After listening to two attorneys and about 30 citizens for four hours, the Highlands County commissioners again sided with the Venus community and said no to the National Security Training Center. ...more

October 21, 2009

A private funeral service is set to be held in Ocala for John Travolta's teenage son. ...more

January 8, 2009

A week after Seth Ellis proposed a live-fire training center near Venus, the Marion County Commission turned down a combined law enforcement and search-and-rescue facility near Ocala. ...more

July 30, 2008

Five young men are dead after a car they were riding in crashed after traveling off an airport runway at the exclusive fly-in community of Jumbolair Aviation Estates early Saturday, the Florida Highway Patrol said. ...more

January 27, 2008

It's heartwarming to know that a memorial marker was placed on the crash site in the Philippines in honor of Highlands County's most decorated war hero. That hallowed spot is worth remembering, considering the incredible acts of bravery Maj. Thomas McGuire demonstrated during World War II. McGuire, who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroics is honored here in Highlands County, were he was born and raised. Medal of Honor Park reminds all of us that a native son did his hometown and nation proud. Charles Martin is the man responsible for the marker at McGuire's plane crash site. He also is a Sebring native who wrote a book on McGuire titled "The Last Great Ace." Parts of the wreckage were still there, according to Martin who was there for the dedication. Martin now lives in Jacksonville. ...more

January 18, 2008

A recent letter to the editor describing some inexcusable acts of disrespect to the flag at the Highlands County Art Festival motivated me to reread a recent book titled "Flags of our Fathers," which was written about the raising of our flag during the battle for Iwo Jima, by five Marines and a sailor –– an event which is memorialized by the Marine Corps Memorial in Washington D.C. Iwo Jima is a small island in the Pacific, whose war time importance was its small airstrip, which the military desired to assist in our air attacks against Japan. The military desired it, the Marines took it, took it with a loss of 6,825 Marines killed. ...more

December 10, 2007