Florida Farmworkers Tell Burger King: Yes, You Will

This week, the group launched a national campaign to get Burger King to boost wages and use their economic clout to ensure better treatment of farmworkers: They've been asking for years but haven't gotten what they want. So the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is bringing out its big guns: a high-profile, multi-faceted national campaign and the threat of a boycott designed to persuade Burger King to pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes and "eliminate slavery and human rights abuses from Florida's fields.".......more

Florida: 2007's Top 10 Biting Breeds

To reinforce the current debate regarding a Florida state proposed law to ban dangerous breeds, two counties have released dog bite data. What is important to remember when looking at dog bite statistics is to understand, What constitutes a bite?..........here

The Car Culture In Tampa

The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority is hosting the first round of public workshops for a master plan to improve mobility within its seven counties: Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota. The authority has two years to approve a plan. The first workshop is Monday in Temple Terrace.......here

Republican Ronda Storms

Sen. Ronda Storms has introduced legislation that city officials say would severely hamper their efforts State to revitalize neighborhoods like East Tampa and Tampa Heights. Storms, a Republican from Brandon, has proposed limiting to 15 years the life of special taxing districts intended to boost economic development in blighted areas.......more

Mr. Snel Goes to Washington

This week, Snel was one of 500 bicycle activists attending the 2008 National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. to lobby Congress for pro-bicycle legislation. 500 bicycle lobbyists?.......here

McCain/Clinton 2008

The idea of a third party alternative has long been a dream of progressives in America. It has also too often been a fantasy and a distracting albatross. Particularly since the Bill Clinton era of centrist sell-out - but really going back to the Reagan period of Democratic cowardice, the McGovern campaign of entrenched Party power acting shamelessly toward their nominee, and certainly the Johnson debacle in Vietnam - progressives have been looking to ditch the shell of the former New Deal now doing business as the corroded (and corrosive) Democratic Party........more
Four More Years

Tampa Bay Historical Markers

The Birth of Ybor City
In Oct. 1885, John T. Lesley sold to V. Martinez Ybor & Co. the first tract of land on which was built the original Ybor City. Purchased for $9,000 cash, Tampa citizens underwrote $4,000 of this amount to the new owners in pledged land and notes.....here

Florida's New "I Believe" License Plates

Ronda Storms bill (SB 2010) to create an "I Believe" license plate, which would feature a crucifix and send proceeds to Faith in Teaching, a group "dedicated to funding education in Florida's faith based community."..........here

New Conservation Initiative Launched for Florida's Wild Dolphins

The journalism class of Plantation High School is joining the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), as well as state, federal and international partners, in a campaign to raise awareness among youth of threats to dolphins, manatees and the marine environment throughout the State......here

Hypocrite of the Week: Florida Governor Charlie Crist

As far as Republican governors go, Charlie Crist appears to be a pretty good guy. He comes across as fair, smart, even-handed and independent in his thinking, and he has even broken ranks with conservatives from time to time to do what he perceives to be the right thing.......more

Hillary And Florida Senator Bill Nelson In The Backroom

Howard Dean told Florida Senator Bill Nelson in a private conversation today that he wouldn't agree to funding a revote in the state, despite the Senator' demand today that the DNC fund a rerun of the Florida contest. Nelson, a major Hillary supporter, said today that a revote might be the only way to get Florida's voters heard, a declaration that was taken by Dem party insiders as a sign that the Hillary camp is moving towards calling for a revote and is floating that message through him......here

No Florida "Re-Vote"

Many people agree and have written about it in blogs and columns online. But the feeling isn't unanimous. An electronic grassroots effort to oppose the move to count Florida is growing. A chain email says Barack Obama could be 'bamboozled out of the presidency' if the Florida primary votes count. It urges sympathetic voters to write to the DNC and request that they stick to their original plan of not seating Florida delegates at the convention.......more

Victor Dimaio, of Tampa, announced Thursday he may file a legal injunction that would prevent Florida from holding a re-vote. Just last year, Dimaio sued to have Florida's delegates seated at the convention.

The New York Times Selling The Florida Panhandle

But this, too, is Florida — and no, not the Everglades. It’s the truly Southern, less developed, oft-overlooked Panhandle. And its treasures, though quiet, are bountiful. The Florida Panhandle comprises about 12,000 square miles of diverse settings, from densely wooded state parks and oyster-rich river basins to small towns as neat as stage sets and dazzling Gulf Coast beaches with sand dunes as white as sculptured marble........more

Vultures Wreaking Havoc On Bartow, Florida

An army of ravenous vultures is invading this quiet Polk community, ripping shingles from rooftops, chewing on the rubber linings of car doors and windows, and leaving behind an overwhelming stench from their waste.......here

Florida's Wild Side

To penetrate the narrow, overgrown channels that weave into the mangrove swamps at the southwestern tip of Florida, speed is of the essence. Relax the throttle too much, our guide explained, and we would get stuck in the pungent tidal mud that lurked just inches beneath our flat-bottomed boat......more

Florida and the Jackasses That Overreached

The voters in Florida and Michigan have been screwed, but not by the DNC. They were screwed by their shortsighted state party leaders........here

Burger King Is Responsible For Slavery In Florida

Inspired by the stories of workers who continue to toil in Immokalee, Students Toward A New Democracy (STAND) hosted an event for Miami University students and faculty Tuesday, March 4, to discuss modern-day slavery in the United States and fast-food giant Burger King’s part in the problem.......here

Free Chicken Wings For Florida Voters

More than 20 Hurricane Grill and Wings restaurants in Florida are giving them away today to anyone with a state voter registration card. The restaurant chain, with headquarters in Stuart, hopes the fried appetizer will console Floridians frustrated by the election process after the national Democratic Party stripped the state of its convention delegates because the early primary violated the national rules......more

