Media Matters

* While it is now lost in the aftermath of the first debate, let’s not lose sight of Hillary Clinton going on “Between Two Ferns.” BTF is an internet popular mock celebrity interview show hosted by Zach Galifianakis, a comedian. It’s irreverent and sometimes tasteless–but it ostensibly shows that a candidate can take it and not look scripted and serious. Barack Obama did it a few years ago, but he’s good at this stuff.

Clinton is not. She should have done a press conference instead of subjecting herself to annoying, sometimes scatological, humor with a mostly deadpan-demeanor response.

Her awkward appearance was also a reminder of what campaigns stoop to in order to humanize a candidate and imply hipness–beyond the support of Barbra Streisand and Cher–to a certain demographic. She should not have gone on, and her campaign should have known better.

* Writers always welcome quotable lines. Given the opportunity to return the favor, they’re well-positioned to deliver a media-friendly gem. Case in point: David Brooks, author and non-liberal columnist for the New York Times, who recently spoke at St. Petersburg’s Palladium.  So, really, David, how does it feel to be a NYT conservative? “A job I liken to being chief rabbi in Mecca,” responded Brooks.

* Mayor Rick Kriseman: What a political comeuppance. He pushed for the Cross Bay Ferry. He’s out in front on a Cuban consulate for St. Pete. He’s been reasonable and pragmatic about the Rays. Now it’s all about damage control and PR spin, because his constituents and the media want to know what he knew and when he knew it. From a progressive mayor making a mark regionally to SewageGate and being in the same transparency conversation with Rick Scott and Mosaic.

Quoteworthy

* “Each of us as leaders, each nation, can choose to reject those who appeal to our worst impulses and embrace those who appeal to our best. For we have shown that we can choose a better history.”–President Barack Obama, in his United Nations address.

* “Out of misplaced sympathy for a narrow segment of the electorate and a misguided determination to back the GOP no matter how awful, too many Republicans have adopted the Trump argument that trade and immigration are our enemies.”–Jennifer Rubin, New York Times.

* “We can’t lose our cool and start ranting and waving our arms. We shouldn’t toss around extreme proposals that won’t be effective and lose sight of who we are. That’s what the terrorists are aiming for.”–Hillary Clinton.

* “You take a look at the inner cities, you get no education, you get no jobs, you get shot walking down the street. They’re worse, I mean honestly, places like Afghanistan are safer than some of our inner cities.”–Donald Trump.

* “You need a white guy to join the fight.”–Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, on National Anthem player protests.

* “If they don’t like the country, they don’t like our flag … get the hell out.”–Hall of Fame tight end and former coach Mike Ditka.

* “We call on the members of both the Senate and the House to work together to create a uniform, equal playing field for Florida and ride-sharing options.”–Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

* “I think we’re a long way from saying this is where we think it’s going to go.”–Hillsborough County Attorney Chip Fletcher, on baseball-stadium discussions with Tampa Bay Rays officials.

* “We’ll be a Fortune 80 (company) now–bigger than American Express.”–Bob Dutkowsky, CEO of Clearwater-based Tech Data Corp., in announcing that Tech Data is acquiring Phoenix-based technology distributor Avnet for $2.6 billion.

* “Ybor is only going to continue to grow, and that residential buffer will continue to grow as long as they can keep the bar scene under control.”–David Conn, executive vice president of retail services for the real estate company CBRE Inc.

* “Historically, we’ve seen development come in waves. Like in ’81 and again in ’88. All of the new development under way is the most sustained activity we’ve ever seen. It’s unusual.”–Bob McDonough, Tampa’s administrator of economic activity.

” We are competing with the best places in the country and we are winning.”–Dr. Thomas Sellers, Moffitt Cancer Center director, in response to Moffitt again earning the prestigious “Comprehensive Cancer Institute” designation by the National Cancer Institute.

* “I’m so lucky that this amazing country gave me this opportunity, that it opened its arms to me and my family.”–José Fernández at the Trop in 2015.

* “He was 10 feet tall. There was something about Jose. People gravitated to him. He had that charisma.”–Landy Faedo, José Fernández’s baseball coach at Alonso High School.

