Driver, passenger dead after car slams into Tampa home. 3B

tampabay.com * * Friday, November 6, 2015 | 1B

DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

Maddie Sauer, 6, pauses to drink water Thursday on Clearwater Beach while on vacation with her parents, Stacey Sauer, front, and Calvin Sauer of Ixonia, Wis. Wednesday’s 92 degrees marked the hottest day ever recorded in November.

92˚

BY KATIE METTLER | Times Staff Writer

There is no frost on our pumpkins here — in fact, if your pumpkin is around, it has probably rotted from the record heat. But worry not, a reprieve is coming.

F lorida fall is playing hard to get this year.

Nearly a full week into November, with pump-kin carving and trick-or-

treating behind us, the weather outside should be cooling down. Daytime tem-peratures should be hovering in the low 80s. Nightfall should be bringing lows in the mid 60s.

Step outside and you’ll see that isn’t happening.

On Wednesday, temperatures crept to a scorching 92 degrees, the hot-test day ever recorded in the month of

November. We’ll say that again, abbreviated: hot-

test day ever in November.Thursday set another high mark for

the hottest ever Nov. 5.Humidity levels are as high as they

were in July and August. Tempera-tures are peaking at 10 degrees above average.

“It’s kind of ridiculous,” said WTSP

10Weather meteorologist Bobby Deskins.

Preach, Bobby.So, why are we still sweating like

beasts of burden, especially after that brief flirtation with pleasant temps before Halloween?

There are several elements con-tributing to the fickle temperatures, experts say, and not necessarily the ones you’d expect.

Though blaming this temperature spike on climate change seems logical, said Eckerd College professor David

“It’s kind of ridiculous.”Bobby Deskins, WTSP 10Weather meteorologist

. See WEATHER, 9B

SUE CARLTONscarlton@tampabay.com

Transport plan needs leaders to drive itA badly needed plan

to fund transporta-tion for Hillsborough

County’s future should by all rights live or die on its own merits.

Voters should get to decide if they’re willing to pay a sales tax for road improve-ments, bus service and tran-sit options. Maybe they buy into the tea party’s dark mut-terings about boondoggles, or maybe they look at how cities across America are light years ahead and say: Okay, time to get this done.

But in the end, what could kill the hard-fought Go Hills-borough transportation initia-tive isn’t the hints of scandal those tea party types have dil-igently hyped over who got a contract and why.

If it goes away before voters have at it, you could put this on the tombstone:

Died, from acute lack of leadership.

Everyone knew it would be an uphill battle to get citi-zens to buy into a half-penny tax for transportation. But it was truly amazing to see cer-tain players run like rabbits at the question of whether an engineering firm got a lucra-tive contract because of ties to a well-connected PR busi-nesswoman. Which, of course, brought us that distracting “tax-payer subsidized slut” sideshow, courtesy of transit opponent Sam Rashid.

A Sheriff ’s Office inves-tigation will determine if there was anything untow-ard in how that contract played out. But it had Hill-sborough County Commis-sion Chairwoman Sandy Mur-man — who had previously been promisingly supportive of moving the county forward on this — scurrying off in full Chicken Little.

This week, she came up with her own plan that doesn’t involve the messy business of taking it to the voters — when, in truth, a ballot referendum is the only sensible, sustain-able way to pay for what needs to get done.

Instead, Murman now essentially wants to root around the county’s couch cushions and scrape up enough change to make it happen for however long that lasts, a deeply disappoint-ing development. Her name has come up as a potential contender for Tampa’s next mayor, and it was good to see her support an issue that promised to be a tough but important sell for the greater good of her county.

For a minute there, anyway.Still, the measure managed

to clear the leaders’ group Thursday to get it before the County Commission for the big “will we or won’t we vote to put it to a referendum” dis-cussion. And it was good to hear from the true believers.

“I think we were all elected to lead and not cower,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said rather succinctly this week. And Commissioner Ken Hagan — also a rumored may-oral possibility — has lately sounded practically states-manlike.

“What we’re talking about . See CARLTON, 5B

BY RICHARD DANIELSONTimes Staff Writer

TAMPA — Florida Department of Transportation officials hinted they might have a surprise for Thursday’s City Council meeting, and they delivered.

FDOT District 7 Secretary Paul Steinman said the state is offer-ing to work with the Hillsbor-ough Regional Transit Authority and pay for a feasi-bility study of regional mass transit options, such as light rail or com-muter rail.

“We’ve got a lot of dif-ferent peo-ple who have done pieces of things, but no one’s ever tried to bring it together,” he said.

Steinman’s offer was several hours before but unconnected to Thursday’s discussion of poten-tial transportation plans and funding by city and county offi-cials engaged in the Go Hillsbor-ough initiative.

“That’s great,” City Council member and HART Chairman Mike Suarez said of the offer. Regardless of what happens with Go Hillsborough, he said, “we need FDOT to be a partner in order for us to get anything done.”

State offers to help HARTThe FDOT says it would pay for a study of regional mass transit options.

. See FDOT, 9B

FDOT’s Paul Steinman says the agency isn’t giving up TBX.

BY WILLIAM R. LEVESQUETimes Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG — The CEO of Allegiant Air, the spunky bud-get airline that has pushed St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport to record passenger traf-fic, received the Tony Jannus

Award Thursday.Maurice Gallagher Jr. is the

52nd recipient of the award that is presented by the Tony Jannus Dis-tinguished Aviation Society every year to recognize high achieve-ment in commercial aviation.

Gallagher, “beyond deliver-

ing more than a million annual passengers here to our region, is uniquely qualified based on his outstanding service to the avi-ation industry,” said Chris Min-ner, Tampa International Air-port’s vice president of market-ing. “Mr. Gallagher is responsi-

ble for delivering 52 consecutive quarters of profit for Allegiant … which is truly remarkable.”

Gallagher, 65, took the airline out of bankruptcy in 2000 and grew it from one plane flying one route to become one of the most-profitable in the world. But the

company’s pilots have accused the Las Vegas-based airline of cutting corners on aircraft maintenance in pursuit of profit. During the

CEO Maurice Gallagher Jr. says low fares open air travel to people who have not flown.

Allegiant CEO gets Tony Jannus aviation awardHe’s credited with bringing profits to a budget airline that has seen a series of safety incidents.

. See ALLEGIANT, 9B

Session ends in failureBY JEREMY WALLACE AND STEVE BOUSQUETTimes/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — Pinellas County will not have its first Senate president in nearly a century after Sen. Jack Latvala announced Thursday that he is giving up his long, protracted

battle against Sen. Joe Negron for one of the most powerful positions in Florida.

Latvala, one of the Legislature’s most colorful characters known for his blunt and often volatile temperament, acknowledged that the intensity of the three-

Latvala concedes yearslong battle for Senate presidency

Legislators adjourn with no agreement, leaving new Senate districts up to a court.

Sen. Jack Latvala is to lead the top budget writing committee in 2017. . See LATVALA, 9B

BY MARY ELLEN KLASTimes/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE — After three weeks and mounds of draft maps, Florida leg-islators ended another special session on redistricting Thursday without a resolu-tion, leaving 40 Senate districts in limbo for the 2016 election and renewing calls for an independent commission to han-dle the drawing of political boundaries.

“We’re in a new era,” said House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, after the Senate rejected the House map on a 23-16 vote. “It has nothing to do with party; it has everything to do with process.”

Nine Republicans in the GOP-con-trolled Senate joined with Democrats to reject the House plan and, with no pros-pect for resolving the impasse, both . See REDISTRICT, 9B