Daily Loaf

Marco Rubio has come a remarkably long way in less than a year on the campaign trail.  Perhaps the best day of his year was yesterday, when the Democrat-leaning (or so we are told) Public Polling Institute survey showed him a  walloping 32% ahead of Charlie Crist in their battle for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate in Florida.

That poll comes despite the negativity that Rubio encountered recently when there were some embarrassing disclosures ($133 haircuts for a man of the people?) in some credit card expenditures that were leaked to the Miami Herald.

Now the Herald/St. Pete Times team is back, with a report by Mark Caputo on how the former House Speaker, although touted as fiscal conservative, pushed for more than $250 million in spending for his home district between 2005-2008.    Caputo writes:

The amount of budget money connected to Rubio attests to his skill as a lawmaker but also contrasts with his campaign image as a tight-fisted spending hawk crusading against “earmarks” that have plagued the budget process in Washington.

Rubio wouldn’t comment and his campaign referred questions to consultant Albert Martinez, who worked in the House under Rubio. Martinez said Rubio tried to cut taxes and spending, not increase them.

“Marco Rubio’s a limited-government conservative,” Martinez said. “He’s not a no-government conservative.” Read the rest of this entry »

Stan Greenberg is Bill Clinton’s former pollster.  He’s partners with famed celebrity political strategist James Carville in Democracy Corps.  On Monday night, the group released a survey called, The Politics of National Security, A Wake Up Call.

The report has plenty of depressing news for Democrats when it comes to an issue in which they traditionally have finished behind the Republican Party – national security.  But what about Barack Obama coming in and restoring the U.S.’s tattered image overseas, damaged by Gitmo and Abu Ghraib and no WMD?  Greenberg blames some of that on how horrible the economy remains:

Even though voters are about evenly split on whether the country is more or less safe today, a 51 to 41 percent majority says the U.S. is less respected in the world than two years ago. This is surprising, given the global acclaim – and Nobel peace prize – that flowed to the new president after he took office. Yet a regression analysis shows that this sentiment is driven even more strongly by perceptions of Obama’s performance on the economy – and America’s relative economic weakness – than by his handling of security issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Saying they have created a culture that is “toxic” and “dysfunctional,  Hillsborough County Commission Chair Ken Hagan is calling for County Administrator Pat Bean, County Attorney Renee Lee, and Internal Auditor Jim Barnes to  resign by next Tuesday, March 16 by noon.  If they do not, he writes, he will ask and “encourage” the full board of County Commissioners to “terminate their employment” the following day.

Hagen made the request public in a letter distributed this afternoon.

It’s a bold move by the Chairman in anticipation of a meeting called to discuss the issue of Barnes audit tomorrow, which says that Bean and Lee reviewed thousands of e-mails written by Barnes and his staff regarding how the two came about giving themselves a 1% pay hike back in 2007.  E-mails are public records, but because the FDLE was already investigating that event, they are exempt from Sunshine laws.

In his letter, Hagan writes:

Perhaps, if this latest information from the auditor’s report was an isolated issue, I would be less vehement; however, that is not the case.   And therefore, today, I am compelled to advocate both swift and immediate action to return the County to its proper course.  It is my firm belief that these issues may only be effectively addressed by sweeping change in the staff leadership of Hillsborough County.

Charlie Crist has steadfastly denied that he has any intention of leaving the Republican Party, though recent polls show that he is losing more and more support inside his own Republican party when it comes to his race against Marco Rubio for the nomination for U.S. Senate.

But he may need to rethink that.

After polls two weeks ago showed him down by 16 and 18 points, respectively, a new survey out today shows him trailing Rubio 60% to 28%.

The Public Policy Institute poll also shows Crist trailing Rubio among conservatives, 71-17.

Crist cannot do a Joe Lieberman and re-run as an independent in November if he loses to Rubio in the August 24 primary; state law requires that he declare his independence.  He must do so by April 30. Read the rest of this entry »

There could be high (or low) drama tomorrow after in Tampa as the Hillsborough County Commission holds a special meeting regarding internal auditor Jim Barnes report about Pat Bean and Renee Lee looking into his e-mails;

Orlando area Congressman John Mica is a somewhat powerful guy when it comes to transportation issues;  he met with Hillsborough and Pinellas are officials about local transportation projects yesterday;

And Channel 10 is reporting that the city of Tampa is investigating e-mails between outgoing Tampa International Airport head Louis Miller and his wife Cyndy(who works for the city) on issues regarding airport height restrictions and developer projects in Tampa;

Download
the report here.

WTSP 10 Connects’s Mike Deeson reported last night that the city of Tampa is now investigating potential Sunshine law violations at Tampa International Airport.  Specifically, e-mails that were sent from outgoing TIA director Louis Miller to his wife Cyndy, who serves as the city of Tampa’s Director of Growth Management, regarding airport height restrictions and how that pertains to developers doing projects in Tampa .

Deeson’s story featured a short interview with Mayor Iorio, who told him that though she doesn’t think the Miller have done anything wrong, per se, she’s assigned city attorney Chip Fletcher to look into the matter:

Both Millers explain that they share the same e-mail account  and say the e-mails were just an attempt by the former airport director to be able to read the e-mails at home. However, one of the e-mails from this past June says from Louis to Louis and Cyndy Miller. The e-mail talks about a developer requesting a change in zoning.

Even Iorio admits the whole issue is complicated by the fact they have only one e-mail account at home.

