A Staff Report Best-selling author and world-renowned birder Kenn Kauffman will be among the keynote speakers at this year’s Florida Birding & Nature Festival, Oct. 17-20. The festival, headquartered at the Hillsborough Community College campus in Brandon, coincides with the peak migration of more than…
Read More Florida Birding & Nature Festival scheduled
By BOB D’ANGELO RIVERVIEW − The Silver Ring Cafe opened early during the first week of September, but not for customers, who would have jumped at the chance to get an early start gorging on Cuban sandwiches, deviled crab cakes or stuffed potatoes. The longtime…
Read More Silver Ring Cafe’s ingredients for success include helping others
By RICK MAYER Donations for Bahamas relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Dorian are being accepted at the Salty Shamrock Irish Pub in Apollo Beach. There is a tent for donations outside the pub, at 6186 N. U.S. 41, just south of Apollo Beach…
Read More Donations for Bahamas hurricane relief accepted at Salty Shamrock
By GEOFF FOX APOLLO BEACH – Enter Amy Abdnour’s office and Nina, her assistant, will calmly show you where to sit. Nina will command your attention until she decides to saunter across the rug and find a comfortable spot to lie down. Abdnour is a…
Read More Meet Nina, a ‘super chill’ therapy dog for young and old
By BOB D’ANGELO RIVERVIEW − It is not a stretch to call Jean Cummins and Pat Burriss the golden girls of booksellers in south Hillsborough County. The sisters, now in their 70s and Riverview residents for more than 60 years, have operated Bookworm Used Books…
Read More Riverview sisters living a ‘dream’ running Bookworm bookstore
By PAUL CATALA RUSKIN − For 24 years, John Lawson worked for a Sarasota-based beer distribution company, five days a week. But 13 years ago, Lawson and his wife, Terrie, decided to go green thumbs up, and he went from area supervisor to seeds, sun…
Read More Ruskin couple’s fresh idea grows into successful hydroponic farm
By TIFFANI SHERMAN Shannon Dudley is only 22 years old and living her dream. “I’ve always had a passion for baking. Ever since I was a child and could be in the kitchen, I was making stuff,” she says. “As a teenager, I would go…
Read More Apollo Beach baker’s decorative cakes are sweet works of art
By YVETTE C. HAMMETT Less than a year in, the Emergency Care Help Organization location in Riverview is serving up to 40 in-need families a week with food, clothing and other life necessities. “We’ve had a really successful adventure here,” said Steven McKinnon, director of…
Read More ECHO’s Riverview location finds steady growth assisting needy in south Hillsborough
By GEOFF FOX APOLLO BEACH – One thing seems certain about the path of Hurricane Dorian: It’s going to hit Florida. Hard. As of Friday morning, Dorian was forecast to make landfall north of West Palm Beach early Tuesday as a Category 4 storm, which…
Read More South Shore residents prepare as Hurricane Dorian storms toward Florida
By RICK MAYER RUSKIN − A heavy summer thunderstorm is doing its business, hammering the roofs around South Shore. Outdoor endeavors face possible rain delays. For Jacob Collier, the drenching is pennies from heaven. You see, inundated baseball diamonds typically equate to busier-than-normal nights at…
Read More D-BAT South Shore a hit with high-tech baseball cages, quality coaching