If Progress Energy Florida gets an interim rate increase next week, West Pasco customers could see electric bills go up about $4 to $5 a month starting this summer. At a May 19 hearing in Tallahassee, the Florida Public Service Commission will discuss granting the extra $76 million to Progress Energy Florida, according to information from the Florida Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers before the PSC. ...more

May 13, 2009

Legislative budget chiefs have agreed that state workers making $45,000 and more will take a 2 percent pay cut. ...more

May 3, 2009

Bans on using state dollars for university embryonic stem cell research and student trips to Cuba and other terrorist-linked countries will not be in Florida's budget. ...more

May 3, 2009

Legislative budget negotiators have agreed to increase public school spending by an average of $28 per student. ...more

May 1, 2009

Darryl C. Casanueva has been named chief judge-elect of Florida's 2nd District Court of Appeal. ...more

April 30, 2009

A united Florida Senate has passed a $65.6 billion state budget. ...more

April 16, 2009

New Florida teachers would have less job security under a bill heading for a House floor vote. ...more

April 7, 2009

Average number of permit applications per month in Hillsborough County from July 1 to Feb. 28, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That's up from an average of 312 a month from July 2007 to June 2008 and just 287 a month the year before. ...more

April 1, 2009

Six of seven counties in the Bay area are growing in population, but Pinellas continues a four-year decline, the latest census data show. ...more

March 20, 2009

Katina Kramer grew up in Avon Park and attended Avon Park Middle School where she returns today to meet the staff in preparation for taking over as principal next school year. ...more

March 17, 2009