Daily Loaf

For those of you that think we are not on a road to rationing with a government run health care program then please explain this recent study on breast cancer screenings (done by a government task force) uh-huh. What, no Boob Czar yet? The government group recommends waiting longer to start getting mammograms and more time in between each one. Even some big name liberals are having a hairy about what this study suggests. And the American Cancer Society doesn’t agree either! Is it disturbing to anyone else that according to this article the task force did not include any oncologists or radiologists that examine mammogram or biopsy results? WTF?

Seems like it is just a matter of time before insurance companies can use recommendations like this one to justify not paying for preventative health care (something the government promotes with it’s proposed new tax…..I mean health care “reform”.) Starting with such a big issue for women probably wasn’t the brightest thing the government could do. Note to big government: According to this article more women have voted in recent elections than men.

Their timing could not have been worse for those touting government run health care. And I guess it could not have been better for those that think the government should leave the decision making to doctors.  After all, shouldn’t we be saving the ta-tas at any cost?

Oh, and on the heels of that came these new guidelines about pap smears (again recommending fewer and waiting longer to start them.) That was done by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists though,  so I have more faith in that one than a government task force. I suspect they at least used practicing clinicians.

Photo credit: pfala @flickr.com

Florida Family Association Executive Director David Caton

Yesterday’s 5-1 vote by the Tampa City Council to add transgender people to its human rights ordinance included plenty of drama – mostly in the form of the public comments made by those in support and against the resolution.

But that was nothing compared to what was going on behind closed doors, apparently.

David Caton, executive director of the Florida Family Association, writes on his web site that he met during the meeting with Commission Chairman Thomas Scott and the City Attorney (Chip Fletcher?) to know “what wording changes needed to be made to correct the situation.”

Caton writes that the wording by definition included transvestites and said they’d be permitted to use women’s restrooms.

He then writes:

Pastor Scott told me that he could not support language that protected transvestites.  He thought it protected only those seeking sex change operations even though he had already heard two transvestites testify that morning that most transgenders do not have the money to have an operation therefore they are transvestites.

I informed him that transvestites make up the largest percentage of the transgender movement which is a major part of the homosexual agenda.

He said he could not support that.

I left the side room believing that Pastor and Council Chair Tom Scott would vote against the ordinance.

Tom Scott followed me out the door of the side room where he caught the eyes of Joseph Caetano.  Joseph Caetano says Tom Scott’s smile and short words lead him to believe that somehow I agree to a change in wording of the ordinance.

If you were at the meeting or watching from home, you may have noticed that City Attorney Fletcher came before the Council before their final vote to discuss how the resolution was focusing on gender identity.  He cited a phrase that the city of Gainsville had included in their legislation that he called helpful.  That being “the inner sense of being a specific gender.”

Caton writes incredulously:

What could Pastor and Council Chair Tom Scott believe that adding the words “the inner sense of being a specific gender” to the existing definition would eliminate transvestites from the ordinance?  Adding this language actually increased the protection for transvestites because it made it ever clearer that a “physical” sex change was unnecessary to prove the ordinance applied to transvestites.

In Scott’s closing remarks, which drew praise from various media organizations (including this one) he did say “this ordinance does not address transvestites. “

I bring this up because Caton obviously felt otherwise, and is aggrieved that what he thought was agreed upon behind closed doors was not what actually happened.

Caton also describes his conversation before the meeting with Councilman Joseph Caetano, who has been known to frequently vote in accordance with what Charlie Miranda does.

With Councilman Miranda making it clear that he was going to vote against the ordinance, Caton says he sidled up to Caetano before the vote and informed him of that.  He also writes this :

Councilmember Joseph Caetano, the only Republican on the Tampa City Council, voted for it.  Caetano blamed it on believing that Tom Scott cut a deal with me.  By the way I do NOT cut political deals on moral issues.  Additionally, Caetano told me that he did not want to be the only no vote so he voted yes.

According to Caton, Caetano didn’t know that Miranda would be voting no, thus would not be the lone no vote.  But he’s also saying that because Scott and Caton had come out of the room seeming to agree, it was okay for him to vote FOR the measure.

Either way, the New Tampa representative doesn’t come out of Caton’s account looking too good. Of course, this is just David Caton’s take.   CL has attempted to speak with Caetano, Caton, and City Attorney Chip Fletcher for comment.  If and when we hear from them, we will certainly update this post.

Tomorrow night at 8 p.m. comes round two in the great Saturday night votes on health care reform.  Unlike Nancy Pelosi’s effort, even if Harry Reid wins tomorrow, it still ain’t over.

Florida’s Department of Community Affairs Secretary is sounding mighty upset about the controversial growth management bill S.B. 360 that passed the legislature and was signed by Governor Crist earlier this year.

And the Tampa City Council comes up big in voting solidly to give protections to transgender individuals in their human rights ordinance yesterday.  And we have an update on this story here.

Download the report here.

Reports surfaced yesterday that Florida’s trust fund for unemployment benefits is depleted, and employers will have to now pay much higher taxes to refill it.

As the Times reports:

The minimum annual rate — charged to an employer with a solid history of retaining employees — will jump almost twelvefold, from $8.40 per employee to $100.30, revenue officials said Wednesday. The maximum rate, currently $378 per employee, would rise to $459.

A serious situation no doubt, and it’s allowing state Democrats to chide state Republicans “I told you so.”

Told them what?

You’ll remember when the stimulus bill passed in February?  Several GOP Governors (many coincidentally considered to harbor possible Presidential ambitions, such as South Carolina’s Rick Sanford, Alaska’s Sarah Palin and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal ) publicly discussed rejecting some of those funds, because of various reasons (such as Republicans simply didn’t like the bill). Read the rest of this entry »

Photo left: Citizen opposition / Photo right: Rainmen Horner & Marchetti

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor, R-LAND, UCAN & Amendment 4 activist
Views expressed are my own & might not be shared by the organizations of which I am a member

A rezoning request from a developer in Valrico that is moving quickly through the process begs the question above. If you want to understand why Hillsborough currently suffers from a plethora of overdevelopment with no supporting infrastructure, take a look at this local case to see what happens when a developer wants to build something the community is dead set against. It sheds light on how a local community struggles to achieve self determination in a system that, more often than not, overrides what the citizens want for what a developer needs.

On Monday November 16, 2009 a request for a change in zoning was officially presented to Steve Luce, Hillsborough County’s Zoning Hearing Master.

The parcel is 19.2 acres and until recently was a working citrus grove. The owner is Dr. Gregory Henderson, an internist that specializes in eye surgery, as well as, land development, land speculation, and helicopter pads. It’s currently zoned as 1 acre residential but, as we all know, there’s a lot more profit in building higher density and/or mixed-use commercial, so Dr. Henderson has decided that this strictly residential section of Valrico needs a strip mall. In anticipation of problems with community acceptance, he hires two land development experts to pull off the “sting” (please put on some Scott Joplin piano music while you read the next part of this story). They are skid-greasers Vin Marchetti and Mike Horner. Vin and Mike are the crème de la crème for approval of horrible projects, each in their own right, but team the two together and they are invincible. Marchetti is well connected with some members of the county commission and they bend over backwards to give him every accommodation, so the owner of this property joins a long list of developers that want to improve their odds of passage by bringing in these heavy hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

During this year’s legislative session there were many concerns expressed before and after the passage of Senate Bill 360, the growth management bill sponsored in the state senate by Bradenton’s Mike Bennett.

