Free Republic

-- A Riverview man was killed early Friday morning when he was involved in a wrong-way crash on I-275. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Chase Kaleb Leveille, 25, was driving a 1993 red Honda Civic north in the center lane of southbound I-275 near Bearss Avenue at 2:35 a.m. Troopers said Leveille was going the wrong way for three miles before hitting an Enterprise rental truck heading south in the center lane at the same time. Investigators said the two vehicles collided head-on just north of Bearss Avenue. The vehicles skidded about 500 feet before coming to rest in...

A moviegoer lost his life inside a Pasco County theater Monday afternoon after a dispute over texting with a retired police officer. According to the sheriff's office, the dispute happened before the 1:20 showing of 'Lone Survivor' had even gotten underway at the Cobb CineBistro at Grove 16 complex on Wesley Grove Blvd. Investigators say two couples had gotten into an argument over noise. "The victim was on his cell phone; he was texting. We believe he was making some kind of noise. This noise led to an altercation between the suspect and the victim," Sheriff Chris Nocco explained. A...

The first rule of public relations disasters is to change the narrative as quickly as possible. With that in mind, I’ll give Family Glazer a cookie for their rapid response in turning the 4-12 stench that was sooooo last season into a Loviefest. Well done. New coach Lovie Smith is a proven winner with local ties, and having a team that competes for the playoffs every year would certainly be refreshing. Call me jaded, though, on at least one big point. I’m not sure even winning automatically will fill Raymond James Stadium every Sunday and beyond. I think fans are...

Bucs and Lovie Smith reached agreement, as @JayGlazer reported. Deal had been in works for days. Smith was favorite all along. Back to Bucs.— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 2, 2014

A 25-year-old woman faces child neglect charges after posting a photo on social media that showed her dangling her baby over an apartment balcony, 12 feet off the ground. Friends of Aisha Jean Clark called Tampa police on Tuesday after spotting the photo on Instagram. Police said when they arrived at her apartment on Nuccio Parkway, they asked Clark if she knew why they were there. They said she laughed and went inside the apartment to get her iPad, pulled up her Instagram account, and showed them the picture. Police then arrested Clark and she allegedly told them, “I was...

The man wanted for the series of home invasions in apartments near the USF Tampa campus has died from gunshot wounds after a shootout with police. Police captured 24 year old Charlie Christopher Bates on U.S. 301 near I-4 in Hillsborough County. This came after a chase, crash, and police shooting at Bates. He was reportedly shot several times. No officers are believed to be hurt. Bates faces a series of charges. Hillsborough deputies say the incidents happened at the Cambridge Woods apartments, the Oaks apartments, and the Eagle's Point apartments north of USF. Four men were tied up and...

In between bowls of chicken poodle soup and deciding to provide air cover for al-Qaeda in Syria, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, found time to meet with mayors from our crumbling major cities. From Justin Sink of The Hill: *** "President Obama told a collection of big-city mayors Tuesday at the White House that he would continue to use executive actions to combat gun violence plaguing major cities. In the meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and the mayors of 18 cities from across the nation, Obama discussed commonly applicable strategies to reduce youth violence. 'He also vowed to...

Just received a notice on my phone that South Tampa residents are being asked to "shelter in place" due to fumes coming from the port of Tampa. Will post updates as they become available.

It gets worse: DEA demands that enforcers lie about source of evidence Leaked documents have revealed the existence of a Special Operations Division (SOD) within the Drug Enforcement Agency that receives and distributes tips gleaned by the NSA to arrange arrests, and then hides where that information came from."That's outrageous," Tampa attorney James Felman, a vice chairman of the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association, told Reuters. "It strikes me as indefensible." According to documents seen by Reuters, SOD was set up in 1994 to deal with drug cartels and organized trafficking of narcotics, and uses information provided...

An armed man dressed in black fatally shot one of the managers at the Family Dollar store at 4900 North 40th St. on Sunday morning during a robbery, according to Tampa police. About 9 a.m., the gunman demanded money from an employee behind the counter, when Horsley Shorter Jr. ran out of the store's office to help his co-worker and was shot, police said. The gunman then took the other employee outside to the victim's vehicle and ordered them into the trunk, police said. The employee pleaded with the gunman, who eventually left the other worker, shut the trunk and...

Quietly at first, and now quite publicly, the city of Tampa has courted Cuba in hopes of becoming its future trading partner. Business owners in Tampa talk of how they’ll capitalize when the island opens up, and politicians make trips there and have come out against the embargo. Things are far different across the state in Miami. Elected officials there favor the trade embargo. Business leaders, fearful of retribution, rarely speak about future trade with the island nation. Miami may seem poised to benefit most when the embargo ends, with its close proximity and much larger Cuban-American population. There are...

