Lakeland group vows to keep CSX deal in spotlight

Ledger photo

In a question-and-answer session with the Ledger, Julie Townsend, executive director of Downtown Lakeland Partnership, reflects on the current state of the CSX controversy:

Ledger: The fight isn't over: Keeping CSX deal in spotlight

Wherever you reside in Florida and whatever your view of the Florida-CSX deal -- a taxpayer outlay hatched in secret by outgoing governor Jeb Bush and now heavily lobbied by an array of special interests -- this is an interview worth reading.

You may not change your mind, but perhaps you will gain a different perspective as the fight over taxpayer money and the future of transportation and passenger rail in Florida continues.

See also . . .

Tampa Tribune: State budget crunch may push huge CSX deal off track

Lakeland native Kay Hagan wins Senate seat held by Elizabeth Dole

Photo by Ellen Ozier, Reuters

Democrat Kay Hagan defeated incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina's bitterly contested Senate race Tuesday, unseating one of the best known figures in the U.S. Senate.

In her victory speech, Hagan called her win "a testament to how hungry people are for a change." (Fredreka Schouten, USA Today)

More . . . .

Lakeland crowd helps snag NC U.S. Senate seat

Democrats make gains in NC amid startling changes

Campaign website: Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate

Wikipedia: Kay Hagan

Hazel Haley exits the stage

According to The Ledger, Hazel Haley died today at age 91. She had retired two years ago after teaching for 69 years, 67 of them at Lakeland High School.


Hazel was one of a kind. Her death is a great loss to Lakeland and to those who knew her, but she lived a long and fulfilling life doing what she loved: teaching young men and women - her "children" - to face the world prepared for whatever life brought them, to put the commas in the right places and to avoid run-on sentences.

Rest in peace, Hazel. We will always love you.

Apr. 14 update: Haley services: Goodbye, Miss Haley

See previous blog posts here.

Updates on CSX rail in Polk

For residents interested in the impact of CSX rail's plans for Polk County and Lakeland, see Billy Townsend's blog entry for Tuesday:

One entire section of this study [the 2005 Rail Relocation Feasibility Study] is devoted to recapping previous papers and studies that focused on problems posed by Orlando’s freight train traffic.

One of those, a 2002 paper prepared by METROPLAN Orlando, was titled: “Why Can’t We Solve Orlando’s Traffic Congestion Problems by Moving the Freight Trains?”

More . . . 2005 state study cited freight traffic headaches

In today's Tampa Tribune, Lindsay Peterson reports on public aid for CSX:

Times have never been better for America's major railroads. Profits are rising. Stock prices are up. And so are subsidies from taxpayers.

State governments are giving freight rail companies millions to build new tracks, bridges and tunnels. Since 2005, Florida officials have approved plans to give CSX Transportation and other railroad companies more than half a billion dollars through 2010.

That's not all the rail companies want. They're lobbying Congress this year for a federal tax credit worth more than $1 billion a year to pay for track improvements.

The money isn't for safety measures at public crossings. Government has paid railroads billions over the years to build, repair and maintain crossing signals at public roads. This money is for business expansion in areas the public never uses. -

More . . . CSX seeking public aid amid its growing profit

Continuing Updates . . .

• Oct. 12: Commissioner wants more answers...
• Oct. 16: Lakeland Local
• Oct. 20: CSX: No state money, no realighment deal

Hubs and rubs in Central Florida

The hub: CSX Railroad wants to move its Orlando rail hub to Winter Haven.

The rub: The deal lacks transparency, public input and thorough, unbiased studies weighing the positive and negative consequences to Polk County and the region.

Since the announcement was made last August, CSX has remained mum on the project, showing no capacity for good public relations.

The secrecy leaves the impression that [ex-governor Jeb] Bush and the railroad failed to consider the negative effects on communities beyond Winter Haven. It's predicted that some 1,000 more tractor-trailer rigs will be added to Polk's highways each day, making traffic unmanageable.

