Charlotte County, Punta Gorda | featured news

MELBOURNE (AP) — Catches of blue crabs and stone crabs appear to be dwindling in the same central Florida lagoon area where manatees, dolphins and other wildlife have died in large numbers.
While crab harvests in the Indian River Lagoon region can vary wi...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Orleans Parish sheriff has hired the chief of corrections for Orange County, Fla., Michael Tidwell, to run New Orleans’ only jail.
A federal consent agreement requires Sheriff Marlin Gusman to hire a professional corrections adminis...

WEWAKHITCHKA (AP) — Former Republican Party of Florida chairman Jim Greer is in prison now, but he expects to be included in the next gubernatorial campaign — as the subject of negative political ads.
That’s because Greer’s notoriety is likely to be used...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Monday marks the 150th anniversary of the only Union attempt to storm the South Carolina fort where the Civil War began — an attack doomed to failure by rivalries between commanders, poor planning and the fact the Confederates knew...

KEY WEST (AP) — Veterans are racing from the Florida Keys to New York City on Jet Skis to raise money for organizations helping veterans and their families.
The Never Quit Challenge began early Friday in Key West. Eight men and one woman are using person...

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City street has been renamed in honor of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Connecticut elementary school massacre last year.
Family and friends of Benjamin Wheeler gathered Saturday for a ceremony in Queens. A sign saying Benjamin ...

SOMERS, Conn. (AP) — One of two men sentenced to death for a 2007 triple murder home invasion in Connecticut says no one was supposed to get hurt and he “just snapped.”
Steven Hayes recently gave an hour-long interview to the New Haven Register. The news...

GROVELAND, Fla. (AP) — In the five weeks since he declared his support for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster has gotten an earful.
One constituent told the second-term Republican that immigrants carry disease. Another said imm...

PINE BLUFF, Ark. (AP) — A 107-year-old man was killed after SWAT officers shot back at him during a standoff at a home, police in the southeastern Arkansas city of Pine Bluff said Sunday.
Police were called to the home Saturday afternoon about a disturban...

TALLAHASSEE (AP) — One winner of the “Fantasy 5” game will collect $268,778.37, the Florida Lottery said Sunday.
The winning ticket was bought in Hialeah, lottery officials reported.
The 361 tickets matching four numbers won $120 each. Another 11,579 tic...