Enough already with the military’s ridiculous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
And it’s about time we legalize gay marriage.
Yet after the stunning parades this weekend and the first official recognition of the movement by a sitting working US President, I’m filled with more hope than ever before.
Which is why I didn’t allow my blood pressure to rise when WFLA/News Channel 8 aired an “it would be disturbing if it weren’t so silly” documentary infomercial Saturday night about wicked gays trying to silence Christians. I urged my fellow libs to take deep breaths and see this program for what it was — a spoiled brat stomping his feet and holding his breath in the hopes of getting attention and that last piece of cake.
“Their world is ending, Mary,” I said with a giggle. “It’s falling down around them and they can’t do a thing to stop it. Let’s not be so reactionary. Pass the Sangria and shut the fuck up. I want to hear what these freakshows have to say so I can make fun of them later.”
Rhodes, 50, was supposed to be tried today on charges tied to his Jan. 16 arrest. But the trial was continued until Wednesday because his attorney was awaiting transcripts from a previous hearing.
Now, instead of going to trial, Rhodes will plead no contest on Wednesday to a misdemeanor obstruction charge, defense attorney Jeff Brown said.
As part of the plea deal, Rhodes will serve 50 hours of community service. Adjudication will be withheld, meaning he will not have a conviction on his record.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 29, 2009, at 9:45 am
A stunning admission, if completely unsurprising to anybody who has run campaigns in any African-American community in this state: The way to get coverage in black-owned media is to pay for it.
That was the direct message to Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, from a group of African-American media execs over the weekend:
“At the end of the day, it’s about money. If you buy advertising, you’re more likely to get coverage,” said Johnny Hunter, president of the Florida Association of Black Owned Media and publisher of Sarasota’s Tempo News.
That according to coverage of the meeting in the Orlando Sentinel. Greer’s response?
Greer promised that the party would stop ignoring black media. He said that mainstream newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel, Tampa Tribune and Tallahassee Democrat cover the party’s issues regardless of whether they advertise, but the party chairman nevertheless seemed willing to accept the quid-pro-quo arrangement.
“When I hear that when we advertise, the paper will be more likely to disseminate Republican issues, am I hearing right?” Greer asked. “I don’t understand the legitimacy of disseminating information and having a tie-in to revenue — but I get it.”
I noticed it 30 years ago, when I began teaching. In my history class, students seemed to have little interest in the cast of characters until photography came along. Pictures changed the way we looked at history. We were never as interested in George Washington as were in Abraham Lincoln. It was because of those portraits of Lincoln, where we could look into his haunted eyes.
You can’t hide from pictures. The horrific video of a young woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, bleeding out on a Tehran street not only makes the political upheaval in Iran more tangible, it also shows the power of new media. We don’t turn to television, toward any immaculately dressed network news anchor, to see these images. We click on YouTube and get handheld cell phone video from a helpless bystander.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 24, 2009, at 10:06 am
The News Media Guildi is protesting (and rightly) on behalf of its members at the AP because of new social media policies at the news organization that will now require reporters and editors to remove comments and other info on their Facebook pages that don’t meet AP standards.
“It is making some people cringe,” said Kevin Keane, News Media Guild administrator. “It is not appropriate for a company that heralds free speech.”
Keane also objected to another portion of the new rules that states: “Posting material about the AP’s internal operations is prohibited on employees’ personal pages.”
“You can’t tell people not to talk about anything internal to AP,” Keane said. “It is too broad. People have the right.”
Equally is its backwards policy on reporters using Twitter to communicate news. Here is both the Facebook and Twitter provisions from AP’s Q&A-format policy:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 22, 2009, at 10:54 am
Ah, the evolution of media. Murphy-Goode winery is looking for a blogging-tweetering “social media whiz” who is into wine to move into their vineyards home for six months and jump-start its viral marketing efforts.
CL’s own wine expert, Corkscrew author Taylor Eason, is an applicant, and here is her video:
Posted by David Warner on Jun. 19, 2009, at 4:24 pm
Republican pundit David Brooks’ article in today’s New York Times discusses the latest events in Iran, as turmoil from their recent fraudulent election has spilled into the streets of Tehran. In his comments, Brooks observes that “on the big issue, the administration has it exactly right.”
