HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — A deputy sheriff from Mississippi has died after saving his 10-year-old son from a rip current off a beach in Florida.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man was accused of tying his dog to a golf cart and dragging it down the road, ultimately killing it, authorities said.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida school bus driver has been charged with child abuse for allegedly shaking a child who is in a wheelchair and can't speak.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — Authorities have shut down more than 30 illegal charter boats, mostly in the Florida Panhandle.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that most of the vessels were...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say they've recovered rifles and grenades from an abandoned car in a Florida neighborhood.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that the...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Low-fare carrier Allegiant Air will take a long break from some Wichita routes starting in about a week as children prepare to head back to school.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi bank is buying another northern Florida bank.

The First Bancshares Inc. of Hattiesburg announced Tuesday that it will buy First Florida Bancorp for...

CRESTVIEW, Fla. (AP) — A Florida python could be slowly slithering toward a world record.

Emerald Coast Zoo co-owner Rick de Ridder says their female reticulated python named "Ginormica"...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man is behind bars after authorities say he hit multiple civilian cars and several sheriff's patrol cars during a high-speed chase.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities along the Florida Panhandle have closed off a highway bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway after two towering poles being hauled with other heavy...

FREEPORT, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say an Alabama teen has died after falling out of the bed of a pickup truck in Florida.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that 15-year-old Kaden...

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida man on trial for a boat crash that killed two people appears to have killed himself.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that a circuit judge convened court Thursday morning long enough to declare a mistrial in Judsen Cunningham's boating-under-the-influence case and dismiss the jury.

SHALIMAR, Fla. (AP) — Officials say a worker was fatally struck in the head with a beam at a Florida marina.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that 37-year-old Timothy Hassenplug died Tuesday shortly after being rushed to a Fort Walton Beach hospital.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A former Florida House speaker who battled corruption charges is running for office again.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reported Thursday that Ray Sansom is running for school superintendent in Okaloosa County.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman has been sentenced to six years in prison for having sex with a 17-year-old boy she adopted.

Lauren Myres was sentenced Thursday and was given the designation of a sex offender. Earlier this month, she entered a no contest plea to a charge of sexual battery on a minor.

Authorities say the Fort Walton Beach, Florida woman had been a social services caseworker assigned to the boy. She later decided to foster the boy and adopted him.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Police say a Texas man fired from his hurricane relief job fatally shot a co-worker at a bus station in Florida.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports 24-year-old Ledesma Vonzell Wooden was arrested Wednesday on charges including homicide. Fort Walton Beach police say five people from Houston were in the area working for a company providing hurricane relief in Panama City.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing a longtime friend who slept with his wife.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that jurors found Oscar Castaneda-Lopez guilty last week of first-degree murder, and a judge sentenced the man immediately after that.

ARGYLE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a woman was found dead following a mobile home fire in Florida.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that firefighters responded to the Walton County home Sunday night following a 911 call from a neighbor.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man reported missing from a Fourth of July beach party has been found dead.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman has been sentenced to life in prison for killing her newborn baby.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that an Okaloosa County judge sentenced Tonisha Lache Crowell on Wednesday after jurors found her guilty of first-degree murder.

LUVERNE, Ala. (AP) — The National Weather Service confirms six more tornadoes hit parts of southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle during storms on Sunday.

Those include two twisters in Alabama's Crenshaw County and one apiece in Montgomery County and Gulf Shores. In Florida, storms were confirmed in Fort Walton Beach and Molino.

CRESTVIEW, Fla. (AP) — Police in Florida say a vehicle crashed into a store.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports the driver of a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck drove through the windows at the front of the store Monday morning.

CRESTVIEW, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida school bus clipped a pickup truck as it was making a turn.

Northwest Florida Daily News reports that the minor crash occurred Tuesday afternoon.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a loaded handgun was found hidden on a Florida school bus for at-risk students.

Northwest Florida Daily News reports that school resource officers found the weapon Monday on a bus at AMIkids School in Fort Walton Beach.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a school resource officer left her loaded handgun in a faculty restroom at an elementary school in the Florida Panhandle.

Northwest Florida Daily News reports that a parent of a student found the gun Monday morning at Elliott Point Elementary School in Okaloosa County.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Anyone who donated to a Florida couple who convinced their 13-year-old son he was dying of brain cancer will get a refund from GoFundMe.

GoFundMe spokesman Bobby Whithorne emailed a statement saying the company also has banned 34-year-old Ginny Long and 47-year-old Robert Long from the crowdfunding site.

Okaloosa County Sheriff's officials say the Longs were arrested Thursday on one count of child abuse and nine counts of fraud.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida couple lied to their 13-year-old son about having brain cancer so they could use his fictitious illness to raise money for nonexistent medical expenses.

