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Hooters hotties took to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday night, July 8, for a chance to win Miss Hooter’s International. Of the 130 bronzed bodies from all over the world, only one could be most worthy. Sara Hoots, from San Antonio, TX took the crown. The 12th Annual Miss Hooter’s International event wasn’t just a celebration of beauty, but also the 25th anniversary of the first Hooters, which opened in Clearwater, FL in Oct. 1983.

John McCain and Country Music Star John Rich (from the Big & Rich Country music band and Nashville Star TV show) are coming to Panama City next Friday, August 1st. John Rich will perform live at the event, hosted by the Republican Party of Florida. Doors open at 3 PM CDT. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and younger. They can be purchased from the Republican Party of Florida online at: http://www.rpof.org/john-rich-concert. Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to see John Rich perform in this small venue on the water. Bring your family and...

One of three men accused of fatally beating a homeless man as he slept on a park bench pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against the others. The beating of a homeless man in Florida was caught on tape, which helped police crack the case. William Ammons, 20, pleaded guilty Friday to third-degree murder and aggravated battery under an agreement with prosecutors. He'll face between 10 and 20 years in prison. He could have gotten a life sentence if convicted at trial of first degree murder. Police said he and two others fatally beat Norris Gaynor, 45, on January 12,...

Savannah area Starbucks employees and customers have donated over a ton of coffee to the troops over the past two years, and the troops really appreciate it.

One of U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler’s election opponents is seeking state and federal investigations into the growing controversy surrounding his residency in Florida. Former Broward Mayor Ben Graber will hold a press conference at noon at the Broward County Governmental Center. Graber, who is running against Wexler in November, wants investigations into whether Wexler violated Florida and Maryland tax and voter registration law as well as whether he has improperly used congressional housing benefits. Wexler is Florida's only member of Congress who does not own a home in his congressional district. The Democratic congressman has admitted the only house he...

TAMPA -- A man who pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle a box cutter in a book through Tampa International Airport security was sentenced today in federal court to a year's probation. Baines Benjamin Baines Jr., 22, of Largo, faced up to six months in prison. He told Senior U.S. District Judge William J. Castagna that he is "a good kid" who learned from his mistake. "I learned to check my bags more carefully," Baines said. Baines pleaded guilty to trying to smuggle a box cutter onto an airplane through the hollowed out pages of a book in his backpack....

S. Rep. Robert Wexler is Florida’s only member of Congress who does not own a home in his congressional district. The Democratic congressman ostensibly from Boca Raton or Delray Beach is under fire this week after he admitted on national TV that the only house he owns is in Maryland, and that he uses his in-laws’ home in a senior-only community in Delray to meet residency requirements. Wexler said in a statement that such an arrangement was “common.” However, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel survey of Florida’s 25 members of the U.S. House and two in the Senate found that all...

Florida: Obama + 2 Minnesota: Obama + 13 Colorado: Obama +3 This is beginning to worry me.

Something very good has just taken place on a college campus. After a two-year ordeal orchestrated by a group of mutinous faculty members, the Ave Maria School of Law has been given a clean bill of health by the American Bar Association and can continue with its work. I spoke on the campus last autumn and departed burdened by gloom. I feared the mutineers might win. They were the typical professorial grumblers, and such unhappy philistines so often have the upper hand on campuses. Truth be known, I spend very little time on college campuses. The life of the mind...

Knowing of your interest in addressing rising energy prices, I want to share with you some thoughts on the current energy situation. There is so much we can do, and I will continue working hard in Congress to lower the cost of gasoline through effective and safe measures. When I came to Congress 14 years ago one of the many issues I began to work on was the critical issue of energy supply. America’s economy was growing and with it was the demand for fuel. At the same time, nations like China and India were throwing off the shackles of...

Bill O'Reilly Nails Robert WexlerTue Jul 22, 2008 at 09:11:12 PM Bill O'Reilly did a good number on "local" Congressman Robert Wexler tonight. And I think Wexler is in a bit of trouble. You see, the longtime Democratic rep says he lives in Delray Beach and he's required to maintain a residence in his district. But he really lives in Potomac MD. The house in Delray that he calls his "offical residence" is owned by Lawrence and Roslyn Cohen, the parents of Wexler's wife, Laurie. And it's in a restricted over-55 community, which makes it impossible for Wexler and and...

