Good news has hit the Caladium Capital. Officials of the Florida Lottery say somebody there hit all the numbers in the Fantasy Five drawing. It was one of three winning tickets and is worth a cool $60,864.05 – before taxes.
The quick pick was sold at the Lake Placid Publix store.
A 16-year-old boy in Lakeland reportedly posted selfies online with captions that threatened his high school.
The Kathleen High School student was arrested yesterday by Polk County Sheriff’s deputies and charged with writing a threat to kill or injure. Deputies say the teen posted a selfie to Instagram on Wednesday with the caption “Active shooter drill tomorrow lol it would be a shame if it was real.”
That post was reported to authorities, who then interviewed the teen and found a second Instagram post on his cellphone that said, “someone will die today.”
The sheriff’s office says the teen told deputies the posts were a joke “and that he knew it was stupid.” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says it wasn’t a joke, but a felony.
Losses from Hurricane Irma last year sent the value of the 2017-18 Florida citrus crop plummeting 41 percent.
That’s a preliminary estimate of last season’s crop value released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The USDA set the total 2017-18 Florida citrus crop value at nearly $551.2 million, down from a revised estimate of $927 million for the state’s 2016-17 citrus crop. A year ago, the agency estimated the 2016-17 crop at $780.7 million.
Florida citrus acreage has declined continuously since 2000, at first under pressure from real estate developers buying groves for commercial development. Since 2005, the pressure has come from the fatal bacterial disease citrus greening.
Florida citrus production has dropped more than 70 percent since greening’s arrival.