Hamas offered Israel an immediate weeklong truce Sunday, hours after Israel silenced its guns and grounded its aircraft, but the Islamic militant group conditioned long-term quiet on a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territory. ...more

January 18, 2009

Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire Saturday in its 22-day offensive that turned Gaza neighborhoods into battlegrounds and dealt a stinging blow to the Islamic militants of Hamas. But Israeli troops will stay in the Palestinian territory for now and Hamas threatened to keep fighting until they leave. ...more

January 18, 2009

Barack Obama radiated confidence Monday as he and his presidential rival reached for the finish line of a two-year marathon with a burst of campaigning across battlegrounds from the Atlantic Coast to Arizona. ...more

November 4, 2008

It's happening again. We knew it would. As the presidential race narrows to a handful of states where the two candidates are clawing to get over the top, Florida would be each man's top prize. And the Tampa Bay area is their key to Florida. ...more

October 26, 2008

Early rising television fans gathered at the University of Tampa this morning to watch NBC's Today show hosts Matt Lauer and Al Roker broadcast live from the picturesque campus near downtown Tampa. ...more

September 23, 2008

Well before Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain rose to the top of their parties, a partisan shift was under way at the local and state level. For more than three years starting in 2005, there has been a reduction in the number of voters who register with the Republican Party and a rise among voters who affiliate with Democrats and, almost as often, with no party at all. ...more

August 5, 2008

The individual right to bear arms identified by the Supreme Court on Thursday will have little practical impact in most of the country, legal experts said, though Washington's comprehensive ban on handguns used for self-defense in the home will have to be revised, and similar laws in several cities are also vulnerable. ...more

June 27, 2008

John McCain is bullish on free trade. The country isn't. Yet McCain doesn't miss many opportunities to reproach Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama's emerging opposition to international trade deals. ...more

June 13, 2008

After devoting two years and more than $35 million of his own money trying to win his party's nomination for the presidency, Mitt Romney and his advisers face the possibility that his effort could end with the nominating contests Tuesday. ...more

February 2, 2008