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(12/02/09 5:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>ORLANDO, Fla. – All Tiger Woods has to do is pay a $164 fine – less than a round of golf at Torrey Pines – and his dealings with Florida authorities about his car accident will be done.What hasn’t ended is the public’s fascination with his private life, which may get more complicated. Us Weekly magazine, which hits newsstands Wednesday, features a cover story alleging that a Los Angeles cocktail waitress had a 31-month affair with the world’s No. 1 golfer – and that the proof was in 300 text messages.Last week, just two days before Woods crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant and tree, the National Enquirer published a story alleging that Woods had been seeing a New York nightclub hostess, and that they were recently together in Melbourne, where Woods competed in the Australian Masters.The woman, Rachel Uchitel, denied having an affair with Woods when contacted by The Associated Press.The world’s most famous athlete will be cited for careless driving outside his home in the exclusive gated community of Isleworth. It will cost him four points on his driver’s license, but he will not face criminal charges, the Florida Highway Patrol said Tuesday.Woods, who was briefly unconscious after the crash, never spoke with investigators. Instead, he provided his driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance to investigators, as required by Florida law.The patrol “is not pursuing criminal charges in this matter nor is there any testimony or other evidence to support any additional charges of any kind other than the charge of careless driving,” said Sgt. Kim Montes, a spokesman for the highway patrol. “Despite the celebrity status of Mr. Woods, the Florida Highway Patrol has completed its investigation in the same professional manner it strives to complete each traffic investigation.”After consulting with the local prosecutor’s office, investigators also decided there was insufficient evidence to issue a subpoena that would have given them access to records from his post-crash hospital visit, Montes said.For days, tabloids and gossip Web sites have speculated about what happened leading up to the 2:25 a.m. wreck last Friday, including a possible dispute between Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren, who told Windermere police she used a golf club to smash the back windows to help him out.“There are no claims of domestic violence by any individual,” Montes said.
(09/12/06 3:07am)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The crew of the international space station welcomed Atlantis' six astronauts on board Monday after the space shuttle arrived carrying the first new addition for the orbiting laboratory in more than 3 1/2 years.\nThe hatch between two orbiting spacecraft was opened more than 1 1/2 hours after Atlantis commander Brent Jett eased the space shuttle into the station's docking port at 6:48 a.m. EDT. The shuttle's nearly two-day trip from Earth ended as the two vehicles were passing about 220 miles above the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean.\nAtlantis pilot Chris Ferguson, who was on his first trip to space, sported a wide grin as he was given a tour of the space station by its crew.\nA short time later, the space shuttle's robotic arm was used to grasp the 17 1/2-ton addition in Atlantis' cargo bay and then to hand it over to the space station's own robotic arm. The addition is a 45-foot-long structure with folded solar wings inside.\nThe crew was on schedule with all the tasks on its to-do list and was not experiencing any problems, said lead flight director Paul Dye.\nAfter watching for several years as flight control teams practiced the delicate transfer of the new addition, in which the lengthy structure would come within a couple inches of bumping the side of the shuttle, Dye marveled at Monday's performance.\n"Isn't that beautiful," Dye said after a news briefing Monday morning. "It's wonderful to see it happening for real."\nWith both vehicles moving at 17,500 mph, the tag-up with the space station required Atlantis to make a series of jet firings that ended with Jett taking manual control of the spacecraft about 1,000 feet from the space station.\nAt about 600 feet from the station, Jett maneuvered the spacecraft so the space station's three-man crew could photograph the shuttle's belly for NASA engineers, who will look for any damage from liftoff to the spacecraft's thermal skin.\nThat inspection, plus another performed Sunday using a 50-foot boom with sensors at the end, was implemented following the Columbia accident that killed seven astronauts in 2003. Foam debris from Columbia's external fuel tank struck a wing, allowing fiery gases to penetrate when the shuttle returned to Earth.\nWhile reviewing photos from Atlantis' launch on Saturday, NASA managers saw only a single piece of debris fall during the part of the liftoff when a debris strike can endanger the shuttle. A thruster cover fell 16 seconds into the ascent at a speed of 230 mph, but it didn't hit the shuttle.\nSeven other pieces of foam and ice debris appeared to fall off, including four that seemed to hit the shuttle, but they all occurred too late into the ascent, when the debris wasn't moving fast enough to do much damage.\nThe Columbia disaster in 2003 halted all construction on the space lab. NASA and its international partners hope to finish building the space station on 14 additional missions by 2010 when the space shuttle fleet is scheduled to be grounded.\n"Atlantis is headed your way with a brand new piece of space station in its trunk," Mission Control radioed astronaut Jeff Williams with the space shuttle still several miles away.\nAstronauts Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper planned to end the day by "camping out" overnight in the space station's airlock in preparation for the first of three spacewalks the next day.\nThe air pressure in the airlock will be reduced from 14.7 pounds per square inch to 10.2 psi. Before spacewalks, crew members usually have to breathe pure oxygen for several hours to purge their bodies of nitrogen and prevent a condition known as the bends, which occurs when nitrogen bubbles stored in tissues expand, making it difficult to move joints. The new method reduces that preparation time.\n"It is a very, very busy day with virtually no time for breaks," Dye had said earlier.\nDuring Tuesday's spacewalk, the astronauts will connect wiring from the new solar addition to the space station. The task must be performed fairly quickly so the electronic components don't get cold, Dye said.
