The title of Alice Schroeder's biography about Warren Buffett is "Snowball -- Warren Buffett and the Business of Life." Schroeder opens her story with a vignette about a day in Buffett's childhood when he recalls catching a snowflake on his hand and then two more until he gets a handful, enough to roll a snowball unstopping through the world. As a child, Buffett was always engrossed with numbers. He counted things over and over again. As soon as he was old enough, he took an after school job delivering newspapers and then another before school. Very shortly, he had a very respectable bank account that he was always trying to figure out ways to make larger. Schroeder writes a very detailed summary of his life from early childhood until his current status as the world's richest man. Buffett assisted and aided Schroeder in her research. She reports he had a few bumps along the way and lost some money but he used each failure as a learning tool and used it to build his dynasty. He and his wife Susie have a great partnership together and most of all, he says, he did his Dad proud. ...more

March 25, 2009

Until we manage our water more effectively we'll never have enough. Ending development today isn't the answer. ...more

March 8, 2009

It was a familiar scenario: The run was blue, the sky bluer still, and I was cruising down 8,765-foot Mount Whitehorn in Banff National Park in Canada. Packed powder was flying up from the edges of my snowboard into the just-below-freezing air. I was grinning beneath my ski mask. ...more

January 11, 2009

The National Federation of Independent Business maintains that over one-half of our GDP comes from small business, yet the government and the public have little sympathy for all of the mom-and-pop companies that routinely fail due to their inability to be profitable. Conversely, the thought of a giant, inefficient and unprofitable corporation or industry going bankrupt is more than our government can bear. ...more

November 22, 2008

LAND O' LAKES - Sally Plunkett knows what it's like to be an elementary school student struggling with reading. ...more

November 9, 2008

It is truly disgusting how the political campaigns for the one of the most prestigious offices on this planet have digressed into outrageous smear campaigns. Those of us who were formally trained in professional sales were always taught to sell the features and benefits of our own products without ever mentioning the competition. Do theses candidates have so little to propose that their best election pitch is make us believe they are the lesser of two evils, or do these people have so little faith in the intelligence of the average American that they feel this is the only way to communicate? ...more

September 24, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Police are looking for three young men they say knocked an 82-year-old man to the ground Monday evening, stole his sport utility vehicle and drove away. ...more

July 8, 2008

When Vito Saputo Jr. moved into his Hemingway Estates home eight months ago, little did he know that his dream home would turn quickly into a nightmare. ...more

December 17, 2007

More Concern For Others Regarding "Ex-CIA Officer Says Torture Tactics Used" (front page, Dec. 12): ...more

December 15, 2007

When Vito Saputo Jr. moved into his Hemingway Estates home eight months ago, little did he know that his dream house would turn quickly into a nightmare. ...more

December 10, 2007