* The Outback Bowl will now be known as the Tampa Bay Bowl. Good for the regional brand—and fortunate that it hasn’t devolved into a blatant sponsorship appellation such as the Cheez-it Bowl (Orlando) or the Guaranteed Rate Bowl (Phoenix).
* When St. Peter’s defeated Kentucky in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, that was March Madness at its best.
* The latest NFL Power Rankings—the top five: 1-Buffalo Bills, 2-LA Rams, 3-Cincinnati Bengals, 4-Tampa Bay Bucs, 5-San Francisco 49ers.
* Hard-right, self-serving, pandering GOPsters, such as Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, have a problem with trans athletes. Sort of how they feel about RINOs.
* “(Justice Clarence) Thomas should never have been on the Court. Now that we know his wife (Ginni) was plotting the overthrow of the government, he should get off or be thrown off. You can’t administer justice when your spouse is running around strategizing for a coup.”–Maureen Dowd, NYT.
* “Russian leaders are behaving in exactly the same way, like Hitler, like the German SS, like the German pilots of the fascist army during World War II.”–Polish President Andrzej Duda.
* “This is one of those decisive moments for an American leader that defines their legacy internationally.”–NYU presidential historian Timothy Naftali.
* “Any people, and particularly the Russian people, will always be able to tell the patriots from the scum and traitors and spit them out like a midge that accidentally flew into their mouths.”–Russian President Vladimir Putin.
* “Weeks ago, the world trembled at Russian power. Mr. Putin is no longer the master chess player; he’s the great and powerful Wizard of Oz hiding behind a curtain.”–Douglas London, former CIA operations officer and author of “The Recruiter: Spying and the Lost Art of American Intelligence.”
* “Republicans and Democrats have put aside differences on climate change and voting rights for an enemy who appears to have emerged from Cold War central casting.”–Thomas Meaney, Humboldt University (Berlin) history professor.
* “By accelerating our transition to cheap and abundant renewable fuels, we can address two grave threats to the planet at once: the climate-warming, air-polluting menace of hydrocarbons and the dictators who rule their supply.”–Farhad Manjoo, New York Times.
* “My North Star is the consideration of the properrole of a judge. … Judges should not be speaking to political issues.”–SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.
* “You did not get here because of some left-wing agenda. … You got here how every black woman in America who’s gotten anywhere has done. By being, like Ginger Rogers said, ‘I did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards, in heels.’”–Senate Judiciary Committee member Cory Booker, D-N.J.
* “Judge Jackson’s first task will be to figure out how to wield influence without wielding power.”–Columbia University law professor Jamal Greene.
* “It took me a long time to find my voice. But having found it, I’m not going to shut up. … There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”–The late Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state.
* “(Madeleine Albright) never stopped pushing the envelope for freedom and democracy, including cajoling sometimes skeptical generals and diplomats to see human rights as a national security imperative. …Madeleine understood that American power is the only thing standing between the rules-based global order and the rule of the sword.”–Hillary Clinton.
* “From criminalizing protest, to banning books, concepts and even words from schools, to using executive power in new repressive ways—the Right continues to be an extreme and growing authoritarian threat in today’s United States.”–Branko Marcetic, Jacobin.
* “If we conclude that it is appropriate to move more aggressively by raising the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at a meeting or meetings, we will do so.”–Fed Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, underscoring the Fed’s willingness to take additional measures to ease demand and curb record inflation.
* “‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ is not an acceptable strategy for the Thomases’ (Clarence and Ginni) marriage.”–Judicial ethicist Stephen Gillers.
* “We don’t ask for spring break. We don’t promote it. We don’t encourage it. We just endure it.”–Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber.
* “We’re a destination now. We’re on the radar of every corporate relocation, every real estate transaction, every private equity fund.”—Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn.
* “We’ve always said as long as (the Rays) are in the Tampa Bay area, that’s a win for everyone. But, clearly the preference would be to have them in our backyard.”–Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
* “We’re thrilled NuMedTechs has chosen to establish its U.S. operations in Tampa and conduct life-saving research and development here.”—Tampa Bay Economic Development Council chairman James Nozar. NuMedTechs, with roots in Canada, is basing its first research office in downtown Tampa.
* “I think our strength and unity is because we are a metropolitan university, and we have greater opportunities than many of our brothers and sister universities across the state.”–USF President elect Rhea Law.
USF knows what it’s like to be short-changed by the Legislature. When you don’t have the clout of UF and FSU and you lack a law school, it matters. That’s because law schools beget more than lawyers—as in politicians who can take care of their own when they get to Tallahassee.
Now USF has one of its own, alum House Speaker Chris Sprowl of Palm Harbor, to advocate and deliver for USF priorities. Plus, Pasco County’s Wilton Simpson is the current Senate president. That they are Republicans hasn’t mattered. As a result, USF has never had a better legislative session. It experienced the largest ever single-year investment in operations.
Specifically, that means $75 million for a new marine science building on the USF St. Petersburg campus. It thus accelerates the process of USF morphing into a marine science powerhouse. It also provided multi millions in funding for nursing programs and the remodeling of USF Health ($45 million), cybersecurity ($57.5 million), building maintenance ($72.8 million) and the operational budget ($55 million).
