A federal appeals court gave a last-minute reprieve Friday to a Georgia man set to be executed for the 1989 killing of an off-duty police officer even though several witnesses have changed their accounts of the crime. ...more

October 25, 2008

You can see it on the faces of people you pass on the street. Something's different. Maybe it's the glow of cheeks flushed a bit less red by approaching heat exhaustion. Maybe it's the extra bounce that comes with a 2 percent drop in afternoon humidity. Maybe it's the excited grin as Floridians across the state anticipate the most wonderful time of the year: the end of the hurricane season. ...more

October 5, 2008

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper clung to the running board of a pickup truck for about 600 feet on Interstate 75 south this morning to avoid being run over by its driver. Trooper Anthony Horne was not injured in the incident about 3:43 a.m. Motorist Anthony Craig Cook, 35, of Riverview was charged with felony attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, the highway patrol said. ...more

September 4, 2008

"Undiscovered Country," by Lin Enger (Little, Brown and Co., $24) ...more

August 31, 2008

In a recorded conversation, David Lee Onstott can be heard in his own words telling Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives that he choked 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde. ...more

August 23, 2008

In a recorded conversation, David Lee Onstott can be heard in his own words telling Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives that he choked 13-year-old Sarah Michelle Lunde. ...more

August 22, 2008

Once a cop, always a cop? While his days as a police officer are long behind him, Highlands County Administrator Michael Wright used an old police trick to not only find an unknown suspect but also to get him to immediately admit his guilt. ...more

August 12, 2008

Former Port Richey lawyer Jessica Miller was sentenced to 90 days in the county jail Tuesday for failing to appear at a court hearing in December. ...more

July 9, 2008

"Meat: A Love Story," by Susan Bourette (Putnam $24.95) ...more

July 9, 2008

Jon Whispel wears his regrets on his arms, tattooed in a skull and two masks. The grinning skull sits high enough on his bicep to hide beneath the short sleeves of his blue prison shirt. He bought the tattoo in Ybor City a decade ago today with money from a woman he had helped kill hours earlier. ...more

June 27, 2008