Pinellas County is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 959,107, which makes it the seventh-most populous county in the state. It is also the most densely populated county in Florida, with 3,491 residents per square mile. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area. Clearwater is the county seat. St. Petersburg is the largest city in the county, as well as the largest city in Florida that is not a county seat.
Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa and north of St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 117,292. It is the smallest of the three principal cities in the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan area, most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area.
Pinellas Park is a city located in central Pinellas County, United States. The population was 53,093 at the 2020 census. The city is the fourth largest city in Pinellas County. The City of Pinellas Park was incorporated in 1914. It is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area, most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area.
The Terri Schiavo case was a series of court and legislative actions in the United States from 1998 to 2005, regarding the care of Theresa Marie Schiavo, a woman in an irreversible persistent vegetative state. Schiavo's husband and legal guardian argued that Schiavo would not have wanted prolonged artificial life support without the prospect of recovery, and in 1998, he elected to remove her feeding tube. Schiavo's parents disputed her husband's assertions and challenged Schiavo's medical diagnosis, arguing in favor of continuing artificial nutrition and hydration. The highly publicized and prolonged series of legal challenges presented by her parents, which ultimately involved state and federal politicians up to the level of George W. Bush, the then U.S. president, caused a seven-year delay before Schiavo's feeding tube was ultimately removed.
James David Whittemore is a senior United States District Judge presently serving in the Tampa division of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He was previously a Florida state trial court judge, a federal public defender, and an attorney in private practice who won a criminal case before the United States Supreme Court. As a federal judge, Whittemore presided over a number of high-profile cases, including a lawsuit against Major League Baseball to challenge its draft procedure, and the Terri Schiavo case, after the United States Congress had specifically given the Middle District of Florida jurisdiction to hear the seven-year-long fight over whether the brain-damaged Schiavo should be taken off life support.
The Palm Sunday Compromise, formally known as the Act for the relief of the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo, is an Act of Congress passed on March 21, 2005, to allow the case of Terri Schiavo to be moved into a federal court. The name "Palm Sunday Compromise" was coined by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, referring to it having been passed on Palm Sunday.
The legislative, executive, and judicial branches, of both the United States federal government and the State of Florida, were involved in the case of Terri Schiavo. In November 1998 Michael Schiavo, husband of Terri Schiavo, first sought permission to remove his wife's feeding tube. Schiavo had suffered brain damage in February 1990, and in February 2000 had been ruled by a Florida circuit court to be in a persistent vegetative state. Her feeding tube was removed first on April 26, 2001, but was reinserted two days later on an appeal by her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
The case of Terri Schiavo became the subject of intense public debate and activism.
St. Petersburg College (SPC) is a public college in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and one of the institutions in the system designated a "state college," as it offers a greater number of bachelor's degrees than traditional community colleges focused on associate degrees. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and enrolled about 29,000 students in the fall of 2018.
Hogan Knows Best is an American reality documentary television series on VH1. The series debuted on July 10, 2005 and centered on the family life of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. Often focusing on the Hogans' raising of their children, and on Hulk Hogan's attempts to manage and assist in his children's burgeoning careers, the title of the show is a spoof of the 1950s television series, Father Knows Best.
Nicholas Anthony Bollea, known as Nick Hogan, is an American reality television personality known for his appearances on the reality show Hogan Knows Best alongside his father, mother, and older sister.
Gabriel Cazares was a mayor of Clearwater, Florida, a Pinellas County commissioner, a civil rights advocate, and a critic of the Church of Scientology. He died in Clearwater at the age of 86.
Barry Cohen was an American criminal defense, personal injury, civil and qui tam attorney in Florida's Tampa Bay Area. Cohen was hired by the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) to represent the family of Ibragim Todashev, an unarmed Chechen shot to death while being questioned by the FBI in relation to the Boston Marathon bombing. He was known for his aggressive legal tactics. He died of leukemia in 2018.
Frank Winston Peterman, Jr. is a Democratic politician who was a member of the Florida House of Representatives for District 55 and who served as the Secretary of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. He was first elected to the Florida House in 2000 and served until 2008. He was appointed by Governor Charlie Crist to head the Department of Juvenile Justice in February 2008, where he served until February 2011. His appointment spurred a special election to serve out the remainder of his term that was won by Darryl Rouson, former St. Petersburg NAACP president. Peterman is married to St. Petersburg native June Kicklighter and they have four children.
James Bernard Sanderlin was a lawyer who, during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, used litigation to fight for equality and against discrimination in Pinellas County, Florida. During this time Sanderlin was one of only five African American attorneys who practiced in racially divided St. Petersburg, Florida. Sanderlin devoted his career to unifying blacks and whites in his community in an effort to move toward social and legal equality. While living in Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 1950s, Sanderlin felt compelled to move to the South to try to make a difference for minorities there. All of his life he had lived peacefully alongside whites, so it was not hard for him to envision an American society where the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision was implemented and equality was practiced and not just talked about.
George Euripedes Tragos is a Criminal Defense and Personal Injury attorney located in Clearwater, Florida. He has participated in a number of cases that have received national attention; these include the Terri Schiavo case, a civil suit against Nick Hogan, and the Stephen Coffeen case in which he successfully argued what has been dubbed the "Red Bull defense". He is senior partner at the personal injury law firm Tragos, Sartes & Tragos, PA.
Bollea v. Gawker was a lawsuit filed in 2013 in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in Pinellas County, Florida, delivering a verdict on March 18, 2016. In the suit, Terry Gene Bollea, known professionally as Hulk Hogan, sued Gawker Media, publisher of the Gawker website, and several Gawker employees and Gawker-affiliated entities for posting portions of a sex tape of Bollea with Heather Clem, at that time the wife of radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge. Bollea's claims included invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Prior to trial, Bollea's lawyers said the privacy of many Americans was at stake while Gawker's lawyers said that the case could hurt freedom of the press in the United States.
On July 19, 2018, Markeis McGlockton, 28, was fatally shot by Michael Drejka at a parking lot outside a local convenience store in Clearwater, Florida, United States. Shortly before the shooting, Drejka pulled in a spot not meant for parking and approached McGlockton's car to confront McGlockton's girlfriend for parking in a disabled parking space without a placard. McGlockton came out of the store to find Drejka screaming at his girlfriend and warned Drejka to back away from his vehicle. When that attempt was unsuccessful he then shoved Drejka to the ground. Drejka immediately drew his handgun and McGlockton began to back away. Five seconds after Drejka hit the ground, he shot McGlockton once. McGlockton later died from his injuries at a local hospital. He was unarmed at the time he was shot.
Laura Chinn is an actress and writer for television. She wrote and directed the feature film Suncoast (2024). Chinn also starred in and created the Pop television series Florida Girls (2019-2019).
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