(09/08/06 4:47am)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Caught in a scheduling squeeze, NASA decided to try to launch space shuttle Atlantis Friday without replacing a troublesome electrical component.\nFriday had been the last launch day available before the U.S. space agency ran into a scheduling conflict with the Russian space agency, but NASA managers now believe they can try Saturday, if needed, and they were finalizing negotiations with the Russians.\nThere was a 30 percent chance bad weather would interfere at the 11:40 a.m. EDT Friday launch time.\nThursday, NASA decided not to change out an electricity-generating fuel cell whose coolant pump had given erratic readings, causing a scrub a day earlier. Replacing the 250-pound pump could have delayed any launch attempt by several weeks and might have been riskier than leaving it in place, said Steve Poulos, shuttle orbiter projects manager.\nThe most likely cause of the erratic reading was thinning wires on a motor which hadn't been used in seven years, Poulos said.\n"Pulling out a 250-pound piece of hardware and getting it in and out ... and at the end of the day not having a problem, well there's just risk associated with that," Poulos said. "It became a very easy recommendation for me ... to say 'We're good to go fly.'"\nThe decision to try a launch on Friday wasn't unanimous. Officials in NASA's safety office felt the fuel cell should be changed out not because of a safety issue, but because they were concerned about whether the mission could be carried out successfully. The fuel cell's manufacturer, UTC Power, wanting NASA to use a pristine unit, also recommended against flying until it was swapped out, said Wayne Hale, space shuttle program manager.\nHowever, late Thursday night, the company said it was fine with the decision to fly.\n"We're very comfortable with flying," said Henry DeRonck, general manager for space at UTC Power. "There is very low risk of anything getting further worse."\nAfter this weekend, the next daylight launch opportunity is not until the end of October. NASA rules say Atlantis must lift off in daylight so that its big external fuel tank can be photographed for any signs of broken-off foam of the sort that destroyed Columbia 3 1/2 years ago.\nIf Atlantis does not get off the ground Friday, NASA officials had two options they were reluctant to exercise that would permit a launch attempt before the end of October: Try on Saturday, or relax the daylight-launch rule.\nNASA managers originally believed the 11-day construction mission would have to be shortened if Atlantis were launched Saturday. NASA had made an agreement with the Russians to undock from the space station by Sept. 17 because Russia is launching a three-person Soyuz capsule to the space station Sept. 18.\nNASA was negotiating with the Russians about possibly undocking Sept. 18 if the U.S. space agency decides to launch the space shuttle Saturday, said Mike Suffredini, space station program manager.\nRelaxing the daylight rule would open up launch chances in late September and early October.\nAtlantis' astronauts will restart construction on the half-built international space station for the first time since the Columbia disaster.
