Madeira Beach Day Trip Turns Wild As 10-Foot Great White Crashes Shell Key Sandbar
What was supposed to be a laid-back shelling cruise turned into a front-row shark show today when guests aboard a Hubbard's Marina trip watched a roughly 10-foot great white glide past Shell Key, the barrier island off Madeira Beach. The shark cruised within about 25 to 75 yards of the...
Tampa Man Busted After 7-Month-Old Left With Brain Bleed, Cops Say
A Hillsborough County man is facing a first-degree felony after a seven-month-old infant in his care turned up at a medical facility with severe injuries, including a brain bleed and a spinal injury, according to authorities. Detectives say 38-year-old Michael Robert Weatherholt has been charged with aggravated child...
Attorneys for couple accused in Brandon murder set the table for self-defense case
TAMPA, Fla. - James Llanos and Lizeina Cepeda appeared in Hillsborough County Court Friday for a pretrial detention hearing. The couple, who are husband and wife, are both charged with first-degree murder and armed burglary for a shooting in Brandon at an apartment complex on March 9. The backstory:. That...
First Black female high school principal in Pinellas County shaped generations
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — In 1991, Barbara Shorter surprised her former classmates at Gibbs High School when she became principal of their alma mater. “They used to say, ‘Oh, little Barbara Cubby, who would have thought you would be principal?'” she said, laughing. But Shorter was not...
Teen TikTok Mob Swarms Brandon’s Urban Air, HCSO Pulls The Plug
What started as a busy Saturday at the Urban Air trampoline park in Brandon turned into a crowd-control headache when hundreds of teenagers flooded the venue, prompting staff to close early and call in a sizable Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office response. Deputies ordered the crowd out, moved people into the...
8 arrested after TikTok trend leads to law enforcement being called
BRANDON, Fla. — Eight juveniles were arrested after a TikTok trend led to law enforcement being called to a Brandon trampoline park. It happened last Saturday at the Urban Air located at 179 E. Bloomingdale Ave. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said hundreds of kids "overwhelmed" the business, forcing...
St. Pete novelist Benjamin Kirby creates a vivid Western world
Growing up in suburban Little Rock, Arkansas, Benjamin J. Kirby dreamed of being a novelist. As a teenager he virtually inhaled all the classic Stephen King books, one after the other. “And I thought, this is what I’m going to do,” Kirby remembers. “I want to be Stephen King.”...
Staffing costs rise in St. Petersburg as council weighs $2M increase
St. Petersburg City Council will take up a $2 million staffing increase, a South St. Petersburg land-use change and an early-stage infrastructure partnership when it meets April 2, offering a clear look at how the city is managing daily operations while planning for longer-term capital needs. The meeting begins at...
Skyway Marina District affordable housing funding approved
The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved land acquisition funding Tuesday for a new affordable housing project in St. Petersburg’s Skyway Marina District. Nashville-based Elmington Capital Group’s Skyway Flats development, at 3600 34th Street S., will feature a five-story building with...
Mahaffey Theater and longtime management company prepare for new acts
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It's the end of an era at the Mahaffey Theater, but the CEO of its management company said he wants it to be the start of a new act for the arts in St. Petersburg. "It's bittersweet. I tried to negotiate with the city. We...
