Tallahassee-area law enforcement officers failed Rachel Hoffman horribly last spring while she was working as an informant during a controlled drug buy. They lost visual and audible contact with her, and the 23-year-old, who had recently graduated from Florida State University, was gunned down. ...more

January 19, 2009

A state ethics investigation has cleared Pinellas Property Appraiser Jim Smith and other county officials of wrongdoing in a controversial land deal between Smith and the county. The report by the Florida Ethics Commission, released Wednesday, also cleared former Pinellas County Attorney Susan Churuti and County Commissioner Ronnie Duncan. ...more

October 23, 2008

A Tampa state senator said Thursday that he will write legislation to close the procedure loopholes that allowed a convicted felon with pending charges out on the streets to kill a police officer. ...more

September 12, 2008

Florida's top regulator of mortgage brokers said Tuesday that he will leave his post Sept. 30 amid continuing criticism for allowing thousands of ex-convicts to obtain mortgage brokering licenses and, in some cases, commit fraud. ...more

August 13, 2008

Pinellas County commissioners are reaching to the past for leadership into the future. ...more

August 7, 2008

Pinellas County commissioners are reaching to the past for leadership into the future. Commissioners agreed Tuesday to offer the county administrator position to Robert LaSala, a former assistant county administrator from 1979 to 1989. They are set to meet on the contract Sept. 2, and LaSala would begin in November. ...more

August 6, 2008

For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room - made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave - the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water. ...more

August 2, 2008

Police negligence contributed to drug informant Rachel Hoffman's death, a Leon County grand jury said Friday. ...more

August 2, 2008

Police negligence contributed to drug informant Rachel Hoffman's death, a grand jury said today. ...more

August 1, 2008

Pinellas County Administrator Steve Spratt, on tenuous political footing since he was mentioned in a grand jury report on a county land purchase, has resigned, effective Sept. 30. ...more

September 12, 2007