Regarding Mr. Garcia's letter to the editor in Friday's Highlands Today, dated Sept. 19, where he states Mr. Grimming brought the FHP into the 21st century, let me tell you my experience with this modern organization. While driving on I-4, heading north for a vacation, we lost the tread on the left inside rear tire on our motor home. I pulled off onto the shoulder and was attempting to get the jack under the axle when I was stung some 25 times by fire ants. A state trooper pulled up and wanted to know if we were OK? Handing him my Good Sam Road Side Assistance card, I asked if he could have his dispatcher call the number on the card. I also told him Good Sam policy was to have someone here to help within 30 minutes. The trooper had a good laugh at that but did ask the dispatcher to call the toll free number. ...more

September 22, 2008

One of this year's city council races pits two former council members against one another. ...more

September 20, 2008

A 29-year-old man convicted in the 1998 murder of a Haines City police officer was sentenced this morning to life plus 10 years in federal prison. ...more

September 18, 2008

Police officials continued Wednesday to prepare for the big day starting at 6 a.m. Sept. 29 when its police communications will be dispatched through the Highlands County Sheriff's Office Central Dispatch. ...more

September 18, 2008

An on-duty "make out session," that a witness compared to the movie "Casablanca," has prompted the sheriff to draft a policy that outlaws nonplatonic relationships between supervisors and subordinates. ...more

September 6, 2008

A tree limb that landed on U.S. 92 East at Bethlehem Road near Dover has been cleared, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue said. ...more

August 28, 2008

The use of taser, pepper spray and physical force to detain and subdue a suspect who the arresting deputy later learned was legally blind was justified, according to a Highlands County Sheriff's Office administrative review. ...more

August 22, 2008

Clay and Becky Halbert of North Port planned to have a midwife deliver their son at a Sarasota medical center. Things did not go according to plan. ...more

August 18, 2008

An attorney for Hillsborough County Fire Chief William Nesmith filed notice Friday that Nesmith intends to sue the Pinellas sheriff after deputies arrested Nesmith in March. ...more

August 2, 2008

An attorney for Hillsborough County fire Chief William Nesmith filed notice today that Nesmith intends to sue the Pinellas sheriff after deputies arrested Nesmith in March. On March 1, Nesmith, 59, was arrested at his Indian Rocks Beach condominium and charged with domestic battery after his wife, Beverly, told deputies he threatened to kill her and then himself, an arrest report states. Deputies seized two guns found in his personal vehicle and a county-owned vehicle. ...more

August 1, 2008