Politicians bending the rules — it never goes out of style. You know what should go out of style? People getting hurt during peaceful protests.
FRIDAY, AUG. 7:
A Largo city supervisor has been arrested and accused of using one of the municipality's credit cards to buy more than $11K in tools and other products, and then pawn them for cash. Another great scam foiled by the advent of, um, phone lines.
Speaking of phone lines, Pam Bondi activated the line for reporting flood-related price gouging in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Dixie, Pasco and Taylor counties. Remember, never pay $8 for a bag of ice, even if they call it "surge pricing."
Speaking of Pam Bondi, a lawsuit brought against her, Rick Scott and the state alleging those parties ignored public records requests has been settled, thus avoiding the possibility of a judgement that Scott's administration broke the law going into the record. See, this is the kind of scam that never fails in the new millennium.
SUNDAY, AUG. 9:
Thirteen people were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning when levels of the gas build up in an Avalon Park Walmart. Yep, shopping at Walmart has gone from "sucks" to "actively dangerous."
And finally, a man shot by cops in Ferguson, Missouri during a protest to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown (also at the hands of a police officer) is said to have fired first, and remains in critical condition. Is that what they meant by progress? The guy shot first, and didn't get killed (yet)?
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2015.