While the Mayor says, on the surface, she doesn’t think Louis and Cyndy Miller have done anything wrong, she does admit the e-mails have caused enough concern that she has launched an investigation into them. Read the rest of this entry »

Orlando area Congressman John Mica said today it was important that a rail component be centered at Tampa International Airport, which he said would increase flight traffic for the airport for those who would like to visit the Orlando area.

Saying that Orlando’s airport took in more than 35 million people last year, Mica told a representative from TIA who said that approximately 19 million passengers used the airport last year that “We’ve got to get that up.  Way up.”  And later, when hearing from Florida Dept. of Transportation’s Don Skelton that all of the road work leading into TIA had been completed, Mica snapped, “It’s been a mess.”  When informed it’s taken five years to finish up that work, the Congressman joked “It seemed much much more.”

Those comments from Mica, the ranking Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, were provocative in an otherwise relatively straight up roundtable discussion on transportation at Stetson Law School in Tampa today.  More than  30 local officials, including Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, Pinellas County Commissioner Karen Seel and ConnectUs’ Ed Turanchik were in attendance. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday afternoon Hillsborough County Commissioners will hold a special discussion in which the fate of County Administrator Pat Bean’s career with the county may be ultimately resolved.

The latest controversy involving Bean erupted last week, when the St. Pete Times reported that a report by internal performance auditor Jim Barnes said that Bean and County Attorney Renee Lee had gone thru e-mails written by Barnes and two of his employees. Bean admitted last week that she requested the e-mails, but said she never actually read any of them.

Now Bill Varian with the Times reports that County Commission Chair Ken Hagan has requested copies of the contracts for Bean, Lee and Barnes in advance of tomorrow’s discussion.

Media attention has focused in the past week almost exclusively on Bean since she was already considered to be on thin ice with Commissioners on a host of other issues already (Bean survived a BOCC on her fate just last December) .  Her request to look at the e-mails could be illegal, since those emails involved an investigation that the FDLE was conducting on pay raises that Bean and Lee gave themselves back in 2007 without board permission, which Commissioners did not learn about until last year.  Under state law, government e-mails are public records and can be accessed by anybody, but there are exceptions for information on active criminal investigations and audits.

Commissioner Kevin Beckner confirmed with CL this morning that he has contacted the FDLE about looking into this latest revelation involving Bean, saying that officials he spoke with at the law enforcement agency said “it was of interest to them.”

In the light of these most recent revelations, there have been opinion pieces written in local media (including in this space the day after the story broke) challenging the County Commissioners about what they’ll do about Bean, since they have talked a lot of smack about how unhappy they’ve been with her performance over the past couple of years, yet have only required her to give a “vision” statement about clearly defined goals and objectives so they review her work on a quarterly basis.

In the past, some Commissioners have said that with all of the issues on the County’s plate, that it would be too disruptive to terminate her (her contract runs for a couple of more years).  Do they still feel that way?  The issues of the day are as formidable now as they were when they initially grew angry with her; currently the county is looking at cutting some $50 million from its budget, and is working against the clock to try to craft language for a ballot referendum on transportation. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s New York Times story on Florida seemingly getting swindled in the Everglades/U.S. Sugar deal from 2008 has been a nice gift to both the Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek campaigns today.

Rubio went on Glenn Beck’s radio show this morning to blast his GOP Senate opponent, saying,

“We have an issue here in Florida right now that you alluded to earlier where you have the governor of the state of Florida, my primary opponent, who’s basically ramming down the throats of taxpayers a bailout of a sugar company where we’re playing almost twice the appraised value of land because it benefits some key supporters and insiders of his.

“That’s being forced down the throat of a water management district here where two new people were appointed specifically for the purpose of voting ‘yes’ on that bailout.”

Now Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek is blasting away as well.  In a letter sent to the governor today, Meek writes in part,

If the merits of this agreement remain strong, and I am not calling into question the validity of the deal, is Florida overpaying for U.S. Sugar land? Florida residents have consistently shown support for Everglades restoration and it is imperative that the money is used in the most effective way possible and not squandered on over-valued land.

Meanwhile, Charlie Crist reportedly is calling the Times story a “hatchet job.”  We’ll add more when see his comments in print.

Americans who want to see cooperation in politics and government are stepping out and speaking up. They are asking questions about collaboration and cultivating a collective will to participate in the democratic process. The Coffee Party movement started just last week and is popping up all over the country. Why not all over Tampa Bay? Launch the Coffee Party Movement Saturday, March 13th in St Pete, Tampa, or host one yourself. It’s National Coffee Party Day!

We are the ones to take care of our democracy. Not Big Daddy. Not Big Government. Not even the political parties. That means helping educate ourselves and the candidates, holding them responsible to do what they said they would during the campaign and supporting them to accomplish those goals. As voters and grassroots volunteers, let’s support leaders who work toward positive solutions and hold accountable those who obstruct them.
Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times this morning has produced a large story that Charlie Crist probably didn’t enjoy reading while sitting at his breakfast nook today;

Mitt Romney is in South Florida today, trying to sell copies of his new book.  Yesterday on Fox News, the would be GOP presidential candidate in 2012 got grilled as he defended a health care plan in Massachusetts that is similar in many ways to a plan he’s blasting from coast to coast in Washington;

And former Hillsborough County Commissioner and now State House GOP candidate Brian Blair is upset at a recent blog post written locally – and his attorneys say they’ll sue the blogger;

Download
the report here.

Stephen Hammill

Although it’s way too early to make such predictions, we all know that President Obama and Congressional Democrats have struggled on trying to craft a health care bill over the past year, and some of them may very well pay the price for whatever happens with this legislation with their jobs come November.

