It was hot, then it got cool, then it warmed up again for a bit and it'll be cold before too long.
So, what happened over the weekend?
FRIDAY, NOV. 14
The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, the journalism school/think tank that somehow is simultaneously a nonprofit and owner of the Tampa Bay Times, reported that it lost $3.5 million in 2013, and expects to lose more this year. In his blurb about the release, journalist Jim Romenesko — a former Poynter employee who left the institute in 2011 in somewhat controversial fashion — relates some of the belt-tightening that's happened there over the past year, and handily provides a list of Poynter's highest-paid employees.
St. Petersburg Police arrested a suspect in the shooting death of a 63-year-old man that took place early Monday morning at venerable Gulfport dive the Stinger Bar. The suspect, 22-year-old Sheldon Tucker, is alleged to have shot James Brown (!) in a robbery gone wrong.
more…
SATURDAY, NOV. 15
The third sinkhole in four days opened up in Holiday, in a subdivision not far from the other occurrences. THIS IS WHERE THE JOKE ABOUT HOLIDAY BEING A HOTBED OF "DEPRESSION" GOES, AMIRITE?
SUNDAY, NOV. 16
A group of local high school students and others gave a TEDx Talk at Tampa's John F. Germany Public Library that covered such substantial and youth-oriented topics as global girls' education, suicide and student public-speaking program Rock the Talk. Not covered: Getting more than seven people under retirement age to avail themselves of the public library.
Ben Pollara, a principal behind pro-Amendment 2 group United for Care, tweeted that, despite its failure to reach the 60 percent threshold for passage, more people in Florida voted in favor of the medical marijuana amendment than for the past six Florida governors. PolitiFact Florida vetted the claim, finding it "mostly true."
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2014.