Free Republic

LAKELAND - A Neighborhood Watch leader has been charged with first-degree murder after police say he stabbed a 15-year-old girl to death early Sunday. Mark William Kuzara, 31, who works as a staff member for a local YMCA, was arrested shortly after Lakeland police were called about 4:45 a.m. to Kuzara's home at 534 Francis Blvd. Inside, they found Stacey Lynn Gloe dead; an autopsy determined she had been stabbed nine times in her upper body, according to Kuzara's arrest report. Kuzara told police he acted in self-defense, but investigators rejected the claim and said the evidence pointed to murder....

Police were searching for a suspect who shot two sheriff's deputies Thursday, authorities said. The Polk County deputies were taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center following the early afternoon shooting in north Lakeland, sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Wood said. She didn't know their conditions. The situation started when Polk deputies reportedly stopped a vehicle near Lakeland, CBS affiliate WTSP-TV in Tampa, Fla. reports. Shots were fired, and both deputies were hit.

LAKELAND - Buzzards congregated around dead fish on the exposed mud flats of Scott Lake on Wednesday, while alligators and snapping turtles fought for their lives in the black ooze of a massive sinkhole. Sinkholes occasionally open under lakes, but most of the sightseers who came to witness firsthand this disappearing water body south of Lakeland said they'd never seen anything like it. Water in the 291-acre lake started to drain into two sinkholes early last week. The sinking ground cracked the wall in at least one house near the shore and damaged several docks. The largest of the two...

CAMP MERCURY, Iraq (April 3, 2006) -- Lance Cpl. Jason Willis has a new look on life after recovering from injuries he incurred just over a month ago. While driving a seven-ton truck on a late-night re-supply mission in late February, the heavy equipment operator attached to Headquarters and Support Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, was struck by an improvised explosive device. “I remember it quite well,” said the 23-year-old from Lakeland, Fla. “It went off right next to my door and blew it in three spots, through the window, gun port and through the floorboard.” At first he...

Fighters Escort Two Small Planes Away From Bush Rally POSTED: 3:48 pm EDT October 23, 2004 UPDATED: 5:31 pm EDT October 23, 2004 MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Federal authorities said Saturday two small private planes violated restricted air space over a campaign rally by President George W. Bush at a Melbourne baseball stadium. Fighter jets escorted the plane to Merritt Island Airport near Cocoa Beach, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Secret Service has interviewed the pilot. FAA spokesman Greg Martin said further action is possible. Reporters covering Bush's campaign event said the military jets drowned out Bush's words at...

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Huber, FIRE has come to the defense of a philosophy professor who has been stripped of his classes for refusing to veil his religious identity from students. Dr. James Tuttle, a Catholic philosopher at Lakeland Community College, near Cleveland, Ohio, was told that he might "be happier in a sectarian classroom" and was threatened with dismissal for making statements on his syllabi and in class that disclosed his religious faith and its effect on his views of ethics and philosophy. Dr. Tuttle has endured persecution for months, and now faces losing his job. FIRE has begun...