Florida, Punta Gorda | featured news

NORTH PORT — Joseph Damian awoke just after 3 a.m. Monday to the sounds of a woman banging on his door, ringing the doorbell and yelling “Fire!”
“I opened the front door and all I could see was the truck my grandson uses for work on fire,” he said. “There...

SARASOTA COUNTY — A lieutenant commander and attorney in the U.S. Coast Guard Judge Advocate General Corps has pleaded guilty to charges that he used the Internet to arrange sex with a minor last year, as part of a sting run by the Sarasota County Sheriff...

Four-year-old Aubrey Stchur walked back and forth between a mat on the floor and the cabinet containing various sizes of pink blocks.
One by one, she matched each block to its corresponding square on the mat as teacher Julie Heitman looked on and offered ...

CHARLOTTE HARBOR — Former Florida Sen. Nan Rich, Democratic candidate for governor in 2014, came out swinging Monday in an address to 40 members of the Democratic Women’s Club of Charlotte County at the club’s headquarters.
Her target, naturally, was Gov....

Capt. Robert Moore of Port Charlotte displays a blacktip shark’s teeth just before unhooking the fish and releasing it....

People who survived Aug. 13, 2004 will never forget it.
It was just after 4 p.m. on Friday the 13th. That’s the day that Hurricane Charley, a category 4 storm, slammed into Charlotte and DeSoto counties, causing massive destruction.
With Charley still fr...

PUNTA GORDA —  A convicted killer is on trial in Charlotte County this week for second-degree murder after he allegedly beat his cellmate to death in 2010 while an inmate at Charlotte Correctional Institution.
Leo Lansing Boatman, 27, of Largo, Fla., ple...

SARASOTA COUNTY — On the heels of finding out it’s been recommended to host the 2017 World Rowing Championship, Sarasota County got word it has been selected to host another major national sporting event — the National Masters Swimming Championship.
The N...

The following was written by Sgt. Ingrid Sebastian of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office District 3 on behalf of the entire Sheriff’s Office to the citizens of Charlotte County. Sheriff Bill Prummell wanted to share this with you:
“I sorrowfully had t...

Habitat for Humanity held a new home dedication ceremony Monday morning in Port Charlotte for John and Jessica Fils and their daughter Jada, 2 ½....