Previewing tonight’s Heat-Thunder NBA Finals tip-off
OKC looks poised and ready, but Lebron is on fire …
New Obama ad attacking Romney on his record in Massachusetts
To hear any Republican tell it, Barack Obama must tear down Mitt Romney because he's got nothing to boast about in his own record. But strangely, Mitt Romney doesn't run much on what he did in Massachusetts during the only four years he's ever held elective office, instead emphasizing his track record as a turnaround…
Rainy Day Recipes That Wet Your Appetite!
This summer is off to quite a start here in Florida! I'm not sure whether to buy a new beach umbrella or a kayak – what, with all the rain we've been getting! One thing is for sure; I may have to quit my job as a chef to keep my grass under control. The…
Mitch Perry Report 6.12.12 – Jeb Bush out of touch with today’s GOP?
Plus: Jim Norman bowing out?
Jeb Bush admits the obvious: There’s no room for Ronald Reagan in today’s GOP
Jeb Bush's session with reporters this morning at the headquarters of Bloomberg LP in Manhattan has been making the rounds on the Internet, and for good reason: as one of the leaders of his party, his comments matter, and not just to liberals who will seize on some of them. As reported by Buzzfeed, Bush…
DOJ says they’ll sue Florida over voting purge issue- after Scott says he’ll sue the feds
After threatening each other for days, Governor Scott told a Fox News interviewer this afternoon that Florida would sue the federal government to gain access to that Department of Homeland Security database that Scott says will insure an accurate list of non-citizens that the state can remove from the voting rolls. A short time later,…
Is he nuts?!!? Democrat Mark Nash says he can win in the most conservative part of Hillsborough County
Up until late last week, it appeared that all three Republicans up for re-election to the Hillsborough County Commission — Sandy Murman, Victor Crist and Al Higginbotham — were going to run unopposed by a Democrat this fall, though Crist is facing a primary battle from Tea Party activist Sharon Calvert. But with a day…
Division of Elections office says Nina Hayden failed to submit proper paperwork to qualify for ballot
(UPDATED) Thanks to St. Petersblog's Peter Schorsch for forwarding over this information from Chris Cate, spokesman for the Florida Secretary of State's office regarding why Nina Hayden is not listed as having qualified to be on this August's ballot running for the Democratic nomination for Congress in District 13. Ms. Hayden’s paperwork was not complete…
The Gaily News: The latest Charlie Crist gay rumor
Not that anyone will be surprised, but yet another Charlie Crist gay rumor is making the rounds. Rumors are again swirling about the sexuality of the former Florida governor, as the July 30 trial date of Jim Greer, the former Florida Republican Party chairman charged with fraud and money laundering for paying himself to raise…
Hillsborough County Republicans rally behind Rick Scott and his plan to rid state of non-citizen voters
Hillsborough County Republican Party chair Art Wood Over the weekend Rick Scott showed no remorse or reluctance to continue the fight in Florida's battle against the Obama Justice Department regarding the state's quest to purge non-citizens from the voting rolls right now. At a Tea Party Express rally in Tallahassee, the Palm Beach Post's Dara…
#MusicMonday, Vol. 71: Joey Ramone, Hot Water Music, M.Ward, Fiona Apple & More
Find out what the CL Music Team is jamming this fine Monday to rocket launch the work week. Click here to check out previous entries. Gabe – Joey Ramone, Ya Know? (2012)Brand new collection of never-before released material from the inimitable Ramones lead vocalist, Joey Ramone. Various guest artists lend their talents to this collection…
McCain blasts White House on Syria: “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry”
In Syria, at least three major mass killings have been reported in recent weeks, the most notorious being the murder last month of more than 100 civilians, mostly women and children, in the central town of Houla. And for the first time, there were clashes on Friday in the capital of Damascus. Yesterday the Syrian…
Mitch Perry Report 6.11.12 – A muted thumbs-up for Prometheus
There was lots going on this weekend, both in Tampa Bay and out in the greater world. As rain continued to pummel Tampa early Friday night, thousands of cars were clogging up the Dale Mabry North exit on I-275 to go see a soccer match between the U.S. national team and Antigua and Barbuda (the…
DVD Review: Don’t Go in the Woods
Some movies are indie productions for a reason.