(07/06/06 12:12am)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The crew of Discovery began their first full day in space Wednesday with one of the most comprehensive in-flight inspections of any shuttle flight.\nAs they hurtled toward a Thursday rendezvous with the international space station, the astronauts maneuvered a 50-foot boom with cameras attached to inspect Discovery's right wing for any damage from debris during liftoff.\nLive video of Discovery's Independence Day launch had showed some small chunks of debris falling from the external fuel tank, at least one chunk hitting the shuttle.\nUsing new inspection techniques implemented after the 2003 Columbia disaster, the astronauts on Wednesday were taking even more images of the shuttle's wings and nose cap with laser, digital and video cameras that can spot damage as small as an eighth of an inch.\n"We can detect very, very small damage indeed," said Wayne Hale, shuttle program manager. Several hours after the launch Tuesday, he had said: "We saw nothing that gives us any kind of concern about the health of the crew or the vehicle."\nThe seven-member Discovery crew awoke early Wednesday to sounds of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," sometimes referred to as the black national anthem.\n"That one is particularly dear to my heart because ... after the day of our nation's independence, it's very fitting because it reminds us that anyone and everyone can participate in the space program," astronaut Stephanie Wilson, only the second black woman in space, radioed to Mission Control.\nAstronaut Mike Fossum sent Mission Control video showing him, pilot Mark Kelly and specialist Lisa Nowak in the flight deck during Tuesday's launch.\nFirst-time fliers Nowak and Fossum gave each other a gloved congratulatory handshake and thumbs up during the ascent. Once in orbit, Nowak, serving as flight engineer, took notes while Fossum and specialist Stephanie Wilson unstrapped themselves to photograph the external fuel tank as it fell away from the shuttle.\nThe Day 2 inspections, expected to take about 6 1/2 hours, were ordered after a chunk of hard insulating foam from the external fuel tank struck Columbia on lift off in 2003 and damaged its wing, allowing fiery gases to enter the spacecraft during reentry. All seven \nastronauts were killed as the shuttle broke up over Texas.\nShuttle managers said early video images of Discovery's liftoff showing small pieces of foam breaking away -- and one striking the spacecraft -- were not troubling.\nAbout three minutes after liftoff, as many as five pieces of debris were seen flying off the tank, and another piece of foam popped off a bit later, Mission Control told the crew. The latter piece struck the belly of Discovery, but NASA assured the seven astronauts it was no concern because of the timing.\nHale said Discovery was so high when the pieces came off that there wasn't enough air to accelerate the foam into the shuttle and cause damage.\nThe astronauts reported seeing what they described as a large piece of cloth tumbling away from Discovery soon \nafter reaching orbit. It looked like one of the thermal blankets that protects the shuttle, they said, but Mission Control told them it was likely ice and that a similar observation was made during Discovery's flight a year ago.\nThe mission for Discovery's crew is to test shuttle-inspection techniques, deliver supplies to the international space station and drop off \nEuropean Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter for a six-month stay. Astronauts Piers Sellers and Fossum plan to conduct two spacewalks, and possibly a third one, which would extend the mission by a day.
(01/17/06 6:03am)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An unmanned NASA spacecraft the size of a piano is set to lift off Tuesday on a nine-year journey to Pluto, the last unexplored planet in the solar system.\nScientists hope to learn more about the icy planet and its large moon, Charon, as well as two other, recently discovered moons in orbit around Pluto.\nThe $700 million New Horizons mission also will study the surrounding Kuiper Belt, the mysterious zone of the solar system that is believed to hold thousands of comets and other icy objects. It could hold clues to how the planets were formed.\n"They finally are going! I can't believe it!" said Patricia Tombaugh, 93, widow of Clyde Tombaugh, the Illinois-born astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930.\nPatricia Tombaugh, her two children, and the astronomer's younger sister planned to witness the launch of the New Horizons spacecraft at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday afternoon.\nPluto is the only planet discovered by a U.S. citizen, though some astronomers dispute Pluto's right to be called a planet. It is an oddball icy dwarf unlike the rocky planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars and the gaseous planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.\nNASA has sent unmanned space probes to every planet but Pluto.\n"What we know about Pluto today could fit on the back of a postage stamp," said Colleen Hartman, a deputy associate administrator at NASA. "The textbooks will be rewritten after this mission is completed."\nNew Horizons will lift off on an Atlas V rocket, which was rolled to the launch pad Monday, and speed away from Earth at 36,000 mph, the fastest spacecraft ever launched. \nIt will reach Earth's moon in about nine hours and arrive in 13 months at Jupiter, where it will use the giant planet's gravity as a slingshot, shaving five years off the 3-billion-mile trip.\nThe launch had drawn protests from anti-nuclear activists because the spacecraft will be powered by 24 pounds of plutonium, which will produce energy from natural radioactive decay.\nNASA and the U.S. Department of Energy have put the probability of an early-launch accident that could release plutonium at 1 in 350. The agencies have brought in 16 mobile field teams that can detect radiation and 33 air samplers and monitors.\n"Just as we have ambulances at football games, you don't expect to use them, but we have them there if we need them," NASA official Randy Scott said.
