In a recent front-page story in Highlands Today, it reported on the growing number of calls from parents to law enforcement regarding basic parenting issues, such as getting kids to come in the house or other disciplinary problems. This leaves most people dumbstruck that this is what we have become. It explains a lot of what's wrong in many areas of our society. ...more

March 4, 2009

Thanks to a new online program at King High School, there are no surprises for students or parents at the end of a grading period. ...more

November 12, 2008

Undercover detectives in Polk County said they busted one of their detention deputies trying to sell prescription drugs Thursday night. ...more

September 5, 2008

CLEARWATER – Likening their client's situation to that of a troublesome inmate kept in solitary confinement, Nick Bollea's attorneys have filed court papers asking a circuit judge to let the 17-year-old go home until he is old enough to serve the remainder of his sentence with other inmates at Pinellas County Jail. ...more

June 2, 2008

LAKE PLACID –– Dave Alden remembers his brother-in-law, Wendell, fondly, although he was only a child when his adopted sister married. It was partly because Wendell's life was a success story but more importantly he always made time for Dave. That mentoring of honesty and setting a good example made a lifetime impact. Born in Vermont, Alden retired in 1989 as a project engineer with Kennicott Copper. He and his wife, Marie, traveled the United States and Alaska for two years before the snowbirds decided to find a warm place in Florida to land. While zigzagging across the state, they discovered Lake Placid and fell in love with this town of murals and caladiums. Dave feels that their secret to being married 48 years –– besides luck –– is that they love each other and have the same goals. Marie was the type who wanted to help people and he was brought up the same way. ...more

December 31, 2007

A felony weapons charge has been dropped against a 10-year-old girl who brought a kitchen knife to school to cut up her lunch, authorities said Wednesday. ...more

December 29, 2007

AVON PARK — Individualized Study Services sounds like an educational plan tailored for the particular student. In a way that is exactly what it is, but years ago ISS was short for In School Suspension. So as that former name implies, it's a program for students with disciplinary problems that are not serious enough to merit an Out of School Suspension or, at the secondary level, assignment to The Academy at Youth Care Lane alternative program. But at the elementary level some schools, such as Lake Country Elementary, don't have ISS. ...more

November 26, 2007

Faced with higher recruiting goals, the Pentagon is quietly looking for ways to make it easier for people with minor criminal records to join the military, The Associated Press has learned. ...more

November 7, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - A jail inmate awaiting trial on suspicion of first-degree murder and aggravated battery now has another charge to fight: introducing contraband into a correctional facility. ...more

October 19, 2007