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Longboat Key | Opinion

    By
  • Observer Staff
  • July 6, 2011
Our View: Trolley folly

Prioritizing is never easy, particularly so for politicians when, for every government service, there is some sort of constituency, or special interest, wanting that service. That's true whether it is tennis courts, community rooms or kayak access.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
  • By George Rauch
  • July 6, 2011
My View: Debt causes direction of market to stay questionable

Right now, even though the market has sold off recently, we remain in what is technically called a bull market.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
Kalahar
  • By Dean Kalahar
  • July 6, 2011
My View: Reality check for schools

To add insult to injury, schools spent their financial windfall in hard cash, while homeowners watched the equity of their property plummet as the housing bubble burst.

  • East County
  • Opinion
Ringing any bells? A dismal 12% of high school seniors have a good grasp of American history. Fewer than one in four attain the minimum basic standard, according to tests from the U.S. Department of Education.
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • June 29, 2011
OUR VIEW: The crisis of our founding roots

Despite naysayers in some of the highest offices in the land, the story of America may be the most compelling national story ever told in the history of the world, the story of men who fought and died for a universal desire - freedom - and then embodied that desire in a set of guiding principles that continues to this day.

  • East County
  • Opinion
Merrill
  • By David Merrill
  • June 23, 2011
My View: More money is no answer

Rod Thomson's recent editorial, "Reforms, Not Money, Working," was spot-on. His argument that money hasn't led to increased test scores in our educational system is true both at the international level and at our local level.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
Thomson
  • By Rod Thomson
  • June 23, 2011
My View: Setting the vote straight

There are some issues that have been so badly reported, where the bias is so entrenched and the media agenda so intertwined in news stories, that it is difficult to unravel things enough to make a cogent argument. Everyone's mind appears already made up with insufficient information.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • June 15, 2011
Our view: Legislation hurts Longboat

The Legislature violated in the past session one basic governing principle but upheld one unfortunately universal law - the law of unintended consequences.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • June 8, 2011
Our View: Budget needs more cutting

There is nothing easy about running a local government these days. Decisions that should have been made, or reversed, long ago are being forced now as property values keep declining and the economic future remains a general mystery. There is no more road to kick the can down.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • June 8, 2011
Letters to the editor

To send in your letters, please email them to [email protected], or mail them to the Longboat Observer, 5570 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key, 34228.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
Jim Ley
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • June 1, 2011
OUR VIEW: What is the business plan?

We keep reading and re-reading the 34 goals members of a town subcommittee presented to the Longboat Key Town Commission to be adopted into the town's vision plan.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
  • By George Rauch
  • June 1, 2011
The pace of the economy is not accelerating

The last few Market Watch articles have focused upon the dangers of the market. The posture in which the market currently exists, although called a bull market, is so expensive that the public is set up for great losses.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • May 25, 2011
OUR VIEW: The rec center dilemma

Longboat Key residents have known for a long time the recreation center at Bayfront Park needs to be replaced. The hard parts are deciding how to pay for improvements and how expansive those improvements should be.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
  • By Gerald Feder
  • May 25, 2011
MY VIEW: The pension operation can't simply be punted

The notion of punting the town's pension "operation" (whether the firefighters' or all three of the town employees' pension "operations") does not confront the complexity of the issues facing the town with respect to employee benefits.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • May 25, 2011
OUR VIEW: Keep the Promise for Israel

To understand why the Observer Group newspapers have always been strong supporters of Israel - and find deep fault with President Obama's Middle East speech last week - we have to go as far back into the written record of history as possible.

  • East County
  • Opinion
    By
  • Observer Staff
  • May 18, 2011
Our View: Punt the pension operation

The evidence just keeps piling up that the town of Longboat Key should not be in the pension business.

  • Longboat Key
  • Opinion
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