For the older folks among us, a memo from state education officials in the spring of 2011 that cursive writing would no longer be a part of the required curriculum came as a bit of a shock.
Imagine if energy producers, big manufacturers and oil barons actually sent you a check for the greenhouse gas their businesses produce.
This could be the year of the teacher in the Florida Legislature. For more than two decades, Republican governors and legislative leaders have micromanaged their classrooms, evaluated them using factors they could not control and failed to adequately reward them for educating the state’s chi…
On Jan. 1, 1863, 157 years ago, the emancipation proclamation legally ended slavery. It did not, of course, end racism.
Visit Florida, the state program charged with drawing tourists, is gearing up to fight for its financial life.
For a state and nation already on notice that our long-term health is deteriorating, news at the beginning of this week sounded disturbing wakeup calls.
When people say that they’re fed up with health care, what they really mean is that they’re fed up with health-care billing.
Puerto Rico is now dealing with the aftermath of a powerful 5.8 earthquake and equally powerful aftershocks. Casualties are low, and electrical power is slowly returning. But the quakes are just the latest natural disasters to cripple the U.S. commonwealth.
The concept of “retirement,” along with a government social welfare programs to support old folks who no longer worked, dates to the 1880s. That’s when German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck concluded that a little socialism for the elderly — Germany set retirement age at 70 — was better than b…
When lawmakers take their seats today for their annual session in Tallahassee, they will carry with them a bevy of bills and promises important to the people who voted them into office. With hundreds of bills awaiting a hearing in committees and eventually maybe in the House and Senate chamb…
Here’s a grim report to start the new year from The Washington Post on the social and emotional well-being of Americans:
We’ve always said local governments do a better job of deciding what is best for their citizens. Leaving decision-making to local governments presents the best opportunity for feedback from the people those decisions impact.
It’s 2020. Like all years ending in 0, it’s a big year.
Charlotte County Commissioner Bill Truex is one builder who is fed up with people looking to build a dream home but getting ripped off in the process.
As 2019 drew to close, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue shared his assessment of how well the department he leads succeeded in meeting its goals this year. He has good reason to be proud of its record because the U.S. Department of Agriculture accomplished much this year.
America has closed a deadly decade for public school, with children and teenagers slaughtered on school grounds at the hands of young, disturbed shooters.
Juan Sebastian was asleep on a picnic table in Arcadia when he was held down and beaten by three men.
A menorah in the window. It’s a simple act — a public display of light, accompanied by joyous song.
Why it matters: The closure of the Newseum is a loss for the understanding of how important free speech has been over time and must continue to be in the future.
America’s Main Street, it seems, is being left along the side of the road.
Buried in the 2020 federal budget bills Congress approved last week is $25 million for gun safety research to be divided between the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The inclusion is less notable for the amount — $25 million is a drop in the b…
Fireworks will be displayed in large settings and in back yards tonight as we ring in the New Year. For many, it is as traditional as watching the ball drop from New York City’s Times Square or toasting the New Year in with a sip of champagne.
America is preparing to close a deadly decade for public school, with children and teenagers slaughtered on school grounds at the hands of young, disturbed shooters.
The House of Representatives impeachment vote last week was very bad news for the legacy of President Donald Trump. It also seems as if political party affiliation has trampled individual conscience and thought as the steering wheel of our government.
The Mosaic Company is no stranger to criticism, even protests, from anti-mining groups, environmentalists and even this newspaper when we believe it is appropriate.
The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office just doubled the staff in its Mental Health Unit, and that is great news.
Has anyone in this country not decided how he or she feels about the impeachment of President Donald Trump?
President Ronald Reagan signed the National Drinking Age Act into law on July 17, 1984. The measure required states to raise the minimum drinking age to 21 or face a reduction in federal highway funding.
Editor’s Note: In September of 1897, The New York Sun received a letter from 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon. That letter prompted Francis Church, one of the editors, to write what has become perhaps the most famous newpaper editorial of all time. The News-Sun takes pleasure sharing it with our…
A family meal, once considered standard, has become far less commonplace in recent decades,
Santa stopped by our offices last week with some of the many letters he received from the recent Johnson City Christmas Parade. Most letter writers asked him to deliver what you might expect — hoverboards, action figures, bicycles, toy dump trucks and such.
Holiday parties and family meals for Christmas are officially endangered.
With fewer than usual days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s likely social calendars in the time leading up to the holiday are filled with outings and get-togethers, where, many times, alcohol will be available.
The Christmas holiday season is enjoyed as a time of peace and joy as people everywhere embrace the message of good will to all.
In October, a routine inspection of a phosphate manufacturing operation in Bartow found a pool of water where no water should be. It was determined to be seepage at an area where a gypstack meets cooling ponds and ditches in the complex campus operation.
If you’ve never worried about your home flooding, maybe now is the time.
The Oregon-based Samson Motors Inc. is looking for a location to produce its flying car. It asked for the tax cut, which it hopes to couple with an equal incentive from the state.
When a child goes hungry, the whole world suffers. There is absolutely no reason that the Trump administration should limit who qualifies for the federal food stamps program when that decision could put nearly 200,000 children in the state of Florida and 982,000 nationally at risk of losing …
With the signing of a bill on Nov. 25, President Donald Trump put into law the first major, widespread federal ban on animal cruelty — a bipartisan effort known as the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act.
While the holiday season of gifts, parties and cheer is here, there’s another season that has arrived bringing fever, nausea and body aches — flu season.
There’s an old phrase that says “like a broken record” when referring to something that happens over and over again, or something that is said over and over again.
To obtain a college degree, many students must take out student loans to pay their way through school.
If not handled correctly, the retelling of past tragedies and experiences can be dangerous for today’s society.
Americans are having fewer babies and dying younger. That grim reality should be part of the conversation as this country tries to get past the wall of political intransigence that has prevented it from constructing a saner immigration policy and better health care system.
Florida’s prison system is a ticking time bomb, and “the status quo is not sustainable.” That dire warning is not from some outside reformer but the state official who runs Florida’s correctional system. Lawmakers need to heed these alarms and invest more heavily for the sake of public safety.
Over the next few weeks, children will be shaking boxes under the Christmas tree to see what might be hidden away for them. Others will be attending Christmas parties and having the chance to stand under the mistletoe with someone special.
During visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, on Sunday, Pope Francis pronounced that, “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral.” He added, “As is the possession of atomic weapons.”
One of the least discussed but more expensive legislative initiatives coming out of last year’s session was a plan/scheme to add 330 miles of toll roads to the state transportation system.