(07/14/05 3:29am)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A faulty fuel gauge on Discovery's external tank forced NASA to call off Wednesday's launch of the first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster 2 1/2 years ago. The space agency did not immediately set a new launch date.\nThe decision came with less than 2 1/2 hours to go before launch, as the seven astronauts were almost done boarding the spacecraft. Up until then, rain and thunder over the launch site appeared to be the only obstacle to an on-time liftoff.\nA launch control commentator said that it was unlikely the problem could be solved quickly and that another launch attempt on Thursday was all but impossible.\nNASA has until the end of July to launch Discovery, after which it will have to wait until September -- a schedule dictated by both the position of the international space station and NASA's desire to hold a daylight liftoff in order to photograph the shuttle during its climb to orbit.\nThe problem was with one of the four engine cut-off sensors, which are responsible for making sure the spacecraft's main engines shut down at the proper point during the ascent. A launch could end in tragedy if faulty sensors caused the engines to cut out too early or too late.\nNASA said it appeared that the sensor was showing a low fuel level, even though the tank was full with 535,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen.\nThe sensors "for some reason did not behave today and so we're going to have to scrub this launch attempt," launch director Mike Leinbach told his team. "So appreciate all we've been through together, but this one is not going to result in a launch attempt today."\nIt was not the first time sensors of this type malfunctioned. During a fueling test of Discovery's original tank in April, one of its sensors gave intermittent readings. NASA could not ascertain the exact reason for the failure but replaced the entire tank anyway to install a heater to prevent a dangerous ice buildup.\nShuttle managers considered conducting a fueling test at the launch pad on the replacement tank, but ruled it out to save time, saying that the actual fueling on launch day would be the ultimate test.\n"We are disappointed, but we'll fly again on another day," said an astronaut speaking from launch control, David Wolf.
(04/01/05 6:24am)
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -- Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman who spent 15 years connected to a feeding tube in an epic legal and medical battle that went all the way to the White House and Congress, died Thursday, 13 days after the tube was removed. She was 41.\nSchiavo died about 9 a.m. at the Pinellas Park hospice where she lay for years while her husband and her parents fought over her in what was easily the longest, most bitter -- and most heavily litigated -- right-to-die dispute in U.S. history.\nMichael Schiavo was at his wife's bedside, cradling her, when she died a "calm, peaceful and gentle" death, a stuffed animal under her arm, and flowers arranged around the room, said his attorney, George Felos. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, were not at the hospice at the time, he said.\n"Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern here was to provide for Terri a peaceful death with dignity," Felos said. "This death was not for the siblings, and not for the spouse and not for the parents. This was for Terri."\nThe feud between the parents and their son-in-law continued even after her death: The Schindlers' advisers complained that Schiavo's brother and sister had been at her bedside a few minutes before the end came, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo would not let them in the room.\n"And so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment," said the Rev. Frank Pavone, a Roman Catholic priest. He added: "This is not only a death, with all the sadness that brings, but this is a killing, and for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this and we pray that it will never happen again."\nFelos disputed the Schindler family's account. He said that Terri Schiavo's siblings had been asked to leave the room so that the hospice staff could examine her, and the brother started arguing with a law enforcement official. Michael Schiavo feared a "potentially explosive" situation and would not allow the brother in the room, because he wanted his wife's death to take place in a calm and peaceful surroundings, Felos said.\n"She's got all of her dignity back. She's now in heaven, she's now with God, and she's walking with grace," Michael Schiavo's brother, Scott Schiavo, said at his Levittown, Pa., home.\nHouse Republican Leader Tom DeLay condemned the judges who at both the state and federal level declined to order that Schiavo be kept alive artificially.\n"I never thought I'd see the day when a U.S. judge stopped feeding a living American so that they took 14 days to die," he said.\nOutside the hospice, a small group of activists sang hymns, raising their hands to the sky and closing their eyes. After the tube that supplied a nutrient solution was disconnected, protesters had streamed into Pinellas Park to keep vigil outside her hospice, with many arrested as they tried to bring her food and water.\nSchiavo suffered severe brain damage in 1990 after her heart stopped because of a chemical imbalance that was believed to have been brought on by an eating disorder. Court-appointed doctors ruled she was in a persistent vegetative state, with no real consciousness or chance of recovery.\nShe left no written instructions, but her husband argued that his wife told him long ago she would not want to be kept alive artificially. His in-laws disputed that, saying that would have gone against her Roman Catholic faith, and they contended she could get better with treatment. They said she laughed, cried, responded to them and tried to talk.\nOver and over, Pinellas County Circuit Judge George W. Greer said that Michael Schiavo had convinced him that Terri Schiavo would not have wanted to be kept alive under such conditions. The feeding tube was removed with the judge's approval March 18 -- the third time food and water were cut off during the seven-year legal battle.\nFlorida lawmakers, Congress, President Bush and his brother Gov. Jeb Bush tried to intervene on behalf of her parents, but state and federal courts at all levels repeatedly ruled in favor of her husband.
