One demographic that continues to vote Democratic each year is single women. When GOP analysts try to figure out why, there's always votes like yesterday in the House, which voted to renew the Violence Against Women Act, where President Obama is expected to sign it soon. More Republicans opposed the bill than supported it, however. There were issues regarding adding protections for gays and lesbians as well as giving tribal courts more authority to prosecute non-Native American men who are accused of crimes on Indian reservations, but Republicans also opposed it, according to the Washington Post. because they felt it was issue that local and state governments should work on. But as West Virginia GOP Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito said on the floor, "the perception and some rhetoric around it could be perceived as anti-female."
At the risk of sounding obnoxious, ya think?
A week ago the entire city of Tampa was forced to boil their drinking water for a full day and a half after the city's water system was shutdown in an abundance of caution. That happened after the a disruption led to the loss of water pressure for nearly half an hour. The city's water director, Brad Baird, went before the City Council to discuss what went wrong, and it wasn't pretty.
One of the more interesting debates that will take place in the legislative session that commences next week in Tallahassee is Speaker Will Weatherford's plan for campaign finance reform – specifically his call for the individual campaign contributions maximum to be raised from the current $500 to $10,000. We asked two local legislators who will be voting on the issue their thoughts recently.
And the current CL hardcopy this week is called "The Drinking Issue," in celebration of Tampa Bay area Beer week. Our take was to find out what's going on in the Ybor and South Howard nightclub scene between bar/club owners and the public.
This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2013.