The Bush administration has found a way to unite a divided Congress - well, at least the overwhelming majority of Congress. In late April, the House voted 349-62 to stop the administration from cutting Medicaid, the federal-state health-care and nursing home program for the poor, by $13 billion...... more»

The failure to prosecute terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, after seven years of imprisonment, raises serious doubts about the validity of the detentions and provides America's enemies with a powerful propaganda tool.... more»

Well, now we know: The estimated cost to build a new headquarters for Polk County School Board personnel to consolidate staff and services is $126 million. The amount is expected to be discussed at a School Board work session scheduled for this morning in Bartow. This poorly timed topic should drop...... more»

There was a fairly bigkerfuffle back in 1994 about a proposed landfill... more»

Americans are having second thoughts about ethanol, and for good reason, even though it seemed like a good idea at the time.... more»

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced late last month that she will take steps to ensure that all states use the same formula to calculate how many students graduate from high school on time.... more»

The American Red Cross Polk County Chapter honored Helen Aigner for her cheerfulness and strong determination during her 15 years of service to the Red Cross. During that time, she volunteered for more than 10,500 hours.... more»

The Florida Legislature had the time to consider some trivial transportation issues during its recent session - while ignoring other important ones. Considered: Whether certain accessories for pickup trucks resembling chrome-plated bovine testicles should be allowed on the state's...... more»

Business has really been picking up in Winter Haven. Picking up litter, that is. For the 13th year, Keep Winter Haven Clean and Beautiful held its clean-up campaign with the help of local businesses. Pat Gilder, KWHCB director, said about a ton of trash is collected during the one-day...... more»

Just how gloomy was this past legislative session? Legislators were finished with the session by 6:02 p.m. Friday. No frantic race to beat the midnight deadline. No last-minute deals. No celebration. They went home before the sun set. The $66.2 billion budget - smaller than this year's by $4...... more»

If the state charged a fee for hypocrisy, a lot of our legislators would be deep in debt.... more»

When the Florida Legislature's regular session ended Friday, the CSX train did not arrive. Florida Senate Majority Leader Daniel Webster wanted so desperately to be the celebrated engineer who barreled a made-in-secret transportation deal through the legislative session. In doing so, he would bring...... more»

Something is seriously wrong with U.S. aviation when the greatest danger occurs not in the air but on the ground. Runway collisions and near misses are far too common, despite decades of warnings and calls for safety improvements - and despite the belief that current technology could significantly...... more»

A recent headline in The Ledger declared "Vouchers May Find New Life."It's true: A proposal to reinstate public funding of private-school vouchers was approved last month for placement on the Nov. 4 ballot in Florida.... more»

The mission of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is to educate, train and to inspire the corps of cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character, committed to the values of duty, honor and country, and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the...... more»

The mission of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is to educate, train and to... more»

With any luck, today will end the 2008 regular session of the Florida Legislature. There is no telling what senators and representatives will pass in the final moments before the traditional dropping of the handkerchief. But it's pretty predictable that one important bill will not pass.... more»

With two days left in the Florida Legislature's annual session, two approaches are becoming clearly defined in the final battle over a controversial rail plan. The proposal originally called for the state to pay CSX Corp. $641 million to buy 61.5 miles of tracks for a commuter rail line in Orlando,...... more»

Followers of Florida politics, particularly of the jostling for education funding, know that the Legislature is down to crunch time in its annual session, which is scheduled to end Friday. They can tell because those whose programs are being squeezed and set aside have started to squeal.... more»

One of the question\ hanging in the balance of this year's annual session of the Legislature in Tallahassee is whether to bring a bill before the House of Representatives to neuter the board that controls the State University System.... more»

If reading The Ledger's opinion pages - as well as op-ed pieces in other newspapers across the state - over this past week has seemed like an especially depressing experience, there's a reason. Every day, guest columns and letters to the editor appear. The authors go into excruciating detail about...... more»

The stock market has been lackluster lately. So it's a good time to note that 25 years ago this weekend, the Dow Jones Industrial Average - 12,891.86 at the end of Friday - broke 1,200 for the first time. That's an average annual compounding rate of nearly 10 percent a year over the past quarter...... more»

Finally some in Tallahassee are showing that theyget it. In a Florida Senate debate this month about the state budget, including the proposed $641 million giveaway to corporate giant CSX, Sen. Dan Gaetz proposed a pay cut for the Legislature.... more»