The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office says on social media that 34-year old Ginny Long and 47-year old Robert Long were arrested Thursday and charged with one count of child abuse and nine counts of fraud.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Officials say more than 850 "cold stunned" sea turtles have been brought to a Florida facility since a cold snap began last week.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say an elderly man died after crashing his recreational vehicle in a Florida neighborhood.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that the crash occurred Tuesday morning in Fort Walton Beach.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Volunteers at the Sharing & Caring food pantry can breathe a bit easier.

It's Christmas. And, as Sharing & Caring of Fort Walton Beach president Ken Winzeler said, Christmas is the season of giving.

"It's amazing," Winzeler said, showing off a storage shed stocked with canned goods. "This is the stuff that has come in the last week or two. People will just buy cans of food that are on sale, or just pick up something at the grocery store."

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An opossum that apparently drank bourbon after breaking into a Florida liquor store sobered up at a wildlife rescue center and was released unharmed.

Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge officials say the opossum was brought in by a Fort Walton Beach, Florida, police officer on Nov. 24. A liquor store employee found the animal next to a broken and empty bottle of bourbon.

CRESTVIEW, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say an inmate died after struggling with guards at a Florida county jail.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that 31-year-old Nathaniel Harrison Edwards was pronounced dead early Friday morning at a Crestview hospital.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — A man is dead following an apparent drowning off a Florida beach.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that beach safety officers found man unresponsive Monday afternoon in the water at the Shirah Beach Access in Destin. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Officials say the man appeared to be in his 50s. They were working to identify him.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A former Florida paramedic who took "selfies" with incapacitated victims in ambulances has been sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation.

BAKER, Fla. (AP) — A Kentucky man camping in Florida died when he was struck by lightning outside his tent.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that 35-year-old Jeremy Harper of Cloverport was camping Monday night in the Florida Panhandle town of Baker with his family, including six children ages 15 months to 13 years.

MARY ESTHER, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities say an infant is dead after being left in a vehicle for about eight hours.

Northwest Florida Daily News reports that the 7-week-old child was discovered Sunday night.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman leaving work for the day found a stranger sleeping in her car and the man later told deputies he didn't know why he was there.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports the woman called the Okaloosa Sheriff's Office when she found the man in her car.

He was still in the car when deputies arrived and told them he didn't know how or why he ended up in the car.

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida strip club accused of hiring only women bartenders and refusing to hire a man is facing a federal lawsuit.

A lawsuit filed Thursday by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says Sammy's Gentlemen's Club in Fort Walton Beach violated federal law by refusing to hire a male applicant because of his gender and by failing to maintain federally required employment records.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — Wildlife officials in Florida have returned four sea turtles to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Northwest Florida Daily News reports the members of the Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Foundation, which rehabilitates sick and injured sea turtles, released two sub-adult female loggerheads and two juvenile green turtles at Henderson Beach State Park on Wednesday.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Swarms of gnats are really bugging people along Florida's Panhandle.

Experts say humidity and unseasonably heavy rains have created ideal breeding conditions this month for insects called face gnats across northwest Florida.

Larry Williams of the University of Florida's Cooperative Extension Service tells The Northwest Florida Daily News (http://bit.ly/2smOWAY ) that unlike the region's mosquitoes, the gnats are daytime fliers.

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man faces a possible death sentence after being convicted of killing his infant daughter.

The Northwest Florida Daily News (https://goo.gl/S1zUVd ) reports that a jury found 26-year-old William Thomason guilty Thursday of first-degree murder.

GRACEVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say an elderly couple was killed in a Florida Panhandle crash when another driver ran a stop sign and hit their car.

Northwest Florida Daily News (https://goo.gl/QortFh) reports that 81-year-old Jo Faye Jenkins Smith and 88-year-old Joseph Hatcher died early Friday morning.

DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — Official say a Kentucky man vacationing in the Florida Panhandle was injured when he and his mother crashed their personal watercrafts into each other.

The Northwest Florida Daily News (https://goo.gl/QCOAUZ ) reports that the 22-year-old man was taken to a Fort Walton Beach hospital for a pelvic injury Tuesday morning.

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Destanni Henderson had 18 points to lead Fort Myers to a 69-49 win against Fort Walton Beach in the Florida girls basketball Class 7A championship game Saturday.

Fort Myers (24-4) had four players in double figures and shot 70 percent (19-of-27) in the second half to pull away from Fort Walton Beach.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — An airline will expand service from Pittsburgh to northwest Florida.

Allegiant Airlines has announced it will offer nonstop seasonal flights from Pittsburgh to Florida's Destin-Fort Walton Beach. The Tribune-Review reports (http://bit.ly/2j1r2by ) these flights will be the only non-stop flights from Pittsburgh International Airport to northwest Florida.

Allegiant offers nonstop flights to seven other Florida cities including Orlando and Miami.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Federal marshals in Florida have arrested a man wanted in the shooting death of a man in North Little Rock.

The U.S. Marshals Service says the suspect was arrested Tuesday in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and remains in custody there pending extradition to Arkansas.