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Be sure
to set
your
clocks
back one
hour
Sunday
at 2 a.m.

3
4

89

Y E A R S 1924 2 0 1 3 P O L K CO U N T Y S N E W S PA P E R

L A K E L A N D , F L O R I D A | S AT U R D AY , N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 3 | W W W.T H E L E D G E R . C O M | 7 5 C E N T S
PAKISTAN LEADER OF TERROR GROUP

DEMILLLY CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION

Prison Near Polk City Could Reopen

By ERIC PERA
THE LEDGER

POLK CITY | Demilly Correctional Institution near Polk

City, shuttered in July 2012 as
part of a statewide belt-tightening, is one of nine facilities
that could potentially reopen
next year in light of an expected rise in Floridas prison

population.
Last years closures were
the result of a decline in prison admissions, but projections from the state Criminal
Justice Estimating Conference show new admissions
are on the rise despite a downward trend in crime.
Included in the Department

of Corrections 2014-15 budget request is nearly $57 million to prepare for a projected
increase of more than 1,000
inmates. The request was presented Wednesday at a public
hearing in Tallahassee by
DOC budget director Mark
Tallent.
Based on those numbers
the department has proposed
that we need additional dollars to meet those projections,

DEMILLY
CORRECTIONAL
INSTITUTION
POLK
CITY

Demille
Rd.
Evans
Rd.

33

Berkley
Rd.

Facility could be functioning as early as

next year in light of a rise in population.

4
LAKELAND
570

[ PLEASE SEE PRISON, A6 ]

THE LEDGER

[ HERE COMES THE SUN ... EARLIER ]

U.S. Drone
Kills Head
Of Taliban
Hakimullah Mehsud had been on U.S.
most-wanted lists with $5 million bounty.
By RASOOL DAWAR
& KIMBERLY DOZIER

bombi ng i n
New Yorks
Times Square
and other brazen assaults in
Pakistan that
killed thousands of civilMEHSUD
ians and security forces.
The ruthless, 34-year-old
commander who was closely
allied with al-Qaida was widely
reported to have been killed in
2010 only to resurface later.
But a senior U.S. intelligence
ofcial said Friday the U.S.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PESHAWAR, Pakistan | A
U.S. drone strike Friday killed
Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, in
a major blow to the group that
came after the government
said it had started peace talks
with the insurgents, according
to intelligence officials and
militant commanders.
Mehsud, who was on U.S.
most-wanted terrorist lists with
a $5 million bounty, is thought
to have been behind a deadly
suicide attack at a CIA base in
Afghanistan, a failed car

[ PLEASE SEE DRONE, A6 ]

THEYVE SURRENDERED THEIR VOTING CARD

CALVIN KNIGHT | THE LEDGER

MEMBERS OF THE LAKELAND RUNNERS CLUB partake in an evening run through the Lake Morton district. The end of daylight
saving time means those out exercising in the evening hours need to take more safety precautions and wear reflective material.

A TIME OF
TRADE-OFFS

Moving Clocks Back Helps Some, Hinders Others

Graydon suggests
reflective vests or
lights for the night
owls, because with
more light comes
more safety, he said.
Daylight saving time was rst
adopted in the U.S. in 1918, after
European nations imposed similar laws to create an extra hour
of daylight for the war effort.
After the war ended, states
and cities were allowed to decide whether to adopt daylight
[ PLEASE SEE DAYLIGHT, A6 ]

INSIDE

Advice
B11
Business C8
Editorial A14

Life
Lottery
Nation

B9
B3
A10

Obituaries B5
Polk Pulse B3
Scores
C7

State
B4
TV, Puzzles G2
World
A8

ica showed their might by insisting that the GOP embrace

the government shutdown that
hurt the nations economy and
the partys reputation.
Now emboldened, these
groups are warning that their
aggressive agenda-pushing
tactics arent over and
theyre threatening retribution
against Republicans who
stand in their way.
They refuse to learn, Chris
Chocola, a former Indiana
congressman who leads the
Club for Growth, says of lawmakers who buck the will of
right-leaning groups. His

By STEVE PEOPLES
& PHILIP ELLIOTT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOW 72 | HIGH 78

Mostly cloudy with a couple of

showers or thunderstorms. Clearr
and cooler tonight. Weather B12

[ PLEASE SEE
BUDGET BATTLE, A6 ]

