Tampa is no stranger to national news — from Teddy Roosevelt prepping for Cuba to the Buccaneers canning of Keyshawn. National correspondents have reported on a wide spectrum of Tampa-generated stories ranging from MacDill’s role in the Cuban Missile Crisis and the war on terror to city council’s efforts in the battle against lap-dancing. Never, [...]
Earlier this year, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani paid a very high-profile visit to Mexico. His consulting firm was there to advise Mexican officials on matters related to crime and endemic corruption. He preached the gospel of zero tolerance. It was a strategy that had brought results in New York — no modest [...]
The world of professional sports is often at odds with logic. It finally prevailed, however, when the Bucs jettisoned Keyshawn Johnson. For several years, one of them a Super Bowl season, “Meshawn” was contributing enough to offset his singularly selfish, sophomoric, the-rules-don’t-apply-to-me attitude. He was valuable enough to negate the classless manner in which he [...]
CLEARWATER — This city wants to be known for more than a great beach, awesome sunsets and a drive-thru downtown. To that end, city officials are aggressively marketing downtown to developers, getting creative with incentive packages and investing in infrastructure amenities. The word has gone out: there are prime parcels — public and private — [...]
Who among us doesn’t ache for all immediately touched by the tragic Terri Schiavo case? Having said that, if I were advising Michael Schiavo, I’d make a couple of suggestions. And they are, admittedly, designed to help carry the day in the court of public opinion. That may seem coldly calculating to some, but isn’t [...]
*The ambiguity over Scott Peterson’s alibi would rule me out as an unbiased juror. Here’s a guy — whose wife is eight months pregnant — trying to decide whether he should play golf or go fishing on Christmas Eve. Next case. *The media need to be more precise when reporting on trial results. Defendants, as [...]
For those family members personally impacted by the “one punch” death last year of 18-year-old Christopher Fannon, the recent mistrial must be agonizing. Jurors deadlocked over whether the freakish, lethal punch — thrown by defendant Alan Thompson, 22 — was a matter of murder or manslaughter. A retrial awaits. But something else lingers on. A [...]
For too many years USF bore the burden of an unfortunate inferiority complex. “South Florida” was a confusing, geographic misnomer. The university was “merely a commuter school.” It was some Brobdingnagian misfit — the biggest school in the country without a football team. It was this area’s “best kept secret.” Etc. No more. USF is [...]
Some folks love nothing more than a really vulgar, really loud, cacophonous performance. Others don’t. That juxtaposition apparently accounts for what happened last weekend at Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg. The “Urban Car Show” tour, featuring rapper 50-Cent, was in concert. It is what it is. A number of those not among the 5,300 [...]
Some folks love nothing more than a really vulgar, really loud, cacophonous performance. Others don’t. That juxtaposition apparently accounts for what happened last weekend at Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg. The “Urban Car Show” tour, featuring rapper 50-Cent, was in concert. It is what it is. A number of those not among the 5,300 [...]
