The Orlando Sentinel tells me that the Orlando cabal held a pep rally with some of the Sentinel's editors and reporters yesterday to talk about their plans for winning approval of state funding for CSX's Florida business plan, errr, commuter rail. They seem to have momentum on their side, but it seemed that way last year, too. So we'll see. But no matter what happens, this is great: "Central Florida rail backers through MetroPlan Orlando have met privately with their counterparts in Jacksonville, Tampa Bay and South Florida over the last six months to get all four regions on the same page behind Central Florida's plan. For starters, expect backers to launch a new marketing campaign for the project dropping the "Central" from Central Florida Commuter Rail and calling it something other than commuter rail."
“Information is now a public service as much as it’s a commodity,” he said. “It should be thought of the same way as education, health care. It’s one of the things you need to operate a civil society, and the market isn’t doing it very well.” -- Scott Lewis, VoiceofSanDiego.com quoted in the New York Times The Ledger of Lakeland, the Tampa Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, The St. Pete Times, the News Chief of Winter Haven are quickly leaving area residents to the shallow depths of TV news. I don't blame the TV reporters. They're forced to 60 seconds of "in depth" coverage. I blame the owners of the newspapers. Newspapers were the news of record. The news organizations that spent the time to give readers the full story. Businesses that assigned reporters to dig deep into problem governments. Companies that allowed editorial writers to publish columns that named names, columns that called for change, columns that not only told it like it was, but told readers what lay ahead. Those businesses traded that public service for 20% profit margins. And now those margins are gone. Long gone. Never to return. And the newspapers are hemorrhaging. To stop the bleeding who do they remove? Front line staff who did the work we read - long time columnists and hungry reporters. They dump expert photographers and talented copy editors. And readers with fond memories of newspapers rush to give up the ghost they find on their lawn. Those readers will soon become TV news viewers and they will get used to news in 30 second teasers. They won't find a Pentagon Papers story following "The Dirtiest Inch in Your Kitchen!" scare stories. Where can readers turn? Blogs and self-published news sites like MI4 can not replace the newspapers. We're too small, too focused. We're news specialists, and the newspapers are your general practitioners. And it is time we say "physician heal thyself." What publisher will take the steps to reduce all coverage to what local residents can see, touch, hear, taste, and vote for? What publisher will make the decision that everyone can cover a beat. From the publisher down to the cub reporter? Put every Editor in a city government committee meeting and remind them what it was like to write a story. You say your Editor never wrote a column? She's a business major? Send her to the city finance meetings. Everyone needs to feed the 24-hour news monster. Publishers can make these changes immediately. If you want your children to read the newspaper as their children sleep in...publishers must these changes immediately. photo credit: Tom Hagerty
Yes, at just a few months old, Metro I4 News is going to get a face lift. Maybe a nose job. With all the new contributors at Lakeland Local I let my focus drift. MI4 has been carrying everything from select bloggers. As a central repository it let you have one feed instead of five. But I stopped making it easy to scan. That's going to change. I need to trim, prune, and focus. First, I'm going to stop reprinting everything from Lakeland Local. Yes, my own site. Starting tomorrow, I'll just publish select Lakeland Local columns that are more regional in nature. Then a few days of looking at better arranging the front page. After BlogOrlando, I'm going to add an every other day column on the best of Central Florida blogs, columnists, twits, and facebookers. Basically, where ever I find something interesting online. Then we start weight training.
The daily "don't miss" column is on hiatus while I work on the process and format. Reading all the regional newspapers everyday for months was more taxing than you'd believe. I want to find a better method to get the articles from the main stream media to your eyes. I'm also working on a slight upgrade of this site's design now that I have a better idea of what I want. Look for that in a week or so.
