The Creative Loafing team prides itself on producing more Daily Loaf content each week than any individual could ever possibly comprehend. As such, you’re bound to have missed at least one worthwhile story from the pages of this blog over the last few days. Here’s a “greatest hits” list from the week that was, broken down by section:
NEWS
MUSIC
Movies, food, sex and Punky Brewster after the break. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t forget about your homework for the weekend — keeping up on the latest music news.
Jay-Z announced the second leg of his tour for his new album, Blueprint 3. (No Florida stops are included.) The record may just be a “blueprint,” but no doubt it’s a plan to lay the foundation of yet another successful project for Jigga.
Tonight on the USF Tampa campus, a group of students intend to put a focus on the homeless situation by simulating a homeless camp on the campus grounds for one night.
Christy Burke is assistant director of the USF Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement. She says tonight’s event is part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week , for which universities across the country are holding similar ‘Campus Sleepout’ events. But she says that the environment being created on the campus is nothing like how most homeless contend with the elements.
Food and water will be available for the students participating in the project, which begins at 6 p.m. tonight.
Robin Mansour is in her second year of studies in Biomedical Sciences, and the student coordinator for the event. She says in light of the recent (non)actions by the Hillsborough County Commission regarding the homeless, students tonight will meet in small groups to discuss legislation and other recent news about the homeless.
Mansour says, “Homelessness is becoming such an issue with the economy, and a lot of the stereotypes are starting to disappear. We desperately need to shelter these these people, most of them who aren’t dangerous, and aren’t predominantly drug and alcohol abusers.”
On the day Hillsborough Commissioners rejected the proposed tent city style of housing for the homeless last month, one resident in East Lake , Linda Hinson, was quoted in the New York Times as saying “I don’t have to go out and get a gun.”
That comment stunned Robin Mansour. “It’s a little shocking,” she said, adding, “There’s a lot of fear and stigma of the homeless out there.”
At least eight people have been shot in a downtown office highrise in Orlando, FL, according to TV news reports. Here’s an excerpt from a report by WESH 2 in Orlando:
Firefighters were called to Gateway Center at 1000 Legion Place around 11:30 a.m. The building is near Lake Ivanhoe.
All patients have been taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center. At least four of the eight patients are serious trauma cases. Due to the incident, the emergency room has been closed to patients. The ER is on status X.
Dispatchers with the Orlando Fire Department said a shooting with multiple victims was reported on the eighth floor.WESH 2 reporter Gail Paschall-Brown, who is at the scene on the ground, said that 15 employees came out of the building very distraught. Paschall-Brown spoke with one who said that a former employee came into the office who hadn’t worked at the company in over a year.
According to a report filed at 12:50 p.m. by ABC Action News outlet WFTV, two of the shooting victims are dead and four are “trauma red.”
By George Niemann
PoHo contributor
Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners:
It appears likely that you are going to ask us to approve a 1% sales tax increase in November of 2010 to fund a long range multi-modal transportation package which is highlighting the introduction of light rail to the Tampa Bay region.
At Wednesday’s Regular BOCC meeting it was revealed that, although the referendum’s top billing will be “light rail”, only 37% of the proposed tax will end up going toward an inter-city light rail system. The balance will go toward other forms of transportation, as well as road improvements that are long overdue.
The big question is this – are you going to give voters all of the hard facts surrounding this proposed referendum? And will you incorporate this into your referendum campaign? I know that it will be tempting to take the soundbite approach without providing detail because, as you know, the devil is in the details. Considering that a good portion of this tax would be used to fix infrastructure problems that were created by approving sprawl, how do we know that you’ve learned your lesson? Or that you won’t come back to us 10 years from now and say we need an additional 1% on top of the first 1% because we couldn’t help ourselves from approving more sprawl without getting the money for the infrastructure?
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) calls it “electrocution without prosecution,” and in the wake of the two most recent Taser-related deaths in Florida, the civil rights group wants the governor to temporarily ban Tasers until a stricter, more uniform policy can be put in place.
The so called “non-lethal” devices, manufactured by Taser International, have killed over 400 U.S. citizens since 2001. According to the website Electronic Village, which diligently tracks the numbers, over 40 percent of the victims are black men. Charles Smith, president of the Manatee Chapter of the SCLC, sees Tasers as the biggest threat to the people of Florida. “You don’t have to break the law for them to use it on you. We cannot allow the local authorities to arbitrarily decide when a person can use a Taser and when they can’t. This is not a black and white issue; this is a right and wrong issue.”
The October 27 meeting with Governor Crist came after weeks of protest over the Pensacola killing of 17-year-old Victor Steen, who police say was fleeing on his bicycle from a construction site the night of Oct. 3. Officers tried to tase him from inside their patrol car but missed. Steen then lost control of his bike and fell into the path of the vehicle and was dragged 25 feet to his death. After that incident the Pensacola Police Dept. revised their policy to prohibit the shooting of Tasers into or from a moving vehicle.
A week before Steen was killed in Pensacola, 38-year-old Derrick Humbert died within a half hour of being tased in the back for not stopping when ordered to by Bradenton Police Officer Del Shiflett. Humbert’s only crime was operating a bicycle without a headlight. Read the rest of this entry »
In two months, the Rick Baker era ends. St. Petersburg’s mayor moves on, possibly toward the only job he’s said he really wants: replacing Carl Kuttler as the head of St. Petersburg College.
But before he goes, his critics want to let him know how they really feel about him.
Yesterday a coalition of activist groups, including St. Pete For Peace, announced that they would protest Saturday night’s St. Pete Chamber of Commerce “Bon Voyage Shindig,” now scheduled to take place at Demens Landing.