But could health care deleteriously affect Mitt Romney as well?  The telegenic GOP presidential candidate in ‘08 and possibly in 2012 is in Florida today, appearing in Palm Beach County to hawk his new book, No Apology.

Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, he was grilled by host Chris Wallace for his apparent hypocrisy when it comes to health care.  Like virtually every other Republican who’s been given the privilege of a platform, he has been trashing the proposed legislation that Congress has been debating over the past year.  But Wallace challenged him on his criticism, given that the universal health care plan that he helped pass while serving as Governor in Massachusetts is said to strongly mirror what ObamaCare is all about.

Wallace tried his best to put Romney on the spot, asking him what’s different between what he helped accomplish in the Bay State than what Obama is currently proposing.  Several times Romney responded that his plan didn’t raise taxes, cut Medicare or put controls on insurance companies.

WALLACE: Yeah, but I want to pursue this, if I may, Governor. The libertarian, and certainly the somewhat conservative, Cato Institute says that your plan in Massachusetts is a mirror — a mirror plan of “Obama-care.” They say it’s quite right you didn’t raise taxes, but they say, in fact, you got millions of dollars from the federal government to finance your plan.

ROMNEY: Well, what we have is a plan which is paid for half by the state and half by the federal government. The cost is about 1.5 percent of the state budget.

And the federal dollars we received were federal dollars that we were entitled to through a program called DISH, the disproportionate share program. Federal funds had been applied to Massachusetts, just like to other states, for the care of those that were uninsured.

We said, “Let’s take that money that’s been going to hospitals that are caring for the uninsured and instead help people buy their own private insurance.” No government insurance. No government option, if you will.

WALLACE: Well, there’s no…

ROMNEY: Private health insurance.

WALLACE: … government option in the Obama plan anymore, either.

ROMNEY: No, that’s right. That’s right. And so what we did was entirely different than what President Obama is proposing on the bases that I’m taking you through. Read the rest of this entry »

It was 21 months ago when one of the biggest conservation deals in U.S. history was announced; The state of Florida would buy  U.S. Sugar’s holdings in the Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee, including its cane fields, mill and railroad line. U.S. Sugar would be allowed to farm the 187,000 acres for six more years, after which it would go out of business. Cost to Floridians?  $1.75 billion.

Those plans have been revised since then, with the state reducing its purchase of U.S. Sugar’s land to 72,800 acres for $536 million.  But according to a blockbuster story written today in the New York Times by investigative reporters Don Van Natta Jr. and Damien Cave,  the state and Governor Charlie Crist were suckered into an awful deal that is “rescuing the fortunes of U.S. Sugar”, but setting back the plan of fully restoring the Everglades.

The story, coming in at over 4.200 words, is critical of Crist, and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, for paying way more than they should have for the land.

But internal district documents revealed that the land had been overvalued by the two firms that performed the independent appraisals. Both relied on figures from 2004 to 2008, when a speculative real estate market had prices soaring.

If the current prices had been used, the state would be paying far less. For example, while the water district agreed to pay United States Sugar nearly $7,000 an acre for citrus land, it is now selling for $4,000 an acre, independent appraisers said recently in interviews.

The two outside appraisal firms used by the district — Anderson & Carr, of West Palm Beach, Fla., and Sewell, Valentich, Tillis & Associates, of Sarasota — came up with almost identical figures of around $1.3 billion, a rarity that raised some eyebrows.

“When I had heard that number, I couldn’t swallow it — it was an unbelievable number,” said Woody Hanson, a land appraiser in Fort Myers with extensive experience in the Everglades. “Then I looked closely at the appraisals to test them for reasonableness and, wow, there is just no way it makes sense for the taxpayers.”

Neither appraisal firm used by the district would comment.

Eric Buermann, chairman of the district’s advisory board, defended the appraisals but acknowledged that they had used outdated values. “At the time we had to make the decision,” he said, “those were the latest, best numbers available.”

Yet when the appraisals were updated in 2009, they still relied on sale prices from 2004 to 2006, documents showed. District officials said the appraisers assured them that prices had held steady. Read the rest of this entry »

Attorneys for former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair have sent a letter to St. Petersburg-based political blogger Peter Schorsch, threatening to sue him after the blogger wrote recently about Blair’s arrest last summer on child abuse charges on his blog,  St. Petersburg 2.0,.

Blair was arrested on Father’s Day last year, and held overnight in a Hillsborough County jail, accused of engaging in a fight with his two sons.  But days later, the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s office said they were dropping the charges. Read the rest of this entry »

You mind have forgotten it, or been distracted by the epic earthquake in Chile last Saturday, but there is still a massive humanitarian crises in Haiti following the January quake.

The Salvation Army in Tampa needs volunteers tomorrow morning beginning at 8:30 a.m. at 930 E 139th Avenue.  That’s just off of Nebraska Avenue, north of Fletcher.  Read more below:

The Salvation Army is looking for 200 Tampa Bay area residents to volunteer
their time to help prepare food boxes that will be delivered to residents in
the Delmas 2 area of Port au Prince as part of The Salvation Army’s ongoing
earthquake relief effort. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old. We can
accept volunteers between the ages of 12-17 years if they are accompanied by
an adult.

WHAT:
Community volunteers will assist The Salvation Army in sorting thousands of
pounds of rice and beans into individual servings for distribution to hungry
families in Haiti.

To register to volunteer, please contact: Jessica_vick@uss.salvationarmy.org
or call 813-226-0055,  ext. 223. It is important that volunteers register so that we can plan
accordingly.

1. This commentary in Sunday’s Tribune regarding natural Florida should be required reading for every elected official in the state that ever has a vote on land use.

