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Mini Murals Brighten Walls and Spirits Around Lakeland’s Talbot House
The Lakeland Community Redevelopment Agency is looking for artists to paint a second set of murals on the concrete perimeter wall that surrounds the Talbot House Ministries homeless shelter. The Midtown Mini Murals Project is located on E. Parker Street and N. Tennessee Avenue. The theme for Phase II is...
Black History Month: Dr. David Simpson Treated All Patients During the Spanish Flu Epidemic
In the fall of 1918, after America and European powers signed the armistice that ended World War I, soldiers from the front lines began returning home. But they brought with them the most unwelcome souvenir — the Spanish flu. It was so deadly, so virulent, that a person could be well in the morning and dead by sundown.
Lakeland 8th Grader Shines at Polk County Regional Science and Engineering Fair
Zavion Felton knew he wanted to do something with computers for his science fair project. The 8th grader at Academy Prep Center of Lakeland zeroed in on QR codes, those black and white squares with random digitized patterns that leads users to a website when they hover over it with their smartphone.
No More Free Parking Downtown? Lakeland Officials Consider Charging $2 per Hour
People parking in downtown Lakeland may have to get out their wallets — or their smartphones — in a few months if city leaders take the advice in a study by Kimley-Horn. City officials are considering several phased changes to downtown parking, including eliminating the daily two hours of free street parking and raising rates for “metered” street spaces from $1 to $2 an hour. But it will only cost half that if you park in a city garage or surface lot.
Lake Gibson High School Student Nabs One of the Top Honors at 80th Annual Polk County Youth Fair
The last week in January, nearly 1,000 students converged on the Stuart Center in Bartow for the 2024 Polk County Youth Fair. Students competed in everything from cake-baking and floral arranging to raising steers and cows, along with sheep, goats and rabbits. Lake Gibson High School student and Future Farmers...
Jury Votes 11-1 for Death Penalty in Brutal Stabbing of Prominent Lakeland Couple
By a vote of 11-1, a Polk County jury recommended Tuesday that convicted murderer Marcelle Jerrill Waldon be sentenced to death for the fatal stabbings of former Lakeland Commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and her husband David Henderson three years ago. Circuit Judge Kevin Abdoney must give that recommendation great weight,...
Lakeland Commissioners Signal Support for Making Juneteenth a City Holiday
For several years, community activists Harlem Turner and Doris Moore Bailey have asked the Lakeland City Commission to give city workers a paid day off for Juneteenth — a holiday that marks when the last group of enslaved people in Texas finally learned in 1865 that they were free, more than two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Waldon Won’t Let Lawyers Mount Defense Against the Death Penalty
When 12 Polk County jurors begin deliberating Tuesday whether to recommend a life sentence or the death penalty for convicted Lakeland murderer Marcelle Waldon, they will have almost no testimony from the defense to consider. Waldon, 39, has waived his right to present evidence supporting a life sentence. Under questioning...
City Announces 2024 MLK Parade Award Winners
Lakeland officials presented awards Monday to groups with the most impressive floats and performances in the city’s 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on Jan. 20. The theme of the 46th annual parade was “Living the Dream – It Starts with Me: Spreading Hope, Courage, & Unity.” It drew 146 participating units including marching bands, step groups and floats from local organizations, businesses and churches.
Scholarship Opportunity Aims to ‘Lift Up’ Local Black Entrepreneurs
In honor of Black History Month, two local executives are teaming up to offer a full-tuition scholarship valued at up to $61,178 to a Black entrepreneur with a local or online business. The Business Opportunity Scholarship will cover the tuition and fees for a bachelor’s degree in business administration at...
Political Consultant Convicted of Spreading Lies About School Board Member Lisa Miller
James Dunn, the former campaign manager for two Polk County School Board candidates aligned with County Citizens Defending Freedom in 2022, pleaded guilty Thursday morning to seven first-degree misdemeanors for violating text message disclosure requirements. State Attorney Brian Haas’ office said Dunn orchestrated a smear campaign against incumbent School Board...
Life or Death: Penalty Phase for Lakeland Commissioner’s Killer Set To Begin Monday
Three years, two months and 22 days after former Lakeland Commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and her husband, real estate developer David Henderson, were brutally stabbed in their Lake Morton home, their killer has been convicted. A Polk County jury found Marcelle Waldon, 39, guilty on Wednesday of two counts of...
Longtime Lakeland Pastor Rev. Alex Harper Dies at 88
In 1941 under the hot Mississippi sun, Alex Harper was six years old and chopping cotton in a field alone, while his father and brother worked in a nearby field. His father, Odis Harper, was a sharecropper and the family moved from small home to small home, renting land from white landowners during segregation, the Great Depression and Jim Crow laws, paying the landowners a share of their crop for rent. Both his parents were working, but the children had to work, too, to make ends meet.
Historic ‘Watch List’ Identifies Seven Blighted Lakeland Properties Worth Saving
Some of them clearly used to be the belles of the ball, but are now simply aging wallflowers. Historic Lakeland Inc. and the Lakeland Historic Preservation Board have created a “watch list” with seven homes they would love to see preserved and restored. Some are abandoned, others have owners who are not able to maintain the properties financially or physically, some are tied up in court, while the rest are neglected by owners or landlords who don’t seem to care about appearances or structural soundness.
Spate of Violent Juvenile Gang Crimes Shocked Lakeland in 2023
It was a sweltering Monday night on July 26, with the temperature hovering in the upper 80s more than two hours after sunset, when police say two opposing gang members got into a shootout in an apartment complex where parents and children were settling into bed for the night. A...
Contractor Michael Folsom Sentenced to Prison for Failing to Pay $1.4M to Subcontractors
Polk County Sheriff’s Office investigators say back in 2019, longtime Lakeland general contractor Michael Sherwood Folsom, 43, was living the high life — buying real estate and starting to build a home and hunt camp in Alaska; purchasing multiple cars, trucks and boats; going on vacations, joining country clubs and buying sporting goods.
Book Challenges May Cost Polk County Public Schools $25,000 This Year
For the second time in two years, community members are being asked to donate their time and effort to review books being complained about by at least two conservative Polk County residents, alleging they are “pornographic,” “violent” and/or “inappropriate” for any K-12 school. Some...
Cafe Zuppina a ‘Great Addition’ to Lakeland’s Downtown Food Scene
After 15 years on Lakeland’s south side, Cafe Zuppina is moving downtown. Owners Berna Nar, 61, and her husband Erkan, 65, opened the Eastern European and Mediterranean restaurant at 4417 S. Florida Ave. in 2009. A decade later, they added a market, bakery and coffeehouse. The couple believes now...
‘Icons of Americana’ Exhibit Opens Saturday at the Polk Museum of Art
Two of America’s most beloved 20th-century illustrators are being celebrated in a new exhibit at the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, opening to the public on Saturday. “Rockwell/Wyeth: Icons of Americana” features 40 original paintings by Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth, as well as an installation...
Henderson Murder Trial Opens With Emotional Testimony and Previously Undisclosed Evidence
Attorneys gave their opening statements on Monday in the murder trial of Marcelle Jerill Waldon, who is accused of stabbing to death former Lakeland City Commissioner Edie Yates Henderson and her husband, real estate developer David Henderson, and then robbing their Lake Morton Drive home on Nov. 10, 2020. The...
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