Thursday morning, Highlands County Administrator Michael Wright heard the appeals of the three county employees fired earlier this year for what officials termed "inappropriate" and personal messages sent on their county instant message service. ...more

August 15, 2008

On Thursday evening, the Highlands County commissioners will hold the first of two required evening public hearings on the proposed county budget for fiscal year 2008-09, which starts Oct. 1. ...more

August 13, 2008

A Clewiston man was found guilty in the theft of an ATM machine torn from the wall of the Highlands Independent Bank branch using an excavator machine stolen from the Walgreens construction site on New Year's Eve in 2006 - 2007. ...more

August 7, 2008

Clewiston man was found guilty in the theft of an ATM machine torn from the wall of the Highlands Independent Bank branch using an excavator machine stolen from the Walgreens construction site on New Years Eve in 2006 – 2007. ...more

August 6, 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 — David Flowers, director of county facilities management, is under investigation for sexually explicit, instant messages he exchanged on county computers with fired budget department employee Treasa Handley. Rick Helms, the assistant county administrator, is in charge of the investigation of Flowers, a former county commissioner who failed in his bid this week to become director of the county's new division of administrative services. ...more

January 31, 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