He is a local. He has been homeless 19 years.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Florida Governor Purges Voters From Voting Rolls
Governor Rick Scott is questioning the eligibility of the thousands of Florida voters, but his methods are being questioned by officials on both sides of the aisle.
Cuban Sandwich Showdown: Miami or Tampa?
Tampa can lay claim to the original Cuban Sandwich, but with a population of more than 1 million cuban residents, Miami believes it deserves to be considered the Cuban Sandwich Capital. You be the judge as we feature a Cuban Sandwich Showdown between Versailles restaurant of Miami and The Columbia in Ybor City.
The End of Florida Progressive Coalition?
Two major problems were identified. One, that people didn’t have enough information about state and local politics. The media did a poor job of covering it and since state politics was drastically different from national politics, most of us, me included, didn’t have enough inherent knowledge about how things worked. In order to do a good job of covering Florida politics, bloggers needed to increase their knowledge of the players in the system, the rules of the system and the issues important to the state. A second major problem was that there wasn’t much money being put into covering politics, be it the media or blogging, and without some kind of influx of cash into the system, few, if any people, would be able to devote enough time to learning about the system to do it justice.
More than six years later, these problems have never been solved. Media coverage of state and local politics is much worse now than it was then. And because of silly laws like term limits, the system is so frequently changing that I’ve found, personally, that my knowledge of state politics is actually getting worse. And I don’t have the time or resources to fix that problem. Few state-level bloggers in the country have found models of funding that allow them to devote serious time to state and local politics. The overwhelming majority of bloggers from the 50 states that were invited to a state-level blogger summit in 2007 are no longer blogging about state politics. Only a few blogs that cover state and local politics can pay their bills, much less pay salaries to their writers.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t solve either of these problems. I’ve tried numerous different approaches to it and none of them have worked. Some of that is the difficulty of the problems, which are widespread across the country at the state level. Some of it is because of my own personal failings. Since 2009, I’ve been divided among numerous projects and have never been able to devote the time to FPC that I need to, usually because paying gigs have to take priority. And because other FPC writers also have to have paying gigs and I never found a way to pay them or a way to inspire them to work extensively for FPC for free (except for a few people over the years for periods of time), FPC never became what it could’ve been and what it needed to be. And I see no way that is going to change.
On top of that, one of the key reasons, as I mentioned above, that I moved my focus to state politics was that my voice wasn’t adding to the national conversation. Now that I have been writing for Crooks and Liars on labor issues (and other topics) for nearly nine months, that’s not true any more. Thousands of people read my national writing each week and I regularly see my posts get picked up by other blogs and websites. And there are only a few national bloggers focused on labor issues. And there are a lot more labor stories that we need to cover than are currently covered. And labor issues are truly one of the key battlegrounds in American politics these days and one of the most important battles we have to win. So, I have decided that I am ending my time as executive director of Florida Progressive Coalition and, barring someone else stepping up to take over, the blog will end. I’m not going to take the site down, but I won’t be publishing any future content.
I’m willing to entertain offers from others if they are interested in taking over and maintaining FPC in whatever way they see fit and I’m certainly hoping that someone will pick up on the wiki and continue to add content to it, since it is a valuable resource for Floridians. One thing I know is that I can’t do it anymore and I have to shift my time and efforts more fully to the battles that I know more about and I have more of a chance to successfully pursue. FPC no longer fits that description. The last things I will post here will be the continuation of the 2012 Florida Netroots Awards, and after that I will entertain offers to take that over, too. It’s been a great few years and I’ve learned more than I ever expected and met more great people than I could’ve imagined, but it’s time to move on to other projects.
What Stogie Had For Lunch
With Collard Greens Soup and Rice
$7.95 At Arco- Iris, in West Tampa
Eat Local!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
St. Pete Dems Picnic
War Veterans Memorial Park
9600 Bay Pines Boulevard, St. Pete
All you can eat for just $10. Veterans eat for free!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Florida School Sets World Record For Recycling
here
Occupy Tampa takes to the Hillsborough River
Occupy Tampa has been in and out of the spotlight since relocating to West Tampa in December. Members gathered to Occupy the Hillsborough River on Saturday, to have fun and to remind Tampa they are still here.
here
Monday, May 14, 2012
Can the Friendship Trail Bridge Be Saved?
being demolished received good news at a conference held at the foot of the bridge.
more
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The Cuban Sandwich Crisis: Tampa vs. Miami
Read on!
Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Whitney Houston In Tampa
To date I have not seen someone perform the Star Spangled Banner better than this rendition by Whitney Houston during Super Bowl XXV.
Tony Bennett My Hero
After the deaths of Michael Jackson, Amy Whinehouse and now Whitney Houston,
Tony Bennett wants to legalize all drugs.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
In Memory Of Whitney Houston
Rest In Peace
August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012
August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012
So sad. I will miss you.