* “There was no intentional action, no coverup.”–St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman.

Quoteworthy

* “Vladimir Putin is a strong leader in the same way that arsenic is a strong drink. Praising a brutal KGB dictator, especially as preferable to a democratically elected U.S. president, whether you like Obama or hate him, is despicable and dangerous.”–Garry Kasparov, Russian former world chess champion and Putin critic.

* “When U.S. leaders think about negotiating with Russia, they need to be sure their model is John F. Kennedy in the Cuban Missile Crisis, rather than Neville Chamberlain at Munich.”–David Ignatius, New York Times.

* “I understand we’re a young country, we are a restless country. We always like the new shiny thing. I benefited from that when I was a candidate, and we take for granted sometimes what is steady and true. And Hillary Clinton is steady and she is true.”–President Barack Obama.

* “Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it, you know what I mean? President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.”–Donald Trump.

* “Truth has a low priority in the misnomer known as reality TV. Rules are for losers.”–Former Boston Globe editor Martin Nolan.

* “Anything we can do to prevent the (presidential) debate from just being candidates disagreeing with each other, and to push the dialogue onto firmer ground, is a good thing.”–Lucas Graves, author of “Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-Checking in American Journalism.”

* “A national disgrace. An international pariah.”–Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, in referring to Donald Trump.

* “On the things that are really big, (Donald Trump) will in some clumsy way force real change.”–Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

* “I think that (Clinton’s) bodyguards should drop all weapons. Take their guns away. She doesn’t want guns … let’s see what happens to her.”–Donald Trump.

* “Standing up for children has been the work of my life, as a lawyer for the Children’s Defense Fund, as first lady of Arkansas, in the White House.”–Hillary Clinton.

* “All of the concessions that Barack Obama has granted the Castro regime were done with executive order, which means the next president can reverse them. And that is what I will do unless the Castro regime meets our demands.”–Donald Trump.

* “His (Barack Obama) is going to be easily the most valuable presidential memoir ever. And I think Michelle Obama has the opportunity to sell the most valuable First Lady memoir in history.”–Raphael Sagalyn of the ICM/Sagalyn Literacy Agency.

* “Against the candidate perceived to be the most hostile to Hispanic voters in modern presidential politics, why is (Clinton) not exceeding where Barack Obama was?”–Miami Democratic strategist/pollster Fernand Amandi.

* “The administration imagined something transformational; it ended up with something significant but incremental.”–David Brooks, New York Times, on the Affordable Care Act.

* “I think what it shows is, one, the NCAA is capable of doing the right thing. And two, when it wants to, it can act quickly.”–ESPN basketball analyst Jay Bilas, on the NCAA’s decision to pull seven championships out of North Carolina resulting from that state’s law requiring transgender people to use restrooms in schools and state government buildings that correspond to the gender on their birth certificates. The law also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from statewide antidiscrimination protections.

* “We are unable to find any data that shows arresting youth for common youth misbehavior instead of issuing civil citations is a good idea.”–Dewey Caruthers, author of the “Stepping Up 2016” report by the Children’s Campaign advocacy group.

* “It’s nice to agree on something.”–Charlie Crist, during his debate with David Jolly, in reference to their agreement that St. Petersburg should be the home of a Cuban consulate and the Rays should remain in Pinellas County.

* “Port Tampa Bay is Cuba-ready, and we are open to any legal opportunities.”–Edward Miyagishima, Port Tampa Bay’s vice president of communications.

* “It’s my view that these cameras do act as something of a deterrent. They slow people down. They make people more aware.”–Tampa City Council member Harry Cohen, who voted in the (4-3) majority to keep the city’s red-light camera program for two more years.

* “It’s a fraud. It’s a cash cow for the vendor and a cash cow for the city.”–Tampa City Council member Frank Reddick, who voted in the minority to keep the city’s red-light camera program for two more years.

* “These are promoters in pursuit of profit and they could care less for the health, safety and welfare of attendees.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, on the return in 2017 of the Sunset Music Festival, an outdoor concert where two people died of drug overdoses earlier this year.

