The U.S. policy of shunning communist Cuba by imposing a strict trade embargo has failed to prod the island nation toward democracy and should be re-evaluated, according to the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ...more

February 22, 2009

William Potts calls himself the "Homesick Hijacker." U.S. authorities have another name for him: fugitive harbored by an enemy government — one of dozens of Americans hiding in communist Cuba. ...more

January 18, 2009

Fifty years after triumphant armed rebels descended from the eastern mountains, communist Cuba celebrated the revolution's anniversary Thursday with toned-down festivities after a trio of devastating hurricanes and under the enduring public absence of an ailing Fidel Castro. ...more

January 1, 2009

Russian oil companies could soon begin searching for oil in deep Gulf of Mexico waters off Cuba, a top diplomat said just days before Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the island. ...more

November 23, 2008

A reader looking for juicy gossip or insider dope about Florida and Washington politics will come away with something quite different from Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez's soon-to-be released first book, "A Sense Of Belonging." ...more

July 28, 2008

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., is already receiving royalties for his autobiography to be released later this year, and Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, remains the Tampa Bay area's wealthiest member of Congress. ...more

May 20, 2008

Looks like it will be close, but no giant cigar, for Cuba's stogie-rolling king Jose Castelar. ...more

May 7, 2008

The Left's favorite dictator, Fidel Castro, is "resigning" as Cuba's president of the Council of State. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who was born in Cuba and, at the age of 15, along with his brother, was evacuated from Cuba during Operation Pedro Pan, observed: "...Castro has resigned from a position he was never elected to in the first place." ...more

February 22, 2008