When sequestration hit at the beginning of last month, we were warned that most people wouldn't be adversely affected for awhile, but that sometime in mid-April, flights would be delayed because of mandated furloughs for air traffic controllers.
That promise became the reality yesterday, when major airports throughout the country reported delays in some case of nearly two hours because of wind (in the case of LaGuardia) and "volume" everywhere else.
It's probably only going to get worse. Yesterday Rick Scott came to Tampa International to to blast President Obama and the Federal Aviation Authority, saying they could have found other places to cut their budget. But what is it? Although most members of Congress have criticized sequestration, it's no secret that most Republicans are quite happy it's gone through, believing there was no other way to get the administration to agree to substantial spending cuts.
Yet when it went into affect, some of those same folks criticized the White House for over-hyping its deleterious effects. Now that it is actually hurting people, Obama gets criticized again. But the bottom line is, there doesn't seem to be (yet) any bipartisan support for revamping how the cuts are being administered.
Meanwhile Governor Scott is keeping his feelings close to the vest about the fact that the Florida Legislature has said that they'll give out those teacher bonuses that he has championed, but only if they're merit-based.
Earlier this month Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn led a crew of local business and political officials who went to Germany to drum up some business for the region. That team discussed the trip with local reporters yesterday.
And for all of those of you interested in what's happening with the group fighting to get medical marijuana on the ballot next year, well, don't you worry about a thing. Organizers say they'll start putting pedal to the gas starting in June to start collecting the 700,000 or so signatures required to get a place on the November 2014 ballot.
This article appears in Apr 18-24, 2013.