The current economic disaster leaves me bitter. My parents grew up during the Depression, and I was inculcated with one basic financial tenet: Live within your means. Except for houses and cars, if you couldn't pay for it with cash, then you couldn't afford it. I was taught to save for emergencies, to not pay for services that I could do myself, and to value every penny. I cringe to think that I would ever need a government to bail me out because of choices that I made along the way. ...more

October 27, 2008

John McCain, a senior member of the Senate committee that oversees the telecom industry, now has cell phone coverage at the family's ranch near Sedona, Ariz., following a request from his wife, Cindy, early in 2007. ...more

October 16, 2008

From her bungalow on Sixth Avenue, Sandra Jackson watches the spectacle of partygoers drinking and playing loud music and fighting every weekend. ...more

September 17, 2008

Highlands County hourly workers who are put on standby, to be ready to come in after normal hours in case of an emergency, will now get two hours of pay for each day they are on standby. ...more

September 17, 2008

People are nervous that parking lots in Ybor City that were supposed to have been a temporary solution to parking woes now will become a permanent source of trouble and noise. Tampa hopes to keep that from happening. ...more

September 16, 2008

Highlands County has an emergency preparedness plan to deal with any type of disaster, natural or man-made, for the entire county. ...more

September 14, 2008

As State Education Commissioner Eric Smith recommends making up missed school days due to Tropical Storm Fay, Superintendent Wally Cox is waiting for the hurricane season to settle before making any makeup day decisions. ...more

September 7, 2008

PRODUCT REVIEW: Artemis Woman Personal Groomer Available at Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, artemiswoman.com, or by calling 1-877-212-1560; retails for $14.99. ...more

August 30, 2008

The Highlands County commissioners brought Michael Wright here 78 days ago as their new chief executive officer with one main mission: to make the hard decisions on a tough-times budget caused by the recession. ...more

August 17, 2008

It's getting into the heart of August and hurricane season and tropical depressions are lining up out in the Atlantic, so I shouldn't have been all that surprised when an angry wind whipped through the house and circled around my head. ...more

August 13, 2008