Locals who wax nostalgic about a department store that stood on State Road 60 for close to 50 years will be charmed by a new holiday ornament that depicts in 24-karat gold-plated a longtime landmark that closed in 2000. ...more

November 4, 2009

A new state law designed mainly to crack down on Medicaid fraud is having unexpected consequences by keeping some health care professionals from getting or keeping their licenses at a time when the state is suffering a shortage. ...more

October 31, 2009

President Obama's carefully worded speech and press conference Tuesday night left a very important thing unsaid. ...more

March 26, 2009

President Obama's plan to put the country on a sustainable fiscal path hinges on three huge bets. First, that the government can get health care costs under control even while expanding coverage. Second, that enacting a cap-and-trade emissions plan would generate revenue along with easing global warming. Third, that the looming expiration of the Bush tax cuts can be a forcing mechanism to write a saner tax code and bring in more revenue. ...more

February 26, 2009

In yesterday's paper a writer wrote that he hopes that President Obama fails because, "Thinking that we can stimulate the economy by bigger government and more government programs is absurd and never worked." This is a rather startling, and I believe, unsubstantiated statement. ...more

February 25, 2009

In a recent letter to your newspaper, Republicans were accused of hoping that President Obama fails. Of course I can't speak for all of us, but I don't think it's a personal issue at all. I would hope that any person, whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal or moderate (whatever that is) who supports the views that President Obama is currently espousing would fail. ...more

February 20, 2009

It's noon Friday. Nichole Leary just lit a 305 and sat down on the black metal bench outside the food court at Lakeshore Mall. ...more

February 7, 2009

Thomas Friedman seems to think the time is right for Obama to launch massive government programs. (Other Views, Jan. 23). He uses the New Deal and the Great Society as successful examples. ...more

January 26, 2009

In the midst of the greatest housing downturn since the Great Depression, Tampa Bay area builders struggle to unload finished homes. Several have gone out of business. ...more

December 24, 2008

Businesses across Florida are carefully watching the Legislature with the deepening cash crisis facing state government leading to the most serious talk of eliminating some tax exemptions since former President John McKay took on the tax structure eight years ago. ...more

December 21, 2008