Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 20, 2009, at 3:51 pm
Bill Foster wasted no time in getting the Times recommendation on his website
The drumbeat that the St. Petersburg Times was considering an endorsement (errr, recommendation, as the Times will always let a candidate know its preferred term) of Bill Foster. On its surface, it seems ludicrous. After all, Foster is the same guy who wrote to the school board a few years back making a strong pitch against teaching Darwinian evolution alone in public schools, hoping it would mix in a bit of “intelligent design.”
But the lack of an emerging alternative to Foster left the Times in the inexplicable position of endorsing an anti-gay rights, anti-evolution mayor of St. Petersburg. More to the point, however, the editorial board chooses a candidate based on who will play ball with it. Which candidate will kiss the ring over on 1st Avenue S? That’s what gets you the recommendation. Disagree with the Times on a core concern at the paper — say, firing Police Chief Chuck Harmon, as Scott Wagman as vowed to do — and you are at a disadvantage, to say the least.
It is OK to disagree with the Times on social conservative issues, as long as you play your cards right, promise not to let those views play out in public policy at City Hall and generally keep your wingy-ness in the closet. After all, the Times’ former editorial chief, Phil Gailey, was totally tight with Rick Baker, who was also a social conservative who refused to recognize gay pride parades or appear in them.
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner proved once again Wednesday morning why he is the voter’s cure for ex-Commissioner Brian Blair. Beckner pulled item A-27 from the Consent Agenda (you know the place where they vote on fortunes to be doled out without even discussion). A-27 had buried in it an award to HDR. Yes, that same HDR, responsible for the controversial Lithia Pinecrest PD and E study, and the same HDR being sued for by Tampa Bay Water for its design on the cracking reservoir.
That item on the consent agenda even got past me but not Beckner. He pulled the item for discussion and said he would not support giving taxpayer money to them in light of the reservoir concerns until they had redeemed themselves. He got some arguments from Commissioner Jim Norman and even a county attorney, but Beckner stood strong. While he couldn’t get the support to completely blackball the company, he did get everyone’s support to send the item back to staff for further review.
Last week during budget talks, he presented fellow board members with an idea to save the Victim’s Assistance Program and the Consumer Protection Agency which were both on the budget chopping block. Beckner asked why should the cost for these programs be borne by law abiding citizens? He suggested that the officials charge criminals more for booking in order to support the Victim’s Assistance program and the Consumer Protection Agency. After all, it is the criminals supplying the need for these programs so shouldn’t they be funding them? Ultimately the sheriff has to approve these increases in booking fees that Beckner suggested. Beckner told the board “Crime doesn’t pay but I believe in Hillsborough County criminals will.”
I am just afraid that this guy is way too good to stay very long in Hillsborough’s little backyard game of politics. Might as well enjoy him while we can.
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
Wednesday’s proceedings were like riding a roller coaster. Here’s the highlights:
• Alyssa Ogden’s mother cries as she tells about learning of the sexual harassment.
• White’s father badmouths the alibi-busters who didn’t corroborate White’s story.
• Alyssa’s sister tells about how White lusted after her, also.
• Whites lawyers file a motion to throw the case out of court.
• White goes back on the stand, and his testimony causes a firestorm of protest from Alyssa’s attorney, as well as the judge.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 19, 2009, at 3:35 pm
Join me and other CL writers tonight starting just before 7 pm here as we live blog the Bay News 9/St. Petersburg Times mayoral forum from the Palladium Theater in downtown. i love the title: “Conversation with the Candidates.” I seriously doubt it will be anything that approximates a real conversation.
Watch along on Bay News 9 and throw in your comments, as well. It runs from 7-8:30 pm.
We’ll be providing live fact-checks, analysis and satirical snide comments in the comment section below.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 19, 2009, at 3:16 pm
It was a horrible choice in the first place, and the idea that Shelton Quarles was going to be the happy face of a regional tax referendum to pay for rail transit was pretty ludicrous. So today we hear that Quarles, the former Tampa Bay Bucs linebacker, will step stepped down. Bay Buzz reports:
Shelton Quarles, the former Bucs linebacker turned transportation authority chairman, is resigning from the board, vice chairman Frank Hibbard said today.
