Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

St. Pete cops call Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO):  Get this illegal immigrant guy, he’s a suspect in a rape in St. Pete.

HCSO Deputies get the guy on a misdemeanor.  Meanwhile, St. Pete cops called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) asked for permission to hold the illegal immigrant further.  They get no response.

So the HCSO lets the guy go free.

Two weeks later, guy (allegedly) rapes girls in Apollo Beach.

HCSO catches the guy again, this time for rape.

Citizens want to know why Sheriffs let him go the first time.

Head Sheriff David Gee claims St. Pete cops never told HCSO he was a rape suspect.

US Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite wants to know how this happened, blasts Gee.

Gee defends Sheriffs office, loudly complains “St. Pete cops never told us the guy’s a rape suspect.”  Also points finger at Legislature, ICE, some guy standing nearby, and the blogosphere.

People are outraged and pointing their own fingers everywhere:

• SPTimes columnist Sue Carlton:  It’s a crime that politics has entered equation
• Tribune columnist Steve Otto:  Is anyone out there listening?
• SPT Editorial:  Immigration mess is Congress’ fault
• Tribune Editorial:  Search For Culprit In Immigrants’ Crime Spree Starts On Capitol Hill

To be sure, ICE and your US Legislators deserve some of the blame for basic stupidity.  But the HCSO makes ‘em look like geniuses.  Especially after what happened today.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman revealed the truth:  “Ohhhh THAT guy?  Yeah, St. Pete cops DID tell HCSO about him.”

Apathy:

Main Entry: ap·a·thy
Pronunciation: a-pə-thē\
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek apatheia, from apathēs without feeling, from a- + pathos emotion
Date: 1594

• 1: lack of feeling or emotion - impassiveness
• 2: lack of interest or concern - indifference

One out of six. Imagine any six people you know, and then consider that only one of those six voted in the primary election that ended yesterday:

Voter apathy in Florida plumbed new depths Tuesday. The 2008 primary election drew the lowest statewide voter turnout for a primary in at least 50 years, and perhaps the lowest ever. Incomplete returns late Tuesday showed 16.5 percent of voters cast a ballot.

Oh wait… That is the statewide turnout. You cared even less than that:

In Pinellas County, turnout was just over 12 percent, meaning just 75,000 out of 620,000 eligible voters showed up at the polls. That set a record for primaries. The previous record for the lowest primary vote in Pinellas was 13 percent.

In Pasco, just over 12 percent of the county’s 260,593 registered voters — or about 33,000 voters — cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary.

Hernando had the highest turnout in Tampa Bay, just under 15 percent.

And Hillsborough County?

Hillsborough’s turnout was even more abysmal — fewer than seven people out of 100 went to the polls.

Less than seven percent. That’s one in fifteen.

[Update 11:45am: Hillsborough SOE reports 10.08% voter turnout, 1 in 10.]

Don’t ever again ask: “How can someone like [insert name here] get elected?”

You have your answer: You really don’t give a rat’s ass.

Investigative journalism is crucial.  In addition to exposing unethical immoral and illegal behavior, sometimes those journalists find simple (but expensive) stupidity and laziness.

Back in 2004, Greg Neal of Keystone Ventures envisioned a Tampa Sports Centre near Raymond James Stadium.  A couple of months later, HCC envisioned a retail complex including a hotel, conference center, restaurant, medical complex, public pool and sports facility in their “Front Yard” facing Dale Mabry.

In early 2005, Neal approached HCC, and suggested he could build the world-class sports-medicine destination with a luxury hotel and a culinary institute.  Four hundred jobs would be created, and students could learn from sports nutrition experts and hotel management programs.  In return, HCC would guarantee low rental rates on 40+ acres to Keystone for fifty years.

HCC was rightly intrigued, and asked for a proposal with details.

After collecting proposals from them and other parties in 2006, evaluators for HCC placed Keystone fourth behind Cheeseburger in Paradise, Steak N Shake, and a hotel from a George Steinbrenner company.  Although they found problems with the Keystone proposal, those top three did not include using the facilities for education, and HCC leaders kept Keystone on the short list. 

