As the number of contestants grows smaller, the Heartland Idol competition stiffens. ...more

October 31, 2009

It's lunchtime at the Whistle Stop Cafe in historic downtown Plant City, where the waiters know your name and probably your order. If you prefer your iced tea unsweetened, you'd better speak up. ...more

February 22, 2009

It's in eastern Hillsborough County, but Plant City is the most Southern town around. ...more

February 22, 2009

A group of seven or eight men get together for lunch every Wednesday in the back room at the Valencia Garden restaurant. They are older than dirt. Buck Setzer, who just turned 94, asked me to join them last week. ...more

January 9, 2009

They have called him things like country bumpkin and Charlie Mayberry. They have made fun of his weight. They have criticized him for being too easy on his players. ...more

October 22, 2008

Brett Favre sank to one knee on the sideline, helplessly watching the Miami Dolphins try to upstage his comeback with one of their own. ...more

September 8, 2008

Americans spend $700 billion a year on foreign oil. According to one observer, this is an addiction, a crisis, and a trap. The country must pursue alternative energy sources as fiercely as it once shot for the moon. So far, so much liberal boilerplate. ...more

July 28, 2008

Tony Stewart called him "a dart without feathers." Other veterans fumed. David Ragan made no friends in a premature and disastrous Sprint Cup start at Martinsville in October 2006. Instead, he got blamed for holding up faster cars and causing at least three wrecks. ...more

June 18, 2008

Port Arthur, Texas, duo UGK threatened to go underground permanently when MC Pimp C (Chad Butler) went to prison in 2002. Partner Bernard Freeman (Bun B) marked time with a solo album until Butler's release in late 2005. ...more

September 7, 2007