Florida Panhandle

Florida's tee box is its Panhandle. If you look at the state as a big ol' dogleg beginning in Pensacola and sweeping right down toward Miami, then the Panhandle is where you would be teeing off.Not many people I know ever think of the Panhandle as a Florida golf destination. A gulf destination, maybe, someplace to go for sun and sand along the Gulf of Mexico. The Panhandle is very similar to the Jersey Shore or Maryland's Eastern Shore. It's a family summer vacation spot for the locals at reasonable prices.

A rare brain disease that mainly strikes horses has infected five people over 60 in northern Florida and killed two of them, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports.The government health agency said that Eastern equine encephalitis, a mosquito-borne infection frequently found in horses, has left two of three human patients in a coma and the third with impaired nerve functions. The only human cases were reported in three counties of Florida's Panhandle region, but at least 248 horses have been infected in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, CDC said.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Floridians, many of them still struggling with the legacy of last year's devastating hurricane season, were wary yesterday, despite assurances from weather forecasters that the first named storm of the Atlantic season was unlikely to be more than a rainmaker. Arlene, packing sustained winds of 40 mph, was expected to produce rain in some areas as it entered the Gulf of Mexico today and headed toward the Florida Panhandle or Louisiana. "There probably won't be a need for any tropical storm watches or warnings in Central Florida," said Richard Knabb, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center west of Miami.

Maryland's Assateague Island has made a University of Maryland geologist's list of the top 10 beaches in the Northeastern United States -- but just barely.Thanks mainly to its clean water and wild isolation, the Assateague Island National Seashore ranked 10th on the list compiled by Stephen Leatherman, director of UM's Laboratory for Coastal Research and an internationally recognized expert on coastal erosion and geology.Assateague was outclassed by beaches at East Hampton (first) and Westhampton Beach (second)

Florida is home to more than half of the nation's Top 10 beaches -- including Grayton Beach, the best spot in America for sun, sand, surf, safety and solitude, according to an annual rating by a leading beach expert.Located beside the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida Panhandle, Grayton Beach replaced Hapuna, Hawaii, on the 1994 Best Beaches Survey by Stephen Leatherman, director of the University of Maryland's Laboratory for Coastal Research."Grayton Beach is kind of the perfect beach, if there is one. It's a well maintained state recreational area, has good facilities for visitors, sugar white sand, a lake nearby and beautiful, clean aquamarine water," says Mr. Leatherman, a geologist who has been dubbed "Dr. Beach" by his colleagues.

Eastern Shore farmers would like to donate thousands of bales of hay to feed starving livestock in the drought-ridden Florida Panhandle, but there's a legal hitch.The Maryland hayfields are registered in a federal conservation reserve program that pays farmers to take land out of production. They are required to plant a cover crop such as clover and grass that makes great hay, but they can't harvest the fields.Daniel Shortall, a vice president of the Maryland Farm Bureau, said the hay-lift initiative began Friday when his Centreville neighbor, Charles Jackson, "came to me and said, 'We have got to do something.

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Approaching its full potential after harassing South Florida with three days of rain, Tropical Storm Barry intensified to near-hurricane strength yesterday and ambushed the Florida Panhandle's summer-vacation beaches with drenching downpours and swollen seas. Squalls swept the region all day, and street flooding was reported in Tallahassee and elsewhere. Winds of up to 70 mph arrived last night. Hurricane-strength winds of 80 mph were expected early today. Forecasters warned of isolated tornadoes and floods.

The well-equipped Easter egg hunter had better pack an umbrella because wet weather is predicted for today and tomorrow.On the other hand, it may be easier to find those colored eggs against a white background.That's because snow is possible this Easter weekend. Though spring is more than two weeks old, winter wants one last shot.In Central Maryland, cloudy skies are predicted for today, with a few sprinkles or flurries possible this afternoon. Tonight, forecasters say there is a 30 percent chance of light snow.

This is where the boys are. And girls, too. Once again, mtvU, the media network for college kids and a subsidiary of MTV, the music network, is celebrating spring break in this Florida Panhandle city. The action starts today and is expected to draw thousands of students who will be flocking to the beach for fun, games, music and swag. While nonspring-breakers may want to postpone their visit until after the party is over, there is lots to do for students and nonstudents alike. 1 : Take a dive : Thanks to an abundance of natural, historical and artificial reefs, Panama City Beach is known as the "Wreck Capital of the South."

QUINCY, Fla. -- In 1922, tobacco farmers here hauled in a bumper crop and, at the urging of local banker Mark Monroe, plowed their profits into shares of Coca-Cola Co."Coke had just come public and Daddy liked the taste," said Julia Woodward, Monroe's 80-year-old daughter. "Plus, he figured the stock would be good collateral because folks would always have a nickel to buy a bottle."For the progeny of the farmers who heeded the banker and never sold, the payoff is dazzling. Today, they own 7.5 million shares valued at $375 million.