Most Americans feel compassionate about anyone facing foreclosure. Witnessing more than a million people staring down foreclosure due to home mortgages leaves all us wanting to save people from this sad situation. But before we spend billions in taxpayer dollars for a bailout, we need to consider how this happened in the first place. When we do that, we'll see that most of the people losing their houses never should have qualified for a home loan in the first place, and that predatory lenders are to blame for most of this mess. The Bush administration reached a deal with mortgage bankers to freeze interest rates on some sub-prime mortgages for five years. Other limitations apply, and only about 225,000 people will benefit from it. In fact, it's fair to say that if these homeowners are already in trouble, freezing interest rates won't help much – if at all. ...more

December 9, 2007

County engineers believe they've hit on a way to improve local roads and save money at the same time. ...more

December 4, 2007

A Waste Of Money Regarding "Grand Jury Indicts Bonds" (front page, Nov. 16): ...more

November 23, 2007

I find the news that our Highlands County government is going into business very disturbing. Isn't the role of the county government to promote an economic base for our community and to encourage investment by the private sector? ...more

October 18, 2007

For the first time in seven years, the city is poised to charge builders and developers more for shepherding their projects through the permitting process. ...more

October 13, 2007

The financing of several high-profile city projects could be on firmer ground after the Florida Supreme Court on Friday revised an earlier ruling that cast those plans in doubt. ...more

September 29, 2007

SEBRING –– Three commercial buildings are being considered as the new home of Highlands County Veterans Services. County officials are investigating the possibility of buying and renovating one of the three. Two are brand new, including Liberty Plaza, an unoccupied structure for professional services and retail on U.S. 27 at George Boulevard. The other new building is partially occupied. While this option is being checked out, plans to construct a new building for Veterans Services, approved back in May, have temporarily been placed on hold. ...more

September 25, 2007