Tampa Is…?

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.”

CBS News anchor Katie Couric mistakenly said that the GOP convention was going to be in Minneapolis, when it will really be in St. Paul.  The Pioneer Press was appalled:

Minneapolis is a fine city, but it is 10 or so miles from the [Xcel Energy Center]. Couric and CBS join a long list of Giants of Journalism who have gotten their geography wrong.

Couric, like the other erring Giants, lives in that great city along the Hudson River in New York State — the city we like to call Newark.

Heh.  Of course, Couric apologized.

But she would get the same here if she referred to the local baseball team as the Tampa Rays.

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.

“The Pier” has been a landmark of downtown St. Petersburg since 1899 when Peter Demens connected the Orange Belt Railroad to a half-mile wharf. D. F. Brantley started the first Pier Pavilion in 1895, and a “Municipal Pier” debuted in 1913.  But it is the 1926 “Million Dollar Pier” (postcarded here) that long-time residents remember.

The Million Dollar Pier was the place to be - whether it was for a veteran’s meeting, a high school dance or a just getting a Coke at the drive-in. In the days before air conditioning, the way to cool off was to take a drive out to this community center pier. Cruise boats docked at the pier and during World War II so did the military ships.

The city began tearing down Million Dollar Pier in 1967, and opened today’s inverted pyramid structure in 1973.  In 1978, the city installed a laser on the third floor of the inverted pyramid, sending a “beam of green” up the pier to downtown.  It never really worked great, and was removed in the mid 80s.

The Pier got a $12 million makeover in 1988, with a lovely shade of turquoise contrasting the pale yellow building.

You may have noticed that The Pier Aquarium is looking to move off The Pier, and over to Baywalk.  It seems that after 35 years, The Pier and the building at the end of it are falling apart.  So now the city is looking for ideas on what to do with The Pier.

To do it right, some have suggested we look at other piers across the nation, such as Chicago’s Navy Pier (pictures), Santa Monica Pier (pics), and San Francisco’s Pier 39 (pics).

But maybe we ought to knock it down and replace it with a bridge to Ruskin.

You got any ideas?

Your Weekly Rays Update

Overall: 58-40
Last Week: AL Won All Star Game, Jays (2-1)
This Week: OAK, @ KC

Considering this was the first All Star game that had any real importance to the Rays (for obvious reasons), it was good to see the three Rays play well in it. Evan Longoria had a game tying RBI hit in the bottom of the 8th and Scott Kazmir picked up the win in one inning of relief work. Even Dioner Navarro helped turn a key double play in the 9th inning (although Navarro also gave up a run on an error the inning before). We all know the Rays are a young team but all three Rays who played in the All Star game were 24 or younger. That’s just the fifth time since 1963 a team has sent three players 24 or younger to the All Star game.

Tampa Bay…58—40 __ .592
Boston………….58—43 __ .574
New York……..54—45 __ .545
Baltimore…….48—50 __ .490
Toronto……….48—51 __ .485

The Rays probably don’t deserve to be in first in the division considering the seven games they dropped before the All Star break, yet there they are. We have three Red Sox losses to the Angels to thank for that. Of concern is the fact that the Rays play dreadful on the road (19-25). The Rays have been saved by their home record (41-15) but it’s difficult to consider the team a serious playoff contender unless they can improve their road record.

HERE WE GO AGAIN
A Commission has been formed as a joint effort between St Petersburg, Pinellas and the Rays to find a site for a new stadium. The Commission, called A Baseball Community, Inc. is looking for applications for the 9 member committee that will head this coalition. The Times Stadium blog, Ballpark Frankness, has a guess at the potential membership of this committee and the biggest question seems to be, will someone from the anti-stadium group, POWW, be allowed on the committee? Personally, I’m torn on the value of adding someone from POWW to this group.

LONGORIA HOT, UPTON NOT
Apologies for the uncreative headline but Longoria has been on fire since the All Star break with 3 homeruns in his last three games. On the flip side BJ Upton has played poorly lately and Joe Maddon has moved Upton around in the lineup to take pressure off of Upton until he finds his swing. Upton is not the only Ray struggling (Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena have as well) so you have to wonder how long can a rookie (i.e. Longoria) essentially carry the Rays offense?.

PERCIVAL BACK
Reliever Troy Percival returns from the 15 day DL and should pitch sometime this week. While the Rays bullpen as a whole is much improved from last season Percival seems to provide a calming influence for a young team.

