Richie Valens and Buddy Holly died on their way to a gig in 1959 the day the music died. ...more

July 2, 2009

Florida's legislature should be congratulated for setting the financial groundwork for a new and improved Florida. ...more

June 3, 2009

I was out on George Boulevard near the weathered sign angled into the ground proclaiming "Future site of the sheriff's administrative center." ...more

March 23, 2009

The administration has a golden opportunity to make a dent in the illegal immigration problem. That's because huge numbers of illegals here for jobs and not the "American Dream" have returned to their home countries due to lack of work. Their homelands are now hurting and may be forced to finally start taking care of their excess populations by improving infrastructure and job opportunities rather than having another generation of children dreaming of going to El Norte in order to support their desperately poor families. What the U.S. should do is step up enforcement so that those workers cannot sneak back in. Both law and order Republicans and bleeding heart Democrats would be comfortable with that; it's a win, win situation. ...more

February 24, 2009

Republicans are up in arms about Gov. Crist's support of the stimulus package. Many are also surprised that the governor is contemplating a Senate run rather than standing for re-election. A possible reason for both relates to something I have pondered for some time: Florida should raise the sales tax by one cent, at least temporarily. The stimulus package, manna for our charmed governor, will likely enable Florida to balance its budget this year. But unless the economy improves significantly, next year we will be back to where we are now, cutting into the marrow of our already bare bones state programs. Perhaps the governor sees raising taxes in the near future as the only logical way to maintain the modest quality of life the state provides to its citizens, while understanding that, as a Republican, raising taxes would likely end his political career. The smart thing is to let someone else do it. ...more

February 14, 2009

Can you see the similarity between President Obama's announcement to close Gitmo in one year and JFK's goal of having a man on the moon by the end of the decade? In both cases, neither could specifically say how it would be accomplished. They just had a sense that once they set an important goal and put the best in minds on achieving it, it would get done. Of course, they had preliminary discussions and studies and understood the main issues and possible solutions, but what they did, as executives, was set a goal, and expectation – a reasonable timetable. The Bush years will soon be viewed as an anomaly by the rest of the world, a brief period in our long history where we fell into the wrong hands, were overcome by fear, lost our moral compass and became decidedly un-American. ...more

January 27, 2009

Kudos to Commissioner Carlson for asking "Where's the money coming from?" and then voting "no" to voluntarily reducing county revenue. The other commissioners should have followed the rookie's lead. Instead, the majority approved measures (senior citizen tax break and combat troop stipend) which had been turned down or tabled back when the county had the money to spend. What's the logic; now that we can't afford it, we'll do it? I'm not addressing the merits of either proposal, but neither should the commission have. The county should simply not entertain requests for exemptions or expenditures from special interest groups until its revenue stream is stable; tax reductions have consequences. ...more

November 25, 2008

One senses that your coverage of campaign 2008 was strategically designed to educate not sway the public. And you carried out that strategy wonderfully. ...more

November 6, 2008

On Sept. 7, these comments were made by Frank Parker: "You shall know a tree by its fruit." The problem is no fruit is hitting the ground, which is to say, us, the working class people. ...more

October 16, 2008

Because of ubiquitous letters to the editor from his supporters, we are well aware of sheriff candidate Ron Grimming's impressive resume. The most recent letter urged us to research Mr. Grimming's background before making our decision on whom to vote for. Sure enough, a Google search verified that Mr. Grimming was indeed a Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) official, headed up campus police forces, oversaw law enforcement schools and co-authored successful books on law enforcement. ...more

October 7, 2008