Two years after 35-year-old Brian Klecha of Lakeland went missing, a $10,000 reward is being offered for information in the case of the Disney bus driver. Fox 13 talks with one of the roommates he had just moved in with before he disappeared.
Neighbors describe the three people who died in a Christmas Eve murder-suicide at the 3009 Atlanta Ave. house where police found four children after the shootings took place. Two of the children were daughters of Leighton Josephs, 30, who police say was the gunman, and victim Rachel Ramsey, 30. The other two, a boy and a girl, were the children of the other victim, 27-year-old Christopher Pine, a friend of Ramsey. ALSO: Bay News 9 coverage
Joe P. Ruthven, a civic leader, former mayor and pioneer of Lakeland’s now-burgeoning warehousing and distribution center industry, died Saturday at age 92. More
Mike Link, 57, is retiring from the Lakeland Police Department on Dec. 30, more than 34 years after starting as a weekend reserve officer and rising to the rank of assistant chief. He oversaw criminal investigations and started the department’s cold case homicide unit.
For the first time since the Miss Lakeland was revived three pageants ago, most of the winners have Lakeland backgrounds. Out of five 2020 winners — Misses Lakeland, Swan City, Polk County, Lakeland Teen and Polk County Teen — two claim Lakeland as home and a third lived here until recently and hopes to move back. More
Former state Rep. Beverly Burnsed Spencer, who represented a Lakeland district, died Nov. 28 in Tallahassee. She was 78. She spent 35 years working for the state as a teacher, state legislator, assistant secretary of state and university vice president. More
Friends of Paul Hughes filled the Polk Theatre this afternoon for a celebration of his life as an actor, singer, teacher, director and mentor. Speakers and performers represented his different “stages of life,” including work with Pied Piper Players/Lakeland Community Theatre, Harrison School for the Arts and All Saints Academy. Hughes died in July at age 63.
LkldNow thanks Joe Havens and the staff at the Polk Theatre for their assistance setting up this livestream and especially for making sure we got a quality audio feed.
The life of Paul Hughes, a guiding force at Lakeland Community Theatre for many years and a teacher at Harrison School for the Arts and All Saints Academy, will be celebrated by friends and ex-students in a gathering at the Polk Theatre at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. He died in July at age 63.
WATCH IT: LkldNow plans to live-stream the ceremony on our Faceboook page starting at 2:30 Sunday.
The hotel being built next to the RP Funding Center will be managed by somebody who knows a thing or two about running a hotel near an entertainment/convention center. John Loute has been named general manager of the 126-room SpringHill Suites by Marriott, according to a news release. His extensive hospitality resume includes nearly eight years (1999-2007) as manager of the Hyatt Place, the next-door neighbor to his new hotel. For the last eight years, he was manager of the La Quinta Inn & Suites near Lakeland Square mall.
In these days when people are unsure which news sources are reliable, former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida had an immediate answer: “Turn off the cable.” More