2. Obviously Mike Haridopolos, R- Melbourne never read that editorial considering he has filed a bill (SB622) to allow drilling just three short miles off Florida’s coast. This excerpt from the article is very telling:

Meanwhile, House leaders said today that they would not be deterred by a report last week that found that drilling in Florida waters would “have no discernible impact” on gas prices or the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, even if it would pump millions into state coffers.

3. Bureaucrat Watch for embattled County Administrator Pat Bean is back on. Seems like the only question left is will Commissioners finally fire her or will they take the easy way out and let her resign? Shouldn’t slurping out of that big McDonald’s cup during the last BOCC meeting have been grounds enough? I admit I like McDonald’s,  but it seems a bit unprofessional of the County Administrator in the middle of conducting a BOCC meeting.

4. While the area debates whether or not adding shit to Tampa’s tap water can help solve the water shortage in the future, here is a great editorial that exposes just how much water the phosphate industry uses for free not to mention what it does to the environment. Recall most people were instead pissed at strawberry farmers for watering during a freeze. Seems like the real culprits are unchecked growth and the water giveaway to the phosphate industry. Who else besides me loves strawberries? The strawberry festival runs through March 14th and those freezes are said to have made the berries sweeter than ever!

5. Charlie Crist denied that he will switch teams.

6. Troubled bridge over shitty (but not yet oil-slicked) water. This article explains the issues in rehabbing the the road at the Courtney Campbell shoreline  proving it isn’t just the water you should be worried about. Meanwhile lets hope they don’t ask HDR (who designed the cracking reservoir) for help. Read the rest of this entry »

Christopher Mitchell, a young Democrat who was aspiring to political office for the first time this year in the hotly contested open District 47 House seat being vacated by term limited Republican Kevin Ambler, announced today that he was withdrawing from the primary election.

In a press release, Mitchell says he now supports former Hillsborough County Democratic party chief and congressional candidate Michael Steinberg.

Sunday night is of course, the Academy Awards. The Report gives our jaundiced view of “Hollywood’s biggest night”;

The St. Petersburg Times has another story that puts County Administrator Pat Bean in a bad light, to say the least:

And in the current issue of CL, we write about the controversy in St. Petersburg about the new chase policy for St. Pete Police officers that Mayor Bill Foster supports.  If you’ll recall, there was a comment by a member of the force that it was now “Game on,” whatever that meant.  Well, what did it mean?  That sergeant tells CL what he meant.

Download
the report here.

Okay, to quote Ross Perot, here’s the deal:  Oscar’s, Sunday night, 8:30 p.m. ABC.  Hollyweird’’s biggest night, and all that jazz.

As your political columnist, what do the Academy Award nominated films and performances tell us about the Zeitgeist, circa early 2010?

First of all, though much has been written about the fact that academy officials last year, freakend out about lower television ratings and the fact that a majority of the nominated films are ones that a majority of Americans haven’t seen, expanded the Best Picture category from 5 to 10 this year.  What hasn’t been written or discussed is how the vote tally will be calculated via IRV, or instant-runoff voting, which a lot of voting rights advocates would like to see happen in our regular political elections(and does in such cities like San Francisco and Minneapolis.  Sarasota citizens approved such a system in 2007, but voters in Burlington, Vermont just repealed it).

Long story short, Academy members will rank the 10 best-picture nominees in order of preference.  If no film gets 51% of the vote, the auditors will then divide the movies into 10 stacks, with movie with  the fewest #1 votes  thrown out.  The process will repeat itself if a majority still isn’t arrived at.  The upshot?  A film that gets more 2nd or 3rd place votes could beat out the flick with the most 1st place votes.

I digress.  The  the news on the show business blogs over the past week is all the dirt that’s coming The Hurt Locker’s way. The Kathryn Bigelow directed action thriller that me and about three dozen other people saw in Tampa Bay when it opened initially opened last summer has moved into the favorite category for best film recently, which is why it’s not getting a dose of negative pub.

The sleaziest news is the lawsuit filed on Wednesday against Hurt Locker screenwriter and producer Mark Boal, brought on by Master Sgt. Jeffrey S. Sarver, whose Explosive Ordnance Disposal (E.O.D.) unit Boal was embedded with Baghdad while working for Playboy.  The suit names Boal, Bigelow and the other producers of the pic of basing the lead character that Jeremy Renner (who copped an Oscar nomination) plays on him, Sgt. Sarver.

According to the NY Times:

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, is based on six counts, including misappropriation of name and likeness, invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress, fraud and negligent misrepresentation. It seeks in excess of $75,000 for each of the counts, along with costs, interest and legal fees. It charges that the movie amounted to “the exploitation of a real life honorable, courageous, and long-serving member of our country’s armed forces, by greedy, multibillion dollar ‘entertainment’ corporation.

Please people.  Let’s move on.  Hopefully Hurt Locker wins it all.

Now, like any predictor, I have to go back to my column written on December 18th, when I published my top 10 list of the year.  #1 was Precious.  This movie is incredibly controversial in some parts of the black community I learned when I visited my home in the San Francisco/Berkeley area during the holidays.  Academic Ishmael Reed wrote a lengthy and stinging diatribe about the film for the alternative Web site Counterpunch back in early December (he wrote a shorter op-ed for the NY Times in January about the film).