The bill exempts many areas from a requirement that says builders must pay for road improvements if traffic generated by their projects exceeds the local capacity, other wise known as transportation concurrency.

Florida DCA Secretary Thomas Pelham

Several municipalities around the state opposed it, as did Hillsborough County, who through Commissioner Mark Sharpe sent a letter to Governor Charlie Crist after the session to please veto it.

Supporters like Senator Bennett said it would streamline the permitting process in Florida – which even some environmentalists like Denise Layne agreed needed some tweaking – and that it would aid development and construction jobs, which the state hasn’t had a lot of due to recession the past couple of years.

But Layne and others said at the end was that the legislation went far awry from what was needed to address current growth management problems.

Layne said what the Legislature and governor have done is thrown away a flawed system, and put very little in its place.

Florida’s Department of Community Affairs Secretary Thomas Pelham had various things to say about the bill when it was being debated, but he’s extremely critical of it now, based on his comments at the University of Florida last night.

The Gainsville Sun reports Pelham as saying, “I don’t think it speaks very well of us that we can’t deal with issues of this magnitude in a more rational manner than we have been doing.”

The paper also reports that DCA must submit a plan by next month to legislators for a new mobility fee to replace concurrency requirements, but:

He expressed skepticism that the fee would be embraced in the next legislative session, which comes during an election year, and suggested such a plan should have been crafted before scrapping the concurrency requirement.

“It was ‘let’s throw the baby out first and come up with a replacement later,’ ” he said.

If you’ll recall, Governor Crist was heavily pressured to veto the bill.  And because of his (at the time) rather strong environmental credentials, it was thought that he might do so.  But this was also the period in which the guv began backing away from that green reputation, as he realized it wasn’t playing well with the base as a man named Marco Rubio began snipping at him.

Whether it’s chancing luck or not, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid  tomorrow night will attempt to replicate what his equal in the House, Nancy Pelosi was able to do two Saturday nights ago : That is, get the minimum number of members of Congress  to shut off the first Republican efforts to block action on their health care bill that was unveiled late Wednesday night.

It should be emphasized that tomorrow’s vote is not on whether to approve the Senate’s $848 billion plan spread out over 10 years – it’s to begin debate.

But whether that will be enough for some centrist Democrats, such as Arkansas’s Blanche Lincoln, Nebraska’s Ben Nelson, and Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu is still unclear at this point.  Though one can’t accuse Reid of doing whatever it takes to acquire their votes.

As the NY Times reports:

the measure that emerged from Mr. Reid’s office contained a special $100 million in Medicaid money for “certain states recovering from a major disaster,” a designation that analysts said clearly applied to Louisiana and perhaps only Louisiana.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that business groups, some of whom were “encouraged” by the bill that the Senate Finance Committee (Remember the Baucus bill and the near daily speculation about what would Olympia Snowe do?)  passed in October and hoped that it would form the basis of the final legislation.  But apparently they’re now bent out of shape because Reid has included a public option in the bill that was completed this week.

We’ve already heard from Joe Lieberman and the Republicans about how horrific a public option would be.  But it makes one wonder if they’ve read the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the Senate bill, which says that because they believe at least one third of the states (and there is a proposed constitutional amendment to include Florida in this) would ‘opt out’ of a public option, that it would only cover 3 to 4 million people.  From the CBO:

“CBO’s analysis took into account the probability that some states would opt not to allow the public plan to be offered to their residents. Rather than trying to judge which states might opt out, CBO applied a probability recognizing that public opinion is divided regarding the desirability of a public plan and that some states might have difficulty enacting legislation to opt out. Overall, CBO’s assessment was that about two-thirds of the population would be expected to have a public plan available in their state.”

Makes you wonder what all the fuss was about, doesn’t it?

Read the rest of this entry »

On Thursday the Tampa City Council voted to expand anti-discrimination laws to include transgender individuals.  The 5-1 vote came after two hours and more than 60 speakers spoke expressed their thoughts and feelings on the issue in what at times seemed to be a festival of hate and ignorance.

Before the meeting, the only drama in the room was who if any Council members would reverse their vote from two weeks prior, when they had voted unanimously to include gender identity and expression in the city’s human rights law, which would effectively prohibit workplace discrimination against people who change genders.

Councilman Charlie Miranda was the lone member who switched his vote and voted no.  (Councilmember Linda Saul-Sena was absent).   He seemed unsatisfied by the answers given by City Attorney Chip Fletcher about how the new law could avoid potential disruptions in the workplace before casting his dissenting vote.

But in perhaps his finest hour on the Council, Chairman Thomas Scott delivered a stirring speech before announcing that he would vote in support of the ordinance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Senator Mike Bennett-R of Bradenton, the politician that brought us SB360 [the bill that reversed what little growth management Florida did have] wants to increase term limits for state and local politicians to 12years. Aghhhhh……Nooooooooooo! I don’t think we can’t afford more time with State Senator Mike Bennett (or local officials like County Commissioner Ken Hagan for that matter!) In addition to repealing what little growth management Florida had, Bennett also introduced this bill to ban impact fees for developers. Yep, another Republican peddling developer welfare. Somehow, at least in Florida, many seem to have forgotten that fiscal conservatism is supposed to be one of their good points. Many state and local “conservatives” happily give financial help to developers and send the rest of the taxpayers the bill. Can’t sell your house? Don’t like sitting in traffic on congested roads? You can thank Mr. Bennett for his efforts to make that worse here.

CL contributor George Niemann and I had the misfortune of seeing Mr. Bennett in action recently when he was a panelist at the Sarasota Tiger Bay discussion on Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD). FHD is amendment 4 on the 2010 ballot that if approved by voters will give all of us a say in how Florida grows instead leaving it up to our local puppets for developers.…. ooops, I mean elected officials. The panel was supposed to have two panelists in favor of FHD and two panelists against FHD and they also had one “neutral”guest. (uh-huh) Interesting to note that Mr. Neutral sounded very much like the Chamber mouthpiece who was against FHD. It was later revealed that Mr. Bennett (also a panelist against FHD) was the one who had suggested that Mr. Neutral attend that day (shouldn’t Tiger Bay be more careful?) And another interesting note was that Mr. Neutral whose name is David Klement, had been recently appointed to the embattled PSC by the Peep’s Guv. Not related to FHD just interesting. I noticed Mr. Bennett also used to sit on the nominating council for the PSC according to his webpage. I wonder if Bennett nominated any of these characters now under fire for being a little too cozy with those they are supposed to regulate? McMurian (who recently resigned)  was appointed in 2006 by then Governor Jeb Bush and Mr. Bennett was on the nominating council in 2006 according to his webpage so he could have. Doing research for this post I stumbled upon this article about the dark scandalous past of the PSC that reads just like a mob movie so good luck with that position Mr. Klement! And now back to the discussion at hand.

