Good morning, and welcome to the first full weekend of 2012.
So you've heard of this little event happening in Tampa next summer, the Republican National Convention? Yesterday the Tampa City Council gave its approval to accept $50 million from the Department of Justice to pay for security costs for the four-day affair, though one Council member asked (in vain?) if some of that funding could go towards paying for services for the homeless.
Meanwhile, local businesses who want a piece of the estimated $150 million that will flow into Bay area coffers from the RNC will get their first opportunity to bid for contracts for the event later this month.
Meanwhile, the race for who gives that nominating speech in Tampa on August 30 continues up in New Hampshire this weekend. Mitt Romney is expected to coast easily in next week's primary, but some Newt Gingrich surrogates are trying to change that scenario.
And CL contributor George Niemann is reporting that Hillsborough/Pasco state Senator Jim Norman will go before the state's Ethics Commission early next month.
This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2012.