Mind the disabled While my husband went into the store I stayed out in the car. I could see the handicapped parking spaces quite well. A van pulled into a handicapped space and had a valid sticker hanging from the window. Out bounced two young kids and their mother. No one appeared handicapped. A moment later a pickup pulled into another handicapped spot and a woman talking on a cell phone with one hand and smoking with the other jumped out of the truck and almost ran into the store. She too had a valid sticker. Meanwhile, a car with a wheelchair ramp on the back was driving round and round looking for an available handicapped spot. ...more

December 25, 2009

It's a time of year to reflect on surviving holiday gatherings, especially your own. ...more

December 12, 2009

Lenders are owners In your cover article on pending foreclosed properties Nov. 4, the manager of Hillsborough County Code Enforcement was quoted: "The lender doesn't own the property, so we can't legally make them maintain it." Excuse me? ...more

November 6, 2009

Sometimes when reading the newspaper one comes across comments so outrageous and off the mark that a retort is necessary. On July 13 a writer stated in a Letter to the Editor that "the NRA is a lobbying organization dedicated to putting more guns in the hands of criminals." The writer then rambles on about the NRA advancing its "radical program" and having "access to our libraries." ...more

July 17, 2009

The debate over Florida's public campaign financing program turned ugly Thursday when Republican Sen. Ronda Storms mocked President Barack Obama as "The Messiah" and a Democratic colleague made a vulgar retort. ...more

March 13, 2009

The debate over Florida's public campaign financing program turned ugly Thursday when a Republican senator mocked President Barack Obama as "the messiah" and a Democratic colleague chimed in with a vulgar retort. ...more

March 12, 2009

At 2:35 a.m. one morning I was awakened to the clanking sound of my father's walker. ...more

March 12, 2009

The rich and famous, it seems, split up differently than the rest of us. Christie Brinkley loaded up the kids in the family private jet and flew off to Colorado in search of comfort after discovering her husband was having an affair with an 18-year-old and spending some of the family fortune on Internet porn. ...more

July 9, 2008

Mr. Reark, I'm responding to your completely misunderstood retort to my November letter regarding the bombing range. Your inability to comprehend what you read is astonishing. ...more

December 20, 2007

Hillary Rodham Clinton ridiculed Democratic rival Barack Obama on Tuesday for his contention that living abroad as a child helped give him a better understanding of the foreign policy challenges facing the United States. ...more

November 21, 2007