“I was just told yesterday that Shelton had resigned,” Hibbard said, saying the resignation was effective immediately and he would begin overseeing the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority board.
Read my story “Tackling Transit,” on Quarles when he was first appointed and the controversy about his selection.
And read Quarles PR statement released late today after the news already broke. Good job getting out in front of it, TBARTA:
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
The second day of Commissioner Kevin White’s sexual harassment trial covered a lot of ground.
Two very important things happened today. White himself testified. In addition, the video depositions of his uncle, Andre Moses White, and his longtime family friend C. Blythe Andrews were entered into evidence and viewed by the jury.
The bottom line on White’s testimony: His testimony was far from plausible.
The bottom line on the Andre White and Blythe Andrews testimony: They blew away White’s alibi. Read the rest of this entry »
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Construction might be down but Commissioner Kevin White (D-Shovel-Ready) just keeps digging. He is currently in the middle of a trial for a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former aide. This article not only describes White’s history but indicates that taxpayers are on the hook for $100,000 of his in legal fees so far, and the article says that was approved by our current commissioners this past June……..WTF? His trial began Aug. 17 and the jury was picked Monday.
After this year’s budget brawl is over you will probably pay more for parks, dog tags, and other services and now you can add this costly lawsuit to the tab. That’s because the county has been named a defendant in the lawsuit, as well, so it is spending tax dollars for legal defense of its own interests, outside of White’s personal legal tab. Read the rest of this entry »
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
(This is installment one, which coincides with day one of the trial. I plan to provide day-to-day coverage of this trial in installments until the day that it goes into the hands of the jurors for deliberation, which is expected to be Friday.)
The civil trial in Ogden v. White began Monday in US District Court-Middle Trial District of Florida-Tampa Division. Judge Richard Lazarra is presiding. Alyssa Ogden is accusing Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White of firing her for not agreeing to have a “relationship” with him, thereby creating what she is calling sexual harassment.
White has two lawyers representing him and Hillsborough County has two lawyers representing the county’s interest in defending the case.
Alyssa Ogden, had one lawyer, Ronald Fraley, presenting her case.
The courtroom was large but with a small viewing gallery. The viewing gallery was filled with members of the press on one side and what appeared to be supporters/family of White on the other side, including White’s wife, Jenny.
It took the morning to pick the jurors. Six women and two men are on this jury. It might be that the preponderance of women may give the plaintiff the edge as far as favorable jurors go.
In the afternoon the case began. In his opening statement, Alyssa’s attorney told the jury that his client was so distraught over what happened that she was traumatized and had to seek help from a psychologist to cope with it. The cost of therapy so far is $15,300. The anticipated damages being sought so far is $100,000. He said he would prove that she was hired for one reason — that the commissioner had more interest in her than her ability to answer phones and maintain a schedule.
White’s primary attorney, Steven Wenzel, began his opening statement with the words, “It didn’t happen.” He said he was going to prove that Ogden couldn’t do the job and after she got fired decided to make a sexual harassment case out of it. According to Mr. Wenzel the motivation for this case was money. In an attempt to question her credibility, he says that she had the opportunity but never told County Administrator Bean or County Attorney Renee Lee or Commissioner Rose Ferlita (all strong women that might be supportive of a harassed female employee) of her ordeal.
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Regional parks came up during budget talks last week at the Hillsborough County Commission. County Administrator Pat Bean’s budget proposal would close them down two days a week, much to the dismay of well, almost everybody showing up at the last budget public hearing. Looks like they will now remain open seven days a week after all. Several commissioners voiced their concerns and wanted parks to be kept open! Nimby translation: Get this angry mob of voters off our backs already and give them their damned parks!
