Brushing aside a chorus of opposition from evangelical groups, the city council today voted to expand anti-discrimination laws to include transgender individuals. ...more

November 19, 2009

TAMPA The city council's decision two weeks ago to extend Tampa's anti-discrimination laws to include transgender individuals was a move long overdue, its supporters say. To the leaders of evangelical Christian groups, the inclusion of "gender identity and expression" as a protected class under the city's human rights ordinance is an assault on their religious values that they fear will sanction sexually deviant behavior. ...more

November 17, 2009

Studies show that laws prohibiting sexual predators from living near schools and other places where children congregate do not prevent offenders from committing new crimes and may be counterproductive, a legislative policy analyst told a House panel Tuesday. ...more

November 3, 2009

Halloween is just days away and ghosts and goblins will be hitting the streets. ...more

October 27, 2009

It has been confirmed that the half-naked body of a little girl found in a trash dump was that of the missing 7-year-old, Somer Thompson. ...more

October 23, 2009

A pajama-wearing 8-year-old boy found running along a country road in Crystal River last week wasn't abducted after all but left home on his own, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office said today. ...more

March 25, 2009

Florida Democrats blasted Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum on Friday for using public money on anti-cyber crime commercials that they say are thinly veiled campaign ads. ...more

March 20, 2009

The father of a missing 5-year-old Putnam County girl said he and his 17-year-old girlfriend have passed polygraph tests, according to CNN.com. ...more

February 12, 2009

Investigators say they are treating the disappearance of a 5-year-old Putnam County girl as an abduction because house-to-house searches of the neighborhood Wednesday offered no evidence she wandered off. Her father's dread and uncertainty is what Mark Lunsford felt four years ago when his daughter, 9-year-old Jessica Marie "Jessie" Lunsford, was abducted from her Citrus County mobile home. ...more

February 12, 2009

Residents in one southwest Florida county will get a phone call when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. ...more

February 1, 2009