Bennett sure wasn’t shy at showing his contempt toward opposing panelists that day. In fact, he was downright rude. You would think a politician might at least fake some manners but I guess you have to give him credit for being real. I only hope he acts that way on his next campaign trail. Oh, and he tried to paint FHD as Socialism. (uh-huh). Ummm, Mr. Bennett, letting the people decide for themselves whether you or your developer friends should get to build a strip mall in a cow pasture is not Socialism. Asking them to pay for the impacts to the community that the strip mall would cause instead of making the developers building the strip mall do it……………like your bill SB360 does, seems way more like Socialism to me. Try to come up with something better at the next debate, huh?

There are arguments to be made for and against term limits but the thought of any more of Mike Bennett’s anti-growth management bills make him the poster child to decrease term limits if anything. The fact that his new bill now includes local officials is also horrifying (although they seem to get around it by jumping seats from their districts to at large seats so what does it matter?) Still the best solution to bad politicians is an educated public. Please do your homework Bradenton and don’t saddle the whole state with Mr. Bennett again! You too Hillsborough, please don’t saddle us again with Commissioner Ken Half Truth Hagan, Kevin the Pimpin Commish White or term limited County Commissioner Jim The Athletic Supporter Norman. Norman now wants to be a State Senator (after what seems like an eternity of  pushing sprawl down at County Center since he too jumped seats to avoid term limits). And before you make the argument that this bill would mean we get to keep our good officials longer, I already thought of that and in my opinion we don’t have enough good ones to make it worth supporting.

Some Florida Democrats are blasting state Republicans over their failure to pass legislation this year that would given the state $444 million in stimulus funds for unemployment insurance.  The issue’s relevant again after the tax that businesses will pay for the trust fund is sky-rocketing;

We have a health care bill in the Senate! It’s over 2,000 pages, and will cost only(!) $848 billion.  Best of luck to  you  Harry Reid in shepherding that through;

And the Tampa Bay area has a new online magazine . Learn more here.

Late last night the Congressional Budget Office released their scorecard on the Senate health care bill.  As the NY Times reports:

The official cost analysis released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shortly after 11 p.m. showed that Mr. Reid’s bill came in under the $900 billion goal suggested by Mr. Obama. But 24 million people would still be uninsured in 2019, the budget office said. About one-third of them would be illegal immigrants.

The Congressional Budget Office has said the House bill would reduce deficits by $109 billion over 10 years and cover 36 million people, but still leave 18 million uninsured in 2019.

Republicans and some independent budget analysts said, however, that the savings might not be fully achieved because they were based on unrealistic assumptions about a sustained increase in the productivity of health care providers and much slower growth in Medicare spending.

The Senate bill would include a public insurance plan – states could opt out of the plan by passing legislation (which Republicans in the Florida state legislature are already intending to do, via a Constitutional Amendment passed by the voters).

The bill does not go as far as the House did in limiting access to abortion.  As far as mandates, the Times reports that the bill would require most Americans to obtain health insurance, but would impose less onerous financial penalties on those who go without.

Major parts of the bill would not kick in until 2014, a year later than the House’s plan.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now has a task equally if not more challenging than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: collect 60 votes in the 100 member chamber any way he can.

It doesn’t help when people like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman are popping off about doing what ever’s necessary to reject it.

Incidentally, if you’re getting annoyed with the independent Senator from Connecticut, you must read Jonathan Alter’s column in the current Newsweek.  Two priceless paragraphs on the man Alter calls “a putz”:

The latest trouble started after Lieberman said on Fox that “as a matter of conscience,” he would filibuster any health-care bill with a public option. Flashback: when he ran for reelection in 2006, Lieberman bragged about his MediChoice plan. It would “allow anybody in our country to buy into a national health-insurance pool like the federal-insurance pool we federal employees and members of Congress have.” That sounds suspiciously like—ahem—the public option. What’s changed?

Lieberman says it’s the deficit. He now opposes any kind of public option because of cost. But the Congressional Budget Office reports the opposite—that a government-run option would save money by providing competition. Maybe the CBO is wrong. Maybe it won’t save money. Who knows? So let’s stipulate that we have no clue about how much any of this will cost, long term.

That sounds familiar. In Afghanistan we have no idea how much a “government takeover” will cost. Does that keep Lieberman from being gung-ho about escalation? No. Like other neocons, he thinks the deeper principle at stake trumps short-term cost calculations that are probably wrong anyway. But when it comes to health care, restraining hypothetical spending is suddenly a matter of conscience. Spare me. For Lieberman the only principle at stake is his stake in looking principled.

Read the rest of this entry »

You decide the story, you pick the CL staffer to write it, and we print it in the issue of Jan. 20, 2010.

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On Tuesday, a new Tampa Bay online magazine was unveiled on the Internet: 83 Degrees.  The paper is being published by the Detroit based Issue Media and is being locally published and edited by Diane Egner, formerly with WUSF 89.7 and the Tampa Tribune.

Among the paid staff include former Trib reporter and editor Dave Szymanski and WMNF 88.5 FM reporter/anchor (and my former colleague) Kate Bradshaw.

In a phone conversation, Egner told CL that her publication will be writing about “the new economy, innovations, investments, the environment,” and other events that make a difference in the local economy.

What’s somewhat unique and curious is who’s funding the site: Many local governments, universities and corporations.  Among those that are helping fund the site include the University of Tampa, the Pinellas County Economic Development organization, the city of Tampa’s Economic Development organization, and the cities of Largo and Clearwater.

When asked if readers should be wary of direct government funding of a media site, Egner said no, and compared the funding structure to that of public broadcasting.  “If you’re watching PBS, you know there are certain underwriters for certain programs.  Each of our partners is underwriting specific issues that we cover.”

Could it be construed as propaganda?  “No, I don’t think so,” she said, saying no more than if readers of CL should be concerned about ads in our publication.  “Editorial content is controlled by me and my freelance team.  We’re not doing PR work, they’re not paying us for stories, they’re underwriting us.”

Egner says 83 Degrees will publish a new online edition of their publication every Tuesday, 48 weeks a year.

The publication is already creating a buzz in some quarters.  In fact, a parody website has gone up this week,  83 Degrees Tampa Bay. It’s created by Tampa networking dude Eric Sturm.

Yesterday Governor Charlie Crist called for a special session to be held soon – with action to be conducted to impress upon Washington about the state’s sincerity in wanting high-speed rail.  One problem:  Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery.  She’s been a force for two years now in holding up a plan for rail in Central Florida because of liability concerns with CSX – and she’s still not satisfied;

The editor of a New Jersey Jewish newspaper spoke last night at an event sponsored by the Tampa Jewish Federation.  The topic: The Jewish columnists with the New York Times, and how they shape Jewish public opinion.

