By Jim Bleyer With a threadbare resumé of public service and a record of voting for big business and against the environment, Gwen Graham has resorted to shouting that “it’s time” Florida elected a female governor. She has reminded audiences at every campaign stop that she is a woman …
By Chris Paradies We live in a tourist paradise. Award-winning beaches grace the shores along our sunny, palm-lined stretch of the Gulf of Mexico. Our families enjoy everything that Hillsborough County offers: parks, recreation fields, camping, and plenty of sunshine! As the founder and president of a small firm that helps …
The 1964 Civil Rights Act—the racists that lead the Florida Democratic Party might want to read it. By Jim Bleyer If the Florida Democratic Party doesn’t clean up its act—and soon—it might as well gird for a November calamity. The Blue Wave that pundits expect nationally could amount to …
By Jim Bleyer An already energized throng of more than 500 Hillsborough County Democrats, anticipating that the much hyped Blue Wave will wash over Florida in November, saved most of its enthusiasm and cheering Saturday night for gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. All four primary candidates spoke for only a …
By Sharon Calvert (from Eye on Tampa Bay) Since Greenlight Pinellas failed in 2014 and Go Hillsborough failed in 2016, FDOT in Tampa Bay has been doling out millions and millions for more transit studies like it’s Christmas candy. For the moment at least, the strategy has changed to …
By Jim Bleyer First, the bad news. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, the area’s much beloved alternative weekly, was bought out by Euclid Media Group. Known as EMG, it owns a portfolio of nine such city publications including the Orlando Weekly. EMG has shown a penchant for marginalizing and, in …
By Scott Myers, Contributor Tampa Bay Rays owner Stu Sternberg behaves as one would expect of a Major League Baseball owner: pitching threats, illusion, and deceit to extort cities. Declaring the price of a new stadium will increase with each passing year, Sternberg preposterously presented the possibility of a …
By Jim Bleyer Former Democratic state party chairman Stephen Bittel made disparaging remarks about black legislators at a major party fundraiser last June 17. There were no repercussions. He apologized for his racially derogatory tirade and then it was business as usual for the Florida Democratic Party. Five months later …
By Jim Bleyer After decades of being shaken down by sports franchises, their billionaire owners, and professional sports leagues, sensible cities are refusing to pay subsidies to keep or lure a professional sports team. There is one exception: Las Vegas. It appears to be the most likely destination for …
By Jim Bleyer Tampa mayoral candidate Ed Turanchik kicked off his campaign Monday emphasizing housing, innovation, and transit as the underpinning of a year-long quest to lead an underachieving city. He unveiled the “HIT” show before a crowd of 500 high-powered civic movers and shakers, several of whom are …
By Jim Bleyer There were two notable developments this week that strained the trust of even the most gullible reader. First, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gwen Graham, running third and steadily plummeting in the primary polls, claimed she is the only candidate from her …
By Jim Bleyer The March for Our Lives, Tampa edition, drew an estimated 13,000 participants with candidates and would-be hopefuls making a firm statement by their presence—-or absence. From reports gleaned from the field, not one Republican supported the Millennial and Reform Generations, giving credence to widespread accusations that …
By Jim Bleyer Elitist David Straz doesn’t like playing by the rules. For at least the second consecutive month, the putative Tampa mayoral candidate’s PAC filed an incomplete financial report with the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. The billionaire, who made his fortune buying and selling banks, said he …
By Jim Bleyer In the 141 years since Reconstruction, there have been eight black U. S. senators — Cory Booker, Tim Scott, Kamala Harris, William “Mo” Cowan, Edward Brooke, Carol Mosley Braun, Barack Obama and Roland Burris — and two black governors, Douglas …
By E. Eugene Webb PhD Republished from Bay Post Internet In a last-minute move Senator Jeff Brandes R of St. Petersburg managed to get some transportation language added in the tax cut bill approved by the State Legislature. Details of the legislation are in this Tampa Bay Times editorial. …
By Jim Bleyer The relentless inaccuracies from the Tampa Bay Times regarding Andrew Gillum has gone so far over the top that local political observers are suggesting that former U.S. Senator Bob Graham’s is behind the paper’s defamatory, insulting, and racist reporting and headlines. All the signs …
By Jim Bleyer Bill Nelson’s campaign for a fourth term in the U. S. senate is off to a rocky start. Democratic operatives are duplicating failed strategies of the past, strategies that grow more ineffective with the passage of time. The 2010 gubernatorial campaign pitted Florida’s CFO Alex …
By Jim Bleyer One spends millions to improve the environment; the other greases the palms of public officials in exchange for …
By Jim Bleyer The generation, born from 2000 to the present, is known by sociologists as “The New Silents” or “Gen Z.” Thoughtless. Insulting, Inaccurate. This is the generation that has challenged pay-for-play politicians, confronted their socially unconscious elders, and sparked a mini-revolution. Media coverage of its activism over …
By Jim Bleyer While every company with a decent, moral corporate culture severs formal ties with the National Rifle Association in the wake of the horrific shooting that took the lives of 17 Florida high school students, FedEx stands alone. Their executives are obstinate, insensitive, and deceitful. But …