There will be a new fee, which sounds like most likely to be $2 a car. It isn’t official yet, but commissioners voted unanimously to proceed with the idea that Mark Thornton, parks director, came up with for them. I wouldn’t ordinarily complain about $2 except I know what they are spending in other areas and things like the Sports Authority funding appears completely intact.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 12, 2009, at 4:08 pm
Todd Persico, the owner of Hop Tampa, was bemoaning Wednesday as a “very bad day” after the Hillsborough Public Transportation Commission voted narrowly to (in effect) put free electric vehicle taxi services out of business.
“They determined that we were for-hire vehicles, and without permits, we’re out of business,” Persico said late this afternoon. That puts seven drivers out of work, three $18,000 vehicles in the garage and Persico scrambling to keep his business alive after a year and a half of operations.
It is a classic Catch-22; electric vehicles operators downtown say they were told they didn’t need permits because they didn’t charge for their rides (they make their money on advertising on the vehicles and the drivers get tips), and since the PTC tightly controls taxi permits, they likely wouldn’t be able to get them anyway. But even though they are free and mostly provide rides that the for-pay taxis won’t/don’t give (short hops that aren’t profitable), the PTC put them out of business after cabbies complained.
So much for energy-efficiency and reducing our carbon footprints.
For a restaurateur such as Ferrell Bonnemort of Cafe Dufrain on Harbour Island, the electric vehicles were a godsend; advertising on them brought new customers, and they showed up to give patrons rides home when regular cabs took forever to respond.
“Before these kinds of vehicles came about, our guests would have to wait 45 mintues for a cab,” she said.
Update: Late Wednesday afternoon (4:37pm to be exact) the applicant pulled CPA 09-13 and CPA 09-14 from consideration in front of the Board of County Commissioners. The letter states in part “Please be advised that we intend to re-file these applications although we will make every effort to address issues raised in the process to further resolve many misconceptions regarding the project.” Nimby translation: Crap, we just didn’t have the votes so we will try again later. Don’t go to the hearing Thursday as it will not be heard.
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
He must have thought so, according to his letter. He openly advocated for a “multi-modal” center (nimby translation: big ass WAREHOUSE) out in the far corner of the county, where we purposely do not have urban services such as water and sewer and where the land use designation does not allow for this sort of thing. If Democrats are good for anything, isn’t it usually being anti-sprawl and pro-gay rights? Rouson appears to be neither, but then I found he used to be a Republican. Also interesting is the very tiny portion of Hillsborough that Rouson represents……………looks to me to be mainly underwater. How would this project help the fish in your district, Representative Rouson?
The California developers initially claimed that Port of Tampa needed this facility but then the Port said thanks but no thanks. Now, with a shitty economy proponents are claiming the project will bring jobs to the area. That is great but we can’t afford to breach the rural area with more sprawl so I respectfully suggest they find an appropriate site for this warehouse inside the Urban Service Area. The Ruskin Chamber of Commerce is pushing this project very heavily. Recall: your tax dollars help support the Chamber. Read the rest of this entry »
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
The Hillsborough budget saga continues. County Administrator Pat Bean has submitted a proposed budget and now the county commissioners are reviewing it in detail via a series of budget workshops.
Even though some commissioners are continuing to dig and review the budget, we still have the same nagging problem – there is a huge imbalance between cuts in basic services and large donations to non-profit organizations. While we’re closing parks and libraries, we’re still lavishly funding organizations like the Sports Authority, the Sports Commission and Hillsborough’s many chambers of commerce.
Fear not, though. Commissioner Jim Norman, known in some circles as the Johnny Appleseed of Money Trees, has come up with a creative twist on how to solve the budget cut dilemma. In an editorial by the Tribune dated Aug. 6, it was reported that, during one of the budget workshop meetings, Commissioner Appleseed suggested that the county should seek donations from citizens. He thought that they should put a donation check box on Tampa Bay Water’s bills so that citizens could donate up to $5 toward keeping the parks and libraries open.
It’s easy to understand Appleseed’s motivations for putting forth this idea. The Sports Authority provides Norman with a luxury suite at Raymond James Stadium to watch football games in (St.Pete Times, Sept 20, 2008). He’s helped them stay well funded all these years so they want to reciprocate by affording him with, shall we say, the type of comfort that only connected politicians can appreciate. If he cuts their funding, will he continue to watch games from inside that gorgeous enclosed luxury suite with a private kitchen or, instead, will he be reduced to sitting on a bar stool at Beef O’Brady’s looking at a flat panel TV? It’s easy to see why the Money Tree man doesn’t want to kill the money tree.
