Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico could harm Florida's economy by interfering with military training and testing in the Gulf and cutting activity at Florida bases, Sen. Bill Nelson told the Tampa Chamber of Commerce on Monday. ...more

November 10, 2009

The Coast Guard is monitoring the cleanup of a 1,000-gallon oil spill in the Port of Tampa. ...more

April 1, 2009

At the same time the Tampa Bay area and much of the country has been saddened by the story of three football players lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the University of South Florida is preparing to dismantle a buoy system that can provide critical information to search-and-rescue missions. ...more

March 12, 2009

Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary fell on the heels of the Democratic convention, the start of the Republican convention and in the midst of Hurricane Gustav. Now we are faced with recovery from Ike while, on the floors of Congress, the debate continues over how to address our nation's energy needs. ...more

September 18, 2008

My children and grandchildren live in Cordova, Alaska, where fishing is the major source of income for thousands. I want you to know that there's another side to domestic drilling that's gone almost completely unnoticed: the gamble of the unforeseeable accident. ...more

August 8, 2008

Orson Welles (May 6, 1915-Oct. 10, 1985) was an Academy Award-winning American director, writer, actor, and film producer. His father was a well-to-do inventor. His mother was a beautiful concert pianist. Welles is perhaps best known for "The War of the Worlds." This was an episode of the American radio series, a drama series that was heard on Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween special on Oct. 30, 1938 on CBS Radio. ...more

July 7, 2008

The letter from David Mica of the Florida Petroleum Council was, shall we say, carefully worded. ...more

July 5, 2008

Your editorial on offshore drilling was so full of egregious errors of fact and logic one scarcely knows where to begin a reply. But let's start with a summary of your view: Oil exploration in the Gulf is bad because an oil spill will forever scare away 85 million tourists, costing the state economy $65 billion annually, and throw a million people out of work. Besides, the oil companies might export the oil in the same way they have "pipelined" all of our Alaskan oil to Japan. ...more

June 26, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law that allows the execution of people convicted of a raping a child. In a 5-4 vote, the court says the law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in cases of child rape violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. ...more

June 25, 2008

A Beach Over A State Regarding "As Gas Prices Gush, Drilling Debate Flows" (front page, June 14): ...more

June 21, 2008