Opinion

“But this is Florida and we have gators everywhere, so there's no cause for alarm.”

FWC Investigator
Jim Smith after learning 17
alligators escaped from a Citrus County alligator farm and that only nine were accounted for.
        

 I’ve had nicotine coursing through my veins for about half my life. And I received a healthy second-hand dose for the other half — when I was a kid — from my parents who smoked anywhere and everywhere. On occasion, my mother would even let me light her cigarettes for her. I think I was about 6, and I don’t think too many people were surprised when I took up the habit as a teenager.

“Editor:  A person employed on a newspaper whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.”

Elbert Hubbard,
American writer,
publisher, artist
and philosopher.
1856-1915

 Chiefland City Commission

Based on my five-year-old’s behavior in the last few days leading up to Christmas, I got the distinct impression he did not believe Santa was watching him through a crystal ball.
And after his ruthless cross-examination of me on how Santa manages to transcend the laws of physics, I got another distinct impression that he did not believe in Santa at all.

 I did not write the headline on this column, nor did I write most of what you will read here. But what follows is pretty darned good stuff that I wish I had thought of writing.

For two decades, Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been battling over future water allocation in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin which straddles their borders. The dispute also involves a number of federal agencies, courts, and mediators. Its outcome is one of the most important issues facing the Southeast.

On July 17, 2009, federal judge Paul Magnuson answered a key question that has dominated this 20-year water conflict-how much of the water in Lake Lanier can be legally used for metro Atlanta's water supply? His answer was stunning: none.

In the year since I wrote the column in the Chiefland Citizen asking our community to assist Lubcho Michevski in returning to his native Bulgaria, literally hundreds of people have offered help.

Money, translators and people in government positions have come forward.

The money is still being held for Lubcho’s needs. However, several personal checks were sent and they have been returned as we wait on Lubcho’s decision about his future.