In the words of the Reverend Bruce Wright, “If you’re going to honor him for his accomplishments, let’s tell the truth about his failures.”
When asked today by CL what he considers to be Baker’s shortcomings, the homeless activist rattles off a litany of issues. “The elimination of public housing. Tent slashing by his police department. Black youth being shot by his police department. The harassment of youth in general. Destroying civil liberties by vacating the sidewalk at BayWalk. His lack of movement on the environment, which is why we still don’t have curbside recycling.”
But Wright says for all of Baker’s failures, he’s concerned about what might come next in a Bill Foster administration. “It’s frightening,” he says. “I think our city is going to go in an even worse position.”
Demens Landing is located at Bayshore Drive and 1st Avenue SE in St. Petersburg. Activists want people to show up there at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Later today, President Obama is expected to visit the House to rally support for the biggest issue of his young presidency domestically, health care reform.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has told the members of the House to come to the Capitol at 9 a.m. Saturday to vote on the 10-year, $1.05 trillion health care legislation.
What a 24 hours it should be for Madame Speaker.
Pelosi needs 218 votes, which means doing whatever she can (legally) to convince the disparate members of her caucus to support the bill. If the bill goes down to defeat, you will never hear the end of it from Republicans and the Washington press corps.
The president and House Speaker scored a couple of major endorsements yesterday when both the American Medical Association and the AARP came out in support of the bill.
The AARP has received scathing criticism from some conservatives throughout the year for speaking positively about health care reform.
Count Brooksville Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite among those critics. After the AARP’s endorsement yesterday, she sent out a press release blasting the group by writing:
“There was a time when AARP represented the interests of retired people — this endorsement proves that those days are long gone. The Democrats’ health care bill cuts $400 billion from Medicare — the very program that AARP’s members paid for and rely on.
“AARP is running a great risk by endorsing a bill that does not clearly determine which health plans will be allowed under this legislation. This bill leaves it up to Washington bureaucrats to make that determination once the bill is passed and signed into law.
“AARP members deserve to know the true reasons behind their endorsement of this bill. If they are not standing up to the interests of seniors, then whose interests are they standing up for?”
As I reported on yesterday, despite the mocking of Speaker Pelosi for saying of Tuesday night’s election results that it had actually been a good night for Democrats, it was a good night for her in her quest to get 218 votes by Saturday.
California’s John Garamendi, elected Tuesday in a district east of San Francisco, and Bill Owens, who won the much hyped New York District 23 race over independent conservative Doug Hoffman, both have said they support the health care bill that they’ll vote on tomorrow.
That’s not to say that there aren’t Democrats, particularly those from Republican-leaning districts in the South, who will oppose the legislation. There are still negotiations going on today on delicate issues like abortion provisions and care for legal and illegal immigrants.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is scheduled to give the keynote address today at 12:30 p.m. during a daylong student veterans’ conference on the USF-Tampa campus.
No doubt he will reference the tragedy yesterday at Fort Hood, where, as of this morning, an Army psychiatrist (right) is suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 30 others in a shooting rampage. The suspect remains hospitalized and on a ventilator.
As of this morning, nobody quite knows for sure what set off Major Nidal Malik Hasan, other than reports that he absolutely did not want to go to Iraq, where he was scheduled to be deployed later this month.
Former Army General Shinseki’s appearance comes just a few days after he announced a plan to end homelessness among veterans in the next five years, which includes pledging $3.2 billion over the next year to address the problem.
His plan includes preventive measures, including support services for incarcerated veterans who are re-entering society; a national referral center that can link veterans to programs in their areas; and expansions in education, job training, health care and housing.
“In the past, VA focused largely on getting homeless veterans off the streets,” Shinseki said. “Our five-year plan aims day after also at preventing them from ever ending up homeless.”
According to reports from the AP and TV news, seven people have been killed and 20 wounded in shootings at the Fort Hood military base in Fort Hood, TX.
From the New York Times/AP report:
An Army spokesman at the Pentagon says the shootings began about 1:30 p.m. Thursday at a personnel and medical processing center at Fort Hood.
The spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Banks, says two shooters were apparently involved. There is no word yet on who they were, nor on identities of the dead.
Banks says the second incident took place at a theater on the sprawling base.
Updates to follow.
UPDATE from ABC News:
12 reported dead, 31 wounded in shootings on the base. Authorities say the shooter, who was killed, was an Army major, Malik Nadal Hasan. Two other soldiers were also involved and have been apprehended.
UPDATE from CNN 6:50 p.m.
Major Hasan was a psychiatrist.
UPDATE and CORRECTION
Contrary to reports on the day of the shooting, Major Hasan survived. Kimberly Munley, a sergeant in the civilian police department at Fort Hood, is being acclaimed as a hero for taking down the alleged assailant in four shots, ending the rampage. Hasan was in a coma as of Friday Nov. 6; Sgt. Munley was in stable condition with shots to the leg and wrist.
Photo credit: Anderson Mancini @Flickr.com
I have to give Commissioner Mark Sharpe credit for promoting alternative transportation options. On its face, rail sounds like a good idea, but take a closer look at how our county currently operates and how we got here in the first place and that rail vision starts to blur.
Hillsborough County Commissioners put the county in the hole over $11,000 with every new rooftop they approve because they don’t charge adequate impact fees to developers. These figures came out in this 2007 report from the Planning Commission. As a result we are billions behind for things like roads.
What to do? They know! Ask us to tax ourselves to help pay for roads via a 1% sales tax for “rail” (of which only 37% really goes to rail). As my recent post pointed out, we wouldn’t be in this mess had this and past boards made growth pay for itself instead of shifting the burden to taxpayers to subsidize their developer welfare. Now they want even more of a bailout.
