South Florida Sun-Sentinel


July 3, 2008

Life in limbo: One man's struggle with traumatic brain injury




On Sunday, the Sun-Sentinel will feature a package on Brendan O'Toole, a young man who suffered from severe traumatic brain injury from a horrific car accident in September 2005. Staff reporter Tim Collie and photographer Susan Stocker spent time with Brendan's family to give you this heartfelt story about their hopes and struggles.

Above is the multimedia package with the story that features a powerful video of friends and family; copies of emails Brendan's mother wrote to friends chronicling Brendan's journey for the first few years after the accident; and an interactive graphic explaining the causes of traumatic brain injury.

If you'd like to include your story, feel free to comment at the Sun-Sentinel forum we set up for Brendan's story. Please note that all comments will be approved before they are posted.

If you want more information on traumatic brain injury, visit the Brain Injury Association of Florida or call their family helpline (800-992-3442).

POSTED IN: Belinda Long-Ivey (17) , Health (6) , LIndsay Dubois (17) , Science (22)

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July 1, 2008

Sunpass new card: Compact, cheaper, no batteries required

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What's not to like.

WELL ... THE KEY DIFFERENCE
The card can't be moved from car to car. The card adheres to the windshield to the side of the rearview mirror. Once removed the card will no longer work, can't be reattached. This may be an issue for some users.

Find out more at Sunpass or read about the SunPass Mini.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

CRACKDOWN ON TOLL CHEATERS

Don't ignore violation warnings. SunPass customers can face hefty fines and lose their driver's license for skipping only a few tolls. Here's a graphic from our archive that shows how state troopers are alerted to transponders that aren't working.

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POSTED IN: Cindy Jones-Hulfachor (16) , Technology (12)

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June 30, 2008

Florida's amendments: Inside our constitution

Learn more about amendments and past constitutions. Read on.

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PAST CONSTITUTIONS
The 1885 Constitution, pictured above, was the fifth constitution in Florida. The Florida's Early Constitutions site at the Florida State Archives has info on all of them, including scans of the original documents. Image courtesy of the State Archives of Florida.


flconspage.jpgUPDATE: DOWNLOAD THE GRAPHIC My News Illustrated page in Sunday's South Florida Sun-Sentinel discusses different ways initiatives can be made and key amendments in the Florida constitution. In case you missed it you can download the pdf.


SEARCH INITIATIVES FROM 1978
The Division of Election's database has information on initiatives including vote totals for those that made it to ballot.

READ AMENDMENTS FROM THE 1838 CONSTITUTION
The Florida's Constitutions: The Documentary History, within the Florida State University, has constitutional amendments and revisions from 1838 to 1998.

READ THE CURRENT CONSTITUTION
The Florida Legislature has the full content online.

POSTED IN: Cindy Jones-Hulfachor (16) , Politics (10)

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June 25, 2008

Everglades: State land to aid restoration

UPDATE: Here's the latest map illustrating Florida's plan to buy US Sugar and create a natural flow for water into the everglades. Get the full story.

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Here's a couple graphics from our archives that relate to the recent story on the state purchasing land in the EAA.
Graphics locate government-owned property in the EAA and diagram the "River of Grass" through the Everglades.

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POSTED IN: Cindy Jones-Hulfachor (16) , Environment (25) , Government (23)

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June 23, 2008

Learn to swim: Priority No. 1

The most important skill you can learn this summer is how to swim.

Ten children have already drown in Broward and Palm Beach counties, younger than 13. With summer here and numbers climbing, now is a perfect time to focus on pool safety.

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UPDATE: My News Illustrated page in Sunday's South Florida Sun-Sentinel shows how you can prevent pool tragedies by safe guarding your pool and home. In case you missed it you can download the pdf.

VIDEO SWIM LESSONS
Expert Village has a library of swim lessons that can be viewed for free.

SWIM LESSONS IN SOUTH FLORIDA
The American Red Cross offers Learn-To-Swim classes in most cities. Classes range from $29 to $70 depending on the number of sessions. Select Broward or Palm Beach county to download a PDF file with classes near you.

Have a safe summer.

POSTED IN: Cindy Jones-Hulfachor (16) , Health (6)

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June 20, 2008

Presidential polls put into context

Now that the presidential horse race between McCain and Obama is under way, it's time to get yourself on over to Pollster. Yeah, Yeah, we know...

Don't polls have a huge margin of error? Sort of.

Don't polls talk to ridiculously small groups of people? Not really.

How do I know which poll is right? You can't know for sure, but Pollster can help...

Pollster simplifies things by charting results from many polls to show a general trend. It doesn't make them right. It just makes a lot of sense.

Here are two examples:
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POSTED IN: Government (23) , Len De Groot (21) , Politics (10)

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June 18, 2008

Hurricane shutters: Pay now or pay more later

As much as you don't want to admit it, hurricane season is here. If you don't have shutters, get them now before prices go up in Summer. Check out all things hurricane on our hurricane guide page.

POSTED IN: Home (3) , Renee Kwok (8)

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Florida's offshore drilling ban: To drill or not to drill

Governor Crist flipped on drilling oil off Florida's coast. Here is a map of the current Florida buffer zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

POSTED IN: Politics (10) , Renee Kwok (8)

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June 16, 2008

Crime near you: Breaking down local crime

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If you didn't catch my News Illustrated page on Sunday, you can find it here.

For more information on the crime in your city, you can find PDFs of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Uniform Crime Report here. There is information about the number of each type of crime by city, county and state and also information about arrests.

POSTED IN: Government (23) , LIndsay Dubois (17)

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June 13, 2008

Father's Day: Make a wacky story

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Write your dad a funny story and print it out with this AWESOME Dad-lib.


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