Draper Coup Keys

These are not the best of times on our state university campuses. Tuition is going up; budgets are being axed; and key faculty are being wooed like never before.

But USF was able to revel in a major coup with the official announcement that, indeed, the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, a non-profit spin-off of MIT, will be locating to the Tampa Bay Area and setting up shop at USF’s Tampa and St. Petersburg campuses. Draper, which will receive economic incentives totaling $30 million from the state, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and USF’s Research Foundation, will build labs to manufacture miniature biomedical machines. Draper will employ 165 workers, at an average salary of $75,000, at the two locations.

USF President Judy Genshaft attributed the Draper score to two keys: last year’s recruitment of SRI (formerly Stanford Research Institute) to the USF St. Petersburg campus and the catalytic role of the Tampa Bay Partnership.

“The leadership of Draper was well aware of that (SRI) success,” said Genshaft. “The Partnership (in working with Gov. Charlie Crist and local governments) did exactly what it’s supposed to do and deserves tremendous credit for helping create the full funding package quickly and smoothly.”

Genshaft underscored Draper’s priority in exploring micro technologies for health and medicine.

“Let’s be precise,” explained Genshaft. “This initiative is exactly where discovery in health care is going. It harnesses all our ideas for the future – the discoveries of the genome system, new understanding of how medications work, the new delivery systems for medications and treatments personally designed for each patient.

“Instead of guessing about how well a drug will work, physicians will be able to tailor treatment plans for you personally,” she added.

Genshaft noted that such an approach is already the basis of the Moffitt Cancer Center’s “total cancer care” initiative and the outpatient treatment plans under way at the Carol and Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare on the Tampa campus.

Cuban Flights Farce

First, the good news. Due to a lawsuit filed by a group of Florida travel agents against the state of Florida, there will be a temporary lifting of the law that requires them to post a $250,000 bond and disclose the names of clients in order to continue their business of booking flights to Cuba. Before the law was signed this June by Gov. Charlie Crist, all agents, including those providing such legal trips to Cuba, were required to pay a $25,000 bond.

The bad news is that such a Cold War, time-warp piece of legislation was even sent to Crist and that he, indeed, signed it. Obviously the oft-championed “will of the people” was easily subordinated by the will of the usual hardliners in the Cuban exile community. Those whose priorities are not in the best interest of the United States or of Cuban-Americans trying to return to Cuba for their once-every-three-years visit.

The rationale supplied by State Rep. David Rivera, a Republican and Cuban-American who sponsored the bill, is vintage in its disingenuous Administration-speak. Rivera says the law is an “anti-terrorism” bill. Increasing the bond 10 fold, effectively putting people out of business, is an ostensibly appropriate price to pay to expedite passage to any country on the State Department’s list of “state sponsors of terror.”

And, sure enough, Cuba makes the State Department’s hit list. Right there with fellow traveling terrorists such as Iran, Sudan and Syria. What next, a sinister link between Raul Castro and Al Qaeda? Fidel and Hamas? Che and 9/11?

A federal judge will ultimately decide if the Florida law oversteps the bounds of state authority by, in effect, regulating international travel. Too bad overstepping the bounds of fairness and decency doesn’t count.

Charlie Crist ought to be ashamed, for that bill-signing was also a signature veepstakes event.

Obama In St. Pete

In his town hall meeting at St. Petersburg’s historically black Gibbs High School, Barack Obama fielded questions ranging from the treatment of Iraqi veterans and his assessment of “No Child Left Behind” to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and other economic scenarios.

But none of his responses elicited louder, more enthusiastic applause than his pointed comments on the key non-governmental factor in upgrading American education.

Bucs Trump Rays?

Maybe it’s habit or some industry formula. When late July/early August rolls around, the Buccaneers become the lead story on local TV affiliates’ sports’ segments. The stations assign reporters to training camp, and they file away twice daily. So, you don’t bury their efforts – but lead with them. After all, it is that time of the year again, and this is what you budget for.

But this, of course, is still training-camp fluff – with all the Jon Gruden grimaces and self-serving sound bites, as well as predictable story lines about rookies, veterans and Joey Galloway groin pulls.

Most years it’s appropriate. But not this one.

This year the Rays are in first place and a compelling national story. One of the more memorable in years. And yet when the Rays play an actual GAME, it’s odds-on that one or more of the affiliates will still run with the practice-sessions twaddle from DisneyWorld before getting around to the Rays’ result.

Sure, football rules around here, and it is that time, and the Rays usually stink. But, come on, how about being flexible — and professionally discerning — enough to cover significant sports NEWS first — and then the scheduled seasonal features?

More National Cred For Rays

For what it’s worth, the reporter-panelists on ESPN’s “Around The Horn” don’t see the Rays fading from the pennant chase.

When asked (July 31) whether they would “buy” or “sell” the prospect of the Rays actually winning the American League East, two (Tim Cowlishaw and J.A. Adande) “bought” and the other two (Woody Paige and Jay Mariotti) “sold” — with qualifications. The qualifiers: Both could see them making it to the post-season by winning the AL wild card.

