If you have a mother, you have an issue. Most people deal with it through psychiatry or talking it out with friends or siblings. Dudley Clendinen chose a different approach: He spent 400 days living with his mother in a retirement home in Tampa. Then, he wrote a book about it. ...more

May 4, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Riding in a white Toyota Corolla, a group of thieves went from parking lot to parking lot Wednesday night, robbing or attempting to rob four people at gunpoint, police said. ...more

February 14, 2008

SEMINOLE - The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office today released a video of an armed robbery Friday at a Big Lots department store. ...more

February 12, 2008

Macy's Inc. said Wednesday that it will cut about 2,300 management jobs as the department store operator consolidates three regional divisions and decentralizes buying in a bid to reduce costs and boost sales. ...more

February 7, 2008

On the night before the Sept. 11 attacks, Sneha Anne Philip bought three pairs of shoes, bed linens and lingerie at a department store across the street from the World Trade Center. She was never heard from again. ...more

February 2, 2008

In today's world where top executives keep subtracting, Beall's Department Store at the Mall provides free gift wrapping. The loaf of specialty bread that was $2.50 last year is now $3.50, and people who are used to good ingredients immediately know something has been tampered with. By the way, the loaves are smaller too. At Beall's, cheerful ladies are busy wrapping while customers wait patiently in line, exchanging smiles and bits of conversation. Now wouldn't you call that the old fashioned "Christmas Spirit?" ...more

December 30, 2007

TAMPA - On Christmas Eve, the network of radar stations established to detect bomber or missile attacks on the U.S. and Canada turns its technology to tracking the global progress of Santa. The military predecessor of the North American Air Defense Command started tracking Santa in 1955. ...more

December 24, 2007

About 50 employees held hands and lined across a department store's entrance Thursday before parting to let a crowd of holiday shoppers enter for the first time since a gunman killed eight people there 15 days earlier. ...more

December 21, 2007

Once, we made special trips downtown this time of year, lining up to gape at mechanical bears eating porridge, Victorian cats celebrating in the snow and toy soldiers guarding over our happy holidays. ...more

December 16, 2007

Somehow, we got talking about Santa impersonators we've known in our lifetime. Maybe that's part of aging – reminiscing. Or, maybe it's simply because we came across two old pictures. One is of Lyn at age three taken with someone posing as Santa at Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. That Santa impersonator was really classy and most likely his long white beard was natural. Lyn can even remember the wool coat and matching hat she wore. The photographer caught Santa and Lyn close-up. They were engaged in deep conversation. Well, Santa was talking to Lyn. She says she doesn't recall what he said – although, she apparently wasn't buying it. By the look on her face she was saying to herself, "I don't believe a word of this. Who is this guy anyway?" ...more

December 14, 2007