A new survey by the company Filterbuy shows that the Avon Park-Sebring Metro area registered an average unemployment of six percent last year. It was higher than the national average of 5.3-percent for 2021.
Last year’s numbers were incrementally better than 2020, but still are anemic with better than 2,000 local people said to still be out of the job force here.
Leisure, hospitality and tourist-related businesses are said to have been the hardest-hit.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd yesterday announced 41 people have been charged with dozens of crimes. The action comes in an effort to take down the leadership of a group called the Sex Money Murder gang.
In addition to Polk County Sheriff’s officials, the yearlong investigation involved the Department of Corrections and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Authorities used wiretaps and social media monitoring and kept tabs on gang members directing operations from prison. Judd said there are 121 felony charges, so far, against the alleged gang members. Those include racketeering, drug sales, robberies, smuggling of contraband into prisons, murder conspiracy and other charges.
A Hardee County resent attending Florida State University has earned a prestigious Barry Goldwater scholarship. Sophie Allen is a sophomore from Wauchula at FSU majoring in psychology and biomathematics.
The Goldwater Scholarship, is a renowned national award that annually recognizes outstanding science, mathematics and engineering sophomores and juniors for their research experiences and potential.
Allen will receive up to $7,500 for her junior and and senior years to be put toward tuition, fees, books and room and board.