Around the Region - Nov. 19

POLICE BEAT

Car strikes stalled bus on highway, 4 injured

Four people reported minor injuries after a car struck a stalled bus in Columbia County Monday evening, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

Troopers cited the bus' driver, Todd J. Frank, 43, of Gibsonton, with improper parking on a highway.

Frank told officers the bus had stalled and he couldn't get it to start. Troopers noted there were no reflectors on the side of the vehicle and the driver did not get out to flag traffic.

The collision occurred at about 6:30 p.m.

The bus driver had been trying to make a left turn into the S&S store on U.S. 441 when the vehicle stopped with its rear section in the road's southbound lane. A southbound car, carrying five people, hit the right rear side of the bus.

The car's driver, Valerie A. Benton, 36, did not see the dark purple bus, troopers reported.

Both Frank and Benton had minor injuries.

Two others in the car also were listed as having minor injuries.

— Lise Fisher

COMMUNITY

Man quits school board after SFC bathroom case

Levy County School Board member Billy Morrison turned in his resignation to Gov. Charlie Crist's office on Tuesday.

Morrison, 47, was charged with indecent exposure for reportedly exposing himself to an undercover campus police officer in a men's restroom at Santa Fe College in October.

Earlier this month, Morrison accepted a deferred prosecution agreement, under which he will not be prosecuted if he stays out of trouble for six months.

In a letter to the School Board, Morrison wrote that the decision to resign "will allow me and my family to move forward with our life and you as a board to be able to do the business of Levy County with little or no distraction."

Morrison had earlier resigned from the Levy County Canvassing Board and has been replaced as the manager of the Perkins State Bank branch in Bronson.

To view a copy of Morrison's letter to the School Board, go online to www.gainesville.com

— Karen Voyles

Crist picks 2 with area ties for medicine board

Gov. Charlie Crist has named two physicians with area ties to the state Board of Medicine.

Dr. Robert C. Nuss, 71, of Jacksonville, is dean of the Jacksonville regional campus of the University of Florida College of Medicine. He succeeds Laurie Davies and is appointed for a four-year term.

Dr. Jason Rosenberg, 40, is a Gainesville plastic surgeon with The Orthopaedic Institute. He is succeeding Carmel Barrau for a term ending in 2012.

Both appointments must be confirmed by the state Senate.

— Diane Chun

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

UF center director will speak on race, politics

The director of the University of Florida's oral history program will speak tonight about race and politics in Florida.

Paul Ortiz will speak at 7 p.m. in Pugh Hall. Ortiz is in his first year as director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and the author of a book on racial violence in Florida following Reconstruction.

The event is the final program this semester in the Samuel Proctor Florida History Lecture Series.

The series is sponsored by oral history program and the Graham Center for Public Service.

— Nathan Crabbe