This edition of events lists more than just Lakeland. I’ve not covered every Lakeland event, so if you are part of one leave a comment so the rest of us can be in the loop too! Enjoy Downtown Lakeland First Friday –...

On January 18, 2007 five people got together at a local coffeehouse to discuss social media. (Back then they called it “blogging.”) Twitter was a few months old, part of Odeo* and Facebook had only opened their...

Lakeland Local is happy to work with Polk’s Government Television and Orchid Springs Animal Hospital to host an interactive webcast series. Aimed at animal lovers, the webcast features Dr. Mitsie Vargas and kicks-off...

My Sierra Club membership card came in the mail. In some circles, this might be the final straw — the thing that brands me as a hopeless, evil liberal, the thing that inspires the most hatred among freedom-loving...

There’s no doubt about it. Lakeland is growing, and as it grows, so is its artistic presence. With that in mind, let me introduce you to three art galleries that you might not be aware of: Garden District Artists,...

You’ve no doubt heard the scary stories about how dumb kids today are. The Department of Education’s National Assessment of Education Progress is out, and the results are, evidently, pretty bad. A...

A lot of people that live in Polk County don’t know it, but we have a huge, vibrant, high quality theater culture. Winter Haven has an amazing community theater. Haines City and Lakes Wales both have well-regarded...

OK, so this isn’t your average music video. It isn’t even really your average music. This is called change ringing. It’s what would happen if Leonardo da Vinci, Philip Glass, and Alan Turing all got...

Regular School – .2(Regular School) + Special School > Charter School +/- Null Set Or something. This is the bizarre mathematical phrase we’ve come to in assessing the performance of Polk County schools. As...

Sunday, Gary White’s article in the Ledger announced that Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is bringing the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® to Lakeland next January.   Susan G. Komen for the Cure®’s record...

While working on a different post about FCAT scores, I decided to check if the great Sue Buckner, the finest principal in the history of Florida (go ahead, refute it) still ran Sandhill Elementary in Haines City. So I...

Ferdinand De Jesus and Jessica Podany from Just Fierce Productions are on a mission. They want to change your idea of what the homosexual community is like. And they’re doing it through events. Big events. In fact, their...

Unless you still do most of your communication by landline telephone, you’ve probably seen the viral video where the young man sets-up a proposal to his future wife by slipping a video into the previews at the movies....

I will be the first to admit that this is a stupid and petty game, but those of us partial to the ideals of public education didn’t start it. What follows is a (partial) list of a few of the Lakeland-area elementary...