This agreement — which is far from the position voiced by most Republicans — gives added support to Peter Meinke’s “Dear David” letter in this week’s Poet’s Notebook. Meinke’s basic claim is that long-time, and famous, Republican Brooks is slowly morphing into a Democrat, and it’s time that he made the actual leap — not in a self-serving Senator Arlen Specter sort of way, but because Brooks’ views coincide more and more with Barack Obama’s.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 19, 2009, at 9:53 am
Our sister paper, the Chicago Reader, and its excellent media writer Michael Miner has a piece about the (ta-dah) future of journalism, but it makes some good points to ponder, including this one:
EveryBlock cofounder Daniel X. O’Neil, speaking on the panel “Why the News Still Matters,” went this tweet one better. “I think there’s just a lot of real unnecessary negativism about journalism,” he told the 170 or so people in attendance. “Frankly, I think it’s going to be great. I swear to God we’ll look back ten years from now and we’ll all be making an insane amount of money and we’re going to look at each other and we’re going to say, ‘Hey, you were there that day! Remember, we all thought we were screwed?’ No, we’re not. Everything’s great. It’s literally impossible for the answer to the question ‘What happened?’ not to be valuable.”
Wow, the rosiest assessment ever. I believe I am going to be making an “insane amount of money” in 10 years. Just not in journalism.
Claire Enders, the chief executive of Enders Analysis, told a Commons committee that newspapers would close across Britain because revenues would collapse by 52% – or £1.3bn – between 2007 and 2013.
“We are expecting up to half of all the 1,300 titles will close in the next five years,” Enders told the Commons culture, media and sport select committee hearing on the future of local and regional media.
By Catherine Durkin Robinson PoHo contributor, “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field
I grew up listening to Q105. That’s right, before I developed taste in music, I would tune in regularly to the WRBQ Morning Zoo, and Mason Dixon with his recorded laughter tracks. If you peered into my bedroom circa 1984, you’d certainly find me singing along with safe standards like The Fixx, Michael Jackson, and Cyndi Lauper.
Oh. The. Horror.
Eventually I discovered WMNF, mixed tapes, and the Cuban Club. I soon forgot all about Top 40 radio, its censored, dissected tunes that represented the lamest of corporate rock, and never looked back.
Q105 was dead to me.
Recently, though, I began listening again. The station now plays oldies from the 1960s and 1970s and occasionally such songs provide a history lesson from which my kids could learn to appreciate music.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 17, 2009, at 11:16 am
Twelve-year-olds throughout the world are in mourning today as the rumored corporate shrinkage of MySpace is coming true. About 480 workers will be hitting the bricks by the end of the day, according to its news release:
MYSPACE REDUCES STAFF BY NEARLY 30%
Return to Start-Up Culture a Focus for Company Moving Forward
LOS ANGELES—June 16, 2009—As part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business, MySpace announced today that it will reduce its staff by nearly 30%. This restructuring plan crosses all U.S. divisions of the company and lowers the total number of domestic staff at MySpace to 1,000 employees.
“Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,” said MySpace Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta. “I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product.”
“MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today’s marketplace,” said Jonathan Miller, News Corporation’s CEO of Digital Media and Chief Digital Officer. “I believe this restructuring will help MySpace operate much more effectively both structurally and financially moving forward. I am confident in MySpace’s next phase under the leadership of Owen and his team.”
Is Facebook far behind? Although we loooooove us some Facebook…
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 14, 2009, at 8:09 am
As the new models for journalism start to emerge, here is another piece of that puzzle, from The New York Times:
Four nonprofit groups devoted to investigative journalism will have their work distributed by The Associated Press, The A.P. will announce on Saturday, greatly expanding their potential audience and helping newspapers fill the gap left by their own shrinking resources.
Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which will be free to publish the material.
The A.P. called the arrangement a six-month experiment that could later be broadened to include other investigative nonprofits, and to serve its nonmember clients, which include broadcast and Internet outlets.
Confronted with a news story involving lesbian penguins at a German zoo, you would think that evil geniuses Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Miller could muster at least one decent lesbian joke.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 11, 2009, at 11:01 am
Ouch. This one goes into the “I-don’t-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry-or-both” file. Correspondent Jason Jones intones, “You guys are like a walking Colonial Williamsburg.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 10, 2009, at 8:38 am
Great article in our Washington City Paper sister pub last week by Andrew Beaujon about how the changes to adult-use ads at Craigslist could affect the alt-newspaper industry.
