Opinions to go Online

* Canada has now dropped its COVID-testing requirement for fully vaccinated visitors.

* Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Ralph Warnock, D-Georgia, tested positive just after voting for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation.

* U.S. residents 5 and up who are at least partially vaccinated: 82 percent. Florida residents 5 and up who are at least partially vaccinated: 83 percent.

* Florida positivity rate: 4.2 percent. Hillsborough County positivity rate: 2.7 percent.

* Viral upstaging: Actor Matthew Broderick tested positive and several performances of “Plaza Suite” were canceled on Broadway. And Daniel Craig tested positive and has been sidelined from his revival of “Macbeth.”

* Whether it’s taking on Disney or school districts or the Biden Administration, the manifestly obvious, overriding agenda for Gov. Ron DeSantis is to play up his cherry-picked appropriations of “liberty” and “freedom” and double down on his anti-“woke” brand. It’s about much more than his gubernatorial re-election; it’s about a way to take advantage of the Trumpian political energies still rippling throughout his base. It’s about DeSantis’ presidential hopes if 2024 legal scenarios–or a gobsmacking epiphany of right-wing nuts–thwart a Trump comeback. DeSantis already knows his way around the Fox News green room.

What’s particularly worrisome for America is that DeSantis could be more dangerous—and maybe even more loathsome–than Trump because he’s better educated, better informed and smarter. His prevarications, for example, aren’t a matter of pathology; they’re a matter of calculated self-interest. In short he knows better, but it doesn’t override ambition.

* “The state of Florida is the darling of every investor because of the beaches and leisure travel.”–Lou Plasencia, founder and CEO of the Plasencia Group, a hospitality sales and consulting service firm.

* The estimated price tag for Tampa Bay upgrades to keep the area safe from rising seas and storms over the next 50 years is $13.4 billion. According to the Tampa Bay Partnership Resilience Task Force, the region could lose some $17 billion in property values by 2070.

* According to a national report by the real estate brokerage firm Clever, home prices in the Tampa metro area have increased by 223 percent over the last 22 years. That’s the eighth largest jump in the country. Topping the list is San Francisco—with a 290 percent hike. Miami was 9^th at 220 percent.

* U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings show that 13 of USF graduate programs ranked in the top 50 of all public and private higher education institutions. USF’s industrial and organizational psychology program ranked number three, and public health came in at 16.

* Seattle-based Avanade, a Microsoft partner that provides tech solutions and cloud services to a number of Fortune 500 companies, has announced plans to build its first U.S. engineering hub in Tampa. It will entail bringing 500 new entry- and senior-level engineering, data and software development jobs to Tampa over the next three years.

* “It comes back to buildings and transportation. That’s where we are creating the majority of our greenhouse gases.”–Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard.

* Ukraine’s bloody invasion by an authoritarian punk has roused and rallied NATO. Or most of it. You can bet the autocrats of Hungary and Turkey, who can see a kindred, imperious spirit in Moscow, are not winning “allied” friends with equivocation. Once this Russian-Ukrainian calamity is officially over, NATO will have to look long and hard at countries whose politics have enabled the problematic, despotic leadership of Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who have used their leadership roles to erode democratic norms.

* To date, India has remained neutral toward Russia—resulting in concern from NATO and praise from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

* For what it’s worth, May 9 is Russia’s self-imposed deadline for Ukraine operations.

* Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 600 companies have abandoned Russia.

* Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, where more than 10,000 civilians have been killed, said that Russian forces have brought mobile cremation equipment to the city to dispose of the bodies.

* Oxford Economics estimated that that $9.3 billion was injected into Russia’s economy in March alone from its energy giant Gazprom because of soaring energy prices and gas export revenues.

* “One thing seems certain: Any coup attempt against Putin would probably be the most perilous, high-risk operation in Kremlin history.”–Amy Knight, author of “Orders To Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder.”

* Venezuelans have become the main new settlers in Spain. Madrid now rivals Miami as a haven for Latin Americans—and their money.

* From October through February, 47,000 Cubans arrived at the U.S./Mexico border. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection stats, the total for the previous fiscal year was 39,000. (The majority of Cubans arriving at the border have been admitted to the U.S.–unlike most Cubans who are stopped at sea.

* Cuba is first. The context: That’s where Johns Hopkins University’s international “Misery Index” ranked Cuba. ¡Qué tristeza!

* Will Smith has now been banned from the Oscars for 10 years. Too bad it didn’t kick in shortly after his violent face slap of Chris Rock and subsequent profane chirping from his audience seat. The Fresh Punk of Academy Awards should have been summarily removed, forcefully if necessary. Slapped, if necessary.

