Florida HB 999 and SB 1684

On Thursday morning, April 25, the Florida House of Representatives passed by a 92-20 vote HB 999, the most anti-environmental bill of the 2013 Legislative Session. The fight to stop this bill now moves to the Senate and SB 1684. For a contact list for all Senators and more info
click here
Please call your Senator immediately and urge them to VOTE NO on HB 999 and SB 1684!

Shameless Parent Revolution

For weeks, it seemed, few parents in Florida supported the so-called parent trigger bill. And then, a video began circulating in the Capitol. The video, featuring South Florida moms praising the legislation, was attributed to a mysterious grass roots group known as the Sunshine Parents. But it was actually produced by Parent Revolution, the California-based advocacy group that has been using its considerable resources and political heft to promote the legislation nationwide. Parent trigger (SB 862) hits the Senate floor Monday. The House version (HB 867) has already passed.
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Opponents say it would give for-profit education companies the opportunity to take over vulnerable schools. They point to California, where efforts to pull the trigger have played out amid allegations of parent coercion and petitions with fraudulent signatures. In addition to Florida PTA, parent groups lined up against the bill include Fund Education Now, 50th No More and Parents Across America. The NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens oppose the legislation, too.

Are you on the list?
 Maria and Dan O'Hollearn, of Coral Gables, both said they didn't sign the petition, despite their names and addresses appearing on the petition. Carlos Herrera, a Florida International University student, said he, too, was surprised his name was on the list of supporters.
Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, who has referenced the petition during debates, said she had no reason to doubt their legitimacy.
"We don't need groups from other states coming into Florida and causing trouble," said Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, a staunch opponent of the bill. "This is proof."
Stop Parent Trigger Legislation
Sign the petition

Darden Restaurants

Darden Restaurants, owner of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains along with Disney is working to make it impossible for local cities and counties to pass earned sick time laws.In fact, as reported in the Orlando Sentinel, Disney helped write the bill! “Walt Disney World and Darden Restaurants, owner of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains, helped draft the legislation. These corporations aren't looking out for the families that visit or work at their theme park or eat and work in their restaurants - they are protecting their own massive profits.

Remember restaurant workers only make $2.13 per hour (tipped workers) and we can thank  Herman Cain, his work as the CEO of Godfather's Pizza and later as president of the National Restaurant Association, Cain worked diligently in Washington and in the media to see that low-wage restaurant workers could legally be paid as little as possible, as In These Times has noted. In fact, Cain's time in the restaurant business was marked by a long and largely successful battle against minimum-wage increases, and even today, some 15 years later, many of the nation's waiters and waitresses have Cain and the restaurant lobby to thank for a federal minimum wage of $2.13 for tipped workers. By 1995, when Cain was at the helm of Godfather's, the federal minimum wage had already lost much of its purchasing power since the 1960s and 70s, and it hadn't seen a bump in five years. When then-President Bill Clinton and Labor Secretary Robert Reich proposed raising it from $4.25 to $5.15, Cain emerged as one of the leading opponents of the pay boost. In his testimony to a joint economic committee in Washington, Cain, like many of his Republican colleagues today, claimed that the modest raise would destroy thousands of jobs and eliminate entry-level positions that serve as the first rung on a ladder toward prosperity.

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Do you really want someone who is sick cooking or serving your food? There are things you can do,

Sign petition and stop eating at their restaurants. Eat local, spend your money locally and help the local small businessperson. You want seafood? Try some of Stogie's favorites The Crab Shack or Skipper's Smokehouse or Mid Peninsula Seafood unlike  Red Lobster you actually walk out full without spending a bundle. Want Italian? Try Primi Ristorante in St Pete or  Rick's Italian Cafe on Davis Islands. For a complete list of locals visit Tampa Locavore.

Trinity Café Has A New Home In Ybor City

Trinity Café is ready to open its new home in a renovated building at 2801 N. Nebraska Avenue in Ybor City. Café staff members plan to begin serving meals to homeless and working poor people on Tuesday, April 30. A “building dedication and tour” is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on May 14.

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Meet Chef Tony Macaroni!

i've had the pleasure of eating Chef Tony's cooking both at his home and at
Primi Ristorante Italiano in downtown St. Pete.

Hialeah, City of Progress

The Hialeah Police Department has gone on a camera-grabbing, rights-squashing, charge-trumping rampage against citizens in recent weeks without any apparent fear of repercussions, proving to be one of the most power-abusing police departments in Miami-Dade County.

And that’s saying a lot considering the rampant police corruption down here.

The incidents began last month when a group of college students organized a “Harlem Shake” video, which is a recent fad where young people gather in public to perform a comical dance in costumes for the benefit of Youtube.

