The Latest Local News

Zephen Xaver will once again be in a Highlands County court this morning and Tuesday, for a Spencer Hearing. A Spencer Hearing is required before Judge Angela Cowden hands down a final sentence for the mass killing of five women in a SunTrust Bank branch in January of 2019. In June, a jury recommended the Continue reading

Highlands County Fire crews were dispatched Thursday afternoon to a reported brush fire in the 400 block of Catfish Creek Road in Lake Placid. After crews investigated the scene, it was determined to be a structure fire and called for aid from the Sebring Fire department in order to have the ability to bring an Continue reading

DCF has DSNAP Assistance available in response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Highlands County Residents will be able to pre-register starting Monday, November 11th through Friday, November 15th. The Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or D-SNAP provides food assistance for individuals and families impacted by the storms, who are not currently receiving food assistance through Continue reading

Operation Blue Roof sign-up for Hurricane Milton has been extended for residents of Highlands County. At the request of the State of Florida and FEMA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will continue to collect Right of Entry (ROE) forms for Operation Blue Roof through Thursday, Nov. 14, extending the original deadline for 25 Florida Continue reading

The penalty phase of the State vs. Joseph Ables continues today. Ables was found guilty Tuesday of the first-degree murder of Highlands County Sheriff Deputy William Gentry Jr. The penalty phase of the trial started Thursday morning and continued into Friday afternoon. Victim impact statements were heard by Judge Angela Cowden and the jury on Continue reading

Highlands County evidently likes early voting – nearly five percent of the County’s eligible voters showed up to cast votes for the November 5th General Election yesterday on the first day of the County’s ten-day early voting window. Three locations will be available until November 2 for voters who want to avoid the crowds on Continue reading

The sentencing phase of the Joseph Ables murder trial begins today. Ables was found guilty of the 2018 murder of Deputy William Gentry Tuesday after less than an hour of jury deliberations. Today, the sides will argue for and against the death penalty for Ables. Judge Angela Cowden is also expected to impose an additional Continue reading

It was a short deliberation – about an hour – but the jury yesterday convicted Joseph Ables of first degree murder in the death of Sheriff’s Deputy William J. Gentry Jr. Gentry was responding to a dispute in Lake Placid in May 2018, when Ables shot and killed him. Ables, who was 69 at the Continue reading

Closing statements will begin this morning in the murder trial of Joseph Ables of Lake Placid. The prosecution in the case rested after lunch yesterday after showing forensic details of the gunshot wounds that killed County Deputy William Gentry in May of 2018, and the pellet that allegedly killed the neighbor’s cat and set off Continue reading

An early Sunday morning crash claimed the life of a pedestrian trying to cross Highway 27 just north of the SFSC campus. Highway Patrol units were dispatched around 2:30am to the corner of Marble Avenue and Highway 27 where a vehicle travelling north by a Kissimmee man struck a male pedestrian evidently trying to cross Continue reading