Where Were Journalists? "Dishing On Hillary" (Commentary, June 15) featured guest columns by three individuals whom I hold in very high esteem: the honorable Sandy Freedman, Clerk of Courts Pat Frank and historian Doris Weatherford. Freedman, Frank and Weatherford echoed what many of us have said for months. Though a Clinton supporter, my concern in this instance is apolitical. My concern is the same when Barack Obama suffers racial slurs and John McCain is judged incompetent to lead because of his age. ...more

June 22, 2008

SEBRING — Court fees, traffic fines and an assortment of other charges are going up as a result of the passage of Senate Bill 1790, and clerk of courts officials are scrambling to get the changes recorded before July 1, when these increases kick in. The bill was approved by Gov. Charlie Crist on June 10. The Highlands County Clerk of Court's staff is going through the 73-page senate bill making all the mandatory changes it contains to its fee schedules, said Bob Germaine, senior director of court services. ...more

June 18, 2008

SEBRING — The formal legal process for the appeals of two county employees for exchanging inappropriate and often sexually explicit instant-messages will begin in six days, on Monday. Jim McCollum, the attorney for ex-county employees Jared Lee and Treasa Handley, will take sworn statements, recorded verbatim by a legal stenographer, from four people, starting at 9 a.m. in a conference room at the Highlands County Government Center. Handley and Lee were dismissed more than five months ago for sending thousands of personal instant messages to each other, and others, on their county computers during working hours. Many of the messages were sexually explicit, and all of them are public record, accessible to anyone, with a request to either the county's public information officer or the Highlands County Clerk of Courts office. ...more

June 16, 2008

Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson's tenure has been plagued by questions - about hush-up payments to a former aide, his failure to his pay property taxes on time, even his willingness or ability to forthrightly explain his office's operations. ...more

June 13, 2008

SEBRING — A Sebring contractor has filed a construction claim of lien against the city of Sebring for its building in the Sebring Circle, currently occupied by the Greater Sebring Chamber of Commerce. Mark Stewart, owner and president of MCS Contracting, doing business as Stewart Construction, located at 2714 Kenilworth Blvd., swore out the claim of lien on May 15, stating that his firm provided labor, services and materials to remodel the old chamber building. According to the document filed with Highlands County Clerk of Courts L.E. "Luke" Brooker, Stewart claims his business did the remodeling for $43,429.46, starting on Nov. 29 and completing the job on March 13. ...more

May 19, 2008

SEBRING — In the old days, which were only a few weeks ago, a Highlands County deputy would cite drivers for speeding in his ticket book. The driver was handed a carbonless copy, and the original went to the sheriff's office, where it was transferred to the county clerk of courts and to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Now, the sheriff's office gives out electronic citations, said Sheriff Susan Benton. ...more

May 4, 2008

SEBRING — By accident, a routine financial audit of expenditures for the 9-1-1 emergency call system uncovered voluminous sexually explicit messages sent between three Highlands County employees in the budget department. The sexually explicit messages, all public-record documents open to public inspection, led to the firings Monday morning of: Treasa Handley, former coordinator of non ad-valorem assessments; Jared Lee, former budget analyst; and Christine Edwards, former budget technician. ...more

January 30, 2008

AVON PARK — Jeff Carlson, an incumbent who was expected to run for another term on the Sebring city council, pulled his name from consideration shortly before Friday's deadline. Carlson announced he intends to run for a seat with the Highlands County commission. All three incumbent commissioners qualified last week to seek re-election. A contested primary for county sheriff also became certain when Michael Rowan filed official papers to contest incumbent Susan Benton. ...more

January 20, 2008

Forget for a moment — if that's possible — all the presidential candidates offering us the world if we elect them to our country's highest office. Instead consider all the important offices here in Highlands County that will be decided in November. It's enough to get even a mild political junkie excited about who will run and who won't. All constitutional officers are up for re-election this campaign season. That means the sheriff, clerk of courts, tax assessor and tax collector are up for grabs. So is the school superintendent post, as well as county commission seats and school board positions. This is when we see some incredibly talented people take a risk and run for office. ...more

January 3, 2008

SEBRING — Luke Brooker isn't, but Bob Germaine is. The sheriff is, and so are all the other constitutional officers. Germaine called a press conference at 1 p.m. Wednesday to announce he'll seek the clerk of courts seat being vacated by Brooker. Germaine, 57, said if he's elected, he won't be a one-term clerk. He's been working in the office for 36 years and is Brooker's chief deputy on the criminal courts side. "I help people every day," Germaine said to the 20 people gathered in the supervisor of elections office when he announced. "I don't feel like I've done anything if I don't help someone." ...more

January 3, 2008