By Tom Rask, from the Tampa Bay Guardian Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik has violated Florida law every year since he purchased the team by not registering the out-of-state corporation that owns the team with the State of Florida. In doing so, Vinik has avoided paying annual fees …
By Jim Bleyer Promoting local sales tax increases for transit projects will always be a losing struggle in Florida, a group of transportation strategists agreed this week. They attributed voter mistrust of government as the insurmountable barrier to referendum-based tax hikes. That unequivocal assessment was expressed at a funding …
By Jim Bleyer The 65th anniversary celebration of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University’s pharmacy program next month will commemorate excellence as well as longevity. Begun as a modest component in the chemistry department in 1951, FAMU’s College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has blossomed into a nationally acclaimed center …
By Jim Bleyer When Floridians vote this fall, they will enjoy the most far-reaching ballot access in the state’s history, one of the country’s most experienced and high-profile election officials affirmed this week. Ion Sancho, who is retiring this year after serving seven terms as Leon County Supervisor of …
By Jim Bleyer Three weeks after 265 Tampa Tribune employees were abruptly fired in a numbingly cold-blooded mass dismissal while the man directly responsible for the carnage hunkers down in a fabricated foxhole shunning questions. Paul Tash, publisher of the Tampa Bay Times has never been at a loss …
By Jim Bleyer Former staffers of the late Tampa Tribune threw themselves a helluva blast Friday, only 10 days after their jobs were abruptly erased in a series of double deals that makes a Three-card Monte con seem like Old Maid. The event was anything but a pity party. …
By Jim Bleyer The public interest and sanity prevailed last night as the Hillsborough County Commission voted 4-3 to jettison the ill-advised, corrupted half-cent sales tax referendum for mass transit infamously known as Go Hillsborough. The decision basically forces the …
By Jim Bleyer The transparent smear campaign by pro-light rail public officials and supportive media outlets against opponents of a Hillsborough County sales tax increase boomeranged on a gargantuan scale this week. The embarrassing fallout traveled 650 miles from Raleigh to Tampa. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, who tried to …
By Jim Bleyer The Tampa Bay Times, without a shred of dignity, ethics, or conscience, continues to bombard the public about the Go Hillsborough transit plan with incomplete, inconsistent, and wildly inaccurate information. It is part of a concerted propaganda effort to confuse voters into taxing themselves for …
By Jim Bleyer With only a vague mass transit plan and no demonstrated need for one involving light rail, Hillsborough County politicians and their corporate cronies who stand to benefit from a $3 billion plus sales tax increase have been resorting to lies, distortions, character assassination, and backroom finagling …
