Local News from
Lakewood Ranch

Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio has lined up a new job for when he leaves the Legislature in November.

A teenager shown on a video coaxing his 2- and 4-year-old nephews into smoking marijuana was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison.

At least 15 judges and lawyers have applied to replace two of the most conservative members of the Florida Supreme Court.

CSX is resuming its annual meeting in Jacksonville, but it is uncertain what will be on the agenda.

The father of central Florida boy whose mother killed herself after the child went missing has been arrested on drug and driving charges.

Documents show a second high-level official with the Manatee County School District reviewed the 2007 felony arrest of Lakewood Ranch High School quarterback Timothy Brooks.

Wendy Raulerson was emptying boxes and awaiting the first customer at the Florida Farm Bureau's new office on Tara Boulevard in East Manatee.

Gil Meche promised John Buck he'd pitch a good game if he could shave the catcher's head.

Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, "Math class is tough!" girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys. In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.

A convicted spammer fatally shot his wife and young daughter in an apparent murder-suicide Thursday while being sought after escaping prison last weekend, authorities said.

Although June sales data were not available from the Manatee Association of Realtors, Sarasota's numbers alone showed an improvement in area existing home sales.

A small, metal box not much larger than a Rubik's Cube sitting on Chuck Schofield's desk is setting the industry standard in aviation.

EAST MANATEE - Marvin Kaplan and Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, are holding onto Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex and Linger Lodge.

The grandmother of a missing 2-year-old Orlando girl told an emergency dispatcher that a car driven by the girl's mother smelled like there had been a dead body inside, according to recordings of 911 calls released Thursday.

All-Star games are exhibitions.

It was nothing more than a routine throw David Earley made during a workout.

Manatee High's football team will play the first few weeks of the season without Mike Blakely.

A former student shot three people Thursday in a computer room at a Phoenix community college, injuring one of them critically, authorities said. The gunman fled but a suspect was arrested nearby.

BRADENTON - The Manatee County Planning Commission has approved the concept of an urban center in the Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, north of State Road 70.