Hanover straightened, and moved to a table littered with rusty hardware. He surveyed the implements, then pulled a pack of Silk Cuts from his shirt pocket and held it out to his guest in a gesture; his guest, bound to an old school chair in the center of room, shook his head and smiled. Hanover shrugged and lit a cigarette for himself.
He selected a pair of pliers from the tray, and ran the mandibles of its nose through the lighter's flame. "Now then," he told the captive through the smoke, "let's find out exactly how much you know about Monday."
The city of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay Rays have reached an agreement that will allow the baseball team to explore potential stadium sites in Tampa. Does anybody else have that feeling you get just after you've offered to buy a friend a drink and come back from the bathroom to find there's a round for the house on your tab?
During an educational event at the White House, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to write a computer program. Surprisingly, he opted not to mirror his relationship with Congress by creating an endless loop.
Conflicts between concurrent indictments during her trial have led to a reassessment of "Tampa tax fraud queen" Rashia Wilson's 21-year prison sentence. Because God forbid someone who admitted to illegally possessing firearms as a felon and stealing $3 million through identity theft — and crowing about it on her social media profiles — find out what it feels like to be exploited by someone else gaming the system.
A Leon County judge officially validated allegations that Rick Scott violated Florida state law by withholding public records, in failing to produce emails from a personal address for more than 18 months. "We would've just admitted we had them and crowed about how we're above the law," said a spokesman for Scott, "but that would've seemed rude."
And finally, an undercover human trafficking operation in Pasco County resulted in 61 arrests, including, of all people, a PGA Tour instructor who said he used social media to hook up multiple prostitutes. That one of the alleged traffickers attempted to pay off an undercover cop with a $30 winner scratch-off lottery ticket — and had a meth pipe in his possession when arrested — pretty much says it all.
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2014.