BY KATIE METTLER | Times Staff Writer

The last time Tampa Bay got caught up in Powerball fever was two years ago when 84-year-old Zephyrhills grandmother Gloria MacKenzie won the $590 million jackpot, the largest Powerball sum in history at the time. She bought her quick-pick ticket at a Publix after someone let her cut in line. Now she lives in a man-sion in Jacksonville. Since MacKenzie won, no Powerball jackpot has grown beyond her record winnings. Until now. As the current Powerball jackpot swells before Wednesday’s drawing — it climbed to an estimated $1.4 billion by Monday — check out these fun facts while waiting in line to buy more tickets:

1 in 25.4 M Odds of dying from a bee or wasp sting, also according to the Economist.

1 in 74.8 M Rough odds of being killed by an asteroid in any given year, accord-ing to the Economist magazine.

1 in 292.2 MA Powerball ticket holder’s chance of winning the jackpot.

10Number of Powerball jackpot tickets sold in Florida since 2009.

70Percentage of lottery winners who blow their loot within fi ve years.

42,000Number of tickets sold per minute during peak purchasing time — 6 to 7 p.m. — this past Saturday .

60Number of days a winner has to take the cash lump-sum option.

100Percentage of Florida Powerball jackpot winners who have taken the cash lump sum.

180Number of days a winner has to claim their dough before ticket sales are reappropriated .

2 0 7Floridians have become millionaires from Powerball. Will you be next?

Information from Times archives and the Florida Lottery was used in this report.

Tampa Bay records for tourism keep falling. Business, 4B

tampabay.com * * Tuesday, January 12, 2016 | 1B

BY ADAM C. SMITHTimes Political Editor

SARASOTA — Marco Rubio on Monday promised that as pres-ident he would call a constitu-tional convention of all the states in order to pass a balanced bud-get amendment and impose term limits on members of Congress.

“It will be limited,” Rubio assured about 400 people gath-ered inside a boat manufactur-ing warehouse in Sarasota. “They won’t be able to touch the First Amendment, they won’t be able

to touch the Second Amendment. They won’t be able to touch our important constitutional rights. But here’s what we must do — we must pass amendments limiting the size and scope of the federal government.”

The proposal, which Rubio only recently started touting, drew applause from the crowd in Sarasota, along with his standard stump speech about preserving the American Dream from dam-age by President Barack Obama and big-spending Republicans in

Washington.The idea of holding the first

constitutional convention since 1787 has bubbled up in recent years among some tea party and conservative groups, and last week Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, called for one. But Rubio is the only leading presidential candi-date advocating for such a gath-ering, which some critics fear could open the door to more sweeping changes to the Consti-tution.

Associated Press

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio urges supporters Monday in Sarasota to press their state representatives to convene a convention.

Rubio for constitutional conventionHe calls for amendments limiting “the size and scope” of government.

. See RUBIO, 7B

BY TONY MARREROTimes Staff Writer

TAMPA — The University of South Florida will not readmit a U.S. Army veteran who was expelled from the school in 2014 after his arrest for threatening a gas station clerk and firing a handgun into the air.

Clay Allred, a former Green Beret whose c a s e m a d e headlines when Hillsbor-ough Circuit Judge Gregory Holder began a high-profile push for his readmission, received a letter Friday from the university rejecting his applica-tion on several grounds.

USF’s policy says expulsion is permanent, according to the letter to Allred from Maria Zale, chair of the Admissions Prior Conduct Review Team in the Office of Stu-dent Rights and Responsibilities. The office reviews applications from students with prior disci-plinary issues.

“Once a student is expelled, they cannot be considered for readmission to the USF System and therefore, your application could not be recommended to the Office of Admissions,” Zale wrote.

But even without that road-block, other circumstances of Allred’s case would have stood in the way, Zale wrote.

The letter notes that Allred, 30, is still on felony probation after pleading guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm and crim-inal mischief.

“The combination of the sever-ity of the incident and the cur-rent felony probation would also result in the Review Team not recommending the application to move forward,” Zale wrote.

Allred, who needs 17 credits to

USF: Vet won’t be back in classSaying expulsions are permanent, the school rejects his plea, noting his felony probation.

. See USF, 6B

Clay Allred, expelled in 2014, pleaded guilty to assault.

BY DAN SULLIVANTimes Staff Writer

TAMPA — A would-be robber was shot in the head Monday afternoon, according to Tampa police, after he threatened a con-venience store clerk with a knife.

It happened about 3:30 p.m. at the Hope Food Store, which was the scene of another shoot-

ing less than a year ago.In Monday ’s incident ,

Anthone Bryant, 22, walked into the store, approached the clerk, Mutasem Abusafyeh, 38, and showed what police described as “a large knife.”