From the article:
Last year Craigslist, which lists 18 employees on its “about us” page, made somewhere between $20 and $80 million dollars. So why is its CEO, Jim Buckmaster, so p.o.’d about sex ads in alt-weeklies?
Because these bottom-feeding free publications are making an erotic comeback in the classifieds biz, with an assist from law enforcement.
Buckmaster has even taken to the blogosphere to air his frustrations with alt-weekly encroachment. In a recent post, he lists several titles of adult ads he found on backpage.com, a collection of classifieds sites owned by Village Voice Media (VVM). “Cum lay your hotdog on my bun for memorial day” (Dallas); “Let me put you to bed backdoor available $80? (Columbia, S.C.); “An Irish blowjob and a cum showering rainbow” (New York). He links to a screenshot of the last ad, which has photos of a woman performing fellatio.
“It’s worth noting that these ads’ TITLES ALONE contain more explicit content than you will find in all craigslist adult service ads combined,” he writes in the post.
It is an interesting subject given the historical use and reliance on adult-use advertising by publications such as Creative Loafing. It always pits free speech (free love?) advocates against those who have concerns about the objectification of women and the violence that can result.
In our new CLTampa.com, the hottest-growing section seems to be the often explicit Sex & Love articles, to the point where some readers (and CL staffers, in internal discussions and e-mails) have raised questions about the balance between news and erotica/porn/sex coverage. Our publisher and classified ad manager tell me, unlike in Washington, that our adult-use advertising hasn’t seen a bump upward since the change in Craigslist policy.
Mitch Perry PoHo contributor Mitch Perry is the anchor of the WMNF Evening News on 88.5 FM community radio
The shocking assassination of late-term abortion doctor George Tiller on May 31 has brought back the volatile issue of abortion on to the national landscape.
Of course, it’s never gone away. But the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor by President Obama to the Supreme Court — and her relatively scant record on abortion issues — has elicited analysis that, perhaps unlike every previous Supreme Court nomination over the past few decades, her nomination won’t be heavily focused by her thoughts on Roe v. Wade.
Pro-choice advocates were stunned when Gallup reported last month that for the first time since it began asking the question, a majority of Americans now call themselves pro-life vs. pro-choice (although a review of other similar polls taken over the past year continue to reflect a majority pro-choice America.)
If that wasn’t at least a soft blow to those reproductive rights advocates, Tiller’s death by the hands of 51-year-old Scott P. Roeder absolutely was.
And for a portion of the public, upon learning of Tiller’s death, thoughts immediately turned to Bill O’Reilly, who focused relentlessly on the controversial doctor’s status as one of just a handful of M.D.’s in the country who continued to perform late term abortions.
Some liberal commentators and bloggers immediately blamed the cable news analyst for inciting Roeder to commit murder. O’Reilly, predictably, pushed back, and used the opening moments of his show last week to argue that his foils, NBC News and company, were just as responsible for the murder of U.S. soldier William Long in Arkansas by a Muslim convert.
For many in the abortion rights movement, Tiller’s death brought back the dark days of the 1990’s, when doctors David Gunn, Bernard Slepian and John Britton were killed for their work as abortion providers.
Sarasota resident Sherry Svekis received a late-term abortion from Tiller in 1985. Not being a regular Fox News viewer, she was unaware of the very public campaign O’Reilly had wrought against Tiller over the years until his death.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 8, 2009, at 6:23 am
Big Oil’s offshore drilling scheme appears to be making a comeback. A start-up political group is looking to gather petition signatures and put the idea on the ballot, bypassing the politically sensitive Legislature.
Claiming that offshore drilling is the answer to the nation’s addiction to foreign oil, conservative activists are gearing up a constitutional drive to lift Florida’s 20-year-old ban.
Advertisement
Sponsors of the drive, FloridaOil.org, are exploring a unique approach to getting around what has long been considered the third rail of Florida politics, one so charged that a last-minute attempt in the Legislature this spring quickly died when Senate President Jeff Atwater, a Republican from North Palm Beach, put his foot down.
“Atwater proved that we can’t rely on the Legislature,” said the group’s chief organizer, Dan Baldauf of Bradenton. “Legislators actually prefer that we do it this way, because it helps them keep their hands clean.”
