"What do you have in your bags?" bellowed the customs officer at Murtala Muhammed International Airport. Dressed in plain clothes, he seemed a jovial fellow. It was Dec. 26, 1999. I was checking luggage in Lagos, Nigeria, before boarding a flight to Detroit via Amsterdam. ...more

January 3, 2010

Residents throughout the city seem drawn to the code compliance department's latest means of transportation. ...more

August 24, 2009

County Commissioner Rose V. Ferlita will be honored as one of four Women of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida at a luncheon March 24 at the A La Carte Event Pavilion, 4050 Dana Shores Drive. ...more

March 11, 2009

Prescription drugs now kill more Floridians than heroin or cocaine, yet the state does not monitor the prescribing and dispensing of deadly painkillers, such as oxycodone. ...more

January 6, 2009

Most of what legislators heard Tuesday was a chorus of desperate pleas from community groups to keep their state funding intact. ...more

December 31, 2008

Carolyn Aviles won't call it an accident. A pickup hit her side of the car as she was pulling into the street from a parking lot. A mishap, she said. That's all. ...more

August 3, 2008

Carolyn Aviles sums up her addicted son's fatal overdose this way: "I blame the doctors. I blame the system. I blame — I should blame him, but I don't. You can't blame a person that is out of control." ...more

August 1, 2008

Three times more Floridians died from prescription pill abuse last year than from a fatal overdose of an illegal drug. ...more

June 22, 2008

Three times more Floridians died from prescription pill abuse last year than from a fatal overdose of an illegal drug. ...more

June 21, 2008

A man accused of offering a woman money so he could have sex with her two young children cut off his electronic ankle bracelet Sunday and disappeared, his attorney said. ...more

June 10, 2008