Congressman Robert Wexler is answering questions after a news report alleges that he doesn't reside in his home district of Delray Beach. It is required that he keep a residence in the district he represents, but, according to the report, his primary residence is in Maryland, not Delray Beach. The Delray Beach condo he has claimed as his primary residence is actually owned by his in-laws, in a 55-and-over senior community. When questioned by a Fox News reporter Wexler insists he has done nothing wrong and is following the established guidelines for a residence in his district. Statement by Congressman...

It's unlikely U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler curls up on his mother-in-law's sofa, pundits on the Fox News program The O'Reilly Factor said Tuesday night. Wexler's challenger has accused the six-term congressman of playing a residency shell game, saying Wexler, D-Delray Beach, uses his mother-in-law's address in Delray Beach while flagrantly making his home in a Maryland suburb.

TALLAHASSEE -- The citizen panel empowered to put amendments before voters ended its first meeting in 20 years with a bang Friday, asking Floridians to defy the state Supreme Court by allowing tax money to pay for kids to go to private schools. The proposal to allow the state to pay for private school vouchers was the last constitutional amendment -- one of seven -- the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission agreed to put on the November ballot. If 60 percent of voters agree, the measure will undo a 2006 Supreme Court ruling that threw out the vouchers as unconstitutional....

For nearly two years, the South Florida middle school art teacher forced the boy to have sex in a classroom supply closet. Sometimes, Aaron Mohanlal would call in sick to work, take the boy to his home for sex and drop the seventh-grader back off at school at the end of the day. To keep the abuse secret, Mohanlal bought the 13-year-old a cell phone and created nicknames for their genitalia. When police arrested him, the teacher was caught on hidden video trying to destroy letters threatening the boy if he ever told. Last summer, a Broward County jury convicted...

MIAMI-DADE, Fla. -- A homeowner shot a would-be burglar in Southwest Miami-Dade on Sunday, police said. Police said the man shot was one of two thieves who tried to burglarize a house in the 2400 block of 117th Avenue about 2 a.m. Related Content: Images He was taken to Ryder Trauma Center, where he was listed in stable condition. The second man apparently got away. Neighbors said the house, which sits on the side of the street nearest the interstate, has been hit by thieves before. Police said two children, ages 5 and 9, were inside the house when the...

A fisherman turned drug smuggler turned retired old salt, Floyd Brown claims he can find his way back here – one of the last Florida frontiers – without a compass from anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico. It's a skill, he says, he put to use more than once when he ferried bales of marijuana from Latin America to the Shark River in the 1970s. A direct descendant of the 19th century pirates who first settled here in these 10,000 islands, Brown is like many residents in Everglades City. Together they've managed to engineer a modern day coup in Florida:...

According to the Fox O'Reilly Factor He lists his mother-in-laws' residence in an elderly area that doesn't allow children...Wexler has three teenagers. He actually lives in Maryland and claims to own a home in Florida which is a lie. I wonder where he pays taxes? If at all.

PALMETTO – An 18-year-old Palmetto man is accused of having sex with a 12-year-old girl who he picked up after she ran away from home around noon Sunday. Gavino Guitierez, of 4003 3rd Ave. Blvd. E., told authorities he had sex with the girl three times. He also admitted that he is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, according to a Manatee County Sheriff’s report.The girl returned home at about 6 p.m. Sunday and deputies were waiting to question her about where she had been. The girl said she was with Guitierez and had sex with him, according to a report.Guitierez...

Tony Snow may be gone, but his legacy will live on in The Villages. The Buffalo Scholarship Foundation established a fund in his name to be awarded to graduates of The Villages High School. “The scholarship is just really heartwarming for us. What a wonderful way to commemorate someone’s life and what an example it represents,” said John Davis, a member of the foundation’s board of directors. An anonymous donor contributed $20,000 to the Tony Snow scholarship fund; all scholarships presented from these donations will be done in Snow’s name. The most important part of the scholarship is the significance...

Just days after The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel admitted it was cutting 20% of news staff but not reporting it, The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, another Tribune paper, revealed it was reducing staff under a similar plan. Sun-Sentinel Editor Earl Maucker told E&P Monday that his paper also plans to cut 20% of its news staff -- now at 290 -- by the end of July. He said the cuts are coming through a combination of voluntary and involuntary departures. "A number of people have approached asking for consideration in the last three or four weeks," Maucker said, noting he told...

