Florida's voluntary prekindergarten program begins its fourth year in 2008-09. It operates as a taxpayer-funded voucher program for 4-year-olds and is mostly in private and faith-based schools. ...more

August 1, 2008

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., made a dramatic return to the Capitol on Wednesday to help the Senate pass legislation that would rescind a sharp cut in Medicare payments to physicians. ...more

July 10, 2008

With the arrival of hurricane season, pet owners are reminded to include their animals in their disaster plans. ...more

July 3, 2008

The Bucs have made their way onto the practice field for the first of their mini-camp workouts this morning and it seems as though all who were expected to be here are here. ...more

June 17, 2008

Police are searching for a man they say robbed and beat his neighbor after accusing him of stealing cable service. ...more

June 10, 2008

Hillsborough County Animal Services and local preparedness group C.H.A.A.R.T. will hold a pet-friendly hurricane drill on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sickles High School in Tampa's Citrus Park neighborhood. Participants are asked to bring their own bottled water and dress casually for the exercise. Formal animal handling experience is preferable but not required. ...more

June 6, 2008

A year and a half ago, former Mayor Dick Greco jokingly suggested that if his friends wanted to erect a statue to him, it should depict him sitting on a bench. ...more

May 30, 2008

After Spain claimed ownership of a sunken treasure worth an estimated $500 million this week, the Tampa company that recovered the loot has fired back, saying the rightful owner is a mystery and that it's entitled to a share of the find. ...more

May 10, 2008

Rall Why Reader Subscribes Re: Peter Stathis' rant about Rall. I would expect no less from Mr. Stathis, since I have had the displeasure of reading many of his letters which you seem to find desirable to print on a regular basis. ...more

May 8, 2008

Our county government is a mess. They change committees to suit their agenda. If the results are not to their paradigm, they change the rules or committees. Example, they first decided that a new "CEO" a.k.a. county administrator, should be hired after his or her staff has been hired. What a colossal error. I can only think of one reason for this. They wanted to be sure that their special people were promoted to these higher-paying jobs. But when the committee sent the second selection of the new directors' jobs, they were not all that happy. So they just changed the rules and the next ones will be a group of finalists. ...more

February 20, 2008