Hillsborough County School Board member April Griffin said she feels like Charlie Brown's schoolteacher when she travels to Tallahassee to talk to lawmakers about increasing education funding. ...more

April 1, 2009

Columbine changed everything. During a seminar for school administrators Tuesday at Crews Lake Middle School, Pasco County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Prescott emphasized how everything from law-enforcement responses to the ways schools handle crises was altered by the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. ...more

March 25, 2009

Columbine changed everything. During a seminar for school administrators today at Crews Lake Middle School, Pasco County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Prescott emphasized how everything from law-enforcement response to the ways schools handle crisis situations was altered by the 1999 massacre in Littleton, Colo. The presentation was attended by about 20 administrators from around the school district. "We used to set up a perimeter" if there was a shooter inside a school, said Prescott, who supervises the school district's school resource officers for the sheriff's office. "Now, it's entirely different. If there's a shooter in here, we'll be coming in, charging in." ...more

March 24, 2009

Moving water across county lines has always been a point of contention in Florida. ...more

March 20, 2009

When Middleton High School was put on a state list of 13 schools that face closure unless they improve academically, Fred Hearns decided he had to act. ...more

December 6, 2008

Being an Avon Park City Council member is tough work these days. They are tasked with figuring out how to cut large amounts our of the city's budget for next year. It's a job a lot of our elected city and county officials are dealing with these days, and will continue for some time to come. ...more

July 22, 2008

In regards to Dallas Dunlap's letter in this past Sunday's edition, I beg to differ in one respect to his letter: Environmentalists have played a major role in a current energy crisis situation. ...more

June 4, 2008

Folks walking by Lykes Gaslight Square in downtown Tampa on Tuesday got a glimpse of thousands of aluminum cans illuminated by the sun and neatly lined up in the grass. ...more

December 12, 2007

TAMPA - Folks walking by Lykes Gaslight Square in downtown Tampa today might do a double take as they pass thousands of cans illuminated by the sun and neatly lined up in the grass. The 15,000 Campbell's soup cans are part of Metropolitan Ministries' Food for Thought, a campaign to raise the profile of Bay area people in need. ...more

December 11, 2007

With the worst of the wildfires dying down, many Southern Californians lucky enough to find their homes still standing could nevertheless face hardships for weeks to come, including polluted air, no electricity and no drinking water. ...more

October 27, 2007