Believe it or not, I actually have moments when I try to choose healthy alternatives to the foods I consume. My husband and I love to drink sweet tea- black or green, it doesn’t matter. I don’t drink it as often as I’d like, simply because of the sugar we add to it. But I recently heard about stevia, a natural, no-calorie sweetener. Stevia is a plant-based sweetener that’s 300 times sweeter than sugar. The plant is native to Paraguay, and the Japanese have been using it since the 1970s to sweeten soft drinks, candy and other foods. Stevia also can be used for cooking and baking. We made a stop at Chamberlin’s, the natural grocery store in Lakeland’s Grove Park Shopping Center recently, in search of stevia and found it- along with more varieties of natural sweeteners than I ever knew existed. Our first experiment was with iced green tea. It tasted great. That weekend, we used it in our coffee. Another success. The next week, we put it in black tea. Delicious. What a great alternative to refined sugar and artificial sweeteners! I’ve used artificial sweeteners for years, but have always worried about their cancer-causing reputations. It’s awesome to have found a natural alternative. My next test will be to replace sugar with stevia in a recipe. This is going to require some research, however, because stevia’s consistency resembles artificial sweeteners and using it instead of refined sugar will greatly reduce the bulk in say, a batch of cookie dough. But for now at least, I can recommend stevia as an alternative to refined sugar in drinks. Try it. You’ll be amazed. If you’d like to learn more about the perils of refined sugars, here’s a great article on the topic.
ABC NEWS / This Week with George Stephanopoulos: A discussion of the campaign and the economy with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D - CA) and former governor and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (R - PA). Then, the political roundtable featuring David Gergen of Harvard University, Democratic consultant Donna Brazile, Jake Tapper of ABC News, and conservative columnist George Will of the Washington Post Writers Group.BAY NEWS 9 / Political Connections: Bay News 9 does not provide advance notice of the guests or topics for Political Connections.CBS NEWS / Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: As of late Saturday morning, the guest(s) and topic(s) for this weekend's programme had not been announced. Please check back for updates.CABLE NEWS NETWORK / Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: This week, former Bush administration Economic Adviser Rob Portman and U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D - MO) will discuss race and the economy in the presidential race. Also, Israeli Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will appear to talk about the threat from Iran. Also appearing: Economic advisers Nancy Pfotenhauer for McCain and Laura Tyson for Obama, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy James K. Glassman, Major General Mark Hertling, Commander of the Multi-National Division - North, Former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (R) and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk (D).FOX NEWS / Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Did anyone come out of this week's attack ads a winner? Chris will ask U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R - SC / McCain supporter) and former Senator Thomas Daschle (D - SD / Obama national co-chair). Then comes the panel discussing various issues of the day, including Bill Kristol, co-founder of The Weekly Standard, along with Juan Williams and Mara Liasson of National Public Radio.NBC NEWS / Meet the Press: U.S. Senators John Kerry (D - MA / Obama supporter / 2004 Democratic presidential nominee) and Joe Lieberman (I - CT / McCain supporter / 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee) will appear to discuss the campaign, the vice presidential search process, and Iraq. Then the political roundtable featuring NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd, Republican strategist Mike Murphy, NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, and Judy Woodruff of PBS' The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.SYNDICATED / The Chris Matthews Show: The questions for discussion: What could Barack Obama get done if he is elected president? And could congressional Democrats work with a president McCain? The panelists: Columnists Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and Joe Klein of Time, Gloria Borger of U.S. News & World Report and CNN, and New York Times Correspondent Elizabeth Bumiller.WEDU-TV 3 / Florida This Week with Rob Lorei: WEDU does not provide advance notice of the panelists and topics to be presented.WFTS-TV 28 / Flashpoint with Brendan McLaughlin: As of late Saturday morning, Brendan had not posted the topic or his guest(s) for this weekend's programme. Please check back for updates.
