TALLAHASSEE Florida State wide receivers coach Lawrence Dawsey will spend most of today preparing for FSU's showdown with Miami on Saturday. But sometime tonight after FSU's final practice, Dawsey will flip on the TV and take a peek at the USF-Rutgers game. ...more

October 18, 2007

Florida State wide receivers coach Lawrence Dawsey will spend most of today preparing for FSU's showdown with Miami on Saturday. But sometime tonight after FSU's final practice, Dawsey will flip on the TV and take a peek at the USF-Rutgers game. ...more

October 17, 2007

By most accounts, Florida's new education commissioner, Eric J. Smith, is an exceptionally smart reformer. His experience in closing the achievement gap in North Carolina and Maryland will serve Florida well, and his focus on aligning the high school curriculum to college-ready standards is what the state needs to reduce the remedial crutch used by far too many students. ...more

October 11, 2007

Billy Donovan only left the University of Florida basketball program for five days in June, but when his team opens practice Friday, it may feel like the first day of a new job. ...more

October 10, 2007

SEBRING — Housing assistance offered by Highlands County to low- and moderate-income people has grown 15 times larger than it was seven years ago, when Penny Phillippi took over the program. That's one reason Phillippi is on the verge of becoming the first executive director of the new Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency. When Phillippi became county housing director in November 2000, assistance programs totaled just under $700,000 per year. That figure is now more than $10 million annually. Phillippi confirmed that she has a contract offer of $85,000 to head the Immokalee CRA. With a $6,000 per year car allowance, her total salary package would be $91,000. While the new job would raise her salary by about $35,000, Phillippi said, "for me it was never an issue of money. I loved this job, I loved the challenge here, and I love Highlands County." ...more

October 5, 2007

SEBRING — "Cool beans" is an old '70s phrase that Sherri Cooper uses to express "good news." The "cool beans" now for the coordinator of Keep Highlands County Beautiful is that the county is back to normal in the business of cleaning up illegal dump sites. Through the manpower shortage at Highlands County Recycling of the past three months, the waiting list for dump-site cleanups grew to about 95. That was about five times the normal list of 15 to 20 dump sites. ...more

September 15, 2007

City hall is losing another key manager. Joey Wubbena, the city's director of safety services and code enforcement, is leaving Sept. 21. In addition to overseeing building and fire inspections and code enforcement, Wubbena handles safety matters during events and emergencies. ...more

September 7, 2007