After receiving an anonymous call about emaciated dogs, Hillsborough County Animal Services investigators went to the Plant City home of Herminio Soto and found two dogs that were yellow when they should have been white because they were kept in cages. ...more

September 18, 2008

"Should I stay or should I go." To quote the band "The Clash," illegal immigrants to Avon Park and its environs must be asking just that question. If they stay here, they risk arrest, deportation, exploitation or worse. If they go back to Mexico, they risk greater poverty, starvation, exploitation even murder by corrupt thugs, drug dealers and cops. Nice choice, eh? I recently witnessed a demonstration against illegal immigration at the intersection of US 27 and SR 64 in Avon Park. Truck drivers were honking their air horns presumably in support of the demonstrators who proudly waved American flags next to a pickup truck with a sign against illegal immigration and for drilling domestic oil. In attendance was the former mayor of Avon Park, a huge enemy of illegal immigration. I don't know him, never met him, but I've heard him speak. Nice to know paranoia is alive and well in America. ...more

September 8, 2008

U.S. Sugar Profile Founded in 1931 by Charles Stewart Mott, U.S. Sugar is one of the largest producers of sugar and citrus in the country. The privately held company employs 1,700 people and owns and farms more than 187,000 acres in Hendry, Glades and Palm Beach counties. In addition to sugar and citrus, the company owns a short-line railroad called the South Central Florida Express. The railroad includes 159 miles of track and 14 locomotives that transport lumber, paper, citrus and sugar. ...more

June 25, 2008

Citrus growers in the Tampa Bay area spent the New Year on high alert last week as freezing temperatures threatened crops. ...more

January 9, 2008

As Cargill shuts down its juice plants in Avon Park and Frostproof, it's a reminder that Highlands County is changing. Fewer and fewer citrus farms exist. Farms that are more valuable as housing developments or shopping malls than they can possibly produce in orange juice. Slowly, the citrus groves along U.S. 27 are disappearing. So are the groves on U.S. 98, between U.S. 27 and Spring Lake. They will remain along our country roads. Cargill Juice North America is laying off an additional 20 to 25 workers at Avon Park and Frostproof by Jan. 31. The company is getting out of the citrus processing business in Florida. Imagine saying that in the days of Ben Hill Griffin Jr., when oranges were king. ...more

December 23, 2007

LAKE PLACID — Eight grove owners north of town have banded together in a bid to trade oranges for homes. At Monday's meeting, a professional urban planner presented town council with preliminary plans that call for the eventual construction of 4,600 homes on 1,500 acres. Ground breaking for the proposed development, which stretches from the railroad bridge northeast to the shores of Lake Apthorpe, and on both sides of U.S. 27, is at least four years away, according to planner Augie Fragala, of Powell, Fragala & Associates Inc. ...more

December 17, 2007

LAKE PLACID — It all depends on who you talk to. Some call the vendors who hawk fresh vegetables along the roadside "squatters," while regular customers talk about bargains. As the local growing seasons change, the fare varies from strawberries to oranges and melons. A pair of longtime produce vendors along U.S. 27 – just north of the Lake Placid town border – don't know whose property they sell from. ...more

November 12, 2007

At 10 a.m. today, developers of The Grove at Wesley Chapel will welcome customers to their sprawling shopping center, completing the first step in south-central Pasco County's transition from home of "the road to nowhere" to host of a retail mecca. ...more

November 9, 2007

SEBRING — A love for not only music but also Highlands County resonated through the social hall at Church of the Brethren on Monday night. ...more

October 17, 2007

Highlands Today recently did a story that citrus producer Mason Smoak had testified before the House Agriculture Committee in Congress that,"We want legal workers." I can agree that citrus growers need workers to get their fruit picked, but not at the expense of having millions of illegals from Mexico unlawfully entering the United States. Mr. Smoak said he "is proud of the salaries he pays his employees" of $10 an hour, when the federal wage rate is $5.85? ...more

October 11, 2007