By LISA BUIE, St. Petersburg Times

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - It was the exhaust fumes from a diesel truck that inspired Dean Tsoupeis. He was stopped at a red light, directly behind a big diesel truck. As noxious exhaust fumes wafted through the vents of his broken air conditioner, he thought, "There's got to be a better way than this."

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Renee Simpson's labor wasn't progressing. She had been induced about 5 a.m., and little had happened.

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - A group of female orthopedic surgeons had been to a conference in Chicago on women and arthritis. They'd shared stories about what it was like to be in a boys' club (96 percent of orthopedic surgeons are men), and the difficulty of spending years in residency while friends were starting families.

The visitors' bus is running way late. The pulled pork, collard greens, mac-and-cheese and ribs are getting cold on the table set up in the barn festooned with saddles and old signs, but also equipped with a kitchen and bathroom.

This is Bob Lyon's version of a midlife-crisis sports car.

"This is the craziest thing I've done in my life," the 47-year-old commercial painter joked after a crane lowered a 19-foot, 1-ton wind turbine onto a pole behind his waterfront vacation home in Port Richey, Fla.

Lost a job and facing mounting bills? Well, if you can correctly guess what the Dow Jones Industrial Average will be at the close of business Jan. 30, you could find yourself with more than $2,000 to help stay afloat.

Lane Mendelsohn has enjoyed playing God.In three years, the 28-year-old Wesley Chapel, Fla., resident created a whole planet for a community of people who love to make money. No, it's not the Ferengi, that profit-driven race of Star Trek lore.It's for humans drawn to trading stocks, commodities and currencies.