The City of Cartagena is noted for both the quantity and quality of its prostitutes, who, according to the mayor are as easy to obtain as “a bottle of beer” (although not as inexpensive).

RICHARD L. HERSHATTER Contributing Columnist hershatter@lbknews.com The crystal ball grows dimmer; The contest has been fun; But don’t predict the winner, Too much damage has been done. “And the days dwindle down…to a precious few… September…November…” So the song goes. Twenty-one Republican debates ago, with nine or 10 feisty candidates in contention, most observers would [...]

Those who attended a standing-room-only debate last Monday at the Bayfront Park Recreation Center between Vice Mayor Dave Brenner and challenger Ray Rajewski for the third district seat on the Longboat Key Town Commission were treated to an excellent and informative display of what a political debate should be.

The Florida Legislature is closing its annual session this month with a record that would make Fred and Wilma Flintstone feel right at home.

At their regular meeting last month, six out of seven of the commissioners governing Longboat Key gave high marks to our interim town manager, David Bullock. (The seventh commissioner, Hal Lenobel, presented nothing negative, but felt that after only 90 days of service, it was too early for a meaningful evaluation.)

RICHARD L. HERSHATTER Contributing Columnist hershatter@lbknews.com The road ahead is sometimes rough And difficult to view, But now the Party’s had enough; The four are down to two. Remember: you heard it here first. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum will be the 2012 Republican candidate for president of the United States. After unexpected caucus victories [...]

Last month, at long last, Florida’s Republican primary came to an end in a frantic propaganda feeding frenzy resembling nothing so much as a firing squad aligned in a circle, with collateral damage incurred by all the candidates…

Snowbirds returning to our island paradise undoubtedly know that things remain unsettled in the Middle East and that in Iraq the Shias and Sunnis are still killing each other because of a disagreement over the proper way to worship Allah.

History will show that whatever his flaws, President Richard Nixon, who resigned the presidency one step ahead of impeachment, can be credited with some pretty impressive accomplishments. On the international front, he opened up relations with China and signed the first nuclear arms pact with the Soviet Union.

Last week, in these pages, my erstwhile friend and fellow columnist, Tom Burgum, decried the existence of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, labeling it a chaotic conglomeration of “anarchists, communists, disillusioned students, the unemployed and the unemployable.”