Lakeland, for example, would see a significant increase in rail traffic through downtown. City leaders fear the traffic could damage the integrity of newly restored buildings. The same could be said about Plant City, Auburndale, Dade City and Lake Wales, since each are bisected by tracks.

Their questions deserve answers.

Among them: Why Winter Haven? Why can't the hub be moved farther south, where CSX owns phosphate tracks in a more rural part of Polk? Or why not locate the hub somewhere north of Interstate 4? How will the project's negative impacts be offset? And will the deal shut the door on commuter rail between Orlando and Tampa? - Tampa Tribune editorial, Sept. 19, 2007

See also . . . .

• A look at the latest CSX chatter
• Another "devious plan" hits the fast rail
• Rail yard could alter course of Southeast's economy
• Big wheels tearing up Florida's roads
• Crist meets again with CSX. Will he meet with critics?

Teen volunteers get 'off the couch and on the job'

LAKELAND -- Online job hunters have their Monster, and Polk County students in need of volunteer work now have a Sweat Monkey. SweatMonkey.com, the internet creation of a 16-year-old Lakeland resident, will be introduced Thursday during an information session at Florida Southern College.

The web site aims to eliminate one frequent headache in the lives of high school students: finding volunteer opportunities to satisfy graduation requirements.

Founder Callahan Fore wants to make the process easier by having local non-profit groups post their volunteer jobs to the free site, which also will track and verify the number of hours served by individual members.

Fore also hopes that private businesses will use the site to attract teenage candidates for paying jobs. [....]

Sweat Monkey, whose slogan is "Off the Couch and On the Job," includes a board of directors comprised of Polk high school students and has already seen interest from entities like United Way, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Volunteers in Service to the Elderly.

"Anything that makes it simpler to connect a person with a volunteer opportunity is good for the community," said Terry Worthington, president of the United Way of Central Florida. [....]

Use of Sweat Monkey is free to students, organizations and employers, and the site has applied for non-profit status.

• SweatMonkey works for volunteers (Kyle Kennedy)
• SweatMonkey.com

Dreadnaughts play for title tonight

Go 'Naughts!

The Lakeland High School Dreadnaughts football team, ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 1 in three national polls, take aim at their sixth state championship, and third consecutive, when they play No. 3 Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas (12-1) at 7:30 tonight in the Class 5A state championship game.


TV and Radio

The game can be viewed on channel FSN (Florida Sports Network) at 7:30 p.m. from Dolphin Stadium in Miramar. Lakeland radio station WLKF 1430 AM is also carrying the game live.

'Naughts aim for third straight championship

Update, 10:43 p.m.
Lakeland wins 45-42 in double overtime!

Report and photos HERE

---~---
I have known Bill Castle, Lakeland's head coach, for 35 years. As someone said about another coach, "He could take his'n and beat your'n, and then he could take your'n and beat his'n."

Castle has an impressive ability to analyze what's happening on the field during a game and to make strategic adjustments in his play-calling. I could name a few college and professional teams that need a mind like his on the sidelines. Watching the Dreadnaughts defeat a physically superior team one Friday night several years ago, I concluded that Castle could just as easily have been a mechanical engineer as a coach. Combine that mental ability with his leadership and motivational skills, and you have a coach.

Castle does not always have the most physically talented team on the field, but he almost always has the best prepared and coached team. He works harder than anyone else, and he expects a similar dedication from his assistant coaches, trainers and players. That's how, with the support of the school community, he and his teams maintain the Nulli Secundus tradition at Lakeland High School.

So, I'm glad that Bill Castle chose coaching as a career -- and so are hundreds of athletes who have played for him. Year after year, he takes the strengths of his players and builds another winning team. He never blames them for a loss, but rightfully credits them for every win.

Coach Castle believes in kids and respects them enough to demand their best -- not by criticism and intimidation, but by example and understanding. He guides young men to become not only winners on the football field, but also in life.

Thanks, Coach, and congratulations to every member of your winning team. You are champions, and would be even if you had lost the game.

