Let's recap:
Tampa City Council member Guido Maniscalco is the subject of an ethics complaint related to a helicopter ride the councilman took as part of a tour of St. Joseph's Hospital before a vote that settled a long-running zoning dispute. Local politicians around the country are said to be collectively outraged by the idea any of them would possibly consider a single helicopter ride adequate compensation for any sort of influence.
The city of Tampa dyed a small portion of the Hillsborough River green in a test run for dyeing a much larger portion of it green on St. Patrick's Day. Just following that trusty old carpenter's rule of thumb: When planning on doing something completely pointless, do it a little bit first ahead of time.
The Centers for Disease Control reported that some types of flooring from Lumber Liquidators are three times more likely to cause cancer than previously thought. An unrelated report from non-party-affiliated think tank Stuff I Ponder When I'm Trying To Fall Asleep assumes that you're pretty much three times more likely than average to be screwed somehow by anything you buy from any retailer with the word "Liquidators" in its title.
And finally, a new study out of USC says what pretty much anybody who's taken some time to think about it already knows: Hollywood has a serious diversity problem. "It's just not as simple as hiring a wider range of actors for a wider range of roles in order to more accurately represent reality," said somebody who could totally, absolutely make that happen.
This article appears in Feb 18-24, 2016.