New York Press film critic Armond White wrote his own essay tearing into the film by beginning his review this way:

Shame on Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey for signing on as air-quote executive producers of Precious. After this post-hip-hop freak show wowed Sundance last January, it now slouches toward Oscar ratification thanks to its powerful friends.Winfrey and Perry had no hand in the actual production of Precious, yet the movie must have touched some sore spot in their demagogue psyches. They’ve piggybacked their reps as black success stories hoping to camouflage Precious’ con job—even though it’s more scandalous than their own upliftment trade. Perry and Winfrey naively treat Precious’ exhibition of ghetto tragedy and female disempowerment as if it were raw truth. It helps contrast and highlight their achievements as black American paradigms—self-respect be damned.

Next on my list of favorite films, and the flick that some call a dark-horse to win best film , is Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which is a return to form for the former video store clerk since his 1994 Oscar nominated classic Pulp Fiction.

Inglourious has been getting some late blogging love by opinion makers like MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, wrote on the Huffington Post’s Web

The more I talk to Academy voters, the more I hear them leaning toward Basterds. Maybe half of the votes have already been cast. Most of the rest will pour into the Academy this week. The timing for the buzz shift toward Basterds could not be better.

If I had a vote to cast, Basterds would get mine. What I love most about Inglourious Basterds is its utter indescribability. Go ahead, try to describe it to people who haven’t seen it. It will sound like a silly, incoherent, horribly inaccurate depiction of World War 2. They will not believe any adult would put up money to make or see a movie like that. They will not be able to fathom why Brad Pitt would jump at the chance to star in it. Tarantino took a crazy idea that rattled around in his head for years, turned it into what must have seemed like a pretty crazy screenplay, then turned that into a masterful movie crammed with unbearable tension, twisted humor, true eloquence, and remarkable performances.

Next up is the big kahuna, Avatar.  Especially on the Internet, no film has has such incendiary reactions (well, actually, there has  been: Precious!, but after that, no film has had such incendiary reactions).

The premise of the 3-D wonder is classic anti-American (military) and pro-environment too its DNA.  After seeing it in San Francisco days after it opened nationally, I was surprised the right wasn’t making more political hey for it’s perceived “anti-America” message.

There have been so many interesting essays, with some claiming the film is racist for its depicting its white protagonist as leading the “savage beasts” to victory that I suggest when you have some free time Googling some up.  It’s more than just an interesting little ditty with blue people starring in it.

Those are the big ones that are in contention for Best Film.  I dug Jason Reitman/Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air (which if you’ll recall way back in early December was the “hot” choice for best film), not so much for the topicality of its subplot about the American worker getting shafted due to the crummy economy, but because of what happens to its lead character played by Hollywood’s successor as officially the Cool Kat, George Clooney.

Specifically, Clooney’s wandering, and inability to connect and have a meaningful relationship (there was all that stuff about unpacking your backpack as well).  Without getting too personal, let’s just say the theme is powerful for those of us who are still (happily?) single.

What else?  Well, hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hopefully will be fun.  But I’m bummed out that Sacha Baron Cohen’s skit mocking Avatar has reportedly been cut because of fears about Mr. Cameron not enjoying the joke.

Having said all this, can I add that I’m actually more into the American Film Spirit Awards, the indie version of the Oscars, that will air tonight on IFC at 11 p.m. eastern?  I still can’t get over the fact that famed transvestite Eddie Izzard, hosting the Spirit Awards this year, ran 43 marathons in 51 days. Now that’s a lot weirder to me than telling jokes for a couple of hours in women’s clothes.

Last month, after St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster said he was going to change the Police Department’s pursuit policy, Sgt. Karl Lounge was quoted in the St. Pete Times as saying, “It’s game on now.”

That comment has angered people like Ray Tampa, president of the St. Petersburg NAACP, who wrote in a letter to the Times earlier this week that Lounge’s remark “gives the impression that he is eager to turn on the lights of his patrol car and start racing through the streets.”

But in an email exchange with CL, Sgt. Lounge says that was not his intention at all.  Contacted for a story on the policy that is the current edition of the paper,  Lounge wrote a response to us earlier this week that we’ve opted to publish in its entirety on our site.  You can read it below:

As with any quote given to the media, I included “Game On” as part of an entire conversation regarding the change in the pursuit policy.  In this case its context was simply meant to be: we’re finally going to be able to do our job rather then watch and wave as criminals drive away from us.  My stance has always been for the policy to be expanded to include crimes such as burglary and auto theft with the understanding that its application is very controlled and limited to those times of day that put the public at a minimal risk.  It’s all too common for a midnight officer to respond to a string of vehicle burglaries committed by a group of suspects in a stolen vehicle.  Unfortunately, as we approach these individuals and they flee, we must let them go.  This is not only frustrating to the officers and victims who have witnessed such events, but empowers the suspects to continue their criminal behavior.

It’s these situations that the change in the pursuit policy is meant to address, and not during the day, on crowded streets, near playgrounds or through city streets during rush hour.  These crimes are occurring during the late night and midnight hours when there are very few vehicles on the road, when children and families are home sleeping and when although there may be a risk, it is significantly minimized.

In referring to it being “Game On”, I in no way think this is a “game” as some of the responses have indicated.  This is no “cowboy” mentality that wants to make St. Pete into the wild west of police chases.  As a matter of fact, I of all people know of the dangers of vehicle pursuits.  I recently returned after five months off from a broken ankle sustained in a foot chase following a vehicle pursuit that could have been ended quickly, but wasn’t due to current policies.  This brings up another necessary change in order to further reduce the risk during vehicle pursuits: ending the pursuit as quickly as possible.

