A federal judge today ordered that a man accused of writing threatening letters to judges be sent to a medical facility to be mentally evaluated. ...more

November 19, 2008

Around the same time a mental health counselor was talking online to an undercover detective in Pinellas County about having sex with the detective's fictional young sons, he was chatting with another undercover detective about having sex with that detective's fictional mentally handicapped daughter, a prosecutor said in court this morning. Charles Jackson Friedlander, 78, is scheduled to go on trial Monday on a charge he used a computer to arrange sex with the first detective's fictional 10- and 11-year old boys. Friedlander, of Fort Myers, could face between 10 years and life behind bars if convicted. ...more

November 14, 2008

The prosecutor and the victim's family want a judge to reduce the sentence of a man who participated in the killing of a Haines City police officer nearly 11 years ago. ...more

November 14, 2008

More than 850 previously uncounted absentee ballots were pulled from a vault at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office this afternoon. ...more

November 12, 2008

More than a dozen Hillsborough County elections office workers hunkered down in a glass-walled room in Brandon on Wednesday afternoon and started counting what could add up to about 70,000 ballots that have yet to be tabulated. ...more

November 6, 2008

Hillsborough County's general election outcome is still unknown, and likely won't be finalized until late today. ...more

November 5, 2008

A 37-year-old St. Petersburg man who pleaded guilty to drug charges was sentenced today to 24 1/2 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. ...more

October 16, 2008

A Tampa man has been told he will spend the next seven years behind bars after pleading guilty to cocaine conspiracy charges. U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. sentenced Oscar Fernandez, 30, to seven years and three months in prison for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine with his co-defendant Benjamin Torres. ...more

September 19, 2008

Barclays PLC will unveil a plan to acquire all or part of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s investment banking and trading operations, a person close to the talks said Tuesday. ...more

September 17, 2008

In another defeat for pro-county mayor advocates, a three-judge panel has upheld a ruling from a lower court to keep a referendum on the issue off the ballot in November. ...more

September 12, 2008