Tampa news stories on Newser

Small Plane Sinks into Gulf; No Sign of Pilot

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:26:01 CDT

Coast Guard crews saw no signs today that the pilot of a small plane survived when it went down in the Gulf of Mexico about three hours after two F-15 fighter jets tried to make contact with him. The plane landed right-side up on the ocean surface and had been...

Trayvon Marchers Hit Streets Nationwide

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 16:40:05 CDT

A weekend of rallies for Trayvon Martin kicked off today with about a thousand marchers at a busy intersection in Tampa, Florida, and hundreds more in Columbia, SC, MSNBC reports. Many in Tampa carried Skittles and wore hoodies, as Martin did on the day he was gunned down by a...

Feds Nab Man in Tampa Bomb Plot

Matt Cantor — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:55:25 CST

Federal agents have arrested a suspected Islamic extremist who allegedly planned to attack Tampa hotspots. Sami Osmakac, 25, a naturalized US citizen from the former Yugoslavia, allegedly plotted attacks using explosives and an assault rifle, the AP reports. Osmakac was reportedly caught buying weapons from an undercover agent; he's due...

Woman Gets in Line 9 Days Before Black Friday

Matt Cantor — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:31:05 CST

Sure, Black Friday isn't for another week, but it's tough to resist the siren call of cheap TVs... A Florida woman and three other families pitched tents in front of a Best Buy in St. Petersburg on Wednesday—yep, 9 days before the big day—and the eager shopper sounds...

Tampa Police: We Stopped School Massacre

John Johnson — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:46:46 CDT

Authorities in Tampa say they busted up a teen's Columbine-level plot to attack his former high school, reports the St. Petersburg Times . Police arrested a 17-year-old expelled student who had a cache of bomb-making materials at his home and a journal detailing his plans to bomb Freedom High School on...

Woman Tweets About Rape

Luke Kelly-Clyne — Sat, 28 May 2011 13:04:08 CDT

Police in Florida had to ask a rape victim to stop tweeting about the attack, reports the St. Petersburg Times . The 24-year-old turned to Twitter about an hour after reporting the assault, which took place in the renovated bus she has been living in and blogging about: "Ybor- 6'2 black...

Man Robs Bank, Hands Out Money

Kevin Spak — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 11:44:05 CDT

Passengers on a Tampa bus got a surprise yesterday, when a homeless man got on and started handing out wads of cash. The source of the loot? A bank the man, 27-year-old Elmer McGuirt, had robbed mere moments earlier, police tell the St. Petersburg Times . McGuirt allegedly walked into the...

Father of Teens Killed by Mom: 'I Don't Hate Julie'

Matt Cantor — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:36:05 CDT

The Tampa mother who allegedly killed her two teens battled depression, her husband tells People . “We were a typical American family,” says Col. Parker Schenecker, who was deployed in Qatar when he heard about his children’s deaths, “but we had a sick member.” Julie Schenecker had “a chronic mental illness...

Florida Judge Will Consult Islamic Law in Suit

John Johnson — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:58:41 CDT

A judge in Florida trying to resolve a convoluted case involving a mosque and four of its fired trustees says he will consult Islamic law to settle one aspect of the case, reports the St. Petersburg Times . The decision is drawing flak from conservative bloggers who say sharia is being...