Replacement study scheduled for aging Cortez Bridge

BRADENTON BEACH – As the seagulls swoop down over the roadway, traffic arms come down, a siren sounds and the center span slowly lifts as it has day after day since 1957, when the Cortez Bridge was completed. Time is now running out for the drawbridge and the latest five-year plan for roadwork in Sarasota and Manatee Counties includes money in fiscal year 2012-13 for a study of a replacement. More...

New trolleys due here by September

HOLMES BEACH – The new, hopefully more reliable, trolleys are in the works and should be in by this fall, according to David Teitelbaum, who pioneered efforts to keep the trolley free for riders. More...

Parking decisions expected this week

ANNA MARIA — City commissioners are poised to make some decisions this week about the long-contested parking regulations for Pine Avenue.

After a year or more of passionate and emotional argument over the parking along the short street between Gulf Drive and the city pier, commissioners appear to have made peace with selecting between two ideas.More...

Cortez festival offers food, fun and education

High winds cause problems

BRADENTON BEACH – An Australian pine tree branch fell down in the high winds of the storm that passed through the Island on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, Jan.17, landing on a fire hydrant, which caused the feeder pipe to break and flood an area next to Avenue C at 22nd Street. The damage was initially reported as a sinkhole, but it was man-made, not something that happens occasionally in other parts of Florida. More...

Hostile takeover at osprey nest

HOLMES BEACH – A pair of ospreys, that have lived and raised their young atop the cell tower in Holmes Beach for years, were harassed by a pair of eagles that showed up in the area.

Several people reported that early last week, the eagles were perched on the tower and when the ospreys returned there was a confrontation. More...

H. Terrell Griffin visits with The Sun Readers

HOLMES BEACH — One of the region's most popular authors sat down with several of The Sun Readers last week to talk about his newest Matt Royal Book, "Bitter Legacy."

Griffin, who divides his time between the Orlando area and Longboat Key, told the readers he started writing after he retired from a successful career as a trial lawyer. More...

Center grapples with loan issues

ANNA MARIA – Community Center board members voted last week to rescind a resolution approved in December to restructure their loan with Northern Trust after the bank changed the agreement.

The agreement was to pay down the loan from $1.375 million to $1.15 million, and then enter into a two-year agreement for interest payments at 5 percent. However, Northern Trust changed the agreement so that the 5 percent is only applicable through October of this year. More...

'GWTW' fans will love 'Moonlight'

Fishing 'frigid' Florida waters

Local anglers are hopeful that the historic cold weather that decimated fish stocks state-wide last year will not repeat this year, even though this season began with even colder temperatures than last year. Water temperatures have been near killing lows several times this season, but we luckily have not seen anything like the massive fish kills that affected fish as far away as Flamingo and Islamorada. Chief among the victims last season were snook, tarpon, bonefish, cravelle jacks; but species including catfish, grouper, snapper and even mullet perished in large numbers. Every year in January and February, anglers need to change tactics to effectively target local gamefish. Conditions over the past two winters make catching fish more challenging than ever, but the same winter tactics we have always employed still produce results. More...

No snow in Florida

During the second week in January while the northeast was digging out of the second major snow storm in as many weeks, the state of Florida was the only one in the country that didn't have snow. Even Hawaii experienced snow in some of its mountain areas, but in the Sunshine State the sun kept shinning.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that sales in many vacation communities across the U.S. soared last year to levels not seen in a very long time. They point out that the second home market has been driven by deep discounts, cash purchases and buyers' rising stock portfolios. More...

Developing your allocation strategy

In my last column, we reviewed the importance of rebalancing your investment portfolio back to a target allocation periodically. This process reduces the risk of the price action of the financial markets from inducing too much risk to your portfolio through the segments which have been performing well occupying too much of the allocation as they edge toward the next inevitable price correction. If applied in a disciplined manner, it is also a way to keep our subjective excitement over an asset class's perceived potential from skewing the allocation through excessive purchases. Let's face it; you'll be wrong as often as right in these cases. More...

Duffy's offense sizzles in the second half

The Sun sports Game of the Week was an adult co-ed matchup between two undefeated teams. The Duffy's Tavern Buccaneers played the Jessie's Island Store Vikings in Community Center NFL Flag Football action.

The first half of play was a good old, gridiron, defensive stand-off. Jessie's Island Store Vikings started with the ball and for their first two possessions, it was three plays and out. The first possession of the Duffy's Buccaneers' team was also three plays and out. On Duffy's second possession though, it got two big pass interference calls that took it down to the one yard line. With first and goal, the Vikings defense held strong and didn't allow the Bucs to score. More...