Gunman Kills TSA Officer,

Wounds 2 Others at LAX
By TAMI ABDOLLAH
& JUSTIN PRITCHARD

in a shootout with airport police and taken into custody,

authorities said. His condition
was not disclosed.
The attack at the nations
third-busiest airport sent terrified travelers running for
cover and disrupted more than
700 flights across the U.S.,
many of which were held on
the ground at LAX or not allowed to take off for Los Angeles from other airports.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES | A man

carrying a note that said he
wanted to kill TSA pulled a
semi-automatic rifle from a
bag and shot his way past a
security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport on
Friday, killing one Transportation Security Administration
ofcer and wounding two others, authorities said.
The gunman was wounded

TIP OF THE DAY

Family Fun Workshop. Lakeland.

Photo transfer. 10:30 a.m. Free. Polk
Museum of Art. 688-7743.

[ PLEASE SEE LAX, A12 ]

L A K E _ D A I LY

be
blinking in the
light, other folks
say they enjoy seeing a brighter path
during their morning
jog or bike ride.
Personally, I run early before
the sun comes up anyway.
For the runners who
are up doing long
runs, it gives them
daylight earlier,
said Bryan Graydon,
president of the
Lakeland Runners
Club.
Since he starts his
morning run about 3:30
a.m., he said he doesnt usually
see the sunrise on the track until
race day.
However, the time change
means those folks out in
the evening must
use
more
caution.

Hardline groups
warn that their
aggressive tactics
arent over.

WASHINGTON | Virtually
unknown outside Washington,
a coalition of hardline conservative groups is fighting to
seize control of the Republican
agenda.
Tea party allies like the Club
for Growth, FreedomWorks
and Heritage Action for Amer-

By ANYA ZENTMEYER | LEDGER MEDIA GROUP

unrise comes an
hour earlier tomorrow
with the end of daylight
saving time today.
One group that is happy is school-aged kids
who will step out into a brighter
morning as they pound the pavement to their bus stops and
school yards.
Polk County Schools Senior
Director of Operations Rob Davis said he is also glad to see the
end of DST and the extra morning light.
I would prefer not to have
daylight saving time at all,
Davis said.
And although
some students
may

Conservative Groups
Driving GOP Agenda

A6

T H E L E D G E R S AT U R DAY, N O V E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 3 W W W.T H E L E D G E R . C O M

A6

Prison

[ CONTINUED FROM A1 ]
said DOC spokeswoman Misty
Cash. If for some reason
those numbers dont go up
then we might not need the
extra money.
The targeted facilities include five work camps, two
re-entry centers and two prisons, one in Raiford and the
Demilly facility, according to
the Tampa Bay Times. Based
on its July projections, conferees warn of an increase in
admissions of 2.7 percent next
year and 1.4 percent the following year.
The prison population at the
end of June was 100,884.
State Rep. Neil Combee, RPolk City, whose district includes the Demilly site, said
he had not heard of the new
estimates, but he intends to
look into why more beds are
being lled in the face of declining crime statistics.
Itll make you scratch your
head if crimes going down,
he said.

In its summary report, the

estimating conference said the
number of index offenses decreased in 2012 by 43,536
(down 5.7%) from the 2011
level of 769,480. The 725,944
index crimes reported in 2012
was lower than reported in
any year since 1983.
This is the fourth year in a
row in which index offenses
declined after three years of
increases, the report said.
Violent offenses decreased
by 4.3 percent in 2012. Those
offenses, which include murder, forcible sexual offenses,
robbery, and aggravated assault, were 12.9 percent of all
index offenses in 2012, up
from 12.8 percent in 2011.
At the time of its closure, the
Demilly facility had a staff of
118 and a capacity for 342 inmates. It was established in
2008 to prepare inmates for
work release.
The nearby Polk Correctional Institution, which has

room for 1,200 inmates, remains open.

