With the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in the postwar era, a milestone may be at hand: Women are poised to surpass men on the nation's payrolls, taking the majority for the first time in U.S. history. ...more

February 7, 2009

As 2008 comes to a close, dark days loom ahead for the television industry. The whole country has been in a blue funk for months. Layoffs. Foreclosures. Bankruptcies. Bailouts. The bad news just keeps piling up. ...more

December 15, 2008

Who hasn't driven by a gas station lately and seen prices hovering around $2 a gallon and not felt positively giddy? It's as if motorists have awakened from a bad dream where the price of a gallon of gas was almost twice that and our car-loving culture and fragile household budgets were being strangled. ...more

November 14, 2008

Our elected leaders, both city and county, are laying the foundations for the future by creating ways to raise taxes on us and are doing it with all the vengeance and hatefulness they can muster without regard for voters and taxpayers. Sebring claims they will lower the millage to accommodate the 1-pecent fire assessment fee with a 10-percent cap. If one figures this out, a tax bill of $3,000 will become $3,300, then $3,630, etc. There goes the tax savings we voted on. ...more

September 3, 2008

We've pinched and reorganized our household budgets. But we still often overpay for commercially bottled water. On an annual basis, the typical American consumer spends $1,400 on bottled water versus 49 cents for the same amount of water from our kitchen faucet, according to the Center for a New American Dream, a nonprofit consumer group in Maryland. ...more

August 21, 2008

Record plunges in state revenue are punching a $1.5 billion hole in the state budget this fiscal year, triggering emergency authority for Gov. Charlie Crist to dig into state reserves. ...more

August 16, 2008

a rising billion in China and India determined to own automobiles and air conditioners. This increased demand for oil, natural gas and coal has almost nothing to do with the policies of America or the designs of OPEC. ...more

July 14, 2008

With fewer homebuyers in the South signing sales contracts to purchase existing homes in May than in April, the region showed the largest regional drop across the nation, a report released Tuesday said. ...more

July 9, 2008

TAMPA — A pending sales index shows 7.1 percent fewer home buyers in the South signed sales contracts to purchase existing homes in May than in April. It was the largest regional drop, according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors. The index for the South also hit a new low, said Mike Larson an analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter. It was a disappointment, he said, because, "the housing market had a bit of bounce in April because of moves made by the Feds to lower interest rates. ...more

July 8, 2008

Mike Wyckoff is an unlikely proponent of something Florida politicians and environmentalists have been trying to prevent for decades: The exploration and production of oil and natural gas in the waters off Florida's Gulf Coast. ...more

June 14, 2008