On the heels of their rail discussion Wednesday, commissioners had the chance to discuss the audit on impact fees (which are charged to developers to pay for transportation, parks, schools and fire). The audit was performed by the County Clerk’s office and presented to commissioners during their afternoon meeting. Some of the audit’s findings include:
Observation 1: The BOCC has not been assured that the impact fees were spent as directed by ordinance 96-29.
Observation 2: The current impact fee assessment for transportation, right of way, parks, and fire networks may not be covering a reasonable percentage of the cost of growth within the County.
But wait, there’s more:
Finding 1: The costs to administer the program are not fully funded by the impact fees.
Finding 3: Impact fees were incorrectly calculated and assessed.
Finding 4: Revenue from receipt of permitting fees could be lost or misappropriated.
To summarize, not only do they not charge enough to cover growth (or even the impact fee program itself), some of the money could be lost or misappropriated! If you attended or watched the meeting you wouldn’t know this because they didn’t even discuss it. Read the rest of this entry »
With time hopefully comes perspective, so we will again revisit what nationally some political analysts are deciphering from Tuesday’s elections across the nation.
One of the more interesting takes I read this morning comes from Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal, in a column titled “The Permanent Tea Party.”
Henninger writes about how the GOP is “spinning” the results in Virginia and New Jersey (where Republicans were victorious in gubernatorial elections) as “proof” that voters are fed up with liberal ideologues in the White House and Congress, but adds, “it’s deeper than that.”
He goes on to conclude:
So the Republicans “won” Tuesday. Now what?
Just as the Democrats in 2008 ran mainly against “Bush,” the Republican political model seems to be to let Democratic failure dump states like New Jersey and Virginia into their control. But I think most voters, no matter their party registration, know that in the past 12 months the stakes for them have suddenly become larger than political “control.”
Unless leadership emerges equal to the new world voters see they have fallen into, volatility in America’s election returns is going to be the norm for a long time.
The more immediate question is how it affects the Democratic-led Congress, and the fight to get a health care reform bill passed.
5-2.
That was the vote yesterday by Hillsborough County Commissioners to have the county attorney prepare a resolution indicating that the commissioners intend to look at a 1 cent sales tax referendum on the ballot a year from now.
Commissioners Jim Norman and Al Higginbotham voted no, and based on their rhetoric yesterday, show no signs of supporting the proposal when it comes back before them in the next few months.
But as long as no other commissioners defect, the path to getting the measure on the ballot will happen. (For such a referendum, the Hillsborough Charter states that there must be a super majority, or 5 votes, to do so.)
Commissioner Norman has been nothing if not consistent in his criticism of the proposal, though his reasons are multiple.
He said yesterday he would support such a plan, but not a ‘fragmented one.’
But Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who had a front row seat during the deliberations at the County Center yesterday, completely disagreed, telling WMNF radio that the plan has been prepared by the seven-county agency that is TBARTA, and is quite cohesive.
Norman also balked at the fact that there was no feasibility report attached to the proposal yesterday.
Lucia Garsys, speaking for the Hillsborough County Transportation Task Force that presented the plan, said that Mike Merrill and Eric Johnson with the County’s Budget Department were currently working with officials with HART on that, and would present it to the board by the time they next voted on the measure in December.
Coming up with a different reason why he wasn’t buying into the plan was Commissioner Higginbotham. He said that the resolution of intent allows financial supporters (or opponents) a “cloak of secrecy” because they could contribute financially to the proposal without reporting it.
County Attorney Renee Lee said that was the case and would be until the next vote the board had on the matter in December. Higginbotham said that Tuesday’s elections across the country indicated that “voters said yesterday that they find this type of business as usual” unacceptable.
Higginbotham said he worried about getting an earful from his grandkids in two or three decades, asking “Where’s the money?”
Commissioner Mark Sharpe, the leading cheerleader on the board to bring light rail to Tampa and the region, acknowledged that it’s always tough to ask the voters to increase their taxes, especially in the current economic environment. But as he has said in the past, he believed the County had no alternative but to go forward, and promoted the plan (as did others) as an economic engine that will ultimately bring more jobs to Tampa Bay.
Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair, a candidate for State House in District 47 next year, has come up with his own idea to help the homeless, after watching his former colleagues on the Board of County Commissioners fail to come up with their own plan.
Blair says he wants to renovate at least one vacant hotel to house those without housing.
From his press release:
“It makes sense, across the board. Hotels are already equipped for sheltering people. And it would, at the same time, help the homeless and create jobs,” he added. Blair says the plan would entail selecting a vacant hotel and targeting it for renovation. Then, county homeless people would be moved in-after background checks-with attention paid to grouping them by gender and/or families. Blair said, though, that people wouldn’t be able to stay there indefinitely, in order to ensure that vacancies would be created for others.
Last month the Commission rejected a long discussed proposal by Catholic Charities to build a tent-city like structure off of East Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa. After receiving stinging criticism from the editorial boards of both local dailies and from many citizens, Commissioners Kevin White and Al Higginbotham then simultaneously thought of the Floriland mall in Tampa as a possible site for the homeless.
But that idea went nowhere after the landlord of the property said he had no intention of using the land for such a purpose. Also, local residents weren’t happy about the idea, and even less so that they weren’t consulted before White & Higginbotham made their proposal.
During that discussion, Commissioner Higginbotham stressed that it was important to show the community that “they cared,” though absolutely no vetting had been done to actually ensure that the homeless had a legitimate place to stay.
