Less than a month before Afghanistan's presidential election, Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests attacked a provincial capital Saturday, triggering gunbattles that killed seven militants. ...more

July 26, 2009

After a search that lasted more than five hours, authorities found a Polk County fisherman who had a seizure on Sunday afternoon, fell into about 15 feet of water and apparently drowned. ...more

June 7, 2009

Armed with graph after graph showing improvements in the police department's performance, St. Petersburg Police Chief Chuck Harmon this afternoon tried to beat back the impression among some city council members that St. Petersburg has become less safe. ...more

February 5, 2009

Acting on widespread complaints from its troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Marine Corps has ordered major modifications to its body armor to improve comfort, mobility and safety, The Associated Press has learned. ...more

January 5, 2009

A steady beep-beep-beep fills the air as men in fluorescent lime and orange construction vests maneuver front-end loaders, compactors and graders in a massive project to resolve a traffic bottleneck on a stretch of Gunn Highway. ...more

August 6, 2008

Almost a century ago, master shoemaker Vasile George Faklis arrived in Tarpon Springs from the Greek island of Symi and began plying his trade. In addition to making shoes, Faklis could also diagnose and correct his customers' foot problems. Today, his grandson, also named Vasile George, tends to people's feet at Faklis Orthopedic Service, on Tarpon Avenue. A board-certified and state-licensed orthotist, his knowledge of the human foot is up a notch from that of his grandfather, who learned his craft through an apprenticeship in Greece. ...more

July 12, 2008

President George W. Bush, not God, christened all those who do not agree with his beliefs and ideologies as "evil-doers" — not I. ...more

May 21, 2008

A 17-year-old came home from school Monday to find his 45-year-old father shot to death in their Lakeland home. The teen, Eric Theismann, told Polk County sheriff's deputies that he was staying with his mother for the weekend but came home Sunday evening to get some clothes. That was the last time he spoke with his father, Vincent Thomas Theismann. ...more

January 15, 2008