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Just got back from exploring the beach. I stopped at 3 locations, the main Navarre Beach parking lot (no tar balls found). 3.5 miles west of the main beach parking lot (scattered tar balls, no more than 1 every 10-15 feet, and very small...no larger than a dime). 7.0 miles west of Navarre Beach has been hit hard. Tar balls are everywhere, and up to the size of the sole on my 10M shoe. They are sticky and slimy, with roughly the consistency of petroleum jelly. They stick to the bottom of your shoes when you walk. Surprisingly, when I...

I just returned from the beach. I live about 10 minutes from Navarre Beach, in Santa Rosa County (between Pensacola and Panama City). There is a light sheen of oil in the intercoastal bay (Santa Rosa Sound), but there is no evidence of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Smoke is visible from burning oil out to sea, but you really have to look for it. A lot of the locals are concerned about the oil spill's impact on tourism. I take a walk on the beach nearly every day, and I have never seen it as crowded as it...

4:00 p.m. UPDATE -- The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning for Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, effective from midnight tonight to 6 p.m. Friday. A winter storm warning means "significant amounts of snow, ice and sleet" are expected, making travel "very hazardous or impossible." Santa Rosa schools are closed Friday, along with all University of West Florida locations. Okaloosa and Walton schools are still planning to be open as usual on Friday. Walton County and counties to the east are not under the winter storm warning.

I'm seeking help finding a new author and/or book suggestions for my daughter for Christmas. She is 12 going on 13, and very smart (gifted student, genius IQ, home-schooled.) She is moving beyond her pre-teen books. I'm looking for books/authors that are early adult, without graphic sexual/horror situations. She enjoys mystery, history (fiction or non-fiction), adventure, and romantic comedy. She is a big fan of Brian Jacques and Gail Carson Levine.

In what could be hailed the single greatest karaoke performance in the history of recorded music, Portland Trail Blazer Greg Oden grabbed the mic during a charity event in Oregon and ripped out the most ridiculous version of 'NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" you've ever heard in your life.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- A Florida man is accused of ripping off his wife's prosthetic leg during a fight after leaving a sports bar. Officers in Port St. Lucie said they found a 29-year-old woman in a sport utility vehicle Tuesday night with a bruised eye and missing a leg and pants. "He ripped my leg off," the woman told police. Police then questioned the woman's husband, Luis Ramirez, 35, who said he was arguing with his wife after leaving a bar, TCPalm reported. He denied stealing her leg. The woman told police that Ramirez became possessed and started...

TAMPA, Fla. -- A Lakeland man has been arrested after he punched a police horse in the rear end, police said. A Tampa Police Department report said Carl Coward, 24, balled his fist and punched the horse in the right rear hip area as the officer and horse were clearing an area in Ybor City at 3:15 a.m. Sunday. A jail official said Coward was charged with offenses against police animals and has been released from jail on $500 bond. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

Doctors successfully removed a 2-inch nail from an Indian man’s genitals after he admitted himself to a hospital due to abdominal pain and the inability to speak, the Bahrain Gulf Daily News reported Wednesday. An X-ray of the man, who was not identified, showed the nail lodged in his urethra. The victim claimed that the nail had been inserted by a gang of thieves who attacked and robbed him three days earlier, the paper reported.

A little girl thought she was getting an iPod for Christmas but ended up getting a rude surprise. She got the box but when she opened it up, she found a surprising switch: the iPod had been replaced with a bizarre note. The note reads in part "Reclaim your mind from the media shackles." Jay Ellis, the girls father, returned the ipod to the Germantown, Md. Wal-Mart store where he purchased it. The store manger told him that another customer returned an iPod with a similar issue. MyFoxDC attempted to reach Apple for a comment, but got no response.

TMZ: Danny Bonaduce interrupts "Survivor" star Jonny Fairplay as he's introducing an award Tuesday night. Jonny does his signature monkey humping move (as seen in the "Survivor: Pearl Islands" opening) -- and things go downhill from there. Fairplay was taken to the hospital, and then to the dentist, where he underwent 2 1/2 hours of surgery. According to Fairplay, the body slam knocked one tooth out and moved three others and he now has to undergo multiple root canals.

I just watched this on ABC. California (Berkely) was playing the University of Tennessee (at Cal). The conversation happened around 5:50 local time. Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit, and the sideline reporter named Lisa were discussing a bunch of Berkely students who were living in trees outside the stadium. Lisa: "Well Brent as you were mentioning, about those folks up in the trees, the reason that they're so upset is that, the University of California, has proposed a $125 million dollar project. They want to build a training facility for the athletes here at the University of California, and they want...

TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- Titusville resident William Herring acted in self-defense when he grabbed a gun and shot two intruders who attacked him in his garage early Sunday morning, killing one of them, police investigators said. It's the third fatal shooting in Titusville in three weeks, but unlike the other two, police are not looking at it as a criminal offense, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported. Herring, 46, has not been charged. Herring was working in his garage at 908 S. Washington Ave. in downtown Titusville when he spotted two men on his property "in an area they didn't...

DELTONA, Fla. -- A woman who went on a jog with her two dogs Monday night attempted to shoot a pit bull because she felt threatened, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. According to sheriff's deputies, Christine Bruce was jogging past 1435 Gainesville Drive in Deltona when she observed a pit bull in the front yard. Bruce told officials that the dog's owner, Rickey Ward, was exciting the animal in such a way that she felt like she was going to be attacked. Bruce, who was attacked by a pit bull three years ago, said she asked Ward to...

EL DORADO, Ark. (AP) - A man irritated by children throwing rocks at his house shot and killed a 9-year-old boy, police said Tuesday. Officers were called shortly Monday afternoon and found Demotric Moore with a gunshot wound to the neck. The boy was pronounced dead at a hospital. Officers saw Jonathan Watts, 50, inside his home, ordered him to the ground and arrested him. "I've had it with these kids and the rock throwing," Watts said as he was being handcuffed, El Dorado police Capt. David Smith said. Watts told officers that he'd thrown the gun away. Initial calls...

SPOKANE, Wash. - Thursday a U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced that a grand jury issued a two count indictment against 23-year-old Travis Riehl of Spokane. The Indictment charges Travis Riehl with two counts of destruction of government property. Travis Riehl is alleged to have thrown a rock through the window of the United States Army Recruiting Station located on 29th Avenue in Spokane, on October 16, 2005. It cost in excess of $1,000 to repair the damages. Additionally, Travis Riehl is charged with throwing a rock through the window of the Washington Air National Guard office...

The multitude of charges filed recently against a Nelsonville teen has astonished prosecutors, some of whom have practiced law since before he was born. Andrew Riley, 13, is charged with 128 felonies, in Athens County Juvenile Court. They include burglary, theft, vandalism and witness intimidation. The delinquency charges stem from a crime spree that has lasted more than a year, authorities said. "In my 30 years of doing this, I’ve never had a juvenile that young with so many charges," Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren said last night. Nelsonville police, who continue to investigate the crime spree, have accused...

Click the link to watch a very strange video of Sharon Stone. She talks about "naughty, nasty little Germans" at an auction in Berlin. She's clearly under the influence of some kind of substance.

Motorcyclist Suffers Life-Threatening Injuries TITUSVILLE, Fla. -- The driver of a pickup is accused of leaving the scene of a crash Sunday after colliding with a motorcylist who ended up in the bed of his truck, according to Titusville police. Lewis Spicuzza, 68, of Macon, Ga., was driving a 1994 Chevrolet pickup southbound on Brown Avenue around 3:30 p.m. when he ran a stop sign at Garden Street, pulling into the path of a motorcyclist, police said. The unidentified motorcycle driver struck Lewis' pickup and landed in the back of the truck, according to a police report. Police said Lewis...

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A man accused of breaking into a Daytona Beach home was shot by the homeowner Tuesday night, according to police. Thomas Lockhard, 28, is in critical condition at Halifax Medical Center after being shot just after 10 p.m. at a house on Orange Avenue in Daytona Beach. Police said they responded to a 911 call from the homeowner, whose house had already been burglarized three times this week, and found Lockhard suffering from a bullet wound. "This kid, who is known to the guy who's already filed three police reports, tells him he's going to kill...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An Orlando woman was arrested on felony child abuse charges Monday after she put her baby in an oven and left her apartment, according to Orlando police. Sharlyn Singh, 29, was arrested and charged with first-degree aggravated child abuse after police investigated the claims made by the 11-month-old baby's uncle. Morris Naraidoo told police that he was in the process of helping his brother, the baby's father, move out of Singh's apartment on Kirkman Road because they were breaking up. That's when he heard the baby crying. Naraidoo said that he asked Singh where the baby was,...