Valencia College

After more unflattering news reports last week about his light schedule, Florida Governor Charlie Crist keeps phoning it in. Today???s schedule shows three phone calls. Yesterday???s showed two phone calls after a 9 a.m. appearance at Valencia Community...

Florida lost its lieutenant governor this week, meaning a whole bunch of ribbon-cutting gigs just opened up. Other than that, most folks won't notice a difference. Still, a few thoughts: •What a pitiful way to go out. Years ago, former House...

"An individual has not started living," the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once declared, "until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity." I can't say whether any of the 59 Orange...

I know it's still only January, but I want to nominate the name of Valencia College's latest exhibit for my just created "The Artsiest Exhibition Title of the Year" award. (This should not be confused with long titles, such as the one for a Hannibal...

They control some of the largest work forces in town. They can affect your health care, your daily commute, even your kids' education. Some of them have direct lines to the White House. They are Central Florida's power players. And you deserve to...

No one had to paint Barbara Hughes a picture. Stressed as piano wire by her job, withdrawing deeper into her own shell, overcome by anomie – Hughes knew she needed help. "I was close to a breaking point where I would quit my job and do something...

Gov. Rick Scott is really into DIY government cost-cutting, as evidenced this week by his $10,000 degree challenge. So why stop there? Here are more suggestions for additional do-it-yourself state cuts, where the user does more and the government does...

The poorest Americans would nearly starve if it weren't for fast-food dollar menus and other cheap, highly processed foods, such as mashed potatoes in a box. We've heard this so many times that we accept as fact the idea that obesity and diabetes are...

Ever since the local road czars played presto chango with the interchange between State Roads 408 and 417 three weeks ago, something is off during my daily commute. The drive is longer. I'm routed out of my way as I drive past the remnants of what was...

The fate of Florida's Blood Centers President and CEO Anne Chinoda could be decided this week when the center's board of directors is scheduled to meet to potentially discuss a separation package for her. It's clear Chinoda's exit is one step that...

By now, if all had gone according to plan, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute would have attracted $15 million in local philanthropy dollars. But as the economy ran dry, so did the big checks. An effort by Sanford-Burnham to sell the...

One day after President Barack Obama pledged in his State of the Union address that creating jobs would be his No. 1 focus, he used both of Florida's coasts Thursday to try to back up that promise. On the west coast, Obama appeared in Tampa to announce...