And the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, will announce later this week a new wiki for the homeless in Hillsborough County.  Read more here.

We will hopefully have the podcast up soon for your listening enjoyment.

The Lakeland Ledger reports this morning that Lakeland GOP State Senator (and now gubernatorial candidate) Paula Dockery  is not backing down at all after Governor Charlie Crist and Senate President Jeff Atwater said they want  a special session to reconsider the SunRail commuter train deal with CSX.

As Dockery told CL two weeks ago, she has yet to see any new information that would allow her to drop her opposition with CSX, which for 2 years has said that it needs to be held harmless for any accidents in exchange for selling the rail lines for the commuter system.

As the Miami Herald reports, senate leaders are considering allowing local government to impose a new $2 rental car surcharge, which in South Florida, would help pay for their rail system, Tri-Rail.  In Central Florida, it would help pay for SunRail.   But the impetus of course is having the Legislaturer prove to the feds that Florida is serious about providing state funds so that federal funds would come from Washington for high-speed rail.  From the Herald:

Crist, Senate President Jeff Atwater and others say that such a tax could offer proof to the federal government that Florida is serious about transit, which might help the state qualify for up to $2.5 billion for a high-speed rail line. The line could ultimately connect SunRail, Tri-Rail and even a new transit line along the Florida East Coast rail corridor in the heart of South Florida’s urban areas.

A big local proponent of high-speed rail is the Tampa Bay Partnership, who also argue that there should be a special session soon.  Yesterday CL obtained an e-mail written by Sarah Hardy, a Legislative aide to Senator Dockery to Stuart Rogel with the Tampa Bay Partnership.  Hardy was writing in response to Rogel’s claim that the $2.5 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail was in jeopardy if there were NOT to be a special session.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Jersey Jewish News Editor Andrew Silow-Carroll

Despite claims by critics on the right and the left to the contrary , the New York Times  continues to remain one of the most (if not the most) powerful media organizations in the U.S.  And their op-ed columnists continue to have a major influence on political opinion and on our culture.

According to Andrew Silow-Carroll, the editor in chief of New Jersey Jewish News, several of the paper’s Jewish columnists also are representative of the different Jewish perspectives on political discourse regarding U.S. and Israel policies in 2009.

In a speech presented by the Tampa Jewish Federation last night and delivered at Congregation Kol Ami in Carrollwood , Silow-Carroll spoke for a half hour on the topic, “A Nation of Pundits: How the Media Shapes Jewish Opinion.”

Silow-Carroll uses 4 Times Jewish columnists as the anchor for his remarks – the late William Safire, Thomas Friedman, Frank Rich, and Roger Cohen.

Although Safire retired from writing his column in 2005 and passed away in September, Silow-Carroll says that his conservative perspective at “the right-wing pro-Israel desk” at the Times  was for decades the voice of for a certain segment of Jewish leadership, and certainly of Jewish Republicans in the U.S.

And Silow-Carroll says he sees the spirit of Safire’s conservative voice as very much a part of the Orthodox community today.

He took a considerable portion of his speech to speak about the man considered Safire’s conservative replacement on the op-ed pages, David Brooks, who he considers to be a more independent voice.   He said that Brooks has  “a little Evangelical envy- what he envies is their fervor.”

Brooks independence of course, is not welcome in some circles of the GOP.  His comment on Sunday’s This Week program on ABC that Sarah Palin “was a joke,” lit up the conservative blogosphere, but it was nothing new for Brooks, who a year ago  said she “represented a fatal cancer to the Republican Party.”

No doubt as regular Times’ readers know, if the Republican Party does have a civil war on its hands, Brooks is definitely not in the Limbaugh/Beck/Hannity camp.  Silow-Carroll said Brooks’ stances are what he sees with young Jewish Republicans, “definitely conservative, but not comfortable with social conservatives.”

Silow-Carroll, who is the former managing editor of the Jewish weekly The Forward, also spent considerable time discussing Thomas Friedman, the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize winning Foreign Affairs Columnist for the Times.  He called Friedman a tough minded critic of Israel, and said his columns were a reflection of the debate within Israel itself on its direction.  As Friedman’s regular readers know, he has been tough on Israel for their position on not stopping settlements in the West Bank, an issue that is back in the news again today.

Silow-Carroll did not have that much to say of any insight about culture critic Frank Rich, who occupies prime time real estate on the Sunday editorial pages.  But he had plenty to say about one of the paper’s less well known writers, Roger Cohen.

Cohen is a long time foreign affairs correspondent and former editor at the International Herald-Tribune. His columns have began appearing in the paper (and more online) in 2006, and Silow-Carroll said of him, “If you want to find a Jewish voice designed to annoy American Jews”, Cohen is their man.

Cohen’s depiction of Jews living in Iran earlier this year (before the disputed election and repression took place) has been the source of fierce criticism from columnists and other activists.  Cohen was specifically called out by the American Jewish Committee for his takes.

Silow-Carroll said many Cohen columns begin like Thomas Friedman pieces, but then they generally veer into criticizing Israel, while always leaving the Palestinians off the hook, which he called “condescending.”

Silow-Carroll then pivoted by saying that Cohen  was a voice of the Jewish Left now being represented by J-Street, the progressive advocacy group that has been depicted as being an answer to the more conservative voice of AIPAC in Washington D.C.

One Jewish columnist that Silow-Carroll declined to talk about was Paul Krugman, who he said “doesn’t engage on Jewish issues.”

For regular NY Times readers, it was an engaging and provocative discussion.  Of course, perhaps no Times columnist inspires as much fervor as its Irish-Catholic scribe, Maureen Dowd, who today weirdly I would argue tries to bond with Sarah Palin as a ‘regular American’ after reading her new book, Going Rogue.

Join CL’s political editor for a lunch interview with a surprise guest. (Hint: It’s a politician, currently in office.) Ask the politician anything, and see the questions and answers become part of a story in CL. Then join Mitch to talk about the interview on his podcast, the Mitch Perry Report. And finally, as a memento, get Mitch’s distinctive, WMNF-honed tones on your answering machine/voicemail.

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Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales

According to the Hillsborough County Homeless Coalition, as there are over 9,000 homeless people in the County

Attempts by the Board of County Commissioners to address the problem foundered earlier this fall, after they rejected a proposed tent-city plan that would have housed up to 250 people on East Hillsborough Avenue.  A subsequent attempt to use space at strip mall off of Florida Avenue later went by the wayside as well.

Now the Coalition for the Homeless intend to band with Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame to create a Tampa Bay Homeless Resource wiki (http:tampabayhomeless.wikia.com).

The launch of the website will take place this Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. at Teatro on Seventh in Ybor City.  Organizers are asking for “social media enthusiasts, homeless advocates & anyone who wants to volunteer” to appear at the event, though it will cost you $25 to register.