(03/28/05 4:14am)
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -- With their hopes of a miracle fading and other options exhausted, Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings appeared quietly resigned Sunday and asked protesters to spend Easter with their families as the severely brain-damaged woman spent a ninth day without food and water.\nThose outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo is being cared for were not as calm, with the first of what would be four morning arrests coming as ministers attempted to bring Schiavo Easter communion. About a half-dozen people in wheelchairs later got out of them and lay in the driveway, shouting "We're not dead yet!"\nPolice protecting the hospice were loudly heckled, prompting Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, to come out and ask the protesters to tone down their behavior.\n"We are not going to solve the problem today by getting arrested," he told the restless crowd of about three dozen people. "We can change laws, but we are not going to change them today. ... You are not speaking for our family."\nA spokesman for the Schindlers denied a report from David Gibbs III, their lead lawyer, who told CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that Schiavo has "passed where physically she would be able to recover."\nThat statement "was not made with the family's knowledge. In the family's opinion, that is absolutely not true," family spokesman Randall Terry told reporters. \nGeorge Felos, an attorney for her husband Michael, did not return a call for comment.\nThe two sides, who have battled for years over whether the 41-year-old wanted to live or die, have given differing opinions of her status. Her parents have said she is declining rapidly and in her last hours; Felos argued Saturday that her condition is not yet that grave.\nDoctors have said Terri Schiavo would probably die within a week or two of the tube being removed March 18. She relied on the tube for 15 years after suffering catastrophic brain damage when her heart stopped beating and oxygen was cut off to her brain.\nSchiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have maintained their daughter is not in a persistent vegetative state as court-ordered doctors have determined. Michael Schiavo has said his wife told him that she would not want to be kept alive artificially.\nThe Schindlers said they would stop asking courts to intervene after the Florida Supreme Court rejected their most recent appeal Saturday. The parents were rebuffed repeatedly by federal courts after Congress passed an extraordinary law last weekend allowing the case to be heard by federal judges.\nAbout three dozen protesters stayed at the hospice Sunday after the Schindlers asked them to spend Easter Sunday with their families. Bob Schindler told reporters the protesters were welcome back on Monday.\nBut many protesters ignored the call to stay away for the holiday.\n"People are getting emotional," said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition. "A woman is starving to death, but we want to focus on Terri, not on us."\nAt St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Clearwater, Father Ted Costello scrupulously avoided mentioning the Schiavo case in Easter mass. Parishioner Bill Youmans said that was a good thing.\n"I don't think that's got anything to do with Easter," the 76-year-old retiree from Michigan said. "I thought the church's teaching is not to take extraordinary measures to perpetuate life. ... I think all those people bleating in Schiavo's front yard give Jesus a bad name."\nBut down the road at Faith Lutheran Church in Dunedin, the Rev. Peter Kolb thought Schiavo's story was appropriate for an Easter sermon.\n"Imagine the young woman that's been trapped in a hospice for 15 years," he told his flock, without actually mentioning Schiavo's name. "One day we're all going to go through the valley. ... Some day, somehow, each of us are going to face that last enemy."\nBefore the service, he handed a reporter a publication outlining "things that each of us can do to help save Terri Schindler-Schiavo." It was a publication of the Lutheran Church -- the church of Michael Schiavo's youth.\nSupporters of the Schindlers continued their demands Sunday for Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene.\n"Terri is in effect on death row. ... We're asking the governor for a stay of execution on Easter Sunday," said Larry Klayman, founder of the conservative legal group Judicial Watch.\nBush told CNN on Sunday that he has done all he can in the case, as he has said for several days.\n"I cannot violate a court order," he said. "I don't have powers from the United States Constitution or, for that matter, from the Florida constitution, that would allow me to intervene after a decision has been made."\nAt least two more appeals were pending by the state and Bush, but those challenges were before the state 2nd District Court of Appeal, which has rebuffed the governor's previous efforts in the case.
