It’s Election day across the land. Here in Highlands County things are in readiness at all 25 polling locations as workers for Highlands County Supervisor of Elections Penny Ogg prepare for what is expected to be a large turnout.
Those wishing to cast their ballot will be asked for a current and valid picture identification with a signature. To aid in making the right decisions, voters are encouraged to carry a sample ballot which they already have marked.
Sample ballots are available on the Supervisor’s website at www.VoteHighlands.com The polls will be open until 7pm.
Highlands county commissioners today said goodbye to commissioner Jack Richie. This was Richie’s last meeting after serving eight years on the board.
He will be succeeded by Arlene Tuck. Her first meeting will be the next commissioner’s gathering on November 20th.
In other action, Commissioners approved the construction of a teaching pavilion for the Highlands County Extension Service. It will be named after former Master Gardener Charlie Reynolds.
Police say a 12-year-old girl who posted threatening messages on Snapchat has been charged. The Pembroke Pines Charter Central student’s Snapchat posts stated “if I get this one more time I will shoot someone,” and “no one go to school tmrrw.”
A Pembroke Pines police statement says a person anonymously contacted the department Monday and advised of threatening posts. The child was taken into custody and her mother was notified. According to police, the child says she doesn’t have access to firearms and that she wrote the posts because she was bullied.
The girl was charged with a second-degree felony of making a false report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner.
Police did not identify the girl.
A package that was deemed suspicious when a U.S. Postal employee noticed what appeared to be wires attached to it has been detonated by a bomb squad on a Miami Beach street.
Postal Inspector Blanca Alavrez said the package had been placed in a collection box. Miami Beach police report postal employees were evacuated and a nearby preschool was locked down after the package was found.
Several streets around the post office were also closed while police investigated. Once the package was detonated in the middle of a street near the post office, police tweeted that it had been “rendered” safe.
An ultramarathon runner has finished a nearly 5,400-mile diagonal, cross-continental run that began in Alaska and ended in Florida. Pete Kostelnick jogged up to a Key West marker designating the continental United States’ southernmost point on Monday.
The 31-year-old Ohio man started July 31 at Anchor Point on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, running without a support vehicle to Florida. Pushing supplies in a three-wheel jogging stroller, he said he averaged some 55 miles per day.
In 2016, Kostelnick ran 3,067 miles (4,935 kilometers) from San Francisco to New York City in 42.25 days.
He said he hoped his feat would inspire others to chase their wildest dreams. He added some people have compared him to Forrest Gump, the primary character in the 1994 film by the same name, where Gump ran cross-country several times.