The father of a missing 5-year-old Putnam County girl said he and his 17-year-old girlfriend have passed polygraph tests, according to CNN.com. ...more

February 12, 2009

Election officials began counting ballots late Sunday in one of Africa's rare democracies, where voters are painfully aware of the example they are setting on a continent better known for coups, rigged elections and one-man rule. ...more

December 8, 2008

LAKE PLACID — A pilot and passenger died after a fixed wing, single engine Piper Cub airplane crashed near Placid Lakes Airport at about 12:15 p.m., Friday said Capt. Paul Blackman of the Highlands County Sheriff's Office. There were no other passengers in the single plane accident. Word spread like wildfire around the Caladium Capital of the World that citrus grover owner Mason Smoak piloted the plane. Blackman positively identified Smoak as the pilot, and David Maehr's name was release later as the other victim in the crash. He was a scientist at Archbold Biological Center specializing in bear research. ...more

June 20, 2008

LAKE PLACID – A pilot and passenger are dead after a fixed-wing, single-engine Piper airplane crashed near Placid Lakes Airport at about 1:15 p.m. today, said Capt. Paul Blackman of the Highlands County Sheriff's Office. ...more

June 20, 2008

SEBRING — There will be no swimming at the city pier until a dredge hole is filled where a drowning took place Saturday, City Manager Bob Hoffman said Thursday. Highlands County Environmental Health Director Frank Kruppa, who grants public bathing permits, has closed swimming at the beach "until further notice," Hoffman said. On Saturday, Bobby Clark, 23, developed a cramp and drowned while swimming over the hole. The beach was cordoned off by police tape on Monday. ...more

June 12, 2008

SEBRING — When Bobby Clark, 23, drowned at 3 p.m. Saturday, he stepped from shallow water into a 12-foot deep dredge hole, diver Preston Colby told city, county and state officials in a meeting Tuesday morning at city hall. Fire Chief Brad Batz, who was asked to investigate the Lake Jackson incident, said the hole used to be in a no-swim zone several hundred feet from City Pier Beach. The lake has lost so much water from two years of drought, however, the hole is now a few dozen feet from the beach. The hole was probably dredged in the 1960s to fill a park area behind the Civic Center park, City Manager Bob Hoffman said. "I think it's a man-made hole." Batz said Clark knew the hole existed. ...more

June 10, 2008

CLEARWATER - The undercover vice and narcotics detective went into the duplex alone, thinking he was about to buy $1,200 worth of drugs from a suspect inside. ...more

September 19, 2007