The city's meetings and conventions business will get a boost in August with a commitment from the Women of Faith group to bring its Grand New Day Conference Tour to the St. Pete Times Forum. The conference will draw about 15,000 attendees, according to a release by Tampa Bay & Co., which markets the visitors industry for Hillsborough County. ...more

January 2, 2009

As a child, Arturo Sandoval lived in a house with dirt floors in Cuba. ...more

October 17, 2008

the Florida Music Educators Association Hall of Fame. ...more

February 24, 2008

At 27, Robinson High band director Jeremy Klein isn't that far removed from his students. He jokes with them, uses their analogies and vernacular while teaching and has enough energy for the program's 100 students, and then some. ...more

January 21, 2008

In silk ties and blue formal gowns, the teenagers smiled at the crowd and news cameras, and belted out what could be Florida's new state song - a composition inspired by the Everglades and written by an elementary school music teacher who lives in Pompano Beach. ...more

January 12, 2008

First of all, This Space wants to hear no fussing about the Legislature having better things to do than wrangle over naming a new state song. ...more

January 10, 2008

Regarding "Which Song Strikes State's Chord?" (Nation/World, Dec. 12): OK, so I went to the Web site to listen to and vote for the song destined to replace that little work of genius, "Old Folks at Home" as our official state song. ...more

December 22, 2007

It's time for Floridians to name their tune. Internet voting has opened in the Just Sing, Florida! contest to find a new state song. Three final songs, culled from a pile of 243 entries, were announced Tuesday at a news conference at the state Capitol. ...more

December 11, 2007

Florida's "American Idol"-style search for a new state song is a step closer to anointing a winner, now that judges have culled three finalists from 243 entries. ...more

December 9, 2007

Florida, it turns out, must be a powerful muse. Two days after the postmark deadline for the state song contest, 185 songs have piled into the offices of Florida Music Educators' Association. The size of the trove exceeded expectations of organizers, who thought they might end up with about 100 nominations. ...more

October 4, 2007