Gov. Rick Scott, whos seeking re-election in 2014, recently asked state agencies to cut
spending by $100 million, but
the prison system alone wants
$124 million more next year,
including money for more ofcers, new buses and vans, the
food service system and an
ele c t r on ic t i meke e pi n g
system.
The sudden shift is reviving
the debate over whether Florida locks up too many nonviolent drug offenders who should
get t reat ment, not just
punishment.
Florida has the nations
third-largest prison system
and spends about $18,000 a
year on average to house each
of its inmates. Nearly three of
every 10 inmates are back behind bars within three years.
Theyre not getting treatment. Theyre being housed,
and I dont know how smart

that is, said Sen. Rob Bradley,

R-Fleming Island, at a recent
hearing of the committee he
chairs, which oversees the
prison systems $2.4 billion
budget.
This is the perfect opportunity for us to re-engineer
our criminal sentencing laws
and save money at the same
time, said Sen. Jeff Clemens,
D-Lake Worth, also a member
of the Senate budget committee overseeing prisons. We
need to have a real conversation about who were putting
in prison and whether thats
best for the state.
Across the country, bipartisan support has been building
for a concept known as smart
justice, which includes putting fewer nonviolent offenders in prison, improving reentry and probation programs,
and teaching inmates skills so
they can acquire jobs.
At Florida State Universitys
Project for Accountable Jus-

tice, researcher Deborrah

Brodsky said Florida should
follow the example of Georgia,
whose conservative Republican leaders have embraced the
smart justice concept.
Other very conservative
states have shown that you
can choose different paths,
said Allison deFoor, a former
Monroe County sheriff and
judge and chairman of the
FSU projects board.
Moreover, they say, the prison system should become
more strategic, like Floridas
Department of Juvenile Justice, which stresses prevention, diversion and intervention with families instead of
incarceration.
But talk of modifying Floridas sentencing laws is an especially tough sell in an election yea r when most
lawmakers will make traditional appeals to voters that
they are tough on crime.
A study released last year by

the Pew Center on the States

found that the average offender spent 166 percent more time
in prison in 2009 than in 1990
and that nonviolent drug offenders served 194 percent
more time a bigger increase
than any other state at an annual cost to Florida taxpayers
of about $1.4 billion.
In its budget request for next
year, the Florida prison system is seeking $56.8 million to
hire 862 workers by June. That
would undercut Scotts emphasis on steadily cutting the
size of the state workforce.
Scott must decide whether
to include the request to reopen the prisons and work
camps in the election-year
budget hell send to the Legislature in February.
[ Information from the Tampa
Bay Times was used in this
report. Eric Pera can be reached
at eric.pera@theledger.com or
863-802-7528. ]

Budget Battle

[ CONTINUED FROM A1 ]
group is already seeking or
supporting primary challengers for 10 congressional Republican incumbents seeking
re-election next fall.
Mainstream GOP groups
such as Karl Roves American Crossroads or the partys
formal campaign committees
question their more conservative counterparts role,
fed up by their outsized inuence in shaping the partys
current agenda.
For decades, interest groups
like the National Rie Association have shaped debates
on single issues. But Republicans suggest that not since
the Christian Coalition of the
1990s have outside forces
played such a sweeping, integral role in guiding Republican priorities as the tea partyled scal conservatives have
i n t he ongoi ng budget
debate.
You have a small group in
Congress that has become the
surrender caucus, argues Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
Theyve surrendered their
voting card to the wishes of
these outside groups.
Such divisions on display
between the Republican Partys pragmatic and ideological
wings and their afliated
outside groups carry huge
risk for the GOP heading into
the 2014 midterm congressional elections. Republicans
will seek to win power in the
Senate and preserve their
narrow House majority next
fall.
But primaries that leave
eventual nominees battered
and broke for the general
election could hamper that
goal.
Nevertheless, tea partyaligned groups already are
spending millions of dollars
calling on compromise-minded Republican lawmakers
from New Hampshire to Idaho to embrace more aggressive tactics against President
Barack Obamas agenda.
This is their message as
Congress wrestles with health
care implementation, considers immigration reform and
gets ready for new rounds of
debt talks: Republicans who
work with the Democratic
president do so at their
peril.
It appears that no Republican is too large for these
groups.
The Senate Conservatives
Fund founded by tea party
hero and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint has
launched telev ision ads
against Republican leaders,
including Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky, who helped craft
the recent budget compromise
that ended the shutdown. It
also has criticized Sen. Jeff
Flake of Arizona and Sen.
Jonny Isakson of Georgia.
The Club for Growth also is
targeting Oregon Rep. Greg
Walden, despite his role as
leader of the campaign committee charged with preserving the Republican House
majority. The group already
has launched a website entitled, Primary My Congressman, and so far identied 10
potential campaigns to unseat
Republican incumbents.
That group and others also
are spending hundreds of
thousands of dollars to support a challenge against longtime Republican Sen. Thad
Cochran, of Mississippi, in
hopes of persuading him to
retire. And the Tea Party Patriots is going after Sen. John
Cornyn of Texas, Sen. Mark
Kirk of Illinois and Sen. Kelly

Ayotte of New Hampshire.

