Today's News

It was about this time of year when Juan Ponce de Leon first landed in Florida  almost 500 years ago. A profusion of greenery and flowers inspired him to call the area Pascua Florida—roughly translated as “ flowery Easter”. The plants were native varieties, blooming without the help of fertilizers, pesticides or water from sprinkler systems and garden hoses, all of which have become an issue affecting Florida’s fragile ecology. Much of the pesticide and fertilizer ends up in Florida’s streams, rivers and springs.

Memoir writing course at CFCC Levy Center   The Central Florida Community College Levy Center will offer a class for aspiring authors in April. Memoir Writing: Developing and Refining Your Story is for anyone who has begun writing a memoir and is looking for help in developing and organizing their story. Participants will learn to narrow their subject and how to insert information that will create more relevant and interesting characters. The class will meet on Mondays, April 5-26, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. The course fee is $65.

The news was good for job seekers in Levy County in March as the jobless rate dropped to 13.5 percent, down from February's rate of 14.2 percent.

That means out of 16,633 people in the civilian labor force, 14,390 were employed and 2,243 were unemployed.

It's the first good news on the county's job front since October 2009 when the rate was 12.4 percent. The county's unemployment rate has sat stubbornly above 12 percent since July 2009.

The Levy County Raiders semi-professional football team traveled to Belleview last Saturday night and thumped the Sabercats 25-7 in the Central Florida Football League’s Game of the Week. 

With their win (the seventh of the season), the Raiders are ranked No. 10 in the country by semiprobcs.com, as of Monday. Boasting the league’s No. 1 offense and defense, they could easily rise in the polls when they come out today.