If you still want to dress up your kids for something to do, why not try out Dinosaur World with Free Admission on Saturday, October 31. Children ages 3 to 12 in costume will be admitted free to Dinosaur World on Halloween to enjoy the displays and exhibits. Admission for adults is $12.75; for seniors 60 and over it’s $10.75. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 813-717-9865.

Know of other events happening October 23-31 you want to share with us? Leave a comment!

Some workers have gamed the system by working huge amounts of overtime in their final few years to qualify for a much larger lifetime pension. That abuse should stop.

Lawmakers should look into how the state can afford to pay 6.5 percent guaranteed interest on money employees invest in the deferred retirement program at a time the federal funds rate is near zero.

Now that financial conditions have changed, the Legislature should put the brakes on the benefits train.”

St. Petersburg Times – Poor Stewards Of Our Money:   “As St. Petersburg Times staff writer Bill Varian details in today’s Perspective, many local governments went on a binge when times were good, expanding their budgets, giving generous raises, building new facilities and hiring to staff them.

And now that times are bad, the choices and the cutbacks are far worse than they would have been had governments been more fiscally circumspect. In the boom times, government failed to plan for a future that wasn’t as bright as the present. Even when governments are flush with cash, elected officials need to remember how to say no. It may be easy to say yes to outsized raises in good times. That doesn’t make it right. The same is true of new services, buildings and staff.

There is nothing inherently wrong with enhancing reasonable government services, so long as decisionmakers look ahead and figure out how they will pay the salaries of the staff in that new facility — whether it’s a fire station, library or park — when times turn sour. But to spend money just because it’s coming in is folly, pure and simple. That’s especially true given the state’s history of boom and bust cycles, which should make preparing for a bust second nature.”

Lakeland Ledger – Prescription Drug Abuse:  Polk’s No. 1 Killer:  “Pharmaceuticals are killing people hand over fist in this county,” Sheriff Grady Judd told The Ledger on Tuesday. “There’s not a week that goes by that we don’t work two, three, four, five deaths – and pharmaceuticals are killing them.”

 A 2008 report from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission says the top-three drugs that caused deaths last year were:

- Oxycodone, a powerful narcotic painkiller (941 deaths).

- Benzodiazepines, sedative-hypnotic drugs that include Xanax and Valium (929 deaths).

- Methadone, a narcotic painkiller known for its role in heroin detoxification, now often prescribed as a replacement for oxycodone (693 deaths).

Not until No. 4 on the list does an illegal drug appear: cocaine (648 deaths).

Judd says a law is needed to allow pharmacies to cross-check with one another via a database that flags customers with repetitive prescriptions.”

Orlando Sentinel - Absence Of Leadership:   “Merging government departments of Orlando and Orange County could save taxpayers millions, actually improve services and even work to generate more revenue by spurring economic development.

But there was Mr. [Orange County Mayor Rich] Crotty, saying the other day that he’s all for looking at ways to consolidate the two governments, except that, because he only has a year and a half remaining in office, the issue’s best left to others.

Mr. [Orlando Mayor Buddy] Dyer took the opportunity to reiterate his opposition to joining government operations. He said it’s not his highest priority, not on par with getting commuter rail and improving the city’s budget.

Who’s the greater letdown? Mr. Crotty for his disingenuous cheer for consolidating services, or Mr. Dyer, for his unambiguous rejection of the concept? It’s close, each showing no interest in taking a leadership role on the issue. But we find the residents of Metro Orlando the certain losers.”

Daytona Beach News-Journal – Hometown Democracy:   “We will not support Amendment 4, though our sympathies lie with its authors’ intention to restore sanity to Florida’s comprehensive planning and loosen developers’ steely grip on this state. Amendment 4 is unlikely to achieve those goals. It instead could make a bigger mess of community planning. It would reduce what has at least been a negotiated permitting process between developers and professional public planners to an up-or-down gamble between developers and their opponents, with too many of Florida’s natural assets and the livability of Florida communities at stake…

“There are lots of laws on the books that could protect our beautiful state — if the power brokers wanted it that way.” Power brokers or not, those laws are there to be enforced and expanded, too, if the voters want it that way. They have but to elect local officials with the guts to say no to bad development plans and legislators willing to have that honest conversation about growth. Fat chance? If voters can’t accomplish that, there’s little hope they would be any more successful at managing growth wisely through the ballot.”

A total of 44 homes were sold in Winter Haven, showing a 25% decline from December 2008, but reflecting similar totals from this time last January.

Winter Haven, Florida’s Absorption Rate

We’ve talked about absorption rate before.  Basically, the absorption rate reflects that time it would take to sell the homes currently on the market if all other construction and listing activity were to immediately come to ta halt.  Absorption statistics are useful in that they give us a firmer understanding of how bloated or lean our Winter Haven housing market is at any given time.

