THE NEWSCASTER
THE NEWSCASTER
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Deborah Russell - Editor/Publisher
Wednesday April 15, 2009
Inglis, FL 34449
Tom Russell - Consulting Editor
A Publication of
Sally Price - Correspondent
Permit No. 14
Newscaster Publishing
Mike Moore - Photojournalist
Squawk Box
With Doug Johnston
Parsnip rhymes with
arsenic
Those who know me
are aware that I love my dear
wife Kathie very much. From
the time I first saw her 38 years
ago I was hopelessly and for-
ever smitten. The raven haired,
brown-eyed mountain nymph
from the hills of West Virginia took my heart
and charmed me into a mushy-kneed, star-
struck young man and I still get the same
sense of wonder when I see her for the first
time every morning or even talk to her on the
phone during the day.
But even though I still have this un-
bridled love for her I have become convinced
through events that have occurred over the
years that my dear Kathie is trying to kill me.
It started after our honeymoon when
she cooked her first meal for us as a married
couple. She cooked beef stew but she cut up
white roots called parsnips and put them in
the stew. I can eat any vegetable known to
man, except parsnips. I suspected then that
she may have been trying to do me in: Pars-
nip does rhyme with arsenic, does it not?
Then in she insisted every year that
I climb onto the roof of our house and hang
Christmas lights in spite of the fact that I am
nervous about being in places more than 3
Baby Kee enjoys a bottle from a Lowry Park Zoo manatee staffer.. Kee was found near Yankeetown in the Withlacoochee River about two weeks ago near
feet off the ground. She followed that up by
the Leslie and Richard Dasche property. Zoo photo provided by Rachel Nelson & Community News Publications.
insisting that I sleep closest to the window in
Baby “Kee” bonding with
Two Homosassa
hotel rooms when we travel. We often get
rooms numbered in double digits and I view
scenery from our room from about 10 feet
female manatee at Lowry Park Zoo
youths charged
away. Once she caught me inching close to
the window on the 21st floor of the Omni Hotel
with CCSO
in Jacksonville to get a better view of the St.
Special to The Newscaster By Janel Heflin
officials swooped in, and rescued the tiny
Continued on page 4 Squawk Box
& Community News Publications
manatee. Coast Guard Station Yankeetown is
maintenance
Adopt A
a short distance away on the Withlacoochee
River.
TAMPA – Kee, (Suki) one of the
She was initially nicknamed Suki,
Pet-Page 2
smallest orphaned manatees ever rescued, is
yard burglary
because she was found clinging to the hull of
being bottled-fed at the Lowry Park Zoo as
Suki Sweet II, a boat owned by Richard and
she and another adult female manatee
Two 17-year-old Homosassa youths
Leslie Dasch of Yankeetown, the initial report-
Pneuport are bonding at a critical time for the
were arrested on numerous charges, March
ers, according to the local newspaper The
calf.
30, related to a break-in that occurred at the
Newscaster.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conserva-
Citrus County Sheriff's Office maintenance
Suki is the second smallest, or-
tion Commission (FWC) officials rescued the
yard on March 25.
phaned manatee calf to be rescued to date in
50- pound, three-foot long baby, nicknamed
According to the Citrus County
Florida by the FWC Marine Mammal Strand-
Kee, from the Withlacoochee River. Rescu-
Sheriff's Office, four emergency vehicles were
ing Team.
ers founder her near Yankeetown. Following
entered and burglarized, and three other ve-
After being transported to Tampa’s
her rescue, she was transported to one of the
hicles, including an orange Lincoln Naviga-
Lowry Park Zoo, workers and volunteers re-
finest manatee hospitals in the nation – the
tor that had been impounded, were also en-
named the calf Kee. Virginia Edmunds “said
David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Hospital at Tampa’s
tered and burglarized. The reports stated that
that baby Kee, as we have nicknamed her af-
Lowry Park Zoo.
four tires and rims were removed from the
ter Yankeetown, continues to receive 24-hour
Yankeetown residents spotted the
Continued on page 3 - Burglary
baby on the river, FWC and US Coast Guard
Continued on page 8 - Baby Manatee