IN SPORTS
Exaggerator wins Preakness,
dashing Triple Crown hopes.
Rays centerfielder Kevin
Kiermaier breaks his hand
in 5-4 loss to Tigers.
tampabay.com
FLORIDA’S BEST NEWSPAPER
SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2016 | $1.50
THE FORCE
BEHIND THE STORM
Busch Gardens
King Venymyss, an 80-foot snake statue, will
greet riders at the start of Cobra’s Curse. The
ride’s queue will include a live snake exhibit.
Will new
coaster
rattle
snakes?
Herpetologists decry
Busch Gardens’ plan to
“acclimate” sensitive
vipers to Cobra’s Curse.
BY SHARON KENNEDY WYNNE
Times Staff Writer
LOREN ELLIOTT | Times
Tampa Bay Lightning’s cool-as-a-cucumber owner Jeff Vinik chats with injured center Steven
Stamkos before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final against Pittsburgh on Friday.
Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has built two winning teams:
One on the ice, one behind the scenes smoothing the way.
BY STEVE CONTORNO
Times Staff Writer
T
TAMPA
ampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik
doesn’t have a pulse.
It’s a joke his wife, Penny, makes, he said,
because he’s stone-faced no matter how
tense the moment.
For the first 40 minutes of Game 4 of the
Eastern Conference final on Friday, there were
few tense moments. The Lightning jumped out
to a commanding 4-0 lead over the Pittsburgh
Penguins, and was one period away from a 2-2
series.
Everything was going perfect. Until it wasn’t.
The Penguins scored an early goal in the third
period to cut the lead to 3. Halfway through the
period, they scored again. 4-2.
The Lightning faithful groaned.
Vinik was motionless, other than a quick peek
at the Jumbotron overhead.
Here’s what he knows: When the puck drops,
he controls nothing. He doesn’t call the shots and
he doesn’t take them, either.
And here’s what he believes: He’s hired the best
people to put together the best team and organization that gives them the best chance to succeed.
.
See LIGHTNING, 6A
Busy roads drive up
car insurance rates
Premiums jump 14 percent since January
2015 as heavier traffic leads to more crashes.
BY STEVE BOUSQUET
Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
TALLAHASSEE — Floridians
are driving more and getting
into a lot more accidents, and
they’re paying the price with
rising car insurance rates that
are already among the nation’s
highest.
Premiums have risen 14 percent statewide since Jan. 1 of last
year — nearly the exact opposite
of the ubiquitous TV commercials offering savings of 15 percent or more on car insurance.
“People are driving more,” said
former state Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, “and accidents have increased commensurate with that number.”
On McCarty’s watch, which
ended May 2, the Office of Insurance Regulation approved doz-
ens of rate increases in the past
year and a half. The average for
the 25 companies that write
most car coverage in Florida is a
13.8 percent increase.
“They constantly raise my
rates,” said Donna Dugan, 67, of
St. Petersburg, a claims-free customer of State Farm for 35 years
whose policy just went up by
$120 a year.
“That’s a lot of money, especially when you are on Social
Security that did not get a raise
this year,” she told Gov. Rick
Scott in an email. “When is anyone going to help the consumer
or care about them?”
Scott regularly touts Florida’s
“low cost of living” when talking about population growth
or higher education, but the car
.
See PREMIUMS, 7A
NHL
PLAYOFFS
2016
Series tied 2-2
Game 5
At Pittsburgh, 8 tonight,
NBCSN, 970-AM
Lucky or unlucky?
Columnist Martin Fennelly
ponders which Lightning will
hit the ice tonight. Sports,1C
.
Summer TV preview
Fall and winter TV typically gets all the buzz,
but this is the season of sizzle. 2L
His uncle is the dissident priest freed from
prison ahead of President Obama’s visit.
IN SPORTS
Gridiron woman
For historic football hire Lakatriona Brunson,
coaching is gender neutral. 1C
IN THIS SECTION
Strike targets leader of Taliban
The Pentagon is assessing whether he was
killed by the drone strike in Pakistan. 2A
TODAY’S WEATHER
INDEX
Mainly dry
Arts
Astrology
Books
Noon
81°
4 p.m. 8 p.m.
83°
79°
10% chance of rain
More, back page of Sports
Vol. 132 No. 303
© Times Publishing Co.
See SNAKES, 11A
Priest overjoyed at
news from Vietnam
IN LATITUDES
8 a.m.
76°
TAMPA — When Busch Gardens opens Cobra’s
Curse this summer, the snake-themed, spinning
roller coaster will have an air-conditioned ride
queue with an exhibit of live snakes. The park touts
it as part of a mission to educate the public.
The problem, some animal advocates say, is that
snakes are very sensitive to vibrations and sound.
Putting vipers and pythons in front of thousands of
tourists next to a rumbling roller coaster could be
torture for these animals.
“It is correct that snakes do have an acute sense
of reverberations,” said a statement from Busch
Gardens in response to questions from the Tampa
Bay Times. “Our highly accredited zoo team has
been thoughtfully working on creating a process to
slowly acclimate the snakes to their new environment in the queue line at Cobra’s Curse.”
In a year that has seen drastic changes for animals at SeaWorld parks and the retirement of Ringling’s circus elephants, Busch Gardens is again venturing into the precarious world of mixing of wildlife and entertainment.
The snakes were scheduled to move into the ride
area in the coming week. The roller coaster is running tests daily and visitors are expected to ride
Cobra’s Curse by the end of May.
Because reptiles don’t bark, cry or grimace, “misery in a glass tank can so easily go unnoticed,” said
British reptile biologist Clifford Warwick, who consults for animal-rights groups on issues such as the
2-3L
4F
Crossword 5P, F
Editorials
2P
5-6L
Letters
2P
Business
1D
Lottery
2A
Classified
F
Travel
4L
The Rev.
Viet Nguyen
had been
in prison
with his
uncle before
coming to St.
Petersburg.
BY SARA DINATALE
Times Staff Writer
For more than a decade, the
Rev. Viet Nguyen waited for the
phone call from Vietnam.
The St. Petersburg priest
knew President Barack Obama’s
visit to his native country was
drawing near.
He knew the trip would
bring a focus on the communist
nation’s human rights record.
On Thursday night, the phone
rang:
His 70-year-old uncle, a famed
political prisoner and Catholic
priest, was being released from
prison.
“It’s truly happened,” he said.
“I’m overjoyed.”
Nguyen’s uncle, the Rev.
Nguyen Van Ly, has been fighting for religious freedom and
human rights in Vietnam for 40
years. Ly has been in and out of
jail as a political prisoner nearly
all of his adult life. The country’s
move to release him is widely
seen as a goodwill gesture as
Obama arrives for an official
visit late tonight .
Nguyen, a priest at St. Paul’s
Catholic Church in St. Petersburg, hopes the visit can move
Vietnam onto the path his uncle
has long prayed for.
.
See PRIEST, 7A