Susan Giles Wantuck

It's not every day that you see a bear in a tree in West Tampa.

But today was one of those days for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. 

At about 8:30 the HCSO was asking local TV stations to pull their helicopters back from the site in the Egypt Lake area, because they were "scaring the bear."

Imagine a job that sends you out onto the road to find the most interesting stories in the state.

Stories about wild places, like this one, and people of all sorts.

But Tampa Bay Times writer Jeff Klinkenberg isn't fond of the notion that Florida is a bastion of weirdness.  He likes to say there is a "rich diversity" of stories, and he aims to tell some very interesting ones.

Who doesn't want to 'ooh' and 'aah' when a new baby is born? Busch Gardens can multiply that by three, because they are welcoming a trio endangered Malayan tiger babies.

According to a release from Busch Gardens Tampa, only an estimated 500 such tigers still exist in the wild.  And these births are part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan.

Rich and Laura Howard of Lutz told WFLA.com their whale tale.

ESPN is reporting that Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from the University of Florida, is gone from the roster of the New York Jets.

It comes as no surprise since the Floridian has been mostly playing from the bench for the Jets.

Now the speculation machine of where the popular athlete, who led UF to the BCS Championship in 2009, will go next kicks into gear. 

Put a kid in front of the camera and you will likely see some hijinks.

And that is precisely what happened today with 2-year-old Chase and 4-year-old Cole Hakken when their grandparents introduced them to reporters after a press conference. 

The boys faces were familiar. After all, their likenesses had been passed around on electronic flyers by police agencies and news outlets in the past week.

Let's face it, mulching can be a tedious job. So anything that breaks it up can be a welcome sight. 

But one Florida man got more than he bargained for in one of his bags of mulch. A baby squirrel.

According to The Epoch Times, the man goes by the name Nadtacular on Reddit.

Zack Shannon's hometown streets are lined with remembrances of the 21-year-old Army Specialist who died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on March 11th. The Fallen Hero Escort for him today will proceed down the streets of Dunedin under banners bearing Zack's name. Along the way, street marquees and personalized road signs will salute the Dunedin High Graduate. 

Click here to see more pictures of Dunedin's support for their hometown hero:

If you're wondering why you are only crawling on southbound or northbound Interstate 75 near Wesley Chapel - or really anywhere along that highway around Tampa today - here's why:

The Florida Highway Patrol says early this morning on I-75 near S.R. 56, a mail-carrying semi hit a guard rail and the dump truck behind it plowed into it.

The drivers of both trucks got out okay before both vehicles burst into flames. Both drivers were taken to the hospital to get checked out. The pavement was damaged by leaking fuel, so FHP says that stretch of road may not open up again until at earliest, 6 tonight.