Our Best Stuff: A Bradenton Native Dies in Combat, County Contracts Out Management of Public Golf Courses, Downtown Development Authority Considers Projects

IN GOVERNMENT

• Florida's 2011 is very different from last year's. This year, books will not be exempt, but the price of eligible items has increased.
• The Manatee County Commission laid off nearly 30 workers this week when it of the county's two public golf courses.
• It looks as if the Manatee County Commission will avoid having to vote on an increase to the millage rate after the county administrator and the sheriff worked out a without a tax increase.
• County employee Richard Garst was after he saved his co-worker after the two were in a head-on collision.
• Manatee County has three openings on the which helps set priorities for spending the tax revenues for children's services across the county.

IN NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS

• Bradenton native, , an infantryman assigned to the Army’s elite 10th Mountain Division, was killed in combat in Afghanistan this week.
• Now that the $6.5 million downtown Riverwalk project along the Manatee River has been handed off to the contractor, the Downtown Development Authority took time during a work session to decide what comes next. And one specter from the spring quickly gave rise: The Manatee River Hotel, better known as .
• Florida's 2011 is very different from last year's. This year, books will not be exempt, but the price of eligible items has increased.

IN SCHOOL NEWS:

• The , the schedules are done and the phone lines are open: Manatee County is ready to get its students to school.
• It's and time to figure out where the closest school bus stop is to your home, what time the buses arrive and drop off.

IN SPORTS

• Terron Sanders, a 2006 Southeast High School graduate, was in late July and is participating in his first NFL training camp.
• Manatee High, which began practicing Monday, has used a variety of methods, including souped-up water buckets, to

IN BUSINESS

• What happens when , a passion for fashion and an affinity for forgotten old odds and ends?
• Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc. voluntarily recalled several baked goods from its in-store bakeries because the products may be mislabeled.