The Commission’s rejection of the Catholic Charities proposal made national news, as the New York Times reported on the fine compassionate citizens of Hillsborough such as Linda Hinson of East Lake, who said of the defeat of the camp plan that “I don’t have to go out and get a gun.” She declared that there were already enough shelters.
It wasn’t easy for me to resist the temptation to gush happily in print over our President’s visit to DeSoto county last week; but what struck me as I watched the event on TV were the paradoxical images –
Consider this: a utility company executive delivers accolades to the President for his leadership on sustainable energy production. Is this an anomaly? Maybe, but FPL Group’s CEO Lewis Hay, belongs to an exclusive club. Its members are forward thinking business executives readying their companies for a new green economy.
Granted, Mr. Hay’s exuberance may be due to the $200 million of stimulus funding FP & L is about to receive. But you have to admit, it does take chutzpah for him and his activist executive buddies to visit Washington in support of climate change legislation. They gathered as the Waxman/Markey bill was coming up for a key house vote back in June, even taking out a full page ad in DC newspapers. Acknowledging the paradigm shift to sustainable, clean power production so many others deny, they see the legislation as good for business. Whoa, did you hear that, Chamber of Commerce? Jokingly, Obama noted that people get nervous about change, relating Hay’s comment “especially utility executives” to which the crowd, largely made up of utility contractors and employees, laughed heartily.
Or this image: Juxtaposed against gleaming hi-tech solar panels, straw cowboy hats perched atop the heads of men in the first row bobbed up and down nodding in agreement with the President’s words. Thirty years ago this would be a scene in a sci-fi flick, and for some in the Deep South it would have been a horror flick. An African American President telling a rural Florida farming community: Boys, we’re gonna be installin’ some special equipment out here in these pastures, we’re gonna start harvesting sun rays. Yeah, sure ya are, and I just got done putting a trailer hitch on my spaceship to Mars. Oh by golly, farming sure has changed. No horses corralling cattle; no tractors in the fields, no worry of drought damaged crops.
Read the rest of this entry »
There were three main races that the nation’s political pundit class were focusing on yesterday as possible referendums on the state of the Obama Administration and the state of the nation.
So, with Republicans winning governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia, but losing a highly focused Congressional race in upstate New York, what’s it all mean the day after? Read the rest of this entry »
Bill Foster awakens this morning to his lifelong dream: He is now the mayor of St. Petersburg.
A somewhat exhausted Foster shook hands and hugged supporters on Central Avenue for hours after Kathleen Ford called to concede the election right around 8 p.m. last evening.
Foster won with nearly 53% of the vote, to Ford’s 47%.
I did not make a prediction prior to last night, but I did believe that the election would not be over by 8 p.m. That was a stunner to me. In the last poll taken several weeks ago, Ford had a somewhat precarious 5% lead. Ford did much better in the early voting than among those who came out to the polls yesterday, leading support to those who might believe that her H.N.I.C. comment damaged her, particularly among black voters.
At 7:50 p.m., Bay News 9 showed Foster up by 6%. It was at that time that Ford realized the jig was up, and shortly afterward made her concession speech and called Foster to congratulate him.
I unfortunately missed the speech. A) Because I was just leaving Ferg’s, but B) because Ford’s campaign event was as far west of downtown as you could get without being on Treasure Island Beach! I arrived at the Sunshine Center around 8:30 p.m., and by then the place was a virtual mausoleum. Some supporters were in near tears, but others appeared to be moving on quickly, satiating their hurt by consuming some of the generous supply of food prepared earlier in the evening.
I only had a few moments with Kathleen Ford to talk about the results. Frankly, it was difficult. So many months of hard work and dedication, all over in less than an hour. Although she apparently made other remarks to members of the press regarding her media coverage, she wouldn’t go there with me, simply responding that she didn’t think the St. Pete Times’ harsh coverage of her on their editorial page made any difference, and refused to speculate how significant their endorsement of Bill Foster might have been.
Foster was extremely humble in victory, praising Ford for running a strong campaign against him, and calling her a friend, saying, “I’m still crazy about her. And I need her.” Read the rest of this entry »
Steve Kornell with Democratic Committeewoman Linda Lucas at Shackleton's.
It was a mixed bag for gay voters last night. The vote to preserve marriage equality came up short in Maine, but great strides were made in local elections — including St. Petersburg’s City Council race.
Steve Kornell, one of the most impressive candidates in any local race this season, won his St. Pete council seat by a surprisingly large margin — 59.46% to 40.54% — over his opponent, Angela Rouson. He is the first openly gay person in the history of the city to be elected to public office. Like Kevin Beckner, the first openly gay Hillsborough County Commissioner, Kornell brought qualities to his candidacy that transcended issues of sexual orientation: strong community involvement, great campaign preparation, specific ideas and a sharp mind. His election, like Beckner’s, is a heartening sign of progress — even though St. Pete voters elected a new mayor who, like Rick Baker, refuses to march in gay pride parades. (Bill Foster was making sympathetic noises about domestic partnership benefits toward the end of his campaign, though, so there may be some hope there.)
Kornell was not the only LGBT candidate making history last night. Read the rest of this entry »
Today Hillsborough County Commissioners are scheduled to formally begin discussions on ballot language for a 1 cent sales tax referendum for light rail, increased bus service and improved roads.
But Commissioner Mark Sharpe now says that today the Board will simply hear from the County’s Transportation Task Force, and the discussion on the language for the measure won’t come until next month.
The discussion comes two days after an estimated 300 people flocked to the Crowne Plaza hotel in Brandon for a transportation forum featuring Pat McCrory, the longtime mayor of Charlotte, NC.
