Tamara Lush

TAMPA, Fla. — The Kosovo-born American citizen accused of plotting bomb attacks around Tampa was a loner who had grown increasingly radical in his Muslim faith and publicly railed against Jews and Christians in videos he posted on the Internet, according to relatives and friends.

TAMPA, Fla. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told an enthusiastic crowd of Hispanic Republicans on Friday that they are “living proof” of the benefits of legal immigration, but said he wanted to toughen enforcement on illegal immigration.

The Inlet House condo complex in Fort Pierce, Fla., was once the kind of place the 55-and-older set aspired to. It was affordable. The pool and clubhouse were tidy, the lawns freshly snipped. Residents, push-carts in tow, walked to the beach, the bank, the beauty parlor, the cinema and the supermarket. In post-crash America, this was a dreamy little spot. Especially on a fixed income.

But that was Inlet House before the rats started chewing through the toilet seats in vacant units and sewage started seeping from the ceiling. Before condos that were worth $79,000 four years ago sold for as little as $3,000. And before the homeowners' association levied $6,000 assessments on everyone -- and then foreclosed on seniors who couldn't pay the association bill, even if they didn't owe the bank a dime.

Normally, it's the bankers who go after delinquent homeowners. But in communities governed by the mighty homeowners' association, as the sour economy leaves more people unable to pay their fees, it's neighbor versus neighbor.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- A teenage girl who became famous after hiccuping uncontrollably for weeks has been charged with luring a man to a house where he was robbed and fatally shot.

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. -- With a use-it-or-lose-it deadline just months away, communities have spent less than half of $4 billion available under a federal program to redevelop abandoned and foreclosed properties.

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. -- Across the so-called Sunshine State, oranges and strawberries are freezing, icicles are hanging off palm fronds, and iguanas paralyzed by the cold are falling out of trees.