20060226 - Runners head out across the Brorein Street bridge before
dawn just after the start of Sunday's Bank of America marathon through
downtown Tampa. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060226 - Runners cross the Platt Street bridge and descend into the
tunnel under the Convention Center past the 8-mile mark of Sunday's
Bank of America marathon. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060226 - Kees Braymeyer huddles up to keep warm with fellow costumed
actors Marianna Gladden (left) and Terri Balchen on Sunday during
opening weekend at the 27th annual Bay Area Renaissance Festival, held
adjacent to the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa. The festival
continues every weekend through April 9. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060225 - The Storm's Lynarise Elpheage breaks up a pass in the
endzone intended for the Wranglers' Kevin Nickerson in the first
quarter. The Tampa Bay Storm defeated the Austin Wranglers 58-48 on
Saturday night at the St. Pete Times Forum. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060222 - Cherie Wilburn waits on the back of an ambulance with her
kids, Chanel Dingle, 2, and Hassan Fisher, 3, outside of St. Joseph's
Emergency Center on Wednesday. Dingle was treated at St. Joseph's
Children's Emergency Center for a stomach virus. Flu season has packed
Bay area hospitals the past couple of weeks and increased wait times.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060223 - WFLA's Gayle Sierens emcees the Hillsborough Teacher of the
Year Awards at the Convention Center. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg
Times)
20060222 - Jesuit High School outfielder Ryan Lockwood, a nationally
ranked player, is headed to the University of Florida next year.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060222 - "It wasn't supposed to happen like this," said Loretta
Simone, mother of murder victim Sonya Simone, 37, holding her only
picture of her daughter in her Town 'N Country home. Sonya was allegedly
killed by her ex-boyfriend, who then called police to report it.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060222 - Sergio Gonzalez, of Tampa, waves the Mexican flag along
with several hundred other demonstrators along Dale Mabry Hwy on
Wednesday afternoon. The group gathered to voice their opposition to
House Resolution 4437, a national bill that would strengthen
immigration laws by criminalizing undocumented immigration status and
the assisting of undocumented immigrants. The bill would also grant
state and local authorities inherent authority to enforce immigation
laws among several other provisions. The demonstration was organized
by Tampa brothers Abel and Hector Castrejon who woke up this morning
and wanted to voice their opposition to the bill. They left work and
called a few people. After the event made it onto the radio, hundreds
of people showed up to their surprise. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060217 - President George W. Bush delivers a lecture on the global
war on terror in front of a select audience at the Port of Tampa.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060217 - President Bush arrives at MacDill AFB aboard Air Force One,
blurred by the haze. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060217 - President Bush boards Air Force One to depart Tampa. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060117 - Consultant Mario Garcia, one of the nation's leading
experts on newspaper design, meets with editors of the Wall Street
Journal about their upcoming redesign at his new Tampa offices. As
U.S. newspapers struggle to maintain their audience and profitability,
Garcia is increasingly asked to develop a newspaper design which can
meet the needs of readers in the information age. (Brian Cassella /
St. Petersburg Times)
20060211 - A band of rain clouds makes its way over the Florida State
Fair on Saturday, sending some visitors scrambling for the exits while
others took refuge in the expo hall. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg
Times)
20060211 - Chuck Veit, of Leesburg, FL, and his Capuchin monkey Toya
make their rounds at the Florida State Fair together on Saturday
afternoon. Toya is trained to collect quarters from fascinated
passersby and put them in her apron, then shake their hand and tip her
hat. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060209 - Staff Sgt. Kenneth Brandt, 2nd Lt. Jarrid Perusse, and
Airman Andres Punto practice their positions before performing the
colorguard ceremony at a girls basketball game at Blake High School.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060216 - Demolition work continues Thursday on the old Strand
Theatre building, located at 200 Twiggs Street in downtown Tampa. The
historic building is part of the block that includes the former Maas
Brothers department store that closed in 1991 and is being
redeveloped. The Strand Theatre - which was built in 1915 and featured
"air-cooling" - preceded its more famous neighbor the Tampa Theatre
which opened in 1926. The older movie house struggled financially and
changed owners before closing in 1929. The building later became part
of the Maas Brothers department store complex and its interior was
remodeled significantly from its theatre days. The city looked into
making a historic designation on the buildings to save them, but they
were in serious disrepair after years of neglect, said Dennis
Fernandez, the city's historic preservation manager. Atlanta-based
Wood Partners wants to build a 33-story, 450-unit condo tower with
12,000 square feet of retail and commercial space on the site. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
The Strand Theatre at 200 Twiggs Street in downtown Tampa, circa 1930.
(Burgert Bros. Collection / State Library and Archives of Florida)
20060215 - Carol Gomez sits with her triplets Julia, Max and Robert
Gomez at a prayer vigil for her husband and their dad Jerry Gomez at
Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church in South Tampa on Wednesday evening.