Considerable attention has been given to the number of pursuits that end in crashes.  This is because we have no authorized techniques to end a pursuit quickly, which means we chase vehicles until they crash or the driver decides to stop.  There are techniques such as, stop sticks, boxing in and the PIT maneauver available.  All safe techniques that we don’t currently use.  It’s no wonder most of our pursuits end in crashes, there is no other way for them to end.

Another interesting point that’s been overlooked is how many pursuits will arise from this policy change.  The reality is that it will be very few, as this change will only apply to certain crimes, under certain conditions after specific guidelines have been met.  Although I have no crystal ball, I would guess maybe eight to twelve a year (based on my actual experience on the midnight shift for the past seven plus years).  The impact on having the ability to pursue and apprehend these repeat criminals will have a significant impact on current crime patterns and the future of the repeat offenders.

As you see, there’s a whole lot more to this issue then simply it being “Game On” as some critics would like to twist for their own agendas.  Quite frankly, if some of those same critics would focus on correcting some of the social problems and taking control of the young criminals in their own communities, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

I hope this shed a little light on my thoughts and intentions as it being “Game On” regarding the pursuit issue.

Thank You,

Karl Lounge, Vice President

Fraternal Order of Police

Pinellas Lodge 43

Domestic violence does not respect social economic status. It can be found anywhere and everywhere, from the home of the wealthiest to the most religious family in the Tampa Bay area. Victims of domestic violence live in fear, thinking there are no other alternatives other than to remain with their abuser.

Each year there are between 6,000 and 7,000 police reports of domestic violence. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, there were 7,824 reported domestic violence offenses in 2008 within Hillsborough County.

Malynna Clarke, a former domestic violence victim, used to live with an abusive husband until she was kicked out of her house, along with her four children. She was forced onto the streets with no one to go to for help.

“I had to go to the police because I had nothing for my kids and myself,” Clarke said. “At the police station, they gave me a brochure referencing me to the Family Justice Center.”

The Family Justice Center is a collaboration of services that have up to 40 different agencies working together for victims of domestic violence.

At the Family Justice Center, Clarke was handed a brochure to the Bay Area Legal Services (BALS), a regional, non-profit public interest law firm that provides legal counsel to low-income individuals and families.

Clarke had no form of transportation except the bus. Since the nearest bus stop was five miles away and her 6-year-old son has three congenital heart defects, it was difficult for her to get to BALS to sign her legal paper work.

“Bay Area Legal would drive out 39 miles to where I was at and bring a notary with them just so I could sign all of the papers,” Clarke said. Read the rest of this entry »

Orlando-area Congressman Alan Grayson was on Larry King Live last night.  But for once, the controversial Democrat played second fiddle to another member of Congress who tried to create headlines on health care last night;

The move to get ballot language for the referendum on light rail and transit in Hillsborough is moving at a molasses-like pace.  Read more here:

And Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Maurice Ferre gets some ink in the Miami Herald — under their Politifact watch.

Download
the report here.

And

Although Kendrick Meek supporters decry his lack of media attention as the world focuses on the daily give and take of the Charlie Crist/Marco Rubio rumble, part of the problem for the Miami Democrat is that he is substantially running against himself for the Democratic nomination.

That’s not meant to belittle either former North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns (whom we saw last week at the Democrats’ LGBT Caucus winter meeting in St. Petersburg) or former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, whom CL featured in an article last month.

But in the case of Ferre, sometimes he appears to be his own worst enemy.

As part of the St.Pete Times expanding its Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking series Politifact into Florida, the Times’ partner,  the Miami Herald, wanted to do a little fact-checking on Ferre’s boast to the Web site Newsmax that he left the city with “$43 million in the bank,” when he left office back in 1985.

We urge you to read reporter Amy Sherman’s piece in full, but check out this one graph as Ferre tries to explain some discrepancies on his $43 million quote :

`I obviously made a mistake, didn’t I? It was not the fund balance, I am trying to figure out and get the exact figure for you. . . . How do you expect me to remember numbers 30 years later? I have someone down at City Hall trying to figure out those numbers. I accept I probably made a mistake when I said $43 million, I think I meant $34 million. The issue is not whether it was 34, 43, or 23, the issue is I left the city of Miami solvent.”

But all was not bad for Ferre.  Politifact labels his “$43 million” quote as Barely True.

Ferre has also been calling on Kendrick Meek to return $5,000 in campaign contributions he has received from New York Democrat Charles Rangel, who announced yesterday that due to ethics charges he is stepping down from his post as House Ways & Means Chair.

The B.S. meter broke trying to measure all of Jeff Atwater’s lies on this one…

By Chris Ingram

If you ever had any question about what is wrong with American politics, Jeff Atwater, who is the Florida State Senate President and is a  candidate for Chief Financial Officer, should erase any doubt. This guy is so full of bull-sh*t and double-talk he ought to get an Academy Award.

His performance was captured on video by the Times/Herald — a link to the clip is shown at the end of the column.

With not exactly a straight-face (though he tries) Atwater claims: 1) That he doesn’t have and can’t get copies of his American Express card statements from when he had such a card provided by the Republican Party of Florida. 2) That he personally asked RPOF Chairman John “I’ll protect you” Thrasher (who is also a junior Senator in the Fla. State Senate and who in a roundabout way answers to Atwater) for the records, and that Thrasher told him “no.” 3)  At one point when he confuses himself with his own B.S. he states “I am not the card” whatever that means.  4) He states if you “ask any member of the legislature who carries a company card with them whether they work for a law firm or whatever institution it is they work for, the statements go to the company” – implying people with corporate cards in business never see their cards – huh? I’ve had cards from employers before and I always got a copy and had to account for all my expenses. I guess the key qualifier here is “if you ask any member of the legislature,” because if you ask anybody else who ever had a corporate credit card they’d be soiling their pants if they made personal charges on their corporate cards instead of making ridiculous excuses about where the statements went. 5) Atwater claims he “never” got copies of the card statements.

