May 3, 2012 Dear Commissioners: Today I urge your support of extending city benefits to same-sex partners. I would also like to commend the Commission as a whole for your sober, careful, and respectful approach to this...

It appears the Lakeland City Commission will hold a vote of sorts on whether to allow same sex employees to include their committed partners on the city’s health insurance policy and other basic benefits enjoyed by...

Back in 2010, before Marshall Goodman came under investigation for his expensive taste in Star Wars toys and general incompetence, the ex-USFP poobah hired former Polk County Commissioner Jack Myers to a $50,000-per-year...

One of the most important stories of 2012 for Lakeland and Polk County is going to be the redistricting battle going on in Tallahassee. In fact, it topped my list of the Top 10 stories for the county on my blog, Polk...

Dennis Ross took to The Ledger Wednesday at some length to explain how easy and simple it is to understand his position on the debt ceiling and budget issues. “Figuring out my position on an issue is pretty easy these...

Seth McKeel responded yesterday to a critical Ledger editorial with this preamble: In response to The Ledger’s editorial “Florida Legislature: Blame Legislators For Cuts,” I take personal offense to the...

This does not make me happy. As close readers will know, my daughter is about to graduate from the theater department at Harrison School of the Arts. That will allow me, mercifully, to miss this latest and most unfortunate...

I’m not going to belabor this, but it’s important to point it out. While Dennis Ross was tweeting “Pres. just said he will veto CR to fund our troops because Planned Parenthood & DC abortions are not...

This is an update to my April 11 column on an anti-whistle-blowing bill that is pending in the Florida Senate. SB 1246 would make it a crime to photograph farms undercover. This could result in the criminal prosecution of...

St. Pete Times columnist Howard Troxler wrote a scathing column published Saturday concerning Florida House Bill 1207 (2010), which became law on March 24. HB 1207, sponsored by Lakeland’s own Seth McKeel, establishes...

Here’s a little list, in the style of Harper’s Index: Date the federal budget should have been passed by (end of fiscal year): September 30, 2010 (US Senate) Number of temporary continuing resolutions required...

I’m so old, I can remember back in 2006 when Dennis Ross publicly urged his fellow Republicans to help the scandal-plagued Polk County Opportunity Council get up on its feet–at a time nobody else was urging that....

Thirteen articles for week 13 of 2011 would only make sense. So, of course, we published 14. A big change was the addition of the Lakeland Flying Tigers section on the front page. (Look just below the latest 18 articles.)...

There wasn’t much controversy this week at Lakeland Local, even when normally even-tempered columnist Kemp Brinson wrote: “It just makes me sick. If I were you, I couldn’t do it. We deserve better from you, all...