This 911 call brought Lake Hamilton cops to a councilman’s home
A 911 call brought cops to a Lake Hamilton councilman’s home hours after he voted against a development. Was it related?
Lakeland Regional’s battle with United Healthcare
Regarding the article “Patients scramble as plans change” [Dec. 27], the article does not mention some ongoing insurance issues with local Lakeland health care providers.
One is currently ongoing between United Healthcare and Lakeland Regional Health.
Many of us who have UHC insurance received letters and e-mail messages from both UHC and LRH informing that LRH may no longer be in network for UHC after October 2026. Therefore some of us with UHC Medicare Advantage plans were forced to change to a new insurer’s Medicare Advantage plan for 2026 because there is no guarantee that our LRH doctors will be covered by a UHC plan for the last quarter of 2026.
Neither LRH nor UHC will explain why there is a failure to negotiate an agreement; my e-mail messages to both received no reply, and I received no answer from either phone calls or online chat with UHC and LRH.
The timing of this feud was grossly inconvenient, occurring during the 2026 Medicare enrollment window that ended 10 days before Christmas. I am sure that many others with UHC plans experienced the same thing, and possibly with other insurers who have not reached an agreement with LRH.
C.L. Boyd, Lakeland
U.S. legal system isn’t in ‘tatters’
I read R. Bruce Anderson’s Dec. 28 editorial on our current legal system. My take-away from his writing is that Anderson is unhappy because the legal system has changed and it will require him to change his way of thinking and teaching.
America has changed, and our legal system needs to change with it. Do you want a legal system that is stagnating? One in which the past dictates the future. We learn from the past and reject those things that are no longer valid.
With regard to the Constitution and its amendments, legal scholars have and will continue to debate their meaning and applicability. The U.S. Supreme Court has the final say regardless of contrary arguments. That’s our system and too bad if you don’t like it. The value of the Supreme Court is not determined by whether you are in agreement.
Executive authority is used and stretched by all presidents. If a sufficient number of voters disagree with those actions then a new president (party) is elected. Again, that’s our system.
Simply because Anderson disagrees with several recent legal actions doesn’t mean that our legal system “hangs by a thread” or “lies in almost incoherent tatters.”
Edward McDonald, Auburndale
Protecting the unborn in Lakeland
I spoke to Bill Mutz via a messaging app shortly after his election concerning making Lakeland a sanctuary city for the unborn. He agreed that it was something that needed to be done but as of now has not been on his agenda.
He states he wants to represent everyone, except the unborn apparently. I know he is a Christian and that is also difficult. The Bible says thou shall not kill, and that means the unborn also.
If someone insists on an abortion they can go elsewhere and at least Lakeland is not making it easy.
Tommy Tompkins, Lakeland
Trump too worried about image to solve serious issues
Recently, there was a letter in The Ledger in which the writer implores us to support Trump because he is “working hard to make America great again.” I wonder how Trump is doing that exactly?
He has not worked on solving the affordability crisis, nor the future solvency of Social Security. Nor has he a plan for either reforming or replacing the ACA.
Instead, he is busy remodeling a White House bathroom, tarting up the Oval Office, tearing down the East room, designing a ballroom worthy of Louis IV, renaming the Kennedy Center for himself and now planning on taking over public golf courses in DC and will “help” design battleships that will carry his name.
In his spare time, he is designing ways to harass, insult and bankrupt anyone who has disagreed with him.
Presidents with less fragile egos have busied themselves with more serious issues. Even if Trump had the time, he hasn’t the expertise to solve serious problems. His milieu is image, as in reality TV. His cabinet choices weren’t based on their knowledge but on loyalty to him, so no help there.
But then, who says America isn’t great already – in spite of Trump?
Nancy Simmons, Winter Haven
Without vaccines, lives are changed
Sometime in 1958 there was an outbreak of mumps in my school. Evidently there were no vaccines available.
My older sister acquired it and then my father got it but they recovered fairly well. Then I acquired mumps and encephalitis and was sick and out of school for weeks. My doctor told my mother that when she wrote a note for my school not to write that I had had encephalitis.
When I returned to school I had forgotten what classes I had or where they were. We were taught that if we wanted a medical profession we should take Latin. I was in my first year of Latin because I wanted to go to nursing school. And I had signed up for trigonometry for my senior year but I had even forgotten my multiplication tables. But I still graduated from Kathleen Junior High School in 1959.
Because I always loved to cook, I earned my food manager certification and continued my career in food service.
If it would not have been for the lack of vaccines for mumps my life may have been different. But now I love working in my church library and freelance writing.
Dorothy Costine Sawyer, Lakeland
Affordability should be priority No. 1
AI is unlikely to replace plumbers, electricians or roofers. It will eliminate many white-collar jobs typically held by college graduates.
Consumer spending accounts for 70% of our GDP, and some of our biggest spenders are college graduates — those who can afford to hire plumbers, electricians and roofers; people who build housing.
To survive, we need purpose, a job and a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Without purpose, individuals lose their motivation to exist. Idle hands lead to division and hate, ultimately threatening the stability of our economy.
The law of supply and demand regulates our economy. We have natural resources that support consumption, which drives our economic growth. AI, like our brains, requires significant energy to operate, leading to unintended consequences such as increased electricity costs, heightened pollution, and climate change that affect the prices of groceries, housing and insurance.
Household formation is essential for generating a replacement generation and building equity for our retirement. Without affordable healthcare, accidents and illnesses can cost us our homes and our retirements.
Affordability, including healthcare, and job security are priority one if we are to remain a prosperous, well-educated nation that provides quality of life and retirement security.
Robert Connors, Lakeland
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