Most times, the gator wins

LAKELAND - At about 4 a.m. this morning, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office received multiple calls about a man yelling for help in the area of Lake Parker county park....

[....]

Deputies immediately entered the alligator-infested water and began a search for the man who was in the grasp of an alligator. Once located, deputies pulled the man from the alligator and made their way approximately 40 feet to shore where an ambulance was waiting to transport him to Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

[....]

The very dark conditions and risk of injuring the victim made shooting the alligator impossible, leaving deputies to contend with their own safety after becoming exhausted in waist deep mud. All deputies made it out of the water without injury.

The victim ... was transported to LMRC in critical condition with an apparent broken right arm, a partially amputated left arm and major trauma to his left upper leg.

• Report: Sheriff deputies pull man from gator's jaws
• Videos, Local News box: Gator found and Gator caught

CNN Money ranks real estate opportunities

Downtown Lakeland, October 2006

According to CNN Money, "the real estate slump could get worse before it gets better. But these 10 markets offer great opportunities for those who have the patience to buy and hold."

1. Panama City, FL
2. Vero Beach, FL
3. Bridgeport, CT
4. Lakeland, FL
5. McAllen, TX
6. San Luis Obispo, CA
7. Wilmington, NC
8. Manchester, NH
9. Ft. Collins, CO
10. Atlanta, GA

WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday the U.S. economy was pulling past a sharp housing-sector downturn....

"There are early signs of stabilization," Greenspan said of the U.S. housing market, although he added: "It's not over."

"Most of the negatives in housing are probably behind us," Greenspan said. "The fourth quarter should be reasonably good, certainly better than the third quarter."

Hazel Haley: Portrait of a lady

"Motivational speaker, media darling, actor, stage manager, theater-founder and world traveler. Hazel Haley has been all those things.

"But most of all, for 69 consecutive years, she's been a teacher. On June 30, she'll leave her Lakeland High School classroom for the last time."


Eight-page Ledger special . . .

• The richest life in the world

Updates . . .

• May 1: Teacher leaves a legacy of love
• May 21: After 69 years, goodbye to teaching

Previous blog comments . . .

• Hazel will retire this year

Please vote for Hazel

Hazel Haley is retiring after a 69-year teaching career, most of it at Lakeland High School.

To see her featured on CBS News Friday night's "Assignment America," please cast your vote today:

• Longtime Teacher

Don't park on the grass

23 cars burn at Lakeland fly-in

LAKELAND -- On a hot day Thursday, 23 drivers got plenty more heat than they bargained for at the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In: Their cars in a parking lot were torched by fire.

The fire started about 12:45 p.m when the catalytic converter of a Maserati ignited the dry grass beneath it, said Frank Bass, a Lakeland Fire Department investigator.

_____

Story with photos: 23 Cars Caught in Flames at Fly-In

Trent Cooper directs "Larry the Cable Guy"

Old friend makes good in Hollywood

Congratulations to Trent Cooper, a friend of mine back in his high school days in Lakeland. His determination and hard work in becoming a movie director are finally paying the big bucks, and I hope he gets filthy, stinking rich!

Although I'm not much of a movie-goer my own self -- and I'm definitely no "Roger E-bare" -- I'm happy for Trent. Don't know Larry the cable stringer from Adam's house cat, either, but I do know Trent, and he deserves all the success that's coming his way. His mom and all his Lakeland friends must be popping a few buttons as Trent's first big-screen movie lights up 1,700 screens across the country today.

You done good, boy!

From the Lakeland Ledger . . .

"He stops the world for his fans. And it's not an act. He's a really, really sweet guy,"
says Director Trent Cooper, right, of his star Larry the Cable Guy.

Shot last year in Orlando, "Health Inspector" is the first feature film to star Larry the Cable Guy, the earthy redneck hero of "Blue Collar" tours and fame -- and currently the hottest comedian in the country.

It's also the first feature film to be directed by Cooper, who at 34 has shot a movie opening today on 1,700 screens nationwide, a bountiful feast for any director, regardless of age.

