Bargain hunters continued to snatch up foreclosed properties during the third quarter, marking the first quarter in three years that Tampa Bay has seen a yearly increase in home sales. ...more

November 19, 2008

The annual Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey shows continuing declines in binge drinking, smoking - both tobacco and marijuana - and most other drug use. ...more

November 17, 2008

Fewer passengers flew from Tampa International Airport in October than the year before, but the decline was not as steep as in August and September - thanks in part to the Tampa Bay Rays' extended season. ...more

November 15, 2008

TAMPA - Fewer passengers flew from Tampa International Airport in October than the year before, but the decline was not as steep as in August and September — thanks in part to the Tampa Bay Rays' extended season. "It definitely shows that we did get a surge in passengers as a result of the Tampa Bay Rays going all the way to the World Series," airport director Louis Miller said. ...more

November 14, 2008

Floridians continue to struggle to keep their homes out of foreclosure. One in every 157 homeowners received a foreclosure filing in October, the third-highest state foreclosure rate, according to California-based RealtyTrac. ...more

November 13, 2008

Sales of new homes recorded an unexpected increase in September as median home prices dropped to the lowest level in four years, the Commerce Department reported Monday. ...more

October 28, 2008

For travelers who have been putting off that European vacation because they don't want to pay $400 a night for mediocre hotels or $6 for a can of Coke, relief is in sight. ...more

October 19, 2008

Gut-wrenching declines in the stock market, a financial panic that some have compared to the Great Depression and the realization that the U.S. may be headed to its worst recession in over a generation have trumped what should otherwise be good news: The return of $3-a-gallon gas. ...more

October 18, 2008

Customers of Tampa Electric Co. and Progress Energy Florida, the biggest power providers in the Bay area, have been given a slight reprieve from rising electric bills next year. ...more

October 14, 2008

A new political advertisement aired on Channel 8 shows how misleading these ads can be. This ad tells how Sarah Palin voted to allow shooting of wolves from airplanes. It is very graphic. And it is true. But Alaska is a different world. In an area of 1,000 miles (equal to Orlando to Detroit), are many Native American villages. The people of these villages are allowed to live a subsistence life. That being, they may kill caribou to provide meat for the winter months. One caribou will sustain a family for the whole winter. But when the wolf population increases, the caribou herd is in danger. Wolves will kill for the sport. If the caribou herd declines, or moves away, the families of these small villages have no food for the winter. ...more

September 22, 2008