Robert Gomez was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphona in 1998 and had
a bone marrow transplant to save his life in 2005. His condition has
worsened recently, and doctors will perform a brain biopsy Thursday to
confirm their diagnosis of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy
(PML). If the diagnosis is correct, doctors have given him only weeks
to live. The triplets celebrated their eighth birthday Wednesday.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060204 - Evan Johnston, of Tampa, reads from his Bible while
preaching along 7th Avenue in Ybor City on Friday night. Every Friday
and Saturday night, the scene outside Ybor City's Seventh Avenue is
the same: club-hopping teenagers, drunk twentysomethings, half-naked
women -- and Bible-toting, scripture-shouting Christians. For the last
year, street evangelists with the Tampa-based Biblical Research Center
have paced this entertainment district preaching and teaching. Most
visitors to Ybor ignore them. Others hurl four-letter words or spit at
them. Few leave saved. They say the people who frequent Ybor are
hungry. Spiritually hungry. From 11 p.m. until 2 a.m., evangelists try
to feed them. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060127 - Krystal Hampton and German Castro share a kiss along 7th
Avenue in Ybor City on Friday night in the shadow of street preachers
who work the same strip many evenings. Behind them, Josiah Craft, 15,
the son of evangelist Larry Craft who was also out preaching, holds a
sign that reads "Death is Hell without Jesus." (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060214 - Cambridge's Caitlyn DeBoer (21) launches a shot in the lane
during the third quarter in the Lancers semifinal loss to Sarasota
Christian. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060212 - Terry Stuck, of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, clims down off of
his sailboat "Baron" on Sunday afternoon at the Davis Island Yacht
Club. Stuck and his crew of three came down from Michigan for the J/29
Midwinters sail boat race scheduled to be be held on Monday in Tampa
Bay. Stuck, the skipper of the boat based at the Crescent Sail Yacht
Club, was filling in some blisters and other minor damage from the
long drive down. Stuck and other participants in the race from
out-of-town had some unfortunate luck with the weather though, finding
themselves in Tampa on one of the coldest days of the year. "I guess I
can be blamed for this," Stuck said. "I must have had it hooked onto
the trailer." (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060211 - Jesus Dorta, 21, of Tampa leads the throngs of Ybor City
visitors screaming for beads along 7th Avenue during a rainy Krewe of
Sant'Yago Illuminated Knight Parade. ( Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg
Times)
20060211 - Rain didn't dampen the spirits of these Ybor City visitors
who were eager to show their stuff and earn some beads along 7th
Avenue during the Krewe of Sant'Yago Illuminated Knight Parade,
marking the end of the Gasparilla season. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060209 - Clearwater High School cheerleaders watch their girls
basketball team win a playoff game over host Blake HS. (Brian Cassella
/ St. Petersburg Times)
20060204 - Suzanne Cranmer, 24, of Lakeland, takes a shot during her
bachelorette party on the balcony of the Adobe Gila's bar in the
Centro Ybor complex overlooking 7th Avenue. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060208 - Jamie Quintana, of Tampa, brushes his 19-year-old horse
Danielle before going for a ride at the Turkey Creek Stables in Plant
City just as the sun was setting Wednesday evening. Quintana also
works part-time as a blacksmith and sometimes makes horseshoes at the
stables. He was there with his wife and son, Shannon and Dakota
Quintana, and Shannon's cousin's family to take turns riding around
the grounds as a pleasant afternoon turned quickly into a chilly
evening. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060208 - Jonathan Sheffield, 8, shuts the gate at Turkey Creek
Stables. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060207 - Nitya Khemlani, a senior at the University of Tampa, gets
ready to cover up her sculpture of a gorilla skull Tuesday afternoon.
Khemlani and other UT students in the beginning sculpture class said
they had been working on their pieces for several weeks and were
finally finishing up. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060207 - Tampa Prep's Ryan Griffin recovers on the turf after going
down hard in a collision and then taking an apparent hit to the head.
He scored on a the resulting penalty kick. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060204 - Pants and shoes covered in blood sit outside of the
victim's car in a gas station at 34th and Hillsborough Ave on Saturday
night after a drive-by shooting. The victim was shot twice, in the
face and shoulder, while driving at MLK and 34th and then drove about
20 blocks to the gas station where the car sat. (Brian Cassella /
St. Petersburg Times)
20060204 - Waves crash into the shore in between the Gandy Bridge and
the Friendship Trail in South Tampa on Saturday afternoon. After
Friday's storm that brought 12 inches of rain and flooded parts of the
Bay Area, heavy winds kicked up a heavy surf and kept fishermen busy
along the bridge. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060127 - Traffic cruises along 7th Avenue in Ybor City on a Friday
night while pedestrians wait to cross. The street has been reopened to
vehicle traffic for several months now, and police say crime is down
with less space for people to congregate. (Brian Cassella / St.
Petersburg Times)
20060127 - Sammy Ware, 11, looks down on the Remington Rough
Stock Company rodeo at the Crosstown Arena from the announcer's booth
on Friday night. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060127 - The crowd watches the action during the rodeo which
features many local riders, some who hope to make it big. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060127 - Courtney Schuck lets out a yell while she gets ready to
bring the American flag out for the singing of the national anthem.
(Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060127 - Michael Bell sits by the fire during the rodeo. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
20060201 - A lizard basks in the last rays of sunlight. (Brian
Cassella / St. Petersburg Times)