HCC then paid $768,000 to a real estate firm to oversee the project, and that firm gave HCC more specific reasons for denying Keystone’s proposal, such as a lack of experience and unfavorable lease terms.

In an email sent in May 2007, HCC VP Ron Wolf suggested they look out for “smoke and mirrors” from Keystone at a scheduled meeting.  They met with Greg Neal again, and were again blown away by his excitement and vision.  Seems they forgot about the smoke and mirrors, and were still talking about the grandiose opportunities in March of this year.

Luckily, the St. Pete Times took an interest in the story.  Doing the job that HCC leaders, HCC evaluators, and an $768,000 hired gun should have done, SPTimes reporter Thomas Lake has found that Greg Neal is full of sh*t. 

A St. Petersburg Times investigation of Neal’s claims and credentials found nearly 20 statements that were exaggerated, misleading, disputed, or downright false. And public administrators repeated some of those claims in official documents without independently confirming them.

What an outrage!  You would think that these basic background checks would be PART OF THE PROCESS by those entrusted to evaluate the proposal, yet none of it was discovered until the paper got involved.

Of course, in an attempt to save face, HCC plans to give Greg Neal an opportunity to address these new concerns in a meeting next month.

Thanks to Thomas Lake and the St. Pete Times for uncovering this nonsense.  It’s a damn shame we must have journalists doing the job of lazy, uninspired “leadership.”

Have you been reading about the soap opera-like story of Winters & Yonker’s breakaway from long time bay area TV commercial lawyer Richard Mulholland?

The St. Pete Times points out it is “A case of money, deceit, sex and lawyers,” where W&Y were found liable for theft from their former boss. 

On the slow-loading Winters & Yonker website, you can find out that they are known for their “Attentive Personal Service,” their first priority is “Top-Quality Medical Evaluation and Care,” and they brag about their efficiency.

Nowhere does it mention that they would rip off their own mentor in order to increase the chance of business success.

But remember, not all attorneys are like this.  As the old saying goes, it’s that 99% of lawyers that give the profession a bad name.

No matter.  This isn’t really about Mulholland v. Winters & Yonker.  The real loser in all of this is Beltz & Ruth.  Well, them and Morgan & Morgan.  And Catania & Catania (no direct link, cuz Google don’t like the site).

With the wacky story being played out in the media, the names Winters, Yonker, and Mulholland have been all over the place, giving them all a bunch of free publicity. 

Now look for the others to counter with something just as crazy.  Come to think of it, forget the “soap opera” comment - this is more like rasslin’.  We ought to get Morgan, Ruth, Winters, Catania, Mulholland, Catania, Morgan, Beltz, & Yonker in a Battle Royal and crown one the King of Ambulance Chasers.

The Redington Long Pier extends over 1,000 feet into the gulf. Pier owner Tony Antonious charges $2 to walk out there, and $10 to fish along the pier.

In the 4th of July edition of the St. Pete Times, Outdoor editor Terry Tomalin says he was kicked off Redington Long Pier by some tarpon fishermen.

“Hi,” I said to two anglers fishing off the end of the pier. “Are you guys in the tarpon tournament?”

“What does it look like?” one of them responded.

After a moment of awkward silence, a second angler, who also refused to give his name, asked, “Do you feel welcome?”

“Not really,” I responded.

“Good …” he said. “Time for you to leave.”

With only a notebook and pen in hand, I clearly wasn’t there to fish. Instead, I began interviewing 14-year-old tournament angler Dustin Gable of St. Petersburg about a 98-pounder that he released.

That’s when another tournament angler called the pier manager. “Get the (expletive) off the pier,” the angler told me.

Tomalin was there checking it out after another fisherman complained that he was “asked” to leave the pier.

Pier owner Tony Antonious says anyone is welcome to fish from the pier but added that the West Coast Anglers have “exclusive rights” to the “T” area at the far western end of the pier. And just who are these West Coast Gangster Anglers?

