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On first glance, this may look like the kind of vertical ride you find at your average amusement park. But it's not - it is a whopping 335ft tall. Busch Gardens' new giant Falcon's Fury ride, the tallest freestanding drop tower in north America, is open to the public at the theme park in Tampa, Florida. When riders get to the top - as many as 32 at one time - their seats are tilted forward 90 degrees so that they're directly facing the ground when released.

Steven Wilkerson spends long hours working alone at three restaurants in a Hess gas station in Tampa – a Dunkin’ Donuts, a Quiznos and a Godfathers Pizza – all for just $8.50 (U.S.) per hour. Three years ago he made just $7.50. The 28-year-old former U.S. Marine tried to find a role in communications, and later security, after his tour of duty in Iraq. He went to more than 30 interviews, but was told repeatedly that he didn’t have enough experience for jobs he wanted. “You know, everybody tells you when you’re in the military you’ll get any job you...

A Florida Islamic group is accusing some Republican Party lawmakers and local party organizations of fostering anti-Muslim sentiment. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, sent letters to almost every Republican Club or party extension in the state, asking the groups to stop bringing speakers who espouse anti-Islamic views. The letter said it represented the interests of more than 150,000 registered Florida Muslim voters. Hassan Shibly, executive director for CAIR, based in Tampa, said such speakers not only inflame anti-Islam tensions but have also led to discriminatory legislation: namely Senate Bill 386, which would ban foreign laws from being enacted...

As of Sunday, more than 122,000 votes had been cast in the special election for Congressional District 13 in Pinellas County. The Republican advantage in votes cast to date has grown to more 4,623 votes. Presumably, a lot of ballots come in today and tomorrow. We had been arguing that the Republican lead in mail-in votes cast was below where Republican nominee David Jolly needed it to be, but there's no question after the past five days he heads into election day with the momentum and with some wind at his back (Just as Obama had in 2012 when early...

This happened to me on SR 41 in Tampa on Monday March 24th. This pathetic excuse for a human being tailgated me for about three minutes. After about a minute, and me shaking my head, I pulled out my phone and started recording. I couldn't move over because there were trucks in the right lane, and I sure as heck wasn't going to speed on a rainy day with the roads being as slick as they were. I was turning left in about a half-mile when this happened. Now bear in mind, that this guy had already passed a truck...

Bucs' wide receiver Vincent Jackson is a well-known supporter of deployed troops and military families, particularly through his "Jackson in Action 83" Foundation. He extended that charitable reach even further on Monday night by inviting 400 military members and their families to the Tampa Bay Lightning game on his dime. Jackson, who was acting as the Bolts' "Social Captain" of the evening, purchased 400 tickets and donated them all to military members for the second year in a row. Supporting the troops is a mission dear to Jackson's heart as both of his parents served in the Armed Forces.

Sami Osmakac toyed with the idea of blowing up Tampa Bay bridges or the sheriff’s office. The defense is arguing that Sami suffers from mental illness. The Tampa Tribune reportedL Sami Osmakac toyed with the idea of blowing up the bridges crossing Tampa Bay or detonating bombs at the sheriff’s office and police departments before settling on a plan to plant explosives in Tampa’s Hyde Park party district and then spraying first responders with automatic gunfire, according to recently released court documents. The planned January 2012 attack, Osmakac said in a “martyrdom video,” would be “payback for Sheikh Osama Bin...

Authorities say a Florida woman who was 9 months pregnant and her family became ill after eating meat tainted with LSD. […] Police say the bottom round steak was purchased from a Wal-Mart in Tampa. The store has turned over all its meat to police for testing. …

The Tampa Bay area seems to be a fertile breeding ground for an exotic lizard that wildlife officials want to keep from becoming the state's next invasive species problem. More than 100 black-and-white tegu lizards have been spotted in Hillsborough County, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The area is now considered home to one of three tegu breeding populations in the state. Wildlife officials have spotted more than 100 of them between Riverview and Gibsonton. The animals, which are native to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, do not belong in the habitat in southwest Florida, and...

Do you ever wonder at people's amazing propensity to do totally stupid things when they have had a few too many drinks? This video is a case in point. Released by the Tampa Police Department on Friday on its YouTube channel, the 911 call was made from a Village Inn in Tampa. The emergency: uncooked waffles. The part about the half being just as uncooked as the uncooked one is priceless!

-- 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...