Happy Amazon Prime Day! (No, really, that's apparently a thing.) Now stop using your phone to look for imaginary Japanese ghost beasties for a freakin' minute and let's see what you missed.
More than 100 #blacklivesmatter protestors came together in downtown Tampa just after rush hour, displaying the names of black men killed by police and blocking traffic at the intersection of Ashley and Tyler. If you found it frustrating and unnecessary, perhaps you should try to imagine what living with the constant fear of being shot by the people who are supposed to be keeping your community peaceful is like. I imagine "frustrating and unnecessary" doesn't begin to cover it.
Governor Scott and local tourism officials were in London yesterday to remind UK citizens that even though the pound is tanking and their country's in chaos, hey, nobody's been eaten by an alligator or poisoned by a giant mutant algae bloom in Pinellas County, so why not spend some of their suddenly much less effective money in a part of Florida that doesn't yet look like Rio on a bad day? Oozing class, we are.
And finally, an award-winning documentary called Pervert Park and focusing on St. Pete's Palace Mobile Home Park — home to more than 120 convicted sex offenders due to its being one of the few places whose location doesn't automatically cause them to break the law just by being there — aired on PBS last night. And just like that, despite their differences, all of the area's residents were for one brief, shining moment united in wondering whether or not participating in making the film had been a good idea, or a terrible one.
This article appears in Jul 7-14, 2016.