The Edward Ringwald Blog

SOPA and PIPA: Threats to Internet Freedom

2012-01-21T20:35:00.005-05:00

Imagine a world. In fact, imagine an Internet world.

Now imagine an Internet world without:

Wikipedia
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
WordPress
Blogger
AKDart.com
Skyscraper City and its road related forums
eBay
EdwardRingwald.com
Interstate275Florida.com
and the list goes on and on...

Sound scary, doesn't it?

If you tried to go to some of your favorite websites on Wednesday, 18 January 2012, you more than likely was greeted by a special page instead of the site's regular home page. What happened was some of these sites went dark in protest of two proposed United States federal laws that would have meant the end of the Internet as we know it today: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Now why should you be concerned?

According to this page from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, this is what SOPA and PIPA is all about in a nutshell: The new laws would have given government as well as Corporate America the power to interfere with the underlying infrastructure of the Internet. More alarmingly, the SOPA and PIPA would have given both government and Corporate America unprecedented power to shut down legitimate websites.

That's right, legitimate websites created by the little guy who wants to make his presence out there on the Internet. What Corporate America would do is to shut down the little guy's website with just a court order to the little guy's ISP or web hosting provider. I could go on forever talking about SOPA and PIPA but here's a YouTube video I found that explains the subject very well:

Luckily, SOPA and PIPA have been put on the back burner for now. The next time you think of SOPA and PIPA having an effect on the Internet as we know it, this is what can happen:

Sound scary? Be glad this is America, not China, Cuba, Myanmar (Burma) or even Saudi Arabia where Internet censorship is common and a routine way of life.

The sun sets on 2011 and the dawn of 2012

2011-12-30T21:41:00.008-05:00

As 2011 fades into the sunset and 2012 rises at dawn, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! In Spanish, Feliz Año Nuevo! In Slovenian, Srečno novo leto! And in German, Glückliches neues Jahr!

If any year was newsworthy, 2011 was it. We started out 2011 here in St. Petersburg with the unfortunate loss of three St. Petersburg Police Officers and the funeral services that followed. Right as the funeral for Officer David Crawford was wrapping up another horrific news story was in the making across the bay in Tampa, and I watched the events unfold on Bay News 9: The horrific murder of Beau and Calyx Schenecker at the hands of their mother, Julie Schenecker.

Later on down the road in 2011 the Space Shuttle program came to an end with the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. I remember very well when the Space Shuttle program started in 1981 and the horrific explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986; in fact, I was just coming out of classes at St. Petersburg College for the day and I was on my way home when I heard on the radio in my car that the Space Shuttle exploded after liftoff.

And we can't forget the biggest news story of 2011: Casey Anthony, found not guilty in the death of her 2-year old daughter, Caylee. The trial, held in Orlando for seven weeks, had a jury that had to come from Pinellas County due to the extensive pre-trial publicity. I was watching bits and pieces of the Casey Anthony trial on Bay News 9 at home, especially the closing arguments, and I thought Casey Anthony would be found guilty either as charged or on a lesser charge. I was at work watching Bay News 9 in the conference room next to my office when the verdict was read: Not guilty. The only offenses that Casey was guilty of was the four counts of lying to law enforcement.

I was shocked to see a not guilty verdict. There was a major uproar over the verdict after it was read; the Pinellas County jurors were fearing for their lives which is why the names of the jurors were not released for a few months. Unfortunately, this is how the American system of justice works.

We also have seen the end of a tradition which was on WMNF 88.5 FM for 25+ years: The end of the Polka Party Express, which aired its last show on Sunday, 20 March 2011. According to a blog entry I wrote earlier this year when the Polka Party Express pulled out of the station for the last time, it felt like the day when Amtrak pulled out of St. Petersburg for good in 1984.

Moreover, we also lost a Slovenian polka music legend on 29 September 2011: Lojze Slak. I enjoyed his music all the time, especially when it was played regularly on the Polka Party Express. My favorite Lojze Slak tune of all time? Glas Harmonike.

And we can't forget the first ever national test of the Emergency Alert System on 9 November 2011, which took place at 2 PM Eastern Time. The test from what I understand was far from perfect: The audio was garbled or hard to hear depending on what station you were tuned to as well as stations not even getting the test in the first place. If we want a better national warning system, it needs to be fixed.

Remember the reliable Emergency Broadcast System that served its purpose from 1963 to 1997? If you were growing up in that era (especially from the late 1960's onward) and you were watching Saturday morning cartoons, during commercial break a scary slide came on - sometimes with the Civil Defense symbol - and the infamous "this is a test" and the dreaded two-tone signal. Luckily, the Emergency Broadcast System did not have to be activated on a national scale, with the only exception being the EBS mishap in 1971.

So, if any year was newsworthy (other than the St. Petersburg Times writing scare stories about house values and the real estate crisis, thank you Mark Puente), 2011 was it. Did I mention the St. Petersburg Times?

When 2012 dawns come Sunday, 1 January 2012 the St. Petersburg Times will be known under a new name: The Tampa Bay Times. To me, this is a mistake. Why?

Let me set the record straight:

1. Tampa Bay is not only a body of water, it is the name of the region that encompasses two cities, St. Petersburg and Tampa, and within two counties, Pinellas and Hillsborough.

2. Tampa Bay is not a city, period.

3. We St. Petersburg residents have been accustomed to and know our daily newspaper as the St. Petersburg Times. This assures our identity as a city for well over 100 years.

4. We St. Petersburg residents are not part of Tampa nor Hillsborough County. In fact, it is the St. Petersburg Times that championed the cause for the creation of Pinellas County from the western part of Hillsborough County in 1912. In 2012 we celebrate 100 years of being a county separate and apart.

5. St. Petersburg slowly loses its identity as a city. We have been known by plenty of other monikers over the years such as God's Waiting Room among other things. Add to that the recent article in Men's Health about St. Petersburg being the most saddest city in America.

Don't the editors at Men's Health Magazine have something else to write about instead of labeling St. Petersburg in a negative spotlight? After all, depression knows no boundaries.

The St. Petersburg Times may be changing its name to the Tampa Bay Times come Sunday, 1 January 2012. However, it will continue to be the St. Petersburg Times in my book.

Those After Christmas Returns and ID

2011-12-26T19:19:00.006-05:00

Christmas 2011 has come and gone, and I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Hopefully you got what you wanted and Santa was good to you.

Now comes the After Christmas stuff: The sales and the returns. Many of you may have to return something for a particular reason. So, if you plan on returning an item to exchange it for something else or a refund, you will want to keep some important pointers in mind:

1. Check your store's return and refund policy carefully. Note any fees you may be charged such as a restocking fee, especially for computer and electronics equipment. You can find out an individual store's policy just by going to their web site and clicking on the customer service link.

2. Bring your original sales receipt with you. This will eliminate plenty of inconvenience when you go to exchange or return an item. If you do not have your original receipt with you, more than likely you will be offered store credit so that you can purchase another item. Again, check your store's return policy.

Adhering to store policy and bringing your original receipt should make your return or exchange a breeze. However, there is an alarming trend with retailers when it comes to exchanges and refunds, and that is requiring ID and at the same time capturing the information on your ID! Just recently Best Buy has enacted a policy that requires ID from you when you return an item to them; as part of their return policy the information on your ID will be captured and entered into a secure database for the purpose of tracking returns.

What? Retailers such as Best Buy dabbling into your personal affairs by requiring and capturing ID when you return something? Best Buy, for instance, claims that their policy is to track customer returns as well as to cut down on return fraud; customer information captured is kept in a secure database and the information contained therein is not sold to third parties.

To me, Best Buy's return policy (as well as any other retailer requiring and capturing ID) is a recipe for identity theft. Any retailer can institute a legitimate return policy by having the customer fill out a form (which is generated by the register) with the customer's name and address, and the store clerk enters this information into the register. As to Best Buy's claim that the information captured from customer IDs is kept securely, the information will eventually end up being sold to third parties.

After all, despite federal laws prohibiting this practice the State of Florida has a habit of selling your name and address information on your driver's license to third parties. If the State of Florida sells your name and address information on your driver's license then I imagine what Best Buy is doing to your information when you return something to them for an exchange or refund.

Besides, as I mentioned in a previous blog entry a Florida Driver's License is the worst identity document to have in your possession other than the fact that you need it for driving a motor vehicle. You need it in case a law enforcement officer pulls you over or if you are in an accident. A Florida Driver's License contains - as required by the federal REAL ID law concerning standards for state drivers licenses - your name and your physical street address; in other words, where you live. Besides, a physical street address is a goldmine, not only for nosy and dabbling store clerks when it comes to returns but for stalkers and domestic violence perpetrators who happen to come across your license.

Any retailer that requires ID when you return an item will also try to claim that it is also their policy to help deter identity theft. Any retailer claiming the purpose of requiring ID to help deter identity theft is a false statement. Besides, store clerks have been involved in identity theft cases as the perpetrators!

So, what can you do to prevent your personal information from being misused at the hands of retailers such as Best Buy?

If you happen to have a passport or a passport card, use it as ID. Passports and passport cards do not have your physical street address on them, unlike a driver's license.

If you do not have either a passport or passport card, I would strongly recommend getting a passport card. It is a wallet size card and, being a federal identity document, meets REAL ID benchmarks. Not only you can use it when you check in for a domestic airline flight or to enter a federal facility, you can show your passport card as ID if in the event a retailer asks you. Passport cards cost $30 and are good for ten (10) years.

If you have a post office box as a mailing address, use it to your benefit. If in the event a retailer requires a street address, give your work street address - not the street address where you live. Again, residential street addresses are a goldmine not only for dabbling store clerks but for stalkers and domestic violence perpetrators too.

Be sure to hang on to your driver's license, but put that away in a safe place in your wallet or purse. The only time you need to produce your driver's license is in these situations:

1. While you are operating a motor vehicle.
2. In the event of a traffic stop.
3. In the event of a motor vehicle accident.
Remember, you must carry your registration and proof of motor vehicle insurance as well - it's the law!
4. When you rent a car - after all, it is illegal for any rental car company such as Alamo or Dollar to rent to anyone without a valid driver's license.

