Yesterday was one of the busier days in recent memory in covering news and politics in Tampa.
It began for this reporter at 8:30 a.m., when HART held a meeting where their board agreed to spend money to study extending a line to Tampa International Airport, due to popular demand. Of course, it will take years before that study is finished, well past this November's election on transportation in Hillsborough, but it can't hurt the cause.
At the same time, members of the Florida Rail Enterprise were at an event at the Tampa Convention Center, where high speed rail was the topic of conversation. As CL's Sadie Hewitt reports, Mayor Pam Iorio frowned on the idea of extending high speed rail to the airport (and in this morning's Tampa Tribune, Nazih Haddad, the CEO for Florida Rail Enterprise, says the state will request $1 billion to finish the Tampa to Orlando line, and not on an extension to the airport.
Meanwhile, while those rail discussions were taking place, the 5 members of Tampa City Council were going about the business of selecting two new members, who are Curtis Stokes and Yolie Capin.
Capin received an ovation last night at the Children's Board in Ybor City, where the Democratic Executive Committee of Hillsborough County held their monthly meeting and nominated Linda Saul-Sena to be their candidate of choice on the November ballot for County Commission in District 5. That came hours after Saul-Sena resigned amidst a GOP lawsuit about whether she should be on the ballot. You can read about that meeting here.
Today the big story is in Tallahassee, for the first day of the special session called for originally by Keith Fitzgerald, Rick Kriseman and Dan Gelber in early May. Governor Charlie Crist announced earlier this month that there would be a four day session to discuss voting on putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot banning offshore drilling. Of course, Florida House Republicans may cancel the whole thing early on, to their possible detriment. That begins today at noon.
the report here.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.