No changes in Tampa Port Authority staffing or operations are expected in 2009 despite an 8.4 percent decline in cargo tonnage last year and a gloomy outlook for an economic recovery this year, port director Richard Wainio said this morning. ...more

January 20, 2009

Two high-tech weigh stations set to open Tuesday will allow trucks to get back on the road faster while cutting emissions. The "weigh-in motion stations" on Interstate 4 near Kingsway Road in Mango allow vehicles to keep moving at 45 mph while being weighed to determine whether they exceed legal limits. ...more

January 5, 2009

A financial company in Dunedin under investigation by the Florida attorney general is closing its office. ...more

December 5, 2008

A financial company in Dunedin under investigation by the Florida attorney general is closing its office. ...more

December 3, 2008

Global Funding LLC, a financial company in Clearwater that is the subject of four government investigations, three lawsuits and dozens of complaints is out of business, according to a public relations firm hired by Global. ...more

November 3, 2008

The local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has taken in more than 130 cats and dogs and two guinea pigs affected by Hurricane Ike in mid-September. The animals had no identification or were surrendered by their owners. ...more

October 1, 2008

Thirty-two men looking for a good time found themselves on the wrong side of the law last week. ...more

September 17, 2008

"Should I stay or should I go." To quote the band "The Clash," illegal immigrants to Avon Park and its environs must be asking just that question. If they stay here, they risk arrest, deportation, exploitation or worse. If they go back to Mexico, they risk greater poverty, starvation, exploitation even murder by corrupt thugs, drug dealers and cops. Nice choice, eh? I recently witnessed a demonstration against illegal immigration at the intersection of US 27 and SR 64 in Avon Park. Truck drivers were honking their air horns presumably in support of the demonstrators who proudly waved American flags next to a pickup truck with a sign against illegal immigration and for drilling domestic oil. In attendance was the former mayor of Avon Park, a huge enemy of illegal immigration. I don't know him, never met him, but I've heard him speak. Nice to know paranoia is alive and well in America. ...more

September 8, 2008

County officials on Thursday cleared the builders of State Road 56 to work round-the-clock as they rush to finish the first leg of the road in time for the Oct. 30 opening of the Shops at Wiregrass mall. ...more

August 29, 2008

County officials today cleared the builders of State Road 56 to work round-the-clock as they rush to finish the first leg of the road in time for the Oct. 30 opening of the Shops at Wiregrass mall. County Administrator John Gallagher and the Development Review Committee OK'd a 24-hour-a-day schedule for a 10-day period starting in mid-September. Crews will be laying asphalt for the six-lane road, said Jim Richardson, vice president of Forest City Enterprises, one of the companies involved in the road project. Forest City is overseeing the section of S.R. 56 that passes in front of its 800,000-square-foot outdoor shopping plaza. ...more

August 28, 2008