TAMPA – Semi-submarines are plying the eastern Pacific and Caribbean packed with tons of cocaine. ...more

June 26, 2008

CLEARWATER - A woman was sentenced to 17 years in prison this afternoon in a drunken driving wreck that decapitated one of her teenage passengers. The other teenage passenger suffered a broken jaw. ...more

June 23, 2008

PLANT CITY - Friends and family of two youths run over by a pickup near the Florida Strawberry Festival grounds have identified the victims as 20-year-old Jorge Manuel Gonzalez, who died at the scene, and Sergio Calderon, who his friends said is 16 or 17 years old. ...more

June 17, 2008

SEBRING – Former longtime Highlands County administrator Carl Cool told Highlands Today that he will not run for a county commission seat. Cool said that after talking with many people, he believed that not enough public support was there for a successful race. He had planned to challenge incumbent Barbara Stewart for her seat. ...more

June 16, 2008

Bo Diddley's funeral on Saturday rocked and rolled with as much energy as his music. ...more

June 8, 2008

AVON PARK – Will Carl Cool, recently retired as Highlands County's administrator, join his wife Maureen as a Realtor at RE/MAX Realty Plus in Sebring? Or will Cool, who just passed his real estate exam on his first try, run for county commissioner, trying to unseat incumbent Commissioner Barbara Stewart? Everybody will know on Wednesday. In fact, many people will know on Tuesday, when Cool meets with reporters to announce whether he will or will not run for county commissioner. Cool announced his plans to publicly say whether he will or will not run for county commissioner on Tuesday in a brief phone interview Friday morning. ...more

June 6, 2008

One by one, 120 times this school year, students were called into the principal's office without warning at Tampa Catholic High School. ...more

June 2, 2008

SEBRING — Here are six things you probably don't know about Carl Cool, who is retiring from his post as Highlands County administrator after decades of service. ONE: Late-Night Lonely At about 1 a.m., Christy Reed, the director of Highlands County's recycling program, was in the loneliest, saddest place she could be. She was standing in a deserted hospital hallway and had just received the news from a nurse that her father had passed away. Reed said in the minutes after she learned that her father's long battle with illness had ended with his death, she felt more lonely than she thought a person could feel. "Suddenly," Reed said, "I turned and saw two people there, standing, waiting for me. One was Carl Cool, and the other was Claude Howerton (then a county commissioner)." Reed said both men gave her a hug and helped tremendously in easing the pain of that night. Howerton and Cool had driven to the hospital separately after getting phone calls reporting that Reed's father was close to passing away. Both men drove to the hospital and waited to see if they could give any comfort or help to Reed if her father did pass away. ...more

May 31, 2008

TAMPA -- Out of the 120 students at Tampa Catholic High School randomly screened for drugs this past school year, not a single one tested positive, school administrators said today. The testing program, the only one of its kind among Hillsborough County's public or private schools, will continue next year, even though Principal Pat Landry, is retiring. ...more

May 29, 2008

LifeSouth will host a blood drive on Wednesday, May 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Sam's Club Shopping Center, located at 13378 Cortez Blvd. The event theme is "Raiders of the Lost Artery" and LifeSouth invites donors to dodge the boulder, crack the whip and get in the chair to save a life. This crusade for blood donors is sponsored by Quiznos. ...more

May 13, 2008