Greco and Turanchik discuss why they want panhandling ban; Thomas Scott talks gay rights, and Tallahassee's powerful supporter of high-speed rail :Mitch Perry Report 1.13.11

As the nation reflects on President Obama's powerful address in Tucson last night (and the decidedly less enthusiastic response generated from Sarah Palin's video statement released yesterday morning), we'll stay with local politics today.

Leading off the list is our discussion with Tampa City Council chairman Thomas Scott, attempting to become Tampa's first black mayor.  The Reverend Scott spoke with CL yesterday, where we talked about a lot of issues, two of which - gay rights and panhandling, we cover in this post.

Speaking of panhandling in Tampa, we've now got every mayoral candidate on the record on the issue - with both Ed Turanchik and Dick Greco telling CL that they support such legislation in Tampa.

And the question as to whether Governor Rick Scott will blow everybody's minds and stop high speed rail in its (literal) tracks continues to percolate throughout Florida.  Yesterday, supporters of that Tampa-Orlando route got an endorsement from one of the state's most powerful businessmen.

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the report here.

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