McCrory, a Republican who lost in his bid to be governor of North Carolina last fall, is the longest-serving mayor in Charlotte history. He made his presentation, “Mayberry & Metropolis: The Best of Both Worlds,” to a group that appeared to be pretty much in support of light rail. And it was a good show, because McCrory is an energetic and enthusiastic communicator. Read the rest of this entry »
For real-time results in the vote on gay marriage in Maine, head to ProtectMaineEquality.org. If voters reject the amendment to repeal the state’s marriage equality law, it will mark the first time that the right to gay marriage is established by voters, not their elected representatives.
But the race is very close, as you’ll see from the website. A short while ago, with 22% of precincts reporting, the Bangor Daily News had the vote at 51% against the repeal to 49% in favor.
UPDATE 10:38PM
Portland numbers announced: A huge NO vote.
Commenters on site are thinking this will win it for No on 1, but most reports are showing the overall state tally at 50-50, and there are lots of votes still to be counted.
UPDATE Midnight
The tables have turned. MSNBC reports that with 69% of the votes counted, the tally has shifted to 52% Yes and 48% No.
To recap, a Yes vote is a vote to repeal marriage equality in Maine. There’s talk of a recount.
UPDATE: The morning after
It was a close battle, but Maine voters voted YES to reject the legalization of gay marriage.
Election Night, 7:45 p.m.: With almost all precincts reporting, Bill Foster is maintaining a 6 percent lead over Kathleen Ford in the race to succeed Rick Baker as mayor of St. Petersburg. In the race for City Council, Steve Kornell, Leslie Curran, Jeff Danner and Karl Nurse look like sure winners; Jim Kennedy’s race with Steve Corsetti is a little bit closer but Kennedy’s chances look good.
Updates to come.
It’s 8:04, and the race for mayor is already over. Kathleen Ford is giving her concession speech. “We are going to continue to keep an eye on our government to make sure it’s open, accessible… and affordable,” she promised. Later, according to Bay News 9, she said her biggest problem was “the media.”
“Read into that what you will,” said anchor Al Ruechel.
CL’s Mitch Perry spoke briefly with Ford at around 8:30; she appeared to be working hard to maintain a cheerful countenance. When asked her thoughts, she said, “I’m really pleased with myself. I’m excited. We made a difference in this race.” Asked if she thought the St. Pete Times editorial page had been too harsh on her, and whether she cared about that, she answered, “Not much.” As to whether the newspaper’s treatment had any impact on the election, she answered, “Who knows?”
At Ferg’s on Central Avenue, Bill Foster was magnanimous in victory. Asked his thoughts on his opponent, he told Perry, “I’m crazy about her. She’s a friend. She ran a great race. She’s got some great ideas — great passion. I need her.”
Foster said he was excited, but also seemed exhausted. “This process beats you to death,” he said. “But when you survive it you know you’ve earned it.” He also acknowledged the 47 percent of the public who did not vote for him. He said, “It’s time to gain their trust. And I’ll earn it. We’ll come together.”
He won plaudits tonight not only for his victory but for his slimmer appearance. CL overheard him telling a supporter that he had lost 25 pounds during the campaign.
Stacy Frank, an attorney and small business owner who has been involved in a public controversy this year over her company’s involvement in developing cell towers in some Hillsborough County public schools, today announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for District 57 in the Florida House of Representatives. The seat is open due to the exile of Fay Culp, who is term-limited from office.
In a press release issued this afternoon, Frank,who is the daughter of Hillsborough Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank said:
“I am running for the Florida Legislature because Tallahassee needs leadership that will make better choices. Florida is at a crossroads – unemployment is at 11% and our state’s population is declining. Our legislature needs to act responsibly, with an emphasis on lightening the taxpayer’s burden while preserving essential services. We can make fiscally responsible decisions that do not mortgage Florida’s future while preserving what we love about our state.”
Included in her press release is a veritable who’s who of Tampa Democrats endorsing Frank, including Congresswoman Kathy Castor and four members of the Tampa City Council (Linda Saul-Sena, Charlie Miranda, Thomas Scott and Gwen Miller).
The District encompasses Westchase, Town N Country, and South Tampa. GOP candidates who have already declared their candidacy for the seat include A.J. Matthews, Todd Marks, Dan Molloy and Dana Young.
The only other declared Democrat in the race is Clifford Somers.
It’s been awhile since a Hillsborough County Democrat took a seat that has been in Republican hands in the legislature, but Frank is well known and could be a contender. Two years ago, Fay Culp beat first time Democratic challenge Yolie Capin.
But Frank could face organized opposition from some South Tampa parents who targeted her personally when her company, Collier Enterprises II, worked on getting cell phone towers erected on the campuses of some Hillsborough County schools.
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You probably already know that growth does not pay for itself and taxpayers are left holding the bill for things like roads, fire safety and parks despite what politicians would like you to believe. Impact fees should be funding these things, yet they don’t even come close. In fact, according to a recent audit done by the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office, they don’t even fund the program it takes to monitor them!
An audit to be presented to the Hillsborough County Commission on Wednesday had some disturbing findings including: (my thoughts are in red)
Observation 1: The BOCC has not been assured that the impact fees were spent as directed by ordinance 96-29. (WTF?)
Observation 2: The current impact fee assessment for transportation, right of way, parks, and fire networks may not be covering a reasonable percentage of the cost of growth within the County. (Ya think?)
Observation 3: The County’s Real Estate Dept does not charge a fee for their land appraisals. (Yet county staff suggests we should get an appraisal on Cone Ranch costing a fortune!)
Photo credit: .res @Flickr.com
In addition to tonight’s election for mayor and City Council in St. Pete, there are governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia this off-year election, which political analysts invariably call a referendum in part on the leadership in Washington.
