The Florida Highway Patrol says a tow truck driver was killed Monday afternoon after being struck by a vehicle on Highway 27 south of Lake Placid. The tow truck driver, a 53-year-old Labelle man, was reportedly stopped on the northbound shoulder of the highway just north of Ragan Avenue. He was standing between the outside lane of the highway and his truck when another driver veered to the right and entered the shoulder. The report says the driver hit the 53-year-old man and sideswiped his truck. The tow truck driver was pronounced dead at the scene, according to troopers.
Today’s tax day for most of the nation. But after disaster declarations from the 2024 hurricanes, the IRS issued an automatic extension to all of Florida till May 1 … not even a month, but the whole state is included. If you’re like many of us who pay IN each year, it’s an extra 16 days to get your money in the mail – or by computer – to the IRS. Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are the other states that get the full-state extension, along with parts of four others.
It’s a holiday week, and that means a few changes in government services – the County announced that County offices will be closed the entire day on Good Friday this week. That does NOT apply to the County Landfill, by the way, and that means trash pickup for residents served by the County’s hauler will be on the usual schedule this week. So, if Friday’s your normal day, get your cans on the curb on time.
A former Sebring resident who turned out to be an undocumented immigrant from Cuba has been sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison for her part in a human smuggling operation that cost 16 lives in 2022. Yaquelin Dominguez-Nieves pled guilty in January in Miami to charges stemming from an ill-fated operation where her former boyfriend in Cuba collected a reported $11,500 from locals trying to get to the United States. The small fishing craft had no life preservers and an inexperienced pilot, and sank 30 miles into its journey losing 16 of 18 souls on board.