Your kid's at school. Take a few minutes for yourself with yesterday's news rundown, OK?
The man who shot Markeis McGlockton outside a Clearwater convenience store on July 19 and used Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law as his defense was charged with manslaughter by the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney yesterday. Good.
Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in seven Florida counties, including Hillsborough and Pinellas, to free up some funds to help mitigate the impact of red tide on those counties' shorelines and bottom lines. Gotta love how they worked the phrase "naturally-occurring phenomenon" into the press release, and made an amount of money that's probably less than they find when they clean the sofas in the governor's mansion sound impressive. Also, you can't buy back dead fish.
Speaking of politics, the turnout for the first day of early voting in Hillsborough County was reportedly well above average, nearly matching the busiest day of early voting in the last midterm elections' primary. Let's do this.
And finally, an unvaccinated Pinellas County child was reportedly confirmed to have contracted measles and been treated at Clearwater's Morton Plant Hospital. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents so invested in getting in on the ground floor of a widely debunked conspiracy theory that they're willing to endanger not only their own children but also the community at large. Thanks!
This article appears in Aug 9-16, 2018.