* As a Philadelphia native—one who actually appeared on Bandstand back in the day—I have fond memories of the, now, late Bobby Rydell. To most of America he is remembered for his rendition of “Volare” and his starring role with Ann Margaret in “Bye Bye Birdie.” To Philadelphia “rowhousers,” however, he was best known for “Wildwood Days”–a Rock ‘n Rock homage to Philadelphian summers at the south Jersey shore. Thanks for the memories, Bobby Ridarelli.

* “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”–Groucho Marx.

* Jeff and Penny Vinik have pledged a $5 million donation for an on-campus USF stadium. Last month Frank and Carol Morsani also donated $5 million. That kind of generosity—not surprising from the Viniks and the Morsanis—still leaves USF with a steep, money-raising challenge. The facility’s cost is expected to be at least $200 million.

* The Rays home opener at the Trop was a sell-out. For the record, that’s 25,025—with the Trop’s upper deck closed.

* The Rays 2022 payroll: $78.2 million, a team record.

* More than one in four MLB players were born outside the U.S. The top three: Dominican Republic (99), Venezuela (67) and Cuba (23).

* Russian and Belarusian runners who are residents of those countries will not be able to participate in this month’s Boston Marathon.

* How would you know if Prevagen works if you forget to take it?

* You’re getting old when you’re sitting in a rocker and you can’t get it started.

* An Electric Company (not TECO): “We would be delighted if you send in your bill. However, if you don’t, you will be.”

* Scientist’s door: “Gone Fission.”

* Trump on ignoring his bully pulpit and staying silent while the Capitol was under attack by his “Stop the Steal” rioters: “I hated seeing it. I thought it was a shame, and I kept asking, ‘Why isn’t she doing doing something about it? Why isn’t Nancy Pelosi doing something about it?’ And the mayor of D.C. also. The mayor of D.C. and Nancy Pelosi are in charge.” Indeed, Trump was only commander in chief and these were merely his parasitic partisans.

* Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said a criminal investigation into Trump and his business practices is continuing “without fear or favor.”

* “Criminalizing dissent.” That’s what Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy accused the Jan. 6 committee of.

* “Donald Trump divides the right while uniting the non-right, which is why Democrats are more eager to talk about him than Republicans are.”–Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch.

* “(Putin’s) a petromonarch, another in a line of unsavory characters whom liberal democracies keep doing business with because they’ve got something we can’t live without.”–Farhad Monjoo, NYT.

* “Why do they need to hit civilians with missiles? Why this cruelty? Sometimes, you think whether they are human at all. Hatred has to lose.”–Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

* “Moscow can no more lose the war with Ukraine than Washington could lose a war to Mexico.”–Douglas Macgregor, The American Conservative.

* “Even absent open war, Russia will remain a generational enemy to peace in Europe and a generational threat to American interests—making policies that diminish Russian wealth and power a justified form of self-defense, both for Europe’s eastern borders and for the wider Pax Americana.”–Ross Douthat, NYT.

* “The greater our knowledge increases, the more our ignorance unfolds.”–John F. Kennedy.

* “Let’s be honest. This is a political show trial.”—How House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy referenced the Jan. 6 committee.

* “I would rather have it said ‘He lived usefully’ than ‘He died rich.’”–Benjamin Franklin.

* “We used to have thought leaders; now we have influencers.”–Maureen Dowd, NYT.

* “Unity is not the problem. … What Americans have lost—to be painfully accurate, what Republicans have trashed in pursuit of power—is the willingness and ability to share a common national identity.”--Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “Florida’s Sen. Rick Scott … is out with a plan that explicitly calls for raising taxes on 57 percent of American households. Could Democrats make something of that? And if not, what are they doing in politics?”–Mona Charen, Creators Syndicate.

* “Nearly 800,000 Floridians have no health insurance because the premiums are too high. Adults without children (for example) don’t qualify for Medicaid, no matter how little they make.”–Dr. Brent Schillinger, vice chairman of the Florida Policy Institute.

* “Watching Tampa emerge as one of the nation’s hottest tech cities, we felt it made sense for us to plant our flag here and become an active part of this burgeoning community.”–Shawn Simmons, executive vice president of Avanade, a tech firm that is building its first U.S. engineering hub in Tampa.

* “I’m highly optimistic.”–Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg, on the team working out a deal for a new stadium—one with a roof—in the Tampa Bay market.

* “Mass transit in Tampa is more than two people in an SUV. We have got to change the mindset.”–Mayor Jane Castor.

* “It is not going to sit on a shelf, I will tell you that.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Kimberly Overman, in reference to a report from MGT Consulting Group that advocated the county invest more in public transportation, create an office of equity and access and establish apprenticeship programs in emergent and green technologies.