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WESTON - A canal along Alligator Alley yielded up a murky mystery Wednesday: an algae-covered minivan with human bones that may have been submerged for more than a decade. Broward Sheriff's Office divers on a training mission discovered the van in 18 feet of water near a rest area at Mile Marker 31 along Interstate 75, Sheriff's spokesman Mike Jachles said. The remains of at least one person were inside. The case was being treated as a homicide, and investigators were trying to determine "how many more human remains might be in the water, how they got there and whether...

Three men detained on terrorist suspicions still under investigation Sheriff Hunter said he had new information on the trio before the medical students appeared on Larry King Live Tuesday, September 17, 2002By MIREIDY FERNANDEZ, mmfernandez@naplesnews.com Just hours before the three men who were detained in Collier County on suspicion of carrying explosives appeared on CNN on Monday night, Sheriff Don Hunter said he had new information on the trio, whose alleged joking comments about a terrorist plot ignited fears across America last week. "We believe the information (in this case) is not over because of other uncorroborated information we have...

ALLIGATOR ALLEY DEATHS Feb. 27, 2005 `But they are with God now' Relatives in Fort Myers are grieving for four people who were found dead in a Broward County canal more than a week after family members reported them missing. BY EVAN S. BENN AND KEVIN DEUTSCH For 10 agonizing days, Gerline Sainval waited for police to call her Fort Myers home with good news about her aunt, uncle, cousin and a friend who had disappeared on their way to Lee County from Miami International Airport on Feb. 15. Instead, the call she received Friday night was devastating: Police found...

Sunshine Skyway bridge drivers might not want to remove the spare change from their cars just yet. A proposal to increase the bridge's toll by 50 percent, thought to have died on the regular legislative session's last day, has been revived in the ongoing special session on the state budget. The Senate already has passed the renewed measure (SB 24A), which would increase the toll on the bridge that connects Manatee and Pinellas counties from $1 to $1.50 each way in July. The bill also would increase tolls on Florida's Turnpike, Alligator Alley, the Beeline-East Expressway and two bridges in...

<p>When we come back are three young medical students detained by authorities in Florida after a woman in Georgia reported she overheard them mocking 9/11.</p> <p>They're with us exclusively next. Don't go away.</p> <p>KING: We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE Ayman Gheith, Kambiz Butt and Omar Choudhary. All three are medical students who were detained by authorities in Florida over the weekend. We all know about that, the scene that occurred.</p>

<p>Ahead on NEWSNIGHT: the three medical students who were at the center of the nation's attention for much of the day. They join us on NEWSNIGHT from New York.</p> <p>AYMAN GHEITH: But we were talking about what we were going to do. I'm sorry, in Miami.</p>

<p>EUNICE STONE, TERROR TIPSTER: I've heard them say that I added salt and pepper to my story. Well, no, I didn't add any salt and pepper. I'm not in the habit of going around cooking up trouble and telling lies, and my response to that is I won't sugarcoat anything.</p>

<p>A gentleman just announced on FOXNEWS that the three medical students who made the 9-11 jokes that were overheard by a lady in Georgia will be appearing on Larry King later this week. He stated that this is the wrong message to send in the war on terrorism, and that the woman (Eunice) should receive a call from the President thanking her for being vigilant.</p>

WABE-FM (a NPR affiliate) reported at 8AM today that the “Alligator Alley Three” will be permitted to study medicine at Larkin Medical Schools “once media attention has abated”. The three medical students were initially suspected of being involved in a terrorist plot September 13th when a Eunice Stone, a customer of a Georgia Shoney’s restaurant overheard them joking about the 9-11 attack and their efforts to “bring something down in Miami”. Ms. Stone reported the three to Georgia State Police and they were eventually found in Florida. A deal to reinstate the medical students at Larkin was brokered by CAIR....

<p>NAPLES, Florida (CNN) -- The Georgia woman who prompted Friday's terror scare was "flat-out lying" when she told authorities she overheard three Muslim men at a restaurant laughing about September 11 and making suspicious comments, one of the men said late Friday.</p>

Collier Sheriff's Office voids ticket given to medical student Earlier reports from authorities said that Kambiz Butt ran the tollbooth without paying. Thursday, September 19, 2002By BRIGID O'MALLEY, bmomalley@naplesnews.com   The Collier County Sheriff's Office has voided the ticket given to the driver of one of the cars stopped on Alligator Alley last week during a terrorism scare, saying the tollkeeper Wednesday recalled taking the $1.50 from the man. "She was very nervous at the time," said Collier Sheriff Don Hunter. He said the tollbooth attendant, who had earlier given a sworn statement that the driver hadn't paid, had spotted...

