a GED teacher for Pinellas County schools for 13 years, was disliked by his coworkers and apparently hated women, according to a school district employee interviewed by police. In the last weeks of his life, Bernsdorff began dressing all in black, sometimes wearing robes and head wrappings. That prompted coworkers to start referring to him as "Taliban Tom."
• Bernsdorff dated a woman he met online during the final 2 1/2 to 3 months of his life. After an incident where he kicked his ex-wife while picking up the children from a visitation, he became paranoid that police would come for him, according to the girlfriend, Melissa Redding. At one point, he also told her that he had two options: to take the children and flee the country, or to kill them, his ex-wife, her new girlfriend and himself. Then, three days before the shooting, he seemed to have had a breakthrough and seemed calm and happy.
• The day Bernsdorff picked up the 9mm semiautomatic pistol used in the murders, he declined the pawn shop owner's offer of a gun lock and pamphlet on gun safety and children, leaving them both on the counter.
•Bernsdorff told one of his co-workers, Nancy Hopp, that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder about a year ago. A doctor put him on medication, but Bernsdorff didn't like the way it made him feel and stopped taking it after three weeks, she said.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article440759.ece
also
Bernsdorff's twisted letter plots family's murders
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