Metro I-4 News

You are browsing the archives of 2008 July.

I should acknowledge Mustang Bobby at the Miami-area based blog Bark Bark Woof Woof for turning us on to this moving first-person description of Sunday’s tragedy at Knoxville’s Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, where two people were killed and several others wounded during a youth performance.

Please keep these people in your prayers as they recover.

There are rumors afoot that Barack Obama is coming to Lakeland on Friday, perhaps for the First Friday gathering downtown. (I know what you’re thinking, but the source for this is not the woman I’m married to, who happens to organize First Friday. I’ve asked her, and she’s heard nothing official or unofficial from the campaign.) I first heard these rumors this afternoon, before I saw this post from the St. Pete Times Buzz blog, which notes that Obama is likely to be in the Bay area Friday prior to a speaking engagement in Orlando on Saturday. That adds an awful lot of credence to the Lakeland scuttlebut, I would say.

(Update: My former colleague William March with The Tribune is reporting that Obama will be in St. Pete on Friday for a rally. The venue is as yet undetermined. But it hardens up the Times report.)

So, if Obama shows up Friday, you read it here first. And hey, Obama campaign, how about a little something for the effort, if I’m right. 5 minutes for a washed up reporter? I have a question about rail policy I want to ask.

If Obama doesn’t come, well, it’s always fun to print rumors…

One thing that is not rumor is the strength of the Obama organization in Polk County. I attended an organizing meeting headed on Saturday morning. (I can do that now in good conscience.) About 75 people showed up. But more impressively, the campaign plans to deploy at least 10 field organizers in Polk and East Hillsborough. Six are earmarked for Polk County. By contrast, local Democratic party officials told me that the Kerry campaign deployed exactly one field organizer to Polk in 2004, just weeks before election day.

This adds on to the grassroots PolkforObama group that already exists, with about 100 members. Local businessman and activist Frank Kendrick is one of that group’s leaders.

The campaign is looking to build five regional grassroots teams for the Lakeland area. Its offering training in phonebanking, organization, canvassing, data manipulation and all the unglamorous dirty work that makes campaigns go. It’s also looking for someone to host an Obama house party next week. If you find any of this exciting, email field organizer Laki Eassey at leasssey@floridaforchange.com

(Story Updated: July 30, 2008)

photo credit: lakelandlocal
Josh Hallett has his ear to the media. He saw the chatter about the closing of all Bennigan’s restaurants and checked on the Lakeland location to get the bad news.

I spoke to some staff at a restaurant close to the Bennigan’s location. A person who worked at both restaurants was surprised to get the call this morning not to come into Bennigan’s. However, the staff reported they had recently heard rumors about the closing from a beer distributor staff member.

Tremendous collection from Smashing Magazine of links to women (and some male) artists. The initial post is supposed to be artists providing an image of a girl and a second image of a woman. (As someone who believes these words have two very different meanings and should not be used interchangeably, I thought this was [...]

Over at Eating Tampa JBisMe begins The Great Tampa Bay 2008 Veggie Burger Blog Challenge.
She lays out the rules of the challenge then reviews the burger at Evo’s. If you have a favorite veggie burger in Tampa, let her know!

What in the world is this?

It’s the Lakeland Local 2.1 I promised the other day. If you’re reading this at LakelandLocal.com you see a whole new site. The big change behind the scenes was a move to Wordpress to publish this blog. It means a new look for readers, and a lot of new options for the writers.

And by writers I mean more than me and Billy Townsend.

I’m happy to announce that Lorrie Delk Walker and Darby Critendon have moved their popular sites to run as part of Lakeland Local.

As Darby said the other day, it’s now Lakeland Locals.

Lorrie is a former journalist with the Ledger who now runs a public relations firm, Lorrie Walker Communications, Inc. She brings her Tales of the Delk Side to Lakeland Local to continue publishing her keen comments on Lakeland politics, downtown activities, media matters, and more.

Darby is part of Lakeland’s young professional community. One of the people we can depend on to help grow Lakeland sensibly in the 21st century. She’s an avid videographer who’s come to from DarbySea to showcase Lakeland events.

Sharing this space means readers will get a wider range of opinions, expertise, viewpoints, and styles. Lorrie and Darby got the same guarantee that I gave Billy. I’m not going to edit their work. What you see is what they wrote. If I have something to say about anything they write, I’ll comment on their post or write my own.

If you subscribe to Lakeland Local through a feedreader or email, you won’t see much of a change. The addresses will stay as:

Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LakelandLocal

Email: http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=555316&loc=en_US

You might get a burst of old posts today, but will settle down by tomorrow.

The format of the site will undergo some tweaks over the next few weeks as we find what works and doesn’t. If you have a suggestion please write me at fixthis [at] lakelandlocal.com

Hat tip to Barry Friedman for the inspiration for Lakeland Local’s new tag line - Lakeland News Now.

