Friday, August 31, 2007

Jailed In New Orleans Without Charge

Roderick Dean, a former corrections officer, recounts his harrowing ordeal two years ago when he was arrested and jailed without charge on August 11, 2005 - two weeks before Hurricane Katrina. When the storm hit, Dean was in New Orleans Parish Prison where he narrowly escaped drowning after the jail flooded. He was never charged and released four months later......more

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Hands Across the Border

Georgia, Florida, and Alabama
It's the 16th year of the Hands Across the Border highway safety awareness campaign. State troopers, police officers, and sheriff's deputies from Georgia, Florida, and Alabama work together to set up road checks.......here
Officers, deputies and troopers already conducted a sobriety checkpoint at the Georgia-Florida line on U.S. 319 Tuesday night, issuing around a hundred citations and even making some DUI arrests.
In The Name Of His Father
Wellstone Democrat
The Wellstone legacy has become so intertwined with progressive politics, its origin is all but forgotten. The "Democratic wing of the Democratic party" has been kicked around by Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, small-town Iowa state Rep. Ed Fallon and other Democrats nationwide. Paul Wellstone's name and some actions are being used to channel the inner liberal of the country's most prominent Democrats.......more

Portable Surveillance

In Brandon

Photographing 'Nowhere People'

Florida
Nationwide Is Not On Your Side
Nationwide Insurance said Tuesday it will reduce its catastrophe exposure in Florida by dropping more than 40,000 homeowner and commercial property policies.......more
Bush Photo Opp
At Dooky Chase's
Bush said Tuesday he wanted to celebrate the spirit of New Orleans. He chose to do so with Leah Chase, considered this proud, still-struggling city's Queen of Creole, known as much for her famous cooking as her warm personality........more
Katrina's anniversary must be approaching.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Florida Beaches
Sun, Sea, And Some Crushed Glass
Officials in Florida have come up with the sharp idea of using recycled glass to replenish denuded beaches. The glass grains would be mixed with sand and sprinkled on the shore. But you won’t get splinters in your flip-flops: sand and glass are both made from silica.....more
Howard Dean
"It's about time that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned, From illegally firing US Attorneys to limiting voting rights to warrantless wiretapping, Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department has promoted a culture of lawlessness designed to serve the Bush White House's narrow political agenda, not the American people. Gonzales now joins a long list of Republican officials resigning under a cloud of scandal, but these resignations cannot purge the Bush Administration of its problems. The true problem rests with the Bush White House itself, which continues to put what's best for the Republican Party ahead of what's best for America."

Friday, August 24, 2007

Kennedy Blvd. Over I275
Another Tampa Bay Structurally Deficient Bridge
What Stogie Had For Lunch
Beef Stew
Red Beans And Rice And Plantains
$5.99 At.......Rosa's Market 4209 W. Martin Luther King Blvd Tampa
FEMA Leaving Florida For... Alaska?
Right in the middle of hurricane season, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is shutting its doors and moving out of Florida - the state ranked third nationally for the number of natural disasters. Where are they headed? Alaska. Yes, you read that correctly, Alaska - which ranks 28th on the natural disaster list........here
Howard Dean
Draws Battle Line
Howard Dean set out to draw clear distinctions between his party and Republicans at the 2008 Democratic National Convention year-out kick-off party Wednesday in Denver, heaping criticism on the GOP ethics scandals of 2006 and President Bush's handling of the Iraq war.....here
"(Democrats) are out of touch with voters in the West and they are out of touch with voters in the rest of the country," Lindsay said, adding that voters supported Bush's tax cuts and his efforts to "secure the homeland."....... Republican National Committee spokesman Paul Lindsay

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Under Surveillance
At The Hard Rock
The St. Joe Co.
Targets Florida's Panhandle
Florida's panhandle is sometimes called "the Forgotten Coast." It's an area of sandy beaches, pine forests, wetlands and meandering rivers. It's one of the most diverse ecosystems in North America and Florida's last untapped region. But that's beginning to change.......here

Local Bumpers 8

Liberals Read
Conservatives Want Slogans
Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry's trade group says she knows why - and there's little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation. "The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes,'" Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. "It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page.".......here
Porn And Pancakes
In Ft. Myers
An ad for a Florida church's outreach program is raising some eyebrows. In Fort Myers, the billboard is advertising porn and pancakes. A local church says it's an ad for a men's breakfast aimed at reaching out to those who are addicted to porn.....here

Monday, August 20, 2007

Welcome to North Korea

Obama Calls For Easing Cuba Embargo

Obama's campaign said Monday that, if elected, the Illinois senator would lift restrictions imposed by the Bush administration and allow Cuban-Americans to visit their relatives more frequently, as well as ease limits on the amount of money they can send to their families......here

Brian Blair And Ken Hagan
Facing Re-Election In 2008
With three commissioners up for re-election next year, activists and some political watchers say the wetlands issue - and the hundreds of people who turned out in protest - could influence those races.......here
Drug Addicts Flocking To Florida
While more than 30 other states have taken steps to monitor the legal sale of heavy-duty painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin, Florida has stalled -- and that has black market dealers and addicts flocking to the state.......here

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Florida's Representative Allen
Opens Mouth, Inserts Foot
Florida state representative Bob Allen, stripped of his committee assignments this week by a house speaker seeking his resignation over a gay sex scandal, made more enemies with an apparent slur against Florida's Latino leadership........here
"The fact that he's comparing the consequences of the allegations of his sexual misconduct to the plight of dissidents trapped in Castro's gulag is at best absurd and at worst insulting. He needs to go," Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera
Presidential Advance Manual
How to Stop Dissent
The first step to keeping demonstrators out of events, the manual tells the president's event staff, is to encourage the Secret Service to "ask the local police department to designate a protest area...preferably not in view of the event site or the motorcade route." As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event, the manual instructs.......here

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Howard Dean's
Educated Elite
For too long that "educated elite" theme has been allowed to go on. They must find it easy to dumb down education systems when all the while calling educated people elite. We must not allow them to use the two words together in a negative way against any candidates.......more
Protesters At Cheney’s Place In Wyoming
Demonstrators gathered Saturday afternoon at the rustic crossroads of U.S. Highway 22 and the Village Road to protest the war in Iraq and local resident Vice President Dick Cheney. Following anti-war speeches and folksy, 60s-style sing-a-longs, the crowd of about 250—ranging in age from toddlers in strollers to a 92-year-old woman—marched peacefully along the mile-plus county bike path before assembling outside the gates of the tony Teton Pines Country Club where the vice president owns a home........more
Florida To Cash In On Caviar
It's not likely to replace the orange as the Sunshine State icon, but caviar could be the state's next cash crop as University of Florida experts look for this fall's harvest to prove there's a fortune to be made with farm-raised fish roe. Caspian Sea sturgeon, prized over their American cousins for their distinctly flavored eggs, were first brought to Florida fish farms about six years ago.........more
Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota also has gotten into the sturgeon business with a 20-acre farm and 53 tons of fish.
Mack's Apples
Londonderry, New Hampshire
A Londonderry apple farmer has posted his political opinions along Route 28, but not everyone likes what he has to say, and some have taken action in the form of vandalism. Mack's Apples owner Andy Mack is not afraid to share his opinions about President George W. Bush. "He's an absolute total disaster for this country, for the world and for the planet," Mack said......here
"I don't agree with Andy Mack's politics, but as far as the veterans at this post, we'd all grab a rifle to defend his right to say what he wants," said Jack Courtney, senior vice commander of American Legion Post 27