I could scarcely believe my eyes while reading Mr. Whiteman's column titled "Bigotry Outnumbered This Election Season." He obviously does not include himself in the group of those overcome. He states "We must pray that this is not the first jihad in the United States." Jihad? The U.S. population electing a Christian man as president of the United States is a jihad? What is this person thinking? Was he thinking the unspoken, that Mr. Obama is really a Muslim and therefore the Jihad connection? How bigoted! And how can your newspaper print such rubbish? His mistaken notion of what the Democratic Party stands for is up to him. But it is more of a statement of how limited his knowledge really is rather than accurate. ...more

November 9, 2008

I was pleased to read the article about bully laws being created to protect school children. The pro-Amendment 2 letters recently printed express much concern for the welfare of children but they are overlooking the fact that we are all children. ...more

November 2, 2008

DUNEDIN A standoff ended this morning with a suspect's surrender and the discovery of the body of a woman inside a Dunedin home. ...more

September 13, 2008

DUNEDIN A standoff ended this morning with a suspect's surrender and the discovery of a body inside his home. ...more

September 13, 2008

On Monday, I went to meet candidates. I thought I knew everything about everything. I was wrong. There were political people there; there were people interested in the welfare of all of us. Andy Jackson admitted he/they might have done better. What he did not say is they could have done worse. Jeri Canale has knowledge of the county commissioner's job. Jeff Carlson has a political agenda that wants to cut, cut, cut. It is my opinion that we have been cut so much, we have been bled, to where we don't have blood to give to Red Cross. ...more

August 14, 2008

I had to laugh at one part of Darrel Johnston's letter to the editor in Saturday's paper (Aug 2.) He said that the deputies he knows applaud Sheriff Benton's performance during her term in office. I know quite a number of deputies myself and that surely is not what I hear. While they are glad to have some upgraded equipment, they are aware that most of these upgrades have been given to deputies who are on the road. As parents of school children, they wish some of the money would be spent on those deputies and services which most closely affect the lives, safety and welfare of their children. They would like to see more neighborhood patrols, especially since many of them work at night and have to leave sleeping families to do so. It only takes a few trips down U.S. 27 to see where the law enforcement effort is concentrated. Speed is not the only problem we have in Highlands County. ...more

August 6, 2008

I just did the arithmetic based on your front page story about THE Bus. Rounding the average ridership down to 600, given that the county annual payment is $600,000, the county pays an average of less than $1,000 per rider per year. Since THE Bus only runs for five days a week, that's $3.85 per rider per day and 32 cents per rider per operating hour. ...more

June 25, 2008

It's official: Sen. Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president. ...more

June 7, 2008

Southwest Bartow residents have been in a buzz ever since hundreds of vultures took up roost in their neighborhood. ...more

February 25, 2008

I would like to start with a simple equation. Government spending equals government taxes. When government taxes are not enough, then red ink is applied. There is much ado about taxes being too high, unfair etc. but we rarely get excited over government spending. The reason being, is that we are recipients of government spending in one form or another, such as: welfare, housing subsidies, farm subsidies, food stamps, subsidies for colleges and tuition, building stadiums for high priced athletes, and the infamous congressional earmarks and many more. ...more

February 18, 2008