I never heard that said as often before this decade, but I’m willing to go for that ride.
In 2001, a year after George W. Bush (barely) took over the White House, voters in Virginia and NJ voted for Democrats for governor, Mark Warner and James McGreevey respectively. What did that portend for the Congressional elections in 2002? Absolutely nothing, as it turned out, as the Republicans took more seats in the Congress.
Now it’s true in 2005 that the Dems took both of those states again in governor’s races (Tim Kaine and Jon Corzine, respectively), and then the Dems stunningly took back the House and Senate in 2006. But I think most of you would agree that there were a few things out there, like the increasingly unpopular Iraq war, excessive government spending on the behalf of Republicans both in Congress and the White House, and what was known as the “culture of corruption” (Jack Abramoff and Mark Foley, come on down!) that played a far greater role in the Democrats’ success.
St. Petersburg registered voters have until 7 p.m. tonight to cast their ballot for mayor and five City Council races.
There will be no prediction in this space on who will be the victor tonight. All indications going into today are that it will be a close race, though we can say with certainty that as of this writing, over 22,000 registered voters have sent in their ballots by mail, nearly 38 percent of those who requested those ballots before today’s election.
Though newspaper endorsements have lost their influence over the years, there is still the belief that the St. Pete Times editorial page carries a punch when it comes to their choices.
Today’s editorial, entitled “Vote for steady progress,” is again a variation on the theme that the page has carried since the general election in early September — that a vote for Kathleen Ford would be a disaster for the city.
In the editorial, the Times writes almost mournfully about the “over-reliance” on voting by mail (which is probably accurate) by Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark. But the Times chides Clark in reference to Ford’s now weeks-old gaffe uttered on Bubba the Love Sponge’s show:
More than 20,000 St. Petersburg voters already have cast ballots, meaning as much as half the vote could be in before the polls open today. Thousands of those ballots were cast before mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford used a derogatory racial term in reference to Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis III on a radio show, then dodged reporters for days before illogically claiming she was set up. How many of those voters would like their ballots back?
The editorial concludes by looking at past history as a (hopeful) indication of tonight’s results:
St. Petersburg voters usually favor steady progress over abrupt changes in direction. For that tradition to continue, voters who have been largely silent in this campaign season have to go to the polls today and be counted.
The contempt for Ford and her supporters has been pretty consistent on that page. If Ms. Ford is victorious tonight, a sure loser other than her opponent will be that editorial page.
The Associated Press is reporting that Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery will file the paperwork to declare herself a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.
Dockery said weeks ago that she would announce in November, and had been hinting for months before that that she was seriously contemplating a run.
This is good news for the state GOP, and potentially bad news for Alex Sink and Florida Democrats. Read the rest of this entry »
In Afghanistan this morning, officials have canceled the run-off election scheduled for this Saturday, declaring Hamid Karzai the winner after his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, said he would not participate in the re-vote.
What does this mean in terms of the calculation that President Obama is working with in deciding troop levels in that country?
Well, apparently not much. Yesterday on CBS’s Face the Nation, White House strategist David Axelrod said “Every poll that had been taken there suggested that he was likely to be defeated anyway, so we are going to deal with the government that is there.” True. But members of the administration (always anonymous) have also been badmouthing Karzai in published reports about Afghanistan for awhile now.
Meanwhile, foreign service officer Matthew Hoh, who resigned in protest over U.S. policy in Afghanistan, spoke this morning’s on NBC’s Today Show.
He also spoke for a longer duration on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” yesterday.
Hoh has said (among other things ) that the Afghan people view U.S. troops as occupiers and that it makes no sense to carry on.
A year before Floridians go to the polls to vote for a new governor and U.S. Senator, the St. Pete Times/Miami Herald released a series of polls this weekend that could have serious implications on how state policy evolves over the next year.
Among the most revealing: By a 47 to 40% margin, Floridians are against a government-run public health care insurance option. But that sentiment is completely divided along party lines, perhaps evidence why Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink is so anguished over expressing her opinion on the manner.
According to the poll:
Democratic voters were overwhelmingly in favor of the public option, 62-24 percent. But Republicans opposed it by an even bigger spread, 74-16 percent. Independent voters, who ultimately decide elections in Florida, tended to side with Republicans in opposing the public option, 46-38 percent.
CFO Sink has been ridiculed by Attorney General and potential GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum for not coming out with a position on the much-discussed public option, going so far as to ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ascertain Sink’s position last week when the San Francisco Democrat was in Florida.
Another major result in the survey that also splits along party lines but has heavy Republican support is on offshore drilling.
The poll shows 54% of voters supporting drilling off Florida’s coast, and 40 percent opposing it. The story accompanying the poll results reported “Republicans overwhelmingly supported drilling, independents backed it by a double-digit margin while Democrats were opposed. “
You can bet the farm that these numbers will be repeated ad nauseam in the coming months by offshore drilling proponents leading up to the legislature convening next March, in which a vote on repealing the 1990 law banning drilling off the coast will come up for a vote.
The Times/Herald/Bay News 9 poll released on Sunday highlighted the fact that, not surprisingly considering the avalanche of negative publicity regarding Governor Crist (much of it self-inflicted), now “just” 42% consider Crist to be doing an excellent job. However, only 16% consider him to be doing a poor job.
The poll also shows Crist with a substantial lead over his challenger for the GOP nomination for Senate next year, 50 to 28%. That’s a damn good lead, considering all the good publicity Rubio has been generating in recent months.