It's pitiful to read the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You are so pro-Obama that it is sickening. No such thing as an impartial paper.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A demand for special coffee cost a police officer his job on Wednesday. Lt. Major Garvin, a 15-year officer with the Daytona Beach Police Department, was fired, accused by police of intimidating Starbuck's employees. A report from the Daytona Beach Police department said he went to the coffee shop in the Oceanwalk area up to six times a night while on duty demanding to get free specialty coffee or that area wouldn't be protected by police. Police officers are able to get free coffee, but police said he demanded a special type. The police department said...

The domestic violence industry operates under the cloak of secrecy and anonymity, maintaining such policies are necessary to shield victims from their abusers. But every now and then a crack appears in the façade, revealing a sordid panorama of corruption, fraud, and abuse. On February 28, 2007 the Naples, Fla. citizenry opened their morning newspapers to the jolting headline, "CEO Out at Women's Shelter: Investigation into Battery Complaint Prompts Departure." Over the next several months, details would spill out of a woman's rights activist who had evolved into a self-serving "tyrant," as one of her colleagues later described her. The...

The governor of Florida would consider going to court to guarantee his right to permit offshore oil exploration around Florida’s coasts. But Charlie Crist, who has been cited as a possible running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, told the Financial Times that in preference to court action it would be “more productive” for Congress to overturn its ban on offshore drilling. Oil exploration in all but a few sectors of US coastal waters has been prohibited since the 1980s by separate congressional and presidential bans. However, George W. Bush on Monday lifted the White House’s moratorium and called...

WASHINGTON, July 17, 2008 – War fighters from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom are testing new battlefield systems that can discern friend from foe during the “Bold Quest Plus” joint military demonstration conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The demonstration’s purpose is to provide warfighters with combat-identification technologies that maximize mission effectiveness while minimizing the chances of fratricide, John Miller, operations manager for coalition combat identification at U.S. Joint Forces Command, based at Norfolk, Va., said today during a conference-call interview with reporters. The command is sponsoring the demonstration at Eglin, which began July 11. Miller...

More than 300 Palm Beach Post employees have applied for buyouts and all have been accepted, according to an internal memo obtained by the Pulp. Though the newspaper announced it would cut 300 jobs, there will be additional layoffs. According to the memo: The number of applications was more than expected. However, we received too many in some areas and not enough in others, So we still expect to begin a small number of involuntary separations, or layoffs, the week of Aug. 18 in some departments as needed. Thanks to all who applied. You have greatly reduced the number of...

Woman gives judge earful, lands in jail Obscene outburst nets Sarah Muller contempt charge in jury selection By Suevon Lee Star-Banner Published: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 6:30 a.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at 5:35 a.m. OCALA — A Summerfield woman said she blurted without thinking a couple choice words for a county judge during jury selection at the Marion County Courthouse Monday morning—ones which had landed her in jail by the end of the day. ALAN YOUNGBLOOD/STAR-BANNER Sarah E. Muller comments on her case during an interview at the Marion County Jail. click to enlarge Judge R....

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A woman accused of not reporting her daughter missing for five weeks refused to answer a judge's question of where her daughter was in a bizarre missing person case that continues to frustrate investigators. Casey Anthony, 22, was taken into custody Wednesday after her daughter's grandparents called Orange County sheriff's deputies over concerns about the well-being of Caylee Marie Anthony, 2. Detectives said when they contacted Casey Anthony it was determined that she apparently never told anyone that Caylee has been missing for more than a month. Thursday, Judge John Jordan asked Anthony where her daughter...

Media General Inc (MEG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported a second-quarter loss on Thursday, hurt by a severance charge and a 17 percent drop in newspaper advertising revenue, and said it would take a writedown of as much as $550 million. The publisher of the Tampa Tribune and Richmond Times-Dispatch posted a second-quarter preliminary loss of $129,000, or a penny a share, compared with net income of $5.1 million, or 22 cents a share, in the second quarter last year. The results do not include the effects of the expected non-cash writedown. Revenue fell to $204.8 million from $228.2...

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. -- About 30 fish were spotted "walking" through a Florida neighborhood, shocking homeowners who said they've never seen anything like it. "I was like, 'No way there's fish in the street,'" homeowner Dianna Fernandez said. "And I kept going further and further and seeing fish everywhere -- in driveways. I've never seen anything like it." The walking catfish were spotted in the road near a Pinellas Park subdivision Tuesday. The fish used their pectoral fins to walk or shuffle around the streets. Video showed the fish moving through the neighborhood. A scientist with the Florida Fish and...