Review: Bon Iver enchants and awes at the Straz Center
A wrap-up with photos from the Thurs., June 7 concert.
After Wisconsin, bold talk by Republicans about ending public-sector unions
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels In the aftermath of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's success at keeping his job for at least another two years — a vote prompted by anger over his reform of collective bargaining rights for public sector employees last year — lots of questions are being asked about organized labor's future in America,…
Review: Sigur Rós, Valtari
The sixth and latest by Sigur Rós lacks the fundamental essence that has made the Icelandic post-rockers one of the most well-respected bands in indie circles. Where is the heart, the vigor, the verve? Nearly an hour long, Valtari is missing the visceral influences that helped establish their name. It's beautiful, in that Sigur Rós…
Reel Projections: Forget Prometheus, give us Django
Plus: Transformers 4 gets a director.
Blu-ray review: Safe House with Denzel Washington
There is absolutely nothing original about Safe House. The characters, story and cinematography all take a familiar path that we know from countless espionage thrillers. Much like main character Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), a fugitive C.I.A. agent who is surprised by little and impressed by nothing, audience members may come away from Safe House with…
Stadium envy
Miami’s new baseball palace makes you-know-what in St. Pete look oh-so-bad.
Big, bright Madagascar 3 entertains
Ben Stiller and Chris Rock return for more animated silliness.
The other Bay area
What’s San Francisco got that St. Pete doesn’t? Well, to start with…
Dining Guide: Late night in St. Pete
Hungry after midnight? Try these great places that are open into the wee hours.
Bear with us
The sordid tale of two men and a special rug.
A touching Intouchables
The charming French import has been held over at Tampa Theatre.
Blu-ray review: John Carter journeys home
The Blu-ray release offers insight into the harried development of Disney’s box office disaster.
The Zombies, featuring Colin Blundstone and Rod Argent, to play in Largo on July 27
The Largo Cultural Center show is the first of only 11 shows in North America on their 50th Anniversary Tour.
Missing in action: Vanishing Point
American Stage’s latest succeeds on many points but makes excitement disappear.
Three for three: Gulfport, St. Pete, and, now, Clearwater approve domestic partnerships
It's been quite a few months for same-sex couples in Pinellas County. Last night, the Clearwater City Council unanimously approved the creation of a domestic partnership registry. Earlier that same day, St. Petersburg's City Council approved similar legislation. Both votes to create registries in those cities came on the heels of Gulfport, which passed its…
Mitch Perry Report 6.8.12 – King James’ moment
LeBron James has taken a heaping of abuse for how he left the Cleveland Cavaliers almost two years ago to "take his talents to South Beach" and suit up for millions of dollars to play hoops for the Miami Heat. With teammates Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, sportswriters blew up this latest "DreamTeam" as perhaps…
Standoff between Florida and the feds regarding voting purge continues
We're still in a holding pattern regarding the voting purge of non-citizens in Florida. All of the Supervisor of Elections throughout the state have halted such investigations. But it's not over, not by a long shot. The Department of Justice has told Governor Rick Scott to cut it out. He, essentially, has told the feds,…
Saying farewell to fair-weather men
The past two weeks I've written about fair-weather men who pop back into your life periodically to remind you how much they wish they could be with you, provided circumstances were different. The circumstances are not the problem. These men are. If they truly wanted to be with you, they would find a way to…
Save the Mai Tai
A cocktail anthropologist talks Tiki this weekend in St. Pete Beach.
Checking in on the Seattle International Film Festival — Part Two
Our traveling critic reviews two films making a splash on the festival circuit.