The poll shows Alex Sink essentially tied with Bill McCollum in a mock matchup which has a full year to develop if it actually occurs. “If” is issued here based on the possibility that Lakeland GOP Senator Paula Dockery can somehow knock off the much better-financed and -known McCollum, if, as rumored, she announces her candidacy for the GOP nomination this coming week.
Regardless, on these two major public policy issues, public sentiment in Florida has swung to the GOP side of things.
The Times gets a third front page story out of their poll in Monday’s editions, which indicates that if state Republicans asked in this survey could vote tomorrow between Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist for Governor, the former two-term governor celebrity would squash the current incumbent, 71 to 22%.
Why does this matter? The theory goes that if Jeb decides to endorse Crist’s GOP Senate opponent, Marco Rubio, it would be game over for Charlie in his Senate race. Would Bush do that, though, since that could theoretically tear apart the party? He might. But endorsements only go so far. The Times/Herald/Bay News 9 poll conducted over the weekend indicates that despite all of his momentum, Rubio could benefit from some major development, considering that he’s still down by 22% points.
Connecticut Independent Senator Joe Lieberman proudly displayed his free agent status on Sunday when he declared on CBS’ Face The Nation program Sunday that he feels so strongly against “another government entitlement” that he will use his power as a single member of that august body to vote against any health care bill that includes a government-run public option.
When asked by host Bob Schieffer why, given all the issues with health care in the U.S., he’d prefer nothing to having the public option, the former Democratic Party nominee for vice president gave more ammunition to the liberals who loathe him by answering, “Nothing is better than that. “ Lieberman then invoked the Hippocratic oath in justifying his threat to filibuster, saying the government should “do no harm” on something like health care.
Lieberman then referenced the fact that the Congressional Budget Office last week reported that the public plan (which the CBO says might only actually insure 6 million people, which, if accurate, means we’ve all been spending too much time on this one aspect of health care reform) would charge higher premiums than the average premiums being offered by insurance companies. Lieberman asked in his distinctive nasal tones, “Why would we want to do that?”
When asked if his intransigence had anything to do with the fact that he represents the insurance capital of the U.S., Connecticut, in the Senate, Lieberman said absolutely not.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader John Boehner said over the weekend that the Republicans will soon unveil their own health care legislation this week, that would propose new limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and make it easier for individuals and small businesses to pool resources to purchase insurance.
Dede Scozzafava officially suspended her campaign
Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava has officially dropped out of the race for New York’s 23rd Congressional district. Earlier this week, I reported that Conservative Party challenger Doug Hoffman was becoming increasingly popular due to his strong conservative values, especially against Scozzafava, whose record in the New York Assembly has been consistantly liberal.
Now, it appears as though the pressure put on by GOP figures such as Jim DeMint, Fred Thompson, and Sarah Palin, as well as media power plays like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, has forced her out of the race. This clears the way for Hoffman, who already was polling with nearly half of the district’s Republican support.
According to this article, many residents were surprised at the furlough days implemented because of the recent budget cuts down at the county. Hey, they have to pay for Commissioner White’s $500,000 sex trial and Pat Bean’s let’s give ourselves a raise award somehow, right? The additional upcoming furlough days are Jan 15th, April 2nd, June 18th and Sept 9th. (Sadly, none of those appear to be BOCC meeting days.)
Taking a handful of furlough days due to budget cuts doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it might be hard for commissioners to explain in light of the costs associated with Kevin White’s sex trial and County Administrator raises-for-my-friends attempt and one for herself too!
More disturbing to me was learning via the Planning Commission’s website ( in my opinion, the only objective planning agency in town) that they are now closed every Friday due to the absolute slashing that the BOCC did to their already lean budget. So while the BOCC is supposedly getting behind this rail referendum, that one would think should include land use planning, our Planning Commission is crippled, having to close its doors to the public one day a week. Way to go, Hillsborough. Don’t worry, I am sure the Sports Authority is doing just fine with this year’s budget.
Commissioners should be ashamed at this development and citizens should be outraged at the way they spent tax dollars this year. And the County wants us to approve taxing ourselves for rail? Better start cleaning up their own back yard, because I think there might be some government trust associated with approving new taxes and let’s face it, that is not this county’s strong point.
You might remember in my latest post on Cone Ranch I thought it smelled kinda fishy that the Chair (along with our highly paid lobbyist) would have a private meeting with the campaign donors brokers, FCEG, who are pushing the sale of publicly owned land to private investors. A review of prior panelist meetings revealed that the Chair never got approval to from the rest of the panelists to meet on their behalf and I thought that seemed kinda sneaky.
Turns out one of the panelists themselves felt the same way. Below is a letter from Ms. Vivienne Handy to Edith Stewart, our highly paid lobbyist in charge of the Cone Ranch panel with her thoughts regarding the Chair, Heidi McCree and this private meeting. She also lists several other valid concerns in the letter. Chair Heid McCree is Commissioner Jim Norman’s appointee by the way. And I gotta hand it to the Pimpin Commish, Kevin White for this one because Ms. Handy is his appointee to the panel. Looks like appointing her is the best judgment he has demonstrated all year. Thanks Pimpin Commish!
Here is Ms. Handy’s letter: Read the rest of this entry »
Late this afternoon, just hours before controversial reggae singer Buju Banton’s concert at the Cuban Club in Ybor City was to take place, an emergency meeting was held inside radio station WMNF.
Banton’s song “Boom Bye Bye” advocates gay-bashing and murder, and has led to a letter-writing campaign by the LGBT group Equality Florida to protest Banton’s shows in Jacksonville, Miami and in Ybor City.
WMNF has had a relationship with the Cuban Club for years, using the facility for their popular Heatwave concerts. But after one board member reportedly questioned whether that relationship should continue because of the controversy over Banton, Station Manager Jim Bennett called a meeting at 4p.m. on Friday.
