Pharmaceutical companies and every other special interest group-industry do indeed have a strong grip on our elected representatives (editorial of Dec. 10.) The people's business doesn't get done because of the need for elected officials to constantly raise money to afford to run for re-election. Money comes from drug, oil, dairy, financial, meat and virtually every industry in the country as well as some outside the country to buy the votes of the peoples' representatives. In our system, voting out the incumbents simply replaces them with other special interest agents. ...more

December 14, 2009

THE DIFFERENCE: Bishop Verot (4-1) led the battle of field position and was able to grind it out for both halves without using big plays. Lennard (3-3) threatened early in the first quarter, but Hugo Delpapenha came up with a big interception to stop a rally and the Vikings capped it off with a 1-yard scoring run by Schon Thomas. ...more

October 11, 2008

It's great that our county commissioners will be discussing ways to stimulate the local economy. As I look around my neighborhood and as I drive around Sebring, I see many "For Sale" signs in front of residential properties. Many of these signs are turning into "For Rent" signs as builders, Realtors and private sellers know very well that residential property is not selling. The idea of suspending impact fees and building permit fees seems absurd in today's market. Construction trades are experiencing a longer period of inactivity because builders of spec homes chose to continue building long after it was clear to those of us without crystal balls that sales and prices were dropping. How about discussing ways to attract industry to this area or to rebuild infrastructure where needed? About the last thing we need is building more residential property to further drive prices down when they don't sell. ...more

February 24, 2008