A Prosecutor’s Catch-22
A murder. Two witnesses. One witness did it; the other's probably innocent. Each says the other did it. All other evidence is subtle. The prosecutor is not sure which one did it. The murderer can only be convicted if "beyond a reasonable doubt." That's what's going on in a Tallahassee trial this week. The judge's…
Steve Jobs Phones Home
You have to hand it to Apple Computer, Inc. With the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in full swing in Las Vegas, Apple still manages to grab the headlines with its own MacWorld Conference & Expo. The site of Steve Job’s annual keynote speech and a launching pad for new Apple products, MacWorld is sort of…
Morning Roundup
Go Gators edition: You knew this was coming: "My Box in a Box." Borderline NSFW The Trib, not content with sucking up to Mayor Pam Iorio, sucks up to Mayor Rick Baker, at the expense of homeless advocates who are criticized for picketing against the St. Pete mayor's record on homeless issues. Mr. W eats…
Charlie’s In; Randy’s Out; Coach Takes Himself Off the Field
Until yesterday, Randy Baron was "99 percent" sure he would jump out of the citywide Tampa City Council District 1 race to run in his neighborhood's smaller district, No. 6. That changed Monday after the long-expected entry of former City Councilman Charlie Miranda into the race. Baron told the St. Petersburg Times he will stay…
Insurance Industry Laying Out Its Order of Battle
Rising property values (total in Florida: (gulp) $2 trillion), plus storm-intensive seasons ahead (because El Ni–o can't last forever), mean insurance premiums are underpriced, no matter what every living Floridian thinks, according to economists working for the insurance companies. The ferocious battle this year will last until such time as the insurance industry figures out…
Morning Roundup
Our first post-Tony Romo roundup, and it's slim pickings: (Allegedly) drunk dude plows through a neighborhood, and Ben Montgomery makes us think we were there. How in the hell did the other paper miss this story?? Mitt Romney picks up a big South Florida fundraiser. State of Sunshine logs in with some interesting legislation that…
Insurance Companies Inform Our Naive Mr. Crist Who REALLY Governs Florida
Gov. Crist has had a five-star week so far. If he keeps this pace on transparency in gov't, Florida's openness advocates will have to move to Georgia to find business. If he's serious about demystifying official language, expect some Florida lawyers and bureaucrats to consider maybe opening restaurants. But he also told us voters on…
$1 a Day to Get Out of Phys Ed
Last yr, two p.e. teachers at Ernest Ward Middle School in Escambia County pleaded no contest to schemes charging students a buck a day to get credit for class without dressing out. It was reported that one of 'em, Terence Braxton, had made $230. Braxton got probation and teaching-license-revocation, and yesterday the other one got…
Apocalypse Near, Though Secularists Try to Say It’s El Ni–o
The Tampa Bay area had its warmest December in 75 yrs and its highest December 31 temp ever. Jacksonville's annual New Year's "Polar Plunge" took place in 70-degree weather, 61-degree water. An Associated Press poll reports that 25 percent of Americans think it "at least somewhat likely" that Jesus will return to Earth in 2007…
The Tripod
Name of Kama Sutra Position: The Tripod Getting into the position: The man stands, pinning his partner against a wall or stationary object. Then he pulls up his lover's knee until he is able to penetrate her yoni with the force and vigor of a young jackrabbit pumped up with steroids and Viagra. On a…
Morning Roundup
Today's tip sheet: At one time, Shannon Behnken reminds us, there were 30 new condos proposed for downtown Tampa. My guess is this one is the last we'll see in the CDB district for quite some time, for a total of 3 in that crucial redevelopment area. NY Post says someone on Charlie Crist's staff…
The Best Reporter
Who's the best reporter working in the Tampa Bay market right now? Investigative scribe John Allman at the Trib? New Narrativista Ben Montgomery at the Times? Enviro reporter and wetlands advocate Craig Pittman? Mayoral needler Mike Deeson at Tampa Bay's 10, or longtime fixture Warren Elly at Fox 13? Media critic Eric Deggans? Someone else?…
WTF?
Time for some shameless pimping: Check out my Top 10 What The F&*%? moments in politics in 2006 here. Did I miss any?
Iorio Formally Announces Bid
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio formally announced her re-election bid this morning, touting her first term accomplishments to lower crime rates, revitalize neighborhoods and bring residential development to downtown: Four years ago I said that “I want my administration to be a can-do organization of real accomplishments – making life better for people in real, tangible…
The Golda standard
A one-woman show about the formidable idealist Golda Meir
CL‘s picks for the week’s best shows
Toothless George, Collective Soul, The Almost
Spins
The Beatles, the Autumn Defense, the New Mexican Revolution
Letters to the editor
Homeless, Overrated
St. Pete scrapped community policing
Now what?
Grapely creative
What to do with leftover wine
No New York
Various artists
No pod people
The trouble with tenants, and how to find them
Events around the city
Wine dinners and tastings
Pocket full of quarters
My search for the perfect laundromat
Lions and tigers and clowns, oh my!
The circus
Why did Ethiopia invade Somalia?
Your War Questions Answered
Mind power
WORKSHOP
Upcoming concerts
Johnny Mathis, Bottle Rockets, Less Than Jake
Deep purple
The prices and the descriptions may puzzle, but The Grape’s got a fine wine idea
CL‘s must-do list for the week
Coffee concert, Cinderella, Bob Seger
Exile in mainstream
Arturo Sandoval, Karla Bonoff, Marcia Ball
In Search of Harmelodious Rex
Dragonfly Ripple
Soviet domination
Saddam, Gerald Ford, Rosie
The many sounds of Pablo
COMEDY
Cleaned out
So you wanna be a laundromat operator?
South Tampa Face-Off
A tough — and well-funded — race is shaping up in the March city elections
The best DVD year ever?
Twenty DVDs that might have saved your life in 2006
Live at the Office
Bootleg
Happy with the blues
R&B vet Bettye LaVette is having the best year of her career
Capsule reviews of recently released movies
Freedom Writers, We Are Marshall
Scents and sensibility
Perfume
Molly’s charity
THEATER
The human touch
Self-expression informed the year’s sci-fi cinema
Two for the road
Head to Lakeland to see two of Central Florida’s best artists in peak form
