Ex-bucs player charged with hitting woman

A National Football League player was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery/domestic violence after an incident about 2:20 p.m. Saturday at his home, Tampa police said. Cornell Duane Green, 32, an offensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders and a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, was arrested at Tampa International Airport, where he was scheduled to take a flight to Oakland, Calif. According to police, Green is accused of pushing Teriyonal Ebony Flowers, 30, the mother of his two children, into a wall and then hitting her right arm with an aluminum mop handle. Police said Green then left his Plantation Bay Drive home in Tampa and drove to the airport. After learning of his flight, police contacted Transportation Security Administration and airport police, who apprehended Green. Tampa police took Green into custody about 5 p.m. Saturday. He was being held Sunday without bail at a Hillsborough County jail. Green was on the Bucs' Super Bowl XXXVII winning team. He has also played for the New York Jets, Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos.

WEBSTER

Brush fire smoke closes part of SR 50

Heavy smoke caused by brush fires in eastern Hernando County forced authorities Sunday to shut down a section of State Road 50 that runs between U.S. 301 and State Road 471. The road will remain closed until the smoke clears, according to officials with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of Transportation. A brush fire was reported about 10:25 a.m. in the area of Richloam Clay Sink Road, just off SR 50 in Hernando. Firefighters with the state Division of Forestry and Hernando and Sumter counties spent several hours trying to contain the blaze, which spread across more than 230 acres. Dispatchers said because of the remote location of the fire, no homes or residents were believed to be in danger. Don Ruths, a wildfire prevention specialist with the Division of Forestry, said he expected the fire would burn out during the night.

Daytona beach

Teen dies in fall from hotel balcony

Police are investigating the death of a Minnesota teen who fell from a hotel balcony. Daytona Beach police say 16-year-old Barret Forst Ugland fell early Sunday from the 24th floor of the Ocean Walk Resort. Ugland was visiting Central Florida with his family.

Orlando

4,000 gather at Orlando 'tea party'

Singer Lloyd Marcus told about 4,000 people in Lake Eola Park on Saturday that he was going to give them his take on the first days of the Obama administration. Then he shrieked. That pretty much summed up the mood at the Orlando Tea Party, a conservative rally to express discontent with Washington. "We're really scared about what's happening in our country," said Debby Whisenand, 71, of Largo. She waved a sign that stated, "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money" on one side and "You can't blame Bush anymore" on the other.