A few Barack Obama supporters enjoying a bite outside one of the eateries alongside Munn Park, hoping that the Illinois senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee will visit as rumours had been circulating all day. Another Polk For Obama member, manning the group's voter registration table. Surprisingly, there were few local candidates present. County Commission candidate Ricky Shirah had a unique way of getting his name out there among the masses.A few of the growing crowd gathering into Munn Park during First Friday. Many of them had heard or read the rumours that Barack Obama would make an appearance. Sadly, they would be disappointed. While the U.S. Senator did not make it downtown, he was in Polk County for awhile following his late morning town hall meeting in St. Petersburg. Obama made a quick stop at a manafactured home sales centre on U.S. 92 to talk with sales people and other small businesspeople in an effort to spotlight the mortgage crisis. Obama's plan is for another town hall meeting in Brevard County tomorrow before a speech before the National Urban League convention in Orlando.
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)
ABC NEWS / This Week with George Stephanopoulos: This week's guest: Republican presidential nominee-apparant and U.S. Senator John McCain (R - AZ). Then, the political roundtable featuring ABC News correspondents Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts, ABC News political contributor Matthew Dowd, and conservative columnist George Will of the Washington Post Writers Group.BAY NEWS 9 / Political Connections: Bay News 9 does not provide advance notice of the guests or topics for Political Connections.CBS NEWS / Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: As of Friday evening, CBS News has not released the topic(s) and/or guest(s) for this weekend's programme. Please check back for updates.CABLE NEWS NETWORK / Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: Both major party presidential candidates will appear, with John McCain sitting down with Wolf and Barack Obama answering questions from reporters in a live forum.FOX NEWS / Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Appearing to assess the presidential candidates this week: U.S. Senators John Thune (R - SD / McCain supporter) and Claire McCaskill (D - MO / Obama supporter). Plus, a state of the race to date with former presidential chief of staff Karl Rove. Then comes the panel discussing various issues of the day, including Bill Kristol, co-founder of The Weekly Standard, along with Juan Williams and Mara Liasson of National Public Radio.NBC NEWS / Meet the Press: This weekend's guest for the hour: Democratic nominee-apparant and U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D - IL). The programme will originate from London, where Obama is concluding a nine-day overseas trip.SYNDICATED / The Chris Matthews Show: The questions for discussion: With Obama riding high, do Americans see him as too risky in the Oval Office? And can he win over Jewish voters before November? The panelists: Columnists Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and Joe Klein of Time, Gloria Borger of U.S. News & World Report and CNN, and New York Times Correspondent Elizabeth Bumiller.WEDU-TV 3 / Florida This Week with Rob Lorei: WEDU does not provide advance notice of the panelists and topics to be presented.WFTS-TV 28 / Flashpoint with Brendan McLaughlin: Embattled Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson will be on to answer what promises to be some unpleasant questions about his alleged lapses in judgement.
I found an article that might be of interest to local home owners. It seems Texas Phoenix palm decline (TPPD) has been confirmed in Lakeland: The first clue is an excessive amount of dead lower leaves; more than what is normally seen with aging (senescence) or nutrient deficiencies. The second clue is death of the spear leaf, prior to death of all other leaves in the canopy. Eventually, the palm canopy will collapse around the trunk as the bud decays. -- Naples Daily News Officials believe the phytoplasma pathogen that caused problems with the Texas Phoenix palm may be affecting cabbage palms. They feel it will be easier to detect the problem in natural areas, or palms with "relatively large canopy." For an extensive account of the disease's process and how you can check your palms see the article at naplesnews.com Remember that cabbage palms die or appear unhealthy from a variety of problems: lightning, nutrient deficiencies, over-trimming, deep planting, insects, other diseases such as ganoderma butt rot, herbicides (roadside vegetation management) and fires (natural or prescribed burns). Only palms with the symptoms described above should be sampled for lab analysis of this new pathogen.
