I am writing to you today with some questions and comments regarding gas prices, and more specifically, the greed of the members of OPEC. If we are the greatest nation on earth, and I believe we are, why do we tolerate the gouging we are being subjected to? Why don't we, as a nation, tell the Arab oil companies where they can put their oil, and instead use our own oil for our own people? What happened to all that oil we are pumping in Alaska? What about all the oil rigs off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana? Isn't that American oil? Why do we export our oil to China or wherever, and then import Arab oil for Americans to use? Why not let the Chinese deal with the stuck up Saudi king, and we just keep our own oil? Doesn't that make more sense? And if we did use our own oil and let somebody else deal with Saudi Arabia, then the president would not have to meekly ask the king to please pump up the supply of oil, only to be told no! Because I for one do not like the sight of the American president sucking up to anybody, let alone some smug Arab king! ...more

May 23, 2008

The Brooksville Housing Authority Board on Tuesday evening accomplished what Mayor David Pugh had set them out to do. ...more

May 22, 2008

If you are not making a living here in Highlands County, blame your local elected official. My husband works for Cross Country, like about 500 others here in Highlands County. Prior to locating their business here in Highlands County, Cross Country's intentions were to pay more per hour than they are currently paying. Our wonderful local city councilmen at that time negotiated with Cross Country and they nixed the higher pay that Cross Country was going to offer their employees. The reason was the city councilmen were concerned that if Cross Country paid as much as they were intending to pay, local business would not be able to compete and Cross Country would depreciate the local employee pool making the low cost employee unavailable to our local businessmen. Their reasoning was that this would hurt the local businessman. ...more

May 19, 2008

I've wondered a lot about the fact that the political class in this country is so obtuse. Here's more evidence: ...more

May 6, 2008

It is time America woke up to the fact that the females of our species have an extraordinary chance to promote their gender, a chance of a life time. A chance to force equality in the workplace, equal pay for equal work; ladies have proven their leadership all over the world. Who better to lead us in this time of greed and corruption to lead and change the direction of these United States. Honor all your mothers in the 2008 presidential election by electing a woman for president. ...more

May 5, 2008

grandparents, mother, myself, five siblings, aunt, uncle and two cousins from Michigan, along with the Kinderman family (four people). The big draw in Hernando was basically two things: the great weather; and it was cheap to live here, for a fairly nice, quaint region. ...more

February 22, 2008

Those who oppose abortions call those who are pro-choice morally corrupt. One columnist even reasoned that there would not be illegal aliens in this country if those 50 million aborted babies had lived. Those 50 million would have jobs, thus negating the need to import illegals. With that rationale, all those policies by President Bush would be justified. Please follow this logic. Even that great conservative, President Reagan, justifiably out-sourced 5 million jobs because 20 million babies were aborted. He even penalized the taxpayers by using their taxes to fund the transfer of factories off shore. In addition, he allowed those manufacturers to take their profits off shore to avoid paying taxes and allowed them to compete with those who stayed in country for more contracts to be off shored. Who would have believed such a scenario? Not I! ...more

January 30, 2008

Valerie Iengo of Port Richey says the nation's economic problems are severe, contradicting Ernest Lane's letter "No Crisis." ...more

January 29, 2008

Several editorials in the Highlands Today have come out against the Florida Hometown Democracy ballot proposal. That is unfortunate, but not surprising, as a newspaper is a "business" and depends upon the number of paid subscribers it has. The more people moving into the newspaper's area, the better chance there is to increase sales. This may be called the "gold" factor. I call it the "greed" factor. ...more

December 5, 2007

Regarding "Mortgage CEO Wants A Federal Rescue" (Business, Dec. 4): The mortgage mess is about to get messier. The bailout proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will spread the mess to tax-exempt bond funds, stealing money from many retirees that have invested in the bond funds to get by in retirement. It all deprives income that eases the burden on the taxpayers of this country. ...more

December 5, 2007