The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) says Tampa ranks second to Brooklyn in the number of questionable insurance claims investigated last year. Los Angeles, Orlando and Miami round out the top five. Three of the top five areas are in Florida. National Insurance Crime Bureau spokesman Frank Scafid says Florida is a popular state for fraud [...]
The cats over at SkatePark of Tampa are gearing up for the 2010 Tampa Pro, which runs this weekend. Skaters from all over the world will be here, showing off skills and winning cash prizes. But the event is so much more than a skateboarding contest. The Tampa Pro is considered a must-be-there event [...]
Would you like to become more involved in your neighborhood? Hillsborough County can help. Hillsborough County’s Office of Neighborhood Relations is gearing up for the 7th Annual Hillsborough County Neighborhood Conference. The one-day conference is scheduled for March 27, 2010, from 8am to 2:30, and features a variety of educational workshops for homeowners and neighborhood leaders. The goal [...]
Your water department: Thank you for conserving, but now we have to charge you more.
Tampa International Airport Executive Director Louis Miller cringed at questions about international flights, didn't care to converse with board members about an office building, bypassed variance boards in zoning, and violated sunshine laws. Miller has been doing whatever he wanted for fourteen years, completely avoiding questions from anyone. And now you expect him to tell us why he's leaving? Good luck with that.
Looking for something unusual this weekend? You may want to consider the 17th Annual Weeki Wachee Swamp Fest. Yeah, I have no idea, but it sounds like an excellent opportunity for people watching… Entertainment is scheduled from 10am to 4 pm both Saturday & Sunday, March 5 & 6, and there will be lots of crazy [...]
Speaking of newspaper litter… On Thursday mornings, we used to find the “community” edition of the Tampa Tribune at the bottom of our driveway. We didn’t ask for it, it just showed up. The small tab with what newspaper journalists call “chicken dinner news” was not really given to you out of concern for community, but [...]
Newspapers are good at "do as I say, not as I do."
There’s no doubt – it’s been a rotten winter for Florida gardeners. Although January’s damaging freezes haven’t repeated themselves in the Bay area, the colder-than-average temperatures have taken away a lot of the joy of gardening – who wants to work in the garden when it’s 50 degrees and a cold wind is blowing? My butterfly garden is [...]