Polk deputies have arrested two men in connection with an armed robbery and the fatal shooting of a man during a second robbery attempt in Fort Meade. ...more

July 28, 2008

World War II pilots at MacDill Field in Tampa flew to the Avon Park bombing range to sharpen their abilities. They'd spot a set of lights, confirm it was their target, and drop the load. ...more

July 13, 2008

AVON PARK — Raymond Aguilar walked to the mound with a noticeable limp. ...more

June 5, 2008

Firefighters in Polk County are fighting a brush fire near Bartow that so far has burned about 35 acres. ...more

May 29, 2008

PREP BASEBALL ...more

May 9, 2008

LAKE PLACID — After taking over as head coach of the Lake Placid football program in May of 2007, Tim Grant didn't have a lot of time to make major changes. ...more

May 2, 2008

FORT MEADE - Firefighters have contained a 10-acre brush fire off District Line Road and State Road 60 in south-central Polk County, a fire services spokeswoman said. ...more

May 2, 2008

Daily high school prep results ...more

April 1, 2008

AVON PARK — "This week's going to be crazy" said Rebecca Perry as she started reaching into an old tractor's steering column. On and off for the past 11 months after school, four students repainted the tractor's body and bolted on several parts, finding a few hours after school between their studies as well as their "animal" raising. They were almost done Wednesday afternoon, 10 days ahead of next Saturday's tractor ride. Brandon Cooper and Randy Richardson helped connect some wires on the tractor. Perry, with her hands covered in black grease from handling its parts, left to take care of her pigs but shortly came back with her mom, Sally Perry, and two bags of McDonald's food. Sarah Richardson, the group's "historian," was finishing a scrapbook of the project. After all this work, they'll only use the tractor once. ...more

February 8, 2008

AVON PARK — The police chief search committee has thinned out its field of applicants, leaving 14 candidates out of the 61 who sent their resumes to then-city manager C.B. Shirey to seek Avon Park's top police job. Highlands Today confirmed that the field includes at least four applicants from Highlands County and at least two from the Fort Meade area. City officials provided a list of the 14 candidates with titles for the last positions they held, but more details on the candidates were not released. Interim City Manager Sarah Adelt said the committee originally trimmed the field to 15 candidates, but one of them removed himself from consideration after he was hired elsewhere. Eight of the 14 candidates last held high-ranking positions in local police departments, with three of them being current or former police chiefs. Adelt said that all 14 entries on the "short list" have law enforcement experience. Adelt said she's hoping the committee will narrow it to "no more than five candidates, hopefully three" within the next two weeks. ...more

February 5, 2008