“Swimming With Manatees in Florida”

The NYTimes.com has a nice article in its “American Journeys” section about Crystal River, Fl, 70 miles north of Tampa, and the opportunities to observe manatees up close,

IT was just after 8 on a cloudy January morning as the flat-bottomed pontoon boat made its way over the glassy surface of Kings Bay, 600 acres of fresh water in Crystal River, Fla. The bay, actually a spring-fed pool, is rimmed by attractive homes and lush greenery along its many coves and lagoons, but aboard the boat, no one cared.

A typical travel piece, they do neglect  one piece of information–the closeness of the Crystal River nuclear power plant, clearly visible from the highway.

Here’s how one state closed their budget gap

From TBO.com

By raiding the trust funds and cutting planned spending, the Legislature came up with about $2.5 billion to close the gap in the $66.3 billion budget. That’s a larger amount than expected because tax collections and other state revenue have continued to decline since the deficit was estimated at $2.3 billion.[Emphasis mine]

No new taxes yet they came up with $2.5 million.

• The Lawton Chiles [former Florida governor and senator] Endowment anti-tobacco fund, from which interest normally pays for child welfare, child and elderly health care programs and anti-smoking efforts, lost $700 million, more than half the assets in the fund.
• A trust fund intended to provide low-income housing lost $190 million.
• They made cuts on schools, universities, health care programs, and the judiciary among others.

Transportation fund? Spared.

The budget deficit increase roughly $200 million since the Florida legislature started working on the budget. Will it increase more in this economy?

Wisconsin’s budget deficit is twice as large.

Is this a bailout?

St. Petersburg man draws winning lottery numbers five times

There were six winning tickets in the Fantasy Five lottery game this weekend, and five of them were bought at M & S Food Mart on Central Avenue.

By the same person.

What’s happened to the Rays?

I think someone’s substituted the past 10 years Devil Rays for this years Rays.

Gary Shelton summed it up,

It is a team that has been defined by the way it has beaten the odds against it. It is a team that will be remembered for the way it has overcome the obstacles in front of it.

Never, however, has the deck been stacked so severely against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Rays are in trouble.

It reminds me of the 1966 series. Everyone bragged on the Dodgers pitching and it was the Orioles who outpitched them.

No hitting (since they lost game 5 of the ALCS, the Rays have averaged less than 3 runs per game and are 2-4), spotty pitching, and defensive lapses have led the Rays to the brink of losing the Series.

And they face Hamels tonight.

And can I just add that RISP (hits when runners are in scoring position) is overrated?

Oo, boy.

But even if they lose tonight, the Rays and their fans should be proud of the team. Two hundred to one longshots at the beginning of the year, every major league team now takes this young team seriously.

Here’s the lineup for tonight:

Iwamura, 2b
Crawford, lf
Upton, cf
Pena, 1b
Longoria, 3b
Navarro, c
Baldelli, rf
Bartlett, ss
Kazmir, p

Baldelli in for Zobrist and moving Crawford up in the order are the major changes.

Here are some interesting links:

Top 10 Rays victories

10 moves that turned it around

Rays trivia quiz

Phillies ties land Clearwater in hot water with Tampa Bay Rays fans (Note: Clearwater is where I grew up and where the Phillies have had Spring Training for 60 years. They have an A-ball team in the Florida State League at Clearwater–the Threshers.)

If Election Day is boring, that’s good

The St. Petersburg Times notes the potential problems facing the count in Florida, and that doesn’t even include shennanigans either side (I’m not a pollyanna, after all) may commit.

• About 2.5-million more voters are expected to cast ballots this year than voted in the Bush-Gore race.

• Florida’s biggest counties, including Pinellas, Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, will debut a paper-ballot machine that most voters will have never seen before.

• The new paper ballots take up to twice as long to complete as the touch-screen ballots they replaced, which could mean longer waits for voters. [Emphasis mine]

Whew! Hang onto your hats, boys and girls.

More Florida primary news

St. Petersburg Times poll: Fla. Democrats say count our primary

According to a new St. Petersburg Times/Bay News 9 statewide poll, the Democratic presidential contenders’ boycott of Florida had little effect on Democratic voters’ choices here, and an overwhelming plurality want the officially meaningless Jan. 29 results to count.

Lots of charts at the link. Seventy seven percent think its important that Florida delegates count and 24% are less likely to vote for the party’s nominee if the delegates are not counted. If they did revote 46% would vote for Clinton and 37% for Obama.

And who’s to blame? Twenty-eight percent blamed the Republican leaders of the Florida legislature, 25% blamed Howard Dean, 20% blamed the Florida Democratic Party, and the rest were divided between the candidates, no one, everyone and 14% didn’t know or refused to answer the question.