This sounds like it is more about folks who want to procure some spending cash from the oil and gas companies than a legit movement with any legs. The story notes that the group has raised just $2,000 so far but expects a lot more once it attracts the attention of the oil-producing companies.
Although carefully worded polls will show support for offshore drilling, this is a big loser at the ballot box.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 2, 2009, at 10:41 am
I never really talk about it much or pimp it to you, but indulge me for a sec: Our News & Politics section page is a great companion to this blog and has lots more headlines, video, Twitter feeds and podcasts than you will find here on any given day.
Here’s how it works:
NEWS HEADLINES: All the important news in Tampa Bay and Florida politics and public affairs that we don’t have time to expand upon with a separate story in PoHo ends up being aggregated into our News & Politics section, with links to the original articles. In other words, I find the news so you don’t have to. Just read the headline and blurb, or click on the link and read the whole thing. Plus, headlines from PoHo posts automatically feed into the News & Politics section, so if you miss checking on PoHo you won’t miss a blog post.
TWITTER FEED: If the word “Tampa” or the hashtag “#cltampa” is in a tweet, it will show up on our Twitter Feed panel. Sort of a cross between micronews and voyeurism.
PODCASTS: Our streaming podcast player for the Political Whore podcast is always on the News & Politics section front, so if you missed an episode and can’t find it in the blog archives you can get it easily.
USER COMMENTS: The most recent three comments on PoHo blog roll up here, no matter which post they were posted on.
CL TV: I scour the best political videos and news bites on YouTube and elsewhere and post them here, so that you can get lost in the joy of streaming video and screw off for another 2-3 hours at work. Wanna see Tom Tancredo call La Raza the Latino equivalent of the KKK? This is the place to do it.
CONTRIBUTORS: Click on each PoHo contributor’s picture to learn more about them and see their latest posts.
If you haven’t checked it out, give it a shot and let me know if you like, dislike or want me to add new features or types of news to it.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 1, 2009, at 6:39 am
So far, so good…
Today is the first day of the 2009 hurricane season but a new poll has found that very few people on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts are ready for a bad storm.
Mason-Dixon’s survey found, for instance, that two-thirds of the respondents didn’t have a hurricane survival kit at the ready. The shocking results?
Posted by David Warner on May. 31, 2009, at 8:18 am
Because Creative LoafingPolitical Editor Wayne Garcia would be far too modest to tell you himself, I’m reporting that this here blog, “The Political Whore,” won first place in the category of Blog-Affiliated last night in the Sunshine State Awards, the Florida-wide prizes given out by the Society of Professional Journalists/ South Florida. New Times Broward Palm Beach’s “The Juice” and the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel’s “Broward Politics” came in second and third, respectively.
And Wayne wasn’t alone in bringing back first-place honors for the Loaf. Food Editor Brian Ries won the top spot in Food/Beverage Writing for “Anywhere But Here,” his story on the lack of healthy food options for Florida families on public assistance. The Miami Herald and MIAMI Modern Luxury took second and third places.
Brian also took a third place in Criticism for his review of MJ’s tapas menu when it was under the direction of Domenica Macchia. And CL’s theater critic, Mark E. Leib, took second place in the same category for his review of the innovative American Stage production of Hamlet. The Naples Daily News‘ Harriet Howard Heithaus took the first-place spot.
Finally, the entire staff of Creative Loafing won kudos for our website, cltampa.com, placing third in the News Web Site category. I like the judges’ citation: This is not your typical news site. cltampa.com represents a new way of presenting news and information to its reader/user. Through a simple design, Creative Loafing offers a wide collection of headlines from just as many distinct sources. (Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers and the Orlando Sentinel took first and second in this category, respectively.)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 28, 2009, at 5:00 am
Here’s a tease to this week’s Straight Dope column in the print edition of CL:
With the dearth of good real estate on Earth, I’ve been considering alternatives. One obvious candidate is Mars. However, in its current orbit, it’s too nippy and the air is too thin to satisfy anyone except Sherpas. How much energy would it take to move Mars into Earth’s orbit? Would it work better if we moved Venus instead because of its similar size to Earth? Please answer quickly as I need to finalize my retirement plans.–James Borowiec
I have to tell you, I admire the balls behind this concept. We’ve already got one planet pretty much hosed. Why not go for two?
