Punta Gorda | featured news

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The British businessman who bought Liberace’s 15,000-square-foot Las Vegas mansion says he plans to work on it relentlessly to restore it to its former glory.
Martyn Ravenhill told The Associated Press on Friday that he’s been a huge Libe...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Nearly 400,000 policyholders in Florida could soon find themselves with a new insurance company.
State regulators last week quietly signed off on a plan to let 10 different insurance companies take over nearly a third of all Citiz...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A building was evacuated at the University of Central Florida because of a chemical spill.
No one was injured Friday during the mishap at school’s CREOL building.
The building will reopen once a hazmat team has cleaned up the spill an...

VIRGINIA CITY, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada judge has dismissed most of the claims in a civil lawsuit an ex-business partner filed against a Storey County commissioner and developer who owns the Mustang Ranch brothel.
District Court Judge James Wilson threw out f...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A mother is behind bars on child neglect charges after her 14-month-old daughter drowned in a neighbor’s goldfish pond.
The Pensacola News Journal reports homeowner Larry Kruger pulled the child from the water after her 5-year-old b...

September is National Yoga Month and the Yoga Sanctuary in Punta Gorda is holding a month-long challenge of 20 classes in 30 days. It’s open to the public, with all funds from the annual event going to the Peace River Wildlife Center. Thursday, was the ki...

The downfall of General Motors in 2009 was a shock to many, but to Bill Hempel it was a long time coming.
The former GM executive and Punta Gorda resident has written a book, “GM: General Mayhem.” In it, he describes what he saw and experienced in his 37-...

Ben Voll wants to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy. The 16-year-old Charlotte High School sophomore’s dream is to be a commissioned officer — and he believes that his decision to join Charlotte County Composite Squadron FL-051will certainly help him fulf...

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) — Tropical Storm Juliette blew down trees and power lines as it blasted across the tourist resorts at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, causing at least one death, officials said Thursday.
The storm’s maximum sust...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the nation’s first-of-its-kind law in California prohibiting health practitioners from offering psychotherapy aimed at making gay youth straight.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San ...