Representing the Cuban Club was La Gaceta editor and publisher Patrick Manteiga, who sits on the Executive Committee of the Foundation Board of the Cuban Club.
The Cuban Club booked the show earlier this week after the show was canceled at the Ritz Theatre and Jannus Landing. During a discussion with Bennett, Equality Florida’s Brian Winfield and several staff and board members of WMNF, Manteiga said the promoter had come to the Cuban Club because the Ritz had not sold many tickets for the event.
But others say that the Ritz wanted nothing to do with the show.
Manteiga said in the last 24 hours, Cuban Club board members had received some hate e-mail for booking the show. He said that no one with the Club had any clue about the controversy surrounding Banton.
“What we’ve done is ask this artist not to perform this song, we’ve increased the deposit, and if he performs this song, we’ll keep the deposit,” Manteiga said. He also said that the promoter agreed to pay for three additional police officers to staff the event.
Brian Winfield of Equality Florida told CL that his group was not satisfied with the Cuban Club agreeing to let the show go on, saying they were literally giving him a platform to deliver his hateful message toward gays and lesbians.
Winfield said he was not there to dictate to WMNF what their policy should be toward Banton (WMNF Program Director Randy Wynne said the station has only played “Boom Bye Bye” one time, and has a policy of not airing it. But he says that they do play other songs from his repertoire. During the meeting, he said “the bulk of his material does not reflect his message.”)
“We’re asking community members and leaders like WMNF to stand up and clearly stand against the murderous message that Buju Banton represents and incites violence against gay people,” Winfield said.
He said that his group had no intention of protesting in front of the Cuban Club for Friday night’s performance.
(Full disclosure. This reporter was a staff member of WMNF for over 9 years, and still does volunteer work with the station).
Former St. Pete mayoral candidate Scott Wagman insists his $250 contribution to Bill Foster’s campaign isn’t an full fledged endorsement, but does say that he thinks Foster is the right choice in next Tuesday’s election.
When asked by CL why he opted to contribute to Foster’s campaign, Wagman said he feels that if elected, Foster would be willing to listen to him on certain issues, and said his financial support shows his depth of sincerity in wanting to work with Foster.
Of Kathleen Ford, Wagman said he’s known her personally and professionally and says he thinks she’s a terrific wife and mother. However he says she didn’t shoot straight with him before this year’s campaign, saying “three times she told me she wasn’t running for Mayor. The proper thing she should have said was she was considering it. ” And he doesn’t think she’ll work well with others, saying, “she just doesn’t take advise or listen to other views.”
Wagman was critical of both Foster and Ford for appearing on Bubba The Love Sponge’s radio program earlier this month, saying it showed bad judgement on both candidates part, but especially Ford, who said earlier this week that she was set up by the shock jock when she quoted Princeton professor Cornel West on the HNIC (Head Negro in Charge)
theory when speaking about former Police Chief Goliath Davis.
Meanwhile, the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections office reports that officially over a third of all registered voters in St. Petersburg have already voted before Tuesday’s election. 19,440 registered voters have sent in their ballots. That’s 33.5% of the electorate.
As far as any future run for office, the business executive said that he doesn’t see that happening, though he said he’s been “recruited” by Democratic party officials to run for state senate or Congress. “I’ve not earned that time or service” he said to run over other candidate.
He also said that there are certain things a politician must do to earn the trust of the populace, and “I’m not willing to put in the work to earn that broad based trust.”
On the “Sideline” section of your St. Petersburg Times sports section this morning you will find a piece on Tampa sports radio station WDAE-AM 620 suspending morning show host Dan Sileo. His Clear Channel bosses did so after his on-air comments yesterday about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers being in financial trouble because of massive financial losses incurred due to investing with fraudster Bernie Madoff, which the Bucs vehemently denied.
If you click on “The Animal’s” web site this morning you’ll see the station issuing a retraction for Sileo’s remarks.
Sileo said members of the Glazer family (the Buc owners) had lost well over $400 million due to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
I wrote about this non-story yesterday afternoon, after the St. Pete Times proudly was pumping this report at the top of their web page.
WTSP- Channel 10 also deserves criticism, as I wrote yesterday. The CBS affiliate led off their noon newscast breathlessly reporting the story, that as of now, seems to have come out of Sileo’s imagination.
On the Times web page, they originally updated their story with a denial from their spokesman, followed by team co-chairman Joel Glazer blasting the report as completely baseless.
I see the Times’ Eric Deggans this morning is also weighing in on the shoddy reporting. Eric mentions the sports blog Deadpin and WFLA 970as having also participated in the free for all.
I’m not sure if Dan Sileo’s career here as broadcaster in Florida is in jeopardy at all. He’s hardly the first sports show host to float some absurd rumor – but apparently, enough folks in the more established media took it for gospel, without checking any other sources, to report it. This does happen in sports journalism all the time, particularly when it comes to potential trades, for example.
When it comes to politics, I think most media organizations take time to check things out. For example, two weeks ago, respected former USF St. Pete Political Science Professor Daryl Paulson said on a local television show that Congressman Bill Young would not be running for office in 2010. Paulson actually named who would run as a Republican in his stead.
The Times ran an article (never alluding to Paulson)about rumors (which are omnipresent when it comes to Young and retirement) that included a denial from Young’s office.
This reporter ran a blog post that did include Paulson’s allegation, but featured a denial by Young’s office, as well as a comment by the man that he claimed would run in his stead if Young retired. (That man, David Jolly, did confirm to CL he would run if the longtime Congressman stepped down).
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