In case you haven't been inside Bent's Cycling and Fitness in a couple of weeks, the owner took advantage beign closed during the recent Fourth of July holiday to do some sprucing up in the store.The discolored plexiglass windows in front were replaced, which makes a huge difference as you drive by. Inside, they replaced the carpet, added new two-tier display racks along a wall, replaced lighting and moved all of the clothing and children's bicycles into the back room.The result is a more spacious floor plan.On a side note, we see the price of everything going up these days- gasoline, food, electric bills, etc. Well, add bicycles to the list of products that are increasing in price. It could be the increased price of materials, increased demand for alternative transportation, or a combination of the two, but some bikes are increasing by about $50 as the new model years hit the sales floor.So if you've been contemplating whether to buy a bicycle for your errand-running or workday commute, you'd better act soon if you don't want the purchase to hit your checkbook harder.
ABC NEWS / This Week with George Stephanopoulos: PROGRAMME NOTE: This Week will not air this weekend due to ABC Sports' coverage of the British Open golf tournament.BAY NEWS 9 / Political Connections: Bay News 9 does not provide advance notice of the guests or topics for Political Connections.CBS NEWS / Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: As of Friday evening, the topic(s) and guests had not been announced for this weekend's programme. Please check back for possible updates.CABLE NEWS NETWORK / Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: Two Cabinet-level officials will be appearing: Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice will be discussing Iraq, Iran, and presidential politics with Wolf, and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. will appear to talk about the energy crisis. Also, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D - CA) and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R - MO).FOX NEWS / Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen will be on to answer questions about what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then, a look at presidential politics with U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman (I - CT / supporting John McCain) and Evan Bayh (D - IN / supporting Barack Obama). Then comes the panel discussing various issues of the day, including Bill Kristol, co-founder of The Weekly Standard, along with Juan Williams and Mara Liasson of National Public Radio.NBC NEWS / Meet the Press: Former Vice President Al Gore will discuss his plan to address global warming and the energy crisis...and Interim Moderator Tom Brokaw will surely ask about his thoughts on the presidential campaign. Then, a political roundtable with NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd and NBC's Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory.SYNDICATED / The Chris Matthews Show: The questions for discussion this weekend and the panelists have not been announced as of Friday evening. Please check back for possible updates.WEDU-TV 3 / Florida This Week with Rob Lorei: WEDU does not provide advance notice of the panelists and topics to be presented.WFTS-TV 28 / Flashpoint with Brendan McLaughlin: As of Friday evening, the guest(s) and topics were not announced for this weekend's programme. Please check back for possible updates.
Chuck's note: This post is Billy Townsend's first post after leaving the Tribune. If you read this site through a feed, you may not see the bylines. I'm sure you'll quickly learn to tell us apart. The style, commentary, and concerns are Billy's very own. See A New Author at Lakeland Local for my thoughts on opening this site to an additional voice. • So I was noodling around TheLedger.com a few days ago and ran across a Tom Palmer blog post dismissively dubbing as "predictable" my intrepid former colleague Lindsay Peterson's recent story about Amtrak. Not sure how many straightforward news features are ever surprising, but no matter… I can rest easier in my post-journalism grave knowing that Tom is still willing to act as The Tribune's exclamation point on its CSX rail deal-related coverage. As Lindsay and I worked through this stuff over the last year, a pattern emerged: We would post or report something original on the blog or the A-front, and Tom would quickly hock a digital loogie on it from his blog. This happened over and over again, with Tom making varying arguments at varying times. They seemed to break down into three rough categories of objection. 1) This is totally unimportant, and the people who care about it are unimportant and unhinged. And it’s bizarre to spend this much time and effort on it when it's a done deal. And they should really stop their whining. 