Local News from North America

Some people like to cast off their worldly worries by going shopping. Women call it retail therapy. Others like to garden and talk to their plants. Still others pound drums in a rock 'n' roll band.

The Nov. 4 ballot just got a lot less interesting for Florida voters.

A rash of copper thefts including backflow preventers and air-conditioning units was reported Saturday in Manatee County, according to the sheriff's office.

Some teens spent the first Saturday in September making new friends while learning the basics of teamwork in problem solving at the first event of the nine-month Junior Leadership Manatee course.

The future of Palmetto Elementary School goes up for debate Monday.

A roundabout near 15th Street West and Manatee Avenue West. Keeping Manatee and Sixth avenues as one-way streets, but with fewer lanes. Establishing a downtown trolley or bus circulator service.

With Monday being the deadline for school superintendent applications, the Manatee County school district has received 19 résumés from all around the country.

A former Manatee County jail inmate has filed a federal lawsuit against former Sheriff Charlie Wells and two jailers, contending the jailers illegally opened his legal mail last year.

A super-sharp Earth-imaging satellite that can detail an area the size of a baseball diamond's home plate from space has been launched into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the Central California coast.

Manatee County will commemorate the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001:

The plan was to leave the pickup truck at home and use the bicycle for a day.

Manatee residents should stay tuned to the news as Hurricane Ike makes its way through the Gulf of Mexico.

AMI, New Orleans building rules differ

Family members and dignitaries lined the tarmac at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario on Saturday evening as the bodies of three young soldiers killed in Afghanistan arrived back on Canadian soil.

Ohio State struggles with Ohio, and BYU gets a break against Washington. USC and UCLA had the weekend off, but it was all work and no play Saturday for the schools the Trojans and Bruins play next.

Watching parades when she was younger, Denise Evers would see veterans marching with tears in their eyes.

Manatee County will commemorate the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001:

High gas prices, the push to go green and a desire to get fit are leading many people to strap on helmets and straddle a bicycle to commute to work.

The plan was to leave the pickup truck at home and use the bicycle for a day.