Authorities have found more victims of a former state Department of Families & Children spokesman who was jailed on child porn charges, a federal prosecutor said this morning. ...more

October 15, 2008

Two St. Petersburg women were hurt when the small plane they were in skidded off a runway and crashed early Friday morning at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, Pinellas County authorities said. ...more

September 13, 2008

Two women were hurt in a small plane that skidded off a runway and crashed early this morning at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, Pinellas County authorities said. ...more

September 12, 2008

A 31-year-old man was arrested by Pasco County deputies Wednesday afternoon, accused of stealing a car, leading deputies on a chase and attempting to hit a deputy with the stolen vehicle. ...more

September 4, 2008

A judge this morning postponed a child pornography trial for a former Department of Children & Families spokesman. Al Zimmerman had been scheduled to go on trial next month on a federal charge of producing child pornography. He was arrested in February. ...more

August 20, 2008

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer said she observed an active gopher tortoise burrow with bulldozer tread marks near it near the Sebring Wal-Mart as the property was being developed. A sign of a felony, she alleged late July, even though they're normally only filed as misdemeanors. ...more

August 7, 2008

SEBRING — It's a frequent situation for developers in Highlands County. They have a property more than two acres in size that they want to develop, so they need to clear it. Theoretically, they're supposed to complete an environmental impact report, have the property inspected to make sure there are no sensitive natural resources or protected wildlife there. According to multiple officials, however, that's not happening in some cases. Instead, a loophole in the county's law allows those developers to develop just less than two acres at a time, allowing them to bypass the environmental inspections and requiring only a simple permit from the county. Ultimately, this allows them to get away with bulldozing over gopher tortoises and other threatened animals since the state cannot perform inspections. ...more

July 2, 2008

SEBRING — Four tracks mark rip from near the sidewalk, through a lawn and into the dry sand that was once part of Lake Jackson. Multiple pontoon boats were beached just south of Veterans Beach. They're a usual sight for the lake as it hits all-time historic low levels, but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sees a potential problem here. Officer Erika Zimmerman said these days she often catches some boaters trying to drive their trucks and trailers into the shore of the lake bed to pull the boats out, and sometimes just for the fun of it. What ends up happening, she said, is that they rip up the vegetation, spread oil and gas on the lake bed, leave deep treads and end up polluting the lake once the water returns to that area. Often, they get stuck and have to be dragged out of the bed, she said. ...more

June 23, 2008

NOTIONS Sewing KNIT 'N KNIBBLE, 1515 S. Dale Mabry Highway, Suite 103, Tampa; (813) 254-5648. Classes include: ...more

May 7, 2008

Girls Tennis: ...more

February 23, 2008