Remember: If you are asked for ID by a retail store clerk, pull out your passport or passport card if you got one. This solves 99% of all ID required issues when it comes to retailers.

Now here's my take on retailers requiring ID when you return an item for exchange or refund, especially in light of Best Buy's new ID required for returns policy:

1. Retailers have a right to control return fraud. Asking the customer for his name and address is the first step and using the information only for the purpose of processing the return and destroying the information collected from the customer after a period of time - such as 60 days - ensures privacy for the customer.

2. If a retailer wants to require ID for a return, that's their business. At least the information from the ID should not be captured and held in a computer database subject to unauthorized access.

3. To law enforcement or to a rental car company, a driver's license is one thing. However, to retailers such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, CompUSA or any other retailer known to ask for IDs from customers, my residential street address - in other words, where I live - is none of your business.

If you have had a horrific experience at a retailer when you went to return an item for exchange or refund, I would like to hear from you. Simply post a comment with your experience (please, no personal identifying information).

Christmas has arrived at EdwardRingwald.com!

2011-12-22T00:10:00.003-05:00

Christmas time has arrived here at EdwardRingwald.com! I know, it's getting very close to Christmas but I had plenty of other stuff going on.

However, the hard work I did this past week alone in getting the elements of my Christmas 2011 page I feel paid off. This year I am featuring two locations in St. Petersburg and one location in Plant City. The two locations in St. Petersburg are over at North Straub Park in downtown St. Petersburg as well as the mega-Christmas display located at 2719 Oakdale Street South and the one location in Plant City - a town 20 miles east of Tampa on Interstate 4 and is well known for being the home of the annual Strawberry Festival - is in McCall Park in downtown Plant City.

What makes Plant City so special besides the Strawberry Festival is that it is the intersection of two important CSX Railroad lines, the A Line which runs from Tampa eastward towards Lakeland, Orlando, Jacksonville and points north and the S Line which runs from Tampa northward towards Dade City, Wildwood, Ocala and turning northeast towards the town of Callahan located northwest of Jacksonville where it joins up with the A Line.

Do you know why these railroad lines are identified as the A and S lines? There's a lot of history to it: The A Line used to belong to the Atlantic Coast Line while the S Line used to belong to the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. Both lines merged in 1967 to become the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad which evolved into today's CSX in the 1980's after a series of railroad acquisitions.

So, I am dedicating my Plant City section of my Christmas 2011 page to all the railfans out there, especially those railfans that I either subscribe to or subscribe to my channel out there on YouTube!

What are you waiting for? Head on over to my Christmas 2011 page today!

Breaking News from the Anti-Christmas and Anti-Holiday Season front

A few blog entries ago I reported on the ever increasing Anti-American holiday sentiment, especially around the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays. More and more school principals - and school districts - are alarmingly shunning Christmas in one way or another. Sound scary, isn't it?

Just a few days before Christmas, the Anti-American holiday spirit has struck again - this time, right here in our back yard. As this St. Petersburg Times article from staff writer Tony Marrero indicates, the superintendent of the Hernando County School District, Bryan Blavatt, banned all instances of Christmas from all Hernando County public schools. The reason, according to the article? "To preserve precious teaching time". Bay News 9 also has a similar article as well.

Yeah, right. It is to preserve precious teaching time all right - after all, teachers cannot teach an effective class and are instead ordered to do nothing more than drill and practice for the all important FCAT test; nothing more than teach the FCAT test here. No matter why your children in Florida do not get an education in our public schools!

Further on in the St. Petersburg Times article, there is one principal in the Hernando County School District that Bryan Blavatt does not have to worry about when he issued his no-Christmas edict: Susan Duval, who happens to be the principal of Springstead High School in Spring Hill. After all, Ms. Duval discourages all forms of Christmas at her school by discouraging anything having to do with Christmas including Christmas parties and the like.

After all, Susan Duval is no stranger to controversy surrounding the operation of her school as principal of Springstead High. In 2005, she gave a commencement speech to the graduating class of that year utilizing words taken from other sources and passing them off as if they were her own. The punishment? A letter of reprimand and a one day suspension courtesy of the Hernando County School District, a slap on the wrist so to speak. Despite that punishment, wouldn't you think that Susan Duval is still doing this to every graduation commencement ceremony? That unfortunately I do not know the answer to. I wrote a blurb on Susan Duval and her involvement in the 2005 graduation commencement controversy which you can find over at my copyright topic.

With Hernando County Schools Superintendent Bryan Blavatt and Springstead High's Susan Duval apparently taking on an anti-Christmas stance, perhaps a study abroad program in the summer in a country where human rights and civil liberties are grossly violated as well as where the celebration of Christmas is illegal would be appropriate. After all, as long as there is an United States of America in existence Christmas as well as the other American traditional holidays will be around, so get used to it.

End of Breaking News from the Anti-Christmas and Anti-Holiday Season front

In closing, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! In Spanish, ¡Feliz Navidad! In Slovenian, Vesel božič! And in German, Frohe Weihnachten!

Our (un)reliable and (in)efficient United States Postal Service

2011-12-15T19:34:00.008-05:00

By now you have probably heard of the United States Postal Service's plan to increase the price you pay for a first class letter from 44 cents to 45 cents effective 22 January 2012, according to this press release from the USPS. That's right, postage is going up unless you happen to have those "forever" stamps that you use to protect yourself from having to put additional stamps on your letter when postage increases.

If you think that the United States Postal Service keeps raising postage rates while the quality of service gets poorer, it is. In fact, there is a proposal according to this Bay News 9 article that would slow down oridinary first class letter mail. That's right, ordinary mail such as letters and bills you pay where you just put a stamp on it and mail it off.

So, what does this mean for you?

First class mail has what is called a delivery goal, not to be mistaken with delivery guarantee. First class mail that is mailed in a defined local area is delivered overnight, while first class mail that is destined for outside the defined local area but within the state is delivered in two business days. First class mail destined for out of state is usually delivered in three business days.

OK. Let's take an ordinary letter, mailed in St. Petersburg at the St. Petersburg post office that is headed to Tampa.

Right now, that letter you mail from St. Petersburg to Tampa is delivered overnight. If the United States Postal Service gets its way, that same letter you mail from St. Petersburg to Tampa will be delivered not overnight, but in two business days. You got that right, two business days.

With all the customer complaints and customer issues that have plagued the United States Postal Service, I decided to make this a topic all of its own here at EdwardRingwald.com. What you'll see is based on my experiences when I have to unfortunately deal with the United States Postal Service over the years. The complaints about the USPS range from damaged mail to a letter delivered - especially constantly - to the wrong address.

The next time you go to your local post office to mail that package off to Grandma's so it will get there before Christmas Day, keep these pointers in mind:

Long lines, especially backed up to the door.
Worker's hours - 8 AM to 5 PM, whihch means that you have to take time off from work. And often times, without pay depending on your employer.
Poor service by surly, belligerent or rude window clerks.
Inadequate tracking information when you need it.
Customer service representatives at the USPS' 1-800 toll free number that don't take the time to listen to you, making you repeat it so many times to the point of being annoyed by the representative on the phone.

Speaking of the USPS' customer service representatives, I had a poor experience with them a very long time ago, this was back before the Internet and the World Wide Web as we know it today made things a lot easier. I called asking for Zip Code information for a letter and I had the unfortunate experience of speaking with a customer service representative for the USPS that had a foreign accent. The representative kept repeating back information to me wrongly even after I took the time to slowly give the representative the information I needed. Needless to say, I was so disgusted that I hung up the phone on the representative.

While we're on the same subject, does the United States Postal Service use overseas call centers in the same manner as other businesses such as Bank of America? Before I got to speak to a USPS customer service representative as I mentioned earlier, I had to do the IVR battle (or the Interactive Voice Response battle) to get through a few options before you are given the option of speaking to a representative. To me, the combination of IVR plus overseas call centers is bad business.

So, as you do your holiday shopping (and shipping) before you head out the door to endure the long lines at the USPS be sure to read my new topic on our (un)reliable and (in)efficient United States Postal Service. And by the way, if you have a USPS horror story that you would like to share please feel free to post a reply; just please make sure to keep the comments clean.

Holiday Shopping and ID

2011-12-12T00:09:00.003-05:00

The holiday season is underway, and by now you are out there going after all those holiday specials! But before you head out the door, here are some important shopping tips when you pay for your purchases by credit or debit card:

1. Make sure that all your credit and debit cards are signed on the back. Don't write "SEE ID" on the back - that statement is not valid as a signature. Besides, merchants have to comply with the policies set by the credit card issuers, and among the policies is that credit card users must sign the back panel of the card prior to use.

2. Keep - in a separate place such as a password protected Word document or Excel spreadsheet - a list of the credit and debit card numbers and the associated toll free telephone number to that card's particular issuer in case the card is lost, stolen, or the number is compromised. Don't keep a printed copy with your cards!

3. Provided you have signed your card on the back as required, merchants have NO right to demand your ID. Why?

First and foremost, it is against policies set by the credit card issuers, namely MasterCard and Visa. However, there is one exception: A merchant can require ID if the card is not signed on the back as you are supposed to.

Second, a merchant's wanting to know where you live is absolutely none of their business. Merchants such as Wal-Mart (in Florida, we should call them trespass and ban for life happy Wal-Mart) and CompUSA are very notorious for this.

A Florida Driver's License is the worst identity document to have in your possession other than the fact that you need it for driving a motor vehicle. You need it in case a law enforcement officer pulls you over or if you are in an accident. A Florida Driver's License contains - as required by the federal REAL ID law concerning standards for state drivers licenses - your name and your physical street address; in other words, where you live. Besides, a physical street address is a goldmine, not only for nosy and dabbling store clerks but for stalkers and domestic violence perpetrators who happen to come across your license.

If you are confronted by a store clerk at the register demanding your ID, you are well within your rights to say no. If the store clerk gets belligerent with you, politely and professionally ask to speak with the store manager. Nine times out of ten a store manager will say that checking ID is their policy to prevent identify theft, but that alone is a false statement. Besides, store clerks themselves have been involved in identity theft cases as the perpetrators!