Behind the scenes, GOP
campaign ofcials are urging
donors to fund mainstream
groups to counter the conservative outts. These ofcials
are doing so even as they question the right-anks ultimate
effectiveness, given that its
groups, although vocal, typically have far less money compared with other organizations
standing with Republicans
from the establishment wing.
The most powerful Republican allies from the last election mainstream Republican groups such as the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce,
American Crossroads and its
sister organization Crossroads GPS poured more
than $212 million combined
into the 2012 election. Combined, the Club for Growth,

Democrats over the troubled

health
care
law
implementation.
Were convinced that repealing Obamacare is longterm effort, AFP president
Tim Phillips says, explaining
why it didnt sign onto the
right-anks demands to defund the law as part of a budget compromise.
In a sign of another possible
crack in the conservative coalition, a spokesman for Heritage Action for America says
that in the near future, it likely will focus its health care
criticism on Democrats, who
stood together during the
shutdown debate.
There needs to be some
breaks in that unity, says
Heritage spokesman Dan Holler. That may happen naturally, or it may need to be

CALVIN KNIGHT | THE LEDGER

THE LAKELAND RUNNERS CLUB takes its evening run through the Lake Morton district. The end of
daylight saving time means morning runners will have a little bit more sun in their eyes as they exercise.

Daylight

JOE RAYMOND | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (2006)

FORMER INDIANA REP. Chris Chocola leads the Club for Growth.
Virtually unknown outside Washington, a coalition of hardline
conservative groups is fighting to seize control of the GOP agenda.

[ CONTINUED FROM A1 ]
saving time, which made
tracking time difficult for
transportation companies and
led to Congress passing the
Uniform Time Act of 1966.
Although daylight saving
time began in April and ended
in October, the Energy Policy
Act of 2005 added four more
weeks to DST, effective in
2007. Since then, DST has
started March 20 and ended
Nov. 3.
The shift back into standard
time has been more convenient for school athletics, with
fall sports on the cusp of completion and more winter sports
like volleyball and basketball
taking place inside the gymnasium, said Polk County
Schools Athletic Director Don
Bridges.
It gets darker quicker, but
were into all of our winter
sports, soccer, basketball and
wrestling, Bridges said. Soccer is out on the football eld
with lights and basketball is
in the gym.
Even so, he said the annual
time change is something
thats always been planned
for, and doesnt have much of
an effect on after-school athletic practices or events.
It happens every Novem-

b e r, h e s a i d . No t a
problem.
The earlier dusk isnt a problem for Wedgewood Golf Club
in Lakeland, either. Though it
does bring in golfers a little
earlier from the course,
Wedgewood Manager Marcus
Shin said they open a little
earlier to make up the difference and it doesnt have any
impact on business.
However, the disruption of
sleep patterns can cause
something called driver fatigue for some, which has
more of a negative impact
when DST begins than when
it ends, according to the New
England Journal of
Medicine.
The 1996 report basically
states that measurable changes in sleep patterns persist for
up to ve days after each time
shift, continuing on to say,
This leads to the prediction
that the spring shift, involving
a loss of an hours sleep, might
lead to an increased number
of microsleeps, or lapses of
attention during daily activities and thus might cause an
increase in the probability of
accidents, especially in trafc.
The additional hour of sleep
gained in the fall might lead
conversely to a reduction in
accident rates.
While data obtained by the
New England Journal of Medi-

cine showed the spring shift

to DST resulted in an average
increase of approximately
8 percent in trafc accidents,
the fall shift back away from
DST resulted in an average
decrease of approximately 8
percent.
Steve Gaskins, public affairs
ofcer for the Florida Highway Patrol, said in his 18 years
in law enforcement, he cant
say hes aware of any signicant impact on driver behavior
as a result of DST other than
the
driver
fatigue
phenomena.
While many persons can
attest to having to slightly
readjust their daily routine
to the time change, the impac t on dr iver behav ior
should not change, Gaskins
said.
Drivers should always
plan for and have plenty of
rest prior to operating a
vehicle.
So, whether youre an early
bird or a night owl, a student
or a sprinter, embrace the
early morning pleasures of the
Sunshine State and get used
to g r e et i n g a br ig hter
morning.
That is, until spring rolls
back around.

