Happy MLK Day to each and every reader out there on this very wet and stormy morning in Tampa Bay.
We want to lead off today's report with our story that we posted Friday night – that being the first Tampa mayoral forum of the 2011 campaign. It was rather low key- a late afternoon (4 to 6 pm) session of the GaYBOR alliance's monthly meeting, only this time all of the candidates for mayor were invited, and given five minutes to speak. With an onslaught of debates and forums to take place over the course of the next 6 weeks, we might get jaded soon – but Friday's event was actually pretty darned exciting.
Other somewhat big news released late Friday afternoon was the announcement that President Obama had loosened some travel restrictions with Cuba, which means other airports in the country will now have a chance to have direct flights to Havana -including Tampa International Airport.
On the Sunday talk shows, we've got posts on New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn making headlines because they're going to sit next to each other at the State of the Union Address later this month. But more importantly, the conservative Oklahoman said he wants to work on legislation to make sure that the mentally ill can't get their hands on guns, like the now notorious Jared Loughner was able to for his killing spree last month.
And Fox News Sunday spared just a few minutes on looking back at the horrors of January 8, and instead gave us a couple of Republicans to compare and contrast – Tim Pawlenty and Chris Christie. Our impression? The wrong guy is running for president.
the report here.
This article appears in Jan 13-19, 2011.