Elvis. ...more

May 25, 2008

If you're a government apparatchik, seeing Hillsborough County commissioner and resident board parson Brian Blair barging through the door has to be the paper-pusher equivalent of the pol who came to dinner meets Mongo from "Blazing Saddles." ...more

February 5, 2008

Congratulations to Commissioner Don Bates and one other commissioner for opposing the county asphalt plant. According to the Jan. 26 edition of Highlands Today, if Amendment One passes, Highlands County won't have the money to build roads, including completion of Sebring Parkway. Anyone who has the audacity to approve purchase of an asphalt plant, which will be another albatross like the Sebring Power Plant was, must reside in La La Land. It seems redundant to mention that interest on the $3.3 million loan would likely run $165,000 per year. This plant would be a disgrace in the annals of decision making by county governments. The main benefit from this is our choices for commissioner have been decided for next election. ...more

February 5, 2008

Florida officials want copies of secret corporate papers held by Allstate Insurance Co. to see if unfair practices were used to adversely affect consumers. Allstate is fighting to keep the papers secret, but we hope citizens in Florida, and elsewhere, soon will learn about potentially unsavory tactics for the company to pay out as little as possible while maximizing profits. ...more

January 24, 2008

No Official Religion Regarding "Local Officials Ask God For Help" (Metro, Jan. 16): ...more

January 23, 2008

Players, Game Tainted Regarding "Report Blames All Corners Of Baseball" (front page, Dec. 14): ...more

December 15, 2007

A supervisor with the Florida Highway Patrol earned a three-day suspension for secretly recording prosecutors as they discussed pending traffic homicide cases. ...more

December 8, 2007

When was the last time the U.S. Congress and any president passed major laws that truly helped the American people? It wasn't tax cuts for wealthy people, nor was it the prescription drug law that was a boon to pharmaceutical companies who bought, paid for and even wrote the legislation. No, not much has happened since the Civil Rights movement that was fundamentally right for the people. ...more

December 6, 2007

And now come the Pumpkin Police to save us from heinous second-graders who have the audacity to, gasp! carve a pumpkin. Good grief Charlie Brown, the Great Pumpkin would roll over in his grave. This would have had amusing results if the assignment had been given to teenagers, who supposedly know better. Oops, silly me. But these are second- graders who, hopefully, still believe in Santa Claus. They are very impressionable at that age, and should still be tugging on Mommy's apron strings, except that mommy traded in her apron for a business suit, the real crux of the problem. So we already have tree huggers and bunny huggers, now we are raising a generation of veggie huggers. The Good Lord gave us dominion over the beasts of the land, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea. I assume He left out plant matter on purpose, since it really can't run away, and He gave us too much credit for being able to figure that out on our own. It is already politically incorrect to hunt and fish, so now I suppose tilling a garden will become some sort of ghastly social stigma. ...more

November 3, 2007

Forty-eight years after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright, the quintessential American architect, still makes history. And his creations still draw crowds. ...more

October 26, 2007