Sympathy for the deviant: Visiting my friend, the sex offender, in prison
“More than the prisons on TV, the place resembled a nursing home: a catacomb of decaying life…”
Mike Suarez supports his colleagues upcoming trip to Cuba
Mike Suarez Back in the fall of 2011, Mike Suarez was the only member of the Tampa City Council who objected to the board sending a letter to the Cuban government after Tampa International Airport resumed direct flights to Havana for the first time in nearly half a century. So naturally with three of his…
Residents at RV park in Largo fight to stay in their homes
Jessica and Peter Emr in front of Largo City Hall Residents who live at the Briarwood RV park in Largo, off Seminole Boulevard and Ulmerton Road, went before the Largo City Commission on Tuesday night with a simple message: Don't throw us out on the streets. The property owner, Steve McConihay, wants to turn the…
The Gaily News: Delaware legalizes gay marriage
Plus: Federal gay adoption bill in the works and New England Patriots’ owner says he’d have no problem hiring a gay football player.
Mitch Perry Report 5.8.13: Stop calling Mark Sanford’s victory “amazing”
Plus: Riverwalk Tower, a new film commissioner and more …
Photo Review: Funshine Music Festival (Sunday)
Rock and rides at the Funshine Music Festival!
Pinellas commissioners waive $5 fee for Fort De Soto’s 50th anniversary
This Saturday, May 11, marks the 50th anniversary of Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County (the park resides in Tierra Verde, just outside the St. Pete city limits). Park officials are preparing for a festive day that includes a sea oats planting, a barbeque, a re-dedicatory ceremony, live music and more. To top it…
New Music Tuesday! (May 7): She & Him, Deerhunter, Fitz and the Tantrums, Little Boots + more
Releases out this week, with audio & video.
Tampa officials dedicated to hiring a dynamic film commissioner
Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike was filmed in parts of the Tampa Bay area in 2011 On Monday afternoon, the newly formed Tampa Hillsborough Film and Digital Media Commission announced a nationwide search for an "experienced industry professional to run the reorganized commission." (If you're interested, you can apply here.) "We need a real pro, somebody…
Mitch Perry Report 5.7.13: The GOP counter offensive against immigration reform begins
Plus transit news, Greenpeace and more …
Hillsborough transit agency members question how much vision is in their budget
HART board member Karen Jaroch The good news as far as officials with Hillsborough County's transit agency HART are concerned, is that, unlike in recent years, there is no danger of services being cut or reduced in the future. In fact, the talk is of expanding current service, including more hours on the weekends and…
Kathy Castor plays Hardball
Tampa Congresswoman Kathy Castor visits MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.
Greenpeace in Tampa organizes activism training
The goal was to educate volunteers on Greenpeace and its mission along with improving grassroots activism skills.
HART Board wants Gov. Scott to veto Latvala bill on merger study with PSTA
Complaints about Tallahassee not caring about local control were expressed once again.
Mitch Perry Report 5.6.13: LeBron James takes home more hardware
Hope everyone had a good weekend – how can you not dig these uncommonly low-humidity days rolling into the first week of May? By the way, I discovered something about myself yesterday. I can't deal with films like "Iron Man 3" at all anymore. Life is too short to watch a lot of stuff get…
Howard Kurtz ‘fesses up on his own show
Every reporter has made mistakes. It's nothing that any of us who do this for a living are happy or proud about it, but it happens. Hopefully when it does, it's not too huge, and a correction can be made promptly. But when it's the country's most highly visible media critic who screws up, it's…
Pooch Olympics: Photos from the Incredible Dog Challenge
Baxter, a Belgian Malinois, jumps in a distance challenge and is about to sink his teeth into the prize. He was "diving" in one of two events requiring dogs to leap as far as they could from a 40-foot dock into a 19,000-gallon pool. The baton Baxter is about to chomp on was suspended from…
McCain: We need a select committee to get to the bottom of Benghazi
Thought the controversy over Benghazi was over? Not by a long shot. Over the weekend the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, California Republican Darrell Issa, announced that three State Department officials will testify before his committee this week (May 8). Issa and many Republicans say that the American public still doesn't…
Florida LWV hails “historic” election reform bill
On the Legislature's final day of the 2013 session, Florida lawmakers approved a comprehensive elections reform bill that met with the approval of the League of Women Voters, who declared in a press release that the new laws will "ensure that Florida elections will no longer become fodder for late night television." The bill passed…
Gary and Amy Moran leave Wimauma
“You can’t have two different drivers driving the same bus,” Moran said Friday.
