The title "Universal Mind Control" conjures up images of Common wearing an aluminum foil helmet. Alas, it isn't a concept album about conspiracy theories. ...more

December 26, 2008

Tampa-based rapper Plies released his new album, "DaREAList" (Big Gates/Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic) on Tuesday. It's his third release in 16 months. ...more

December 17, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG — Though he had had no brushes with the law before a police officer fatally shot him this weekend, Javon Dawson had taken on the persona of a street thug on his MySpace page. On Saturday night, Dawson, 17, was spotted firing a gun into the air outside the Shining Light Masonic Lodge, where there was a graduation party. He got into a confrontation with St. Petersburg police officer Terrence Nemeth, with Nemeth telling him to put down the weapon, and Dawson running off, pointing his gun at Nemeth as he fled before Nemeth fired. ...more

June 10, 2008

TAMPA - Next week, on the first anniversary of the day her grandson died, Lucy Mills will watch as a city athletic field is renamed in his honor. ...more

April 17, 2008

Carrie Nation Redux Regarding "A Reasonable Solution" (Letters, Feb. 19): In a letter to Mother Trib, one of the advocates of sin taxes suggested another tax be placed on cigarettes of $1 per pack. Regardless of those advocates against tobacco, people in our country are still free to make choices in their lives and live with the consequences of those decisions. ...more

February 25, 2008

My brother died Tuesday. He was in the truest sense my hero. He taught me how to play baseball, how to throw a football and how to ride a bike. For more than 30 years he taught "shop" in high school - woodworking, car repair, metal working. No one unknown to him will leave flowers at his door, his name will not be headlines news, he was not a thug, nor did he have that mentality. His whole life was spent trying to help others. ...more

November 29, 2007