Recently, an article in the Huffington Post (posted Oct. 20) caught my attention because of its relevance to our county's decision to accept or reject a National Security Training Center. The report, written by Jo Comerford, summarizes the National Priorities Project's research on American military spending over the past two decades. It indicates that the U.S. Department of Defense spends as much as the next 14 countries combined on the military, and according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 55 percent of next year's discretionary spending will go to the military. The United States has already used $915.1 billion in total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending. ...more

October 28, 2009

The issue: Construction of a new $50 million judicial center. Our opinion: With the economy in the dumps and more space available in the courthouse, county commissioners were wise to shelve plans for the project. ...more

March 13, 2009

In an era of falling revenue, the County Commission has taken a LEAP of faith and authorized spending nearly $160,000 on strategic planning for greater efficiency. The county already has its own system, Lean Efficient Accountable Pasco, to stretch every tax dollar. But commissioners believe a firm, ICMA Consulting Services, can help them deliver services better while conserving every penny of revenue. More than 220 cities and counties already get assistance through ICMA's Comparative Performance Measurement Program. ...more

February 4, 2009

At their first meeting of the new year on Tuesday, the Highlands County commissioners will discuss possible recommendations to the county's three-member delegation to the Florida Legislature. ...more

January 5, 2009

The use of American taxpayers' dollars to bail out Wall Street could and will put most of America's social programs in great danger. Social Security and Medicare, which all Americans rely on for most of their lives, could be in most danger. I would ask that all taxpayers ask for and demand that this bailout be cancelled by the next Congress and the new president elect. ...more

October 9, 2008

Design and construction of the new Highlands County Sheriff's Building will start early next year as planned, according to the proposed county budget for the new 2008-09 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. ...more

August 14, 2008

The best bang for the buck is to "stop the bleeding, stop the war." Bring the troops home from all nations. We can no longer be the world's policeman. We have bases all over the world that we can no longer support, short of borrowing millions of dollars a day, which is destroying us financially. The best that America can do for the entire world is to stabilize our financial institutions. The entire world's economy is tied to the American economy. America must re-build its own industries and its infrastructure, not of other nations with the American tax dollar, as well as borrowing money from other nations at huge interest. We must also work toward energy independence, which is the biggest cause of a failed economy. The many regulations that were put in place to regulate financial institutions for the last two decades have been ignored and have created criminal lending practices. These have happened under the watch of both political parties. This illegal lending will create a huge tax bill for all Americans. ...more

February 1, 2008

America's pantry is being raided by many foreign nations. First, American industry was raided and millions of American jobs were outsourced to foreign nations using the American tax dollar to relocate these industries. Then, the jobs that were left on shore were filled with guest workers and foreign illegals from all over the world, then we had many unfair trade deals. All this with the blessing of our chambers of commerce, churches, unions, presidents and Congress of both parties. This has been happening for the past 50 years. ...more

January 23, 2008

glady. ...more

December 2, 2007