The competition in the Avon Park Middle School Gymnasium is on the line as Dontae Pinckney steps up to the basketball free through line, bounces the ball a couple of times and shoots. ...more

November 10, 2009

Man steals from Sweetbay, strikes employee, deputies say ...more

June 3, 2009

Hillsborough County Track and Field Championships Results ...more

April 1, 2009

A medical helicopter carrying a 1-year-old patient crashed and burned in a wooded area of suburban Chicago overnight, killing all four aboard. The aircraft apparently clipped a radio tower, and authorities investigated Thursday whether the tower's lights had been on. ...more

October 17, 2008

TAMPA - June Leland and Kathy Walsh want to know why their 16-year-old daughters are assigned to a bus stop more than two miles from their Davis Islands homes that includes crossing busy streets plus a bridge before daybreak. ...more

September 9, 2008

J. Bennett DeLoach, a former managing editor of The Tampa Times, died Saturday in his Canterbury Tower home. He was 97. ...more

August 11, 2008

J. Bennett DeLoach, a former managing editor of The Tampa Times, died Saturday in his Canterbury Tower home. He was 97. ...more

August 10, 2008

On Nov. 1, there was a front page article about a convicted sexual predator named Dale Leland, titled "Family, Friends Plea for Man in Court." It was full of quotes from his friends, neighbors, co-workers and lawyer, all vouching for him. Dale already confessed to detectives. Evidence supported the charges and he was found guilty by the jury. Yet, despite the conviction, these character witnesses implied that the sweet, innocent girls lied, making Dale the victim. MSNBC ran the series, "To catch a predator." Predators would meet "underage" targets online, using sexually explicit language. When the predator showed up for pre-arranged sex, the MSNBC investigator spoke briefly to him, then allowed him to leave. Once outside, local police quickly arrested him. The series concluded with the trial and sentencing of each. Without even touching their underage victims, every predator was convicted. Among them was a doctor, a college professor and a child services worker, all liked and respected in their communities. Like Dale, probably many vouched for them. ...more

November 27, 2007

This is in regard to a letter by Charles J. Guth, who was writing his support of his good friend Dale Leland, charged with molesting a 12-year-old girl. Mr. Guth claims he wishes he could have been in court to support his child molesting friend. I wonder why he wasn't? Apparently, he feels that a sentence of six and a half years is too severe for a charge of stealing a young girl's innocence, causing her to learn some very hard lessons about men way too soon, and suffering untold emotional trauma. He goes on to place the blame on the child for not resisting, intimating that because she was not a "tiny child" she somehow should have known what to do to defend herself from the sexual advances of a grown man. Unbelievable to me. ...more

November 15, 2007

With reference to your Nov. 1 first page story "Family, friends, plea for man in court," I have a comment and a couple of questions, the second of which is beyond your area of responsibility to answer. I would like to have been in court to show whatever support I could for my good friend Dale Leland. Question one. In a case involving inappropriate touching, isn't that adequate without you having to describe it in detail? ...more

November 10, 2007