On the street, Caroll Spinney is a 74-year-old of modest proportions. On the job, transformed into Big Bird, he stands 8 feet 2 inches tall and is 6 years old. ...more

June 17, 2008

Conversations about race never seem far from the surface in Ocala. In a barbershop off the downtown square, on a porch stoop across the railroad tracks and on a sandy riverbank, Marion County residents are discussing the validity of statements made by a movie star who recently called into question the area's racial morality. ...more

January 13, 2008

Murders are not shocking in this city once called the nation's most dangerous. But even this place is shaken by the killing, still unsolved after five months, of a 12-year-old boy whose skull was so badly shattered by bullets that an undertaker used a top hat to hide the damage. ...more

December 17, 2007

AVON PARK — Tom Macklin was cracking up over the truck traffic along Main Street, and his house on that street, according to him, was literally cracking up as well. Although other neighbors disputed whether truck vibrations created the crack along his stoop and the foundation of his house, several of them also notice delivery trucks, haulers and full-size tractor trailers heading right into downtown Avon Park. "We get semis coming through here," said another Main Street resident who did not wish to be identified. ...more

September 16, 2007