Protecting yourself against identity theft is a straightforward process on your part. We know how to keep our credit/debit cards and Social Security numbers out of the hands of unknown persons, and to check our credit reports once a year.

4. Always check your credit and bank account statements periodically. Notify your bank, credit union or credit card issuer of any inaccuracies.

While we are on the subject of ID's, the best American identity document you want to carry around is the Passport Card. Not only it fits in your wallet unlike the traditional passport book, you can use it to cross the Canadian/Mexican border for short trips to Canada or Mexico across our land borders as well as domestically here in the USA to board your flight and gain admittance to federal facilities as the passport card is a REAL ID compliant document. (Remember, a passport card cannot be used to enter the United States by air, even if you are coming from Canada or Mexico - this is where the traditional passport book comes in).

And the good thing about a passport card is that it does not reveal where you live, such as your physical street address (unlike a Florida Driver's License or a Florida ID card). The passport card contains the benchmarks required by the federal REAL ID law yet providing a degree of privacy for the cardholder. Better yet, a passport card costs $30 and it's valid for ten years, compared to a State of Florida ID card which costs $25 but is only valid for eight years. Besides, if you have a Florida ID card and you move to another state, you have to end up getting a new state ID card in your new state of residence which means more fees and more hassle at the state DMV, but if you have a passport card it is a federal document good anywhere in the USA.

Reminder: If you have a driver's license and you move, be sure to obtain a driver's license in your new state of residence. It is the law in all 50 states! Active duty military pursuant to federal law are exempt, just make sure you have your military ID with you in case you are questioned by a law enforcement officer regarding your out of state driver's license.

The U.S. State Department has more details on the passport card as well as how to apply and application forms. Believe me, it's worth the $30!

Remember, the only time you need to carry your Florida Driver's License (or the driver's license from your home state) and to produce it is this:

1. While you are operating a motor vehicle
2. In case of a traffic stop
3. In case of a motor vehicle accident
Besides, you also need your registration and proof of insurance - it's the law
4. When you rent a car - it is illegal for any rental car company (such as Alamo) to rent to anyone who does not have a valid driver's license

To law enforcement or a rental car company, a driver's license is one thing. But to store clerks such as those at Wal-Mart, CompUSA or any other merchant who has strict ID policies when it comes to using your credit or debit card, my driver's license and where I live is none of your business!

If you are confronted by a belligerent store clerk who rudely or surly demands your ID, and the store manager on duty does not wish to help you, there are at least two things you can do:

1. If you have a passport card, use it as ID. This takes care of 99% of all ID encounters when retail stores are involved.

2. Leave the items on the counter and patronize a different merchant.

And I did not forget Item Number 3: Go to RipOffReport.com and share your experience with that particular store. Also go to ConsumerAffairs.com and share your experience wth that particular store as well. These sites are also great to share your experiences if you have run into rude, belligerent or surly store clerks and you get no satisfaction from the store manager in charge.

If you have an unfavorable experience with a belligerent or surly store clerk, especially if ID is demanded of you when you pay for your items at the register, please feel free to share your experiences here by posting a reply. All I ask is that the replies be kept clean and no personally identifying information; your reply will not show up until I have moderated it.

Almost a year later: Rick Scott is still Florida's Number One Dictator!

2011-12-09T23:00:00.003-05:00

Soon we will be approaching the one year aniversary to the day that Florida's 45th Chief Crook Executive, Rick Scott, took office as Florida's 45th Governor.

Lately in the St. Petersburg Times The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi happened to crash not one but two press conferences, one with Rick Scott and the other with Florida's Attorney General Pam Bondi. One of Rick Scott's unpopular acts was to require anyone seeking welfare benefits to submit to drug testing. During both news conferences, Aasif Mandvi asked both Scott and Bondi to submit to a urine sample in the same manner as Florida's welfare recipients.

I commented on that article as to how both Rick Scott and Pam Bondi are both destroying the State of Florida as we see it. Back in a previous blog entry on how Rick Scott deals with dissenters, here is a reminder of how Rick Scott is doing a major disservice to the people of this great state:

Rick Scott = Adolf Hitler

The Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce = the Nazi Party

Law enforcement commanded by Rick Scott to deal with and threaten dissenters with trumped-up criminal charges such as trespass (and trespassing after warning, too) = the Nazi SS Troops

And we need to add this to the list:

Pam Bondi = Nazi People's Court Judge Roland Freisler

(After all, Roland Freisler was state secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice and president of the Nazi People's Court, set up to deal with people who said no to Hitler. People who voiced their opposition to Hitler's rule, such as Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Movement, ended up paying the ultimate price.)

Now why is Pam Bondi trying to do to make life more miserable for us Floridians? First and foremost, right after she took office as Florida Attorney General she made it very hard for anyone convicted of a felony to seek a pardon, even after the prison time and/or probation was served, fines paid, court orders complied with, etc. After all, these people who were convicted felons wanted to put their past behind them and get on with their lives so that they can become productive members of society once more.

In short, Pam Bondi wants to make things a lot easier for Floridians - especially law abiding Floridians - to acquire a criminal record upon arrest (yet make it harder to get a pardon or even a criminal record seal/expungement for that matter). That would be simple enough - law enforcement can arrest a person on trumped up charges of trespassing after warning (using the recent arrests of members of the Occupy Movement in Tampa and Orlando as great examples) and find ways to upgrade the charges to felony charges.

Simple trespassing charges in Florida Statute 810.09 are misdemeanor charges. However, the law goes on to state that if you are even caught within a certain distance of a specified property (and I do not mean going onto the specified property itself), the misdemeanor trespassing charges become felony trespassing charges.

Even if the charges are later dropped by the State Attorney or if you are found not guilty in the courts, you still have an arrest record. You can go through the hoops with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to have your record sealed or expunged, but most people don't do it due to the high cost among other things.

And one more thing: A St. Petersburg Times reader whose name is Fighting Irish replied to my comment. Although he disagreed with my comparison between Rick Scott and Adolf Hitler, still he agreed that Rick Scott is doing everything to destroy our great state.

I replied to Fighting Irish thus (the reply you see here is different than the reply I made at the St. Petersburg Times article, as comments and replies are limited to 1,000 characters but the content is basically the same):

Be glad we live in America and in a free country where we have freedom of speech and freedom of lawful expression. In Thailand, freedom of speech and freedom of lawful expression are less than half-existant; an American was recently arrested in Thailand for violations of their very strict lese majeste laws, which mean one can be arrested and jailed for criticizing the Thai Royal Family.

Just imagine for a moment if Florida was an independent nation and we had Thai style lese mejeste laws: Our jails and correctional facilities would be extremely overcrowded with people arrested and convicted of criticizing Rick Scott. Just be glad we don't sing Phleng Chat - the National Anthem of Thailand - at a Tampa Bay Rays home game at Tropicana Field!

Just a reminder of what a way of life we Floridians have to endure under a governor that does not care about the people and now an attorney general that will not go after the real criminals: The people in Florida who are responsible for the real estate and mortgage crisis that sent property values downward and put millions of Floridians underwater on their mortgages. Just remember this blog entry the next time you pass by the Welcome to Florida sign at the Florida Welcome Center on Interstates 75 or 95 when you cross into our great state.

The Top 10 Things That You Know You Have Arrived in the State of Florida

2011-11-27T20:39:00.015-05:00

This past Thanksgiving weekend I decided to not mess with the Black Friday crowds and instead take a jaunt over to Jacksonville. While there I did some sightseeing including taking a side trip over to Folkston, GA and the famous "Folkston Funnel", where practically all trains from the country have to pass through on their way to Florida with the exception of trains coming from the west.

I stopped at the Florida Welcome Center - not once, but twice - just to get that welcome home feeling coming back from Georgia. Unfortunately, the Welcome to Florida signage bears the name of our 45th Chief Crook and Executive Thief of the State of Florida, none other than Rick Scott. It really tiffs me to even have to see the Welcome to Florida sign with Tricky Ricky's name on it - since it's posted right at the state line, you can't avoid it one bit.

So, while I was at the Florida Welcome Center on southbound Interstate 95 north of Jacksonville, I pulled out my trusty BlackBerry and jotted down ten items that you, as a Florida resident returning home or a visitor coming to enjoy the Sunshine State, know that you have arrived in the great State of Florida!

Without much further ado, here we go with ten items that you have arrived in the State of Florida, in the tradition of the Late Show with David Letterman (which can be seen on your local CBS affiliate; here in St. Petersburg it's on WTSP-10 News at its appropriate starting time of 11:35 PM weeknights):

10. You stop at the Florida Welcome Center on I-75 or I-95 and pick up your obligatory sample of orange juice.

9. Move over or slow down for emergency vehicles.

8. Our great state's Interstate shields are better to read than Georgia's.

7. Our Interstate highway overheads are much better than Georgia's.

6. Home of the Florida merging traffic symbol.

5. Home of the near extinct Draw Bridge Ahead warning sign in Highway Gothic Series C. (After all, the Florida DOT has been pulling up these classic Draw Bridge Ahead warning signs of this type and replacing them as part of drawbridge reconstruction or update projects with a similar sign in Highway Gothic Series D produced at the Florida DOT sign shop in Lake City or produced by the Florida DOT contractor)

4. Come to Florida on vacation, leave Florida with a trespass warning thanks to 810.09. (What does Wal-Mart, Black Friday and Florida have in common?)

3. Your children are learning new words in their vocabulary: Foreclosure and homelessness.

2. Cash or your state's EZ-Pass is worthless when you drive onto the Florida Turnpike or practically any toll road or bridge in Florida for that matter.

And the Number One thing to know that you are in Florida is:

1. You see our Chief Crook and Thief's name, Rick Scott, plastered on every Welcome to Florida sign at our welcome centers as well as every port of entry into the great State of Florida!

And you, the Florida taxpayer, spent $7,000 to let Tricky Ricky make an idiot of himself on every Welcome to Florida sign!

