My wife was on a search committee for our church. The search committee carefully and thoughtfully gathered a list of all the qualities they wished for in their new priest: A persuasive and engaging orator, a nurturing minister on the individual level, a sharp administrator, and someone who w…
Congratulations to all our graduating seniors. Completing twelve years of studies and moving on to the next phase in your lives is an accomplishment of which to be proud.
For many years now, I have tried to write a memoir about my perfectly awful early childhood and the foster home system that changed my life. You more often read about animals finally finding their ‘forever’ homes but I was the ‘mutt’ who found my safe haven in foster care before anyone had e…
As I type this in the middle of the week, I’m in a hotel in Las Vegas. I’m here attending my first live writing workshop in over two years.
Many parts of Florida have become too expensive to live. It shouldn’t take skyrocketing housing and insurance costs to convince state leaders to get their heads out of the sand on these issues.
It was a giddy feeling on that Friday and the bus ride home from high school so many years ago was different from all the others before. It was the last day of school! Anticipation of more than a weekend followed by another Monday school day were gone. Summer was here. Adventures, part-time …
Imagine a successful small-business owner who wants to run for Congress. To jump-start his campaign, he might lend it some money. Once fundraising gets going, it can pay him back. But the law says donations arriving after Election Day may repay only $250,000 of candidate debt. If the busines…
“I can’t HEEAARR you!” – Sgt. Vincent Carter on “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
While the good news is that the pandemic appears to be waning, the bad news is that the cost of living has skyrocketed over the past two years.
Today I want to introduce you to one of the busiest divisions at the Florida Department of Health in Highlands County: Environmental Health. At DOH-Highlands, we have a team of Environmental Specialists and Biological Scientists who work tirelessly to protect the health of everyone in our co…
Few places in Highlands County draw a crowd as large as the route (U.S.) 27 area that comprises the Florida Cancer Specialists and the Eye Specialists of Mid Florida. And as if this were not enough, nearby is the Barranco ENT Clinic and a mobile home park.
The outright duplicity that guided the words and actions of Rams owner Stan Kroenke and National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell, among others, were widely assumed but not proven beyond doubt in the public’s eye until the release of court documents behind the $790 settlement with …
This past week, Nicole Radonski announced her candidacy for District 5 of the Highlands County School Board. I was able to sit down with her and discuss the campaign and the issues that she saw central to her platform.
I walk my dog, Maggie May, every morning and as I wait for her to come out of the garage, I usually pick up my Highlands News-Sun in our driveway. Sometimes I’ll ask Maggie to pick the paper up and carry it to my wife. She learned this trick and even carries a neighbor’s paper up to his fron…
All these mass shootings have one common factor, that being the shooter had documented mental health problems. How do we use this to stop these shooters from purchasing firearms and significantly reduce these mass shootings? Actually quite simple.
One of our esteemed letter writers has the nerve to write in and accuse Gov. DeSantis of using his political platform to suppress free speech by his actions against Disney.
Though it seems as though every day we hear more and more agencies acknowledging the terrible toll taken by COVID-19 on mental health, particularly for our children, it took a while to get to the point of action to reverse the problem.
President Biden and those around him have a fondness for using historical disasters as points of comparisons to raise the level of outrage over outbreaks of violence and unrest that have plagued the nation for much of the last 18 months.
After all these years, my dad inspires me still.
If the absence of mandatory helmets in girls lacrosse seems baffling, consider the history of protective equipment in baseball.
“I would guess by now your mailbox is filling up with responses due to your column appearing this morning. I feel your feeble attempt at deflecting responsibility from the president is very misguided. While everyone is entitled to an opinion, I would hope a career journalist such as yourself…
The Day of Prayer celebrated nationally on the first Thursday in May is a wonderful observance for our community. It’s a time to come together with a common goal, to pray for our nation, to celebrate our freedom, and most of all, worship our Lord.
It’s that time of year again – hurricane season officially begins June 1. Due to climate change, however, since 2015 the first named storm of each season has occurred in May.
May is National Foster Care Month. As such, this is a time to say, “Thank you!” to all the family members that step forward to care for children in our community when parents cannot safely do so.
As I mentioned in my column last week, I somehow strained the tendons and ligaments to my right knee. This caused several things to occur.
Sticker shock at the gas pumps might remind motorists to follow some good advice from Benjamin Franklin: “Waste not, want not.”
Leadership is something that has been discussed, described and written about over the many years going back to the Greek philosophers. It seems at different times in our history, the shape and style of leadership evolved to fit whatever the current climate was. I know over the years I change…
Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of talk about Elon Musk buying Twitter and what it means for the social media company.
Bad weather accelerated by global warming