Flugtag Soars To Success In Tampa Debut

Now we’ve added “Flugtag” to the Tampa lexicon for that which is festive and funky and fun. Move over Gasparilla and Guavaween.

Actually, the Red Bull Flugtag, a celebration of home-made “flying” machines that drew some 100,000 spectators and three dozen participating teams to downtown recently, could carve out its own unique niche.

Frankly, you can make the case that Gasparilla is increasingly compromised by besotted teens and assorted agitators raining on the parade route, and that Guavaween has morphed from bawdy wit and the creative class to crude clichés and perimeter punks.

If Flugtag returns, and the city certainly hopes so, may it remain what it was two Saturdays ago. A salute to teamwork, youthful exuberance, the creative use of PVC pipe and duct tape, and unadulterated fun. There was no need for a Safe House. Only five misdemeanor arrests.

“For us, it was uneventful,” said Tampa Police Department spokesperson Andrea Davis. “We like uneventful.”

According to Tampa Convention Center Administrator John Moors, the city would love a Flugtag II, but that’s up to Red Bull. “I don’t think they plan a long way in advance,” said Moors. “A year or so – and a fairly limited (Tampa, Chicago, Portland, Ore., in 2008) schedule. “But they definitely had a positive experience here in Tampa,” added Moors. “That record crowd. Who could ask for anything better than that? And it was a whole lot of fun.”

And while nobody outdid Icarus, Flugtag, which began in Vienna, Austria, in 1991, did ascend to new heights on the hilarity scale. The themed entries ranged from Baywatch, Gilligan’s Island, the Red Baron and the Flintstones to a flying roller skate, UT Minaret, fire engine, rubber duckie and a Cuban sandwich. Even Elvis dropped in. Locals, especially students, were well represented — as were out-of-towners from as far as Texas and Massachusetts.

Not to put too serious a point to it, but the timing was more than fortuitous. Given all the usual reasons to be gloomy or cynical, could there have been a better time for laugh therapy? The themed flying machines, the whimsical choreography, the aerial high jinks, the comic splashdowns. It was fun, and it was funny. Thanks.

Too often, in the era of an individually-wired citizenry, the virtual experience and on-line everything, there are decreasing opportunities to literally come together as a community. And as opposed to a game or a concert, this one was free.

It also fostered teamwork – whether among aeronautical engineering students, former lifeguards, firefighters or the generically goofy. Just a guess, but I’d wager that when (not if) Flugtag, The Sequel occurs, competition will feature a number of corporate entrants – the slapstick, team-building counterpart of those who compete in the International Dragon Boat races that have proven so popular.

Flugtag also underscored downtown Tampa as the place to revel with a cause. Where traffic and humidity – if not gravity – can be defied for a good time.

Tampa’s Competition

The good news is that a few weeks ago Tampa was cited as the only Florida city to win a 2008 Outstanding Achievement City Livability Award by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Tampa’s prominent recognition was in the large cities, quality-of-life category — along with Chicago, Honolulu and Seattle.

Among other things, such publicity is an obvious recruiting tool.

The bad news is that first place went to Louisville. The same city that’s trying to eat our lunch by enticing Tampa’s young professionals to “Move to Possibility City.”

Cotanchobee Update

Look closely and you’ll notice it’s not just the Tampa Bay History Center that is under construction near Garrison Channel. Work is also under way on the Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park Project sandwiched between the history center and the existing Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park.

The focal point will be Heroes Plaza, which will commemorate those who sacrificed their lives in war. In addition, there will be memorials to law enforcement and emergency response personnel who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

Project work will also include shoreline restoration and construction of a segment of the Tampa Riverwalk.

Projected completion date is early 2009 – but after the Super Bowl.

Undoing FCAT

It’s a small step, but maybe the new law imposing restrictions on how schools prepare students for the FCAT will prompt a pendulum swing back to pedagogical reason.

If anything, the FCAT has proved that bad things can be done in the good name of accountability, a concept nobody is against. But teaching to a test, pep rallying for a test, attaching inordinate significance to a test and tying school funding to a test should be indefensible.

The new law won’t eliminate all FCAT prepping, but it should curtail the most blatant abuses of practice sessions superceding regular curricular course work. Moreover, high schools’ grades will now reflect other factors, such as graduation rates, in addition to FCAT scores.

It’s a start.

No Snow Job

Much has been written about the class, style, professionalism and good humor of the late Tony Snow. Had Snow, 53 when he died, not been preceded in passing by the lionized Tim Russert, the outpourings of homage would have been more voluminous.

During his 1½ years as White House press secretary, Snow remained well respected and well liked, no minor accomplishments for anyone acting as the Bush Administration’s point man to the gotcha-obsessed, Beltway media.

Further context for Snow’s value is the juxtaposition with his predecessor and successor. He was preceded by ineffective-flack-turned-disillusioned-opportunist-memoirist Scott McClellan. He was succeeded by the lightweight Dana Perino, who has yet to recover from confusing the Cuban Missile Crisis with the Bay of Pigs.

It’s rare that a press secretary can so tangibly upgrade those around him. That speaks volumes for Snow – and the Administration he represented.