Six of seven counties in the Tampa Bay area saw population increases from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2008, census data released this week show. Pinellas County's population, meanwhile, declined for the fourth year in a row. ...more

March 19, 2009

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan has passed the Senate and is on its way to difficult House-Senate negotiations. ...more

February 10, 2009

Reference Jim Vokes's letter Jan. 22, "Thank You President Bush." That letter is wrong in so many ways. It's possible 9-11 could have been avoided if Bush had taken action on an Aug. 8, 2001 memo advising of an imminent terrorist attack. Unfortunately Bush's Crawford vacation took precedence over protecting our nation and saving 3,000 lives. Bush and Cheney were hell bent on starting a war with Saddam. Both knew he had no weapons of mass destruction from 2003 intelligence reports. They rushed into war based on lies, miscalculations and faulty assumptions. Bush's stubbornness and uncompromising attitude precluded him from forming an adequate international coalition of forces. Our troops were sent into combat without adequate body and vehicle armor. These "liberators" suffered over 4,000 deaths and 30,000 wounded and maimed casualties. Jim, I agree Bush "changed the face of the Middle East forever," but unfortunately the whole region is in a state of crisis (i.e. Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Gaza, Pakistan etc.) ...more

January 30, 2009

I usually hear from my distant cousin in Italy at Christmastime. The day after the election, though, an e-mail popped up. ...more

November 16, 2008

WASHINGTON - Regulators on Friday shut down Freedom Bank, a small bank located in Bradenton. It was the 17th failure this year of a federally insured bank. ...more

October 31, 2008

Sales of existing homes rose by the largest amount in more than five years in September, a real estate trade group said Friday. The data is a possible glimmer of hope that the housing slump could be starting to bottom out. ...more

October 25, 2008

The problem wasn't that John McCain said, "The fundamentals of the economy are strong" as Wall Street was imploding last week. ...more

September 21, 2008

Troubled borrowers with home loans from IndyMac Federal Bank will be able to switch to fixed-rate mortgages under a new plan from federal regulators, who seized the bank last month after it became the largest regulated thrift to fail. ...more

August 21, 2008

Wholesale inflation surged in July, leaving prices for the past year rising at the fastest pace in 27 years, according to government data released Tuesday. ...more

August 20, 2008

When Barbara Terry fell behind on her mortgage payments earlier this year, she did the previously unthinkable. Through a local housing organization, she and her daughter, Imani, 9, rented part of their single-family house to a stranger. ...more

August 3, 2008