2) This is very important, and Lindsay and Billy are hopeless shills for the sinister Dockery/"downtown merchant" axis. 3) Lindsay and Billy are breathing air I might be breathing. But my favorite Tomism came back on Halloween of last year, in response to something no one had ever written. Here's the link. http://county.theledger.com/default.asp?item=694786&mode=blog It makes me smile. Short version: Tom opens his post with this line: "Several months ago we read horror stories about how trucks from the CSX terminal might overwhelm downtown Lakeland, but the reality so far is turning out to be different." Ouch. Gotcha. Except, to my knowledge, truck impact on downtown Lakeland has never been a concern. There was some concern about 98 and the Polk Parkway, but that's about 7 miles from downtown as Tom would surely know. Anyway, a commenter called Tom on this, asking him to cite where he had heard or read such horror stories. He couldn't do it. But, indefatigable as always, Tom not only didn't correct his error, he went on to tell his commenter that his "larger point" was that everyone should "let the debate be judged by verified impacts, not imagined impacts." It's a small thing, of course. But it gives you a glimpse into the mind and ego of the man charged with separating the verified from the imagined in Polk county government. Lying in print, getting caught, and then playing it off as not germane to "the larger point" seems like bad form, even in this new media landscape. On the other hand, it's hard to work up too much righteous dudgeon over a guy with such detailed knowledge of exotic birds. Though maybe we should question some of those warbler sightings he's reported over the years. Anyway, you can't really hold this against Tom. We all have our intractable pathologies to bear. His are intellectual vanity and misanthropy. It's like telling a giraffe not to have a long neck. And it worked to The Tribune's advantage. Lindsay and I came to rely on Tom's curmudgeonliness as a barometer of how well we were doing our jobs. The quicker and the nastier Tom's comment, the better the story. It was like a Nielson rating. While this was good for us, it wasn't so good for The Ledger. There's no reason Polk County's paper of record should have had its butt kicked on the biggest local growth/development/regional politics story in a generation. If Tom had spent a little more time reporting and asking critical questions about the issue and a little less time acting like a James Brown call-back chorus, The Ledger might not have needed to pay Dave Schultz to come out of retirement this spring to write the same story Lindsay and I wrote six months before. (He did a good job, by the way. It was a smart investment.) But there's no point in what-ifs, I guess. After all, to paraphrase that great American Donald Rumsfeld, you go to press with the county government reporter you've got, not the one you wish you had.
Poor, poor CSX. It seems they just don't undestand why citizens don't want to be fed garbage politely with a spoon...If Floridians thought we were the only ones suffering from CSX trying to shove liability down our throats for this commuter rail project, fret no more. They're doing it in Massachusetts, too.Downtown Lakeland Partnership Executive Director Julie Townsend recently was interviewed by the Worcester Business Journal for an article on the topic. You can read the article here.
Today USF Polytechnic debuted their new logo in all its green, white and gold glory. That's the vertical version. The horizontal version is just as pretty: Readers of the Tampa Tribune may be surprised at the prominent placement of USF in the logo. For those unaware of the current address of the campus it is: University of South Florida Polytechnic 3433 Winter Lake Road Lakeland, FL 33803 (Astute map readers will note that the university is far off Winter Lake Road and probably closer to Bartow Rd. Any long-time residents know why it has a Winter Lake address?) If you're wondering where in Lakeland the new campus is being constructed. I have that for you also. It's at the "corner" of I-4 and the East End of Polk Parkway. That's about a 17-mile drive from the old campus...assuming there was an exit there for the campus. I can't tell you what that address will be. Based on the poll, I'm guessing One J.D. Alexander Parkway, Lakeland, FL 33805 Both addresses in Lakeland? Hmm, shouldn't be too difficult to rename the campus Lakeland Polytechnic if USF decides to divest itself of regional campuses. • PS: Dear USF web techs. Please fix the forward for www.lklnd.usf.edu. I know it should be http://www.lakeland.usf.edu/, but the old version is still the second hit on a search for "USF Polytechnic".
Bio: Billy Townsend was a longtime government, political and general assignment reporter in Polk County and the wider I-4 corridor. He wrote extensively about Polk's unique regional identity and the issues shaping it, including USF Polytechnic, the Heartland Parkway and the CSX rail deal. Billy recently left professional reporting to take a corporate writing job, but he keeps close tabs on news of all stripes (especially political news) and the changes in modern journalism. Billy's wife is Julie Townsend, executive director of the Downtown Lakeland Partnership.They live with their three children in the Lake Morton area. His work at Lakeland Local is his first as an amateur hyperlocal writer.
