WASHINGTON (AP) — A seemingly divided Supreme Court wrestled today with whether teenagers can be locked away forever for their crimes. ...more

November 9, 2009

Close to the most valuable asset in a Democratic republic is the sanctity of one vote per qualified voter. Shortly after the November, 2008 elections there were those who boasted about the number of times they had voted. Acorn paid people to register voters. ...more

September 2, 2009

Mario Lopez was out of jail for almost a year. A former Miami resident who has served prison terms for grand theft and fraudulent use of a credit card, Lopez, 45, was arrested again Tuesday, accused of swindling more than $2,100 and two passports from people who thought they were paying for a trip to Ecuador, Pasco County Sheriff's Office records state. ...more

March 25, 2009

Mario Lopez was out of jail for almost a year. A former Miami resident who has served prison terms for grand theft and fraudulent use of a credit card, Lopez, 45, was arrested again today, accused of swindling more than $2,100 and two passports from people who thought they were paying for a trip to Ecuador, Pasco County Sheriff's Office records said. Florida Department of Corrections records show that Lopez, of 7111 Heibner Ave., Hudson, was released from the Hernando County Jail on March 31, 2008, where he was sentenced to 1 year, 10 months for fraudulent use of a credit card. ...more

March 24, 2009

A Pinellas County cleaner was sentenced to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty today to killing his boss and setting him and his vehicle on fire. ...more

March 20, 2009

Three men hired to help attack a Sarasota man's in-laws have been sentenced to federal prison terms. ...more

February 23, 2009

Before Jessie Lunsford, there was Jimmy Ryce. Like the Jessica Lunsford Act of 2005, which toughened sentencing for child sex offenders, the Jimmy Ryce Act bears the name of a young victim of a brutal rape and murder. That law, which state lawmakers passed in 1998, keeps Florida's most disturbed, violent sexual predators confined even after their prison sentences end. ...more

December 9, 2008

Wild, unprovoked gunfire and grenades killed 14 innocent Iraqis and hurt dozens more in a 2007 Baghdad attack, prosecutors said Monday in announcing charges with mandatory 30-year prison terms against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards. ...more

December 9, 2008

A St. Petersburg man was sentenced today to 111 months in prison and his former girlfriend 46 months for selling thousands of pounds of marijuana. U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew imposed the prison terms on Keith Pritchett, 29, and Monique Pruitt, 28, both of 4225 Cortez Way S. They both pleaded guilty Aug. 26 to conspiring to possess with the intent of distributing large quantities of marijuana. ...more

November 26, 2008

Two people convicted on racketeering charges in connection with a mortgage scam that bilked dozens of people since 2004 were each sentenced Thursday to five years in prison, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said. ...more

September 27, 2008