This is Carl Hiaasen's last column

[Sedona]

12. This Hurricane Andrew refugee has been reading Carls columns forever

Left SoFlo in 1993 and the internet brought him back into my life a few years later.

He will be missed. Two more key paragraphs

Retail corruption is now a breeze, since newspapers and other media can no longer afford enough reporters to cover all the key government meetings. You wake up one day, and they’re bulldozing 20 acres of pines at the end of your block to put up a Costco. Your kids ask what’s going on, and you can’t tell them because you don’t have a clue.

That’s what happens when hometown journalism fades — neighborhood stories don’t get reported until it’s too late, after the deal’s gone down. Most local papers are gasping for life, and if they die it will be their readers who lose the most.