The next time you stop at the official Florida Welcome Center on Interstate 75 south of Valdosta or on Interstate 95 north of Jacksonville remember these things when you see Rick Scott's name plastered on the Welcome to Florida signs:

1. The disposal of 25,000 potential jobs by rejecting the high speed rail money.
2. The voters of this great state elected a crook and a thief (HCA, anyone?).
3. 10%+ unemployment rate in Florida.
4. Foreclosures driving down house values.
5. Homeowners insurance skyrocketing.
6. The turning of law enforcement against the people.
7. Everyday, law-abiding citizens arrested on trumped-up charges, such as trespassing after warning.
8. Turning public property into private property.
9. Your children receive nothing more than drill and practice for the FCAT test instead of a quality education you pay for with your tax dollars.
10. More and more public schools in Florida keeping you, the parent, out of your child's educational progress by using threats of trespass warnings against the parents (does Mike Rio and Virgil Mills Elementary School in Ellenton ring a bell?).

So, there you have it. Now that Thanksgiving 2011 has come and gone and that the holiday season is well underway, enjoy the holiday season!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and the ever-growing Anti-American Holiday Sentiment

2011-11-23T17:41:00.007-05:00

The holiday season has begun – and earlier than usual!

Here in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area you can tell that the holiday season has begun when WWRM-FM 94.9 switches their format from their regular easy listening music to all Christmas music, claiming to “get you into the holiday spirit”. Ironically, WWRM – dubbed as The New Magic 94.9 – is on the same FM frequency as Radio Veseljak in Ljubljana, Slovenia: Although Tampa and Ljubljana are at least 6,000 miles and an ocean apart, the difference is that Radio Veseljak is only 1 kW while WWRM has a power level (97.3 kW) almost 100 times more than Radio Veseljak.

Sure, The New Magic 94.9 FM wants to get you, the Tampa/St. Petersburg area radio listener, into the Christmas spirit – just a few days after the national test of the Emergency Alert System, which turned out to be way far from perfect. Besides, WWRM – along with WMTX 100.7 FM, known as Tampa Bay’s Best Music Variety – are what are called Local Primary stations for the Emergency Alert System in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. In a national alert, these two stations pick up the alert message from either WFLF 540 AM in Orlando (which is one of many Primary Entry Point stations around the country and one of three in Florida) or from National Public Radio via satellite (using their “squawk” sub-channel) and redistribute the message to the rest of Tampa’s radio and TV outlets as well as cable systems such as Bright House Networks.

Hey, I got to admit it, this is my favorite time of the year. Even after losing my mother 11 years ago, it still is. However, I have seen a disturbing trend of anti-American holiday sentiment going around; Andrew Dart has a great page about the Anti-Christmas and Anti-Anti-Christmas Sentiment in American Society over at his web site.

Psst! In fact, why don't you read Andrew Dart's Anti-Christmas page by opening the link to the article as shown above as a new tab (simply right click on the link and select Open In New Tab); that way you can read Andrew Dart's well written page and my blog entry (the blog entry you're reading now) side by side.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a growing anti-American holiday sentiment going around. Last Christmas season we had numerous reports of anti-American holiday sentiment from the education front as I discussed in an earlier blog entry, which I will summarize here:

1. Heathrow Elementary School in Heathrow, Florida (a small town just outside Orlando, not the airport in London) banished everything Christmas, including Christmas colors, from the school on the orders of its principal. The reason was that people may be offended.

2. Battlefield High School in Manassas, Virginia also banished everything Christmas on the orders of its principal, Amy Etheridge-Conti. Several students were disciplined for being members of the “Christmas Sweater Club”; the reason for the discipline was that students did not want Christmas cheer.

Apparently, Ms. Etheridge-Conti did not want anything to do with Christmas and she wanted to shove her anti-American holiday season beliefs on Battlefield High’s student body. As I mentioned in my previous blog entry, if you are reading this, Ms. Etheridge-Conti, if Christmas or the holiday season offends you in any way please consider buying an one-way airline ticket out of the country, especially to a country where the celebration of Christmas (or any American holiday for that matter) is illegal such as North Korea, China or Saudi Arabia.

As the holiday season draws nearer, another school has adopted its stance of anti-American holiday spirit and this time it involves more than Christmas - and I mean much more than Christmas. This article from FOX 25 in Boston caught my attention before I hopped in my car for the brief trek on Interstate 275 to my office in downtown St. Petersburg: Somerville Principal: Fall Holidays are Insensitive.

What? Fall (and Winter) holidays – Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas – are insensitive? What is going on here?

According to the FOX 25 article, the principal of Kennedy School, Anne Foley, sent a letter to faculty reminding them that they need to be careful about celebrating the fall holidays such as Thanksgiving. In essence, the fall holidays – Columbus Day, Halloween and Thanksgiving plus Veterans Day and Christmas as they are fall holidays too – were banished on the orders of Ms. Foley and these holidays were not to be celebrated in school.

Although Christmas is a winter holiday, I lumped it in along with the rest of the preceding holidays as the fall holidays for the sake of simplicity. At a most recent check of the Kennedy School's website as I am writing this blog entry, it appears that school was held on Thanksgiving week until 12 Noon on Wednesday, 23 November 2011. By comparison, the Pinellas County School District is closed for Thanksgiving week, giving students, faculty and staff a well deserved week off for a major holiday such as Thanksgiving.

Similarly, The Boston Herald has a great article on what is going on at the Kennedy School too.

By the way, Kennedy School is a K-8 school (which incorporates both elementary and middle schools) located in Somerville, Massachusetts. Somerville is a suburb of Boston located just west of Interstate 93. If you are wondering why Interstate 95 does not serve Boston proper, it is because of a freeway revolt which caused Interstate 95 to be routed onto the MA 128 loop that skirts the Boston metro area, much like how Interstate 75 is routed around but not through Tampa.

OK. Permit me to give you descriptions of the fall holidays in America from Columbus Day to Christmas, if I may:

Columbus Day is a federal holiday in which the federal government (including the US Postal Service) and banks are closed. Observances of Columbus Day by state depends on the state involved; I am not sure if Columbus Day in Massachusetts is a legal holiday but here in the great State of Florida, Columbus Day is an unofficial holiday in that state, county and city offices are open for business.

Halloween is an unofficial holiday, celebrated by children trick or treating in the neighborhood and Halloween costumes. The only entities I believe that do not observe or celebrate Halloween are religious sects that believe that Halloween is a holiday associated with witchcraft among other things.

Thanksgiving Day is an official holiday all across America. We celebrate Thanksgiving by going to relatives for Thanksgiving dinner among other things, not to mention the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York City, televised across the country on your local NBC affiliate.

The Day After Thanksgiving is considered a holiday depending on who you work for (for instance, if you work for a local government such as the City of St. Petersburg, the Day After Thanksgiving is one of 10 city holidays observed throughout the year as all city offices are closed); it is also known as Black Friday and the start of the Christmas holiday season. Thanksgiving Day, along with Christmas Day, is supposed to be a day of rest for most of us.

Finally, Christmas Day needs no introduction. We know what Christmas day is: Christmas lights, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer … and the Christmas traditions go on. Christmas is not only just an American holiday; Christmas is celebrated worldwide save for a few countries where human rights and civil liberties are grossly violated.

What I can say is this: The fall and winter holidays of Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as Halloween – plus the other holidays of the year such as Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Martin Luther King Day, Presidents Day and New Years Day – are a part of the American way of life. As such, these holidays and traditions will continue to be around, as long as the United States of America is in existence, so get used to it.

As for Anne Foley, Principal of Kennedy School in Somerville, MA, may I offer you some words of suggestion for the anti-Americanism you have forced on your faculty and students?

1. Take down the flags of both the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that fly in front of your school. Next, hoist the flag of a country that does not celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas, preferably a country where human rights and civil liberties are grossly violated.

2. Next, ban any recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag. While you’re at it, ban any singing of The Star Spangled Banner on your school campus. Instead, play the national anthem of the country you have chosen that is represented by the flag you have hoisted on the flagpole in front of your school on your school’s closed circuit TV system every morning as a part of your school's morning announcements. Have your students learn the words to the national anthem of the country you have chosen too.

If that does not work for you, and if American fall/winter holidays including Thanksgiving and Christmas continue to offend you in any way, then I have another suggestion for you: Purchase a one way airline ticket from Logan International Airport in Boston to a country where human rights and civil liberties are grossly violated, such as Belarus, Cuba, China, North Korea or even Saudi Arabia. Besides, celebrating any American holiday in Saudi Arabia is illegal!

As I mentioned in another previous blog entry, there are school principals unfortunately that control their schools much like the governments of Belarus (think Alexander Lukashenko), Cuba (think Raul Castro) or the closed world of North Korea run by Kim Jong-Il. Why? Your parental rights are trumped and usurped while your children are in school; try to “interfere” with your child’s education and you can get arrested and your child taken into the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families (the Florida DCF, also called the Florida Department of Complete Failure) or, at the least, turned into a second class citizen and trespassed which banishes you from school property, perhaps forever.

OK. Let's change gears a little bit while we're on the subject of anti-American holiday sentiment.

Now for another alarming trend of anti-American holiday sentiment, this time on the Corporate America front: Businesses that used to be traditionally closed for Thanksgiving are opening their doors, all in the name of profit.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are two very important holidays in which people rest and be with their families, celebrating the spirit of the season. Unfortunately, Corporate America wants to cash in on greed, especially with the Day After Thanksgiving (more commonly known as Black Friday), and open businesses either at 12:01 AM on the Day After Thanksgiving or, worse, open on Thanksgiving Day.

The newest offender on the block as far as being open the Day After Thanksgiving is Target. In order to get a jump start on the holiday shopping season, Target decided to open its stores at 12:01 AM on the Day After Thanksgiving. While Target may be closed on Thanksgiving Day to the public, unfortunately their associates have to work on Thanksgiving in order to prepare for the biggest shopping day of the year. The result: Target’s associates cannot be with their families for Thanksgiving Day.

Whoa! Work on Thanksgiving Day?

