Days after the shootings in Tucson, conservatives in the media came out firing (pardon the expression) at liberals for daring to say that heated rhetoric contributed in any way to Jared Loughner's act of madness on Saturday morning.
More germane we believe would be to examine our gun laws, and a couple of Northeast Democrats are attempting to do so, but their campaign could be quixotic.
Meanwhile, here in Tampa, there's a mayor's race to cover. Last night came the financial reports from (most of) the candidates running to replace Pam Iorio in March, and the news headline was (not surprisingly) how Dick Greco led the field for the 4th quarter of the year in raising campaign cash, yet Rose Ferlita still leads overall in fundraising. Something else to note is that District 4 (South Tampa) City Council candidate Harry Cohen led all candidates for council in fundraising for the 4th quarter, raising $22,000. (link missing, we'll try to retrieve).
The issue of panhandling seems to be almost a daily occurrence on this blog – yesterday Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill hosted the 4th and apparently last hearing on the issue.
And as members of the state Senate in Tallahassee listen to more testimony today on a possible illegal immigration bill, an author of one such bill proposed, from Bradenton's Mike Bennett, says he may not support his own legislation.
the report here.
This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2011.