Apparently, there has been a split among local tarpon fishing enthusiasts. Used to be that when you fished for tarpon, it didn’t matter if the fish died or not. But in this day of “love all, kill nothing,” all the local tournaments switched to no-kill. St. Petersburg’s 74-year-old Suncoast Tarpon Roundup was the last local contest that went to the all-release format.

That didn’t sit well with a group of mainly pier fishermen, so the West Coast Anglers Association (BEWARE: Auto-Audio!) began their own brand new Killing is OK With Us tournament. They want you to know that…

Florida’s tarpon population is not considered endangered because most anglers who target the species have been practicing catch-and-release for more than a decade. State regulations require anglers to purchase a tarpon tag to kill a tarpon. .

So the West Coast Trawl & Brawl aim to protect their turf (& surf!?!) as well as the right to murder the tarpon they catch:

“We kill tarpon,” said Paul Herrington, a member of the West Coast Anglers, the group hosting the Redington Shores tournament. “That is what we do.”

This brainiac also explains the “exclusive” rights to the pier: “It costs $150 for members to enter the tournament, and we give (Antonious) 15 percent of all the entry fees.”

So pier owner Tony Tony lets some chuckleheads police his property for a couple hundred bucks. And then he wants to pretend he’s not responsible:

“I go down there when I get a complaint, but the troublemakers are always gone. Nobody will tell me anything. It is like a mafia line.”

This is the same guy who complained that the city was out to get him AFTER he attempted to strong-arm Redington Shores into buying the pier for an inflated price.

This is nothing but a bunch of fishin’ hillbillies defending their right to kill and enforcing their turf while a greedy pier owner claims that his hands are tied. Losers all around.

Wayne Garcia recently implored us to stay out of the water. In addition to his complaints of sharks, gators, red tide, and jellyfish, a new waterfront threat has emerged: Pelican Slams Into The Face Of Swimmer.

Crazy news this week, and they all sound like someone is sending code.

• There’s a gator in the kitchen.
• He burgled my eatery, and I swiped his getaway.
• Looking for a pink panted bank robber.
• Someone’s monkeys went missing (by the way, the search mission is called Operation Monkeybars).
• Dolphins grab a Long.
• Poker in Sun City.
• He poured bubbles on my bumper.

With crazy news comes crazy quotes.

“I think they’re more street-smart than a zoo monkey.”

“If you’ve got an alligator going into a house, you’ve got a problem.”

Ya don’t say.

Charley Belcher is a helluva guy.

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with him a number of times, and he’s a really cool cat.  He’s had some personal issues lately, which bums me out, but with all the good vibes he and his family deserve, I’m sure things will turn out just fine.

You know Charley from Fox 13.  He’s the Tampa representative that covers all of the American Idol nonsense from a local angle.  He also stars in the Charley’s World segments that used to run on the 10pm newscast (HEY WTVT, bring Charley’s World back to the 10pm broadcast, would ya?   PS, your "hotlinks" segment is lame.)

If you keep up with American Idol, you may know that contestant David Cook has been wearing an orange wristband in support of Charley’s daughter, Lindsey Rose.  Lindsey Rose was recently treated for leukemia, and … well, I’ll just let Charley tell you the story.

Anyway, I’ve been keeping up with the news through updates on Charley’s MySpace page.  The latest bulletin is terrible, but not very surprising:

Always someone out there trying to take advantage…

My daughter and her family are NOT selling wristbands… for any reason right now. We have not given permission for ANYONE to sell wristbands in her name or honor.

We WILL NOT sanction anyone to sell wristbands at this time… for any reason that is connected in anyway to my daughter and David Cook.

Please do not be fooled by imposters, or even people with good intentions who are doing things without asking first.

This was NEVER intended to be a fundraising effort.

If you see or hear about anyone offering to sell anything related to my daughter… please tell them they SHOULD NOT be doing such a thing… and report them to me.

Please repost this to all of your friends who could be affected by this.

Thank you,
-Charley Belcher

If you know of anything going on like this, let Charley know.  If you want to be anonymous, leave a comment here, and I’ll pass it on to Charley.

By the way, wifey says David Cook is a pretty good singer, even if he sorta looks like David Jenkins.