First, I can understand that our police officers, firefighters and public safety personnel do have to work not only on Thanksgiving Day, but any holiday of the year for that matter. After all, we rely on these fine personnel to keep us safe.

However, I am miffed when I find out that a retailer – especially a retailer known for traditionally closing on Thanksgiving so that their employees can be with their families – decides to open their doors on Thanksgiving Day all in the name of making a quick buck. Does Corporate America care anymore about America’s traditional holidays?

Being open on Thanksgiving Day is fairly new. Here in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, we have businesses that are traditionally closed on Thanksgiving Day so that their employees can be with their families. A great example is Publix Super Markets, which has had a closed on Thanksgiving Day policy from the day George Jenkins founded Publix a long time ago.

Unfortunately, two other supermarkets in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area - Sweetbay Supermarket and Winn-Dixie – are open on Thanksgiving Day. Sweetbay claims that they are open on Thanksgiving for customer convenience, but Sweetbay’s Belgian owners – Delhaize Group – apparently believes that Thanksgiving is an interruption to their business. While Sweetbay may be open as a customer convenience, in reality their associates cannot enjoy quality time with their families on Thanksgiving.

Besides, Belgium does not celebrate Thanksgiving as it is not one of their legal holidays, period. Thanksgiving, being mainly an American holiday, is celebrated in a few other countries around the world, but with different traditions and on different dates.

Sweetbay used to be known as Kash ‘n Karry, which was locally owned here in Tampa for many years. Then Belgian based Delhaize Group came into town in 1996 and bought up the Kash ‘n Karry chain, remodeled the stores, and rebranded them as Sweetbay as we know today.

Practically the same thing is over at Winn-Dixie. Besides being open for Thanksgiving in the name of customer convenience, Winn-Dixie is notorious for poor customer service: Rude and belligerent checkout staff as well as forcing you to surrender your personal information if you want lower prices or you are subjected to substandard treatment as a customer. In other words, the person ahead of you with a Winn-Dixie Customer Reward Card gets better treatment while you, with no card (being your choice), are subjected to more harsh and belligerent treatment. (In fact, Winn-Dixie's way of dabbling into your personal business has gotten more severe: When you go to pay for your items at the register with your debit card, the cashier belligerently and brashly asks you "debit or credit?" Until recently, Winn-Dixie never asked that when you pay for your groceries with your debit card. To me, Winn-Dixie's way of asking you how you want to pay is none of their business - Publix doesn't even do a thing like that). Like Sweetbay, Winn-Dixie’s associates end up paying for being open on Thanksgiving Day in that they cannot enjoy quality time with their families on Thanksgiving.

Let’s head over to McDonald’s, also notorious for poor customer service (especially the McDonald's restaurants in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area that are owned by the Caspers Company). Traditionally McDonald’s says on their hours of operation when you walk into the restaurant: “We rest on Thanksgiving and Christmas”. Not so. I have seen McDonald’s open on Thanksgiving morning only for breakfast, but I am seeing that being extended into a full day. Seems like Thanksgiving is more and more being placed on the backburner nowadays. What is going on here?

Now here’s my take on the fall holidays in America, as far as public school and Corporate America are concerned:

1. Being a native born American citizen, I firmly and strongly believe in all the holidays that America celebrates, including the major fall holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

2. If schools do not want to celebrate any of the holidays, then consider holding school on these holidays such as Thanksgiving.

3. If Corporate America does not want to have anything to do with Thanksgiving, then have your corporate eons lobby Congress to repeal Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Believe me – it won’t happen; Thanksgiving is deeply rooted in tradition as an American national holiday to begin with, going back to the days when the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620 and earlier when Juan Ponce De Leon landed on the Florida east coast near St. Augustine in 1513.

4. Thanksgiving and Christmas are holidays to be with family and friends. As such, I do not conduct any business on Thanksgiving as well as Christmas.

5. Finally, if the spirit of the American holidays – especially the fall holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas – offend you in any way, please consider leaving the United States of America and find another country where our American holidays are not celebrated, especially a country where human rights and civil liberties are grossly violated.

We cannot let the fall holidays including the major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas become endangered, thanks to public schools and Corporate America that think these holidays are a nuisance. Thanksgiving and Christmas - along with America's other major holidays - are not a nuisance; instead our nation's holidays are part of our heritage.

So, onward with Thanksgiving, Christmas and the holiday season!

A Case of Parental Discipline Gone Wrong and Too Far

2011-11-05T21:02:00.011-04:00

Many of you out there may have watched the video of Aransas County (Texas) Judge William Adams savagely beating his daughter, Hillary. I had the courage to watch all seven minutes of the video which has gone viral worldwide thanks to YouTube.

First, I want you to watch the video below of this savage and cruel act committed against Hillary, who was attending high school as this video was made according to media reports.

WARNING: The video seen here is graphic and it involves strong language. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

This is my opinion in a nutshell: Horrific, shocking, disgusting and violent. As I posted in a comment for that video on YouTube, this is definitely not a case of parental discipline - instead, this is a case of aggravated child abuse.

Check out the news coverage both on a local, national and worldwide view:

Bay News 9's coverage
10 News (WTSP-TV) coverage
CNN's coverage
RTV Slovenia's coverage (in Slovenian)

Just recently here in Florida the Florida Supreme Court ruled that one spank is not considered domestic violence. To me, what the Florida Supreme Court did was have parents declare open season on their children, free to carry out any act of violence against children including spanking as long as no marks were left, and all in the name of parental discipline in the home. Want the facts?

Turn on Bay News 9 or 10 News (WTSP-TV) and this is becoming more and more common: Boyfriend arrested for child abuse. This story from Bay News 9 proves the point: A Seminole man beat his girlfriend's child to death in Lakeland, all because the girlfriend (who was the child's natural mother) did not believe in the use of violence when it came to parental discipline, including spanking.

That article from Bay News 9 is just only a sample of what's going on. There are more articles out there dealing with child abuse right here in our own backyard. Want proof? Go to Bay News 9 as well as 10 News and do a search for "child abuse" - you will be surprised.

While spanking your children may be legal here in America, let's take a quick trip across the Atlantic to Europe. You will be surprised that many countries in Europe have completely outlawed corporal punishment everywhere, including within the home. Sweden became the first country in Europe to outlaw all forms of corporal punishment in 1979; other European countries followed suit according to this article on Wikipedia:

Austria outlawed corporal punishment in 1989.
Croatia outlawed corporal punishment in 1999.
Denmark - Sweden's neighbor to the west via the Oresund Bridge - outlawed corporal punishment in 1997.
Finland outlawed corporal punishment in 1983.
Germany outlawed corporal punishment in 2000.
Greece outlawed corporal punishment in 2007.
Hungary outlawed corporal punishment in 2004.
Iceland outlawed corporal punishment in 2003.
Latvia outlawed corporal punishment in 1998.
Luxembourg outlawed corporal punishment in 2008.
The Netherlands (Holland) outlawed corporal punishment in 2007.
Norway outlawed corporal punishment in 1987; the Norwegian Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that even a light "careful" slap is illegal.
Poland outlawed corporal punishment in 2010.
Portugal outlawed corporal punishment in 2007.
Romania outlawed corporal punishment in 2004.
Spain outlawed corporal punishment in 2007.
Ukraine outlawed corporal punishment in 2004.

When I mean that corporal punishment is outlawed, corporal punishment in a country that has completely outlawed the practice is outlawed, period. Just ask Giovanni Colasante, an Italian politician from the town of Canosa di Puglia, who was on vacation in Stockholm with his son when he pulled his son's hair for not going into a Stockholm restaurant as a form of punishment. Mr. Colasante learned his lesson the hard way when he got arrested in Stockholm and was convicted for violating Sweden's corporal punishment ban. The incident created a big uproar in Italy, where corporal punishment is only outlawed in the schools but legal in the home, reports Radio Sweden.

Many countries in Europe have completely outlawed corporal punishment. But not in the United States of America, where corporal punishment in the home is completely legal. What Judge William Adams did to his daughter, Hillary, was horrific but it's legal in all 50 states of the United States.

However, if you are considering taking a trip with your family out of the country, say to Europe, be careful. As American citizens, we take everything for granted including the right to raise our children the way we see fit with minimal legal restraint. However, once you leave the United States our Constitution and our laws do not follow you - once you are in a foreign country, you are their guest and, as such, are expected to follow and obey their laws including bans on corporal punishment anywhere.

As the United States State Department warns in their travel advisories, once you are arrested in a foreign country you become subject to the judicial system of the country you are arrested in. The fact that you are American and the fact that you have an American passport does not exempt you from a foreign country's laws when you are there. That means if you spank your child in a country where corporal punishment is completely outlawed and you get arrested, you will be processed as an inmate according to the judicial system of the country in question.

While corporal punishment may be legal in the State of Florida, it is prohibited in one place: The Pinellas County School District. In fact, according to the District's Student Code of Conduct as to disciplinary action that can be taken against students (quoting directly from the Student Code of Conduct): "The use of corporal punishment is prohibited." Further, the policy goes on to state that (again, quoting directly from the Student Code of Conduct) "The prohibition against the use of corporal punishment also extends to parents or guardians on school grounds."

In a nutshell, corporal punishment of your children is legal in Florida and in Pinellas County. Just don't spank your children in a Pinellas county public school.

Even if corporal punishment of your children is legal in Florida, in reality you might not want to use physical violence against your children because doing so can attract the attention of the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF). I call them the Florida Department of Complete Failure, but this agency is very quick to do anything to take your children away from you.

For instance, let's say your child brought home a report card with D's and F's. You get upset, which is natural. However, you get so upset that you go ahead and spank your child using an object, such as a belt. The next day, you send your child off to school and you have a conference with your child's teachers in mind to see what is going on in school that caused the poor grades to begin with.

