The news that about $120 billion in tax rebate checks will be in the mail in three or four months is an invitation to con artists around the world to grab some for themselves. ...more

February 13, 2008

Ken Pruitt, the leader of the Florida Senate, says compensation for the wrongfully convicted is one of his top priorities this year. ...more

February 2, 2008

What chutzpah! First the state intrusively reduces local governments' revenues, tacitly accusing them of wasting money. Then it proposes House Bill 683 designed to kill one county's innovative money saving idea – building its own asphalt plant – in order to endear itself to a special interest group. Our leadership should join forces with officials of other counties that either currently do or contemplate doing their own road construction in aggressively fighting this legislation that forces them to use private contractors for non-maintenance roadwork. ...more

January 30, 2008

Urging quick approval of a $150 billion stimulus plan, Bush said an infusion of consumer spending is needed to stave off a recession. Although House leaders have approved the plan, Senate Democrats are expanding it to include money for Social Security recipients and an extension of unemployment benefits. Bush warned this "would delay or derail it, and neither option is acceptable." ...more

January 29, 2008

If you get a telephone call from a real estate broker today, don't get excited, they're not looking to sell or buy your home; they just want your vote. ...more

January 27, 2008

The Food and Drug Administration intends to post inspectors to embassies and consulates throughout the developing world in hopes of improving the quality of the food and medicine increasingly flowing to the United States, a top official said Thursday. ...more

January 25, 2008

Despite election reforms Florida officials approved last year, most voters in the state will rely this month on the same touch-screen machines that have come under fire nationwide. ...more

January 24, 2008

The cause-and-effect cliche is well known. As for exorbitant gasoline and related prices, we should reverse to effect, cause, who? Effect: Incredibly costly gasoline and thousands of other things directly and indirectly related to the cost of petroleum products, and hostage to foreign oil, which is the primary supporter of global terrorism. Cause: Legislation which forbids drilling for oil in Alaska, off shore, and many other areas of our country; establishing impossible hurdles to building oil refineries, (none in about the last 30 years,) nearly impossible hurdles to building nuclear and coal fueled power plants. Blasted powdered coal emits little pollution. Trees and other vegetation need carbons to survive and emit oxygen, which all animals need. ...more

January 21, 2008

Regarding "Respite In Clinton-Obama Racial Row" (Our Opinion, Jan. 16): I do believe that Senator Clinton was complimenting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King needed someone to champion the legislation and sign it into law. ...more

January 21, 2008

Refer to Mr. Ludacer's literal repeat of his editorial concerning the Patriot Act and Major Johnston's volatile diatribe about our efforts in Iraq. It's a shame Highlands Today can't find something new to accept instead of simply allowing a repeat of an earlier editorial from Mr. Ludacer or the kind of attack mounted by the major. It seems the major has an axe to grind with the military, apparently because he could not advance beyond the rank of major. Personally, I didn't get beyond the lower ranks of the enlisted men but I didn't and don't blame politics for that. 1 simply recognize that I did not apply myself to do any better and the major doesn't seem to be able to face that fact about himself. He chooses to pass the blame to politicians, for whom I often also have little love lost but they aren't the bullies standing in the way of personal development. ...more

January 13, 2008