This guy wants to be the Chief Financial Officer of Florida. I wouldn’t let him be the Treasurer of my little girl’s Brownie Troop. Read the rest of this entry »

Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan said on Wednesday that with the removal of six different road projects in the South County area that were on a list to be funded by a percentage of the sales tax referendum on transit, there was now little incentive for anybody in that part of the county to approve the proposed ballot measure on transit later this year.

Hagan, who has publicly supported the transit tax but has spoken about the importance of funding road projects as well, said,  “this area will never see any rail, and now that they’re not seeing any road projects. I don’t see any reason why any South County voter would support this.”  Those comments came after Lucia Garsys, the county’s Planning and Infrastructure Services Administrator, said that the projects that had been on the list were considered developer funded projects.  As CL contributor Kelly Cornelius reported on last week, those projects themselves were initially listed by Hagan’s Transportation Task Force.

Commissioner Rose Ferlita immediately  agreed with Hagan on the lack of incentive for a portion of the electorate to reject the referendum, saying to him, “You are 100% correct. What reason would they have to support this?  There’s no advantage to this.”

Garsys said that she and Metropolitan Planning Organization head Ray Chiaramonte will attend a meeting in SouthShore on Thursday afternoon to discuss other road projects with the community that might qualify for funding. Read the rest of this entry »

New York Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel this morning announced he was temporarily stepping down from his post as Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, after an ethics committee admonished him last week for violating Congressional gift rules by accepting corporate-sponsored trips to the Carribbean.

Florida House Democrats like Kathy Castor, Kendrick Meek and Alan Grayson would have had to vote today on a Republican resolution calling for him to step aside.

Rangel is hardly out of the woods, as the ethics panel is still investigating other charges against the Harlem based Representative (who has served in Congress as long as Bill Young).  Those other charges include his fund-raising, as well as failing to pay federal taxes  on rental income from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic and his use of four rent-stabilized apartments provided by a Manhattan real estate developer.

The Rangel affair is the last thing that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs at this point.  Especially after she campaigned in 2006 against the “culture of corruption” that was all about Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and Tom Foley.   As Peter Beinart wrote in the Daily Beast yesterday (before Rangel announced he was stepping aside for the time being):

Democratic source says party pollsters are picking up rumblings that the Rangel scandal is starting to register with the public. If Pelosi and the White House wait until the ethics committee hands down its final verdict, it may be too late.

Is Rangel’s behavior so egregious that sheer decency requires that he be forced from his chairmanship, if not from Congress altogether? Not really. His infractions are petty compared to the vast, legalized corruption that marks our campaign finance system. But neither is Rangel worth jeopardizing the Democrats’ congressional majority for. What Mike Royko said about Dan Rostenkowski is now true for the Washington Democratic Party writ large. With unemployment at almost 10 percent, and the public eager for someone to blame, the rules have changed. To survive, Democrats must too.

It was evident that Nancy Pelosi was reluctant to move against Rangel.  Somebody got to him, though.  As Beinart writes, the public is always generally disgusted with Congressional ethics violations, but this year, tolerance is lower than ever.

Last night Governor Charlie Crist delivered his final State of the State Address.  How is Marco Rubio handling it?  His press people are issuing out newspaper quotes about how much Democrats liked the speech;

The legislative session has just got underway, and state Republicans are fired up and ready to reform state govt.  The same govt. they’ve been in charge of over the past decade;

And though Mitt and Sarah were cracking wise on the late night shows last night, there could be a formidable opponent for Barack Obama in 2012 getting poised to run, or at least seriously flirt with the idea.

Download
the report here.

Last night the late night comedy shows featured potential GOP candidates that might face Barack Obama when he comes up for re-election in 2 1/2 years time.

Sarah Palin appeared on NBC’s Tonight Show with old host Jay Leno, while Mitt Romney went on David Letterman’s Late Show to hawk his new book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.

On Leno, Palin said she’s keep writing notes on her hand to “Keep the left all we-we’d up”

But while those potential candidates try to get their message out via their memoirs, there’s another potential candidate on the loose.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, that is.  Read the rest of this entry »

On the first day of the legislative session yesterday, House Republican leaders unveiled wish list of reforms.  Some of the roughly two dozen items on the list are controversial, Speaker Larry Cretul admits.

The Associated Press lists some of the proposals:

- Establishing a Florida Savings Fund to guarantee that the state maintains adequate cash reserves to protect Florida’s attractive bond rating, despite extreme budget pressures.

“This year, that AAA rating will save taxpayers million of dollars in debt financing costs,” Cretul said. “Over many years, that top rating means billion of dollars in savings. It has a tremendous impact on the state’s bottom line, both short-term and long-term.”

- Including “plain-language explanatory” comments on budget documents and opening the final budget process to public view. In the past, last-minute wheeling and dealing over the budget often has occurred behind closed doors.

- Offering state employees a deeper choice of health benefit plans, but requiring workers to pay more.

- Launching a comprehensive review of Florida laws and repealing any outdated or otherwise unnecessary statutes. In addition, lawmakers will look into the way state agencies adopt new rules.

“It does Floridians little good for us to set policies to bring economic growth back to Florida if state agencies are going to hinder those efforts with bureaucracy and red tape,” Cretul said.

- Looking for efficiencies in the state’s management of various auto and truck fleets, perhaps resulting in a merger of those operations into a single entity.