In a press release,  Wales says he came up with the idea after local digital strategist Julia Gorzka reached out to him because she knew he lived in the Tampa Bay area.  “When she had the idea to put together a homeless resource wiki for Tampa Bay, I got very excited because I knew we could draw on the examples of successful projects in San Francisco and Los Angeles……People have a vague idea they want to help, don’t know where to start.  They feel they need permission.  But the wiki spirit is you just dig in and start doing stuff.”

Rayme Nuckles, the CEO of the Homeless Coalition says “We are thrilled to be able to offer this new resource to the community, specifically for our homeless neighbors and those working to improve the quality of their lives.”

Since its creation in 1992, The Innocence Project has helped exonerate more than 240 people across the U.S., including 17 on death row. The Innocence Project of Florida (IPF) opened its doors in 2003 with a mission to find and free the innocent in Florida prisons. It’s done primarily through DNA testing, although those cases make up only about 10% of the total. Most cases involve things like eyewitness misidentification, false confession and just plain bad lawyering, according to Executive Director Seth Miller, which are a lot harder to prove. “[B]ecause our non-DNA cases represent the largest group of cases in the criminal justice systems that need review, they’re really the most important, and that’s why our office is working with the folks at Stetson to begin to work on those cases so we can expand the reach of the Innocence work in Florida.” Read the rest of this entry »

Technology gets more amazing every day. Satellites guide us from our driveways all the way to a grocery store in Ohio. A webcam enables a soldier in Afghanistan to talk face-to-face with his wife in Nebraska. And a new wave of iPhone apps allows individuals with disabilities to communicate with others — some, for the very first time.

At 235 megabytes, Proloquo2Go turns a standard iPhone into a fully functional augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. Co-designed by Penn State doctoral student Samuel Sennott and carried by iPhone app developer AssistiveWare, Proloquo2Go “provides a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking,” such as individuals with autism, Lou-Gehrig’s Disease, Down syndrome or cerebral palsy. Like any other AAC device, it combines symbols, words, sounds and technology (source) to guide its user through an intuitive, hierarchical system of sentence-building software. Added to that, it hosts a minimum vocabulary of 7,000 words and life-like voices — and, at approximately $150 (not including the iPhone), costs a fraction of the $8,000- $10,000 families pay for cumbersome text-to-speech machines. Read the rest of this entry »

We all know how bad the American economy continues to be.  Now new statistics from the Agriculture Department confirm that hunger is at a 14 year high;

Three Hillsborough County based state legislators spoke to the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee last night.  Find out what they had to say;

And Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck will be in Tampa in January.

Also, CL News contributor Kelly Cornelius gives her take on what went down yesterday as a Hillsborough County task force recommended the preservation of Cone Ranch, a hot topic for months in the County.

Download the report here.

Yesterday we put up a post informing you, the discriminating CL reader, that if you’ve got a couple of hours to spare this Saturday, you can check out talk show host/author/ Glenn Beck at Borders on South Dale Mabry near I-275 from 12 noon to 2 p.m.

However, you’re reading it here first: The self proclaimed “rodeo clown” will be back in his former stomping grounds early next year, and will be appearing with none other than Bill O’Reilly.

The Fox twins will be at the Sun Dome on the USF Tampa campus on Friday, January 29th.  It’s part of their Bold and Fresh 2010 Tour

As a regular viewer of at least the first portion of The Factor over the years,  CL has observed a noticeable calm in the demeanor of cable news’s current king (ratings wise I’m talking about).  O’Reilly admitted as much last night.

In discussing media sensation Sarah Palin and her new book with media critic Bernard Goldberg, Bill-O admitted that he no longer gets that enraged about critics taking him apart.  He said it’s something that he’s learned to control.  I think there’s something to that.  O’Reilly has always carried a tremendous chip on his shoulder, but he’s incredibly successful, and frankly, with Glenn Beck now  airing before him on Fox, and Sean Hannity following him, he’s become, well, a more moderate voice – maybe because it was simply too embarrassing  seeing him in action in filmmaker Robert Greenwald film “Outfoxed” (which memorably showed one sequence where Bill-O is yelling at guests to just “Shut up!”)

Or how could we forget O’Reilly getting into it on one his bugaboo’s:  Illegal immigration.

Here’s the Fox News host with correspondent Geraldo Rivera:

Glenn Beck is blowing up in 2009.  The former talk show host on Tampa Clear Channel station 970 WFLA was growing in popularity in recent years, but his television persona has blossomed after joining Fox News.  Get your tickets now!

Graphic credit: George Niemann

I attended what I hope was the last meeting of the Cone Ranch Advisory Panel (not so affectionately known as C.R.A.P. by some activists) Monday morning. Recall the panel was set up by our County Commission ( BOCC ) at the request of Chairman Ken Hagan to recommend how best to preserve Cone Ranch and save it from development ( by entertaining the notion of  letting brokers sell it to private investors so they could subdivide it and develop it into six smaller parcels) uh-huh. In case you are just tuning in, Cone Ranch was already owned by the public (under the water utility) and it is already listed on our Comprehensive Plan as PRESERVATION (details, details). Those pitching the idea to Hagan and the rest of the BOCC were big time Republican donors (uh-huh).

After five meetings of the panel, the citizens and even some of the panelists were calling bullshit on this idea. The brokers (FCEG) abrubtly exited stage right citing what appears to be a water grab by Commissioner Jim Norman but let’s save that potential scandal for another day. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, three of Hillsborough County’s representatives in Tallahassee addressed the County’s Democratic Executive Committee, about their legislative goals for the 2010 session.

However, what was painfully obvious is that those legislators – State Senator Charlie Justice, and State Representatives Betty Reed and Mike Scionti, are handicapped, particularly in the House, by being the minority party.

Senator Justice took to the stage first inside Fletcher Lounge on the University of Tampa campus, where he discussed a possible special session next month, and some of the bills he has filed for 2010.  Among the bills include several that attempt to address campaign finance irregularities, such as trying to cap contributions made by third party “527″ type groups, which the Hillsborough/Pinellas legislator decried as “groups making a mockery of campaign finance caps”.  Another bill would ban corporations from giving more than $500 to a candidate, the same limit that individuals currently have imposed on them in Florida.

And with news of another lawsuit being filed in St. Petersburg regarding a toxic plume that originated some 17 years ago, Justice says he will introduce legislation that would simply inform residents that such a problem exists.

Before his address, Justice spoke with CL about the possible upcoming special session that has been rumored will take place next month.  One of the potential issues on the agenda would be to approve the controversial SunRail proposal.

With Florida eagerly hoping to be approved nearly $2.6 billion in stimulus money to build a high-speed train between Tampa and Orlando, many state and federal legislators have said that it’s important for state lawmakers to demonstrate their sincerity in wanting the project by approving SunRail.