BRADENTON - A 94-year-old man whose arrest in a prostitution sting here caused an international buzz will not be prosecuted. A judge ruled Tuesday that Frank Milio was a victim of entrapment. Milio, who has dementia, was unable to get into a care facility while his case was pending. The undercover Manatee County Sheriff's Office detective on the street corner that afternoon in November took 30 steps to go chat with Milio, who authorities say had honked his car horn at the woman to get her attention. Milio, who turned 94 this month, stopped his car in a parking lot...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) --There are three billboards across Orlando that all contain the same controversial image. Each shows the Twin Towers burning and read ‘Please Don’t Vote for a Democrat’. At a time when people are trying to forget the Twin Towers on fire, the billboards attempt to remind us of the War on Terrorism. It turns out the bill boards direct people to a website which promotes a political song, written by a Saint Cloud resident Mike Meehan, who also has his own music video. The musician and business owner is making a musical statement...

AMITE — Former Hosanna pastor Louis D. Lamonica will not face charges that he sexually abused a 2-year-old girl at his upcoming aggravated rape trial, Assistant District Attorney Don Wall said in court Monday. That case will be severed from the rape charges involving Lamonica’s two sons, ages 11 and younger at the time of the alleged abuse, on which Lamonica will be tried next month in 21st Judicial District Court. Lamonica, 49, of Holden, is among the seven members of the former Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula indicted in 2005 in the abuse of the three children. His trial is...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A controversial billboard in Orange County has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat." The man who paid for the ad says he's trying to help Republicans, but officials with both political parties are calling the billboard inappropriate. There are billboards up and down busy Orange Blossom Trail, but this at John Young Parkway (see map) one sticks out. "Just looking at it, I'm not thinking about Democrat or Republican, I'm thinking about the twin towers and all the people killed," resident Mary Anderson told Eyewitness...

On the surface, political life in Cuban Miami seems unchanged. Little Havana is still partly a Disney version of a displaced Cuba and partly a genuine community hub, where families who have long since left for suburbia still come for nostalgic weekend lunches. At the Versailles Restaurant, the community newspapers preaching no compromise with Castro are all that are on offer. For almost four decades, the Versailles has been an obligatory stop for Washington politicians courting the Cuban-American community, visits that, as photographs in the restaurant attest, have often involved putting on a white guayabera, the four-pocket dress shirt that...

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A controversial billboard in Orange County has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, "Please Don't Vote for a Democrat." The man who paid for the ad says he's trying to help Republicans, but officials with both political parties are calling the billboard inappropriate. There are billboards up and down busy Orange Blossom Trail, but this at John Young Parkway (see map) one sticks out. "Just looking at it, I'm not thinking about Democrat or Republican, I'm thinking about the twin towers and all the people killed," resident Mary Anderson told Eyewitness...

Here are their statements about President Bush's decision to lift the presidential ban on offshore oil drilling. U.S. Rep. Ron Klein: “I am extremely disappointed in the President’s decision to lift the Executive Ban on offshore oil drilling..... (snip) U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: The price at the pump is hurting many families in this country today, but drilling on the coast is not the answer.... (snip) U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler: “Offshore drilling is nothing more than a snake oil solution peddled by President Bush and Senator McCain for political gain....

Catholics consider the consecrated wafer, the Eucharist, among the most sacred objects in the world and believe it becomes the 'Body of Christ' through transubstantiation. Student Government Senator Webster Cook filed the hazing charges with University of Central Florida administrators shortly after he admitted violating church rules by bringing the Eucharist home from Mass on June 29, then holding it hostage for one week in a plastic bag before returning it. Cook said his hazing complaint cited a UCF anti-hazing policy banning the forced consumption of any food in which the initiation or admission into or affiliation with a University...

TAMPA - A former University of South Florida student will be sentenced today for holding a rifle at a shooting range for less than three minutes. Karim Moussaoui was convicted in April of a federal weapons charge of possessing a firearm in violation of his student visa. The Moroccan native and engineering student had gone to the Shoot Straight Tampa shooting range with a friend, Youssef Megahed, last summer and posed for pictures holding a .22-caliber rifle Megahed had rented. Because Megahed is a legal, permanent resident of the United States, he was allowed to posses and rent the weapon....

