Survivor Will Speak at Holocaust Remembrance Day Event
Rosa Rosenkranz, a child survivor of the Holocaust, will speak at Temple Emanuel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day observance May 1 at 7 p.m.
People
Woman Demands Answers After Hyundai Burned in Her Garage
After her 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe caught fire in the garage of her Lakeland home, Kym Borden wants to know why the federal government waited to start investigating reports of fires in certain Hyundai and Kia models.
Welder Wins International Motorcycle Competitions
Brian Buttera of Lakeland won best of show in three competitions for his garage-built, stainless-steel Deadline motorcycle.
ALSO: Cycle Source magazine article | Instagram
Kathleen Grad Hurt and Jobless as Football League Folds
Just days after he broke his arm in a game, 26-year-old Salt Lake Stallions linebacker Gionni Paul — a Kathleen High graduate — found himself jobless and on his own for medical bills when the eight-team Alliance of American Football abruptly folded.
Florida Poly Junior Wins $35k in Madden NFL Tournament
Christian Lomenzo, 22, beat out thousands of players around the world. His secret power? Lots of practice: “If I am into the game and just grinding it, I am just playing until I am wiped out, tired.”
Emily Colon Named Assistant City Manager
Emily Colon, a 32-year-old program administrator with Pasco County and adjunct public affairs professor at the University of South Florida, has been named Lakeland’s assistant city manager, City Manager Tony Delgado announced this morning. More
Poor Porker Owners Pushing Forward Without Founder
Internal tension and differences over management blew up at The Poor Porker last week, and its co-founder was dismissed — prompting an online hailstorm over the weekend.
Owners Wesley and Ashley Barnett say they want to ride out the storm and keep the business going. But they will move forward without Robyn Wilson, co-founder and primary creative talent behind the popular hangout. More
Friends Recall Lakeland Pilot Who Died in Crash
Fellow pilots had fond recollections of flight instruction James Wagner of Lakeland, who died Saturday when the plane he and a trainee were in crashed into a house in Winter Haven.
EARLIER: FAA is expected to investigate
About Those Giant Cutouts Along I-4 in Plant City…
They honor longtime workers at Wish Farms’ strawberry operation.
Lakeland Methodists Anxiously Watching Conference on LGBTQ Issue
Policies always have personal consequences, and for Arden Mitchell of Lakeland, a longstanding policy of the United Methodist Church prevented her father from performing her wedding ceremony. When Mitchell married her wife in a religious ceremony in 2012 and then again in 2013 when the state of Florida made same-sex marriage legal, her father, the Rev. T. Glenn Bosley-Mitchell, a United Methodist pastor, couldn’t officiate without risking punishment.
The church’s Book of Discipline – which contains its beliefs and policies – states that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” It prohibits ministers, deacons and lay pastors from participating in same-sex weddings. The policy also declares that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” shall not be ordained as ministers and deacons.
Mitchell, 33, a lifelong Methodist and a member of Lakeland’s First United Methodist Church, calls it “unfortunate” that her father was unable to officiate at her wedding.
“It was not ideal,” says Mitchell, who is director of admissions at Florida Southern College. “My dad is very liberal and accepting and vocal about it. … Something needs to happen.”
Something may be about to happen. More