A month ago, I was feeling sorry for myself, because I was wrongly accused of parking illegally in a town I had never visited. It’s never fun to have to pay a fine when you’re innocent. The $40 fine was not that big a deal, but I had an impassioned desire to stand on the […]
Continue ReadingFAITH MATTERS: Exercise your ‘spiritual heart’
Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. — 1 Samuel 16:7 This month, our nation marks “heart month” with a special emphasis on Americans being “heart healthy.” There is no denying that is good for us to remember that, while our physical hearts need to be healthy, we must […]
Continue ReadingPAST & PRESENCE: Albert Schneider: Festival’s first president
For the onset of Florida Strawberry Festival season, we decided to take a look back at the beginning of the festival. As noted historian D. E. Bailey Jr. wrote, “Harvest festivals have long been traditional with every country in the land.” Plant City was going to have one. The role of strawberry production and sales […]
Continue ReadingLETTER: Car wash’s honesty a breath of fresh air
Dear Editor: After all the dishonesty, meanness and sad things that are happening in this time and day, I would like to point something nice out to you. Recently, I went to the Walden Lake Car Wash in Plant City to get my usual for my car. As always, I get greeted with the biggest smile […]
Continue ReadingOne injured in mobile home fire
A fire that broke out Monday morning in a mobile home sent one person to the hospital with minor injuries, according to Hillsborough County fire officials. The fire was reported about 10:18 a.m. at 3713 Bruton Road, authorities said. When firefighters arrived, they found the home engulfed in flames. A lack of fire hydrants in […]
Continue ReadingMY VIEW: ‘Meet me at the coffee shop’
As I sat with my wife, Lauri, playing checkers at a coffee shop here in town, I thought about the importance of having places for people to gather. Places like these help to create positive feelings of community and provide venues for discussion. If you look on the East Coast in cities from Savannah to […]
Continue ReadingFAITH MATTERS: To what do you cling in times of trouble?
Listen to these awesome words St. Paul records for us in Romans 8: “What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword … nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in […]
Continue ReadingFIT TO PRINT: How are you doing with your 2014 goals?
It is January again — that time of the year when we often look in the mirror and make health and fitness resolutions. Enthusiasm at the beginning of the month usually runs high — but by the end of January, that enthusiasm often begins to ebb. As a fitness professional, I see this happen every […]
Continue ReadingBodies of missing boaters pulled from Lake Tarpon
Editor’s note: This story first appeared on TampaBay.com. TARPON SPRINGS — Late Wednesday, search crews pulled the bodies of Willie Hightower and Willie Ragins from Lake Tarpon, where four days earlier the pair took off for a day trip in an aluminum fishing boat. Investigators haven’t yet said what killed either man, adding only that […]
Continue ReadingSearch continues for two Plant City boaters missing on Lake Tarpon
Editor’s note: A version of this story first appeared on TampaBay.com. A search for two close friends from Plant City who went missing Saturday night while fishing on Lake Tarpon continues today, authorities said. Willie Ragins, 43, and Willie Hightower, 64, spent Saturday afternoon fishing the lake in a 14-foot aluminum boat, according to the […]
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