In the late 1800s, Karl Marx came up with "The Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto." In the late 1930s, Sinclair Lewis wrote a book titled "It Can't Happen Here." Sorry Mr. Lewis, it is happening here and quickly, as evidenced by the House vote on socialized medicine and the relentless daily attacks on our personal freedom and capitalism. If "Obamacare" goes through, our beloved government will own or control 48 percent of the private industry. Next up, cap and trade. This bill is in response to the world's biggest hoax ever perpetuated, global warming. For instance, when we exhale we emit CO2. Plants need C02 to live and supply oxygen to all breathing creatures. If we eliminate the C02 there will be no plants for the animals to feed on and no air for us to breathe. What are we going to eat? Nothing, we all die! Politicians don't care, they just crave power. Big Brother will then have total control over us. But on the bright side, politicians will also die from lack of hot air to spew. ...more

November 11, 2009

A popular downtown restaurant, the Whistle Stop cafe, is reopening Saturday after being closed for renovations. Owner Jerry Lofstrom and his son Jeremy have been working with subcontractors to renovate the outdoor patio flooring and overhang, retile part of the interior and open four windows on the south wall that have been bricked in since 1952. ...more

August 10, 2009

Please Hispanic community, let's not play the identity politics game over Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination. She should be confirmed or rejected on the merits of her record, not ethnic background. ...more

June 1, 2009

Elvina Taylor's father had a classmate in a one-room school house who became a business and manufacturing icon - Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company. ...more

March 9, 2009

Drive south on U.S. 27. Just three miles east of S.R. 70, the country begins to change. The Lake Wales Ridge drops dozens of feet in elevation, and the hilly land becomes flat. ...more

February 22, 2009

"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it a hundred times." ...more

January 11, 2009

St. Peter's Episcopal Church's historical sanctuary turned a century old this year. ...more

December 31, 2008

Alyce Walker isn't going to let Mother Nature encroach on what she considers a historical site. ...more

September 14, 2008

Reading what's on everyone's mind in various media takes me back to my childhood, where I enjoyed some wonderful experiences with my grandfather. He was an astute businessman and was affectionately known to his nine children as "the boss." He arrived in the Midwest from Ellis Island in the late 1800s and began to build his family's future, homesteading on a 160-acre Nebraska farm. His hard work, entrepreneurial spirit, shrewd business practices and persistence resulted in ownership of several farms and numerous bank accounts. ...more

September 9, 2008

Regarding Mike Fasano's dunderheaded missive to the judge that ended, mid-trial, the prosecution of Cynthia and Joe Clancy, one word leaps immediately to mind, and that word is: Omigod. ...more

September 7, 2008