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Sheriff: Carbon Monoxide Deaths Likely Accidental

Posted Aug 11, 2006 by Billy Townsend

Updated Aug 11, 2006 at 10:32 AM

Preliminary investigation shows that Patty and Lionel Branham “both died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, due to their vehicle having been accidentally left running in the garage,” said Polk Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers.

Autopsies were completed Thursday, but results of toxicology screenings will be needed to confirm the exact cause of the deaths, Rodgers said.

Those results typically take several weeks.

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Carbon Monoxide Suspected in Couple’s Deaths

Posted Aug 10, 2006 by Billy Townsend

Updated Aug 11, 2006 at 10:24 AM

A Lakeland couple found dead inside their Winnie Lane home on Wednesday likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning, a preliminary investigation has revealed.  Their vehicle had been left running in the garage, and no foul play is suspected, according to Polk County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers.

Patty Branham, 82, and Lionel Branham, 83, were found dead about 7 p.m. by a Polk County Hazmat team.

Autopsies have been completed on both bodies. Authorities are awaiting completion of toxicology tests to determine the exact cause of death, Rodgers said.

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Iconic Polk Principal Comes Out of Retirement

Posted Aug 9, 2006 by Billy Townsend

Updated Aug 9, 2006 at 10:02 AM

Sue Buckner, long regarded as one of Polk County’s finest school principals, will end her one year retirement and return to full-time education.

Buckner has been named principal of Sandhill Elementary School in Haines City, effective in January, according to a Polk School Board release.

For 15 years, Buckner headed Inwood Elementary in Winter Haven. The school serves a largely low income students body. Under Buckner’s leadership, Inwood developed into a national model for teaching low income students. The school’s test scores routinely competed with magnet and charter schools with self-selected enrollments. Buckner retired at the end of the 2004-05 school year.

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An Inconvenient (For Us) Truth

Posted Aug 6, 2006 by Billy Townsend

Updated Aug 6, 2006 at 06:26 PM

Unfortunately, since we’ve just started, blogging will be scarce until Thursday. Jennifer is on assignment and then off until Thursday. Billy has computer training in Tampa. We’ll do our best to post in the margins until then. For now, here’s links to a couple of Polk-centric stories that ran Saturday in The Tribune. One concerns a trip taken by U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow and another focuses on a proposal to mandate a certain type of grass in Polk yards.

And here’s a repost of our welcome message for anyone new to the site, which can now be linked to through the list of TBO blog at the bottom right hand corner of the TBO home page.

Welcome

Howdy. You are are now reading the Polk County News Blog, jointly powered by the Tampa Tribune, News Channel 8 and TBO.com and written by Channel 8 reporter Jennifer Leigh and Tribune reporter Billy Townsend, both of whom are stationed in Polk County.

For those of you who don’t know, blog, in this case, is just an overused word for an ongoing series of short, digestible on-line news reports from Polk County. We’ll update it throughout the day and week with local news of all flavors, announcements and anything else we think is worth noting. Think of it as the on-line version of a ticker or a crawl. We hope you’ll engage with us, provide us tips and criticize us. This is an ongoing conversation for and about Polk County. We want you to take part.

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A Massive, Energetic Seminar for Educators at Struggling Schools

Posted Aug 4, 2006 by Billy Townsend

Updated Aug 4, 2006 at 11:26 AM

Hundreds of teachers and staff from schools across Polk County packed Victory Church Friday morning in Lakeland for a combination pep-talk and strategy session in advance of school starting Monday.

The educators all came from schools that have not met yearly progress requirements on the federal No Child Left Behind law. Those schools are all under what’s called “corrective” action mandates.

Their speaker Friday was Max Thompson, a longtime teacher, school evaluator and federal education official. His series of suggestions were more specific than one often hears at education speeches. Among them: Begin each lesson with a question that the lesson aims to answer; incorporate vocabulary and writing to inform in every K-12 class; and use rubrics, rubrics, rubrics - graphically presented lesson plans and lessons. Teachers must emphasize visual learning and de-emphasize verbal presentation.

His overarching theme was to simplify and focus. Good schools have simple, usable plans for learning.

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