The Green Roofs of Tampa

The Tampa Comprehensive Plan plan calls for the city to “Follow sustainable building practices by encouraging the development of green roofs” in Objective 4.1, policy 4.1.4.........more

Lee De Cesare Rocks

What do you get when you place a baker’s dozen teachers in a room with two newspaper editorial writers? I don’t know but whatever it is it doesn’t lack opinions. The Tampa Tribune hosted a conference with twelve teachers and one dedicated soul who arrived well in to the session to discuss public education issues in our district with two writers from the Tribune’s editorial department.....here

The Marine Who Killed the Puppy

Some psychologists are weighing in on this by justifying it. We're told that this can be a reaction to the stress of having your life constantly in danger: In order to feel that you have some control, you attempt to dominate smaller and more helpless beings. Aren't those very reasons shared by wife beaters everywhere?.....more
Marine Major Brian Dennis

Tampa's Cigar City Brewing

The brewery, slated to begin producing beer in September of 2008, will supply boutique draft, and bottled ales to central and west Florida. "We'll be brewing high gravity English, American and Belgian style ales as well as a few lower strength classic styles.........here

The Trials and Tribulations of Opening a Brewery

Tampa Bay O-Train Making Noise For Obama

Its 6:30p.m. at the Marti Maceo Club along 7th avenue in Ybor City, the polls won't close in Vermont and Ohio for another hour. That doesn't stop a group of supporters from showing up to the historic social club to mingle and cheer for a man that they have only seen on television or perhaps at a rally just a few blocks away last April........here

Florida Legislature Working Hard On Marijuana Bill

This week, Florida lawmakers will take another step towards passing a law that would make the penalties tougher for running a grow house. Right now, it's only a third-degree felony if fewer than 100 plants are seized. The new law would make it a second-degree felony for getting caught with at least 25 marijuana plants, meaning mandatory jail time.........here

More Abuse At Hillsborough County Jail

Apparently the recently reported wheelchair dumping incident at a jail in Florida wasn't an isolaited incident. Another video has surfaced showing an inmate being dumped out of a wheelchair at a Hillsborough County jail. This time, Sheriff's Department officials defended the move, saying jail personnel deliberately took the paraplegic inmate to the floor to protect themselves........here

I Went To Florida

A Beautiful Mess

Florida Bay: Potential for Ecological Collapse

Audubon raised concerns today that this year´s poor nesting season of Roseate Spoonbills—an important indicator species of Everglades restoration success—and the algae blooms in Florida Bay, persisting since 2006, are serious signals that the ecosystem is suffering signs of ecological collapse........here

McCain And Bush Embrace

Four More Years.......here

What Kind of Florida Do You Want to Leave Your Kids?

State legislators returned to Tallahassee today for the beginning of the annual 60-day legislative session. Getting the most attention this year are the revenue shortfalls and resulting necessity to cut $2 billion from the budget........more
In the meantime, use their online tool to contact your senator and state representative and let them know the issues you want them to focus on during the Session.........here

The Population Bomb And Florida's Vanishing Paradise

After you've spent a day hiking through Florida's preserves along its Nature Coast, you just might find yourself on the back deck of the Rusty Rim Pub on Cedar Key near about sundown. There, along with your $3 bottled brew and a view of the gulf that won't quit, you'll hear the local men who make their living out of the surrounding waters debrief the day.......more

Monkeys Getting High At Miami Zoo

A species of millipede which originated in the West Indies but has recently appeared in parts of South Florida seems to have a hallucinogenic effect on Monkeys. The monkeys "bite the millipedes, then reach behind their backs and rub it on their fur."........more

Civil War Battles In Florida Were Fought Over Lighthouses

Lighthouses and mariners are strongly bound. Although technology has lessened the mariner’s dependency on traditional lighthouses, the familiar shape represents sanctuary and safety.......here

The Florida Lighthouse Association

Government Surveillance Harms Society

Acts of government surveillance — from increasing use of closed-circuit televisions and global positioning systems to an array of sophisticated technologies that can access records about our activities — represent an insidious assault on the freedom of Americans that the law has failed to respond to, according to a new book from a University of Florida law professor.......here

Tampa In High Definition

Robert La Follette

Curtis Hixon Park Is Fine As Is

As you know, Mayor Pam Iorio wants the area currently known as Curtis Hixon Park to be Tampa’s signature park. Iorio remains insistent in putting $15 Million into redesigning the already functioning green space. And what do we get for $15 MILLION?........here

Ronda Storms And The Theory Of Evolution

On Friday she introduced an Academic Freedom Act designed to tweak the state's recently adopted educational standard that calls for science teachers to teach evolution. The basis of her bill came from activists who failed in February to persuade the state Board of Education to allow the leeway. The board voted 4-3 two weeks ago to explicitly require the teaching of evolution......more

Mayor Of Fort Lauderdale Uses Tax Dollars to Incite Violence

Mayor Jim Naugle of Fort Lauderdale has once again used his office to spread fear and hate about the gay community. In the latest city newsletter, paid for by the city and available on the city's website, Naugle again used misinformation and bigotry to paint the LGBT community as predators and a danger........here

Florida Bride Gets Dream Wedding

Tammy Clifton wanted her wedding to be the big day she had always dreamed of. But when she recently found out she had breast cancer, that all changed. So, about 72 hours after informing family and friends that she wanted to get married before starting chemotherapy this week, Clifton and Troy Lindsey were wed Sunday. The whirlwind event was put together through the generosity of local wedding planners, volunteers and area merchants.......here

David's Bridal - The Florida Mall Hotel - Wedding Event Designers