Jobs trump airplane After reading the story, "Unequipped pest plane idle 6 years" (front page, Dec. 20), I started shaking my head in disbelief over our local government at work. All I can say is that I hope come mosquito season the overpriced 1979 King Air finally gets in the air and does the job it was meant to do in 2003, or I say let's go back to the trucks. It just might save a few county workers their jobs in 2010! ...more

December 24, 2009

The Highlands County commissioners got some good news, and also some warnings, on Tuesday about the increase in mosquitoes in the wake of Tropical Storm Fay. ...more

September 17, 2008

The high-pitched drone of mosquito trucks is becoming a constant for Pasco County residents as heavy rainfall has the Pasco Mosquito Control District hard at work eradicating the insects. ...more

July 13, 2008

If you need extra motivation to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes this summer, consider this from the Florida Department of Health: ...more

July 12, 2008

The rains sweep through like a pail of water splashing a sleeping giant, and Wolf Branch Creek preserve springs to life. ...more

July 3, 2008

What is the deadliest animal on the planet? Thoughts of the great white shark, the African lion or venomous cobras possibly come to mind. ...more

June 25, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - The mosquito season is here and recent heavy rainfall in the Trinity and Hudson area is prompting action from the Pasco Mosquito Control District. Mosquitoes thrive on standing water to breed, and some isolated spots in West Pasco picked up as much as 4.5 inches of rain last week, according to Dennis Moore, the district's director. ...more

June 21, 2008

As women, we're supposed to savor the "seasons" of our lives, which, ironically, have more to do with what's going on in our heads than with weather or age. My teen years were one long "season" of angst. Fall started with the school year, but for me it was more "sweater season" than fall. Does this bulky knit make me look fat? And more "football season" than autumn. I'll just die if I don't have a date for homecoming. Winter was the season of holidays. Not another Christmas pageant! Even God must be bored with this. And it was the season of basketball. I'm going to the game even if I do have six hours of homework. Winter was also one, continuous frizzy-hair nightmare. I'd rather be bald! Spring signaled the school year winding down, and final exams loomed like a spectre. Somebody just shoot me, preferably before third period. Summer officially started, not with the solstice, but with the last day of school, which was also the first day of "swimsuit season." It's not bad enough that I never tan; now my white shoulders have zits. ...more

January 27, 2008