Thursday, March 6, 2008

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

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

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

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

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

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

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

Monday, March 3, 2008

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

Happy Birthday Florida

here

Op-ed by young woman incarcerated in Florida

Rebecca Falcon
I anticipated my 16th birthday so that I would be eligible to apply for a job. In all aspects, I was considered a juvenile; however, when my life made a turn for the worse, and I committed a terrible crime, I was at least in the eyes of the criminal justice system, an adult.......here
Visit Her Website.....here

Time to Stop Hatred and Violence

On Friday, Feb. 22, 17-year-old Simmie Williams Jr. was gunned down on a street corner in Broward County. Just 10 days earlier, Lawrence King, a 15-year-old Oxnard, Calif., junior high student, was shot to death in his own classroom because he wore makeup — because he was different. And less than one year ago, Ryan Keith Skipper, 24, was stabbed to death in Polk County.......more
Equality Florida

Where's Charlie? Florida Dems Want To Know

Democrats have launched a website www.EmptyChairCharlie.com, that challenges Crist for stepping away from his gubernatorial duties for a lot of January and February. The party claims Crist took more days off thann he worked in the first six weeks of the year -- calculating a 48.3 percent attendance record during 30 potential work days........more

More Cameras At Florida Intersections

The cameras are coming to the area beginning this month, and they'll almost certainly become more widespread if Florida legislators smooth the way by changing a state law this spring. This is plunging the state into a long-running nationwide debate: Are these devices just a bunch of cities' moneymaking schemes, a Big Brother-ish invasion of privacy? Or are they a way to restore sanity to intersections by fighting what officials call an "epidemic" of red-light running?......here

The Struggle For A Community Garden In Bartlett Park

Under a cloudy sky threatening rain, Bartlett Park resident Andrea Hildebran steps over discarded potato chip bags, torn newspapers and broken 40-ounce bottles of Budweiser. This vacant lot off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in St. Petersburg has seen better days, though only the old-timers who've lived in Bartlett Park for decades can remember those times........here

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Gibsonton, Florida

For generations, carnies have wintered in Gibsonton - "Gib-town" - in south Hillsborough County. They eat and drink at the Showtown Bar & Grill. For business, they visit the annual trade show of the Showmen's Association. When they die, they wind up in a local mausoleum called Showmen's Rest......here
Al Tomaini

"President Uribe, I'll send some Sukhois"

President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks and thousands of troops on Sunday to the border with Colombia, accusing it of pushing South America to the brink of war by killing a top rebel leader on Ecuadorean soil......here

Olivia's Kiss

Chapter 4

The Great Calusa Blueway

Seriously, southwest Florida is a fantastic place to kayak, with miles of interesting little rivers and estuaries and enough birds to fill a thousand aviaries. In fact, southwest Florida has embraced the kayak fad with a 190-mile kayaking route called the Great Calusa Blueway.......here

Lobbyists-R-Us

Or perhaps, as those of us who are not gullible, Hero-supporting, Macho-Macho-Man-worshipping sheep with blindfolders surgically affixed to their skulls--as well as those of us whose paychecks do not sport the logo of any traditional media outlet--are able to see, Senator McCain is, in reality, a once-brave, once-admirable hero who long ago squandered his Honorable Man bona fides in favor of a relentless quest for the Good Life........more

Silent Tribute In St. Petersburg

Silent Tribute to the men and women of the U.S. armed forces who have died in the two conflicts in Iraq is traveling around the country. Recently it stopped here in St. Petersburg........here
4,440 Flags

Tampa Bay Historical Markers

Central Avenue
From the late 19th century until the mid 1970's, Central Avenue was the principal business and entertainment district of Tampa's African-American community. Before it was destroyed, this section contained schools, churches, lodges, a library, physicians, lawyers, dentists, grocery stores, barbershops, drug stores, insurance companies, newspapers, restaurants, a hotel, movie theaters and more than a score of bars and nightclubs, some featuring major headliners of the black entertainment circuit......more


Celebrities, such as Ray Charles, James Brown, B.B. King, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Nate and Cannonball Adderly, all played on Central when they were just getting started.

Tampa, The Royal City Of Atlantis

Tampa was once the Royal City of Atlantis. Using Plato's description of Atlantis, the film maker matches the Florida terrain with the Great Plain of Atlantis.

Bringing More Warmth To The Sunshine State

Many charities have got car contribution programs which are indispensable to their ability to raise funds. The cars donated will, if in good adequate condition, be used by the charities in their worMany charities have got car contribution programs which are indispensable to their ability to raise funds. The cars donated will, if in good adequate condition, be used by the charities in their work.......here

Gov. Crist Supports A Repeat Of The Democratic Primary

Howard Dean said he's open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state's taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, is ``very helpful'' because money is an issue, Dean said.
"We're very willing to listen to the people of Florida"........here
So, thanks to the Florida Democratic Party and the Republicans, Florida might have to vote again! Vote Obama.

Jack Nicholson's Hillary Clinton Ad

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Florida Has A Medical Examiner For Manatees

Martine De Wit is a medical examiner, for manatees. If one of the endangered animals is reported dead anywhere in Florida's waters, it's brought to de Wit, who helps determine and duly record its cause of death. About 250 of their bodies arrive at her lab every year......more

We Are The Ones We Been Waiting For

Tampa Bay Gas Prices Could Push $3.75 A Gallon This Summer

The average cost of unleaded gas in the Bay area went up by 3.2 cents on Wednesday to a little over $3.10. That's 3.2 cents in a single day.That one-day jump put regular gas 87 cents higher than the same time a year ago, and barely below the all-time record set in November 2007.Hold on to your wallet, because the experts say there's more to come........here
Alan Snel Can Help.......here

Debby Dowell: Hillsborough Teacher Of The Year

A middle school teacher 15 years into her second career jumped up and down, hugged everyone in sight and gasped for breath when she learned Thursday night that she is Hillsborough County's 2008 teacher of the year. Debby Dowell was then short and to the point in her acceptance speech......here

Rogue Florida Democrats

Proving yet again that nobody does bizarre elections like Florida, thousands of loyal Democrats turned out for a rogue election Saturday where the votes may not count and the winners may not win......more

Miami Vice: Bottom-Fishing For Condo Bargains

Home buyers from around the U.S. and abroad are descending on Florida to buy condominiums that have suffered sharp price drops amid the housing glut, subprime-mortgage crisis and credit crunch. Some are searching for investment properties, confident home prices will eventually rebound. Others are hunting for vacation or retirement homes. Yet pitfalls abound, and experts warn that prices could dip even......here

From Tampa to Tallahassee: Cracker Horse Heritage

Catch a glimpse of Billy Ray Hunter and Carlton Dudley as they try to ride two Floridian Cracker horses from Tampa to Tallahassee in hopes of making the Cracker horse Florida's official Heritage Horse.......here
Story......here

Big Brother Won't Ogle Beaches In Florida Town

It appears the Almighty Dollar was just too much for Big Brother to handle in this South Florida town. Due to the cost, the Martin County Commission decided this week against spending $300,000 on a high-tech video surveillance system which would "talk back" to people, warning them not to have sex on the beach......here