Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Former St. Pete Police Officer Ken Kokotek retired, and unveiled his secret identity.  Picasso is the screen name Ken used on the Law Enforcement Officer Affairs (LEO Affairs) website while ripping the higher-ups on the force as well as the City of St. Pete administration and others.

Apparently, he’s pretty good with photoshop, too:

In one, Mayor Rick Baker is wearing a pink dress with a matching pink hat.

In another, police Chief Chuck Harmon’s head has been put on an obscenely overweight body, and the chief is looking intently at a two-layer cheeseburger.

Sounds attractive.  Look at the TBO article to see the altered images for yourself. 

Those higher-ups were irritated.  So much so,  there was an investigation into Picasso’s identity, and threats of firing - even after he retired!:

Had he not retired, a St. Petersburg police officer would have been fired for posting degrading computer-altered pictures of police administrators and others on a Web site…

Anyway - the artwork is average at best, but the satire is pretty good.  For more, check out Picasso’s home on the web, SPPD - An Insider’s View.

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 the Volunteering in America website.

The number of volunteers from the State of Florida is below the national average, and ranks only third from the bottom of the list:

• Volunteer Rate Ranking: 49th within the 50 states and Washington D.C.
• Average Volunteer Rate: 20.0%
• Volunteer Hours Ranking: 45th within the 50 states and Washington D.C.
• Average Volunteer Hours per Resident: 29.3 hours

Most of those (32.4%) volunteer with religious organizations.

Floridian cities make up the bottom of the metro rankings too:

• #50 - Miami - 14.5% volunteered.
• #46 - Orlando - 19.7% volunteered.
• #45 - Jacksonville - 20.7% volunteered.
• #40 - Tampa - 24.8% volunteered.

Sure, Tampa Bay ranks higher than the rest of the state, and is above average for Florida, but we can certainly do better.

Here are the numbers for the Tampa, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) (Major cities included in this MSA include Tampa, FL; St. Petersburg, FL; and Clearwater, FL):

• Volunteer Rate Ranking: 40th within the 50 large cities
• Average Volunteer Rate: 24.8%
• Volunteer Hours Ranking: 29th within the 50 large cities
• Average Volunteer Hours per Resident: 34.8 hours

So what about you?  Do you donate your time to any worthy causes?  Fill out the poll, and tell us about some worthy causes in the comments:

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Your local elected officials are the people who determine if Wal-mart will build in your neighborhood.  They determine how much you pay for parking, which amenities your parks have, how many police are on hand, and how fast the fire department will show up at your house.

Local leaders are responsible for a myriad of public services and agencies such as airports, convention centers, museums, beaches, harbors, zoos, clinics, law libraries, and public housing. They provide services such as child and family services, elder services, mental health services, welfare services, veterans assistance services, animal control, probation supervision, historic preservation, food safety regulation, and environmental health services. They have many additional officials like public defenders, arts commissioners, human rights commissioners, and planning commissioners. Finally, there may also be a county fire department (as distinguished from fire departments operated by individual cities, special districts, or the state government).

These people affect your day-to-day life as no one else can.

And YOU determine who “these people” are.

We have already listed the candidates for your Hillsborough County elections.  From here forward, we are going to find out all we can about them, and encourage them to address us citizens.  And we’re going to get to know them, so we can make an informed decision when we vote.

But we all have differing ideas of what makes a good leader, so I want to make sure you are heard.  Leave a comment below with an answer to this question:

WHAT QUESTION DO YOU WANT TO ASK THE CANDIDATES?

I’m sure you heard about the Angel Flight pilot who’s plane crashed late last week at Vandenburg Airport. As part of the Angel Flight program, Sun City Center resident Harlan E. Northcott was preparing to fly a cancer patient and a teenage friend of her family to Suart on Thursday, when the plane hit an antenna and crashed on takeoff, killing all three.

A memorial service was held Sunday, and everyone had so many nice things to say about the man everyone called “Lanny.” We received this email from a friend of Harlan’s son-in-law:

I don’t know if you heard about the plane crash out at Vandenberg Airport
or not, but I just wanted to say, it was the father in law of a friend of
mine in New Orleans, he had this comment ….