More Media Matters

* Vanity Fair, which is hardly an insider’s political bible, recently arched eyebrows over a  Donald Trump piece. It speculated on what might have been the ultimate motive behind the move by Trump to bring on serial sexual harasser and former Fox puppeteer Roger Ailes. In short, to do more than help out on debate prep. In fact, to actually help implement Trump’s Plan B after Clinton wins the election.

Assuming his vanity campaign would come up short on electoral votes but long on an amped-up, alt-right following, Trump purportedly envisions a new media company. Call it Trump TV. It would take advantage of his brand name, his 11 million Twitter followers and his base of white-supremacists awaiting his next bar-stool rant. And Ailes knows a thing or two about media pandering.

* Prediction: If by some catastrophic stretch Donald Trump becomes president, look for re-newed interest in Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel “It Can’t Happen Here” and John Frankenheimer’s 1964 movie “Seven Days in May.” The former looks at an American-dictator scenario; the latter, a military-political cabal.

* It’s hardly happenstance that as “pay for play” scenarios persist, Attorney General Pam Bondi grows increasingly unavailable to Florida journalists. And she has looked less than comfortable with non-Fox national media. Frankly, it appears that she never recovered after being schooled by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, hardly the second coming of Mike Wallace, in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shootings.

* Does anybody but the Tampa Bay Times really care about “Gyrocopter” pilot updates?

* A bumper sticker that’s overdue: “Abort Congress.” Prompted by a Zika bill that couldn’t get passed because of Planned Parenthood politics.

Signage Umbrage

Lawn signs are part of our political landscape, where political support meets visual pollution– depending on one’s allegiance. Of course, this cycle is beyond the norm. Nothing like having a neighbor’s Trump sign underscoring societal chasm and chaos.

But what we should all be able to agree on is that when a primary is long over, the signs of the loser ought to be removed post haste from said landscape. A prime sign example: that notably big one on Armenia Avenue in West Tampa for Trump surrogate Carlos Beruff.

Quoteworthy

*“Twenty years ago, the idea of North Korea being able to  deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. seemed far-fetched. They’re not there yet, but with each round of tests, they inch a little bit closer.”–Sharon Squassoni, director of the proliferation prevention program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

* “No one is basing this on trust. We are basing it on oversight and compliance.”–Secretary of State John Kerry, on the deal with Russia to reduce violence in Syria.

* “The most enduring memorial to those we lost is ensuring the America we continue to be, that we stay true to ourselves, stay true to what is best in us, that we not let others divide us.”–President Barack Obama, speaking at the Pentagon Memorial service on Sept. 11.

* “And, by the way, with Iran, when they circle our beautiful destroyers with their little boats, and they make gestures at our people that they shouldn’t be allowed to make, they will be shot out of the water.”–Donald Trump.

* “Vote this year like your future depends on it, because it does.”–Hillary Clinton, during her campaign stop at USF.

* “(Donald Trump) is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be president. I’m a very patient person. I don’t quit. I don’t give up. I don’t blink.”–Hillary Clinton.

* “We all understand, more or less, what Trump is getting at. In American politics, ‘law and order’ is lock-em-up language, tough talk that is used to vilify far more than crime and criminals. It also tends to encompass the supposed disorder created by poor people, African-Americans, street protesters and immigrants.”–Beverly Gage, New York Times Magazine.

* “To understand the racial divide in the electorate, consider the sharp contrast between white men and nonwhite voters in Florida.”–Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown.

* “A fraud from beginning to end.”–New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s assessment of Trump U.

* “The Republican Party is now a coalition of globalization-loving business executives and globalization-hating white workers. That’s untenable. … The Democratic Party is a coalition of the upscale urban professionals who make up the ruling class and less-affluent members of minorities who feel betrayed by it. That’s untenable too.”–David Brooks, New York Times.

* “I hope she gets well soon.”–Donald Trump.

* “In retrospect, we could have handled it better.”–Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon, on the delay in informing the public about Clinton’s diagnosis of pneumonia.

* “Democrats really blew it when it comes to (Senate) recruiting in Florida. They thought they had a half-decent candidate, and then he turned out to be problematic.”–Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s Meet the Press.