A key hold up has been liability for CSX trains – one reason why Lakeland State Senator Paula Dockery has held the deal up the past two years.  But Justice said yesterday that “lawyers are telling me” that the liability issue may be fading.  What’s certain, Justice says, is that “we have to show some mechanism, show something to the feds,” that the state has funding available for their share of money up front for high speed rail.

Justice might be referring to this development, reported last month in the Orlando Sentinel:

CSX has indicated it might be willing to compromise on liability by mirroring a deal it recently reached in Massachusetts, which purchased tracks from the company for a commuter train.

CSX agreed to help defray the cost of the liability insurance that the state’s transit authority has to carry.

And, if an accident occurs between a commuter train and freight train and CSX is clearly at fault because of willful misconduct, the railroad will be responsible to pay the deductible on that policy, up to a maximum of $7.5 million per incident.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Thursday in downtown Tampa, America’s Second Harvest of Tampa Bay is staging its 15th annual Empty Bowls Thanksgiving Luncheon in Lykes Gaslight Square.  Last year’s event raised more than $50,000 for the organization’s food bank and Kids Cafe Programs.

It’s always around the holidays when the issue of the less fortunate get more play in the media, but so should statistics unveiled yesterday by the Department of Agriculture, who announced  that the number of Americans who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million.  That’s the highest since the government began tracking what it calls “food insecurity” 14 years ago.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack attributed the rise to the unemployment rate in the U.S., at its highest levels since the early 1980’s.

The Wall Street Journal does report one caveat that might make the news less depressing:

But the way USDA economists measure food worries in the U.S. is far more liberal than their gauge for other nations, where people are labeled food insecure only if they consume fewer than 2,100 calories a day. Few of the U.S. households labeled as food insecure by the USDA have it that tough.

Instead, the USDA’s domestic survey tries to quantify the number of households that have difficulty providing enough food at some time during the year. Many of these families are able to avoid hunger by participating in such federal nutrition programs as food stamps, or by having their children participate in a free school-lunch program.

With the economy continuing to founder (Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday that “Some important headwinds-in particular constrained bank lending and a weak job market-likely will prevent the expansion from being as robust as we would hope”) some of President Obama’s allies intend to call him out today on the weak job market.

The NY Times reports that the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza will be amongst some of the groups calling on the President to do more to create jobs.

They will call for increased spending for schools and roads, billions of dollars in fiscal relief to state and local governments to forestall more layoffs and a direct government jobs program, “especially in distressed communities facing severe unemployment.”

This is just more incentive for the President to hope that the Senate can get their act together and try to begin debating a health care bill soon – Obama’s poll numbers remain solid ( a new ABC News/Washington Post poll released today shows him with a 56% approval rating), but he has got to start focusing in “like a laser beam” as the saying goes, or else those poll numbers will go south in a hurry.

Conservative radio and television talk show Glenn Beck is coming to Tampa this weekend.

According to the web site of Tampa 9-12 The former 970 WFLA talk show host, whose career has blown up in ‘09, will be appearing in Tampa this Saturday at Borders on South Dale Mabry Highway. Beck will be signing copies of his NY Times best-seller Arguing with Idiots.

Yesterday Beck’s  latest book, The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book, debuted at #1 on the Times children’s picture book bestseller list, prompting his publisher last week to declare that that gave Beck 5 consecutive #1 NYT bestsellers.

I’m not sure if that’s correct or not, but the man is selling loads of  books, and getting ratings on the radio, and on his Fox News show.

Beck has taken pride this in publicizing and mobilizing opposition to Van Jones, President Obama’s original green jobs czar who ended up resigning in early September after taking a pounding by the talk show host for his ‘radical’ past.

Today the Huffington Post is reporting that on Beck’s guest list of late have been “white supremacists and other extremists.”

Beck’s comment earlier that President Obama was racist led to over 30 advertisers leaving his Fox News program.  However, Fox didn’t lose any revenue as most of those companies ended up advertising on other Fox programs.

After all the efforts from people around the globe to get our world leaders to listen up and take action against climate change in December in Copenhagen, it looks like things aren’t going to be changing any time soon.

Yesterday, President Obama and leaders from the rest of the world’s top economic powers finally fessed up that they don’t believe major progress concerning climate change can be achieved by the end of the year.
Read the rest of this entry »

Big news in CL’s world.  Former St. Pete Times Publisher Marty Petty has been hired as the CEO of Creative Loafing.

Florida CFO and Democratic candidate for Governor Alex Sink has been criticized by some analysts for being too cautious.   So last night she made news by announcing she’s against Florida’s ban on gay adoptions.
President Obama’s decision to prosecute alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed brought out Rudy Guiliani and other Republicans yesterday on some of the Sunday morning  talk shows yesterday.

And just for fun, we look back yesterday at the day of televised pro football action, including the instant classic in Indianapolis between the Colts and the New England Patriots.

Download the report here.

Creative Loafing, Inc. announced today that Marty Petty, the former publisher of the St. Petersburg Times and Hartford Courant, has been named chief executive officer for the alternative newspaper weekly chain.

The announcement was made this morning by interim CEO Richard Gilbert at the Tampa paper’s headquarters in Ybor City.   In a press release, Gilbert called Petty’s experience “an unique mix seldom found in one publishing executive.  She has solid journalistic values honed from her early career in the newsroom and her long-standing commitment to hard-hitting journalism.  All three of her last papers earned Pulitzer Prizes during her leadership.   As publisher of two of the nation’s most highly respected newspapers, she has also earned a reputation as a skilled and creative marketing and sales executive who knows how to build strategic alliances to ensure success.”

Petty will be working on a part-time basis until January as she gets up to speed on what is happening with the six-paper chain.  Speaking to the staff this morning, she said, “I love this business.  It’s about great stories — and making the money to pay for them.”

When asked what she thinks of the quality of Creative Loafing’s papers, which include the Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader as well as the CL papers in Tampa, Atlanta, Charlotte and Sarasota, she said she could not give a full evaluation until she is looking at them on a regular basis.  “I have not gone deep yet,” she said to the assembled staff. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week the St. Petersburg Times’ Michael Kruse and Eric Deggans wrote about how in this era of lower ratings for television programs due to  splintered audiences, the  National Football League’s ratings have ascended in recent years.

Days like yesterday demonstrate why pro football has such a grip on the mass public’s attention.

In a triple header for viewers in the Tampa Bay area, the hometown Buccaneers, who have struggled mightily all season long and seen home attendance plummet in recent weeks, suffered a heartbreaking last second loss to the Miami Dolphins yesterday, 25-23.

The loss occurred despite field goal kicker Conner Barth’s record tying three field goals of 50 yards or longer, as well as a spirited effort by number one draft choice, quarterback Josh Freeman, who was lauded today by Times columnist Gary  Sheldon as giving Buc fans now “a reason to believe” (also depressing some who are hoping the team continues to falter to be in position to have the number one draft choice in 2010).

