This may ring as odd, considering the auspicious, history-shaping event lurking less than a fortnight ahead, but evidence suggests most of us still harbor that most fundamental characteristic that defines Americans: the desire to be left alone. ...more

January 7, 2009

The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law. ...more

November 14, 2008

"Detective Story," by Imre Kertesz (Knopf, $21) In a novel only 112 pages long, you might expect more to be unsaid than said, and this is the case with "Detective Story" by Imre Kertesz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2002. ...more

January 27, 2008

With more budget cuts possible this year, Pasco County will ask residents to act as the unpaid eyes and ears for code enforcement officers. ...more

January 8, 2008

At the risk of being called potty-mouthed, county commissioners recently dumped criticism on companies that virtually abandon portable toilets at unfinished construction sites. ...more

October 31, 2007

Florida's 'boot camp' aggravated manslaughter trial has opened the door to discussion regarding issues that are not so easily dismissed by 'They were acquitted' or 'Well, the state doesn't run that kind of program anymore.' ...more

October 24, 2007

Florida's 'boot camp' aggravated manslaughter trial has opened the door to discussion regarding issues that are not so easily dismissed by 'They were acquitted' or 'Well, the state doesn't run that kind of program anymore.' ...more

October 24, 2007

Regarding 'Acquitted On all Counts' (front page, Oct. 13): I read with disbelief the headlines that the seven boot camp employees were exonerated of any responsibility in the 14-year-old child's death. Just watching the video makes a case for brutality. If the kid had been a dog, the guards would have been convicted of animal cruelty at the very least. ...more

October 16, 2007