Suddenly, the phone rings. It's your child's school, with an urgent message that you need to come to the school as soon as possible. You ask why, but the school personnel cannot tell you. Once you arrive at school, you show your ID and sign in per school policy but when a staff member greets you, you are shown down the hall to a conference room where your child's school principal, a police officer, and an investigator from the Florida DCF are there. The reason: The spanking you gave to your child the day before for that poor report card left behind visible welts on your child; one of your child's teachers noticed difficulty in your child sitting down at his desk and took him down the hall to the school nurse. The school nurse saw the welts you made as a result of spanking your child and informs the school principal, who in turn notifies DCF and police resulting in both showing up.

Your nightmare as a parent has just begun. Your child is being taken into protective custody by order of the DCF and you, the parent, is being arrested on charges of child abuse. The police officer places handcuffs on you behind your back and you are placed in the back seat of the police cruiser, transported to the county jail to be booked on the child abuse charge.

Not only do you, the parent, now have an arrest record for child abuse, if the charges are later dismissed by the State Attorney your nightmare still continues. You can try to get your arrest record expunged, but your name will more than likely be entered into Florida's abuse registry as a child abuser. Simplest explanation: If you go on to apply for a job later on down the road, and that background check includes a check of the Florida abuse registry, chances are you might not get the job you want, all because of your decision to discipline your child by physical means.

Moreover, if the charges against you for child abuse are dropped and your child is eventually returned to you, welcome to a lifetime of harassment by the Florida DCF. After all, DCF involvement in your child's welfare is frequent.

I am not sure what the laws and procedures are in Texas when it comes to child abuse and mandatory reporting by certain personnel such as school officials, but did Hillary Adams report the savage beating to school officials when she was in high school when the beating took place? What would have happened if Hillary told her school principal and in turn made required reports to the appropriate state agencies in Texas? Unfortunately, these questions we don't know and we won't even know.

In light of the video of Hillary Adams being savagely beaten by her father, Judge William Adams, our state legislators - both in Florida and Texas as well as everywhere else in the United States - need to take a second look at corporal punishment, both at the school level and at the home level. I think a Sweden-style law banning corporal punishment in any form - whether it may be in school or by parents in public or private - is in order. After all, corporal punishment is completely banned in many European countries, and it's time in America to put an end to violence against children even if it means banning corporal punishment completely.

After all, in Florida if you hit, touch or strike another person you can be arrested on a charge of misdemeanor battery. If the person you hit happens to be a police officer or a specified person listed in the Florida Statutes, then it becomes a felony. But you, as a parent, can get away with it by hitting your own children without risk of being arrested (just make sure no visible welts or bruises are on your child to avoid possible DCF involvement).

Now for my take on corporal punishment, in light of Hillary Adams posting the video of her being beaten by her father on YouTube:

Corporal punishment has no place in the home.

Corporal punishment has no place in the school.

Corporal punishment has no place - anywhere.

Corporal punishment teaches children that it is OK to solve problems with violence. In other words, corporal punishment teaches children that it is OK to hit other people to solve problems.

Corporal punishment needs to be illegal anywhere in America. It's already illegal in most European countries.

Parents have a duty to raise their children as they see fit, within reason. The doctrine of minimal interference by government as far as America is concerned I think should come to an end.

NOTE: Comments have been closed for this blog entry.

Reminder on Commenting Guidelines

2011-10-29T20:19:00.004-04:00

I recently posted a set of community guidelines for when you post a comment to any of my blog entries that you see here on the Edward Ringwald Blog. The guidelines are available on EdwardRingwald.com at my blog introduction page or you can click here to go straight to the community guidelines (links to a PDF document).

Here are the highlights of the community guidelines for posting a comment on the Edward Ringwald Blog:

Stay on the blog topic.
Be respectful of others out there.
Don’t hate or express hatred.
Don’t use language that you wouldn’t use with your parents (or your teachers, your boss or whatever).
No commercial messages of any kind.
Don’t infringe on the publicity and privacy rights of others.
Don’t submit personal information in your comment.

Personal information includes, but is not limited to, home addresses, telephone numbers, automobile tag numbers, and personal identifying numbers such as Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers.

Please, enjoy reading my blogs and commenting on my blogs but be mindful of the above community guidelines. If everyone abides by the above guidelines for commenting on my blogs, that will assist me in keeping the Edward Ringwald Blog family friendly for all.

Your parental rights are under attack!

2011-10-14T23:43:00.007-04:00

I came across this story on Bay News 9 which has sparked some interest regarding parental rights, especially when your child is in school. The article is almost a year old but the procedures you are about to read are still in effect for the 2011-2012 school year based on my research.

Parents, I urge you to please read this blog entry word for word.

The place: Virgil Mills Elementary School, Palmetto, Manatee County, Florida.
The location: On 69th Street East, which is southeast of Interstate 75's Exit 228, the southern terminus of Interstate 275.

Parents of children enrolled at Virgil Mills Elementary School are having to wait about an hour to pick up their children when school is dismissed for the day which is creating problems. As part of a new policy instituted by the principal of Virgil Mills Elementary School, Mike Rio, parents are not even allowed to get out of their vehicles to meet their children even though the parents do not enter the secured part of the campus. Parents who do not comply with this policy are being turned into second class citizens by having a trespass warning issued which bars the parent from even entering school property for at least six months.

What? Trespass warnings? Turn law-abiding parents into second class citizens?

Here is the text of a comment I made to Bay News 9 regarding this newly instituted policy, all in the name of school safety:

All in the name of safety? Not in my book! If Mike Rio wants to threaten parents with trespass warnings, he has succeeded in turning his school into a mini-North Korea. By the way Mike Rio runs things, he is in my opinion out of touch with the parents, ready to use a trespass warning against anyone on his own personal whim. Furthermore, I support schools that have good after school dismissal plans such as parent pickup. But to threaten parents with trespass warnings is way too extreme. Remember what happened with another Manatee County public elementary school a while ago on this same issue? Parents, it's your kids.

Yes, public school campuses are closed campuses not only in Manatee and Pinellas counties, it is the standard throughout the State of Florida. The public school environment of today is nothing more like a state prison or county jail rather than a public school: Fences, gates, mandatory check in at the office including showing identification, and much more. Furthermore, students are being treated as inmates of a correctional facility during the school day.

Furthermore, if you want to know what a closed campus means, look across the Pacific Ocean to North Korea, the communistic totalitarian dictatorship run by Kim-Jong Il which is actually a prison. North Korea is a secretive, yet closed country and none of its citizens are even allowed to travel freely within or outside the country. In fact, North Korea has the poorest human rights record in the world according to this article on Wikipedia. Parental rights in North Korea are practically nonexistent; collective punishment in which not only the offender is punished but the offender’s family is punished as well is commonplace. If you travel there you will be escorted by a tour guide employed by the state and you will only be allowed to tour certain places, not to mention that you will be under constant surveillance while you are there.

Now what does that mean for you as a parent? In a nutshell, your parental rights are practically signed away when you enrolled your child in public school in the very first place. Here is a link to an article at ParentalRights.org which is interesting: Parents of 50 million children to lose parental rights. Quoting from this article, according to a decision in the United States Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit in Fields vs. Palmdale School District (427 F3d. 1197, 2005):

In sum, we affirm that the Meyer-Pierce right (of parents to direct the upbringing of their children) does not exist beyond the threshold of the school door.

Take that court case from the United States Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit in California, add in Florida’s draconian trespassing laws and you got a recipe for parental protest. Florida’s trespassing laws were also written with public and private schools in mind in that principals are allowed to ban anyone from a school campus for any reason whatsoever, even if you have a child attending that school!

Besides, trespass warnings in Florida are tools of oppression by higher authority, whether it may be a store manager or a security guard on private property or a school principal on public school property. After all, trespass warnings in Florida are convictions for trespassing without the benefit of due process and trial.

God knows what your children are being educated in public school if there is no parental involvement, once your child slips behind the gates of school that is closed to parents. Bullying? Child abuse? Physical abuse? Emotional abuse? Getting an education that you and I as Florida taxpayers have to pay for? That teacher – perhaps one of your child’s teachers – you find out on Bay News 9 that the teacher has been arrested on a sex related offense? Less and less homework every night and you find out when your child brings home D’s and F’s on his or her report card?

If you are concerned about your child’s performance, you set up an appointment for a conference with your child’s teachers. You arrive at school and your child’s teachers discuss his or her performance; it is carefully orchestrated to hide the truth. If you question the teachers’ authority to hide the truth as to what your children are learning, more than likely the principal will be called in to handle the issue which can result in a trespass warning being issued rather than working with you.

Now here’s my take on parental rights as far as school is concerned:

Your children are still your children. You have every right – and an obligation – as a parent to actively participate in your child’s educational process. Here in Pinellas County, we have fundamental schools where parental involvement is not optional - instead, parental involvement is mandatory or your child is sent back to zoned school.

Your local school district does not own your children.

Most schools have great student drop-off and pick-up plans for those students who have to be driven to school, especially due to ineligibility for busing (there are students that walk to school daily, but the walk to school must be pedestrian friendly and not have to go through dangerous situations between home and school and vice versa). These drop-off and pick-up plans are parent friendly, but you’ll won’t find that at Virgil Mills Elementary in Palmetto.

While we’re on the subject of Virgil Mills Elementary, after I read the article on Bay News 9 I feel that Virgil Mills Principal Mike Rio is out of touch with the parents. Instead of being helpful, Mike Rio dangles the threat of turning a law-abiding parent into a second class citizen by having a trespass warning issued (and consequently make if more difficult for your child to get to school, especially if your child does not qualify for bus service). Furthermore, according to the Bay News 9 article, Mike Rio has made good on his policy by hiring off duty Manatee County Sheriff deputies just to see that the pick up policy is enforced.

In my opinion, for all intents and purposes Mike Rio is running a closed world at Virgil Mills Elementary compared to Kim-Jong Il running a closed world with North Korea. The difference: Virgil Mills Elementary is a school while North Korea is a sovereign nation. Once your child steps out of your vehicle and enters the gates of Virgil Mills Elementary your child has basically crossed from the United States into North Korea.

If you as a parent feel that your child is being mistreated or you question the quantity of schoolwork or quality of schoolwork you have the right to make an appointment to have a conference with your child’s teachers. Demand accountability not only from your child’s teachers but from the principal – after all, as a homeowner you are paying for public schools out of your tax dollars.