"It was a ton of fun," Cooper says about directing the film. "It was important to both Larry and me that we keep the mood light and fun, because this has been a dream of both of ours for a very long time." (Bill Dean, Lakeland Ledger)

More . . .

• Director lets comedian do his thing
• Rotten Tomatoes Review, photos and trailers

February in Lakeland

A little bit country

Local boy makes music "Sweeter than Sugarcane"

So who's worth checking out this weekend? If you end up near Orlando, on Saturday, check out former Lakeland country singer J.C. Andersen, who continues his stand of opening for nationally known country stars at SeaWorld's Bud & BBQ Fest. [....]

How good is this kid? Good enough for his self-released CD, When the Tide Rolls In, to win positive reviews from Country Music People magazine (February issue) and Country Music Online.

(Bill Dean, Lakeland Ledger)

Click here to visit J. C.'s home page.

Hazel will retire this year

Hazel Haley, a dear friend of mine for many years, will retire from her 69-year teaching career at the end of this school year.

Nearing her ninetieth birthday, Miss Haley prefers to be called Hazel by adults, even those who, like me, are decades her junior. Beyond her teaching skills, Hazel understands and connects with teenage students -- her "children," as she calls them -- on every level except their music.

Hazel Haley has been teaching in the same room, No. 106, since 1952. That year, Lakeland High moved to what Haley still calls "the new campus" on Hollingsworth Road. [....]

Haley didn't set out to become Florida's oldest and longest-serving teacher. She's probably the nation's oldest, too, but the federal Department of Education doesn't keep track of that record.

Haley taught through World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars, segregation and integration, typewriters and word processors to the emergence of the internet. (Lakeland Ledger)

During her career, the school has moved, teachers and principals have come and gone, teaching styles have changed. But there are constants in the hopes and insecurities and dreams of the students she calls "my children."

"I've seen a million changes, but as far as young people are concerned, deep down inside they haven't changed," she said. "The things that were special about them when I first started are still special." (CNN, 2002)

Among her friends, Hazel still refers to herself as "the resident liberal" on the Lakeland High School campus. When she closes the door to Room 6 for the last time this year, may she continue to do all those "liberal" things that bring her happiness, keep her young, and make her an inspiration.

Other articles . . .

• Eighties superstar
• FSC names student plaza for longtime LHS teacher

Update: April 30, 2006 Ledger special . . .

• Portrait of a lady

No end to pain, no hint of justice

Matt Lewis was beaten to death more than three years ago.

My heart broke again when I read today's Lakeland Ledger article, but Matt's family faces the pain and sadness every day. May they find peace in knowing they have done all within their power to honor Matt and his life.

The Lewises are my friends. We lived next door to them when Matt was only pre-school age, and we sometimes watched one or all three of the boys when needed.

Bob and Cathy were wonderful, loving parents who did all the right things in raising their sons, spending countless hours of involvement with their education, sports and scouting, including projects for the Eagle Scout award, for example. They taught their kids, and other children as well, to respect others and to play by the rules.

Yet the rules haven't applied to Matt's death. Neither those who killed him nor the criminal "justice" system seem to be accountable. I won't even pretend to have an unbiased opinion. So you decide:

• Matthew Lewis, 18, died after attending a friend's Nov. 16, 2002 birthday party in Tampa.
• Eyewitnesses said the former wrestling team captain and 2002 graduate of Bartow High School was trying to break up a fight over spilled beer.
• An autopsy report listed Lewis' death as "homicide beaten by other(s)."
• However, the two suspects in the attack -- Ryan Racine and Jeremy Ray -- face charges of misdemeanor battery, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.
• Prosecutors say they could not seek more serious charges because they were "unable to determine who threw the fatal blow.''
  

Believe it or not, there's a video tape of events that night, including comments made following the beating:

Esparza can be heard saying, "I thought we killed the kid because we were beating the (expletive) out of him."

He also said "we were beating the (expletive) out of him for like a whole minute" and the kid's face "looked like he was dead."

