A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun. ...more

November 23, 2009

City Attorney Karla Owens is resigning her position as the city's planning director and will remain with the city as a part-time city attorney. ...more

November 5, 2009

The city has reached a tentative agreement with its largest union in a dispute over wages, while an impasse with another union may be headed for the city council. ...more

November 5, 2009

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is looking to do its part to reduce the area's nearly 12 percent unemployment rate. ...more

October 23, 2009

On Tuesday, Council voted 4-1 to approve a temporary contract that would bring back Tom O'Neill as city manager during the search for a permanent replacement. ...more

September 2, 2009

Remembering Dr. Berrios I just felt I needed to express my sympathy for the Berrios family. ...more

December 12, 2008

A masked man entered the Highland Pines nursing home in Clearwater on the night of Nov. 26, pulled out a gun and demanded drugs from the employees inside, police say. ...more

December 3, 2008

Grant Tolbert admits he has faced some rough patches during his 18 years as Hernando County's building director. ...more

August 7, 2008

AFTER GETTING $40,871 PAYOFF FROM HERNANDO COUNTY ...more

July 5, 2008

Recently, the county commission decided to dismiss action on a proposed impact fee stimulus package. Charitably, it was not a good policy. A number of factors clearly illustrated that it would have jeopardized the local economy rather than stimulated it. That concept energized the following brief history of how such concepts affected working people in this country. Over a hundred years ago, President Teddy Roosevelt busted the robber barons. They had a stranglehold on workingmen. They dictated the price they paid for labor. Men worked 12 hour days, seven days a week for low wages with no vacations or sick leave. They worked till they dropped, 365 days a year. In the next 100 years, through bloody wars, goon squads and sheer persistence, working conditions improved. The '30s and '40s were pivotal decades in that slow process of working people earning a "piece of the pie," but they had to struggle to maintain the progress so bitterly fought for. The idea of "helping" the developers and construction industry "stimulate" the economy triggered recall of that history. Unions were formed to help workers collectively demand and earn better wages and work conditions. They gained those rights, but had to fight to keep them. In the '50s, the U.S. Congress passed laws to correct a flaw "discovered" in the wages and pension package. ...more

May 2, 2008