Opinions to go Online

* The American Rescue Plan has delivered $2.4 billion to Florida colleges, universities and students to help weather the pandemic. Regional beneficiaries of ARP funds: Erwin Technical College ($4.1 million); University of Tampa ($18.4 million); Pasco-Hernando State College ($24.7 million); St. Petersburg College ($50.3 million); Hillsborough Community College ($63.9 million); and the University of South Florida ($102.2 million).

* The Florida Legislature has included $75 million in the ($112 billion) state budget for the USF Interdisciplinary Center of Excellence in Environmental and Oceanographic Sciences (EOS). “It’s going to impact not only St. Petersburg but Pinellas County, the Tampa Bay region and coastal communities throughout Florida and the world,” said USF St. Petersburg Regional Chancellor Martin Tadlock. In short, it’s a big deal on a lot of levels, including helping elevate USF’s stature as a Preeminent State Research University.

* TIA’s new 9-story SkyCenter One office building is leased at 88 percent capacity.

* “Special operation”: How the Russian state media characterizes the Ukraine invasion.

* The New York Times is the first major American news organization to pull staff out of Russia, in response to that country’s crackdown on journalism.

* “As always, polling continues to be of limited utility when deciding complex questions that require actual knowledge of, and proper weighing of, the implied costs and benefits.”–Kyle Smith, The National Review.

* “Justice is a big rug. When you pull it out from under one person, a lot of others fall too.”–The late, celebrity-journalist Dorothy Kilgallen.

* Budtenders: Great name for grass roots, weed shop workers.

* What can really be frustrating is looking up a word to avoid a misspelling. That’s because it really helps to be able to correctly spell it to find it in quick fashion. Thank you, Spell Checker.

* “Critical Race Theory” has a built-in, subjective-sounding target: “theory.” Game on. How about “Critical Race Reality”? Those familiar with U.S. history have seen how race has played out in America from the indigenous to the slaves.

* Front door: “Everyone on the premises is a vegetarian except the dog.”

* “I’m coming back for my 23^rd season in Tampa. Unfinished business.”–That was Tom Brady, announcing that he will play another season for the Bucs. Two quick takeaways. No more Deshaun Watson–he of sexual-assault baggage–speculation. And a vote of confidence in the 2022 Bucs.

* “It’s first and foremost about engagement and connection for the entire USF community.”–Will Weatherford, USF Board of Trustees chairman, on the priority of an on-campus football stadium.

* “Like Trump himself, his (power) worshippers can see the world around them only through a prism of us-against-them, in which principles simply don’t count.”–Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch.

* “You should run for Senate majority leader.”–Trump to Rick Scott (chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee), reportedly on multiple occasions. Reportedly with a straight face.

* Three Trump-critic Republicans who could launch presidential bids after the mid-terms: Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney.

* Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, we’ve now learned, registered to vote in 2020 using the address of a North Carolina mobile home he had never lived in. So, yes, it’s verifiably true that there were voting irregularities in that last presidential election, the one lost by the candidate with the fewest votes.

* The assault rifle that was used by Kyle Rittenhouse to kill two protesters in Kenosha is no more. Wisconsin officials fed it to a shredder. The rationale: It was an evil symbol! No. Rittenhouse didn’t want somebody to buy it and turn it into a trophy. A trophy! That’s for bowling, not manslaughtering.

* “The free world is coming together to confront Putin.”–President Joe Biden.

* “Putin wants to restore Imperial Russia. … He wants to restore Russian hegemony over its former states: Ukraine first.”–Llewellyn King, executive producer and host of PBS’s “White House Chronicle.”

* “The Russian president has now definitely put an end to the post-Cold War era, which rested on an assumption that major European land wars were gone for good.”–Mary Elise Sarotte, historian and author of “Not One Inch: America, Russia and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate.”

* “The war in Ukraine is being fought not only with tanks and missiles, but also with propaganda and censorship. … (Putin’s) regime has erected a digital iron curtain.”–Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.

* “Isolated and under sanctions, alone against the world, Russia looks as though it is being remade in its president’s image.”–Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, the author of “All the Kremlin’s Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin.”

* “Taiwan will eventually return to the embrace of the motherland.”–Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

* “The great enemy of truth is often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”–John F. Kennedy.

* “Rights are universal. If welfare is not universal, then it is not a right.”–Danny Wardle, Jacobin.

* “A $32 increase in the price of crude oil translates to 80 cents at the pump. … It’s extremely volatile right now.”–AAA spokesman Mark Jennings.

* “I’m not religious, but I think there was an element of faith (in investing in Tampa). It was a big TV area and very beautiful.”–Water Street Tampa developer and Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.

* “I have deep concerns for the safety of students who identify as LGBTQ+ if we create a dangerous environment where discussion about gender and sexual identity is feared. Our teachers create safe havens for students to learn and grow, not call into question their ‘sex-coded DNA’ as right-wing pundits would have us believe.”–Florida State Senate Democratic leader Lauren Book, a former teacher.

* “An on-campus stadium elevates not only our athletic programs, but our entire university.”–Frank and Carol Morsani, who have given USF $5 million toward an on-campus facility.

* “Savor the past. Embrace the future.”–West Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

When he recently spoke at USF, Gov. Ron DeSantis stood behind a podium labeled: “Workforce Education.” He was there, after all, to make an education-related cybersecurity announcement of a $20 million state initiative. In a nanosecond, however, the podium morphed into his bully pulpit. Behind him were seven high school students, some in masks. DeSantis scolded those wearing masks, which he considers a symbol of paranoia and heavy-handed government. “This is not doing anything,” he chided. “We’ve got to stop with this COVID theater. … This is ridiculous. Please take them off.”

DeSantis is, well, DuhSantis. He’s already been unmasked. Maybe Will Weatherford, the former Republican Speaker of the Florida House and current chair of USF’s board of trustees, didn’t mind the off-putting optics, but others surely saw the dismissive, insulting demeanor for what it was.

And it was also a teachable moment, especially for parents. Don’t let your kids be political props, especially for this blatantly partisan governor. Masking is not unreasonable, but bullying students is.

* The U.S. economy created 678,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate came in at 3.8 percent, a pandemic low.

* “Ninety percent of the jobs lost in March and April of 2020 have been recovered.”–Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.

* “Test to Treat”: That’s the program announced by President Joe Biden whereby consumers can walk into a clinic at Walgreens or CVS, get tested for COVID and, if positive, go home with a free course of antiviral medicine. The program expects to be operational by the end of this month.

* The U.S. has increased its Havana embassy staffing. But it’s still not back to the previous level.

* According to a new Fox poll, 55 percent of Dems say President Biden should run again in 2024.

* The global death toll: 6 million.

* Immunocompromised people (such as those with diabetes, cerebral palsy or heart disease) comprise 2.7 percent of adults in the U.S.–or about 7 million people.

* “COVID is loosening its grip. The virus ruled through fear, and that fear is fading.”–University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee.

* Florida positivity rate last week: 3.3 percent. For Hillsborough County: 4 percent.