If you as a parent feel that you are getting nowhere with your child’s teachers as well as the principal, you have the right to put your child into another school.

Parents, you are a role model for your child. Don’t let the school district dictate your child’s life. Elementary school is not a rehearsal for middle and high school – instead, elementary school is where your child learns basic skills in order to prepare for what's ahead in middle school and high school. In middle school your child builds on these basic skills and in high school it’s the four-year bridge between elementary school and college. Besides, school is supposed to be the best years of your child’s life from the day your child enters Kindergarten to the day your child graduates from college.

I believe strongly in parental involvement in your child's education. The teachers and administrative staff are there to assist your child in getting the education he or she needs in order to face the challenges of tomorrow. Perhaps the Manatee County School District needs to replace Mike Rio with a principal that truly cares not only for students, the parents that have their children attend Virgil Mills Elementary as well. As I mentioned earlier, Mike Rio's decision to enforce a student pick up policy and at the same time dangle the threat of a trespass warning being issued against parents shows clearly that Mike Rio is out of touch with the parents.

9/11: Ten Years Later, 11 September 2001 Part 1

2011-09-16T21:01:00.004-04:00

As we recently observed the tenth anniversary of the attacks of 11 September 2001 which has changed our lives forever, millions of people across America and around the world have been touched by what happened in one form or another. For me, it was like replaying the Sunshine Skyway tragedy on 9 May 1980 magnified 1,000 times.

Please let me share with you what I felt on that fateful day which we will remember for generations to come. I am going to share this with you in two parts: The first part will be my personal experiences on 9/11 and the second part will be life since 9/11, which I'll post at a later date. That said, here we go.

Part 1: My personal experiences on 9/11

A week earlier, I took a trip to Ft. Lauderdale over the Labor Day weekend. I took Amtrak south from Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale and on the Labor Day holiday in 2001, I flew Southwest Airlines from Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) (and I remember back in the days when Southwest was located in Concourse F of Terminal 3; a couple of years later Southwest moved into its new home at FLL in Concourse B of Terminal 1) to Tampa International Airport (TPA). The flight lasted a little under an hour from gate to gate; believe me, flying Southwest sure beats the five to six hour drive on Interstate 75, especially the section from Ft. Lauderdale to Naples known as Alligator Alley.

Fast forward a week later. The date: Tuesday, 11 September 2001. The place: Downtown St. Petersburg, at my office. The time: Sometime around 9 AM.

I was doing the morning project filing as part of my first tasks when I got into the office so that I can tend to any priority items that may come up later during the day. My co-worker, Leslie, just came back from her morning break; as I was doing the project filing Leslie came up to me and told me that one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City just got hit.

I said to myself, “I couldn’t believe it!” I went over to the conference room located down the hallway and the TV was already on. My worst fears were being played before my eyes: Not only one tower of the World Trade Center was hit; the second tower of the World Trade Center was hit too.

Then I kept hearing that The Pentagon in Washington, DC got hit, and another airliner – which we would know as United Airlines’ Flight 93 – was on course for either The White House or The Capitol. By that time, for all intents and purposes America was under attack.

Going back to my desk, I was deeply concerned. With New York City and Washington DC being attacked by airliners – hijacked by teams of terrorists – I was scared if Florida was next. Would it be Miami/Ft. Lauderdale? Orlando? Jacksonville? Tampa/St. Petersburg?

An hour later, I went on my morning break. Already the St. Petersburg Times was printing an extra edition with huge headlines: AMERICA UNDER ATTACK. I picked up a copy and read it in the conference room while the TV was on. As I was reading the paper, I saw a horrific tragedy play before my eyes on TV: One of the World Trade Center towers collapsing. Then the other tower collapsed. Believe me, this was like the Sunshine Skyway tragedy on 9 May 1980 as the Summit Venture plowed into the south anchor pier (Pier 2-S) causing the southbound span to fall into Tampa Bay being replayed in my mind over and over.

Back in 1980 you did not have digital video for instantaneous playback. You did not have live video like we do today (besides, live video from a broadcast TV station’s remote truck was just getting off the ground). Broadcast video technology has improved over the 20+ years between 1980 and 2001: We now have 24-hour news channels that report breaking news the moment it is received, such as Bay News 9, the 24-hour local news channel in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.

Later on after I returned to my desk, I found out that all airplanes were being directed to land at the nearest airport. United States airspace was being closed to all air traffic nationwide, as we were experiencing for all intents and purposes a national emergency. Then the theme parks such as Disney World in Orlando were closing for the day and everything else was either curtailing operations or shutting down because of the tragic events taking place. However, my office remained open as we had an obligation to serve the public.

What about the international flights from Europe coming to America? Once American airspace was closed to all commercial air traffic that fateful morning, it became a logistical nightmare as flights were being diverted to major Canadian airports as a part of Operation Yellow Ribbon; Gander International Airport in Newfoundland was the most notable airport as it played host to 38 airliners according to the Operation Yellow Ribbon article on Wikipedia. To handle the diverted air traffic, Canada closed its airspace to departing aircraft. After all, this is the spirit of our Maple Leaf neighbors to the north assisting us in an hour of need.

At the end of the day I took the bus home. Once I got home I had my TV turned on primarily to Bay News 9 but if I were to flip around the channels, I noticed that a lot of the cable networks which were not news related were either relaying live wall to wall coverage of the tragedy that unfolded or with a static slide stating that the station was not on the air due to the national emergency that was taking place.

Speaking of a national emergency, where was the Emergency Alert System on 11 September 2001? From what I understand activation of the Emergency Alert System on a national level was not needed as the broadcast and cable stations across the country were providing the warning. Furthermore, I found out that the 34 Primary Entry Point radio stations around the USA were kept on high alert, just in case.

Do you know what a Primary Entry Point radio station is? If and when the President of the United States (no President has done this to date) orders an activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on a national scale, a nationwide code - called an EAN, which stands for Emergency Action Notification - is transmitted from The White House to FEMA. FEMA relays this notification to the 34 radio stations across the USA that are part of the Primary Entry Point system. Once a Primary Entry Point radio station receives this alert it must be relayed to other radio stations as well as TV stations and cable systems; at the same time normal programming is suspended until the conclusion of the emergency. The ultimate goal: To have the President of the United States address the nation within 10 minutes of activation.

Sporting events such as football and baseball (especially since baseball was in its last month of regular season play as the playoffs leading to the World Series was just around the corner) were cancelled for a while as a result of 9/11. For the next few days after 9/11 our America was in a state of shock and sorrow. However, here in St. Petersburg we had another event we had on our minds in addition to 9/11: Tropical Storm Gabrielle, which caused heavy rain and street flooding.

The next week - Monday, 17 September 2001 - was nothing but normal as America tried to recover from the shock and horror of the day that will live on in our minds forever. A couple of days earlier, some airliners were returning to the skies amid tightened airport security.

In the days since 9/11, our way of life in regard to how you and I go about our everyday business has radically changed. Unfortunately, these changes have come at the price of sacrificing the freedoms we Americans enjoy and are accustomed to. In Part 2 of my blog entry on 9/11: Ten Years Later I will discuss life that we are accustomed to since that fateful day.

By the way, if you have a 9/11 related story you would like to share, please feel free to post a reply. Just make sure that your post is clean; all posts are moderated before they are published.

To McDonald's (especially Caspers Company): My name is none of your business!

2011-07-30T23:39:00.004-04:00

Let’s face it: You are out and about one fine sunny afternoon, and you want a midday meal without the major expense of going to a full service restaurant (where you have to wait while the waitress takes your order, and then you have to leave a tip in addition to your bill). So, you spot the nearest sign of the Golden Arches and go inside rather than the drive thru.

Once you go inside you decide on what you want. Then you tell the clerk (who may be either friendly or surly with you) what you want. You pay for your meal and get what you want. Hopefully.

OK. We know that McDonald’s is known for the poor customer service that we have read about: Orders not being correct, rude and belligerent staff who do not care about customer service, quality of food being poor, and so on. (Believe me? Go to RipOffReport.com and do a search for McDonald’s! You’ll see!) While McDonald’s – after getting a lot of negative press on customer service – was repairing its image as a world known fast food chain, I have seen another fast food chain I feel is on the way down due to their customer service: Wendy’s. (Believe me, Wendy’s has good food but they need to improve their customer service; I can go on forever but I’ll save it for another topic).

Lately I managed to stop at a McDonald’s to grab me a quick afternoon snack. When I went inside to order right after I paid for what I wanted I noticed something different: McDonald’s asking for your name!

I asked McDonald’s why they solicit names. They say that it is needed to correctly get your order to you, some kind of an accountability thing. In my opinion, it’s invasion of privacy.

If you want to know why I believe it is in invasion of your privacy, let’s go back several years to a pharmacy chain that was based right here in our backyard in Largo, FL: That pharmacy chain was Eckerd Drugs, with so many stores there was one near where you live. An article in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel in April 2002 sums up what was going on at Eckerd Drugs when you went to pick up your prescription: You were being asked to sign for your prescriptions as Eckerd claimed that it was an accountability thing; in reality Eckerd was using your signature as an authorization to invade your privacy by bombarding you with junk mail based on your prescription history.

To me, this is a potential violation of the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Privacy Act (the HIPAA Act) which mandates that privacy be maintained when it comes to dealing with personally identifiable medical information. According to the Sun-Sentinel article, Eckerd defends that their practices are fully compliant with the HIPAA Act.

Today, Eckerd Drugs is no more in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. When Eckerd Drugs was sold to another company, at the same time its Florida locations were sold to CVS, which is what we know today.

In theory, McDonald’s could use your name, especially if you pay for your meal using a credit card. Your credit card has a billing address attached to it (this is where you receive your statements every month) and there is the potential for your name to be matched up to the credit card you used to pay for your meal. Your name and address could be mined somewhere down the road and sold so that your name ends up – eventually – on a junk mailer’s mailing list.

