Tampa Bay, Florida: A Sunshine Tour

Since moving to Tampa, Florida five-and-a-half years ago, I've played tour guide to numerous family and friends seeking inexpensive family vacations. It's been a fun adventure to be a hometown tourist..........more

Redemption For The Ybor City Batman

Hillsborough County Judge John Conrad today dismissed two misdemeanor charges Tampa police lodged against Walsh Ian Nichols when he refused orders to take off his Batman mask........more

FBI Investigating Buddy Johnson

The FBI has opened an investigation into the office of former Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson, hauling away documents related to a blistering audit that revealed Johnson had overspent his budget by almost $1 million..........more

Tampa Bay Reservoir Nearly Dry

Tampa Bay Water's 15-billion-gallon reservoir is about a month from being drained dry, a sign of just how dire the region's drought has become...........here

Random Pixels vs. The Miami Cuban Mafia

Help Random Pixels, Write Them
newshawk@gmail.com
And Ask What You Can Do.

Oil Rigs Possible Off Florida’s Gulf Coast

Just weeks into his presidency, President Barack Obama has moved right past the should-we-drill-offshore question and plunged into a new debate about how best to tap resources on the Outer Continental Shelf...........more

Debbie Wasserman Schultz On Hardball

The War Comes Home: An Evening with Aaron Glantz In St. Pete

The Studio @ 620 welcomes WMNF as they present a screening of the documentary film When I Came Home , followed by a discussion with journalist Aaron Glantz, author of The War Comes Home..........more

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

The Carter Center

Great American Cleanup Needs Volunteers

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful is coordinating the event locallyand expects about 2,000 volunteers to participate during the countywide cleanup on April 19. Check-in will be at 8:30 a.m., and the cleanupwill take place from 9 a.m. to noon..........more

Cooking with Eva: Chicken and Yellow Rice

Eva from Silver Creek 78250 makes chicken and yellow rice inspired by Ybor City's Columbia restaurant.

Mayor Pam for Senate

The mayor, who has said she is considering a race but has not announced a decision, runs in a statistical tie with U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and slightly behind U.S. Rep. Ron Klein. She places ahead of State Sen. Dan Gelber in a Democratic primary.......more

Tampa's Zorro the Bandit

His real name is George N. Shaw, 50, of 11321 N. 50th St., Tampa, but he had a penchant for wearing clothing reminiscent of the famed Spanish swordsman during eight heists, police say.........more

Oil Spill In Tampa Bay

Part of Tampa Bay was closed to boat traffic for several hours on Friday after nearly 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel spilled into the bay after a Thursday-night marine collision.........more

Friends Of Stogie

At The Tally Ho

Show Your Support For Random Pixels

Babalu's Val Prieto is taking Random Pixels to court for some satirical comments RP made about Babalu writers this week so I thought it would be a good opportunity for the South Florida blogging community to rally around and support one of our own..........here

Tampa's Streetcar Endowment Fund

With the endowment out of the picture - or at least relegated to a proper secondary supporting role, those who oppose the eventual and certain expansion of light rail throughout Hillsborough County will now have to find some other fake yard stick to judge by. For the rest of us, and those politicians who aren't run out of office, Tampa City takes rightful and proper stewardship over the best thing Tampa has ever done for itself in decades..........more

Statesman Charlie Crist

"I don't think he's helped any national Republican ambitions he may have by stepping up to the plate and batting for the other team. … There's a difference between working in a bipartisan way for the common good and switching sides and putting on the other team's jersey," said veteran Republican consultant Alex Castellanos........more

Baseball Game Or Country?

The Cinchett Family Of Tampa

here

Buddy The Worm

Commissioners say they won't be satisfied until they get a detailed accounting of where Johnson spent the money meant to run his office. "I want to know how those taxpayer dollars were spent," Commissioner Kevin Beckner said. "The taxpayers deserve to know and we need to know to bring closure to this.".........more

Tampa’s Mary Mulhern Calls Community Gardening Summit

Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern has an itch for a little civic green-thumbing. Mulhern has organized a community meeting for the hundreds of people she says have contacted her since she raised the idea of the city doing more community gardening.........more

Even In Florida, Homeless People Freeze To Death

A homeless man who spent the coldest night in six years wrapped in black garbage bags and huddled in a tent froze to death in Pompano Beach.........more

Tampa Rapist Wayne Tompkins

A rapist convicted of murdering his girlfriend's teenage daughter 26 years ago is scheduled to be executed Wednesday night if no judges agree to reconsider his protestations of innocence........here

El Taconazo / The Taco Bus

When it comes to authentic Mexican food, I may have hit the goldmine moving to Tampa.........more

Friends Of Stogie

At Gaspars In Temple Terrace

Julio Osegueda Of Fort Myers, Florida

SEEKING HOMES FOR PAINTING

The Paint Your Heart Out Tampa Steering Committee is seeking qualified homes to paint for the upcoming 21st annual Paint Your Heart Out Tampa event scheduled for Saturday, April 25, 2009........more

Stop The Green Swamp Trash Dump

Imagine a picturesque rural area lined with orange orchards, fields and the Green Swamp. Now add a 220-foot pile of trash that occupies 1,069 acres in the middle of that scene. It makes for a very unpleasant picture. But that’s exactly the scene that Angelo’s Aggregate Materials wants to bring to rural Pasco County.........more

The Green Swamp basin

In The New Gang Of Four, Higginbotham Is The New Blair

Incredibly, four of the seven commissioners — Jim Norman, Ken Hagan, Kevin White & Al Higginbotham — see the solution to our housing glut as MORE housing. And all the new strip malls and office buildings sitting around vacant? Yep, they want to see MORE of that commercial stuff built, too. And fast..........more

Willet at St Pete Beach

Please visit Leedra's Photos For Fun to see more Willet photographs.

Tampa Tribune Delivers Bibles to Subscribers

A local Tampa Bay newspaper distributed a copy of the New Testament along with its Saturday edition this past weekend as part of a national effort to deliver scriptures using a newspaper’s circulation........more