Starting Saturday, reservations for a visit to the crown of the Statue of Liberty on New York's Liberty Island will be accepted. The crown, which was closed after the Sept. 11 attacks, will reopen July 4. About 240 people will be allowed into the crown each day, the U.S. Department of the Interior said. Reservations will open Saturday at 10 a.m. from www. statuecruises.com and 1-877-523-9849. ...more

June 10, 2009

The scrub habitat that runs down much of the center of Highlands County is home to 26 animal and plant species listed by the federal and state governments as endangered, threatened or species of special concern. ...more

November 12, 2008

Alaska's Beluga Whales Gain Federal Protection WASHINGTON - The federal government on Friday placed the beluga whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, concluding that a decade-long recovery program has failed to ensure their survival. ...more

October 18, 2008

TALLAHASSEE Attorney Barry Richard told The Tampa Tribune and other media outlets that the Seminole tribe is going to keep offering the casino games approved in the compact that the Supreme Court has declared invalid. ...more

September 12, 2008

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday turned down petitions to rehear arguments on why an agreement between the Seminole Indian Tribe and the state over casino games should be valid. ...more

September 12, 2008

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is considering whether to revise the Pentagon's own policy that prevents most oil and gas drilling within military training areas in the eastern Gulf of Mexico off of Florida. ...more

August 6, 2008

The games go on at Seminole casinos as lawyers, lawmakers and tribal officials deliberate the arcane world of gaming law and Indian sovereignty in the wake of a court ruling that voided an agreement between the state and the tribe. ...more

July 21, 2008

Ralph Jennett of New Port Richey can't find logic of raising taxes on petroleum as a means of making it more plentiful. Oil companies don't control the cost of fuel, the market does, he says. ...more

May 10, 2008

The Seminole Tribe of Florida's agreement with Gov. Charlie Crist took effect Monday to allow Las Vegas-style slot machines and card games, such as blackjack, at Seminole establishments, including the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, an attorney for the tribe said Monday. ...more

January 8, 2008

Attorney General Bill McCollum lost his effort to halt a gambling agreement between Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe after a federal judge in Washington said Friday that the state won't be harmed by letting the deal go into effect. ...more

January 5, 2008