Later, during a deposition, Esparza -- who described himself as being "best friends" with Ray through high school -- was shown the videotape.

He agreed that was his voice but said he didn't know what "kid" he was referring to that night. "I really don't remember," he said.

Articles and photos:

• Questions remain more than 3 years after death of Matt Lewis
• Questions unanswered, grief unabated

Update, Feb. 3, 2007 . . . .

BARTOW - Lakeland residents Bob and Cathy Lewis saw sentences handed down Thursday for the two men who brutally beat and stomped their youngest son to death.

Both men got the maximum allowable sentence, but the Lewises said they don't feel that they saw justice.

Ryan Christopher Racine and Jeremy Vincent Ray were charged with misdemeanors in the death of 18-year-old Bartow High School graduate Matthew Lewis. Racine, 25, was found guilty of three misdemeanor counts of battery, and received 364 days in the Hillsborough County Jail for each count, to be served consecutively.

Ray, 24, was found guilty of one misdemeanor count of battery, but he left the courtroom Wednesday when the jury was deliberating and never returned, so a warrant has been issued for his arrest. He was sentenced to 364 days in the Hillsborough County Jail.

"We're elated that there's accountability, but the way the law is written is wrong," Cathy Lewis said Friday night. "Those two are really just getting a slap on the wrist."

Lakeland Ledger report . . . .

• 2 are sentenced in death of Polk teen

Lakeland college marries religion to politics

Wingnut speaker featured at 'scholarship gala'

Southeastern University, an Assemblies of God instution of higher learning, featured right wing ding-a-ling Sean Hannity at the college's annual scholarship fundraiser Friday night. Although college officials declined to discuss Hannity's fee, they said it was lower than his normal fee.

"I don't speak as often as I used to," he said. "I did give the commencement speech at Jerry Falwell's school (Liberty University), and I am speaking tonight, so that should give you an idea about where my interests are." (Lakeland Ledger)

As if anyone wondered.

In a brief Ledger interview preceding his daily radio show Friday, Hannity stated, "I am an intellectually honest Reagan conservative."

Honestly, Sean. How many honest people feel obliged to couch their opinions with iterations of their own "intellectual honesty." Honesty requires more than off-air coaching of guests who share your views, or on-air insults of those with contrary opinions. And no amount of jabbing your stubby little pinky in the air can raise your credibility quotient.

Hannity continued, "I believe in very simple principles -- limited government, less government spending, a strong national defense and standing up to evil wherever it exists."

OK, Sean, try explaining your concept of limited government to Michael Schiavo, gays and lesbians, or a rape victim who chooses abortion. Tell us how your party is reducing the national debt. Tell us how the Bush administration's secret program of spying on Americans, or the Iraq debacle that you refuse even to acknowledge, has made us safer and strengthened our military. And, please, tell us how your spumy praise of the man responsible for tens of thousands of deaths of innocent men, women and children squares with "standing up to evil."


A marriage made in heaven?

Southeastern University claims to offer "a vital, Christ-centered education" that prepares students for "a life of world-changing ministry -- both in church-related positions and other professional fields."

Yet college officials continue to schedule the likes of ex-Senator Zell Miller, Alabama Justice Drayton Nabers, and bloviating partisan Sean Hannity -- not for balanced discussion and debate of religious doctrine or political theory -- but as a stamp of philosophical approbation for the world these men envision.

Apparently they spend more time reading the Republican playbook than observing the teachings of Christ. Gleefully and hypocritically, they have turned the promise of a "Christ-centered education" into a doctrinaire marriage of religion to politics.


More . . . .

• Fox pundit pontificates at university's fundraiser
• News coverage of Hannity speech to be limited
• Alabama justice to address graduates
• Southeastern University
• Southeastern commencement

Lake Morton

Photo by Jr.
Click on image to enlarge.

New Year's frolic

Young mallard celebrates in Lake Morton . . .

Photo by Jr.
Click on image to enlarge.