Read the rest of Straight Dope and don’t miss it in our weekly print edition, as well.
Posted by David Warner on May. 27, 2009, at 5:01 pm
A small but vocal group of protestors, both gay and straight, stood at the busy corner of 66th St. and 49th Ave. N. in Pinellas Tuesday night, armed with handmade signs and the passionate conviction that the California Supreme Court decision upholding the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage was a slap in the face to gays and lesbians everywhere. With storm clouds gathering above, they stood their ground and talked to CL.
Beth Fountain, a writer and former lawyer, questioned the dense language of the decision, in which the court essentially contradicted its position from a year before.
Like Fountain, musician Lisa Noe of the band Karmic Tattoo wondered why gay marriage could be “OK one minute, then it’s not OK the next.” And Rick Boylan, president of the Pinellas chapter of Stonewall Democrats and the secretary of the state Democratic party, pointed out that, even with the setback in California, the state is still years ahead of Florida in its recognition of gay rights: “We’re still dealing with issues that are left over from Anita Bryant days.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 27, 2009, at 1:19 pm
From our sister blog, News Bites, at the Chicago Reader, comes a good wrap-up of the story gripping that city and making onto the third or fourth story on the morning news shows: the smoking gun in the case of Senator Roland Burris and whether his appointment by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich is tainted:
The Sun-Times and Tribune both ran partial transcripts Wednesday of a conversation between Roland Burris and Robert Blagojevich last November 13 about the Senate seat president-elect Obama was vacating and Burris longed to be appointed to.
But the transcript in the Tribune ends at roughly the point where the Sun-Times’s transcript begins. As a result, the Tribune version of the conversation supports the idea that Burris did nothing improper — an impression reinforced by the headline to the page-one story accompanying the transcript: “Burris talks cash, Senate on recording / Senator: Wiretap backs his denials of pay to play.”
The Tribune transcript has Burris making it clear to the brother of the then-governor: “I’m very much interested in, in trying to replace Obama,” and then fretting about appearances. Burris says, “I’m a high-profile person….I’m trying to figure out how in the hell, and since you called me I will be honest with you….And I’m trying to figure out how to deal with this and still be in the consideration for the appointment….And, and if I do that I guarantee you that, that will get out and people said, ‘Oh, Burris is doing a fundraiser,’ and, and then Rod and I both gonna catch hell….And if I do get appointed that means I bought it.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 27, 2009, at 12:53 pm
Having just spent some time in the Florida Keys snorkeling a few reefs I have to say this is good news: a huge, decommissioned U.S. Navy vessel, the Hoyt S. Vandenberg, was sunk seven miles off the Key West shore to provide a new artificial reef.
After a decade of planning, it took less than two minutes Wednesday for the 522-foot USS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg to sink as the Keys’ newest artificial reef. It was under water by 10:23 a.m. — held up 23 minutes by a sea turtle that needed time to swim out of the way.
The ship now rests in 140 of feet of water at 24.27 north latitude, 81.44 west longitude.
The former U.S. Navy and Air Force vessel, which sat in the government’s mothball fleet in Virginia from 1983 until she was moved to Key West in April, was towed to the scuttling site from her berth at the East Quay Wall just before 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 27, 2009, at 10:11 am
More newsroom cuts at the Media General news outlets in Tampa have been announced from the News Center on Parker Street. From TBO.com:
The Florida Communications Group today laid off 25 full-time positions from its newsrooms at The Tampa Tribune, TBO.com and WFLA News Channel 8.
The reasoning is familiar to those following economics of the news industry: The continued downturn in advertising revenue across nearly all media outlets.
“This is unfortunately the same song in the sixth verse,” said Janet Coats, executive editor and vice president at FCG who oversees the combined newsroom. “Conditions have not changed in advertising.”
Two sources tell me the cuts include reporters Rich Shopes and Valerie Kalfrin and political editor Tom Arthur.
UPDATE: More of the journalists who were affected in the Comments section below.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 26, 2009, at 1:24 pm
Actually, that doesn’t sound like a bad name for a law firm, “Welcome to Niemann, Sullivan, Leto & Schweitzer, how may I direct your call?” But back to the job at hand: I have four new contributors to announce. I am excited about the knowledge and qualities they bring to PoHo, including some indepth writing on historic preservation (Leto) and the intersection of religion and public policy (Schweitzer).
