Creative Loafing Tampa Bay keeps reaching into the mailbag, and treading carefully into the comments section. The exercise leaves us increasingly grateful for readers who come to us in print—and especially online—read the news and thoughtfully respond. Keep it coming, folks (scan the QR code if you’re the emailing type), and we’ll keep posting it.
Facing reelection, Mayor Ken Welch believes his administration did well to help St. Pete recover after hurricanes
Many industries have resilience built in where they share resources with those impacted. There was no excuse for what occurred with all of the building departments across this area. The electrical supply industry is a great example of what is possible knowing that sharing resources is how they help each other recover. It’s truly poor planning for the worst case scenarios.—Tom McDaniel
We all love living in St. Pete because of the sense of community. I remember during Irma it was everyday people stepping up to help our neighbors no matter the neighborhood. Now, people are turning it into a negative (politically charged issue) for the worst natural disaster, in St. Pete, in our lifetime. It will always take a combination of people and local government to recover.—Carla Bristol
How about waiving permit fees and fast tracking approvals. There’s plenty of actions he could have taken to get things unclogged—JP Fegan
He was rizzin’: Photos from the ‘Hunky Jesus & Foxy Mary’ contest at St. Pete’s Wet Spot pool bar
Y’all are so hateful in the comments section. Momma said, if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all. I love these photos.—Brandon Steele
Well i guess the new owners of cl are same as the old owners. No hope for it being a decent rag anymore.—Ray Berry
Tampa Jan. 6 rioter files $18 million lawsuit, alleging police assaulted members of ‘peaceful’ crowd
Yes the noose and the zip ties and the shields and the armor. That was so peaceful. Almost like looking at Jesus Christ and the saints that day.—@sisterwanda_opi on Instagram
Trump fires Pam Bondi as Attorney General
Love this for her!—Rebecca Gast
The dow jones is at 46,504. I’ll fill in for her today.—Tomazzo Moore
He’s actually trying to save her. Most of the time when a cabinet member is let go they move on and you never hear of them again – sparing them of criminal charges. It’s safer for her under the bus.—Sarasota Slim
Florida AG says state can now fund religious charter schools, and ‘encourage’ Christianity
He needs to be removed, if he doesn’t have the balls to uphold the laws of this state!—Thomas Wyant
Andrew Warren was suspended for less than this.—Tom Scherberger
So Uthmeier gets to decide which laws he’ll enforce but DeSantis removed Andrew Warren for “not enforcing laws” that he thought was unconstitutional. Such blatant hypocrisy.—Jessica Vaughn
Which brand of Christianity? The Jesus kind or the American kind … because they’re WILDLY different—Kristopher James
I have never seen a more horrible representation for the republican party in my life then the current ones. Hobbling along on their biblical crutches… obliviously… not knowing actually what the historical bible writes…—Jerry Span
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This article appears in Apr. 02 – 08, 2026.