Questions abound about the Palm Beach County School District officials’ troubling use of the Baker Act to handle unruly children — so flagrantly misusing the statute that in a recent four-year span they shipped 5-year-olds to psychiatric facilities eight times. Fifty-nine times, they Baker A…
It’s a health crisis that is too readily accepted: death and injury on the nation’s roads.
Words cannot express the loss and deep sorrow felt in our county. Sadly, once again, Highlands County has to pull together in the face of a tragedy.
National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, last week, shines a spotlight on the importance of children’s mental health.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration held a press conference this week on how to prevent child deaths and injuries in hot cars, which is important to consider now that the weather locally is heating up.
Millions of people have been separating their recyclables for decades, but a few folks still seem to be having trouble with the concept.
Transparency is important in all sectors of government but nowhere more crucial than in the public health sector.
When the COVID pandemic began, city councils, county boards, school boards and other public bodies across the nation began airing their meetings online, including using Zoom, YouTube, public access television and via phone.
What’s the next step in America’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts?
In Florida and Texas, this story is all too typical. A child placed in foster care at birth is adopted and embarks on a journey to adulthood with a lingering question — who are my birth parents?
Compassion isn’t the first word on the tip of anyone’s tongue when discussing U.S. immigration policy. But in tapping Harris County (Texas) Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to head U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, President Biden has wisely selected a veteran lawman who knows when to be tough an…
Legislators from different political parties don’t agree on much. But there is one area in which they are in bipartisan lockstep: zealously guarding their power.
A majority of workers in Florida’s long-term care facilities and nursing homes still had not gotten the COVID vaccine as of April 22, according to state numbers.
It must have been quite a victory for President Joe Biden to receive the backing of the United Mine Workers in his plan to move away from coal and other fossil fuels in exchange for a “true energy transition.” Biden claims that transition will include thousands of jobs in renewable energy an…
Make no mistake: Our ongoing battle with COVID-19 is really a world war.
Florida has a 12-month wildfire season. We always have to have our guard up, but do catch an occasional break like we did several days ago. The heavy rains over the three days did little to put out the chance of a wildfire as our county firefighters can attest.
The jury did its job. Now lawmakers must do theirs.
Chicago is a city in mourning. A city fractured. And yet body camera footage from the March 29 shooting death of Adam Toledo binds us in a most tragic way. We knew the videos from the police oversight agency were coming. But witnessing, absorbing, what actually happened has been shattering.
“New York’s success in dealing with COVID is inarguable,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo claimed Monday at another one of his highly controlled press conferences, even as a new study suggests the Empire State failed worst in the nation when you consider both the health and employment consequences of the …
The coronavirus pandemic, now more than a year old, helped our communities appreciate the contributions of ordinary workers used to being taken for granted.
Gov. Ron DeSantis regularly bashes the media over the way that his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has been covered, claiming he isn’t being treated fairly.
Florida’s tourism and hospitality sector took it on the chin in the coronavirus pandemic, perhaps more than any other industry: In 2020, the state’s leading industry hemorrhaged money, with 50 million fewer visitors than 2019.
After all the vivid and searing images connected to the killing of George Floyd, Tuesday brought us another: The eyes of Derek Chauvin, wide and darting above his Covid mask, as the hard verdicts reached by a group of Black, white and multiracial jurors rained down upon him.
Thousands of migrant families fleeing violence and poverty in Central American countries are seeking asylum at the southern U.S. border.
President Biden’s recent announcement that he will begin removing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the month and complete the withdrawal by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks that provoked the war, will finally bring to a close direct American military involve…
President Biden campaigned on unity and bipartisanship, but his governing philosophy has been the opposite. So now the White House is redefining the concept.
Scandal has been brewing for a Florida congressman. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is under federal investigation. The central question hinges on whether Mr. Gaetz paid an underage girl for sexual favors, and whether he paid for her to travel with him across state lines, which could constitut…
Blood clots in veins that drain blood from the brain can lead to alarming strokelike results. The symptoms can be severe headaches, abdominal pain, leg pain and shortness of breath.
The images of a police officer in Miami-Dade County taking a 7-year-old boy — in handcuffs — for a psychiatric exam after he hit a teacher sparked outrage in 2018.
Let’s put aside some of the obvious questions that spawn from the Florida Legislature’s curious effort to push through bills that would restrict the ability of Floridians to cast votes through the mail and in drop boxes during upcoming elections.
As our lives return to what approximates normal in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many of us can’t wait to get back to how things used to be.
Although we’re not at all certain who might be interested (perhaps some of our winter residents still here in Florida), a sale involving state property in the eastern Upper Peninsula is worth mentioning, if for no other reason, its unusual nature.
After a tumultuous and vulnerable year for agricultural workers, it’s time undocumented farmworkers across the country are provided an attainable path to legal residency.
It’s rare that a politician in Florida is so popular that he’s literally on a first-name basis with almost everybody.
One problem with government emergency actions is that the political class never wants them to end. Witness the Biden Administration’s extension of the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, which by now are creating more trouble than they’re worth.
April has been designated as National Distracted Driving Awareness Month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and that’s a good reminder of the importance of putting down your cellphone or anything else while you drive and putting your focus exactly where it should be: on th…
In many ways, human brains are hardwired for pessimism. It’s a handy defense mechanism that helps us avoid dangerous situations, but it can also blind us to all the ways in which our lives are improving.
There is, inherently, a timelessness to great writing. Beverly Cleary was a great writer.
We look back at the progress being made in our community and the heroes who touch the lives of the people who live here. And what a year it’s been.
It is difficult to digest the filth that spills from the lips of mealy-mouthed critics of the United States when so many men, women and families from practically every nation on the planet are willing to sacrifice anything and everything to get here. Thousands are even willing to gamble with…
Most Americans know what it means to be a responsible parent, a responsible driver or a responsible gun owner. Too many of our neighbors, however, don’t make the time to be responsible pet owners.
It happened again in March, only this time an all-to-common occurrence made national headlines.
Today is the day when Christians throughout the world celebrate the resurrection of life and their hope for the future.
Monday sounded like a dire day in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed more than 550,000 American lives.
As we ponder whether we could have prevented recent house fires, we can conclude only one thing: The best way to prevent the loss of property is to prevent fires. A recent string of blazes occurred during the period when most house fires occur — in the fall, winter and early spring. That’s w…
There is no doubt about it. It takes the entire community to save our children from the horrors of a violent or negligent family. It takes a neighbor who isn’t afraid to report the things they see or hear. It takes a teacher to obey the laws and report the bruises or marks they see on a stud…
