Half your meal is on us
Our marketing guru, Durium Jones, and Senior Editor Eric Snider are headed over to the Palm Avenue Y as I write this to settle a longstanding, trash-talking rivalry over who can really ball the best. First one to 15 wins. Ops Editor Joe Bardi set the over/under at 18. Ouch.
Results when we get them.
MR has moved over to the new Political Whore blog. Here’s the link.
Just another reminder:
Sometime this week, we are going to flip the switch and move our blog, Blurbex, over to a new server inside our CL website. (This is not exactly the exciting part.) You can find the new Blurbex here, with RSS feeds here.
As part of this move, we’re creating three new blogs.
First, we’re spinning out our political coverage to its own blog, Political Whore. The blog will be here, and you can get your RSS feeds from here. I’m going to move Morning Roundup over to Political Whore but will crosspost it to Blurbex for those used to getting their fill of AM snark.
Second, we’re starting a new music blog, focusing on the best shows coming to Tampa Bay and our area’s great local acts. Wade Tatangelo will helm this blog, likely with some help along the way. Tampa Calling will be found here, and RSS feed here.
And third, our killer food writer and restaurant critic Brian Ries is getting his own blog, Eat My Florida. You’ll get the inside scoop on where he’s been eating � and what he’s been eating. The new blog is here, and the RSS here. Once Brian recovers from eating all that pizza he will be up and running on Eat My Florida.
Mayor Pam Iorio has hired a transit manager to “focus solely” on getting a working transit system in Tampa and the region. In an announcement this afternoon, her office said:
Elaine R. McCloud has been selected by Mayor Pam Iorio to serve as the city�s Transit Manager. McCloud will bring over 25 years of public and private sector transit management experience to the city.
McCloud previously worked for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) where she developed and implemented transit initiatives at the local and regional level. As the General Manger for Paratransit Operations at CTA she managed an annual budget of over $70 million and served as an advisor to the executive team on critical transit issues. During her tenure at the Detroit Department of Transportation, McCloud monitored and enforced all aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act and provided guidance for over 900 employees to comply with federal requirements.
McCloud will be paid $95K.
As this blog feared one month ago, The Tampa Tribune this afternoon announced it will be laying off 70 employees and realigning some sections (including merging the Friday BayLife into the tabloid Friday Extra) in a cost-cutting move. Fewer than 10 of those cuts are expected to come in the newsroom and bureaus.
Tribune Publisher Denise Palmer said in a TBO.com story, ÒOur decision to part with valued employees was difficult, and we very
much appreciate the contributions of all those who will be affected by
todayÕs announcement."
Now here’s the kicker: Despite the announcement today, it could take until Friday for staffers there to find out if they are getting the axe or not. Gonna be more than a few sleepless nights, and our prayers are with all the editorial folks at the Media General-owned property.
Palmer told me that she is looking to re-tool the paper’s focus to be "intensely local, and extremely useful" for readers in its core circ areas of Hillsborough, Pasco, Polk and Pinellas counties. As part of cost-reductions, circulation in Citrus, Manatee and Hardee counties is being discontinued, she said.
Among the culprits is slower real-estate advertising, which had been up 100 percent in February 2006 over February 2005 , she said. This year, all of Florida’s newspapers saw "a major correction" in those numbers. Translated: revenues are way off.
Feel however you want about the newspaper or the MSM in general, but the fact is we in Tampa Bay are remarkably spoiled by having two excellent and competitive newspapers. Few metro areas can boast that any more.
I’ve got some exciting Creative Loafing blog news for you all. Sometime this week, we are going to flip the switch and move our blog, Blurbex, over to a new server inside our CL website. (This is not exactly the exciting part.) You can find the new Blurbex here, with RSS feeds here.
As part of this move, we’re creating three new blogs.
First, we’re spinning out our political coverage to its own blog, Political Whore. The blog will be here, and you can get your RSS feeds from here. I’m going to move Morning Roundup over to Political Whore but will crosspost it to Blurbex for those used to getting their fill of AM snark.