“Having a speaker and a senate president from your region generally only helps the university,” underscored State Sen. Jeff Brandes, “and I think you’re seeing that kind of windfall play out here now.”
Too often USF didn’t receive funding sufficient for a metropolitan, research university that was meeting and exceeding performance metrics. Not this year.
* “I think Putin is a war criminal.”–President Joe Biden.
* “Democrats need to get back to a fundamental message: When in power, they make government work for ordinary people and defend American values. They solve real problems. When Republicans are in power, they create division, conflict and chaos. They’re not on your side. That’s it. A simple dichotomy.”–Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post.
* Hillsborough County has closed its last free public COVID test/vaccination site, the one at the West Tampa Community Center.
* “Close the sky over Ukraine.”–Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
* “A no-fly zone is the United States declaring war on Russia.”–Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
* Russia’s list of American sanctions targets includes President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden. “I want to thank the Russian Academy for this Lifetime Achievement Award,” responded Clinton in a tweet.
* Three EU leaders—from the NATO countries of Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic–recently visited Kyiv to show solidarity.
* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, has called on Israel to take sides and take a stronger stand against Russia—and emotionally compared the Putin-ordered invasion to the actions of Nazi Germany. Both Ukraine and Russia have large Jewish populations. To date, Israel has been cautious as it carves out a mediator role. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Putin in Moscow earlier this month and since then has spoken to Putin twice and Zelenskyy at least six times. But so far Israel, which has delivered humanitarian aid to Ukraine, has rejected pleas to provide arms or impose sanctions on Russia. Zelenskyy reportedly wants access to Israel’s missile defense system.
To Ukraine’s frustration, Israel seems wary of antagonizing either side—and has had a good working relationship with Russia in Syria.
* A key factor in brokering a Russian-Ukrainian peace is obviously NATO. It does not, however, accept nations with unsettled territorial conflicts. No, Ukraine will not be a member of NATO any time soon.
* An estimated 10 million people have been displaced by the war in Ukraine. That’s approximately one fourth of the country’s population.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would press its demand that Ukraine drop its bid to join NATO, adopt a neutral status and “demilitarize.” The latter could be the most problematic demand. How do you “demilitarize” when your arch enemy, the one that just invaded and killed your people, sits smoldering with EU and NATO vengeance on your border—whatever that looks like.
* Two words you won’t see or hear on official Russian media: “war” and “invasion.” They’ve been banned.
* Russia has now banned Facebook and Instagram.
* “The top priorities now are to continue dialogue and negotiations, avoid civilian casualties, prevent a humanitarian crisis, cease fighting and end the war as soon as possible.”–The calculating, self-serving Chinese President Xi Jinping, stopping well short of condemning Vladimir Putin for his unconscionably cruel, tragic invasion of Ukraine. It speaks volumes when China can’t actually condemn the condemnable.
* According to the annual World Happiness report, Finland ranks first and Afghanistan last of the 149 countries surveyed.
* “Do not click on any links tweeted from the @NikkiFried account.” That was the campaign advice after Nikki Fried’s Twitter account was compromised over the weekend through a phishing attack. A sobering reminder that this is part of the new partisan-political normal.
* “LGBT is not a permanent thing.”–State Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, who, thankfully, is not a permanent thing.
* As of mid-March, 18 pedestrians and bicyclists have been killed in Hillsborough County in 2022.
* From 2011 to 2018, Tampa’s Riverwalk spurred more than $1 billion in economic activity, according to Vik Bhide, Tampa’s mobility department director.
While that’s a reminder of the catalytic impact of Tampa’s signature, optics-magnet Riverwalk, no less notable is the prioritizing of development on that “other side” of the Hillsborough River, the one too long defined incongruously by public housing and minarets with excellent views of what was happening on the increasingly hip, downtown side of the river. Now there are plans to create a Riverwalk sequel on the west side of the Hillsborough over the next four years. It will parallel the incumbent Riverwalk for more than two miles and then loop—in pedestrian- and bike-friendly fashion–into areas west of the river. It’s a way of connecting neighborhoods and the West River redevelopment that will ultimately include 1,600 apartments.
“This project is going to transform the west side of the city,” said Brandie Miklus, Tampa’s infrastructure and mobility program coordinator. And it can’t happen soon enough—with the expectation that the impact—in linking West Tampa to downtown and other neighborhoods—will be no less transformational than what has occurred on the other side of the river. Only this one is much more about residents than visitors.
* “SNL’s” Pete Davidson was scheduled to head into outer space on Blue Origin. That was called off, and he didn’t join the short list of celebs who have taken the 11-minute flight. But what a cold opening that would have been.
* “I have to wonder whether something more than technology is involved in the way this (Russia-Ukraine) war is being presented. The unmistakable subtext of the coverage is: These are people just like us, and we could be at risk like them. The vast majority of the victims in Ukraine are European, white and Christian.”–Eugene Robinson, WaPo.
* A copy of the first ever Marvel comic book was recently auctioned for $2.4 million. True, that seems like a lot, but then again, it was the debut of Sub-Mariner and The Human Torch.