COMMENTARY - OrlandoSentinel.com

Lake food drive vital to feeding kids during summer

Lauren Ritchie — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Quick, raid your pantry!

Readers react to school-uniform issue

Lauren Ritchie — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

As word got out that Lake County School Board members had taken the first step last week toward requiring uniforms for students, parents and other residents began to react.

Lake School Board should listen to parents and nix school uniforms

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 20 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Stand back! They're doing it again! Lake County School Board members are making a momentous decision!

Don't procrastinate — students should get HPV vaccine

Lauren Ritchie — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

If you could — for free and without hassle — nearly eliminate your daughter's chances of getting the virus that causes 75 percent of cervical cancers, would you do it?

Lake should restore cuts to transportation for the disabled

Lauren Ritchie — Wed, 16 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

In the Dalebura tribe, a woman, a cripple from birth, was carried about by the tribes people in turn until her death at the age of sixty-six. ... They never desert the sick.

Principal should go for inaction in Leesburg school-molestation case

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 13 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Treadway Elementary School Principal Robin Neeld has blown her credibility by insisting she had no idea an after-school employee charged with 107 counts of child pornography and molestation had ever touched children at the school.

Fallen lawmen memorialized in stone

Lauren Ritchie — Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

All Nancy Harrell remembers about her grandparents from her childhood is her grandmother, a Blackfoot Indian who had been run out of the West, ill upstairs in a house in Sorrento.

Tighter rules needed for emergency notification calls

Lauren Ritchie — Thu, 10 May 2012 22:15:37 GMT

Tavares police decided to wake up Lake County in the middle of the night last week — not just once but several times.

Corruption in Fruitland Park Police Department needs investigation

Lauren Ritchie — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

One of the most shameful practices in Florida is questionable cops bouncing from department to department, continuing to subject the public to brutal, unethical, unqualified or immoral police officers.

Did Leesburg school know of complaints about touching?

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 06 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Since an after-school program worker was arrested on child-pornography charges in December, Lake County school officials have maintained they didn't know anything was amiss at the Leesburg elementary school where the 50-year-old man worked.

Groveland residents should fight exorbitant council pay

Lauren Ritchie — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

POLITICS, noun: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

Lake County Jail meals come with a helping of kindness

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Hey, let's throw a little get-together this weekend! Let's invite, oh, say, 1,000 of our closest friends! Let's feed them!

Former Astatula police Chief Carson Sink pens book based on work in East Timor

Lauren Ritchie — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The date was November the 4th, 1941. It was Election Day back home, but here, just another hot muggy day in Darwin. Down on my luck a bit with nowhere to be until about 3 o'clock, I found myself walking in an all-too-familiar direction, down Mitchell Street on the way to the east end of town.

Readers share strong views about school prayer

Lauren Ritchie — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Maybe the Monday grouchies have me in their clutches.

Lake doesn't need school prayer

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

It's the Buddhist in you, it's the pagan in me

Columnist loses Internet — and connection to the world

Lauren Ritchie — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:10:43 GMT

Hello, I'm Lauren.

Critics, boosters of The Villages weigh in

Lauren Ritchie — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The Villages: fun or frivolous? And why?

Latest scandal shows deep-seated problems in Fruitland Park Police Department

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Fruitland Park just can't catch a break with its police department, and unless it makes dramatic changes, it never will.

The Villages' booming growth good or bad?

Lauren Ritchie — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Census Bureau has named The Villages retirement community and surrounding Sumter County as the second fastest-growing "micro" population in the U.S., with a 4.6 percent increase between 2010 and 2011.

Readers weigh in on subject of racism

Lauren Ritchie — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

After a column about the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a fellow from Atlanta sent a note disagreeing about some opinions. I shot one back. Soon, we were going back and forth, and on Friday, this column shared the exchange and invited readers to jump in.

Lake should fight Medicaid costs

Lauren Ritchie — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:12:00 GMT

Claiming to be the brilliant governor who cut back on state spending is a snap when all you do is push the cost of running a government onto the counties in your state.

Trayvon Martin: "Stand your ground" should not give pursuers the right to kill

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Three weeks ago in Pinellas County, a white off-duty security guard who didn't like how another white guy was driving confronted the driver and shot him dead.

Racial dialogue opens eyes about how Americans can live in harmony

Lauren Ritchie — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

When people are angry, deep down, about something that has appeared in this space, they strike out, and the Orlando Sentinel's email system doesn't screen hostile communication.

Food organizations band together to feed Lake County hungry students

Lauren Ritchie — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Back in 2010, three south Lake fellows started discussing how many people in their community are living without adequate food.

Trayvon Martin march raises questions about those who espouse a legacy of oppression

Lauren Ritchie — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 04:00:00 GMT

John Christian throws a very polite protest march.