Taliban.
The groups deputy leader
was killed in a drone strike in
May, and one of Mehsuds top
deputies was arrested in Afghanistan last month.
The intelligence officials
and militant commanders said
Fridays drone attack that
killed Mehsud hit a compound
in the village of Dande Derpa
Khel in the North Waziristan
tribal area. Four other suspected militants were killed,
they said, including Mehsuds
cousin, uncle and one of his
guards. They did not have the
identity of the fourth victim.
At least four missiles struck
just after a vehicle in which
Mehsud was riding had entered the compound, the Taliban commanders said, adding
that a senior group of militants
was discussing the peace talks
at a nearby mosque shortly
before the attack.
All the ofcials and the militant commanders spoke on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The CIA and the White
House declined to comment.
Pakistans tribal region is
dangerous to visit, making it

difcult for journalists to independently conrm information on drone attacks there.

The Pakistani government
was swift to condemn the drone
strike, although that comment
came before news of Mehsuds
death was reported.
These strikes are a violation of Pakistans sovereignty
and territorial integrity. There
is an across the board consensus in Pakistan that these
drone strikes must end, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
said in a statement.
Its a particularly sensitive
time for the government,
which has been trying to cut
a peace deal with the militants
to end years of fighting in
northwestern Pakistan.
During a visit Thursday to
London, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said talks
with the Pakistani Taliban had
started, though he gave no
other details.
Sharif met with President
Barack Obama in Washington
on Oct. 23 and pressed him to
end the strikes. The U.S. has
shown no sign that it intends
to stop using what it considers
a vital tool to ght al-Qaida
and the Taliban.

[ Anya Zentmeyer can be reached

at anya.zentmeyer@newschief.
com or 863-401-6981. ]

Drone
RICH PEDRONCELLI | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST Karl Rove of the mainstream GOP

group American Crossroads questions his more conservative
counterparts role.
Heritage Action and the Senate Conservatives Fund spent
$21 million.
National GOP ofcials are
watching for signs of rifts
among the right-leaning
groups, which could dilute
their power. The shutdown
debate itself exposed at least
one disagreement.
The Club for Grow th,
FreedomWorks and Heritage
Action for America deantly
insisted that any deal to end
the shutdown and raise the
nations debt ceiling must dismantle or delay Obamas
health care law. Lawmakers
who didnt stand them with
them risked inviting primary
challenges.
But some tea party allies
like Americans for Prosperity,
the group funded by conservative billionaires Charles
and David Koch, opposed the
tactics that led to the shutdown. Now that group is trying to move on, investing
$2 million in a four-state ad
campaign that hammers

forced.
But Chocola said the Club
for Growth wouldnt stop
pressuring Republicans, particularly as congressional
leaders begin to debate a new
budget package.
Chocola wouldnt rule out
another push to link such legislation to the presidents
health care law, but said his
group might shift its strategy
if major shifts to entitlement
programs are included.
As the possibility of a shutdown loomed large in September, the network of GOP
outside groups disagreed over
strategy.
Crossroads ofcials briefed
members of Congress on internal polling that showed the
shutdown strategy deeply unpopular. Given that, the group
and its fellow mainstream Republican allies largely stayed
silent, fearing inuential talk
show radio hosts and aggressive conservative activists
wou ld br a nd t hem a s
heretics.

[ CONTINUED FROM A1 ]
received positive conrmation
that Mehsud had been killed.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials also confirmed his
death, as did two Taliban commanders who saw his mangled
body after the strike. A third
commander said the Taliban
would likely choose Mehsuds
successor today.
If true, the death of Hakimullah Mehsud will be a signicant blow to the Pakistani
Taliban (TTP), an organization
that poses a serious threat to
the Pakistani people and to
Americans in Pakistan, said
Michael Morell, a former acting
CIA director who retired in August and has championed the
drone program. His comments
came in a statement emailed to
The Associated Press.
National Security Council
spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden
said in a statement the White
House was aware of the reports
of Mehsuds death. If true, this
would be a serious loss for the
Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, the
statement said.
There is increased tension
between Islamabad and Washington over the drone attacks,
and Pakistan is also trying to
strike a peace deal with the