New PPP poll has Connie Mack trailing Bill Nelson by 13 points
Connie Mack IV The campaign manager for Florida GOP Senate nominee Connie Mack has blown off his Republican competitors, the Tampa Bay Times, Bay News 9 and the electorate by declaring to the Times that it was nice that they had made arrangements to cover a Republican Senate debate on July 26, but it wouldn't…
Trinity Cafe move to V.M. Ybor continues to reverberate at Tampa City Council
The Trinity Cafe's upcoming move into V.M. Ybor has roiled that neighborhood, with dozens of denizens from the community speaking out at recent Tampa City Council meeting against the establishment moving to a new spot on E. 17 Avenue and Nebraska. The residents fear the influx of homeless people will adversely affect the community. Although…
Street smarts
Tes One, BASK and a posse of prominent urbanites get legit recognition — finally.
The Gaily News: St. Pete City Council unanimously approves domestic partnership registry
Just in time for Pride month, this morning the St. Petersburg City Council approved the creation of a domestic partnership registry. The registry will grant registered same-sex and heterosexual unmarried couples hospital visitation rights and allow them to make medical decisions for one another, including end-of-life decisions, as well as funeral and burial arrangements. Gulfport…
Alan Grayson says Occupy movement doesn’t need advice from him
Last Saturday, Occupy Tampa hosted a regional general assembly to which members from other local Occupy groups were invited to share ideas moving forward. The meeting was the first formal Occupy Tampa event at Lykes Gaslight Park since the group first began its activities there last fall. It coincided with some high-profile media re-examinations of…
Activists in St. Pete protest Rep. Bill Young’s earmarks for defense contractors
Congressman Bill Young A dreary afternoon downpour did not stop the Florida Consumer Action Network and associated activists from protesting U.S. Rep Bill Young’s earmarking of millions of dollars to defense contractors, several of whom have local ties to the Tampa Bay area. The group of about 30 protesters gathered outside of the offices of…
Mitch Perry Report 6.7.12 – Voting issues uber alles
Will Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi sue the Obama administration regarding their reluctance to share that Dept. of Homeland Security database to review non-citizens on the voting rolls in Florida? It seems like a showdown is inevitable between the feds and Florida, after Rick Scott sent out his Secretary of State last night to say…
Off the streets and in recovery
An approach to chronic homelessness that actually works? A Hillsborough task force is banking on it.
Crepe God almighty!
In which the ordinary pancake dies and goes to culinary heaven.
Farewell, and thanks for all the fish
Our critic looks back at seven years of restaurant reviewing.
It’s a Man Man’s world
Philly’s favorite avant rockers bring their wildly absurdist style to Ybor.
Rick Scott doubles down on voter purge
As anticipated, Florida Governor Rick Scott has responded to last week's call by the Justice Department to stop its crackdown on non-citizens from the voting rolls, and not surprisingly, he's not abiding by their request. "The Department of State respectfully disagrees with DOJ's position," Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner wrote in the state's first…
Album review: Rec Center, Tin Year
Rec Center is made up of vet local musicians who've been playing the scene in one outfit or another for upwards of a dozen years — Tampa Bay's best known New Granada Records label leaders Susie and Keith Ulrey (Pohgoh, The Maccabees), Brian Roberts (Hanksaw, Murder Suicide Pact), Melissa Grady (Candy Bars), and Michael Waksman…
Florida LWV back in the business now of registering voters
Six days after federal judge Robert Hinkle blocked the section of the elections bill passed in 2011 that would have given voter-registration groups only 48 hours to turn registration forms over to the state-or risk severe fines, members of the League of Women Voters held press events to announce that they were back in the…
Van Jones led group to lobby Rubio & Nelson to support legislation to help underwater home owners
Van Jones According to the real estate website Zillow, over 46 percent of Florida homeowners are underwater, meaning people owe more on their home loan than what the house is worth. That's dramatically higher than the national average of 31.4 percent. Currently there are three bills in the U.S. Senate that attempt to deal with…
This Week in Food and Drink
Beer Run, Carnival Tampa, Yoga and Cooking and more.