* “We are now essentially out of money.”–Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the state of dwindling, Zika-aid funding.

* “Unchecked incentives can lead to serious consumer harm, and that is what happened here.”–Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in reference to the illegal and widespread banking practices at Wells Fargo. The CFPB leveled a $100 million penalty on Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest banks.

* “One of the most religious countries on earth (U.S.) is also a nation of religious illiterates.”–Stephen Prothero, author of “Religious Literacy.”

* “Children being forgotten in cars coincides with the development of air bags, when children were put into the back seat instead of the front seat. You just didn’t see children getting forgotten before air bags developed.”–David Diamond, USF professor of psychology, physiology and molecular pharmacology–and leading expert on “forgotten baby syndrome.”

* “I am in doubt that there’s anything she could say that would put this to rest.”–Florida Republican consultant Mac Stipanovich, on the ongoing controversy over Donald Trump’s  $25,000 contribution to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s re-election campaign in 2013.

* “Perhaps the (Hillsborough County) commission can fool themselves into thinking this road-repair, road-widening patch solves transportation needs. But informed people, especially those without cars, will recognize that it is only for show; it won’t get us where we need to go.”–Former Florida legislator Mary Figg.

* “The development community hasn’t embraced sustainability here in the way other cities have. (Strategic Property Partners’) commitment to this standard is something Tampa hasn’t always had. On a large scale, I hope it inspires others to do the same because it can only be good for Tampa.”–Taylor Ralph, founder and president of REAL Building Consultants.

* “The festival market is just too competitive. … We can’t afford to play. It’s just too much money.”–WMNF general manager Craig Kopp, on the community radio station’s decision to suspend its long-running Tropical Heat Wave music festival.

* “Tampa has a nationally renowned reputation for great customer service and information technology talent–a perfect combination of skills that will help us ramp up quickly in our new location.”–Rene LaVigne, president and CEO of Iron Bow Technologies, on the Virginia company’s opening of a new customer service center–including 170 new jobs–in Tampa.

* “We cannot go backward on our protection of the environment.”–State Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, on Pinellas County’s recent sewage woes.

* “We don’t have to listen to what everybody else wants us to do with our lives. We get to do what we want.”–Tim Tebow.

Media Matters

* ESPN’s constant-loop promotion of its 2016 college football programming includes a name-recognition bonus for Tampa. That’s because the national championship game–Alabama vs. an opponent yet to be determined–will be at Raymond James Stadium on Jan. 9. And “All roads,” as ESPN has been reminding viewers, “lead to Tampa.” We’ll take it–as long as it’s not some ironic slight to Bay Area mass transit.

* It’s 53 years this month that the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite became America’s first 30-minute nightly newscast. Prior to that, network news was 15 minutes and largely a loss-leader. Over time, the local and network news became a lead-in to network, prime-time programming. Over more time, it is becoming a news dinosaur in an era of cable news, internet updates and cherry-picking and social media sharing.

* When Melania Trump is in the news, it’s probably not for anything nice. It comes with the Trumpster-diving territory. The Daily Mail tabloid of Great Britain–and its website–have now retracted a story that had accused Mrs. Trump of involvement with an escort agency during her modeling years. The retraction was in response to a lawsuit. The Daily Mail said it regretted any “misinterpretation” of the article.

“Misinterpretation”?  Isn’t this from the same ethical-spin playbook as a Donald Trump or a Ryan Lochte “apology”?

Quoteworthy

* “Some day we may see this as the moment when we decided to save our planet. History will judge today’s efforts as pivotal.”–President Barack Obama, in formally joining Chinese President Xi Jinping in signing on to the Paris climate accord in Hangzhou, China.

* “Part of what makes America an exceptional nation is that we are also an indispensible nation. In fact, we are the indispensible nation. People all over the world look to us, and follow our lead.”–Hillary Clinton.

* “There is no doubt that Republicans during the Obama presidency pioneered and perfected scorched-earth politics and have paid a price for it. They let themselves be led around by a group of no-compromise talk-radio gasbags, think-tank ideologues in the pay of one industry or another, Fox News know-nothings and an alt-right fringe, who, together, so poisoned the GOP garden that an invasive species, Donald Trump, just took over.”–Thomas Friedman, New York Times.

