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Touting his environmental ‘success,’ DeSantis is more con man than conservationist
Maybe it’s because I’m from Florida, home to sooooo many slick talkers, but I love a good yarn about con artists. “The Sting,” “American Hustle,” “The Music Man” — the list of great grifter movies is a long one, including “The Grifters.” These stories show how some people can weave a magical spell with words […]
Even my hard-headed dad understood the importance of Florida’s wetlands
We buried my dad last week. Oscar Pittman had a good, long life. He’d just turned 87, and he and my mom had celebrated 67 years of marriage. Dad loved to tell stories and make people laugh. When I was a kid growing up in Pensacola, I used to hate going with him on trips […]
Florida city’s sewer plant to save the Blackwater River may make pollution worse
The Blackwater River holds a special place in my heart, because it’s the one Florida river where I very nearly drowned. I was a kid, and my Boy Scout troop was camped on the riverbank. I was wading across the river when the current snatched my feet out from under me. At the last second, […]
After hurricane, Florida beach town proposes a development moratorium
Dear Santa, Hi! Been a looooong time since I last wrote to you. Thanks for the Hank Aaron baseball glove you brought me back then. I guess I should have asked you for Hammerin’ Hank’s skill at throwing, catching and hitting homers, too. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, I am writing to you this […]
At Florida hot spring, developers get a warm reception
Florida has a lot of dinosaurs these days. I don’t mean the folks lining up for the Early Bird Special at Red Lobster, I mean actual dinosaurs, or rather statues of them. They range from Sexy Rexy, the Beach Boulevard dinosaur in Jacksonville, to Dino, the gas station shaped like a dinosaur in Weeki Wachee […]
Some hard truths about Florida companies selling water softeners
Florida, you may have heard, is a sunny place for shady people. We’ve had that reputation ever since the first grinning huckster sold an acre of swampland to an unsuspecting Yankee, promising it was “waterfront” property. We’ve seen sooooo many examples of this. For instance, Charles Ponzi, the guy who invented the Ponzi Scheme in […]
This Florida chemical plant is the biggest greenhouse gas polluter in the state
I have a confession to make. I’m oooooold. How old am I? I remember when Steve Martin was just a stand-up comic whose big schtick involved getting small. These days Martin is the star of a popular Hulu TV show about a trio of snarky amateur detectives. In movies, he’s played a well-meaning dope, a […]
Be thankful FL voters are willing to save environmental lands — why aren’t our politicians?
Back when I was a kid in Pensacola, the church that my parents and I attended held services three times a week. We were there every time the doors were open: Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. I liked the Wednesday sessions best because every couple of months we’d have a “song service.” That […]
Sea turtles hatching on Florida beaches are feeling the heat from warming climate
When anyone asks me what’s the coolest thing I’ve ever covered, I always tell them about the sea turtle: I once witnessed a loggerhead turtle crawl onto a Sarasota County beach in the dark of a new moon, dig a hole, and lay a bunch of eggs. That night, I was riding with a couple […]
Good news! You’re Florida’s new governor. Bad news: Now you have to save our environment
Imagine you were just elected the governor of the third largest state in the U.S. You. Not the guy who, according to his recent ad, Jehovah created special on the eighth day. And not the guy who has been mistakenly called “Christ” yet couldn’t resurrect the Democratic Party in Florida. It’s all on you. And […]
CRC’s fate is on the ballot – for once Florida legislators want you to vote
Right now, all the Florida newspapers and television stations are full of stories and ads urging you to vote. It’s your civic duty! Vote today! The political parties are after you to vote, too: From billboards to robocalls to text messages, you can’t get away from the drumbeat of go-vote-go-vote-go-vote. I’m surprised there aren’t any […]
Gubernatorial debate skipped key questions about Florida’s worsening environmental problems
I watched the one and only Florida gubernatorial debate Monday night. I admit that I yelled at the TV set. No, I wasn’t mad at the two candidates, incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis and challenger Charlie Crist. They’re both politicians with years of experience, and so they both behaved exactly the way politicians do. If they […]