Local News

The slow month-by-month decrease in Levy County's jobless rate has reversed course with unemployment rising to 11.1 percent in June, up 0.8 percent from May's unemployment rate.
While a reversal in five months of declining unemployment, the rate is down from 12.3 percent for the same period a year ago.
Levy County's labor force decreased by 146 to 17,409, the number of those employed dropped by 286 to 15,468, and those without jobs also dropped by 140 to 1,941.

Runners and clients cross the Suwannee River bridge over U.S. 19 on July 21 on the fourth day of the Run For The Money, the Key Training Center’s annual fundraiser. The run from Tallahassee to the Key Center ended on July 23 with festivities at the Lecanto campus. Key Training is located in Citrus County and serves developmentally disabled clients.

Austrian-born Canadian businessman Frank Stronach's name is not on the 18,000 acres of land that changed hands two weeks ago, but it may as well be.
When combined with other purchases, Stronach could be on his way to becoming a force in Levy County's future.
He has talked about plans to raise organic beef on "huge areas" in Florida.
 "I’m planning to buy 20,000 hectares of woods in (the U.S. state of) Florida. The climate is excellent there," he told the Austria Times in March 2010.

A heated debate came to the surface at Monday night's Chiefland City Commission meeting over the issue of Chiefland Fire Rescue's proposed budget for the upcoming year.
City staff and officials have been conducting budget workshops since early June, yet they say CFR Chief James Harris has been slow to submit a complete budget.