Second, we’re starting a new music blog, focusing on the best shows coming to Tampa Bay and our area’s great local acts. Wade Tatangelo will helm this blog, likely with some help along the way. Tampa Calling will be found here, and RSS feed here.
And third, our killer food writer and restaurant critic Brian Ries is getting his own blog, Eat My Florida. You’ll get the inside scoop on where he’s been eating — and what he’s been eating. The new blog is here, and the RSS here. Once Brian recovers from eating all that pizza he will be up and running on Eat My Florida.
I’ll let you know when the switchover occurs, but in the meantime, adjust your browsers and newsreaders accordingly. And let us know what you think about the new blogs. Just click “post comment” below.
I’ve got some exciting Creative Loafing blog news for you all. Sometime this week, we are going to flip the switch and move our blog, Blurbex, over to a new server inside our CL website. (This is not exactly the exciting part.) You can find the new Blurbex here, with RSS feeds here.
As part of this move, we’re creating three new blogs.
First, we’re spinning out our political coverage to its own blog, Political Whore. The blog will be here, and you can get your RSS feeds from here. I’m going to move Morning Roundup over to Political Whore but will crosspost it to Blurbex for those used to getting their fill of AM snark.
Second, we’re starting a new music blog, focusing on the best shows coming to Tampa Bay and our area’s great local acts. Wade Tatangelo will helm this blog, likely with some help along the way. Tampa Calling will be found here, and RSS feed here.
And third, our killer food writer and restaurant critic Brian Ries is getting his own blog, Eat My Florida. You’ll get the inside scoop on where he’s been eating Ñ and what he’s been eating. The new blog is here, and the RSS here. Once Brian recovers from eating all that pizza he will be up and running on Eat My Florida.
I’ll let you know when the switchover occurs, but in the meantime, adjust your browsers and newsreaders accordingly. And let us know what you think about the new blogs. Just click "post comment" below.
This is the wonder of devotion / I see the torch we all must hold:
This comes courtesy of Howard K. Stern’s new lawyer, L. Lin Wood, who warns those who would accuse the Anna Nicole Smith confidante of any wrongdoing Ñ or at least those NOT in the "traditional media" (via PRNewswire):
There is no evidence that Mr. Stern was in any way responsible for
the deaths of Anna Nicole Smith or her son, Daniel. The accusations
that Mr. Stern is guilty of murder have been recklessly and maliciously
invented and published by individuals and entities to advance their
personal agendas with the complicity of a ratings-driven media.To those considering making future false accusations against Mr. Stern,
please consider the following advice: don’t do it. You are not immune
from suit if you are not a member of the traditional media. Redress for
false attacks on reputation is available for Internet accusations as
well as those published in print or uttered on television and radio
broadcasts.
Let it rain, let it rain:
It’s Monday, what better do you have to do with your time than watch my latest segment on Media Talk? It’s up on Google Video now. I chat with Rob and Janet about our cover story on editorial cartooning, and CL food critic Brian Ries breaks in to let them know who won our PZZA Tournament pizza taste-off.
Tampa City Council Chairwoman (again) Gwen Miller wasn’t even two weeks from her triumphant victory over Joe Redner when she moved to assert herself in a way that the public hadn’t seen in her previous 12 years in office. Miller, criticized by Redner and others for being too silent on the council, smacked down colleague Linda Saul Sena’s request to remain on the MPO, which sets transportation policy for the area. (Saul Sena has served for 20 years on that board.)
Instead, Miller appointed the least-transit-friendly councilman, Joseph Caetano, despite saying she supported Tampa Bay’s transit dreams.
