Tampa police now have a clearer picture on how the cremated remains of a decorated World War II veteran and his wife wound up dumped behind a vacant Tampa college. ...more

December 17, 2009

The cremated remains of a decorated World War II veteran and his wife will be interred Wednesday at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, nearly three weeks after they were found at an illegal dump site. ...more

December 15, 2009

When Bill Blanchard was through speaking to officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, more than 100 people, many of them wearing red "Vote NO Landfill" T-shirts, stood and applauded. ...more

September 25, 2008

After the 2004 hurricane season, when Florida communities needed a place to dump tons of yard waste, the state agreed to let rural landowners spread up to two feet of chopped-up debris across their property without getting a permit for solid-waste disposal. ...more

August 15, 2008

LAKE PLACID — A Hialeah man was free Thursday on $5,500 bail after he was arrested and charged with operating a marijuana grow house operation at 320 Guymon Ave. N.W., in Placid Lakes. Raul Alain Santos-Gonzalez, 28, was booked into jail May 22 on charges of conspiracy to produce marijuana production and conspiracy to traffic in excess of 25 pounds of marijuana or 300 or more plants. "He was linked to numerous grow houses," said Sheriff's Capt. Randy LaBelle on Thursday. "The investigation is on-going." LaBelle declined to say how Santos-Gonzalez was linked to the Guymon Avenue grow house. The investigation began back on Nov. 28, 2006, when a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer, Robert O'Horo, came upon an illegal dump site about two miles away from Guymon Avenue. The site reportedly consisted of a large number of plastic bags containing items belonging with an indoor marijuana grow house operation; plants, cuttings, fertilizer, PVC pipe, etc. ...more

May 31, 2008

LAKE PLACID — A Hialeah man was free Thursday on $5,500 bail after he was arrested and charged with operating a marijuana grow house operation at 320 Guymon Ave. N.W., in Placid Lakes. Raul Alain Santos-Gonzalez, 28, was booked into jail May 22, on charges of conspiracy to produce marijuana production and conspiracy to traffick in excess of 25 pounds of marijuana or 300 or more plants. "He was linked to numerous grow houses," said Sheriff's Capt. Randy LaBelle on Thursday. "The investigation is on-going." ...more

May 30, 2008

LAKE PLACID — Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford said he hopes to begin dredging and cleaning up several residential canals feeding into Lake Istokpoga by November. The county already did some testing on 17 residential canals, including some of the canals located in Mossy Cove, Palms Estates and near the Istokpoga Marina. Ford said he also needed to choose a dump site for an estimated 25,000 cubic feet of sand and muck that would be taken out of the canals. The state budget has $800,000 slated for the maintenance work, and he said he'll try to get some of the needed permits for the projects next month if the county commissioners approve the project in today's meeting. ...more

May 20, 2008

SEBRING — "Cool beans" is an old '70s phrase that Sherri Cooper uses to express "good news." The "cool beans" now for the coordinator of Keep Highlands County Beautiful is that the county is back to normal in the business of cleaning up illegal dump sites. Through the manpower shortage at Highlands County Recycling of the past three months, the waiting list for dump-site cleanups grew to about 95. That was about five times the normal list of 15 to 20 dump sites. ...more

September 15, 2007