For the 5th year in a row, Legislators have announced they will seek to abolish local control of wetlands permitting, especially by our Environmental Protection Commission. Who are this year’s lucky sponsors of the amendment/bill? 
Riding a bike on a cold day is never easy when you factor in wind chill. Today I dressed in a number of layers as I prepared myself for the 14.5 mile bike ride along the Upper Tampa By Trail...........more
Immokalee is the tomato capital of the United States. Between December and May, as much as 90 percent of the fresh domestic tomatoes we eat come from south Florida, and Immokalee is home to one of the area’s largest communities of farmworkers........more
The city of Clearwater may have backed itself into a legal corner in its efforts to regulate a painting of fish........more
This is the restaurant that Cracker Barrel aspires to be, a down-home country kitchen with kitsch and outstanding breakfast fare...........here
Dr. Hiram J. Hampton owned and operated the Tampa Heights Sanitarium in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, advertising his services........here
As the state legislature considers the final approvals to start construction on SunRail, it's time to rally the troops.This is a grass-roots group consisting of Floridians who believe Central Florida needs to expand its transit offerings - starting with SunRail...........here
Random Pixels: Blinded By Hate 
Club Czar in Ybor City returns to its roots for one night this week to celebrate Tampa's golden days of drag. The reunion event will star the same queens who performed there in the early 1980s when the bar, then called El Goya, was the only gay nightspot in Ybor...........more
Loved...Admired...Hated!!! Charismatic to some and revolting to others. Joe Redner is most often associated with owning one of the most famous nude clubs in America...
While walking around the Ybor Saturday Market the other day, I ran across a booth selling one of my favorite things: hot sauces!.............more 
Florida's CSX deal..from $491 million in 2006, to $650 million in 08, to 2.6 billion this year. And as this powerful editorial in The Ledger today points out....no one in the Republican legislature really pays much attention to it..........more
Peter Bordwell, whose 156 rabbits and four cats were confiscated for improper confinement six weeks ago, was in court Friday pleading for his kittens back..........here
Pizzaiolo Bavaro 514 N. Franklin St will offer free pizza tastings next Tuesday, noon to 2 p.m........here
Rep. Adam Hasner apparently opposes freedom of speech for Muslims. A group of Florida Muslims wants to go to the capitol during the session and lobby on behalf of education, healthcare and the economy...........here
It is amazing how much damage President Barack Obama has done to this country in his first 3 weeks of power. Most presidents govern… Obama rules..........here
Here is a list of the hypocrites who were so bold, so principled about their opposition to the stimulus bill. Instead of spending their time trying to help fix a problem, they complained for political capital........here
With Democratic Party career politicians Gelber and Meek repeating the same tired old imperial foreign policy platitudes as the Republicans on the Middle East that will keep us in perpetual war that is draining our economy at the very time we are sinking into another Depression, the Democratic nomination race for U.S. Senate is shaping up as just another right wing echo chamber that shuts out any discussion of an alternative foreign policy and will deny Florida voters a fundamental choice that is at stake in next year’s election. Matt Damon has the potential to add that voice to the debate, and actually be electable...........more
A hundred years ago, it served as a horse stable for Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Most recently, it housed a micro-brewery. Today, the 103-year-old building in Ybor City is reinventing itself again, this time as a model for sustainable development..........more
Creative Loafing has a new website and I’m one of their contributing writers. They invited me to their launch party and I thought it’d be fun. That’s what I get for thinking. I put on my hot mama jeans, did my hair, and even applied some goddamn makeup. One of my favorite Republicans, Jim Johnson, said he’d meet me there so I stuck the boys with my mom for the evening and took off for South Tampa..........more
We took a trip to Ybor City, once the cigar capital of the world,where Cubans, Spaniards and Italians lived and worked........more
President Obama intends to nominate the head of Florida's emergency management office to lead FEMA, a post that came under national scrutiny in 2005 over what many said was the inept response to the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina.......more
The "changes" Barack has instituted are not new, they are the platform of the Communist Party USA, seriously. In 6 weeks Obama has managed to get this country on a collision course with Capitalism.............more
My great state has offered up twin bills, SB 2002 and HB 1249, to promote healthy dog breeding practices through warrantless home searches and a maze of often dubiously helpful restrictions for anyone housing ten or more dogs...........more
We got our hands stamped at the door. Fantastic. That ink never comes off with one washing. Now I have to go to work tomorrow with "NUDE NITE" on the back of my hand...........more
Join Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo for the fourth annual ZOO Zoom, a 5K run that winds through the Zoo and along the scenic Hillsborough River..........here
