We writers live "surrounded by a cloud of witnesses." When I was 10 years old my family moved from the city to a tiny country town where the school was overcrowded, so all fifth graders - me included - attended an old-fashioned, one-room school. The teacher, Rhea O'Grady, had taught eight grades in that room for 40-some years. She was 74 and shorter than some of her students, but she ruled the classroom like a drill sergeant. The first day I eagerly slid into a seat in the second row just left of the middle. Mrs. O'Grady peered at me over her wire-rimmed glasses and jerked her head toward the other side of the room. My fellow students giggled and whispered as I sheepishly crossed the aisle. Apparently, I was the only one who didn't know that in "Old Lady O'Grady's" class, boys sat on the left, girls on the right. When it was time for recess, Mrs. O'Grady followed us outside with a huge canvas bag which she turned upside down. Out poured baseballs, softballs, and several bats. ...more

June 28, 2008

TAMPA - The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is looking for a man who exposed himself to children at their lemonade stand in Brandon about 4 p.m. June 13. ...more

June 27, 2008

Polk County deputies are looking for an 18-year-old in the fatal stabbing Thursday of a man outside a supermarket in Mulberry. ...more

June 27, 2008

LAKELAND Polk County sheriff's deputies are looking for a man accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl. ...more

June 26, 2008

SEBRING — Both the prosecution and the defense rested Thursday afternoon in the case of Oral Williams, 21, who was accused of taking a Lake Placid woman and her Avon Park boyfriend to the DeSoto City cemetery on May 5, 2005, holding a knife to her throat, and sexually assaulting her for hours. The victim and her boyfriend were then 18. According to a May 5, 2005 sheriff's report by Det. John Barcinas, both victims were sitting in her vehicle on Orange Blossom Blvd. when two masked men approached. One was armed with what appeared to be a machine gun. ...more

June 19, 2008

It started as the story of two little pigs. They were scrawny little things when they came trotting out of the woods, half-starved and looking for salvation. ...more

June 12, 2008

It started as the story of two little pigs. They were scrawny little things when they came trotting out of the woods, half-starved and looking for salvation ...more

June 11, 2008

Investigators have released a video recording of a Dollar General store robbery in which a safe was cleaned out and an employee tied up. ...more

June 3, 2008

A 16-year-old Spoto High School student is missing and likely ran away from her Riverview home, Hillsborough County deputies say. ...more

January 30, 2008

BRANDON - Hillsborough County deputies are searching for two robbers who took an undisclosed amount of cash from a Quick Pick Food Mart in Brandon on Thursday night. One of the men fired twice at a shelf of cigarettes, but no one was hurt. ...more

January 25, 2008