Florida

The home stretch

As we head into the final days before Election Day, there are a lot of people talking about politics. This is a history making year in terms of candidates and early voter turnout. What are your thoughts about the election? What are your thoughts about the television and radio ads? Have you checked out the accuracy of the candidates’ statements on PolitiFact? Check out the "Voting 2008" category on the NBZ and share your thoughts with other students and teachers across the Tampa Bay area.

And, don’t forget to cast your vote through Kids Voting polling locations. If you are a Hillsborough County student, you will have the opportunity to vote in school.

(Read the full post about ‘Election 2008′…)

A bitter end to a sweet season

The Rays have had a fabulous season. Even though they did not win the World Series, the team has a lot to be proud of. Check out John Romano’s article, "Rays miracle season over, but its effects will last," in the October 30 edition of the Times. If you did not read the article on October 30, you can read the article in the archives of the electronic edition or on tampabay.com. Share your thoughts about Romano’s perspective and the Rays here.

I was just watching an interview with former US pilot Milton Torres who was ordered to shoot down a large UFO over Eastern England. Torres stated that the UFO was recorded on three different RADARs. What he saw was corroborated. Torres was ordered to shoot 24 missiles, but reported that the object moved away at a speed greater than 5,000 miles per hour.

The Times Online had a good article on the subject.

(Read the full post about ‘May 1957: US Pilot Milton Torres Ordered to Shoot Down UFO’…)

PLANT CITY — A Plant City husband and wife were arrested Tuesday night after Hillsborough sheriff’s deputies found hydrocodone, steroids, several pounds of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and firearms within reach of their four young children, according to an arrest affidavit.

Jennifer Pulanski, 29, and Joseph Edward Pulanski, 28, of 6707 W Dormany Road were stopped by deputies around 6 p.m. because Joseph Pulanski was driving recklessly near Star Point Drive and Magnolia Pointe Court in Seffner, deputies said. After finding about 234 grams of marijuana within reach of the four children in the car, deputies searched the couple’s home on a court-authorized warrant.

(Read the full post about ‘Plant City couple jailed on felony child neglect charges’…)

[Tom and Lena Simpson, of Clearwater, came to Clearwater dressed for a chilly afternoon. For some beach goers, in rear, the 65 degree weather did not seem to bother them. Lena Simpson, referring to an expression from her native country, Russia, stated "there is no bad weather, just bad clothes."  Atoyia Deans, Times] In case you haven’t noticed, it’s cold out there this morning. Temperatures reached record lows in some parts of Tampa and dipped below freezing in some northern counties It was just 43 degrees at 7 a.m. near the Tampa International Airport, the coldest temperature ever recorded there on this date, said meteorologist Josh Linker from Bay News 9. (Read the full post about ‘Bay area temperatures reach record lows’…)

[Florida Highway Patrol]

TAMPA — A 16-year-old Tampa girl and Clearwater 76-year-old were hospitalized for serious injuries following a Tuesday afternoon crash on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Interstate 4, according to Florida Highway Patrol.

At almost 6 p.m., 54-year-old Keqin Huang, of New York, was heading eastbound on MLK in 1993 four-door Nissan when Huang attempted to turn left onto eastbound I-4 at a green light, not a green arrow, troopers said. Huang turned in front of a 1997 four-door Toyota, driven by Sierra Shantel Smith, 18, of Tampa. Smith was heading west on MLK in the outside lane, also traveling through the intersection under a green light.

The front of Smith’s car struck the right passenger side of Huang’s.

(Read the full post about ‘Tampa teen and Clearwater 76-year-old in serious condition after unlicensed driver crashes’…)

Be in the know.

Election Day is a week away. There is a lot of talk about the candidates in the news: national and local. Florida’s 10.5 million registered voters will vote “for” or “against” six proposed constitutional amendments. You will have the opportunity to vote through Kids Voting on November 4.

You can read about the proposed amendments at VoteSmartFlorida.org. You can search for St. Petersburg Times articles on the amendments by using the archives on tampabay.com.  Choose a proposed amendment and discuss the pros and cons of that amendment here. Do you think the amendment is necessary to be added to the Florida Constitution: why or why not?

(Read the full post about ‘Know your amendments’…)

I thought this old story was amusing - New York Times, October 18, 2003 A big oil-well drilling company that has used one law to escape American taxes by taking addresses in Bermuda and Barbados is now trying to use another law to qualify for business open only to American companies.

Competitors are crying foul, saying they cannot survive if the Bermuda-Barbados company, Nabors Industries, is allowed to vie for contracts while paying little or nothing in taxes.

Source: Yahoo News - 10/27/2008

Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska has been convicted for failing to report gifts from VECO Corp., the corporation that built the Barbados jail. Stevens maintains that he is innocent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was convicted of corruption on Monday, a verdict that could endanger the Republican’s political future and help Democrats expand control of the Senate in the November 4 election.

Stevens, 84, was convicted on all seven counts of lying on Senate disclosure forms by failing to report more than $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts from an oil executive.

Here are some of Sen.

(Read the full post about ‘VECO Scandal - Sen. Stevens Guilty of Corruption!’…)

Source Fox News: Austrian Horror Dad VIENNA, Austria — Josef Fritzl, the Austrian builder who locked his daughter in a cellar and fathered seven children with her, sees himself as a born rapist, a victim of his own tyrannical mother. It is likely that someone knew about the commission of this horrible crime, but kept silent. Fritzl’s wife was reportedly living in the same house! Left: Fritzl’s mug shot from AmIAnnoying.com Three of the surviving children were allowed to live upstairs with him and wife, Rosemarie, 69, while their three siblings were condemned to a shadowy existence with their mother in the cellar. They never saw daylight until they were freed by police on April 26. (Read the full post about ‘Austrian Man, Josef Fritzl, Fathers 7 Children from his Own Daughter - Why wasn’t he stopped?’…)