Hillsborough Commissioner Kevin Beckner accuses his colleagues of succumbing to the “politics of prejudice”
(UPDATED-see below).Nobody likes to be accused of prejudice, least of all lawmakers, as sensitive as they are to their public image. But if you're not worried about any blowback, why worry? Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner said during Wednesday's Board meeting that his colleagues had "succumbed to the politics of prejudice," citing their refusal once…
Alan Grayson speaks out in St. Pete on the voting purge, Rick Scott, Republican policies
Grayson in St. Pete Even though his political career as an elected official lasted all of two years, Alan Grayson's attacks on Republicans made him a rock star in progressive circles, and the bête noir of the GOP, who spent millions of dollars to defeat his re-election bid for Congress in 2010. Undaunted, Grayson is…
Conservative alternative to AARP running ad slamming Bill Nelson
Although they've been around for two decades, the seniors advocacy group 60 Plus Association is trying to definitely make an impact in this year's congressional elections. Portraying themselves as the conservative alternative to the AARP, the D.C. based advocacy group says it's ideology is for a "free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to seniors…
Mitch Perry Report 6.6.12 – Alan Grayson unloads in St. Pete
While Democrats were feeling gloomy watching the election returns from Wisconsin last night, they were energized in St. Petersburg, where former Orlando area Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson held forth for an hour last night on a variety of subjects, including the voting purge being conducted by Governor Rick Scott (link to come). CL was in…
Prometheus falls apart
In space, no one can hear you yawn.
Review: Patti Smith, Banga
To solely refer to Patti Smith as "the godmother of punk rock," as she's often called, is to sell her short. The street urchin/poetess who was a major player and a focal point of the gritty New York City musical uprising in the mid-1970's has created a body of work in her nearly 40-year career…
Leonard Pitts Jr. before his Inkwood pit stop
The novelist, Pulitzer winner and Miami Herald columnist talks about his inspirations and being a “white supremacist chew toy.”
Rep. Kathy Castor speaks with Tampa business leaders on pay inequality
Rep Kathy Castor speaks with local buisness leaders in Tampa U.S. Rep Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, convened with female community leaders Tuesday morning, discussing legislation on equal pay for women and local solutions to income inequality. The roundtable discussion, held at the BT&T bank building in West Tampa, included representatives from several local women worker organizations,…
Nina Hayden-Jessica Ehrlich forum at Tiger Bay (mostly) a civil affair
Shanna Gillette Nina Hayden & Jessica Ehrlich In a little more than two months, Democratic voters in Florida's newly drawn Congressional district 13 will choose between former Washington D.C. congressional staffer Jessica Ehrlich and Nina Hayden, a former Pinellas County School Board member. The winner will get the honor of taking on veteran Congressman Bill…
Taco Bus adds a stop at USF Tampa
Plus: St. Pete’s Café Bohemia changes hands, and more.
East Lake Community Library looking for more money
The East Lake Community Library could be shrinking its hours if the county can’t find any more money. At Tuesday’s county commission meeting, Patricia Perez, director of the East Lake Community Library, addressed a balanced budget for next year and how she plans to rebuild the reserve fund depleted by the library’s recent constructions. Perez…
Here Come the Cans
The can revolution continues. More and more great beers are lining the shelves dressed in aluminum instead of glass, and the choices to bring to the beach or poolside seem to expand every week. With summer starting, there are more options than ever for canned craft beer. Still not sold on the benefits of cans…
New Music Tuesday! (June 5): Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Brandi Carlile, The Hives & more
A boatload of new releases kick off the summer (audio & video included)
Proposition 8, marriage equality fight headed for the Supreme Court
Today the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it will not reconsider a February ruling that struck down California's Proposition 8, a voter-mandated initiative that strips gays and lesbians in that state of the right to marry there. The appeals court's refusal to revisit the case paves the way for the fight for marriage…
What to do: Tampa Bay events for May 31-June 7
There's hot, saucy fun in the Bay area land this weekend and next week — from sultry nightlife photos in Paris to a festival devoted to all things pepper in Pinellas. Vanishing Point opens this week at American Stage. Speaking of hot dish, comedy's fire engine-redhead-slash-gossip maven-slash-pain in the rear Kathy Griffin yuks it up…
