The Manatee County Port Authority has approved a $2.1 million bid for dredging work for a new, 1,584-foot berth at Port Manatee as part of a $150 million, 10-year port expansion to accommodate container shipping. ...more

June 30, 2009

If you've ever considered taking a cruise vacation, now may be the time to try it out. Practically all cruise lines are offering significant discounts to just about anywhere they sail. ...more

February 15, 2009

Carmen Fernandez can remember living in Key West when it was an island with no bridge connecting it to the rest of Florida. ...more

December 10, 2008

Sure, there's a lot of sports talk, dry jokes, painful puns, meals of meat and potatoes and other "manly" social necessities. ...more

December 10, 2008

To Barack Obama's thrust that John McCain is running for George W. Bush's third term, McCain parries that Obama is running from Jimmy Carter's second. We are supposed to cringle in horror at the prospect. ...more

June 28, 2008

In the yellowed pages of a scrapbook is a Tampa Times article announcing my father's graduation as a lieutenant from flight school at Drew Field. Remnants of the old airbase are still visible in what we call Drew Park, next to Tampa International Airport. ...more

June 15, 2008

LAKE PLACID — The alleys in town might not be major thoroughfares like the Panama Canal, I-75 or Pennsylvania Avenue, but a move is on to clear these publicly owned roadways. Resident Lynn Connolly counted 12 east-west and five north-south alleys located in backyards, or behind businesses, south of Interlake Boulevard, in the oldest residential part of the town. She presented the idea at the most recent town council meeting. Only Edgemon Alley is named. Most are grass covered. Many are 19.5-foot wide, the same width as most town streets. ...more

May 28, 2008

As we relaxed over drinks at Los Lagartos Restaurant at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort overlooking the Chagres River, Norma Ponce mesmerized us by recounting how she and fellow park rangers rescued an enormous crocodile in the Bay of Panama. ...more

May 18, 2008

Arctic ice has shrunk to the lowest level on record, new satellite images show, raising the possibility that the Northwest Passage that eluded famous explorers will become an open shipping lane. ...more

September 16, 2007