But are citizens willing to donate more money to keep basic services alive, while their tax dollars are going toward funding organizations that give luxury boxes to politicians, and while those same citizens still have to pay a dear price to sit in the bleachers? I think Johnny Appleseed still has a problem.
So I put on my thinking cap and, EUREKA!!! I’ve taken the Money Tree man’s idea and improved it!!!
Let’s do this – let’s significantly reduce the funding for the Sports Authority and the Sports Commission in the budget, keep the parks and libraries open, and allow citizens to donate up to $5 to the Sports Authority/Sports Commission via their water bills.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 9, 2009, at 11:21 am
This week’s column from the print edition of Creative Loafing:
About 500-600 people are voting for a new mayor of St. Petersburg every day now, part of what has become a vote-by-mail system of absentee voting in Florida. Nearly 60,000 city residents have requested an absentee ballot, almost 40 percent of the registered voters.
That’s a big number. So why do I hear so many complaints about the 2009 race to succeed Mayor Rick Baker being a real snoozer? Polling earlier in the month showed that 61 percent of the voters didn’t have a preference among the 10 candidates running. And although nearly 7,000 people had voted by the end of last week, there is very little visible to any of the campaigns, beyond the ubiquitous yard signs. It’s impossible to time the peak of your political campaign when Election Day lasts 45 days, and no candidate has enough money to run a full-bore mass media campaign for that long.
Take the latest mayoral forum, held by St. Pete Preservation last week in front of about 100 good folks at Studio@620. I popped in to shoot a few photos and perhaps hear their stump speeches, but after almost an hour the crowd had heard only from preservationists, who got five minutes apiece to school nine candidates on why historic preservation is important. Even the hometown St. Petersburg Times didn’t staff the preservation forum. When the candidates did begin to talk, there wasn’t much separation.
How can something be anticlimactic before it’s even over?
Here are the reasons why this year’s city election is having a hard time connecting with voters:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 7, 2009, at 6:35 am
The summer recess of Congress has sent politicians back home into their districts and straight into the guerilla theater that has overcome reasonable discussion about how to reform the nation’s broken health care system.
Witness: Hundreds of angry conservatives and anti-Obamacare people (a few violent) turned up at a town hall organized by state Rep. Betty Reed in Ybor City last night with one mission in mind — some with one mission in mind: disrupt the forum and get headlines.
They succeeded.
Driven by right-wing media nutz such as Rush Limbaugh (who mentioned Kathy Castor’ appearance at the forum during his Thursday radio show, bemoaning that she would be surrounded by “union goons”), the state and local GOP and Glenn Beck’s 9-12 movement, the anti-Obama crowd banged on windows and doors in an attempt to get into the overcrowded Children’s Board meeting room.
Scott Farrell of The Farrell Files on 10 Connects and Joe Bardi of Creative Loafing’s Film & TV section were on board again this morning to tape the weekly HoCast, in which we examined the week’s top political stories, made sense out of them and played funny-sounding audio clips.
Here was our tentative show rundown as written before taping; we added the Tampa health care reform “near riot” to the top of the issues list and had some audio from the unpleasantness:
1. BIll Clinton (and Al Gore??) set free the journo-hostages from North Korea. The price? An unsmiling photo-op with an equally unsmiling and flaccid Kim Jong-Il plus some “face” for the North Koreans. Worth it or not? What happens next time a nation takes poeple hostage and we don’t send Slick Willy or a different ex-president to rescue them? Can you imagine the hilarity that would have ensued if we’d sent former President George W. Bush?!? And how long will Hillary stand for Bill upstaging her?