ALBANY, GA (WALB) - A Florida woman armed with some puppy love is on her way to lift some soldier's spirits. Kathy Alexander and her 13 pooches hope to bring warm fuzzy feelings to wounded soldiers across the nation. The dogs have been providing pet therapy to nursing homes for over 10 years, but in the next month they will be traveling to military bases across the country. Their first stop is Fort Benning where they hope to bring smiles to the men and woman serving our country. -snip-

Census Bureau says New Orleans is the fastest-growing large city in the nation, recovering from being wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- After being pummeled by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans is showing signs of recovery - ranking as the fastest-growing large city in the nation, according to a government report released Thursday. The Census Bureau said New Orleans' population rose 13.8%, to 239,124, in the year ended July 1, 2007. That was a faster growth rate than any other city with a population of 100,000 or more.

Few Americans paid much attention last year when Cuban President Fidel Castro announced China would help explore potentially large oil reserves off Cuba's northwest coast - not far from the Florida Keys. "We sit here watching China exploit a valuable energy resource within eyesight of the U.S. coast," said. Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican. "I think the American public would be shocked - as this country is trying to reduce dependence on Middle East oil - that countries like China are realizing this energy resource." Thus there has been considerable excitement about fields off the northwest Cuban coast that...

Former White House press secretary Tony Snow died Saturday after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 53. His father, Jim Snow, 76, who lives in The Villages in Lake County, talked about his son with Sentinel reporter Gabrielle Finley. "I saw him in the hospital, spent four or five days with him. I think the hardest thing is he looked like he was making a recovery on Thursday. "His sister called me Thursday and said he had been able to sit up for about 15 minutes and they had reduced the amount of oxygen he had been on....

A former youth pastor accused of secretly taping Bible study students changing clothes in his Ellenton home has pleaded no contest to nine counts of voyeurism. Matthew C. Porter, 31, of Ellenton, is scheduled be sentenced on the misdemeanor charges at the Manatee County Judicial Center on Aug. 21. He faces up to nine years in prison if sentenced consecutively on the charges, Assistant State Attorney Erica Arend said Friday. The maximum sentence for misdemeanor voyeurism is one year in jail. Porter resigned from Bethel Baptist Church after admitting he secretly videotaped his students ages 12-16, according to the Manatee...

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- If you need more proof that New Smyrna Beach is the shark bite capital of the world, a local photographer has it, three amazing photos with eyewitnesses to back it. Just as thousands of surfers and swimmers are heading to the beach this weekend, there's more evidence they aren't the only ones in the water. It happened in the blink of an eye, but some people told Eyewitness News they still don't believe the tale of a wave-jumping shark in New Smyrna Beach even though it was caught on camera. "He said, 'I hope I...

OCALA – Firing a .357-caliber handgun until it was empty, an Ocala woman chased two intruders from her home in the 3800 block of Southeast 68th Street on Wednesday morning. Later Wednesday, Marion County sheriff's detectives had one home invasion suspect in custody and were looking for the second. Aaron Scott Beardsley, 25, was charged with armed home invasion robbery. Deputies were still looking for a heavy-set Hispanic male, about 6-foot-1 or 6-feet-2, who was wearing black shorts at the time, a dark T-shirt and a bandana. Sheriff's Detective Art King, in his report, gave the following account of the...

MELBOURNE, Fla., July 11, 2008 – Army Sgts. Daniel and Timothy DeKoeyer have been together all their lives. Army Sgts. Daniel (left) and Timothy DeKoeyer prepare to deploy with the Florida Army National Guard's 715th Military Police Company in Melbourne, Fla., July 5, 2008. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Thomas Kielbasa  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. As civilians, the twin brothers serve together as police officers in Deland, Fla., and now the 22-year-old citizen-soldiers have volunteered to deploy together to Afghanistan for a year-long military police mission. They left for training July 5 with the Florida...

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is on John McCain's vice-presidential short list. Talk-radio host Glenn Beck has predicted that Mr. McCain would tap Mr. Crist. Mr. McCain would be hard pressed to make a worse choice. True, Mr. McCain won Florida's primary on the wave of Mr. Crist's late endorsement, which Mr. McCain rode to shore as the Republican presidential candidate. The Florida governor is especially popular in the state's liberal precincts, and he likely would deliver the Sunshine State in November.

A disabled foster child whose liver is failing has been removed from a Central Florida hospital's organ-transplant waiting list because hospital administrators fear the state's shaky child-welfare system cannot ensure he has a permanent home in which to recover. Shands Hospital in Gainesville removed the boy, 15, from a waiting list for organ recipients after administrators determined the boy's unstable living conditions make him a poor candidate for a transplant, said Nick Cox, the Department of Children & Families regional administrator in the Tampa Bay area, where the boy lives. The state's next move: appeal to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital,...