Here are their bios, after the jump. I will have some more to announce by the end of this week:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 22, 2009, at 9:49 am
With a h/t to Tampa Bay political consultant Gregory Wilson, here’s a contrarian view on scoring yesterday’s pseudo-debate on terror, Gitmo and national security. I agree with Congressional Quarterly’s assessment of Barack Obama on conventional political terms. It is a truism: When you’re ’splaining, you’re losing. And I believe Obama made no headway with the crazy left who wants to shutter Guantanamo immediately and just cut loose the terrorists or bring them on down to circuit court for good ol’ U.S. justice system trials.
But Obama won the day, make no mistake about it. He was historic, clear in his ethics, determined in his purpose that we can win against terror without becoming terrorists ourselves. He may have lost in terms of short-term public opinion but he wins the longer war. And that is what CQ, in its traditional wisdom, fails to grasp.
Having said that, reading the full CQ article makes ya think…
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 22, 2009, at 6:27 am
With three Tampa Bay locations, BankUnited is not most ubiquitous of Tampa Bay thrifts, but today its customers have discovered that the failing bank was seized overnight.
The federal seizure of struggling Florida thrift BankUnited FSB is expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. $4.9 billion, representing the second-largest hit to the FDIC’s insurance fund since the financial crisis began felling banks last year.
The costliest was last year’s seizure of California lender IndyMac Bank, on which the bank insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion.
The Office of Thrift Supervision, a Treasury Department agency, said Thursday that BankUnited FSB reported $1.2 billion in losses last year as defaults on loans piled up. The thrift “was critically undercapitalized and in an unsafe condition to conduct business,” the agency said in a statement.
Coral Gables, Fla.-based BankUnited FSB is the 34th federally insured institution to be closed this year, and the biggest.
Posted by Jim Johnson on May. 22, 2009, at 6:04 am
With a hat tip to Peter Schorsch at his blog, it appears the St. Petersburg Times local politics blog Bay Buzz had a post late Wednesday, about St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Paul Congemi and an incident at a KFC restaurant. The post was subsequently pulled from the blog (and restored after further reporting on Thursday). But thanks to Google Reader (and Google is forever) the original can be shared here. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 20, 2009, at 1:00 pm
Tampa Bay’s leading freaky celeb Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, has asked the judge in case brought against him and his family (including fellow reality-semi-star wife Linda Bollea who is trying to divorce him) by the family of accident victim John Graziano to ban us stinkin’ news media types from sitting in on the wonderfully delicious depositions in the case.
The motion, filed last week in civil court, claims that allowing news media or the public into the proceedings could damage the family’s right to a fair trial and create “annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense.”
Terry Bollea, who wrestled under the name Hulk Hogan, and his family are facing a multimillion dollar civil suit from the August 2007 car crash that severely injured Graziano, a family friend. Graziano was a passenger in a sports car driven by Terry and Linda Bollea’s son, Nick Bollea.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on May. 20, 2009, at 12:26 pm
Here’s the latest tweak of our enormously popular governor, from his friends across the aisle in the Florida Democratic Party. It’s the first online ad with the “Cut and Run Crist” theme that the party has been drum-beating since Crist announced his Senatorial bid last week.
By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.
One of those deep belly laughs that last for five minutes. My tongue hangs out. I grab my sides. The works. I could just picture the yearbook advisor catching shit. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Oh yes. Another grand example of a Tampa teacher’s piss-poor judgment.
Funny stuff.
Suddenly, I stopped laughing.
A 16-year-old had posed for a club picture without underwear and her hoo-ha was on display for the world to see. That’s what I’d been told. Who in their right mind would greenlight such a spread? Why would someone in the district support distributing the yearbook and suggest the Sickles junior “laugh it off?”
A few years ago, someone spotted a kid with the word “Fuck” on his shirt in a Sickles yearbook. Administrators went apeshit and demanded final say over all future yearbook editions.
Well, I thought, this changes things. What was going on at my old school?
One of those deep belly laughs that last for five minutes. My tongue hangs out. I grab my sides. The works. I could just picture the yearbook advisor catching shit. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Oh yes. Another grand example of a Tampa teacher’s piss-poor judgment.