I took off from work to spend a couple days with the soon-to-be 3rd grader.  Having exhausted my patience with crafts, games, Barbie, and SpongeBob on day one, I thought we should get out of the house for a second day of fun.
I didn’t have a spare hundred bucks laying around for a theme park, [...]

In an attempt to eat the healthiest fast food available, I usually stick with Chick-fil-a. I don’t know if it passes for “healthy,” but my go-to is the Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich (plain) and a Side Salad.
Enter Exhibit A:

There wouldn’t really be anything to write about here except a few weeks ago I ordered said salad [...]

If this bleeding doesn’t stop your local newspaper will be a weekly. And that might be a bad idea. Sentinel eliminates 52 newsroom jobs

Meanwhile, the Ledger is going hourly. Ledger News Now

An author the Sentinel fails to name believes a Shorter workweek can pay huge dividends. (By the way, his name is Timothy Ferriss.)

Bonus:

The Sentinel: We think: State Farm’s rate hike request for homeowners seems unreasonable. You think? 47%. Who wouldn’t think?

Tribune: Gas Prices Drive Demand For Downtown Dwellings

Tampa Bay Business Journal is reporting that “Charles Stark Draper Laboratory to set up shop in Tampa Bay.”
Here’s some high level cooperation to bring a high-tech business to the Tampa area.

“Hillsborough County and USF are collaborating to provide a site, construction and equipment for the Tampa center, while funding to design and build the St. [...]

Tampastica is a blog about Tampa music. If you know of any others, point me to them!
***
St. Petersblog notes that Audio Labs Rehearsal Space was robbed including the band Petrograd in Transit, who cancelled their next show.
“WE’RE NOT PLAYING, DUE TO EQUIPMENT THEFT. Go see King of Spain and New Lands, though. Seriously.”
***
Here’s is [...]

Your Weekly Rays Update
Overall: 61-43
Last Week: Oak (2-1), @ KC (2-2)
This Week: @ TOR, DET
While it was nice winning the A’s series, the Royals series left a sour taste in the Rays mouth. The Royals are one of the worst teams in the AL and the Rays should have, at the very least, been able [...]

There was plenty of good stuff in The Ledger on Sunday, so I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the top three topics that really spoke to me.

Call it a cheap knock-off of Chuck’s Today’s Don’t-Miss Articles, only with my opinion thrown in on day-old news.

County Commission District 1 Candidates

On Sunday, we got to learn a bit of information about the candidates running for this district seat.

Jason Brown wants your vote because he qualified via the petition method instead of paying the qualifying fee, and because he and his family have lived in Polk County forever. I don’t care how you qualify or where you’re from, as long as you keep the best interests of Polk County’s residents in mind.

Blaine Gravitt claims to be less “out of touch” than incumbent Commissioner Bob English, mainly because English is a multi-millionaire. Just because Bob English has been successful in the business world, I don’t think that makes him out of touch with the average citizen.

Don Gifford wants to have another crack at being a county commissioner. The voters spoke last time- they wanted Bob English.

Bob English seeks re-election. I think he’s done a great job so far.

Lonnie Brown’s Sunday column

Lonnie wrote about Sam Diesel, the Mulberry Police Department dog killed when his handler left him unattended for three hours in a car in which the A/C compressor failed.

I know the officer is distraught over the loss of her K-9. I know policy changes have been made. Still, I can’t stop being mad about this topic, for a couple of reasons. Why in the world would you leave a car running for THREE HOURS with a dog in it, A/C or not? Why not let your K-9- your PARTNER- sit in the office with you while you did your paperwork? In these days of high gas prices and the need for everyone to conserve energy where they can, why not turn the car off and save some gasoline that TAXPAYERS have supplied to you?

Tough Times Help in Thriftstores

What a great story. More people are turning to thrift stores for shopping. This is great news on so many levels:

By shopping in these stores, worthy charities are being supported.

Why pay full price when you can get gently used items for less?

Buying items discarded by other people is “green,” and we know that green is all the rage right now. Items given a second life with a new owner are kept out of our landfills that much longer.

The more items that are purchased from thrift stores and put to good use, the fewer new items need to be made, which use up more of our valuable resources.

In a recent USA Today editorial the Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell speaks for himself and other directors of US intelligence agencies against a reporter’s shield bill being considered in Congress. While there are serious criticisms that can be made of this bill, McConnell hits none of them. Instead we get gems like this [...]

According to a new report released by the Corporation for National and Community Service, 60.8 million Americans volunteered in their communities in 2007.  That represents an average of 26.2 percent of Americans age 16 and older.
The study also reported the percentages of individual states as well as metro areas, and those findings are highlighted on [...]