It’s now a quadrennial happening: not just the Winter Olympic Games — but their increasing spectator-sport appeal. Through the first week of the Vancouver Games, NBC reports that more than 160 million Americans – or more than half the country – have watched the Olympics. And I know I’m not the only viewer [...]
When it comes to Cuba, the deja view from Washington remains frustratingly familiar. Last week’s talks on immigration between notably high-level American and Cuban officials in Havana showed promise. Such talks had been suspended for six years. The promise imploded into polemics and recriminations, however, after U.S. officials met with Cuban dissidents. Explained [...]
“And I stated since the very first day I came in to anybody who would ask, and I was asked quite often, we’re not going to be there through 2027. It just can’t happen. Baseball won’t allow it. Our partners in baseball won’t allow it. The other teams won’t allow it. And it’s just not [...]
It was not one of democracy’s finest hours. Not the sort of democratic dynamic we like to lecture other countries about, that’s for sure. More than 200 supporters turned out at the Columbia Restaurant recently for a fundraiser for incumbent Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White. THAT Kevin White. Of tapping-into-campaign-funds-to-buy-stylish-threads fame. Of being-on-the-losing-end-of-a-sleazy-sexual-harassment-suit renown. [...]
At some point, key St. Petersburg officials will surely see that when it comes to finding a permanent home for the Tampa Bay Rays, Hillsborough County interests aren’t so much meddling – as they are engaging on an issue of overwhelming regional importance. Surely. St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster and the City Council should, [...]
There’s tragedy — planes crash and local soldiers die — and then there’s this: A pineapple grenade blows up in the face of a 9-year-old, Lakeland boy. The boy’s mother had bought it at an auction. The boy’s father helped him fill it with black firecracker powder. The boy pulled it off a shelf [...]
I hadn’t intended to write about Sarah Palin this week. Honest. For one thing, I touched on the poster lass for populist prostitution last week. For another, I preferred not to re-conjure the implications of Palin’s ongoing, political reconnaissance – from book tour idol to Tea Party icon to NASCAR avatar — so soon, [...]
Amid the recriminations and post-mortems in the aftermath of that tragic luge accident at the Vancouver Olympics, one question was notably not asked. Is this event necessary? Forget for now the relative inexperience and strategic mistakes made by the 21-year-old victim from the Republic of Georgia. Or that red flags were unfurled all week [...]
The University of Tampa recently announced that it was adding a new Student Health Center as well as another academic building. It’s all part of accommodating a campus that has now reached an enrollment of 6,300. And yet it was barely two decades ago that expansion and new construction were hardly agenda items at [...]
Item: Last Thursday police arrested 15 people at Tampa’s Mirage nightclub. Charges ranged from drug possession and probation violation to felon with a firearm. Item: The week before two Mirage patrons were shot and hospitalized. The arrested suspect was accused of pointing a gun at an officer and trying to run over another. [...]
