Mary Ann and George Patisso Sr. closed a tragic chapter in their lives when they left Polk County today after a jury awarded them $60.1 million Tuesday for the wrongful death of their son. It is a judgment they are unlikely to collect. The man who murdered their son in December 1997 is on death row. ...more

July 2, 2008

Polk County deputies have seized 8 pounds of methamphetamine and four guns and arrested three men they say intended to sell the drug. ...more

May 2, 2008

The controlled burn blamed by some for contributing to one of the worst traffic disasters in Polk County history on Wednesday was conducted under treacherous conditions. ...more

January 10, 2008

The five names were mostly unknown to the public and to one another before last week. Pravinkumar Patel and Dasharathbhai Patel. Juanita Luciano and Yvonne Bustamante. Brandon Greisman. ...more

December 15, 2007

Before Sept. 3, 2004, Mario Ladler II was a happy, thriving preschooler with notable smarts and talents, his attorney, David Kleinberg, says. ...more

November 2, 2007

LAKELAND - A Polk County jury awarded a Lakeland family $50 million Wednesday, three years after a drunken driver hit their car, leaving their son with severe brain damage. ...more

November 1, 2007

LAKELAND - It has been a year since Polk County Deputy Doug Speirs stopped a man in a rental car for speeding on 10th Street in north Lakeland, a routine moment of law enforcement work that set off one of the darkest days in Polk County history. Today, a crowd of deputies and police officers mixed with the public to mark the somber anniversary. ...more

September 28, 2007