“What a very sad day indeed. My FIL was a very special guy. He went from growing up in a cardboard house in Caifornia to a self made millionaire. He never frogot where he started out. He died flying a cancer patient and a 15 year old. He donated hi time, his plane, and a great deal of money to help sick people that lack the necessary funds to travel for treatment. He was in the Navy at the end of world war II and graduated from Old Miss. After his service he got into the oil business as a petrolium geologist. He sought out and found investors to back a company and Northcott Exploration was born. He would end up selling that company to Tidewater Marine where he bceame an Executive VP in charge of several operations. Even after retirement his ablity to do his job led him to a lot of work as a
consultant. He loved to fly and was one of the main people responsible for my Education and trainging as a professional pilot. Even though he was my wife’s stepfather, he treated us like family. Especially my boys. They loved their “paw-paw lanny” very much and it kills me to watch them break down about it. I’ll say this. The world has lost a truely uniqe man today. I
am……. very sad now…. “

Sounds like we all lost a great guy…

Looks like another local media outlet is experimenting with citizen journalism.

Since 2005, the Tampa Tribune has offered you a chance for you to be one of their “Community Columnists” and write opinion pieces found on their op-ed page.  They also added “Reel People,” including the beautiful and talented Lisa Ciurro, to write movie reviews that show up in Friday Extra now and again.

A few months ago, Creative Loafing introduced their “Fix It Now” blog, and made the call for interested citizen journalists to contribute to the site.  Since then, a couple have added their voices to the blog.  I’m not sure if they have been published in the printed Loaf, though.

Other than those efforts, not much has been done by local media to get regular citizens involved in the news gathering process.  But Tampa Bay’s 10 is gonna give it a try. 

They plan on handing out video cameras, and want to air your video reports on Tampa Bay’s 10. 

Tampa Bay’s 10 is looking for twenty people around the Bay area to help us with a special project. We will teach twenty lucky people how to shoot a video camera, and how to get the video to us here at the station.

… These clips can be about many different subjects. Things that happen in your community. Anything from bad weather to your childs play at school. Maybe your neighborhood meeting.

Not only that, but they are going to pay you and let you keep the camera (emphasis is theirs)!

Each time you send me a video story that either makes it on the news or on our web site, Tampa Bay’s 10 will pay you TWENTY DOLLARS!

If you hold up your end of the deal, after a year, you will KEEP the video camera we assign you.

In addition to the camera, you will get a tripod, a camera bag, a battery, and everything you need to download video into your computer. 

Former Tampa Bay reporter Amani Channel doesn’t think that’s enough:

I don’t think tampabay10’s “citizen journalism team” has taken the right approach. It’s great to encourage public participation, but this initiative sounds like a low paying job. Stringers can make up to $500.00 bucks for each piece of newsworthy content they capture, and sell.

We’ll be looking forward to the results.If you want to be one of Tampa Bay’s 10’s new Citizen Journalists, send Mitchell Wallace an e-mail mwallace@tampabays10.com.

PS:  Tampa Bay’s 10 is also running the new local Metromix website, as well as something called “Hey Juicy,” which defies explanation.

Bird watchers, plant lovers and tree huggers of all stripes will gather this Wednesday evening for the Annual Joint Meeting of Tampa Audubon, Tampa Bay Sierra Club and the Suncoast Native Plant Society. It’s really more of a party than a meeting, and it’s your chance to mingle with a bunch of nature-minded folks AND hear a terrific speaker: Jeff Klinkenberg.

From the meeting announcement:

Jeff is truly a voice of natural Florida and is one of Florida’s best known and most talented nature writers. … Jeff writes about all things Florida and integrates Florida’s history, environment, culture, and people into compelling and memorable stories about the real and vanishing Florida. Jeff is also well known as the “Real Florida” columnist for the St. Petersburg Times …

Please join us for an evening of great stories, fascinating essays, and memories and recollections of all things Florida as Jeff Klinkenberg shares with us his amazing array of tales and experiences gathered over years of exploring the backwoods, back roads, and backwaters of the Sunshine State.

The event will be held this Wednesday at 7:00 p.m.,

at the Hillsborough Extension Office, 5339 CR 579, Seffner (Exit 10 off I-4, then south 1 mile on the left). The presentation will be preceded by a potluck dinner, so bring a dish to share.

This annual get-together is always fun. The Native Plant Society will conduct their regular (very economical) plant auction, and they usually round up special offerings for this occasion. All the groups bring plenty of information to share, and they welcome everyone — you don’t have to be a member of any of the host groups to attend.

If you’re at all curious about the environmentalists around here, this is a good opportunity to see what they’re all about. I’ll be there, so if you do come be sure to say “hi.”