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 6, 2009, at 9:11 am
St. Pete voters and other political junkies: It just got a lot easier to track all of our CL and PoHo coverage of the St. Petersburg mayoral race with our new widget. Just click on a candidate’s mug to get a listing of stories and podcasts about them. The St. Petersburg Mayor’s Race widget also lives full-time on our News & Politics section front.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 5, 2009, at 3:41 pm
I’ve spent some time interviewing the seven major candidates for St. Petersburg mayor, in the Sept. 1 primary election. You can still listen to podcasts of some of those interviews.
There are three other candidates whose campaigns do not appear to be on the same competitive plane as the other seven, but I wanted to give you some information about two of them so if you are a St. Petersburg voter you can be fully informed. The third minor candidate, Paul Congemi, does not appear to have a website or a serious platform to speak of.
Ed Helm is making his second attempt at the mayor’s office. He describes himself as a progressive candidate, and his website is at edhelm.com.
Richard Eldridge is a political newcomer. The 47-year-old says his military experience prepares him for service as St. Pete’s next mayor: “Having served honorably in the United States Marine Corps, I know how to lead, take risks, and make tough decisions. Some of the duties that I have had were Reconnaissance Marine, Marksmanship Instructor, Mortar Section Leader, and Physical Training Instructor.” His campaign website is at eldridge2009.com.
As towns, cities and municipalities scramble to cut budgets, St. Petersburg continues to spend unnecessarily. For example, former Police Chief Goliath Davis makes more than $152,000 per year (just a few years ago the post paid $118,000) in his position as “Deputy Mayor of Midtown Economic Development” and continues to drive a car provided for by the city just as he did when he served as police chief.
This arrangement is troubling for several reasons. Why is Davis the only deputy mayor (there are four … and since we’re on the subject, WHY does the city require four deputy mayors?) provided a vehicle paid for by the city, and why are his auto expenses (gas, across the state and out of state expenses and more) funneled and invoiced through the police department and paid for by funds earmarked for undercover police work? Especially since First Deputy Mayor Tish Elston is on record saying Davis’ use of the vehicle has nothing to do with police functions.
Davis is the city’s top liaison to the African-American community, but his tenure has been marked by a very quiet dissent from some civic leaders who question his role and effectiveness. One mayoral candidate, Scott Wagman, has even said he likely wouldn’t keep Davis in his job, calling it a luxury the city likely can’t afford.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Aug. 4, 2009, at 1:45 pm
Angela Rouson stepped into the Creative Loafing recording studio this week to discuss her campaign for St. Petersburg City Council in District 5, against fellow newcomers Steve Kornell and retired police officer Joe Smith. Yes, she’s the wife of powerhouse (and controversial) African American politician Darryl Rouson; but she came off as her own person — bright, articulate, well-informed and passionate — in her recent Suncoast Tiger Bay Club event, and she likewise was engaging in this interview.
I asked her if she felt that St. Pete cops were being “reined in” and not fighting crime to the fullest of their ability, and she said:
I’ve talked with the sheriff, Sheriff Coats, I’ve talked with Chief Harmon (and done ride-alongs with both agencies), and the general consensus is there is some of that. And there is also a lack of resources to be able to address issues, because if you are going to take down, for example, a drug house, you need more than one officer on the beat. I think they are being held back to some extent, but I think resources play into that as well.
Is there a racial political component to the police being held back?
I can’t really answer that question. But what I can say is there is no rational reason for not addressing the crime. …As a member of City Council I’m going to work to make sure that the mayor works with the chief of police to be more aggressive in addressing the issues.
I also asked her — given her husband’s controversial anti-gay statement that being gay was “morally wrong” (he later apologized for saying it) — if she would participate in St. Pete Pride and about her stance on domestic partner benefits. Hear her answers after the jump in the full podcast:
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
As we fight to keep public parks open, the Tampa Sports Authority uses your tax dollars to hire a new executive director at $170,000 a year plus a $2,000 a month housing allowance for up to five months. Looks like you are also footing a $12,500 bill for his moving expenses. Meanwhile, County Administrator Pat Bean is recommending to the Hillsborough County Commission to cut hundreds of jobs and basic services.