Posted on Sun, Sep. 22, 2002 Florida Muslims try to right some people's tilted viewBy CASSIO FURTADO cfurtado@herald.comOfficials from Islamic organizations in Florida gathered Saturday to look for ways they could influence some Americans' perceptions of Muslims in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.At a conference at the Signature Grand in Davie, the officials showed visible anger at the detention of three Muslim students on Alligator Alley nine days ago and the media coverage of the incident. The students were arrested after police received a tip that they might be terrorists planning an attack.The officials also complained of unfair...

''It seems like everyone connected the dots here,'' WSVN-Fox 7 anchor Christine Cruz said during the sixth hour of the marathon coverage of Friday's bomb scare on Alligator Alley. ``It seems like everyone did what they were supposed to be doing.'' Like a lot of what was said during the coverage, that was about half right. Television reporters were certainly connecting dots -- lots of dots, some of them seemingly from another planet -- but if journalism is about facts and not hype, then they definitely weren't doing what they were supposed to do. Friday's coverage was the source of...

<p>The story is over. It's yesterday's headline.</p> <p>Everyone involved has begun to recede back into normal life insofar as they had normal lives. But before it becomes just another strange memory of 2002, a worthy wave goodbye.</p> <p>Eunice Stone of Georgia is reportedly recovering from the chest pains that led her to check herself into a local hospital. The diagnosis was stress. The three young Muslim men with whom she had her now-famous encounter have reportedly announced they will not sue her, which is certainly gracious of them.</p>

Friends and former teachers of Truman High School graduate Omer Choudhary, one of three Muslim medical students detained last week in Florida, have offered encouragement and support in recent days, his father says."Many teachers have called, many high school classmates," said Javed Choudhary of Independence. "The support has been very positive."Even though authorities eventually released Omer Choudhary and his colleagues, the hospital where they planned to continue their studies said they were no longer welcome there. An administrator of Larkin Community Hospital in Miami said the decision was made after the hospital received scores of hostile e-mails.An alternate placement has...

They just showed the toll booth tapes of the Florida detainees on television. According to the newscaster, both cars stopped, and paid the attendant. The tapes show them doing exactly this. I'm not sure what to make of it, but the media is putting the tollbooth tapes into heavy rotation.

DAVIE, Fla. (AP) - Three medical students who were detained as terror suspects on a Florida highway are now being welcomed by the Miami hospital that turned them away after the incident, an American-Islamic relations activist said. Altaf Ali, executive director for Florida's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Saturday that an agreement was reached last week to let the men study at Larkin Community Hospital, where they had been headed when they were pulled over by police Sept. 13 and detained for 18 hours while robots and bomb-sniffing dogs searched their cars. The search, sparked by complaints...

Eavesdrop if you must, but get facts straight David Porter September 21, 2002 I know how Eunice Stone must have felt. Stone is the woman who was eating in a restaurant near Interstate 75 in Georgia last week when she heard fragments of a conversation that she suspected might have been part of a terrorist plot. The three young Arab men who had been engaged in the conversation were stopped later in Florida and detained for 17 hours while they were checked out by authorities. When you overhear snatches of someone else's conversation, it's easy to reach a distorted conclusion...

Collier Sheriff's Office voids ticket given to medical student Earlier reports from authorities said that Kambiz Butt ran the tollbooth without paying. Thursday, September 19, 2002By BRIGID O'MALLEY, bmomalley@naplesnews.com The Collier County Sheriff's Office has voided the ticket given to the driver of one of the cars stopped on Alligator Alley last week during a terrorism scare, saying the tollkeeper Wednesday recalled taking the $1.50 from the man. "She was very nervous at the time," said Collier Sheriff Don Hunter. He said the tollbooth attendant, who had earlier given a sworn statement that the driver hadn't paid, had spotted the...

So Three Arabs Walk Into A Bar ... September 18, 2002 printer friendly AN AMERICAN CITIZEN overheard three Muslims at a Shoney's restaurant laughing about Sept. 11 over breakfast. "If people thought Sept. 11 was something, wait till Sept. 13." "Do you think that will bring it down?" "Well, if that won't bring it down, I have contacts. I'll get enough to bring it down." Patriot Eunice Stone took down their license plate numbers and called the police as the mirthful Muslims left. (I'd give you the names, but they're too complicated. There's a reason they use numbers at Guantanamo.)...