Recently Vanderbilt University made news for something other than good academics and bad football. Its chancellor, Gordon Gee, announced some rather revolutionary changes regarding athletics. He left no doubts about his intent when he proclaimed that “there is a wrong culture in athletics, and I’m declaring war on it.” The opening skirmish was to kill [...]
First the good news. Two Saturdays ago more than 2,300 volunteers combed the county’s riverbanks and bay shores during the Florida Coastal Cleanup. Included were a number of high school students learning first hand how to be good stewards of the fragile, coastal environment they have inherited. Now the bad news. It was that necessary. [...]
Congratulations to USF’s Leslie Elsasser, a graduate student in the College of Fine Arts. She recently left for a year in India as a Fulbright Fellowship grantee. She is USF’s first College of Fine Arts student to earn the prestigious grant. Elsasser, a native of New Jersey who grew up in New York, is already [...]
Granted, we probably need a break from the usual news. Coronet, TECO poles, Acton, STAR project, desal, Toughman, taxes, coyotes, stormwater, Al-Arian, Zook and garden variety accidents, stick-ups, murders and fires. But enough of snakes — as news and as neighbors. Within the last two months a 12-foot Burmese python and a six-foot boa constrictor [...]
It’s official. Ye Mystic Crucible is over. Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla has let it be known that it’s now OK with them if other krewes in pirate attire continue to dress as pirates for the annual pirate invasion. Apparently Ye Mystic Krewe feels assured that it will only be blamed for disorderly conduct by [...]
For once, I’d like to get through an entire major college or pro football game without it seeming like a BET video had somehow been spliced in. Enough of the punk gibberish and the boorish gestures on the field. Enough of players “celebrating” the most mundane of accomplishments in the most preening, “look-at-me” manner. And [...]
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Robin Roberts, the old Philadelphia Philly Hall of Fame pitcher. The Temple Terrace resident has a new book out, “My Life in Baseball.” I noted it was absent the requisite sensational or scandalous elements. It was a nice read by a nice guy. Roberts claimed he didn’t [...]
That audible sigh of relief you just heard likely came from Tampa Electric Co. officials. If so, it’s probably the prospect that TECO and its transmission totem poles could have real competition for unflattering publicity, corporate ham-handedness and headlines that won’t go away. CSX Transportation is on the case. Expect to see, hear and infer [...]
It should surprise no one that Mayor Pam Iorio, whose instincts are “hands-on” and “right away,” would personally intercede in a site plan for The Bellamy on Bayshore, a 26-story condominium tower. The 64-unit condo, between Knights and Wallcraft avenues, is properly zoned, but its main access — on Knights — is an issue. Knights [...]
It should surprise no one that Mayor Pam Iorio, whose instincts are “hands-on” and “right away,” would personally intercede in a site plan for The Bellamy on Bayshore, a 26-story condominium tower. The 64-unit condo, between Knights and Wallcraft avenues, is properly zoned, but its main access — on Knights — is an issue. Knights [...]
