The Latest Local News

The Capital Murder case against Joseph Ables saw the State calling Nick Sotherland to the stand as the first witness on Thursday. Southerland, a HCSO deputy at the time of the May 6, 2018 incident, responded to the scene shortly after Ables shot Deputy Sheriff William Gentry Jr. Gentry later passed away from his injuries Continue reading

Operation Blue Roof is now accepting applications for Highlands County Residents affected by Hurricane Milton. The program is providing free temporary tarping while residents work to repair their roof. Applications can be submitted at BLUEROOF.GOV or by calling 888-766-3258. The program is being offered throughout Florida through November 5th and includes 24 counties in total. Continue reading

Tuesday saw the end of a tedious 3 week long jury selection in the State vs. Joseph Ables. Ables is accused of shooting and ultimately causing the death of Highlands County Sheriff’s Deputy William Gentry Jr. in May of 2018. Ables is facing the charges of first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and felony Continue reading

A 17-year-old Avon Park High School student was arrested and charged Monday after making a school shooting threat. The student admitted to using a school issued laptop to write the threat message on a Google Document that was then shared with students from another school. The threat was flagged by the school district system that Continue reading

A special meeting will be held this afternoon by the Highlands County School Board to discuss the agenda from the October 8th meeting that was cancelled due to Hurricane Milton. One thing up for discussion will be the purchase of metal detectors for a pilot program at Lake Placid High School and the Academy at Continue reading

As of 5:00AM Thursday morning, Highlands County Emergency Personnel have not been cleared to go back out on the roads due to the risks associated with unsafe wind conditions. Residents that need help may still call 911- but response times will be delayed until they are able to safely respond to emergency calls. As Milton Continue reading

A Tornado Watch is now in effect for Highlands County until 9:00PM tonight. Rain bands ahead of Milton today could produce isolated tornados. Residents are urged to shelter in a safe place by 12:00PM noon, as we will start to see tropical storm force winds in our area anywhere from 2:00PM- 10:00PM. At 8:00AM a Continue reading

Hurricane Milton is heading toward Florida. In the latest update from the National Hurricane Center, Milton was classified as a Category 4 storm, with maximum winds of 155 miles per hour. That’s just shy of being a Category 5 which it was earlier Monday with winds clocked at 180 miles per hour. Counties along Florida’s Continue reading

In case you couldn’t tell by the absence of bottled water at the grocery store, there’s another tropical cyclone in the neighborhood. That low pressure system in the gulf that almost everyone wrote off as only a rain event turned into a depression, then a Tropical Storm Saturday, and a Hurricane yesterday. It’s expected to Continue reading

A proposed zoning rule has been taken off the table by the Highlands County Commission, at least for the time being. On Tuesday, Commissioners rejected the county created rule which requires homes on one-acre parcels to have direct access to public roads – to ensure access to homes by emergency personnel, police and other public Continue reading