(06/09/03 1:44am)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Storms and high wind on Sunday forced NASA to delay launching a rocket carrying the first of a pair of rovers destined for Mars on a mission to search for evidence of water on Earth's neighbor.\nThe launch aboard a Boeing Delta II from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was rescheduled for Monday afternoon, but there was only a 40 percent chance that storms would clear by then. The weather was expected to improve by Tuesday.\nThe second rover is scheduled for launch later this month, and both vehicles are to arrive at Mars in January.\n"We sincerely hope it will be the successful beginning to one of the first great 21st century voyages of exploration," NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said Sunday.\nThe rovers were officially named on Sunday. Third-grader Sofi Collis, 9, of Scottsdale, Ariz., chose the name Spirit for the first rover and Opportunity for the second in a nationwide contest that drew 10,000 entries.\n"I used to live in an orphanage. It was dark and cold and lonely," said Sofi, who was adopted from Siberia at age 2. "In America, I can make all my dreams come true. Thank you for the spirit and the opportunity."
(11/05/01 4:48am)
ORLANDO, Fla. -- If you've been to Walt Disney World in the past decade, you may have caught Mark Lainer playing a character in the Indiana Jones show. Or he may have made you laugh in one of the improvisational sketches at Pleasure Island. \nUntil two weeks ago, Lainer was an actor at the theme park. \nNow he is a casualty of some of the toughest economic times Disney World has faced in decades. \nLainer and more than 100 other actors were laid off two weeks ago. \nLainer no longer goes to work each day to perform improv, play the character "Six Bits" in the Hoop-Dee-Doo show, or act the role of a movie director in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular Show. \nInstead, he grew a beard, sleeps in late, works the phones to drum up some acting and writing jobs from conventions, and he plans for a move to Los Angeles with his wife and cats early next year. Lainer, who also directs, has been back to Disney to fill some substitute roles but finds that former colleagues treat him "like someone died." \n"It was such a shock," said Lainer, 39. "I was in a weird state of mind. It was surreal." \nSince February, Disney has laid off more than 180 of the 430 actors who once worked full-time at the theme park resort, or about 40 percent of its Actors Equity performers, according to Lainer. Disney spokesman Bob Jimenez disputed that number as too high but would not say what the actual figure is. \nDuring the latest round, the actors were given the option of working a service job in the park, in merchandising or custodial, but most refused. Lainer said such jobs pay only one-third to half of his $22-an-hour wage as an actor. \n"I'm an actor. Some people work for Disney because they want to work for Disney," he said. "I worked for Disney because it was a great place to be a performer." \nJimenez said half of the entertainers whose jobs were cut have accepted other positions at the park. \nOther Disney workers are also feeling the pinch. Most of Disney World's 15,000 part-time workers have had their hours eliminated. Hourly workers have had their workweek cut back, and salaried workers were given the option of scaling back their hours. \nWhile acting jobs have dried up in Orlando, he does not fear for his career. Lainer is a familiar face to Orlando TV viewers, having appeared on several local commercials and a few syndicated shows filmed here such as "The Cape" and "Sheena." He expects to find more work.