* “Trump’s (immigration) retreat points the way to the only serious solution: enforcement plus legalization.”–Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post.

* “I fully understand that the African-American community has suffered from discrimination and that there are many wrongs that must still be made right.”–Donald Trump at Great Faith Ministries International, a black church in Detroit.

* “Mr. Trump’s real, if unspoken, (Latino and African-American) strategy here may well be making himself more palatable to moderate white voters, and holding down turnout among minority voters.”–Adam Nagourney, New York Times.

* “There is no Democratic majority without (African-American) voters. The danger is that if you don’t get these voters out, you’ve got the 2004 John Kerry electorate again.”–Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher.

* “(Trump’s) going to run up the score with white voters without a college education. I agree he may set a record there, but he’s losing badly in loads of other categories.”–Political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

* “The key moment is going to be that first debate. Trump will be viewed as a distinct underdog, which could be dangerous. You have to make sure you dominate the first debate.”–David Plouffe, former Obama presidential campaign manager.

* “I haven’t heard an economic concept come out of Trump’s mouth except for protectionism and lower taxes. If you put those two together, that is a recipe for disaster.”–Carlos Gutierrez, former commerce secretary under President George W. Bush.

* “Racists now call themselves ‘racialists.’ White supremacists now call themselves ‘white nationalists.’ The paranoid fringe now calls itself ‘alt-right.’ But the hate burns just as bright.”–Hillary Clinton.

* “Senator Marco Rubio is the embodiment of the worst of Washington. I promise I will serve a full six-year term for the people of Florida.”–U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy.

* “Donald Trump is doing us no favors in Miami-Dade.”–Rep. Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’Lakes, incoming Florida House Speaker.

* “Seeing the American airlines landing routinely around the island will drive a sense of openness, integration and normality. That has a huge psychological impact.”–Richard Feinberg, author of “Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy.

* “It’s just a severe overreach by the FDA.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, on regulations stopping the donation of cigars to U.S. troops serving abroad.

* “Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”–Mark Twain.

* “A shadow government of complete mercenaries.”–Former Florida legislator Dan Gelber, in maintaining that term limits have shifted Tallahassee power and institutional knowledge to the world of lobbying.

* “It’s both a revenue enhancer and a reputation enhancer for USF.”–John Sinnott, chairman of the internal medicine department at USF’s Morsani College of Medicine, on the value of a working relationship with Lanzhou, China. USF has trained more than 200 Lanzhou physicians.

* “A huge victory for our neighborhoods. Now, for the first time in countless years, we can invest in infrastructure for a system that is over 100 years old.”–Mayor Bob Buckhorn’s reaction of City Council’s vote to approve a new yearly fee to pay for better drainage citywide.

* “If it really saves lives, I would say okay. City after city has taken them down. There is a reason. They all tried it, and it didn’t work.”–City Council member Yolie Capin, on the city’s red-light camera program that is coming up for extension.

* “We will never solve our problems if we don’t get people out of their cars.”–Tom Hall, co-founder of the Tucker/Hall public relations firm.

Quoteworthy

* “The phenomenon of the Islamist terrorism of ISIS is not a phenomenon that has come to us through refugees but rather one which we’ve already had here before.”–German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

* “We know that China is actually in touch with other countries who have signed on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, trying to negotiate their own trade deals with them. There is a very real risk that the United States gets cut out of the deal.”–White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

* “In light of the continued solid performance of the labor market and our outlook for economic activity and inflation, I believe the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has strengthened in recent months.”–Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

* “The country today doesn’t need the first female president. It needs the first president in a long time who can govern with a center-left, center-right coalition, and actually end the gridlock on fiscal policy in a smart way.”–Thomas Friedman, New York Times.

* “If he doesn’t respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?”–Hillary Clinton.

* “He is taking hate groups main stream and helping a radical fringe take over the Republican Party. … It’s never had the nominee of a major party stoking it, encouraging it and giving it a national megaphone. Until now.”–Hillary Clinton.