A few days later, at the City Council’s first full meeting on Thursday, she appointed newly elected Councilman Thomas Scott as chairman of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which controls urban redevelopment dollars and projects in Tampa. Scott, if you recall, nearly blew up the Bank of America’s plans to redevelop Central Park Village over the issue of forcing the creation of seats for two county commissioners on the city’s CRA. Scott couldn’t gain a foothold on the city CRA as a county official; he now runs it, thanks to Miller.
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble:
Rudy Giuliani — the man who would carry the presidential election in Florida if it were held today, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll — sounded an awful lot like Jack Bauer in his biggest Tampa Bay appearance to date today: It’s all about fighting the terrorists.
"Before September 11th, we were playing defense," Giuliani told the crowd of about 500 at St. Petersburg High School this afternoon. "We put ourselves in jeopardy when we play defense." America’s mayor explained that he doesn’t blame any president in the past for not responding to terror stronger and earlier, saying "I don’t blame people for that. Government is real complicated. They didn’t perceive the danger. I don’t blame them."
But now that the threat is real and demonstrated, Giuliani said, not keeping America on the offense, by using the military the way we have in Afghanistan and Iraq, is irresponsible. In a post-9/11 world, "there is no excuse," Giuliani said. (The juxtaposition of Giuliani’s positions with the Democratic Congressional effort to set a withdrawal date for Iraq and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s presence in Syria was not lost on the partisan crowd, which cheered his oblique attack against their rival party.)
The Republican frontrunner condoned the use of the military, surveillance, the Patriot Act and tough and forceful ("but legal") interrogations as important components of staying on the offensive against terrorists.
Guiliani also advocated a "free market" solution to the nation’s health care crisis, including health care savings accounts. He was introduced and flanked by two dozen prominent supporters, including state Attorney General Bill McCollum (named earlier in the day as Giuliani’s Florida chairman), GOP icon Congressman C.W. Bill Young and Congresswoman Ginnie Browne-Waite.
Giuliani got a strong welcome from the Pinellas Republican Party, whose leaders have certainly chosen sides in the crowded primary contest. Not surprising given the fact that Chairman Tony DiMatteo is a native New Yorker and proud graduate of Brooklyn Tech. He stood at the door to St. Pete High this afternoon and greeted VIPs with a hearty, "You here to meet the next president of the United States?"
Finally, Giuliani was presented with a Green Devils warm-up jacket by members of the student body, emblazoned with "Rudy 44" on the back. Giuliani laughed and held it up, saying the number had great significance for him. "You think you know why," he said, alluding to the fact that he would be president No. 44 if elected. "But this is why: This was Reggie Jackson’s number."
Getting ready for the big Rudy speech this afternoon:
A quick shout out to the Florida Orchestra for what appears to be a wonderful 2007-2008 season just unveiled. I’m especially stoked about the Bruckner 9th and Shostakovich’s 15th Symphony. Plus some Bartok. The Masterworks Series is sponsored by Progress Energy, so use a few extra KW today in their honor. (Just kidding, my green friends.)
After a disastrous campaign week that found him atop national headlines carrying Dubya’s water in Iraq, John McCain is now set to revamp his fundraising approach and delay his formal entry into Presidency:2008, according to tomorrow’s NYT.
Given how incredibly stupid his trip to the heart of the war was, I’m thinking that maybe he wants to replace his strategists as well.
Bottom line: McCain is a Dead Man Walkin’.
Imprisoned videographer Josh Wolf, the subject of a CL cover story, could be released finally. Details here.
FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Wolf is free, and he has both a statement and the unedited footage that sent him to prison in the first place posted on his blog.
It’s great to be a Florida Gator:
Happy Pesach to all:
- Phil de Vellis speaks.
- The rest of of Florida’s problems well in hand, the Guv turns his attention to the last pressing issue.
- "I am very aware that I am self-centered and flighty and dazzled by shiny things, but I am not manipulative and I am not mean."
- Poliblog throwdown: Hussey vs. Mr. G.
- Presidential campaign expectations.
- Breaking news: journalists are drunks, druggies and nuts.
