For more than a year, Gordon Dibler held out hope that his stepson, Army Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, would return home from Iraq. Then military officials delivered the grim news that the bodies of Fouty and another soldier captured in an ambush south of Baghdad had been found. ...more

July 12, 2008

Dear Annie: My 30-year-old stepson, "Dan," has had problems with drugs and alcohol for years. Last year, he went through a rehab program, but shortly after got back into drugs, had a horrible fight with his wife and said he was going to kill himself. She called us saying, "Just thought you should know." We live four hours away and were scared to death. We called the sheriff, who found him and brought him to the hospital. He was kept in the psychiatric ward for 24 hours. ...more

July 10, 2008

A Plant City woman is accused of taking her five children on a shoplifting trip to a Wal-Mart with her 13-year-old stepson and another woman, a police affidavit states. ...more

July 4, 2008

A Plant City woman is accused of taking five children on a shoplifting trip to Wal-Mart, an affidavit states. ...more

July 3, 2008

TAMPA - James Royce Smith punched his stepchild's face three times and thrust a screwdriver at another stepchild Monday, Hillsborough County deputies say. ...more

June 17, 2008

Bobby Hodges could enjoy his Sterling Hills house for a few days. That is no small reward for a man about to embark on his second consecutive tour of duty. ...more

June 15, 2008

Bobby Hodges could enjoy his Sterling Hills house for a few days. ...more

June 14, 2008

TAMPA - After a Tampa man punched his stepson in the head, the man resisted arrest, according to police. ...more

June 13, 2008

AVON PARK — Were it not for a school worker, a doughnut would have almost killed an Avon Park Middle School student. A group of Avon Park Middle students decided to make a game out of a doughnut treat and dared each other to swallow one in one go. Melvin Prewitt stuffed one in his mouth. In a moment, it got stuck in his throat, and Prewitt started to turn blue from a lack of oxygen. ...more

June 11, 2008

AVON PARK — Almost as a lark, Dave Simpson entered his wife's name in a Mother's Day contest. "I went online, and wrote a 250-word essay," he said. And a few days later, he received a phone call. She was one of the 25 winners of the annual Best Moms of the Bay contest, and she was invited to dinner with two of Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "She was one of 600 entries submitted," said Simpson, a former Army captain who is now an JROTC instructor. Ronda formerly installed and maintained computers for Highlands County schools, but in the past few years she's been the stay-at-home mom of three children and a stepson. ...more

May 10, 2008