“He said something indicating he was going to rob the store,” Tampa police spokesman Steve

Hegarty said.Abusafyeh then picked up a

handgun and shot Bryant in the head, police said. Bryant was taken to Tampa General Hospi-tal with what police described as life-threatening injuries.

The clerk was shaken up, police said, but was not injured. Investigators were trying to

determine whether Monday’s shooting was a case of self-defense.

One other person was in the store during the shooting, police said. Detectives questioned that person and the clerk separately. Both gave similar accounts of what happened.

Clerk shoots would-be robber, police sayTampa authorities say the store worker was threatened by the man, who had a large knife.

. See SHOOTING, 3B

Scott pushes $1B tax cutsThe governor uses speeches, a bus tour and ads to tout his plan to help businesse s. BY JEREMY WALLACETimes/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott is employing a fullcourt press to win support for a tax cut plan that is starting out on shaky ground with the Florida Legisla-ture.

On Monday, the same day Scott started statewide television com-

mercials touting his $1 billion tax cut plan, the Republican gover-nor spent nearly 20 minutes at a legislative committee asking for support. Governors rarely make personal appearances at commit-tee hearings, traditionally leav-ing that duty to staff members.

And Scott isn’t stopping there. Today, he plans to raise the topic

again during his annual State of the State Address, before hit-ting the road for a nine-city cam-paignlike bus tour to push the proposal.

“It’s important to me,” Scott said in explaining his aggressive, personal attention to the issue this week.

While key lawmakers in the

Republican-dominated Legisla-ture have said they support more tax cuts, they’ve questioned whether Scott’s proposal is too much and whether it misses out on helping average Floridians.

The heart of Scott’s tax plan is aimed at businesses. He wants to eliminate all corporate income taxes charged to manufactur-

ers and retail companies, perma-nently cut sales taxes on manu-facturing equipment and gradu-ally reduce the state’s sales taxes charged on commercial rents. Scott told the Senate Finance and Tax Committee on Monday that those cuts will help draw more companies to move to Flor-. See SCOTT, 8B

JOHN ROMANOjromano@tampabay.com

Marlins provide lesson for stadiumF irst, a history lesson:

It was May of 1993 when the subject of

a new baseball stadium in South Florida was initially broached by the owner of the Marlins. It would take nearly 15 years and the team would be sold twice before financing and a site for a new stadium were secured.

Next, an observation:The eventual location — on

the grounds of the old Orange Bowl — seemed like a consola-tion prize after plans to build on the waterfront, in down-town Miami and adjacent to the team’s original site all fell through. Subsequently, atten-dance at the new stadium has been underwhelming.

Finally, a moral:Don’t do what the Marlins

did. Don’t build out of frustra-tion and desperation. Don’t waste hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars. Don’t settle.

This is relevant today because it appears the St. Petersburg City Council is pre-pared to approve a memo of understanding that will allow the Tampa Bay Rays to begin exploring potential stadium sites around Pinellas and Hill-sborough counties.

Like the Marlins before them, the Rays have long strug-gled with attendance and have been discussing a new stadium for years. Believe it or not, more than eight years already.

So among the most impor-tant lessons to be gleaned from the Marlins saga is that an expensive stadium doesn’t necessarily guarantee a suc-cessful stadium.

Not if it’s built in the wrong location.

And if our first 18 years of Rays baseball have taught us anything, it is that Tampa Bay is far from ideal as a Major League market. That’s not a criticism, just an observation. Our population is too spread out, our corporate footprint is too small and our wages are too low to support a big league team in the same manner as a lot of other markets.

That means the stadium sit-uation has to be nearly per-fect to make up for the other shortcomings.

Which brings us to the next phase of the stadium quest:

What’s the perfect site?There are two ways to

answer that. You could talk about the perfect site theoreti-cally, or realistically.

If it’s a theoretical argu-ment, the best sites are down-town Tampa or the West Shore area of Tampa. That’s where you’ll find the greatest concentration of office work-ers, and those are the people you need to boost attendance Monday through Friday.

But, realistically, the argu-ment isn’t so simple.

Neither location has an obvious plot of land. The Tampa Park Apartments site could potentially link Ybor City to downtown, but it’s not a comfortable walk in either direction. Building on the cur-rent site of Jefferson High is a possibility near West Shore, but that concept hasn’t gone over well in Tampa.

Building near the Fair-grounds or the old dog track in Tampa would be too much of a stretch. Derby Lane, Toy-town and Carillon have been mentioned in Pinellas, but all have drawbacks. The cur-rent Tropicana Field site has appeal because of its size and potential funding sources, but it’s hard to overlook two decades of lukewarm support.

So, in other words, the best solution is hopefully one we have not yet heard.

This is why it’s important for the Rays to explore every solution on both sides of the bay. There’s too much riding on this decision to settle on some compromise location. There’s too much at stake to make a mistake.

History has already taught us that.