Category: News

RIP: Michael Wilson, news photographer, raconteur Barry Friedman Founder and Editor-at-large When I was city editor at The Ledger back in days when people used telephones instead of electronic messages, the phone rang constantly; sometimes I felt like I had talked with pretty much everybody in Polk County. But nobody in the newsroom comes close […]

Forum: K-12 Education in Polk County Trinity Laurino Executive Director We’re grateful that Idalia decided not to stop by our fair city and wish our neighbors to the north a safe and speedy cleanup. We’re thankful we can get back to normal school and work schedules by tomorrow. Speaking of school, we’re just one week […]

Forum spotlights k-12 education in Polk Trinity Laurino Executive director With the new school year starting tomorrow, education has been top of mind for much of Lakeland.  At the time of writing, I’ve just spent the morning with our local Kiwanis clubs at the annual “stuff the bus” event which delivers over $100,000 in donated […]

We are part of the community we cover Cindy Glover Editor When an Amtrak train collided with a vehicle transport truck a couple of weeks ago, the first inkling we got that something significant had happened came from one of my neighbors. There are 11 of us in a Shore Acres text chat. Iris, who […]

New at LkldNow: Submit a free obituary Barry Friedman Founder and editor-at-large Since early 2020, LkldNow has published 1,845 obituaries of Lakeland residents. For free. We publish obituaries without charge to the family or funeral home because we believe each life is worthy of note and in the words of our executive director, Trinity Laurino: […]

Full-time reporters matter Trinity Laurino Executive Director The Washington Post recently reported that National Geographic — that stalwart publication that brought the wonder of the world into so many of our homes – has laid off its last staff writers; they are being replaced by freelance writers.  For those outside the media, the move from […]

Let’s talk Lkld Trinity Laurino Executive Director When we launched the first of our LkldNow community forums, we had a lot of hopes but not a lot of expectations. We hoped to create a space for civil civic engagement, a place where the community could come together to listen, learn and, most important, be listened […]