The motorist killed in a shooting that closed eastbound Interstate 4 in Tampa for nearly eight hours Saturday has been identified as a 47-year-old Orlando man. Fred William Turner Jr. was fatally shot while he was on a cell phone telling a 911 dispatcher someone with a gun was pursuing him, authorities said. The shooting happened around 3 p.m. and prompted authorities to close I-4 at I-75 while they examined the scene and searched for clues. The closure eventually stretched west to U.S. 301 and didn't end until nearly 11 p.m. Turner, who was driving a newer model Ford Mustang,...

I always believed that giving to a good cause or helping victims of a disaster was a noble thing to do. I mean, “There but for the grace of God go I”, right? With the recent uncovering of scandals within the government, more and more investigators are digging to uncover other cases of fraud and mismanagement. Is nothing sacred anymore? A recent investigation exposed by CNN, The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Tampa Bay Times have found that there are dozens and dozens of charities that basically do next to nothing for the causes they raise money for. 50...

YBOR CITY - Officially recognized by the Hillsborough County Commission for the first time, this year's GaYbor Days events continue Sunday in Ybor City. GaYBOR Days, a weekend packed with shows and events to promote gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses in Tampa, is hosted every year by the GaYBOR Coalition. The coalition is made up of almost 300 businesses throughout the Tampa Bay area, said Carrie West, the group's president. The weekend is meant to promote the Ybor City area, showcase businesses and show that Tampa is a good destination for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. “We're doing very good,”...

TAMPA, Fla. (970 WFLA) - Beware of cranking up your car stereo in Tampa. City council has given preliminary approval to a new noise ordinance that would outlaw car stereo noise that can be heard 50 feet or more from the car. A first-time offiense will set you back $250. That goes up to $450 for a second offense. If you're cited a third time, it's 60 days in jail. Council member Lisa Monteleone thinks that's a bit too harsh. She believes that will put more young people behind bars. And she spars with Councilman Charlie Miranda over that fact....

TAMPA — The son of a Lutz fertility doctor killed an ex-girlfriend's unborn child by tricking her into taking an abortion drug, federal authorities said Wednesday. The act could put John Andrew Welden, 28, in prison for life. Welden forged the doctor's signature on a prescription for Cytotec, relabeled a pill bottle as "Amoxicillin" and told the woman that his father wanted her on antibiotics, a federal prosecutor asserted Wednesday. The incident occurred in March after an ultrasound at Dr. Stephen Ward Welden's office confirmed the pregnancy, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Muldrow. The doctor, a board certified obstetrician...

TAMPA - Bomb threats, fistfights and TV news vans outside. It's just another day for a taco joint serving tacos made with real lion meat. “We're getting all kinds of threats over it,” said Ryan Gougeon, owner of Taco Fusion on Bay to Bay Boulevard in Tampa that put lion meat on their taco menu this week. Controversy soon erupted and social media exploded with criticism that anyone would serve lion meat. “Now we're getting bomb threats, and everything else. Some guy just called and said he'd kidnap me and grind me up for a taco. There are so many...

A Saudi family who “fled” their Sarasota area home weeks before 9/11 had “many connections” to “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001,” according to newly released FBI records. One partially declassified document, marked “secret,” lists three of those individuals and ties them to the Venice, Fla., flight school where suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi trained. Accomplice Ziad Jarrah took flying lessons at another school a block away. Atta and al-Shehhi were at the controls of the jetliners that slammed into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people. Jarrah was the...

Sheriff's deputies are asking for the public's help to find two children taken from their grandmother's home Wednesday morning. Authorities say Joshua Hakken came into Patricia Hauser's home, on the 14000 block of Shady Shores Drive, tied her up and took her two grandchildren. Hakken fled the home in Hauser's 2009 silver Toyota Camry. Authorities are looking for the children, 2-year old Chase and 4-year old Cole Hakken, who could possibly be in a black 2006 GMC pickup with Florida tag BHNV-86 registered to Joshua Hakken. Deputies believe Sharyn Hakken may be with them as well. Chase Hakken is 3...

ST. PETERSBURG — If the safety of those you love was threatened, how would you respond? Many people contemplate this question with commingled curiosity and fear. For Jeremy Reed and Anna Soto, the answer came early Sunday when a pair of violent men burst into the bedroom where they slept with their 7-day-old daughter. -------------------------------cut------------------------ By then, one of them had grabbed the keys to Soto's Mazda 6. They barreled out the front door and into the car. Reed ran back to the bedroom and emerged with a .22 rifle belonging to Soto. He stepped outside and pointed the gun...