Did you know that a microchip is one of the most effective ways to ensure that a lost pet is successfully returned to its owner? 

It is said that numbers do not lie. How often do we want to see final numbers on something before we make a decision? 

Sometimes government intrusion gets on my nerves. I know they occasionally tap my phone lines, mainly because I get the after-the-fact notices that they had suspicions about customers. Attorney-client privilege does not much slow them down.

The month of July is in our rearview mirror, and something was missing from this past Independence Day — more than the fireworks displays.

Community unity: There’s a whole lot of that going on these days in the Spring Hill area of DeLand, and it sure is exciting to see!

When we were kids, we sometimes did things we hoped our parents would not discover. We normally did it while they were away, or in the playhouse. At least we shut our bedroom doors.

How are the elderly coping in the current pandemic? How about someone who’s 100 years old?

Mark Twain famously observed that, first, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then, he made school boards.

Twenty years ago, a grassroots movement in Volusia County to preserve environmentally sensitive lands and improve and expand ecological, cultural, historical and outdoor recreational facilities led to the birth of the ECHO and Volusia Forever programs.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly share my condolences for the family of George Floyd.

While a sign of progress, building a new sewer line isn’t often cause for major celebration.

It has not been long since I wrote about the Avalon Park Daytona plan.

Racial justice and police accountability, now!

My coming of age was guided rather delightfully by the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I learned a lot from their thoughtful lyrics that I would not have learned from my parents, and I honed my political and pacifistic tendencies in their harmonies.

Voting by mail is good for our health, our democracy, and our soul.

“White Americans have never apologized for slavery; thus black Americans have never forgiven them for it,” Judge Hubert Grimes said at a lynching memorial ceremony May 23.

An enlightened group of local people began the Memorial Day weekend with a ceremony in honor and remembrance of a Volusia County resident, at his gravesite.

Before my grandfather passed, his proudest moment was witnessing our nation’s first black president.

Memorial Day weekend is a fitting setting to remember Lee Snell, a World War I Army veteran, who, in 1939, was the victim of racial terror by lynching in Daytona Beach.

Editor’s note: LeadingAge Florida is a nonprofit association that assists and represents elder-care facilities and retirement communities. This is written by the organization’s president.

There are still some Americans — unreconstructed traditionalists — who believe May 30 should be the holiday for honoring the nation’s war dead and those who survived wars but who have since passed from this life.

Small businesses — there are about 12,000 of them in Volusia County — truly are the backbone of our economic engine.

Imagine coming home from a long shift or turning on the TV after being in your house all day, and watching a live broadcast of your favorite team playing. As removed as we are from professional and collegiate athletics, that win makes you feel a little bit better.

This is the third in a four-part series by Quint Studer, author of Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change Is Reshaping America.

I don’t much care for paying taxes. Maybe I could be clearer: I very much dislike paying taxes. Writing those checks to the county pretty much ruins an afternoon for me.

One nice thing about COVID-19 shutdowns is that we have fewer public government meetings. Well, that is good for the governments, who are busy operating via conference link or otherwise keeping low profiles.

Without a doubt, we are now living history.

This is the second column in a three-part series by Quint Studer, author of Building a Vibrant Community: How Citizen-Powered Change Is Reshaping America.

Let us be fair. There are times when lawyers show up as the good guys. Who among us does not remember the old Perry Mason books and TV shows? One lawyer successfully defends his client against the overwhelming force of the state.

By congressional resolution and presidential proclamation, today, May 7, is the National Day of Prayer.

It’s incredibly humbling to realize how the decisions made by the County Council can impact our community and our lives far into the future. Volusia County’s trail system is a prime example.

While we don’t know the exact timeline, in the next few months, we expect the shelter-at-home restrictions to be lifted, and folks will be eager for things to reboot and get back to “normal.”

During this coronavirus pandemic, access to accurate and trustworthy information in your community is as critical to life under quarantine and as sought after as hand sanitizer and face masks.

Well, it has been a couple of months since we last looked at the snowflakes of New Smyrna. The weather is warming up, and those snowflakes are not doing so well.

If you aspired to be a great leader, would you send your team into harm’s way with incomplete or inaccurate information? What would happen if you withheld important facts that could have saved lives or changed the outcome?

Newspapers in the United States have traveled rough seas to the First Amendment freedoms we enjoy today. From the colonial Stamp Act through wartime censorship to today, when thousands of newspapers were slammed with the public health emergency known as COVID-19, people who work for newspape…

Schools, hospitals, roads, affordable housing: What if you could help ensure that Volusia County receives its fair share of funding for all of these vitally important programs, and many others as well? Sounds like a big ask and an even bigger task. But the good news is that it’ll take less t…

It used to be a sort of an ugly footrace. Competing interests would send their people to get to particular legislators. If your lobbyist got there first and had the right amount of persuasive power, your bill moved. Otherwise, we know how useless the Legislature is.