* “Overall, the U.S. role here has been somewhat schizophrenic–pushing coal and dissing science on the one hand, but also working hard in the room for strong transparency rules.”–Elliot Diringer, of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, on the U.S. presence at the UN climate talks in Katowice, Poland.
* “We had a chance to work together during the years of tremendous changes. It was a dramatic time that demanded great responsibility from everyone. The result was an end to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race.”–Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, on his working relationship with President George H.W. Bush.
* “I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck.”–President Donald Trump to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
* “It’s like a manhood thing for him. As if manhood could ever be associated with him. This wall thing.”–House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
* “Tribalism is our problem, and if not corrected, it’s going to take our country down.”–Sen. Bill Nelson, in his farewell Senate address.
* “America is still in a perilous place, and even a weakened Trump can torment migrants, pack the courts, wreck the environment and suck up to tyrants.”–Michelle Goldberg, New York Times.
* “Trump, by becoming president, turned a great many federal employees into the functional equivalent of Michael Cohen.”–Peter Beinart, The Atlantic.
* “(Beto) O’Rourke, who’s shooting up in the polls as a possible Democratic contender, is sunny, friendly, even-keeled. He reminds some Democrats of Bobby Kennedy–soulful, able to see and summon the things you like best in yourself. He even looks like a son of Bobby Kennedy.”–Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal.
* Print may be best for lingering over words or ideas, but audiobooks add literacy to moments where there would otherwise by none.”–Daniel T. Willingham, psychology professor at the University of Virginia.
* “My objective is very clear, and that is, ‘Easy to vote and hard to cheat.'”–State Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who will lead the Florida Senate’s committee on ethics and elections.
* “(Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis’) consideration of Richard Corcoran as commissioner of education could not be more polarizing.”–Michael Gandolfo, president of the Pinellas County Classroom Teachers Association.
* “We see this as a historic shift that will allow us now to go after significant new customers.”–Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson, in announcing that Cosco Shipping Lines of China plans to begin sending a container ship a week to Tampa early next year.
* “(The Rays) never had intentions of coming here. It was a ploy to go somewhere else, like Portland, Oregon.”–Tampa City Council member Charlie Miranda.
* “The region is poised to finally accept the fact that we can be great if we just invest in ourselves, and the Rays have to know that this is a region worth investing in. I don’t think that’s lost on them.”–Steve Bernstein, outgoing president of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.
* “You see what this property has grown into. We’re not done yet.”–Seminole Tribe Chairman Marcellus W. Osceola Jr., on the $700 million expansion of the Tampa Seminole Hard Rock & Casino that includes a 15-story hotel tower that’s expected to open in 2019.