Editor's note: The following letter was sent to the friends of Sherry and Walt Searle of Spring Hill and is reprinted here at the authors' request. ...more

September 18, 2008

Jabil Circuit Inc. will lay off 120 workers at its local facilities, company officials said today. ...more

September 11, 2008

Feudalistic Society ...more

September 11, 2008

Italian cooking icon and local resident Marcella Hazan reflects on her life and career in a new memoir. ...more

August 27, 2008

Demand for Ford Motor Co.'s Focus and other small cars has been superheated since gas prices headed toward $4 a gallon in May, and since then, Ford hasn't been able to build the Focus quickly enough. ...more

August 27, 2008

Cox Enterprises Inc. plans to sell its Austin, Texas, newspaper and several other smaller papers, reducing the company's portfolio of advertising-supported media properties. The company said it also will sell its Valpak direct coupon mailing business, which recently built one of Florida's largest factories, a $220 million factory in St. Petersburg that produces 45 million of the company's iconic blue envelopes a month. ...more

August 13, 2008

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is my hometown. Although I haven't lived there since 1973, it's still "home" to me in the way that the places where we grow up stay fixed forever in our hearts. It's a genuine "Leave it to Beaver" kind of town where kids ride bikes along tree-lined streets, and people still go downtown to shop. ...more

June 30, 2008

Tampa Tribune review of "Advance Wars: Days of Ruin" video game ...more

February 14, 2008

In answer to Mr. Boyce about Republicans. It may come as a complete shock to Mr. Boyce that all politicians play that game, including Democrats. Let Mr. Boyce name one Democrat that hasn't flip-flopped when expedient to do so. It is something we have to live with. Let the buyer beware. Mr. Boyce states, "Republicans agree on continuing the war until we have victory." Is there something wrong with that? There is no proof that "The number of people living in poverty has grown during this administration." Most Americans have one or two cars and a couple of television sets. This is not "poverty." Jobs and factories began leaving this country during the Clinton Administration. Clinton was the one pushing Nafta. The only thing Democrats promise to do is to repeal tax breaks and to add considerable more taxes to already strained Americans. Democrats just can't wait to impose their "social programs" on the rest of us, and that means more and more new taxes. ...more

February 9, 2008

A friend gave me two figurines of a man and woman that he said were in his mother's home. They are marked with a leaf and the words "Fern" and "Hand Painted." Both pieces are in excellent condition. ...more

February 9, 2008