Investigators have a recovered a body near the Howard Frankland Bridge that has been identified as the missing driver from Wednesday’s crash as Hiran Reis Vaz. Vaz, 53, was the driver behind the white SUV that flipped and plunged into Tampa Bay following a crash on the bridge Wednesday morning. Vaz’s bodyContinue Reading

Brutus & Barnaby of Clearwater, Florida is recalling all size variations of our Pig Ears for Dogs because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. Salmonella can affect animals eating the products and there is risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact withContinue Reading

A 12-year-old middle school student was arrested last week for making a written threat using Snapchat. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office (HCSO), Emma Acebedo, 12, a 7th grade student at Burns Middle School in Brandon, FL posted on Snapchat: “Dear bms students I will be shooting that skoolContinue Reading

Two students from Tampa were recently honored for their innovations at the Florida Invention Convention.  Makana Salim-Uesi, a 7th grade student at Williams Middle Magnet School, took 1st Place in the competition. Her invention, “RCV H20″. is a model of a labor-saving device that can transport and filter water atContinue Reading

A Florida physician mishandled an abortion by performing the procedure on the wrong woman in 2017 at A Women’s Center of Hollywood, an abortion facility in Hollywood, Florida. That doctor, Harvey Craig Roth, will now have to pay a $10,000 fine and take additional courses as a punishment for hisContinue Reading

On Friday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the appointments of 11 expert researchers and leading scientists to the recently re-organized Red Tide Task Force. For over 15 years, this Task Force had been inactive and without funding until it’s re-organization by  Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) at theContinue Reading

Fifty-one local organizations have been selected by the Straz Center’s Patel Conservatory for its Arts Education Partnerships Program for the 2019-20 academic year.  Through its Arts Education Partnerships Program, now in its fifteenth year, the Straz Center’s Patel Conservatory works with under-served area schools, agencies and community organizations by providingContinue Reading

When she was just seventeen, Naomi Rosado moved out of her home to live with her boyfriend, Charles Tenpenny. Her relationship turned violent when she refused to abort the couple’s baby. Tenpenny beat and shot Naomi in the face. Rosado considers her son Landyn, now around eight months old, toContinue Reading

A federal lawsuit that Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed on behalf of a Sarasota County church and religious school has prompted the county to reverse course and approve the church’s use of its property to educate children in its religious school. The county had forced the church to go through a $10,000 specialContinue Reading

President Trump may be making headlines over the bickering House Democrats “the squad,” while moving to reverse the U.S. policy to end all asylum protections for most migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, slashing the number of people seeking refuge in America. The new rule, expected to go intoContinue Reading

The Straz Center, in collaboration with the Hillsborough County Alliance for Citizens with Disabilities and Tampa Mayor’s Alliance for Persons with Disabilities, is thrilled to present TRANSFORMATIONS: Building a World of Access and Inclusion, the first-ever performing arts event as part of the Tampa Bay area’s 29th anniversary celebration of theContinue Reading

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a lower court to reconsider its earlier ruling that a World War II-era memorial cross in Pensacola must be removed. In Kondrat’yev v. City of Pensacola, a federal appeals court had ruled that the 78-year-old cross must come down, with two of the three judgesContinue Reading

Robert Sylvester Kelly, AKA “R. Kelly,” was arrested in Chicago Thursday night following an investigation by the joint Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York and New York City Police Department (NYPD) Public Safety Task Force and special agents with HSI Chicago. A five-count superseding indictment was unsealed Friday in federalContinue Reading

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich today sentenced Martin Steele (46, St. Petersburg) to seven years and five months in prison for his role in a telemarketing fraud scam. As part of his sentence, the court also entered a money judgment in the amount of $75,000, the proceeds of the wireContinue Reading

MEGACON™, the Southeast’s largest fan convention wrapped up the four-day convention May 16-19, 2019 at the Orange County Convention Center. The multi-genre convention welcomed more than 100,000 fans and included never-before-seen cast reunions alongside a star-studded celebrity lineup, endless programming and more.  Fans witnessed special cast reunion panels like Back toContinue Reading

Take one student with measles and plunk him or her down in an area where measles vaccination rates have dropped 10 percent overall. What would happen? It’s a question Dr. Karen Liller, a USF COPH professor of community and family health, posed to Dr. Mark Roberts, a professor and chair at the University ofContinue Reading

June is National Pet Preparedness Month. As we gear up for hurricane, wildfire and tornado seasons, and having witnessed an uptick in natural disasters over the past few years, there’s no better time to create awareness for this critical topic. During the panic of a natural disaster, people often forget essential itemsContinue Reading