Note: Some links here automatically start video and audio, so adjust your volume accordingly.

First off, WE LOVE KELLY RING. Kelly Ring has been coming into our living rooms for decades, and there is no better natured, more beautiful, always smiling and pleasant person to deliver the news to us. Her “What’s Right With Tampa Bay” is a favorite segment of ours. She has won three Emmys! Her mom dated Elvis! Kelly is so cool that she had the Wendy Ryan hair thing going on ten years before her (well, ok, maybe not quite).

But, as a newsreader, well, uhhh, she fumbles over her words now and again. Oh - she usually recovers, and she’s so cool about it, you can nearly forget or ignore the mishaps. But it does happen more often that she’d like. I figure she successfully makes it through two or three reading segments between tripping spells.

The unscripted banter is much more amusing. At the end of “live on scene” segments, WTVT anchors ask reporters one or two more questions. With Kelly, these are almost comedic. I figure there is about a 50/50 shot for a seamless chat between her and the reporter on the scene. The same thing often happens when handing off to Weatherguy Paul Dellegatto or Sportsguy Chip Carter.

All of which means that we have the perfect basis for The Kelly Ring Drinking Game.

There are only two rules:

• Take a drink whenever anyone mentions Kelly’s name, or whenever Kelly calls another staffer by name.
• Take a drink whenever Kelly mispronounces, repeats herself, or otherwise jumbles up her words. On close calls, give her the benefit of the doubt - another opportunity will come along shortly.

And that’s it! Watch the Fox 13 Six O’Clock News for Happy Hour, and the Ten O’Clock to get juiced for a night out. Have fun and use a designated driver!

Florida singer/songwriter/guitarist Danny Roberts has worked with Tom Petty, Derek Trucks, Billy Joe Royal, Robert Nix, Denny Cordell, Phil Seymour and many more fantastic musicians. He also played in JGLB, and in other bands with current and former JGLB guys like Ray Blade, Rob Stoney, “Count” Arthur Basie, Will Perish and Johnny G Lyon.

Danny is recovering from injuries sustained in a serious car accident. Please join us Sunday July 13 at 5 PM at Skipper’s Smokehouse for a great concert to help out our bro Dan-Bob:

Danny and Tom Petty worked together in “Mudcrutch” for 2 ½ years, from 1972-74. Danny wasn’t just a sideman, he wrote and sang lead on many of the band’s songs. Danny was with the band on their famous trip to L.A. An excellent bio can be found at http://www.thoseguys.com/bio_danny.html.

At the other end of his resume, Danny also played with JGLB, and in other bands with guys that were in our band. We’ve been fans of Danny since the 70’s, when he played in the hottest band (The Bad News Boys) in the hottest club in Lakeland (The Lakeland Lounge, which was actually in Hillsborough County, just across the county line).

Danny was in a bad car wreck recently. Although he was seriously injured, he’s recovering rapidly. A bunch of us are hooking up to help out a brother in need, if you will.

The performers are a mix of Danny’s old Lakeland buddies, guys he played with in Tampa, and guys who just wanna help out.

Take Five is Danny’s Lakeland buddies. They’re Allman Bros-esque, featuring two outstanding drummers. Guitarist Larry Berwald and drummer Johnny Rhodes played in “Fat Chance,” one of Florida’s top bands in the early to mid 70’s. Rhodes also played with Danny Roberts in a notable early 70’s Florida rock band, “Power.”

Tampa guys is us, Johnny G Lyon & JGLB (or Johnny G Lyon Band). We played with Danny in “The Purple Gang” in 1984, and Danny did a stint with JGLB in 1997.

Guys who just wanna help out: our buddy Damon Fowler. A few years ago, Damon was in a car wreck, and received a lot of support when he needed it from the musician community. As a result he’s happy to help out in situations like this. He’ll be jamming with both Take Five and JGLB.

Also playing: Charlie Souza of St Pete also played in Mudcrutch after Danny left. He’s with “The New Rascals” now, and he’s also been working with Danny on a project called “The Mudbreakers.”

“Count” Arthur Basie, now living in Tampa, is originally from Lakeland. He’s a versatile veteran of the bay area music scene, having played in JGLB among many other bands, including “Perfect Stranger” with Danny Roberts in 1976.

For more information about the show, head to downtownwestevents.com.  I encourage you to come help take are of your local musicians and have a good time while doing it.