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TAMPA (2009-11-19) Hillsborough County Public Schools will receive a $100 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to overhaul teacher placements within schools. Co-founder Melinda Gates says the grant will create a system for identifying effective teachers and placing them in every classroom.
TAMPA (2009-11-19) Thursday was the Great American Smokeout, and a special kind of van is rolling through Florida with a message to keep kids off cigarettes. It stopped at the USF Medical Clinic, which marked the day by banning smoking on its part of the Tampa campus.
TAMPA (2009-11-18) Organizers of a drive to change the way Florida draws up its Congressional and legislative districts say they've got enough petitions to place it on next year's ballot. Now, they've got to convince the voters that it's worthwhile.
TAMPA (2009-11-18)Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai will be sworn in this week for another five year term. Meanwhile, Senior Master Sergeant Rex Temple came across one of Karzsai's predecessors. The Tampa airman was out on a routine mission with his Afghan army counterpart when they came across the gravesite of a former president of Afghanistan.
CLEARWATER (2009-11-18)If you happened to see a fire engine parked outside a school Wednesday most likely the crew was not on an emergency call. It was the Great American Teach-In where professionals, craftsmen and business people tell kids about their jobs. At Belcher Elementary in Clearwater, there was a fire engine and a horse of a different color.
TAMPA (2009-11-17)Law enforcement officers, prosecutors and mental health experts are calling on Florida legislators to spend more money on drug treatment, re-entry programs and diversion strategies instead of expanding state prisons. That’s a bottom line message from a two day “Smart Justice Summit” in Tampa.
TAMPA (2009-11-12)The hand-selected board members who lead Florida’s university system, state colleges and public schools met together for the first time Thursday at Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter. Their goal is to create a unified system for students from pre-kindergarten through post graduate and to toughen standards.
LAND O'LAKES (11-11-09) The problem of homeless veterans isn't new. But the downturn in the economy has meant a lot more vets don't have a roof over their heads. A first-ever event held by a new homeless resource center in Pasco County is giving some homeless vets a helping hand.
TAMPA (2009-11-11) The troubles that can lead to homelessness such as mental health problems and job loss are not lost on Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki who said, “We know that veterans lead the nation in homelessness and depression and substance abuse and suicides.”
LAKELAND (2009-11-10) State Sen. Paula Dockery formally announced her candidacy for governor Tuesday night at a rally in her home town of Lakeland. She decried "business as usual" in the Republican Party.
TAMPA (2009-11-10) Near the site of Tampa’s first military post, Fort Brooke, a covenant was signed cementing the partnership between the City of Tampa and military leaders from the various commands at MacDill Air Force Base and the Coast Guard.
TAMPA (2009-11-09) Even though House Democrats scored an historic victory by passing a comprehensive health care bill, Florida's senior Senator says it may not hold up in the Senate. Democrat Bill Nelson also brought his campaign against oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to Tampa business leaders this week.
Local headlines
From Tampabay.com:
A draft report from a committee examining the possibility of a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays has drawn the ire of St. Petersburg officials. An e-mail from the city's development director to the ABC Coalition takes issue with several points in the report, including the idea of considering stadium sites in Hillsborough County. The committee votes on the draft report Friday afternoon.
A Panama City high schooler decided he didn't want to attend his regular school, Mosley High, on Tuesday. But apparently he didn't want to miss out on the experience, either. So he took a seat in nearby Bay High instead....
From TBO.com:
Pinellas Sheriff's narcotics investigators are looking for a man they say slipped away from a work release program and resumed the activity that got him in the program in the first place – passing fraudulent prescriptions for painkillers.
Health officials remain unable to say when doses of the vaccine will reach an increasingly frustrated public.
From HeraldTribune.com:
ANTHONY CORMIER
Sarasota police officers, union representatives and media members were not the only people to attend this morning’s news conference at the Sarasota Police Department.
A group of homeless men showed up to ask City Manager Robert Bartolotta why their population was not represented on a newly-formed civilian advisory panel.
By JASON WITZ
A small plane crash-landed into a wooded area of Charlotte Harbor Friday morning, likely as a result of engine failure, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said.
No one was injured in the crash, reported at 11:36 a.m. near Midway Boulevard and Lauzon Avenue.
From TheLedger.com:
By BRANDT MERRITT
THE LEDGER
Two Bartow High School employees were officially reprimanded and another was verbally warned for their roles in discovering an ineligible football player at Kathleen HIgh School last month, but the controversy appears to be far from over.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DINWIDDIE, Va. | One person was killed Friday when a tour bus belonging to entertainer Miley Cyrus overturned, but the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” star wasn’t on board, Virginia State Police said.
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When the Marines of "America's Battalion" first arrived in Afghanistan, they were eager to get into the fight against the Taliban. Now, as they wrap up their seven-month deployment — and after the loss of a dozen comrades — they see warfare in a different light.
Two children and a policeman were among those killed in the blast, which wounded at least 23 others when the motorcyclist detonated the explosives in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, officials said.
Another man has been indicted on terrorism charges in a federal investigation into the recruitment of Minnesota Somalis to fight in Somalia.
BBC World News
Easyjet apologises after fashion photographs shot at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin were published in its in-flight magazine.
A tearful Oprah Winfrey announces her talk show will end in September 2011 after 25 years on the air.
Around 200 football ties, including three in the Champions League, are part of a match-fixing probe, German officials say.