At present, with more than 1,260 properties currently for sale and pending, we are experiencing a 31 month of supply for the regular homes and distressed homes. In other words, it would take us about 2 years and 7 months to clear out our current inventory.

A Closer Look at Regular vs. Distressed Winter Haven Homes Currently on the Market

• Regular properties – The current inventory of active and pending homes is at 932, resulting in an unprecedented 58 month supply.

• Distressed properties – our present inventory of active and pending homes is at 330, resulting in a 14 month supply.

Distressed properties are homes in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, are bank-owned, are are in the process of going through short sales.

Of the 44 homes sold last month here in Winter Haven, 25 distressed homes were sold with an average sales price of $97,213 ($59.99 per sq.ft.) compared to only 3 homes that were sold the previous as either short sales or foreclosures.

Take a look at my spreadsheet below. I’ve separated the report by zip code instead of school zones; it gives you a more accurate report in my opinion. The data for this report was obtained from the Mid-Florida Regional MLS, it is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. This report does not include “For Sale By Owner”.

Winter Haven, Florida Homes Sold for January – Interactive Map

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However, one must acknowledge there has been a development. Dennis is listed as one of the many endorsers of the new Yes2Marriage public relations campaign launched last week.

Here’s the group’s spiel:

“Strong Marriages Florida” is a three year campaign to create a marriage movement in Florida, with the goal of strengthen marriages and reducing the divorce rate in Florida. The campaign was launched in response to the high number of divorces in Florida and the negative economic impact that the fragmentation of families has on Florida taxpayers and our communities.

The campaign has 5 basic goals:

1) Increase the number of couples receiving pre-marital preparation

2) Strengthen existing marriages and restore crisis marriages

3) Reduce the divorce rate in Florida by 10% by the year 2012.

4) Save taxpayers the costs of family fragmentation by approximately $100 million dollars annually.

5) Creating community awareness and a positive culture of marriage which celebrates and respects the institution of marriage for the benefit of children, families and the common good of society.

“Strong Marriages Florida” has both and a church/community component and a public policy component. The community component will include helping to form Community Marriage Initiatives in 12 major metro regions of the state and encouraging pastors to commit to requiring marriage preparation for all couples prior to performing a wedding.

In terms of policy, we will be studying and sharing current research about the status of marriage and divorce in Florida and the impact that the fragmentation of the family has on our society. The campaign will explore various public policy options like helping couples become better prepared before they get married and reforming the divorce laws that apply to families with minor children.

Of course, the last clause of the last sentence is where the rubber meets the road. And what laws does the group hint at reforming? The web site quotes a book attacking no-fault divorce and suggesting that the state should require “mutual consent” for a divorce to occur:

“The current law, called No Fault Divorce, or divorce on grounds of “irreconcilable differences,” in reality is Unilateral Divorce in which one spouse can force divorce on an unwilling partner. That is what happens in 80 percent of cases, according to Frank Furstenberg and Andrew Cherlin, authors of Divided Families. They argue that it is unfair to the spouse who does not want the divorce, who believes that the marriage is reconcilable. Although No Fault is less harmful to couples without children, 70% of divorces do involve a child.”

“If a couple has children, their obligation to them should take precedence over a personal desire by one parent to abandon the marriage. Therefore, only if both parents agree to divorce, should a marriage be terminated.”

Hmmm. Let’s slap that on the ballot, shall we? Abused wife? Need your husband’s permission to divorce him. Won’t get a job? Stuck with him. Serial cheater? Sorry. Or at least you’ll have to prove those things in court, with an expensive lawyer and legal fees most people can’t afford and with custody of your children at stake. I will say this: if this group does actually put that measure on the ballot in the future, I will have a little more respect for their motivations.

I’ll just start asking the legislators who have endorsed this project, like say, Seth McKeel and Dennis Ross, if they support that change in law. I doubt they’ve looked very closely at this. I’ll ask Charlie Crist, who has also endorsed this initiative, if no-fault marriage didn’t exist if he wouldn’t still be married to his first wife and Carole Rome wouldn’t still be a single socialite. Think of the party the Tallahassee press corps would have missed.

However, I do not think I’ll have to ask those questions. Rather, I think this entire effort is simply a splashy, but meaningless, answer to people like me who think leaders of the anti-gay lobby in Florida are frauds and charlatans.

It’s designed to allow people like James A. Smith Sr., executive editor of Florida Baptist Witness, to write things like this:

During the long battle over Amendment 2, opponents (and secular media) would frequently suggest or blatantly claim that pro-family leaders should be more concerned about divorce than “gay marriage” and that if they were troubled about divorce they would be doing something about it before “gay marriage,” which was deemed of little consequence to the society.

