6. WOMEN IN POWER Women in the Bay area held positions of authority before 2000, but there were never so many at the same time as in the first decade of the 21st century. Those in high places included Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio; Hillsborough Community College President Gwendolyn Stephenson; Judy Genshaft, USF president; MaryEllen Elia, Hillsborough County schools superintendent; Pat Bean, Hillsborough County administrator; Jane Castor, Tampa police chief; Denise Palmer, publisher of The Tampa Tribune; and Janet Coats, the newspaper's former vice president and executive editor. ...more

December 31, 2009

The Justice Department may have hoodwinked former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian into thinking his plea bargain on terrorism charges would protect him from further prosecutions, a federal judge said Monday. ...more

March 10, 2009

Federal prosecutors have defied a judge's order to turn over evidence of their internal deliberations in coming to a plea agreement with a former professor once accused of being a top Palestinian terrorist. ...more

March 5, 2009

A judge is allowing prosecutors to continue with a criminal contempt case against a man once accused by the U.S. government of being a top Palestinian terrorist. ...more

January 16, 2009

The criminal contempt case against Sami Al-Arian may collapse because of the actions of the federal prosecutor who brought the charges in Virginia, two law professors say. ...more

December 21, 2008

Sami Al-Arian lost a bid to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider his case. Al-Arian appealed rulings that he could be prosecuted for contempt for refusing to testify before a Virginia grand jury investigating Islamic charities. His attorneys argued that his 2006 plea agreement in Tampa exempted him from having to cooperate with prosecutors. ...more

October 7, 2008

Sami Al-Arian has lost a bid to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider his case. ...more

October 6, 2008

In the immortal words of Agent 86 Maxwell Smart, Sami Al-Arian "missed it by that much," in an effort to get out of the hoosegow earlier this week. ...more

July 17, 2008

Judy Genshaft, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Albany, knew what she wanted when she applied for the presidency of the University of South Florida in 1999. ...more

July 16, 2008

Judy Genshaft, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Albany, knew what she wanted when she applied for the presidency of the University of South Florida in 1999. A major research university in an anti-ivory tower, urban environment. A place young enough — 40-something — to still be making its mark. A place where community synergy and economic partnership could be more than idealistic aspirations or trendy buzz words. Then throw in the unique, semi-tropical locale that is the Tampa Bay region. ...more

July 15, 2008