Charlotte County, Punta Gorda | featured news

BOWLING GREEN (AP) — When Florida executed David Alan Gore last year for murdering six women and girls as one of the state’s most horrific serial killers, the victims’ families expressed satisfaction that he finally was dead, three decades after his crime...

RIVERVIEW (AP) — A Hillsborough County woman who threatened deputies who had gone to her home to check on her remains in jail on charges of assaulting a law enforcement officer.
Jail records show 50-year-old Tracy Lynn Hawley was arrested early Sunday. B...

CLEARWATER (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says the four people rescued after their boat capsized were not injured.
Coast Guard officials say that’s because the boaters were wearing life jackets.
Authorities responded to a distress call Sunday morning that a ...

RUSKIN (AP) — Meteorologists at the National Weather Service station in Ruskin will issue specialized forecasts that can steer beach-goers clear of red tide blooms and alert authorities in advance when blinding fog might create a problem for drivers.
The...

BAGHDAD (AP) — A prominent militia leader opposed to al-Qaida escaped an assassination attempt in Baghdad Monday that killed six of his bodyguards and one civilian and wounded eight people, authorities said. And a Turkish diplomat avoided injury when a ro...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Man-made global warming may further lessen the likelihood of the freak atmospheric steering currents that last year shoved Superstorm Sandy due west into New Jersey, a new study says.
But don’t celebrate a rare beneficial climate change...

WASHINGTON — Flu vaccination is no longer merely a choice between a jab in the arm or a squirt in the nose. This fall, some brands promise a little extra protection.
For the first time, certain vaccines will guard against four strains of flu rather than ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Barack Obama’s new foreign policy advisers, the first test of their willingness to undertake military action wound up being a stark lesson in the president’s ability to overrule them all.
Obama’s abrupt decision to seek co...

KEY WEST — Looking dazed and sunburned, U.S. endurance swimmer Diana Nyad walked ashore Monday, becoming the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage.
The 64-year-old Nyad swam up to the beach just before 2 p.m. EDT, abou...

PARIS — Syria’s president warned Monday that the Middle East is a “powder keg” and potential Western military strikes against his country risk triggering a regional war.
In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Bashar Assad also was quoted as say...