Of course, the claim falsely assumes that pro-family leaders are only capable of working on one thing at a time—and that supporting a proper definition of marriage in the constitution is mutually exclusive of expressing concern about and taking action against divorce.

In fact, both issues are closely related, which is why it’s only natural that having won the battle to protect the definition of marriage in our constitution that we should also give high profile attention to strengthening marriages and reducing the rate of divorce in our state.

Presumably religious leaders already talk often to their flocks about the importance of the family and marriage. I’m not clear to me that starting a web site to talk about it more publicly is terribly bold. These supposed leaders were willing to coerce gays, to use the force of the state against them. Are they not willing to use that force against a much stronger group?

Put your money where your mouth is, Mr. Smith, and the rest of you. Drop the end of no fault heterosexual divorce on the ballot. Campaign for it. I’ll be waiting.

This is a news media website not just a blog. We cover news and events of all types in Orlando, Tampa and between. I like to think we can provide stories from a different perspective and give you more than other local media and news outlets. But for this story, that would have had pictures and video, we cannot.

And I was looking forward to covering this event in “a frigid 9 degrees Fahrenheit.”

With all the new contributors at Lakeland Local I let my focus drift.

MI4 has been carrying everything from select bloggers. As a central repository it let you have one feed instead of five. But I stopped making it easy to scan.

That’s going to change. I need to trim, prune, and focus.

First, I’m going to stop reprinting everything from Lakeland Local.

Yes, my own site.

Starting tomorrow, I’ll just publish select Lakeland Local columns that are more regional in nature.

Then a few days of looking at better arranging the front page.

After BlogOrlando, I’m going to add an every other day column on the best of Central Florida blogs, columnists, twits, and facebookers. Basically, where ever I find something interesting online.

Then we start weight training.

Homeowners Find Big Problem in ‘Solutions’ and Neighbors Kick Family Out Of Home both address pitfalls faced by home owners looking to stay afloat.

On the tax front, counties are forced to raise property taxes the state cut. Brace yourself for a property-tax hike in Orlando area and Hillsborough County’s Tax Revenue Takes Hit.

Florida Sen. Ronda Storms, a Republican from Valrico, is taking on the theory of evolution.

On Friday she introduced an Academic Freedom Act designed to tweak the state’s recently adopted educational standard that calls for science teachers to teach evolution.

Storms said the new bill merely says teachers should have the freedom to teach what they want, including theories that may contradict the prevalent theories of biological and chemical evolution…

The bill does not specifically mention pastafarianism, but basically, if a teacher wants to present the beliefs of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, this bill would protect them.

Way to go, Ronda!

Surprisingly, the majority weren’t maps.

I’ve been working behind the scenes on some revisions and additions, but I’m just going to tease you today. Look for more news tomorrow.

Meanwhile, some CSX news of interest:

Despite criticisms in Tallahassee and complaints in Lakeland, a group of federal, state and local officials said Friday that the Central Florida commuter-rail project remains on track.– Orlando Sentinel

No doubt the Il Duce of the Apalachee Parkway’s appearance at Southeastern will be of keen interest to the local peasants, especially since it was Bush who, behind closed doors, sold the city down the river for 491 million pieces of silver..– Jeb, Visionary? Lakeland Folks Might Disagree

To help remind you of the law, the Lakeland Police Department will be out in force from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm today to help educate drivers in the following areas:

• The Polk County Parkway.

• Harden Blvd between Beacon Road and Lakeside Village Shopping Center.

• South Road 98 (Bartow Highway) between Edgewood Drive and South Crystal Lake Drive.

According to LPD, “Violators of this law will be stopped and given literature and anything from a verbal warning to a uniform traffic citation.”

The interview took place in the living room of the upscale home of the Ledger’s publisher, who, with his wife, was big in such limousine liberal circles as existed in Polk County, Florida, in those days. Contrary to the stereotype of the day — conservative meanie vs. caring n’ compassionate liberal nice guys — Buckley the conservative was the very soul of graciousness, treating a reporter he had just met with all respect and civility, while the publisher treated me like hired help. Which I was, but that’s no excuse. The wife and the uniformed maid ignored my existence. — Buckley in the Provinces

I’m willing to bet there are a couple of more sides to that story. I have no idea who was the publisher for the Ledger in 1976. Thornberry obviously doesn’t name him. I plan to stop the library and read that article though. I wonder if Thornberry was able to keep his politics out of the story? Whether he did or not, it is a good reminder that not all reporters are liberal, not all media publishers are conservative, and it doesn’t hurt to remind the public of our biases.