- Hiring more tax auditors for the Department of Revenue to improve tax collections.

However, the Tallahassee Democrat’s Bill Cotterell also reports that:

The GOP plan would include elimination of collective bargaining rights for most state employees, except those in law enforcement and public health, and would move the Department of Management Services under the Cabinet’s control. Cretul said DMS, now under the governor’s office, needs efficiencies in managing state real estate and overseeing Florida government’s personnel programs.

Read the rest of this entry »

That’s what the Tampa Tribune’s Ted Jackovics is reporting this afternoon. From his article:

Louis Miller’s last day as executive director of Tampa International Airport would be Thursday, pending approval by the aviation authority’s board earlier that day.

Miller would continue to receive full pay and work as needed until April 23, the effective date of his resignation, a board agenda item states. He earns $253,294 annually along with a $500 monthly auto allowance.

John Wheat, deputy executive director would become the airport’s interim director on Friday if approved at the board’s meeting.

If Miller’s last day is this Thursday, it only adds to the intrigue of what’s really going on at Tampa International Airport.  It was less than a week ago that Miller stunned the Tampa Bay area when he announced he would be stepping down in April, after nearly 14 years on the job. Read the rest of this entry »

Attorney and self-proclaimed “blue collar guy” David Chalela enters the State House race in District 56. The district encompasses downtown Tampa and Brandon extending east to Valrico and north to Seffner.

Chalela’s background is interesting and impressive. He grew up near Detroit, graduated from law school at Stetson, and joined the military in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) corps. As a military attorney he briefed soldiers on Geneva Convention laws and prepared wills for almost every soldier deployed out of New England during his time there. Additionally Chalela advised military commanders on the legality of levels of engagement in order to prevent war crimes and Geneva violations. In 2006 David Chalela opened his own law practice in Tampa. He specializes in foreclosure defense for homeowners.

Chalela is a Democrat, but his district has nearly 400 more registered Republicans than Dems. It is currently represented by Republican Rachel Burgin, an opponent that David claims to surpass in work and life experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Late yesterday CL was able to cover a very interesting meeting amongst the top public officials and others who are crafting the one cent sales tax referendum in Hillsborough County.  Our report;

Tonight Governor Charlie Crist will deliver his last State of the State Address, as the state will work towards finding a way cut over $3 billion;

And we pontificate on big political news coming out of Texas, New York and California today;

Download
the report here.

Today in Texas, a GOP gubernatorial election takes place in which the only real drama that is expected will play out is whether U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison get force Governor Rick Perry into a run-off election later this year.

This is a race in which Hutchison is the “liberal” – wait, strike that.  “Least hardline conservative” might be a better appellation, as the Senator has been challenged by a 3rd party candidate, Debra Medina, that comes with the imprimatur of the tea party movement.

Some officials say that Perry, who succeeded George W. Bush in office, now has the conservative credentials to mount a presidential run in 2012.  Of course, Perry is a guy who has spoken of having the Lone Star state seceding  from the union, so Democrats have to be licking their chops to see him think of running for higher office.

Meanwhile in New York, former Tennessee Congressman and New York bank official Harold Ford Jr.declares in an op-ed in the New York Times that he will not run in the Democratic Primary against Kirsten Gillibrand.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Florida Legislature’s regular 60 day session begins in Tallahassee today, and all eyes tonight will be on Governor Charlie Crist, as he delivers his 4th and final State of the State address at 6 p.m. (which BayNews 9 says they’ll cover live).

“The focus of all of us is the economy,” Crist tells the Associated Press.  “It continues to be jobs, the economy, try to get people back to work.”

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel breaks down what they report will be where there will be tension between the Governor and the Republican-led Legislature:

Crist wants to raid state reserves now to increase funding for public education, health programs and the environment. The governor’s reasoning: Those are rainy day funds — and it’s raining in Florida.

But legislative leaders want to save for next year, leaving at least $1 billion to help soften the blow when money from the $787 billion federal stimulus plan runs out. Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, who oversees the criminal justice budget, put the predicament this way: “We’re in the desert now. We may be headed for hell.”

An interesting development that the St. Pete Times reports on today is the conservative shift of the state senate, which traditionally has been the more moderate body compared to more rambunctious House (think of the Terri Schiavo saga 5 years ago, and how officials like the late Jim King went out of their way to fight Jeb Bush on trying to intervene in the case). Read the rest of this entry »

A workshop was held in the Hillsborough County Center Monday afternoon regarding the proposed penny cent sales tax referendum on transportation that local officials are furiously working on to get ballot language approved later this month. The informal meeting was led by County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, with Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, HART Executive Director David Armijo and members of TBARTA and the Tampa Bay Partnership participating.

Among the details hammered out was a proposal that will be brought before the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners regarding a new issue about the ballot language: whether or not to include the fact that there will be a 75/25 split between bus and rail projects vs. road projects.

Based upon a suggestion by Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, county staff will prepare two versions to go before the Board on Wednesday — one measure will include the 75/25 split, the other will not.  As was discussed earlier Monday at a HART board meeting, many board members believe that including the 75/25 split on the actual proposal takes away the flexibility from  HART later on.  But because they are aware that some commissioners might not like removing that language, a second 75-word mock ballot ordinance will be presented (this comes after the word “rail” was deleted and then re-inserted in the ballot language late last week).

Because the ballot language cannot go beyond 75 words, officials are obviously limited.  Officials at both the Monday afternoon meeting, as well as HART members earlier, seemed to agree that the listing of “560 buses” in the current draft be omitted.    Read the rest of this entry »