War Horse at the Straz: It’s magical
Photos © Brinkhoff/Mögenburg The amazing Joey. There are many things that could turn people away from seeing War Horse. A play about a horse? Eh. A play about a horse that uses puppetry? Eek. A play about a horse that uses puppetry that is 145 minutes long? Oh, no. But I am glad I didn’t…
Mint juleps and Hunter S. Thompson
Ralph Steadman Ralph Steadman's illustrations from the Kentucky Derby article written by Hunter S. Thompson. "Thousands of raving, stumbling drunks, getting angrier and angrier as they lose more and more money. By midafternoon they'll be guzzling mint juleps with both hands and vomiting on each other between races," Hunter S. Thompson wrote of the Kentucky…
Review: Vintage Trouble throw down the fire at Local 662, St. Petersburg
A look back at the Tue., April 30 show.
Mitch Perry Report 5.3.13 – Soft bills dominate in Tallahassee
Today is the last day of the regular 2013 session of the Florida Legislature, and what are you going to say about what's happened over the past two months? First and foremost, the story is the fact that this ideologically rigid and reactionary Legislature has turned its backs on providing health care insurance for close…
The Cindy
Veronica Danko, owner of the Seminole Heights Independent, expands to Clearwater.
Cinco de Beergaritas
Two twists on classic tipples to celebrate the fifth of May.
Move on
One reader needs to get the hint already.
Tampa to crack down further on homeless?
For a good portion of both 2010 and 2011, the Tampa City Council spent considerable time discussing and debating what to do about the growing homeless population in the city. Ultimately they came up with a partial ban on panhandling, prohibiting it for everyone except newspaper hawkers six days a week (anything still goes on…
St. Pete City Council punts on funding additional money toward the Lens
Today, the St. Petersburg City Council opted to delay for two weeks whether or not to spend $1.5 million on the next phase of the the Lens design to replace the Pier. Councilman Jim Kennedy made the motion to delay, saying he didn't have sufficient time to examine the more than 400-page report distributed late…
The Amazon Trail: Crossing America without two cats and a dog
Author Lee Lynch grabbed some grub at the Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro in New Orleans on her latest cross-country trek to her new home in Oregon. 3/13/13: And so we set off on our second cross-country drive in two months. My sweetheart set up a navigable home, then flew back to Tampa while I unpacked…
Pipo’s wins Top Local Chef
Arielle Stevenson Pipo's winning top honors at the Top Local Chef 2013 competition. Last Sunday, a crowd of over a hundred packed into the Ale and the Witch for the second annual LocalShops1 Top Local Chef Competition. The event sold out weeks in advance. I joined Tampa Bay Times Food and Travel Editor Janet Keeler,…
Mitch Perry Report 5.2.13: May Day around the world, and in Tampa
There were demonstrations held throughout the world on May Day, a day when labor unions traditionally take to the streets to talk about work conditions. According to reports, more than 100,000 people in Spain marched because they were upset about budget talks and higher taxes. In Indonesia, tens of thousands marched calling for higher wages.…
St.Pete artist Bask decorates for Iron Man 3’s The Mandarin
How the work of a local artist wound up in the super sequel — and in the collection of Robert Downey, Jr.
Iron Man 3: The man makes the suit
Robert Downey Jr. is Marvel-ous as Tony Stark in the super follow-up to The Avengers.
Winds of change blowing around Cuba
With U.S./Cuba relations in flux, Tampa politicians are making history.
It’s all about control for 97X
Three months in, how is Tampa radio station 97X doing with its You Control the Music format?
An affair to remember
One-of-a-kind fashions on display for CL’s birthday.
Too darn hot
Heat and Southern fusion coalesce at Fire Bar and Grill.
Cook like the Amish
Sarasota’s Pinecraft community didn’t have a collection of recipes — until now.
Review: Peter Murphy revisits the Bauhaus catalog at Orpheum, Ybor City
A look back at the Wed., May 1 show, with photos
Tampa Rep’s Hamlet is mostly on target
’Tis nobler in the mind …
The little chef
A St. Petersburg toddler with a knack for cooking.
Public agencies shape our urban landscape
Tampa’s “Authorities” vary widely in their recognition of the power of art and design to further their missions.
Funk Fest and the Funshine Festival hit Tampa this weekend
Two festivals, two different approaches to the music.
The mystery man behind St. Pete’s Driftwood
A quirky neighborhood owes its existence to a builder with an alter ego.
At May Day protest, activists fight for immigration reform
Jesus Guevara (on left) is scheduled to be deported on May 7 There is a lot of talk about immigration reform right now, and it will only get more intense as the 844-page Senate bill enters debate next week, as well as similar legislation scheduled to be introduced and debated in the House of Representatives.…