Monday, February 6, 2012
West Tampa Community Members Feed Occupy Tampa
Members of the community of West Tampa participate in a morning meeting
at Occupy Tampa and end up feeding lunch to the camp.
WMNF Minithon
A couple of times a year, we ask for your contributions to help keep WMNF on the air. WMNF is non-commercial community radio - we survive only due to the generosity of listeners like you.here
Friday, February 3, 2012
Miami America’s Most Miserable City
The housing crisis has devastated Miami with 47% of homeowners sitting on underwater mortgages. Foreclosures have been rampant with 364,000 properties in the Miami area entering the foreclosure process since 2008 according to RealtyTrac.here
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Solar Panel Install in Gainesville
This is a solar installation in Gainesville, Florida as part of the Gainesville Feed-in Tariff. The solar installation was completed on Butler Plaza, which has a Walmart, Publix, Petsmart, and Best Buy.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
I Remember Tampa
Tribute to the Tampa Natives Show's hosts, and to the fans, sponsors, production crew, and field agents that have made the show so successful.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
First Lady Visits Tampa Grocery Store
First Lady Michelle Obama visited a Tampa grocery store Thursday as part of her tour that promotes healthy lifestyles for children.
Tampa To Become Gateway To Cuba
In some of her most extensive public comments about Cuba, Tampa area Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor says it's an "exciting time" on the Communist island in regards to some of the modest free-market reforms recently enacted under President Raoul Castro, and she says Tampa can become the gateway to Cuba, but emphasized reforms must continue to happen there.
here
here
Tampa Bay Says No to Islamophobia
School yard bullying can take many forms. So Hillsborough County school superintendent MaryEllen Elia and School Board chairwoman Candy Olson
are to be commended for standing up to the forces of bigotry and ignorance.
The pair on Tuesday rightly defended Steinbrenner High School history teacher Kelly Miliziano,
who recently invited a Muslim speaker to her classroom,
much to the narrow-minded consternation of local political gadflies, conservative activist
Terry Kemple and David Caton, executive director of the Florida Family Association.
here
Tampa Dentist Dr. Randall Diez
Dr Randall Diez gives free dentistry to the poor by sponsoring a Dental Emergency Day.
New York Times has reported that more and more Americans forfeit their health care visit to the doctor because of not able to afford their insurance co-payments. Neglected dental care can cause gum diseases and tooth loss and other health problems like heart diseases, liver diseases, diabetes, pregnancy problems like having still-born babies and pre-matured babies etc.
Help us spread this word about the Dental Emergency Day event to your friends, families and neighbors etc who could use some help in dental care.
Rover's Rescue of Tampa
A non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing and training dogs so that we can find them loving forever homes. We are dedicated in saving lives. Rover's Rescue depends on the financial support from individuals and businesses so please help support our great cause.
info
info
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Academy Awards for local Non Profits
ABC Action News partnering with Ryan Nece Foundation
& WEDU Public Television to present Be More Giving Award February 9th.
GOP Set to Hand Florida’s Prisons to Corporate America
Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-controlled legislature are moving fast to privatize all 29 prison facilities in 18 counties in southern Florida.Last year, the GOP prison privatization proposal was ruled unconstitutional because it was wrapped into a budget proposal, a violation of Florida laws that requires policy changes be in separate laws.
here
Monday, January 23, 2012
80 Year Old Woman Protest McDonalds In Tampa
This 80 year wife of a former McDonalds manager and honorable american vet protests at a McDonalds here in Tampa as well as others around the state of Florida. She claims that McDonalds fired her husband the day after he fell on the job. Believe it or not she has been fighting this fight since 1979 and will not give up until McDonalds Corp makes things right.
If You Were Mayor Of Tampa
More than 4,000 MoveOn members are exploring running for elected office. If you've thought about how things could be different in Tampa, you should join them! Will you join the progressive wave and consider running for office?
info
What Stogie Had For Lunch
Chopped Steak
With Mashed Potatoes and Slaw
$5.95 At Andy's Drive-In, 703 3rd St SW, Winter Haven
How Much Was Your Last Value Meal?
Eat Local!
With Mashed Potatoes and Slaw
$5.95 At Andy's Drive-In, 703 3rd St SW, Winter Haven
How Much Was Your Last Value Meal?
Eat Local!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Occupy Florida at the State Capitol
On January 10, 2012 Occupations from across the state of Florida assembled in Tallahassee for the first day of the Legislative Session. We marched from Occupy Tallahassee's home base at the Gaines Street Commons, then proceeded to enter the capitol. We marched through the Senate and House offices and then waited on the 4th floor outside the doors of the House chamber, where Governor Rick Scott eventually gave his State of the State address.
Stogie Recommends
The Town is a 2010 crime film starring, co-written, and directed by Ben Affleck adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves.
Homelessness Bill Inches Forward In Florida
Last week, a Florida House committee on health unanimously passed a bill that would allow people to donate one dollar to programs helping the homeless when they register their vehicles or renew their driver's licenses.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
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