* “Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future.”–Donald Trump.

* “Hillary Clinton would rather give a job to an illegal immigrant than to an unemployed Hispanic citizen, an unemployed African-American citizen, or even a veteran.”–Donald Trump.

* “All he knows about the Second Amendment is that it elicits reliable cheers from the strange, non-New York folk in trucker hats who show up at his rallies. His inner Rupert Pupkin is showing through.”–Holman W. Jenkins, Wall Street Journal.

* “He went to the heart of Chicago to give a speech to the University of Chicago in an area that is predominantly African-American to make that argument. And you know what happened? The campus was overrun, and it was not a safe environment.”–Former Trump campaign manager Cory Lewandowski, explaining why the candidate is reluctant to go directly to the African-American community to appeal for support.

* “There’s nothing Trump can do that won’t be forgiven–except change his immigration policies.”–Conservative author Ann Coulter.

* “Donald Trump understands that enforcing the (immigration) laws and building that wall are paramount to what the will of the people is–and thank God he’s still preaching that because if he were not, then there would be a huge erosion of support.”–Sarah Palin.

* “It’s been an exciting and unprecedented kind of campaign this year, and unfortunately, the way it’s turned out, both choices in the major parties are quite unpopular. … Hillary Clinton has my support.”–Former President Jimmy Carter.

* “It’s very hard to find someone to mimic the reckless temperament and the hateful instincts and divisive instincts of Donald trump.”–Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, on the challenge of finding anyone to play Trump for debate practice.

* “He knows not of what he speaks. And he doesn’t know of what he speaks.”–Vice President Joe Biden, in referring to Donald Trump when talking about foreign policy and NATO to Baltic leaders.

* “Politicians almost seem embarrassed to talk about the stock market. It’s not a popular thing right now. But when you look at it, the record of the market under Obama is kind of incredible.”–Paul Hickey, co-founder of the Bespoke Investment Group.

* “It just becomes very hard and difficult to understand how the Trump campaign gets to 270 (Electoral College votes). The map has shifted and is much more favorable to the Democrats.”–Russ Schriefer, Republican strategist for the 2012 Romney campaign.

* “Republicans up and down the  ticket are going to have to choose whether they want to be complicit in this lurch toward extremism, or stand with the voters who can’t stomach it.”–Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.

* “Everybody suffers, except the Mylan investors.”–Sabrina Corlette of Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute.

* “I’ve stood by everything I ever said in my campaign, and that said, we’re in a different place now.”–Sen. Marco Rubio, in answer to the Miami Herald editorial board question: “Do you still think (Donald Trump’s) a ‘con man’?”

* “It’s transparently hypocritical.”–Florida Republican strategist Mac Stipanovich’s assessment of Marco Rubio’s position of trying to balance party loyalty with antipathy toward Donald Trump.

* “Marco Rubio–not strong enough to stand up to Trump.”–Tag line from an online ad launched by U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy.

* “I don’t think large-scale (Zika) epidemics are possible in the U.S. because of window screening and air conditioning. We’re talking about small clusters here and there.”–Ira Longini, professor of biostatistics at the University of Florida.

* “Florida’s supply of for-sale homes remains tight, which is putting pressure on median prices and having a dampening effect on closed sales. But the state’s strong jobs outlook and growing economy are attracting more and more new residents, which provides a solid foundation for the housing market.”–Matey H. Veissi, president of Florida Realtors.

* “If ever there was an iconic figure in Tampa’s history, it’s Monsignor Higgins. He has been a mentor, spiritual leader and confidant to tens of thousands of Catholics and non-Catholics. “–Mayor Bob Buckhorn, on the death of Monsignor Laurence E. Higgins, the pastor of St. Lawrence Catholic Church for 49 years.

* “We’re on our way to being a superpower in the U.S. and maybe the world. What’s absent is a proper plan for transportation.”–Jeff Vinik.

* “I’m at risk when my life is at a low point and I get wrapped up in self-pity, and I’m at risk when things are going well because that’s when I let my guard down. I’m like an arrow with points on both sides.”–Tampa native and former Major League Baseball All-Star pitcher Dwight Gooden.