As it built an armored truck empire, took dangerous shortcuts. Its workers and unsuspecting motorists suffered the consequences.CASH DRIVEN   |   A TIMES INVESTIGATIONStory by Analysis by Times Staff WritersThe armored truck full of money barreled down a two-lane road until it encountered a stopped SUV. The truck didn’t brake. Instead it whipped into the oncoming lane, as if to pass, and rammed into a tanker truck.The impact ripped open the side of the armored truck and launched a worker guarding the cash into the air with such force that his seat went with him. Illinois police...…As it built an armored truck empire, took dangerous shortcuts. Its workers and unsuspecting motorists suffered the consequences.CASH DRIVEN   |   A TIMES INVESTIGATIONStory by Analysis by Times Staff WritersThe armored truck full of money barreled down a two-lane road until it encountered a stopped SUV. The truck didn’t brake. Instead it whipped into the oncoming lane, as if to pass, and rammed into a tanker truck.The impact ripped open the side of the armored truck and launched a worker guarding the cash into the air with such force that his seat went with him. Illinois police...WW…

or Rufus del Valle, high school had been a scary place, where he felt powerless. All four years had been marred by seemingly unchecked sexually inappropriate behavior from both students and teachers.Back then, he hadn’t spoken up, afraid of retaliation. But during his first semester of college, he had become increasingly certain that what he experienced at Blake High School in Tampa shouldn’t be normal. What if he could get someone in charge to listen now?So in 2019, he wrote to several high-level district officials. Responses started coming back in a few hours.Most of what he detailed was...…or Rufus del Valle, high school had been a scary place, where he felt powerless. All four years had been marred by seemingly unchecked sexually inappropriate behavior from both students and teachers.Back then, he hadn’t spoken up, afraid of retaliation. But during his first semester of college, he had become increasingly certain that what he experienced at Blake High School in Tampa shouldn’t be normal. What if he could get someone in charge to listen now?So in 2019, he wrote to several high-level district officials. Responses started coming back in a few hours.Most of what he detailed was...WW…

urrounded by stuffed animals while in bed on a February morning, a fed up teenager pulled out her iPhone, opened her email and asked the most powerful person in her school district for help.“Hello,” Madisyn Slater’s message to the superintendent began. “I am a student at Blake High School, a Tampa school in Hillsborough county. I am currently a senior and the past four years my peers have been sharing experiences that they have had with Ms. Tiffany Johnson, a biology teacher at the school.”She told him Ms. Johnson used sexual innuendo in class, that during a lesson on reproductive organs...…urrounded by stuffed animals while in bed on a February morning, a fed up teenager pulled out her iPhone, opened her email and asked the most powerful person in her school district for help.“Hello,” Madisyn Slater’s message to the superintendent began. “I am a student at Blake High School, a Tampa school in Hillsborough county. I am currently a senior and the past four years my peers have been sharing experiences that they have had with Ms. Tiffany Johnson, a biology teacher at the school.”She told him Ms. Johnson used sexual innuendo in class, that during a lesson on reproductive organs...WW…

/How Florida blew a chance to close Piney Point for good in favor of a risky plan to turn a profit at the abandoned phosphate plant.PALMETTO — As early as 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was predicting possible disaster at the old Piney Point phosphate plant in Manatee County if a plan to use the site for dredging went forward.The “worst case scenario,” the Army Corps cautioned, would be a tear in the plastic liner that engineers were counting on to hold back water perched atop dangerous waste material. Another worry the Army Corps raised: What if the private company in charge went...…/How Florida blew a chance to close Piney Point for good in favor of a risky plan to turn a profit at the abandoned phosphate plant.PALMETTO — As early as 2008, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was predicting possible disaster at the old Piney Point phosphate plant in Manatee County if a plan to use the site for dredging went forward.The “worst case scenario,” the Army Corps cautioned, would be a tear in the plastic liner that engineers were counting on to hold back water perched atop dangerous waste material. Another worry the Army Corps raised: What if the private company in charge went...WW…

By Times Staff WriterBrian Newell had been a manager at one of GardaWorld’s armored truck branches for about a year when a high-ranking supervisor called in 2018 with a bizarre order: Load all the coins stored at his branch in Connecticut onto a truck bound for Massachusetts.Auditors from Bank of America were coming to Garda’s Dedham, Mass., branch to count money that Garda was being paid to protect.And some of it was missing.Newell’s Stratford, Conn., branch was relatively small. It held about $20,000 in coins belonging to Bank of America and two other banks, Newell said in an interview....…By Times Staff WriterBrian Newell had been a manager at one of GardaWorld’s armored truck branches for about a year when a high-ranking supervisor called in 2018 with a bizarre order: Load all the coins stored at his branch in Connecticut onto a truck bound for Massachusetts.Auditors from Bank of America were coming to Garda’s Dedham, Mass., branch to count money that Garda was being paid to protect.And some of it was missing.Newell’s Stratford, Conn., branch was relatively small. It held about $20,000 in coins belonging to Bank of America and two other banks, Newell said in an interview....WW…