ST. PETERSBURG - A woman is suing the Green Iguana Bar & Grill after, she says, the bar served her a "flaming shot" of Bacardi 151 proof rum while she was underage one evening four years ago -- and she then burned herself from her chest to the top of her head. ...more

July 16, 2008

TAMPA - Coca-Cola Enterprises, which produces and distributes Coca-Cola Co. products, said today it plans to outsource 150 jobs from its Brandon financial services center to India, Guatemala or Poland. ...more

July 10, 2008

AirTran Holdings, the low-fare airline that flies mostly in the eastern United States, is cutting wages by 5 percent for employees and by as much as 15 percent for officers to help reduce costs amid record fuel expenses. ...more

July 3, 2008

This letter is in regard to the Wednesday, June 25, article titled, "Teacher raises spark discussion among board." ...more

June 28, 2008

I only wish I were experiencing a similar percentage drop in wages-revenue as compared to the losses the county and our government is experiencing. Perhaps my losses are attributed to the decline in construction as well as the real estate market or is it the expensive fuel and rising grocery bill? I may also be over taxed with the real estate since you are hard pressed to sell it even at appraised value. Real estate used to be an asset, now it is a trap. Whatever the driving force is behind the ailing economy, the government has not even come close to feeling the crunch that the small business owners and labor force are enduring. I wonder what the future holds and what the economic gurus will label this economic era. ...more

June 9, 2008

As 2,000 convention delegates gather in Puerto Rico, the Service Employees International Union is about to jettison a time-honored union tradition - having members go to their union representatives with their questions and grievances. ...more

June 1, 2008

TAMPA - The St. Petersburg Times is offering early retirement incentives to staff members and may have to lay off employees later in the year, the newspaper said Wednesday. Employees older than 50 with five years of service will be offered enhanced pension benefits if they retire by Aug. 31. The newspaper also froze wages for one year for all of its employees, which number less than 1,300, down from 1,500 two years ago. ...more

May 29, 2008

This is to the entire spectrum of employers, including Congress, who hire yard work, house work and nannies for their children, and these jobs are given to those who are illegal, guest workers, those on visas and green cards, who when they lose their jobs can return home. ...more

May 29, 2008

If you are not making a living here in Highlands County, blame your local elected official. My husband works for Cross Country, like about 500 others here in Highlands County. Prior to locating their business here in Highlands County, Cross Country's intentions were to pay more per hour than they are currently paying. Our wonderful local city councilmen at that time negotiated with Cross Country and they nixed the higher pay that Cross Country was going to offer their employees. The reason was the city councilmen were concerned that if Cross Country paid as much as they were intending to pay, local business would not be able to compete and Cross Country would depreciate the local employee pool making the low cost employee unavailable to our local businessmen. Their reasoning was that this would hurt the local businessman. ...more

May 19, 2008

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton angrily accused her Democratic rival Saturday of deliberately misrepresenting her positions on NAFTA and health care in mass mailings to voters, adding, "Shame on you, Barack Obama." ...more

February 24, 2008