ST. PETERSBURG - For more than 200 homeless people in Pinellas County, today's Christmas holiday was in marked contrast to last year. ...more

December 25, 2007

While her clients are hundreds of miles away, enjoying Christmas Day in colder climes, Lynda Seeber will be wrangling some 30 dogs, maybe more. ...more

December 24, 2007

The Florida Highway Patrol plans to crack down on aggressive driving, speeding, safety restraint violations and driving under the influence this holiday season. ...more

December 23, 2007

The Florida Highway Patrol plans to crack down on aggressive driving, speeding, safety restraint violations and driving under the influence this holiday season. ...more

December 23, 2007

AVON PARK — Jeremy Machia's labor of love is a few tons of manicured dirt. And he likes nothing more than watching folks make a mess of it. The track director at Highlands BMX got hooked on bicycle racing at a young age, and more than 25 years later, Machia enjoys playing in the dirt more than ever. "Normally, we're out two or three times a week, hand-shaping jumps," he said. "We're not using heavy equipment, so it's a lot of fine-tuning." Much of that meticulous work is done to ready the track for weekly races that draw riders from Highlands County and beyond. And while most tracks are closed around the Christmas holiday, Machia's welcoming racers from across the state this weekend to grab some last minute points in order to qualify for the upcoming Sunshine State BMX's Florida state championships. He never knows how many riders will show up until race day, but Machia said up to 100 racers of all skill levels cold descend on the Avon Park track, which is known around the state as the fastest in Florida. ...more

December 21, 2007

I am writing to publicly thank the Lake Placid Jaycees for the generous donation they made to my Support Our Troops fundraiser. These wonderful people have made it possible for me to ship 18 care packages to our soldiers in Iraq, in time for the Christmas holiday. And there is money left over to send packages to some of the soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Hospital. The Jaycees have been very supportive of this cause in the past, but exceeded themselves with this Christmas donation of $1,000. I know that the soldiers on the receiving end of this generosity will be very grateful, and I want everyone to know what these kind people have done. So, thank you to Steve Davis, Cheryl Davis, Niki Gregor, Kim Miller, Vicki Spires, Colleen Lee, Leah and Lyle Wilson, Kerry Stanridge, Curt Matthews, Misty Matthews, Mike Waldron, Anita Reiley, Kathy Yacoboni, Denise Mullins, David Austin, and Connie and Pam Fentress! God bless you all and Merry Christmas. ...more

December 8, 2007

With Christmas only weeks away, brace yourselves for plenty of ranting and ravings about nativity scenes, religious displays in public places, and the usual nonsense that gets so many people wound up every year. ...more

November 14, 2007

Despite projections of the slowest annual growth of retail holiday sales since 2002, the U.S. trucking industry, which hauls nearly every item that Santa Claus does not, expects to benefit this year as consumers continue to give more gift cards. ...more

October 23, 2007