* Proactive Mayor Bob Buckhorn is doing more than contacting PayPal about North Carolina bathroom laws. The city is paying Facebook to promote its “State of the City” (“We Built This”) video–that has taken off on the Internet–in Charlotte and Raleigh. Of course there are those Riverwalk and skyline shots and a high-energy vibe, but, more to the point, Tampa’s diversity and inclusion is underscored. Game on.
And, yes, Charlotte has thought about baseball.
*In collaboration with Essence magazine, Money.com is out with its ranking of the “Best Colleges for African Americans.” Florida A&M finished fifth out of 1,500 surveyed. The criteria: graduation rates, affordability, earnings potential and diversity. FAMU’s graduation rate is 87 percent. The top four: Princeton, Harvard, Duke and Cornell.
* When Bill Maher sits down for a one-on-one interview at the beginning of his “Real Time” HBO show, the guest is inevitably someone with an agenda. As in a book, a movement, a candidacy. Think Charlie Crist, Al Gore, Elizabeth Warren, Rand Paul, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker. Recently Maher sat down with Thomas E. Perez.
While hardly a household name, Perez, 54, has been secretary of labor for nearly three years. Before that, he had been assistant attorney general for civil rights. He’s Ivy League educated, his parents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic and he could be a high-profile–even ticket-balancing–player once Hillary Clinton is the official Democratic nominee.
* The Tampa Bay Times arguably dodged a bullet last spring when it enabled–as well as covered–the Ruskin mailman’s gyro-landing stunt on the front lawn of the U.S. Capitol building. The one where Doug Hughes flew through protected air space to deliver his message about the sleazy side of Citizens United. The one that–in this era of anything-goes terrorism–could have gone terribly, tragically wrong.
What the Times learned was not the lesson that the media should report the news–and not help make it. No, the apparent lesson was: We’re still a Hughes’ insider; let’s double down. Proof was in another Hughes-related, Sunday front-page piece with a full-page jump and minimal relevance.
* Brutally funny stuff in Doonesbury on Trump these days. But all the more reason for this political parody to be on the editorial page–not above Beetle Bailey and Garfield.