In January 1898, The Tampa Tribune noted that the battleship USS Maine had docked in Key West. Sailors enjoyed the tropical winter weather, swimming off the Fort Taylor pier and playing baseball against cigar factory teams. ...more

October 25, 2009

Longtime local cigar maker Wally Reyes will begin building a cigar today that he hopes will be the longest ever. ...more

October 8, 2009

When you hear Darwin Leon talk about his art, it sounds so simple. You can feel his passion for the masters. Yet, when you see his work, it is so complex. Darwin Leon describes his art as "classical art of masters in a contemporary mode of expression". ...more

November 12, 2008

Manny Machin, a well-known Tampa defense lawyer who had been a star witness in a local corruption trial in the 1990s, died Monday following a battle with cancer. He was 50. ...more

October 9, 2008

Gustav slammed into Cuba's tobacco-growing western tip as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane Saturday, and Cubans and Americans scrambled to flee the storm as it roared toward the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans. ...more

August 31, 2008

Cuba on Wednesday accused U.S. diplomats of instigating opponents of the communist-run government to hold public protests to mark American Independence Day. ...more

July 3, 2008

Cuba on Monday accused America's top diplomat in the country of ferrying funds to dissidents on the island from a man it characterizes as a terrorist. ...more

May 20, 2008

Cuba's gay community celebrated unprecedented openness - and political alliances - with a government-backed campaign against homophobia Saturday. ...more

May 18, 2008

Cuba announced a major shake-up of its troubled farm sector on May Day, shifting control of the island's farms from officials at the Agriculture Ministry to more than 150 local delegations. ...more

May 2, 2008

The engine sound was especially comforting as we watched the lights of Havana, Cuba. First they appeared out of the darkness that made up sea and sky as tiny specks of light in the distance. From those flickering distant lights we were soon flying over the bright lights below of a tourist mecca belonging to Fidel Castro. The route was from Miami to Panama, to refuel, and then on to Lima, Peru. The cargo was telephone equipment. The aircraft was an old military C-46 cargo plane. The tail of that plane had patches on it covering bullet holes. The bullet holes were from that very airplane having taken part in the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. ...more

October 4, 2007