PLAYOFF ODDS: 84%
(Courtesy Baseball Prospectus)

The State of Florida, the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County have approved $34.4 million in tax incentives to convince Jabil Circuit stays in the area.

…The city would contribute $12.7-million and the county about $1.7-million through grants, tax refunds and new road and utility improvements benefiting Jabil.

… In return, Jabil must hire 858 new workers at an average annual salary of $42,685 a year, or 115 percent of the area’s average wage. Jabil must also build a new $49-million campus, generating about $300,000 annually in new tax revenue to the city.

The county and city estimate the deal would produce an annual economic impact in Pinellas of $68-million.

But we are not supposed to know this.

In two separate meetings, the County Commission approved the deal without mentioning which company would benefit. County Administrator Fred Marquis confirmed it was Jabil.

The city, however, took the secrecy further by quietly adding the incentive package to its council agenda just hours before a June 19 meeting. The council approved the incentives without any discussion or mention of what they were voting on.

It was buried with dozens of routine matters that were voted on as a group, making it nearly impossible for the public to know that the city was committing millions in public dollars to a private company.

That’s not “Government in the Sunshine.”

The City Council’s actions violated the spirit though not the letter of Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine Law, said Adria Harper, director of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation.

“The whole point of the Sunshine Law is to give citizens a window into the government process,” Harper said.

Florida’s “sunshine” law exempts economic development deals, so there was nothing illegal here. Still, I’d like more details. Is there a target date for hiring the 858? Is there a minimum amount of time they must commit to keeping them employed? Is there a deadline for building the new campus? Are they required to pay back the money if they fail?

I’m all for economic incentives to bring more jobs to the area. But good grief, let’s make sure all the t’s are crossed and they i’s dotted, and don’t leave taxpayers on the hook.

Like the city of Largo, all local government officials need to learn from what is happeneing at Neilsen of Olsdmar, where they continue to lay off workers, and outsource jobs.

Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex is undergoing a change, and will soon bear the name of ESPN.  Makes sense since most kids these days have never heard of the long running “Wide World of Sports” brand and television show on ABC.

But anyway, in regards to that subject, Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer Scott Powers interviewed the senior vice president of global sports enterprises for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Ken Potrock.  The Q&A is mostly uninteresting drivel about how ESPN and Disney are going to take over the amateur sporting tournaments away from the rest of the country, and blah, blah, blah.  But there was one exchange that caught our eye:

Q: Any possibility that the Tampa Bay Rays’ schedule might be expanded at Champion Stadium?

A: We love having the Tampa Bay Rays play here. I would love to have them make a longer-term commitment to play here, and to play as many games here as they would like to play.

That sure is an interesting comment, given that the Rays are in the midst of trying to get St. Pete to build a new stadium.

Then again, I may be reading too much into it.  Champion Stadium holds less than 10,000 spectators.

Thanks to Mr. Media Bob Andelman, who originally found the quote at Mickey News, and passed it on to us.

PS:  Don’t look now, but exactly half way through the season, the Rays once again wake up this morning with the best record in baseball.

I honestly don’t understand how anybody who lives here can ever be bored unless they’re really going out of their way to make an effort. There is always something going on and whenever you think you’ve done everything there is to do, you’ll come across something new.

For example, this past Saturday night I found myself in an art gallery in downtown St. Pete listening to chamber music. Believe it or not, that’s actually not how I spend every Saturday night.

Studio@620 was hosting a performance of chamber music by the FloriMezzo Music Festival. It was very casual (nobody was wearing a tux) and entertaining. The musicians experimented with the music and bantered with the audience, explaining things and soliciting feedback. The gallery staff was very friendly and accommodating. Not at all the stuffy, intimidating atmosphere that your average ham-and-egger (like me) might expect. In fact, the exhibit on display “Purses and Passions” featured photos of some of the beloved Tampa Bay Derby Darlins!

It was there (Studio@620, not the roller derby) I had the opportunity to speak with Eryn Bauer. She is from Tampa (a 2006 graduate of Chamberlain High School) and is currently a Bassoon Performance Major at the Eastman School of Music in New York. She has soloed with the Tampa Bay Symphony. and is a member of the “Arabesque Winds” woodwind quintet, who recently won the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition which was held in Carnegie Hall. That means she’s talented and stuff. I asked her a few questions:

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