John Frank is a staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald capital bureau in Tallahassee. He covers Florida politics and the state Legislature. He joined the Times in 2006 and has written for PolitiFact.com, the Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking Web site. Before coming to Florida, he served as chief political reporter for the (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier in the state capital bureau and covered Congress and national politics for the Houston Chronicle in Washington, D.C.

Born in Michigan, he grew up in Virginia and earned a journalism degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a rabid Tar Heel fan and enjoys outdoor adventures in his spare time.

Phone: (850) 224-7263

E-mail: jfrank@tampabay.com