An act relating to the University of South Florida Lakeland; creating s. 1004.345, F.S.; establishing and designating the University of South Florida Lakeland campus; providing legislative intent; requiring the Board of Trustees to appoint a Campus Board; providing membership, powers, and duties of the Campus Board; providing that the university is administered by a Campus Executive Officer; requiring the President of the University of South Florida to consult with the Campus Board before hiring or terminating the Campus Executive Officer; providing duties and powers of the Campus Executive Officer; providing that students enrolled at a branch campus of the university have the same rights as other students; requiring the University of South Florida to provide for a system of student registration that meets certain conditions; providing an effective date.

That pretty much sums up the bill. You can read a PDF of the full bill here.

The Mets are bringing their A team to the game today. Unfortunately, I mean their Single-A team. MLB requires spring training teams take at least five players from the major league roster to every away game. That’s exactly what the Mets are doing today: Ryan Church,Ramon Castro, Pedro Feliciano, Jorge Sosa and Mike Pelfrey are the MLB players scheduled to appear in Lakeland.

When you go to the park be prepared for a couple of changes: parking went up to $7 and don’t try to turn left onto Lakeland Hills Blvd. from Al Kaline. That’s a right turn only now. You can solve both problems by getting to the game early and parking at the church at the corner of Grenada and Lakeland Hills. Parking there was just a $3 donation last year.

•

For those who read Lakeland Local on email or through a feed…remember there all all kinds of spring training maps and links on our home page special Spring Training column.

In an effort to help those who need coffee to navigate I-4 at rush hour, Dunkin’ Donuts will offer 99-cent small lattes, cappuccinos and espresso drinks today from 1 pm until 9:30.

I’m not including a map of all Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donut shops. The afternoon drive is too wired as it is.

This information has been presented as public service announcement. With caffeine.

� The Quote

The gist of the article is that the proposed CSX rail facility is in the “middle of the middle of nowhere.” Now, I’m quoting the reporter, Rick Rousos. You can tell I am quoting, since I put quote marks around the text. Rousos says he is quoting newcomers who allegedly have said “This is the middle of nowhere.” Now, really, who has visited the site? Reporters, CSX officials, and their supporters? I’ve been there, but not on CSX company property. In the photo we see three people. Was it one of them? If not, then who said the site is in “the middle of nowhere”? If he heard it himself, then why not identify the person? If not, then who told him it was said?

That’s important, because this is almost a puff piece. There is really nothing new reported, and some statements are misleading. It seems it exists only to give the impression that the facility is located away from civilization. Which, it most assuredly is not.

� The Graphic

Take a look at the graphic that accompanies the story. I’ve placed the graphic on a map. You’ll see the Ledger graphic places 655 slightly west of its true location, plus only the first 318 acre section of the CSX project is shown. Why not an outline showing the full 1250 acres?.

When you visualize this project remember that the first piece is about the size of Lake Hollingsworth. The full build out would fit in Lake Parker with some room to spare. A two mile long train? That’s a train that would start at South Florida and Lime Street and end at South Florida and Edgewood Drive.

As far as people living near the facility? Well, we hear a lot about the Sundance community. It is true. They are just across the tracks. However, there are other close roads and communities. Ridgeview Road is about 2000 feet away. That’s less than 1/5 of the length of one of those two-mile long trains. I am sure the good people of Wahneta don’t find the facility in the “middle of the middle of nowhere.” (I’m quoting Rousos.)

I could go on: Crystal Lake is about 3000 feet away. Plus, I’m sure people living in those “Terranova” homes don’t feel like they’re in the middle of nowhere.

�The Photo

With photos it is sometimes as much what you don’t show as what you do. What about the picture in the article? Nice work with perspective. Let that road lead your eye away to infinity. How about to the right? Can we see a picture there? What about showing where they’re standing on that overhead graphic?

�The “Number”

In news you can get away with saying almost anything — as long as you can find someone else to say it. Then you report it as “news.” We don’t know who Rousos is quoting that the project is in the middle of nowhere. However, he did at least remind us that “The company has said 8,500 jobs will be generated by the facility.” I once said I would play for the Chicago White Sox. That doesn’t make it a fact.

Now, this isn’t the first time this particular reporter reminded us of the company line. In that linked story CSX admitted that their original projection of 200 CSX jobs was wrong. Now CSX claims it is about 110 and 55 of those are most likely to be taken by transferring employees. But they’re still sticking by that old 8500 chestnut.

Why doesn’t the Ledger find an independent firm to make a wild guess how many real jobs will be created years after this mythical full build-out? That’s the way to check claims..

� Postscript

While Rousos wrote the article, and is responsible for the items I mentioned, I don’t believe he has an agenda or that he is a poor journalist. Take a look at something else he wrote for Saturday’s paper, Driver Recalls Harrowing Hour Pinned in Truck