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After hurricane, Florida beach resort tries to put even more people in jeopardy
This is a tall tale. It’s not about Paul Bunyan, John Henry or Pecos Bill, but a tall tale of the Florida kind. Nine months ago, when Hurricane Ian clobbered Southwest Florida, one of the places that suffered serious damage was the South Seas Resort on Captiva Island. The resort was battered so badly that […]
Florida Senate punishes clean water advocate for speaking out
Maybe you’ve seen or at least heard of the 1941 Humphrey Bogart detective movie “The Maltese Falcon.” But did you know it was based on a 1930 novel by a real detective? Dashiell Hammett had been a Pinkerton Agency private eye before he created the fictional private eye Sam Spade and sent him chasing after […]
Florida city fights its own citizens over clean water
There’s a lot of talk these days about teachers “indoctrinating” children. Way back in 19-mumblety-mumble, when I was a kid in school, my teachers indoctrinated me about voting. My main job as a citizen, they told me repeatedly, was to cast a ballot. I have followed my indoctrination as faithfully as Raymond Shaw from “The […]
Mangrove massacre wipes out Florida angler’s joy
Florida likes to call itself the Fishing Capital of the World — and not because we’ve got so many fishy business folks operating here. According to the tourism promoters at Visit Florida, we rank at No. 1 in angling excellence in part because we’ve got “more than 7,700 lakes, 10,550 miles of rivers, and 2,276 […]
DeSantis again backs developers over what’s good for Florida
I don’t know if you noticed, but Gov. Ron “I Can Finally Stop Pretending I’m Not a Presidential Candidate!” DeSantis had a big week last week. Not necessarily a good week, mind you. But a big one. He launched his presidential run with an assist from Elon “Check Out My Big Brain” Musk. But all […]
New Florida study says recycling can help combat climate change
Every two weeks, I do the Blue Bin Shuffle. This is not some hot new dance craze featured on a viral TikTok video. It’s just part of adulting in the Sunshine State, like making sure you wear your good flip-flops when you go to church. Every other Monday, I shuffle outside to wheel our blue […]
Business partners sue FL Sen. DiCeglie over alleged ’embezzled funds’ for his political career
Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie’s two partners in a Clearwater garbage hauling company have accused him in civil lawsuits of spending thousands of dollars from the company to pay for his political and personal expenses. The alleged expenses include “political consulting services, loans to finance his political campaign, membership fees for political clubs and organizations, and […]
Florida’s fertilizer addiction leads to ban on sales bans, roads that glow
Hey everybody, good news! We can all come out of the storm shelters! The Legislature left! The two-month session ended last week with the traditional declaration of “sine die,” which is Latin for “good riddance.” As the lawmakers departed, they left behind teams of lobbyists gleefully tallying their clients’ per-hour charges as a handful of […]
Florida legislators OK bill likely to lead to higher water and sewer rates
Florida once had two capitals, Pensacola and St. Augustine. That was because it was two separate Spanish colonies, West Florida and East Florida. The story goes that when the two colonies became a single U.S. territory in 1819, a guy from Pensacola set out headed east and a guy from St. Augustine headed west, and […]
Florida has a burning issue involving fire — or the lack of it
Longtime Floridians are accustomed to the threats posed by water and wind. So often are we hammered by hurricanes and floods that I know people who refuse to take a storm seriously if it’s not at least a Category 3. They regard anything below that as an excuse to throw a hurricane party, nothing more. […]
Climate change makes Florida ‘rain-bombs’ more common
If you live in Florida, you never suffer from an irony deficiency. Case in point: Flood managers from across the nation gathered in South Florida last week for a conference — only to run into the region’s worst flooding in yeeeeeeeeears. (Hey, do you think we can get the nation’s lottery managers to meet at […]
Surprise! Florida leads the nation in lead pipes carrying water supply
As a native Floridian, I am always eager to pass along good news about our state. That’s especially true these days when there’s so much of the other kind — soaring property insurance rates, no affordable housing, a governor who got outfoxed by a mouse, etc. That’s why I frequently point out that our beaches […]