Commissioner Jim Norman, who sits on that board, voted to approve the director but not the housing allowance. He is quoted in this article as saying “the people who are paying this today, which are the taxpayers will be outraged.” Um, Mr. Norman I bet if taxpayers knew how much of their money goes to the Sports Authority in general they would be outraged that it even exists.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 31, 2009, at 10:41 am
The late Ralph Hughes, shown with state Sen. Ronda Storms in 2006 at a Plant City Republican event.
The Tampa Tribuneis reporting that a new court filing by the Internal Revenue Service has more than quadrupled the amount of money it says it is owed by the estate of the late Ralph Hughes, a powerful anti-tax power broker in Hillsborough County.
From the Trib story:
Before he died last year, conservative powerbroker Ralph Hughes fraudulently took millions of dollars of his companies’ assets, leaving the businesses insolvent and owing nearly $300 million to the IRS, the federal government says in a new court filing.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 29, 2009, at 7:14 am
Brian Blair: the political action figure, fighting for the rights of parents everywhere
You knew this was coming: Brian Blair has started his comeback bid after being cleared of child-abuse charges in a fight with his sons, even as he also fights elections law charges in connection with checks he accepted during his failed 2008 campaign.
Blair, in an exclusive sit-down with News Channel 8 set to air tonight at 11, said:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 28, 2009, at 2:16 pm
The state of Florida’s searchable campaign database
The St. Petersburg Times tried to do its job; it asked each and every St. Petersburg mayoral candidate if they would supply their campaign finance information (their contributions and expenditures) so the newspaper could create a searchable database for voters to use, just like candidates for national, county or state office do. But not the city, which puts up only .pdf’s of the reports, which cannot be searched for names that contribute to different campaigns or to do other important analyses of who is funding whom.
If you’ll recall, that is one of my six ideas to fix Tampa Bay politics on a recent cover of Creative Loafing.
With one exception, however, the Times‘ request fell on deaf or uncaring or incapable ears. From A-Sharock today:
We’ve been told by computer experts that providing this data would take as little as 15 minutes of work.
The response from candidates: Silence.
Only Scott Wagman’s campaign attempted to comply with our request. Candidate Bill Foster said he didn’t think it was technically possible and candidate Larry Williams declined. The other candidates didn’t even respond to our request.
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
In April 2009, former Hillsborough Commissioner Brian Blair opted to go for a full hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) to settle the charge of accepting illegal campaign contributions from Hillsborough Planning Commissioner Hung Mai and another political supporter. In February 2009, the Florida Elections Commission found “Probable Cause” that Blair intentionally violated campaign laws.
The final hearing was set for Wednesday in Tallahassee before ALJ Jeffrey B Clark. But a source there tells me that a one-time 30-day delay may be granted in the case. [UPDATE: On Wednesday we learned that is exactly what happened. The judge in Blair’s case just issued a ruling on the motion filed to send the case back to the elections commission. He denied the motion and set the new court date for Sept. 9. And get this, the trial is being moved to Tampa!!!]
Our FLA senator, Mel Martinez, center, chums it up at with Tampa Chamber visitors recently.
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
Since we’ve got such a budget crunch looming that we have to close public facilities and lay off Hillsborough County workers, I wonder if Hillsborough’s economic development “donations” to the many chambers of commerce ended up paying for the Tampa Chamber’s trip to Washington, D.C.? And if so, how much did it cost to send this delegation to the capital to discuss legislative business impacts on our dime?
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 24, 2009, at 12:36 pm
Yesterday, former 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Thomas E. Stringer Sr. pleaded guilty to one count of mortgage fraud in connection with a home he purchased in Hawaii with New York stripper Christy Yamanaka. PoHo has been abe to obtain surveillance audio from that real estate closing, and we warn, it is Not Suitable For Work (and entirely satirical):
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 24, 2009, at 6:38 am
From St. Pete’s best known anti-tax neurosurgeon, Dr. David McKalip, comes this e-mail apology this morning for the Barack Obama-as-Witch Doctor e-mail I chronicled late yesterday afternoon:
I have had a very hard day. When you stand up and fight effectively for freedom and to protect the rights of patients from control by the government and insurance companies – you develop powerful enemies. They have used the opportunity of a lapse in judgment to try to discredit me since they can’t discredit my arguments. I am proud of my accomplishments in this fight. I am more proud of the hundreds of thousands of Americans I have come to know who feel as I do and are willing to stand up for freedom. The next few days will be difficult, and I ask for your support.