But speaking as a fan of two teams who in recent years spent boatloads of money on the number one selection in the draft, it sometimes ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Because of TV and NFL scheduling, viewers in the Tampa market were treated to a game between two of the worst teams in the league, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders, at 4:05 p.m. on the local CBS affiliate, WTSP.  (Channel 10 had only one game to show yesterday, and wisely programmed that at 4 p.m., so as not to run head to head against Tampa/Miami).

Being a native of the San Francisco Bay Area and a passionate fan of both the 49ers and Oakland Raiders, I was happy not to have to go to a local tavern to watch the game.  But I suppose in retrospect that the only benefit of watching from home  was that at least I could hear the  home town boos.

The Oakland Raiders committed over $25 million in guaranteed money a couple of years ago to JaMarcus Russell, their number one quarterback selection from LSU.  The problem is: he’s terrible, and doesn’t appear to be working very hard at geting better.

A good friend of mine has season tickets to the Raiders, but informed me that not only would be not be attending yesterday’s game, but also made sure not to give them away to friends.  He wanted to make a statement by having tv cameras glide over his empty seats.

While those 2 games featured some lackluster play, they still had some drama, particularly in Miami.

But the big event of the day (and of the season) took place in Indianapolis, where the New England Patriots/Indianapolis Colts have developed the fiercest rivalry in all of sports, and as great as the Dallas/SF rivalry of the 90’s (and yes, go ahead and invoke Al-Frazier for the ultimate rivalry).

The Colts won in stunning, dramatic, last second fashion last night, 35-34, but the big news today is the radical move by Pats head coach Bill Belichick not to eschew a punt and go for a first down on his own 28 yard line with just over two minutes to go.

The Pats failed to get the first, and Peyton Manning soon had the Colts in the end zone.

The call will be debated for time immemorial, but one thing is for certain: Outside of New England and other spots on the globe were Patriot Nation dominates, fans across the country are reveling in Belichick’s faulty move this morning.

Although Belichick’s decision will be debated until the next time the clubs meet, Peyton Manning’s brilliance in the 4th quarter demonstrates why he may soon win an unprecedented 4th MVP later this year.

Florida is the only state in the country with a blanket ban on gay adoptions.

Throughout the years there has been attempts through the courts and in the legislature to change that.

Yesterday in Fort Lauderdale,  Chief Financial Officer and Democratic candidate for Governor Alex Sink said that has to change.

Speaking at a fundraiser hosted by Equality Florida, Sink told the crowd that it should be up to a Judge to decide on whether it would be in a child’s best interest to be adopted, saying:

“We need a system in which all of our children are assured that they live in a healthy, loving home — a home that’s determined not by any law.” According to the Miami Herald, she added,  “The decision has to be made by the judge, in consultation with the experts, to determine what is the best for that individual child.”

Although hardly a radical call (again, Florida stands by itself on its policy regarding gays and adoptions), it’s something that has hardly been a staple of previous Democrats in Florida running for high office.  And it didn’t go for what gay rights groups have been calling for : an outright repeal of the state law.

South Florida Democratic Senator Nan Rich proposed a bill in last year’s legislative session that would overturn the state’s 1977 ban on gay adoption – it went nowhere.  But with Sink’s support…..well, it’s still a dominant Republican legislature in Tallahassee.

Last month, San Francisco Bay Area  Congressman Pete Stark  introduced the  Every Child Deserves a Family Act, which would deny funding to states that ban gay, lesbian, transgender and unmarried people from adoption or foster programs.

While no state is as strict or repressive as Florida when it comes to not allowing gays and lesbians to adopt, other states forbid unmarried couples from adoption in states that outlaw gay marriage.

For the reticent Sink, getting the LGBT crowd to enthusiastically support her candidacy can only be a boost;  As the Herald reports, top GOP opponent Bill McCollum’s Attorney General’s office is defending the state’s ban on gay adoption in a current court case that many analysts expect to see the Florida Supreme Court weigh in on.

McCollum does support the inclusion of gays and lesbians in federal hate crime legislation.  That support led supporters of former Florida U.S. Senator Mel Martinez to label McCollum “the new darling of the extreme homosexuals”, a despicable act that saw the St. Pete Times withdraw their support for Martinez in that August of 2004 GOP Primary (won by Martinez, incidentally).

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Although he hasn’t held elective office in over 8 years and has had multiple setbacks professionally since then (none worse than his embarrassing performance in running for President two years ago), former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani will always have the goodwill amongst New Yorkers and Americans for his performance as Mayor in the days and weeks after the 9/11 attacks.

Couple that with his former time as a Federal Prosecutor, and it was no shock that three Sunday morning public affairs programs featured him to comment on Attorney General’s Eric Holder announcement last Friday that that alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be tried alongside four accused Sept. 11 co-conspirators in a Manhattan federal court “just blocks away” from ground zero.

“Why? We generally don’t bring people back to the scene of the crime for justice,” Giuliani argued. “What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that…the war on terror is over.”

Giuliani countered that the man known as KSM should have a trial by military tribunal, a stricter process than civilian court that has tried a series of other foreign terrorists.

But the hosts of all three programs he was on all queried Guiliani for seeming to now have a different perspective than in the 1990’s, when he applauded the fact that the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center was handled in federal court in New York.

“I’ve already said in retrospect, as many have, that that was a mistake,” the former mayor responded. “Basically the Obama administration is repeating the mistake of history…It’s part of Barack Obama deciding that we’re not at war with terrorism any more….The terrorists haven’t stopped goaing to war with us.”

On ABC, Guiliani said Friday’s decision by Holder is “part of a whole package of the way the President looks at the war on terror….the delay in Afghanistan is a political strategy, on (Major Nidal Malik)Hasan, he doesn’t get it. ..”

Being equally critical on CBS’ Face The Nation was Michigan Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra, who dubbed the Holder plan to try KSM in NYC “ideology run wild.”

But Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy from Vermont followed up the Representative on Face, and said that Holder is right.  Leahy added that the trial(s) will show the  “rest of the world that the U.S. acts out of strength, not out of fear,” and compared KSM to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

But host Bob Schieffer replied that McVeigh was not classified as  an enemy combatant – but Leahy interjected,”If someone murders Americans in America, they should be convicted in America.”

And back on Fox, Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed tried to bring some sanity to the debate, saying that the Obama Administration is simply following upon the same logic that the Bush Administration employed in prosecuting Zacharias Mousawi in civilian court. “What was a statesmans-like decision on the part of the Bush administration can’t be a political decision from the Obama administration, ” the Senator said.

The consensus: There isn’t any, other than this:  Whatever critics want to call Obama (and they’ve called him pretty much everything under the sun in less than a year ), this move was not done for political expediency.  Nor would sending any prisoners from Gitmo into a facility in the U.S., which his administration is considering doing in Illinois.

Back to Guiliani-Time; He said earlier this year that he was thinking of running for Governor of New York, which NY GOPers desperately want him to do.  But some analysts have suggested Guiliani made those hints when he saw incumbent David Patterson’s poll number falter.  But now that there is serious belief that NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo may get in the race (with considerably higher poll numbers than the  beleagured Patterson), the former mayor continues to equivocate.  He had said he would make up his mind after the elections held two weeks ago.  Now he simply says he’s still considering a run.

