It’s a given — or it sure in hell should be — that this area’s image, attractiveness and future will take a major hit if we remain in a state of mess transit. “Keeping up with Detroit” is not exactly mantra material. However, there’s another reputation stalker afoot: the Hillsborough County Commission. The concerns being [...]

Sen. John McCain was well within his province to criticize the Medicare Advantage (grandfather) strategy of Florida Sen. Bill Nelson as inappropriate, home-state help. Indeed, it had been labeled “Gator-aid” by many a non-Floridian politician. Fair game. A number of vested interests are going to have to take one for the team for meaningful health-care [...]

With the NCAA basketball tournament now in mid-madness, these early observations. * Cinderella scenarios are fun; they are also as inevitable as they are intriguing. But one reason why there are low-seed long shots and high-seed favorites is entry requirements, eligibility standards and definition of “student athlete.” The graduation rate for basketball players at the [...]

* “The pig isn’t guilty for what poverty brings.” — Father Luis Figueroa Vinet, deacon at Concepcion’s main cathedral, in explaining post-earthquake looting in Chile. * “The mighty superpower is a poodle of Israel.” — Patrick Buchanan, Creators Syndicate, on relationship between the U.S. and Israel. * “If China holds enough of your paper, does [...]

This much  seems certain about the next governor of Florida, whether it is Attorney General Bill McCollum or Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. Neither will touch two topics that need more than touching if Florida’s best interest is to be served: an overhaul of the state’s antiquated revenue-raising formula and an enlightened self-interest approach to [...]

With unemployment at 11.9 per cent statewide and 13.1 per cent in the Tampa Bay area, we all could use a dose of good jobs-news anywhere we can find it. The current issue of Time magazine at least features some hopeful scenarios. According to IHS Global Insight, whose projections are based on a large-scale macroeconometric [...]

When it comes to a Legislative session, it’s a given that the annual Tallahassee gathering will feature its share of problematic bills. They can range from the absurdly unnecessary to the recklessly dangerous. This year’s Exhibits A and B would arguably be the ban on bestiality and the proscription on adoptive agencies asking prospective parents [...]

Technically, Mayor Pam Iorio has one more State of the City speech to give. But the March 2011 address will be largely “retrospective,” she acknowledged. The last one to come with a bully pulpit was last week’s.   After a shout-out to city employees (a number of whom were in attendance) and their “sacrifice together” [...]

There’s a lot not to like at what has been going on at St. Petersburg’s embattled John Hopkins Middle School. By all accounts, it’s a mess borne of chronically disruptive students, also known as “hoodlums” to the euphemism challenged. A weak administration and irresponsible parents are enabling, powder-keg factors.     But here’s something to [...]

Thanks, 51st state. It’s beyond effrontery that Israel would choose Vice President Joe Biden’s fence-mending visit to unveil plans for new housing in East Jerusalem. Everyone knows the ultimate genesis of the Arab-Israeli/American animus is the Palestinian quagmire. It’s a long shot that the U.S., deeply invested in a two-state scenario, can be perceived as [...]