Alligator Alley will open for a few hours even as wildfires continue to pour over the highway. ...more

April 28, 2009

The closing of the sale of Aloha Utilities is scheduled for Friday, but controversy might not end even then. ...more

February 25, 2009

Less than a month after flocking to downtown Tampa to show their support for an issue that hits close to home, a group from south Hillsborough County got their wish - at least some protection from the noisy, dusty excavation of borrow pits and the truck traffic that comes with it. ...more

November 26, 2008

SEBRING – The search for an executive director for Florida's Heartland Rural Economic Development Initiative will contine Monday, June 2 when the selection committee meets in Sebring. Six candidates for the position are scheduled to be interviewed, according to Roger Hood, who is a member of the committee. The FHREDI board of directors' regular meeting will be held Monday, June 16 at the Agri-Civic Center in Sebring. A recommendation will likely be made from the committee to the board at that time. Following the retirement of Lynn Topel earlier this year, the board advertised the position. The committee chose three candidates to be interviewed and offered the position to the top two, but both declined. Salary might have been an issue with those two individuals, according to Hood, who is also a member of the board. ...more

May 31, 2008

For the first time since 1984, Democrats have edged past Republicans in voter registration in Pinellas County, considered by some to be the birthplace of the Florida Republican Party. ...more

May 3, 2008

SEBRING – Before last weekend, it had been four years since Lynn Topel had taken a bike ride. Topel also loves gardening but there has been no time for that either. However, that will soon change for the executive director of Florida's Heartland Rural Economic Development Initiative (FHREDI). Topel will be leaving her position after four years in leading the organization that covers six counties – Highlands, Okeechobee, Glades, Hendry, DeSoto and Hardee – as well as communities in Palm Beach and Collier counties. In the first two years on the job, 80-hour weeks were the norm for Topel because of the devastating impact from the hurricanes – especially Charley – had on the region. "I can tell you that those weeks were long," she said. "Now it's gotten much better. This past year has been much more normal – 40 to 50-hour weeks. But it also took those two years to create those relationships all through the state that are important to the region." ...more

January 13, 2008