Lakeland, Polk County | featured news

In a way, we all became victims Sept. 11, 2001. The merciless scheme carried out 15 years ago today delivered a psychological wound to all Americans, even those merely watching TV news coverage in Peoria or Tucson or Lakeland. Amid the generalized trauma, of course, some Americans incurred a searing and personal grief. The transformation of airliners into brutal weapons, as hijackers diverted them from intended safe landings in Los Angeles and San Francisco to fiery impacts on symbolic targets, thrust relatives and friends of the 2,996 victims into a previously unimaginable horror.

Keep Polk County Beautiful will sponsor a tire collection day from 8 a.m. to noon Sept. 24 at Lake Marion Creek Middle School, 3055 Lake Marion Creek Drive.

A Light of Hope event to bring awareness to the disease of addiction will be held at Rotary Park in Winter Haven on Saturday.

A 37-year-old motorcyclist was killed Friday afternoon when he collided with a pickup on Combee Road, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

City commissioners in Bartow gave preliminary approval Wednesday night to a 2016-17 budget that holds the line on property taxes, gives employees an estimated 2 percent raise and provides for several capital projects, including the dredging of Azalea Lake.

Town Manager Ryan Taylor was recognized Thursday night for his service by the Ridge League of Cities.

On the 15th anniversary of the most devastating terror attack on American soil, first responders will be honored in a local ceremony.

An order issued to federal agencies by then-President Jimmy Carter may give Lakeland Linder Regional Airport an advantage in its bid to land the Hurricane Hunters as a tenant.

In its 87-year history, Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales had remained much as Edward Bok envisioned it, with its manicured plantings, shaded slopes and soaring carillon standing sentry over it all.