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Tampa Panelists Outcry Cuba Terror Designation

Stogie Recommends

An Apology to Elephants
A documentary produced and narrated by Lily Tomlin.
here

La Casa Sierra

What Stogie Had For Lunch
Fried Chicken Breast
With Moro, Yuca and a drink.
$6.35 at La Casa Sierra, corner of Main St. and Howard Ave in Tampa

Defend Social Security in Tampa

Deliver petitions to Sen. Bill Nelson opposing cuts to Social Security.

Senator Nelson's Office in Tampa
Thursday, Apr. 25, at 12:00 PM
Click here for more details and to RSVP.

Happy Earth Day!

Tampa Bay Earth Day Events
here

Disney, Red Lobster and Olive Garden

Mickey Mouse now has a side gig as a corporate lobbyist?!

Apparently. Because right now in Florida, in the final days of the state legislative session, Disney is working to make it impossible for local cities and counties to pass earned sick time laws. In fact, as reported in the Orlando Sentinel, Disney helped write the bill! “Walt Disney World and Darden Restaurants, owner of the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains, helped draft the legislation,
Take Action
Nothing like having your food cooked or served by someone who is sick.
Eat Local

Terry Kemple: A Crime Against Sanity

As a Hillsborough County taxpayer the thought of someone who is anti-Muslin, antigay, antiknowledge and even antimatter sitting on a government body charged with educating our community's children would be a crime against sanity. Terry Kemple on the School Board would visit a plague of demagoguery on the body politic. His term would be a fractious, disruptive, moveable feast of Bible-thumping, self-righteous hectoring and faux Puritanical preening. This will be Kemple's third bid to get on the School Board. Now you would think if you had run twice before and the voters had previously suggested they would rather shove shards of broken glass up their eyes than allow you to serve in public office.

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Bill Maher on Cuba

Help, end the war on the Cuban people, they are being held hostage by a small minority in South Florida.

Tampa, Hillsborough County To Sue BP

Days before the third anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, attorneys for Hillsborough County and the city of Tampa are moving to sue oil giant BP over tens of millions of dollars in lost tax revenues. Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to file suit over the county's claim that it suffered nearly $43 million in losses — from hotel, gas, sales and other tax and fee receipts — as a result of the spill.

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Alan Grayson Petition For No Cuts to Entitlements

Sign Petition here

Tampa Bay Homeless

Homeless Living In Tampa

Stogie Recommends

Another Earth
Is a 2011 American science fiction/drama film directed by Mike Cahill in his feature film debut. The film stars William Mapother and Brit Marling. It premiered at the 27th Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and is being distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

here

Remove DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard Jr.

Regulators who break the rules cannot be trusted with enforcing them. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection broke the rules protecting the state's wetlands to benefit a well-connected landowner, then punished the one employee who challenged her bosses on it and tried to do her job. Gov. Rick Scott should remove DEP Secretary Herschel Vinyard Jr. and at least one of his deputy secretaries, because Floridians can no longer trust the agency to protect the environment and fairly enforce the rules.

here

Celebrate this Earth Day - Picnic For Earth

Obama: The Audacity Of Betrayal

You have to hand it to Barack Obama when it comes to having it both ways: He never stops serving the ruling class, yet the mainstream media, from right to left, continues to pretend that he’s some sort of reincarnation of Franklin D. Roosevelt, fully committed to the downtrodden and deeply hostile to the privileged and the rich.
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The New American Confederacy
The Betrayal of Generation Hope
Ralph Nader pans Obama call for higher minimum wage.
Howard Dean Threatens To Leave Democratic Party.
I listen to his campaign speeches now and the one he gave at his second inauguration and all i hear is noise.
I feel like i have been violated. Republicans hate him and now he has lost his base. Nust be lonely at the top.

St. Pete Activists Blast Corporations For Exploiting Tax Loopholes

Germany Knows What To Do
German authorities launched dawn raids on the homes of over 200 suspected tax cheats Tuesday, acting on information gleaned from a CD containing the confidential account details of thousands of Swiss bank clients. The top tax officials in the southwestern state of Rhineland-Palatinate said he expected to net some 500 million euros ($654 million) from the data, which German investigators bought for 4 million euros ($5.2 million) after deeming it 'authentic and of excellent quality.' 'This amount is testament to the high criminal energy used to hide capital gains,' Carsten Kuehl, the state's finance minister, said in a statement.
here

2013 Earth Day Tampa Bay

info

Howard Dean Threatens To Leave Democratic Party

If Obama Doesn’t Cut Pentagon Budget

here

I stand with Howard Dean in his disgust of the Democratic Party. I would join him but i have been independant (NPA) since i started voting back in 1976.