I hate to derail this vision of a choo choo in Hillsborough before the tracks are even subsidized but somebody besides the anti-rail crowd has to ask the tough questions. The MSM sure don’t seem to be asking many.

Peeling another layer off this proposed tax to help developers pay for roads pay for rail is disturbing. Recall my earlier concerns that this 1% sales tax (which is a 14% increase)  for “rail” was going in part to fund road widening projects that were already supposed to be paid for by developers. Our county government do something that sneaky, something that dirty, something that underhanded? We are in Hillsborough.

That gravy train list of “non-transit” projects to be funded by the proposed tax not only included one very controversial and not yet approved project, it also contained six roads already on the books to be widened by developers for their DRI approvals. DRI stands for development of regional impact or in simpler terms a big ass subdivision. Here is the stinky part: all six of them are from the same developer, Newland Communities. Of the six road projects, two are associated with Lake Hutto, two with Southbend and two with Waterset and all of these are from Newland! In case that doesn’t smell bad enough for you, one of the members of the Transportation Task Force (TTF) [ the group that came up with the non-rail gravy train list of recommendations for the referendum] is none other than Scott Jones, Vice President of Operations-you can see this one coming can’t you……..of Newland Communities! Yes, as a matter of fact, County Center always has that fishy smell.

Terry Flott, Chair of U-CAN, brought up this little detail (about the six DRIs) during public comment at the last BOCC meeting and when the board had the discussion on the referendum for more developer welfare oops I mean “rail”, Commissioner Kevin Beckner asked staff member Lucia Garsys about it. She tried, quite unconvincingly I might add, to assure Beckner that developers would still have to pay their share. It just begs the question though: if developers are still to be held to their agreements then why put these projects on a list you are asking taxpayers to fund via a NEW TAX in the first place? And when pressed about the DRIs she relayed this to Beckner on the record: (my thoughts are in red)

>>LUCIA GARSYS: THE DEVELOPER PROJECTS WITHOUT THE –
GETTING TOO FAR IN THE WEEDS, DEVELOPER PROJECTS OFTENTIMES
PROVIDE MORE CAPACITY THAN THAT PROJECT CONSUMES, SO THE
BALANCE OF THAT IS PROVIDED IN IMPACT FEE CREDITS. (They get impact fee credits? If they “oftentimes provide more capacity” than needed then why are we billions behind in roads? Looks to me like just another form of developer welfare via the back door!)

Recall the current meager impact fees developers do pay puts taxpayers in the hole over $11,000 with every new rooftop that the Gang of Four approves. Yes, I told you it always smells that bad when you start sniffing around Hillsborough County government.

Also raising an eyebrow was the issue that Commissioner Higginbotham brought up about transparency during the rail discussion. The St. Petersburg Times mentions those shadows with this article. Higginbotham’s exchange during that meeting with County attorney Renee Lee (who CL contributor George Niemann has filed an ethic complaint against) is below:

AGAIN, IF WE’RE GOING TO DO THIS, WE NEED TO BE OPEN, WE
NEED TO BE TRANSPARENT, AND UNLESS THE COUNSELOR HAS
CHANGED HER MIND SINCE YESTERDAY MORNING, THE RESOLUTION OF
INTENT PROVIDES THAT CLOAK OF SECRECY AND DOES NOT ALLOW
THE PUBLIC TO SEE WHO WILL SUPPORT FINANCIALLY THIS EFFORT.
>>RENEE LEE: COMMISSIONER, THE RESOLUTION OF INTENT
EXPRESSES TO THE PUBLIC THAT IT’S THE INTENTION OF THE
BOARD TO PUT THE REFERENDUM ON THE BALLOT IN 2010.
>>AL HIGGINBOTHAM: RIGHT.
BUT MY QUESTION ASKED YESTERDAY, YES OR NO.
>>RENEE LEE: IT DOES NOT BECOME AN ISSUE UNDER THE
ELECTION LAW UNTIL THE BOARD PASSES THAT FORMAL LANGUAGE.
>>AL HIGGINBOTHAM: RIGHT.
>>RENEE LEE: SO THAT THERE ARE — THERE ARE ORGANIZATIONS
OR PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO MIGHT WANT TO SUPPORT THIS WHO HAVE
NO REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AT THIS TIME. (like who I wonder……maybe people or companies that stand to make a lot of money in county contracts if this is approved? And why not just word the motion differently to eliminate this? I don’t often get a chance to say this but it looks like Higginbotham was right on the money!)

A Daily Loaf reader brought to my attention that PB and HDR could be some of the silent backers of this proposal (Hat tip to David Boyett of Lithia for all the research he provided for this post) and also mentioned that HDR is responsible for doing a recent study with HART. Hmmmm, combine that with the fact that according to this article Mayor Iorio feels it is time for HART to take the lead on this plus the suggestion in that same article that says that HART will run the mass transit network and things start to take shape. According to this article PB Americas (who also seem to be know as Parsons Brinckerhoff) is also already involved in a study with HART on rail that looks like it is costing at least 2 million! Uh-huh, just wait and we will take a look at both HDR and PB and it isn’t pretty. Read the rest of this entry »

For your Friday the 13th editions, two people prominently mentioned as possible 2012 GOP Presidential candidates will be visiting Florida in the next few weeks. Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty tonight, and Sarah Palin later this month.

Some say Charlie Crist could be considered Presidential material (now that he’s married).  But will he even make it to the Senate?  The Tampa Tribune says the Governor is coming off looking weak recently.

And Harry Reid is contemplating taxing wealthy seniors on Medicare to help pay for more low-and-middle income people on the health care issue- but Tampa area Congresswoman Kathy Castor and the AARP says the just passed bill in the House will be extremely beneficial for Florida seniors.

Download
the report here.

The mainstream media is about to have a collective orgasm as Sarah Palin hits the circuit with the publication of her book Going Rogue.

The book will be published on Tuesday, and the former Alaska governor’s literary itinerary  conspicuously eschews many major American (i.e. Democratic-oriented) cities, with neither L.A., San Francisco, Philadelphia nor Seattle making the cut (neither does the Tampa Bay region).

However, Palin fans should hop in the car, ’cause the  former VP nominee will be making three stops in Florida, including Orlando on November 24th.

Of course, for many observers, Palin’s disastrous interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric was the beginning of the end of the instant love affair, in the immediate wake of the sensational reaction she received when she was named VP, and of course, her speech at the Republican National Convention.

Previously, Palin has blamed Couric for her own egregious problems in the interview.  No excerpts are available yet on what will undoubtedly be another blast at Couric, but the Drudge Report today does contain a passage that is supposed to make one of her media handlers, Nicolle Wallace (who previously worked at CBS News as a commentator) look bad. Read the rest of this entry »