Progress, like shit, happens.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced yesterday that qualifying city employees will soon be entitled to paid parental leave. Three-quarters of the rest of the western world checks its watch and nods in approval.
Speaking of progress and the Tampa side of the bay, the Hillsborough County Diversity Council voted in favor of making Hillsborough a sanctuary county, despite President Trump's pledge to withhold federal funding from municipalities that adopt that status. If it actually does become a sanctuary, maybe the county can make some of that financial shortfall up by giving undocumented immigrants a place to earn and spend money while they're working their way through the system, instead of tearing families apart in the name of fictional stolen jobs and unfounded fears.
The Cross-Bay Ferry was awarded "Project of the Year" by The Tampa Bay Institute of Engineers. "Stupid eggheads rewarding the community for spending too much money on something I'll never use," said somebody while waiting to get on a flying metal bird that only stays in the air because of sorcery.
And finally, a new Pew Research Center study reports that almost 9 out of 10 Americans "voice the view that to be truly American it is very or somewhat important that a person speak English." After all, that's our nation's official language, right? Actually, it's not. We don't have one. That tends to happen in countries that wouldn't exist without immigrants.
This article appears in Feb 2-9, 2017.