DR. DAVID MCKALIP SENDS APOLOGY DIRECTLY TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 3:27 pm
FRIDAY AM UPDATE:He’s apologized. And he then resigned as president-elect of the Pinellas Medical Association.
Talking Points Memo is breaking the story that well known local brain surgeon and anti-tax crusader David McKalip forwarded this photoshopped illustration of President Barack Obama to a Tea Party e-mail group:
TPMuckraker calls it the latest example of online anti-Obama racism on behalf of conservatives. And McKalip told TPMuckraker:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 23, 2009, at 10:29 am
UPDATE: It was Judge Stringer! Feds announced the charges today. Our condolences to all the Buddy haters out there.
The St. Petersburg Times blows up the buzz in downtown Tampa today with the revelation that a federal public corruption case is just about to pop.
From the story:
During a public interview Wednesday for his office’s top job, a high-ranking federal prosecutor from Tampa said he is close to charging a public official with public corruption.
The person has agreed to plead guilty, said Robert O’Neill, chief of the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa.
He did not name the public official. He noted that the case resulted from allegations he learned about in the newspaper.
Find out the leading suspects and take our poll about who you think it is, after the jump:
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
In a Hillsborough County Commission meeting last week, Commissioner Rose Ferlita brought up those clandestine raises issued by County Administrator Pat Bean. When Ferlita holds up a mountain of paperwork indicating that she has done her research that usually isn’t good news for whoever might be on the other side of that paperwork. Ferlita didn’t think that Bean had fully informed the Commission prior to giving those raises, and because proper procedure had not been followed, the board’s decision to approve those appointments back in November could be null and void. During the discussion, Ferlita cited agenda documents and ordinances (article 6 section 1) and she even brought up a similar situation from way back in 2005, before she was even on the board.
Other commissioners echoed similar complaints about not having the full information, and this is not the first time they have hammered Bean about this raises. Commissioner Kevin Beckner brought it up several weeks ago. But Bean held firm during Wednesday’s meeting stating she felt “we” had done everything “we” were supposed to (is there a Co-County Administrator that “we” don’t know about or does “we” just mean herself and Commissioner Jim Norman?) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jul. 22, 2009, at 4:42 pm
Bill Foster, the St. Pete mayoral candidate with the strongest “get-tough-on-crime” stance, has picked up his second police office union endorsement. The Fraternal Order of Police Pinellas Lodge 43 joins an earlier nod from the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association.
In a statement, Foster said:
“Knowing full well that public safety is the number one issue of my fellow citizens, I am honored to have the support of our brave men and women in local law enforcement. These are the same people that we entrust our safety to, and I am grateful that they recognize my qualities and vision as the most sensible and effective candidate to reduce crime in our city.”
That makes a clean sweep of rank-and-file cops for Foster. As for the rest of the candidates, Deveron Gibbons recently was pictured with some top SPPD brass who are supporting him. Despite his sketchy driving record.
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Remember when the whole idea behind the Cone Ranch possible sale was because Commissioner Ken “Half-Truth” Hagan wanted to “preserve it” after being asked by big-time Republican donors to subdivide and sell off Cone Ranch [more than 12,000 acres of publicly owned land in Northeast Hillsborough County]?
The county now has an advisory board pondering this deal. You can read my take on their first meeting here. This second meeting started with County Administrator Pat Bean addressing the panel lobbing threats about the state of the county water utility which owns the land. Wasn’t this panel supposed to be objective? Yet here we have the County Administrator throwing in her 2 cents. She did admit that the land was already preserved though, glad we got that cleared up. Recall the earlier threats that the Florida Environmental and Conservation Group (FCEG) (the group pushing the sale) made implying that the alternative could be commercial or residential development. Read the rest of this entry »
