PLANT CITY Patsy Brooks, the longtime general manager of the Florida Strawberry Festival, retired Monday. Brooks' festival career began 33 years ago as a secretary - one of only two full-time employees at the time. Two years later, she was promoted to assistant manager, a job she held for 18 years. She occupied the top slot for the past 13 years. ...more

June 6, 2008

East Hillsborough Art Guild President Lou Watson and his wife, the guild's first vice president, LouAnn Watson, take the top 2008 honors as Brush Strokes Valentine Couple. They are a dynamic husband-and-wife team who have been sharing their love of the arts and each other for 33 years. ...more

February 13, 2008

Patrick Patterson scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Kentucky knocked off No. 3 Tennessee 72-66 on Tuesday night. ...more

January 23, 2008

Right around noon today, if all goes as planned, a spacecraft called Messenger will swoop past Mercury and begin two days of unprecedented picture-taking and data-collecting. ...more

January 14, 2008

Brandon Wrestling: By The Numbers ...more

January 6, 2008

Ted Starr, a Tampa Tribune artist for more than three decades, died Dec. 21. He was 74. ...more

December 27, 2007

Donnie Mills started his career in the theme park industry 33 years ago in Tampa as a King High School teenager with a seasonal job at Busch Gardens. ...more

December 15, 2007

SEBRING –– Santos Guadalupe De La Rosa likes to say that farm work is his college education. If that's so, then his education started when he was 7 years old and continues until today as a farm worker specialist for the Florida Non-Profit Housing in Sebring. De La Rosa's family members were all migrant workers. His parents, aunts, grandfather –– the whole clan –– traveled together like gypsies to wherever there was something ready to pick. At age 5, De La Rosa was babysat by his 9 - and 11-year-old sisters. By the time he was 7, he was working alongside his family in the field and traveling the crop circuit. The family was based in the Texas border town of Mercedes, in the Rio Grande Valley. ...more

October 1, 2007

TAMPA For 27 years, Daniel Diaz has been a regular customer at the Spanish-language bookstore Tampa Libros. ...more

September 24, 2007

Looks like we have hit the bottom of the barrel. I read with some interest the letter to the editor from Randy Ludacer. What was he trying to do? I wonder what his comments intend to imply? Is he upset with the politics? Does he not like Gen. Petraeus? Or was this a mockery of a couple of soldiers? It is obvious to me that this was an attempt to ridicule a sitting U.S. Army Gen. for his accomplishments, as well as those of other fine members of our military who proudly wear their ribbons, badges and medals. I tried to find some positive in his comments and could find none. I looked for something that applauded General Petraeus for his service and read nothing. What is most interesting is that Mr. Ludacer made a point to count how many badges Gen. Petraeus wore and how much "gold falderal and garniture" was on Gen. Peter Pace's cover (Cap.) Yet he makes no attempt in his spewing to note the dedication this man or others have made in serving their country. ...more

September 22, 2007