Fortunately, it has not happened – yet. In the many restaurants I have visited, this is what I have noticed:

No fast food restaurant – McDonald’s (until lately), Burger King, Wendy’s or any other fast food restaurant – asks for your name when you order.

In the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, a substantial number of McDonald’s restaurants are franchised. The biggest franchise operator of McDonald’s restaurants in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area is a company called Caspers Company. It seems that the Caspers franchised McDonald’s locations of lately demand your name when you order; if you don't give your name you are subjected to belligerent treatment by McDonald's counter staff.

You know what a franchise is: The entity, called the franchisee (in this case, a McDonald’s restaurant), is independently owned and operated; the entity in exchange for a license and franchising fee gets the right to use the McDonald’s name and likeness. After all, McDonald’s – being the franchisor – is trademarked and their corporate attorneys at their Oak Brook, Illinois world headquarters go to great lengths to protect their trademark.

If you go to a full service restaurant, such as Denny’s or Village Inn, ordinarily you are not asked for your name. The only time you are asked is for the purpose of seating in case of a capacity crowd and you are waiting for a seat. The good news, however, is that once you are seated your name is crossed off.

Asking for your name in a fast food restaurant environment is not new. There are two restaurants which fall in between fast food and full service – Starbucks and Panera Bread – that ask for your name when you place an order. (On the Panera Bread side, when you go to the café side the server gives you a pager that buzzes when your order is ready but why do they still ask for your name?)

OK. Now here’s my take on these fast food restaurants wanting your name, such as McDonald’s (especially the McDonald's restaurants in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area that are owned by Caspers Company):

You do not have an account relationship with a fast food restaurant – instead, a fast food restaurant exists for the sole purpose of quick food service to get you in and out.

An account relationship with a business is like if you were opening a bank or credit union account, obtaining a mortgage for the house or condo you want, applying for a credit card or an auto loan, purchasing an airline or train ticket, renting a car, renting a hotel room, or leaving your own car at the shop for service. After all, these businesses have to know who has what.

Your name exists on your passport, as well as your driver license.

If in the event you are pulled over by a law enforcement officer, the law obligates you to identify yourself. If you are driving a motor vehicle, you must have your driver license in your possession – it’s the law.

Which leads to my opinion:

To law enforcement as well as businesses where names have to be kept for accurate recordkeeping as I mentioned earlier, that’s one thing. To fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s (especially Caspers Company, the major McDonald’s franchisee in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area), my name is none of your business.

Rick Scott: Florida's Number One Dictator!

2011-05-28T16:41:00.006-04:00

This article in the St. Petersburg Times was interesting: Gov. Rick Scott's Office - We didn't kick anyone out of budget signing.

Turns out, according to the article, that Florida's Chief Crook Executive has ways to deal with dissenters. During a budget signing ceremony in The Villages, a community located next to Leesburg east of Interstate 75 and the northern terminus of the Florida Turnpike, several residents who were opposed to Rick Scott's budget and leadership were chased away by the Sumter County Sheriff's Office on the orders of Rick Scott. After all, according to the Constitution of the State of Florida the governor is the chief law enforcement officer of the state.

What is going on here? Sick law enforcement on people exercising their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest and at the same time threaten these people with arrest for trespassing? This goes on to show you that Rick Scott is way out of touch with the people of Florida and that Rick Scott will do anything to accomplish an objective, including the turning of law enforcement against the people and threatening the people with arrest and even incarceration on trumped-up charges of trespassing, among other things.

This is not new. Back when George W. Bush - our former Star Spangled War Loving President - was in office he went to major extremes to make sure that lawful protesters were effectively excluded from areas where he traveled. Now this is happening again - this time, here in Florida with a governor who is out of touch with the people.

I have mentioned this in the reader comments area in the St. Petersburg Times, and I'll mention it again:

Rick Scott = Adolf Hitler.

The Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Chamber of Commerce = The Nazi Party.

Law enforcement commanded by Rick Scott (after all, the governor is the state's chief law enforcement officer per the Florida Constitution as I mentioned earlier) to deal with and threaten dissenters with criminal charges such as trespass = the Nazi SS Troops.

Ask yourself: Do we even live in the United States of America anymore as far as the State of Florida is concerned? Or do we live in a totaltarian state such as Cuba, China, Myanmar (Burma) or even Belarus where dissenters are routinely jailed, often times without charges?

Hey, if we were living in a country where human rights and civil liberties are suppressed, we would not be singing The Star-Spangled Banner as part of Rays pre-game ceremonies at Tropicana Field. Imagine this for a moment the next time you go to a Rays game and you get there early enough for the pre-game ceremonies:

###

Rays public address announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, please rise and remove your caps for the presentation of our nation's colors, which are this evening presented by a high school JROTC color guard. And at this time, please join so-and-so, a student from a local high school, in the singing of our national anthem. Performing tonight's national anthem in sign language is so-and-so from some organization that you probably know or don't know of.

Here goes the singer singing the national anthem - this time, you don't hear The Star-Spangled Banner. Instead, you hear the national anthem of a country whose human rights and civil liberties are suppressed, let's say My Belarusy (We Belarusians), the national anthem of Belarus.

Now you're thinking, why Belarus? Belarus is an eastern European country whose leader, Alexander Lukashenko, suppresses any and all forms of dissent by not only turning soldiers and law enforcement against the people, the people are routinely jailed oftentimes on no charges being filed. Almost a modern day version when the people of Germany feared Adolf Hitler and his SS troops during World War II.

In other words, instead of hearing O'er say can you see, by the dawn's early light, you hear My Belarusy, mirnyja ludzi, sercam addanyja rodnaj ziamli echoing through Tropicana Field. You say to yourself, what is going on here? This is America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the land of the afraid and the home of the oppressed!

###

Unfortunately, Florida is slipping slowly into O the land of the afraid, and the home of the oppressed. That's what probably went through the mind of the people of The Villages peacefully protesting Rick Scott's budget who were chased out on the orders of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office. As long as Rick Scott is in power at the helm of the highest office of the State of Florida, Rick Scott will do anything at his disposal to take care of dissenters, even if it includes turning law enforcement against the people.

I urge you to read my other blog entry on recalling Rick Scott NOW! There is a website also in operation called recallrickscott.net and we Floridians need to get the ball rolling on a citizen initiative to place the ability to recall the governor and high ranking Florida officials into the Florida Constitution on the 2012 ballot, and if this passes to get Rick Scott recalled from office.

We Floridians need to take back our State of Florida - before it's too late!

An open letter and blog entry to Mr. Toddy Hardy, Event Manager for the Tampa Bay Rays

2011-05-28T15:32:00.003-04:00

NOTE: This blog entry was originally planned to be posted when the Rays entered the postseason going on to win the AL East title. Unfortunately, the Rays lost to the Texas Rangers in the ALCS. As another season of Rays baseball is now underway (and hopefully another chance at the postseason!), I have waited to post this blog entry until the time was right.

And the time is now. The Rays began their regular season on Friday, 1 April 2011 against the Baltimore Orioles at Tropicana Field, with our very unpopular and out of touch with the people governor, Rick Scott, throwing out the first pitch. Just recently an article in the St. Petersburg Times regarding a person who was escorted from Tropicana Field for a minor infraction of the Tropicana Field Code of Fan Conduct - an offensive T-shirt similar to the incident last year involving a Manatee County Sheriff Deputy. After all, I don't condone the content on these T-shirts because Tropicana Field is a family friendly venue; instead, it is based on how the incidents were handled.

###

As you may have heard in the news recently, a Manatee County Sheriff Deputy off duty was permanently banned from Tropicana Field for life over a T-shirt the off duty deputy was wearing. According to reports from Bay News 9 as well as WTSP 10 News, Rays security officers advised the deputy that he had an offensive T-shirt on and that he would have to turn it inside out. The deputy complied but turned his shirt back in protest. When security confronted the deputy again about the shirt the deputy was escorted to a security office somewhere in Tropicana Field; during the confrontation the deputy flashed his badge to the security officers as well as St. Petersburg Police working off duty security as is the case at all Rays games at Tropicana Field.

Normally something like this would lead to an arrest and charges of disorderly conduct. However, because of the deputy’s status as a law enforcement officer he was not arrested. But that’s not the end of the story.

The incident was referred to the Internal Affairs Division within the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, as is all incidents related to the conduct of personnel working for any law enforcement agency in Florida are investigated by Internal Affairs. As a result of the investigation, the deputy received a 96-hour suspension for what happened when he was at Tropicana Field.

But that’s not all. On the orders of Toddy Hardy, who is the event manager for the Tampa Bay Rays, the deputy was declared a second class citizen by having him banned for life from Tropicana Field. You got that right, banned for life – without due process and trial. Even if the deputy completes any counseling that may be ordered as part of his punishment the ban is permanent.

Unfortunately, Florida’s draconian trespassing laws allow for anyone in authority – such as a store manager or a security guard – to ban anyone from the premises for life. Neither reason nor rationale is needed. Before I go on further, I urge you to read my white paper on Florida’s trespassing laws located in the Topics area of EdwardRingwald.com.

With this in mind, here is an open letter - as well as an open blog entry - to Mr. Toddy Hardy, Event Manager of the Tampa Bay Rays:

###

Mr. Hardy, if you are reading this blog I have some questions for you related to how fans are treated when they attend Rays games at Tropicana Field, especially treatment by your Rays security officers. I have attended so many Rays games over the years including the championship games in 2008 where we won the American League East division title and we had a chance to play in the World Series, only to lose to the Philadelphia Phillies. As you probably know already, we won the American League East division title last year and we went back to the playoffs in the hope that we go to the World Series for a second attempt, only to have this attempt stifled by the Texas Rangers.

Despite a great 2009 and 2010 season for the Rays, attendance numbers have not been promising. The only time you have sold out games is when the New York Yankees as well as the Boston Red Sox are in town, not to mention the 25,000 tickets that were given away at the Rays’ last home game of the 2010 season against the Baltimore Orioles after Evan Longoria went public about the low attendance numbers at another game the day before. I can understand, however, that weekday attendance is low due to the fact that people have to work the next day and that a majority of Rays fans live in Tampa. Are you trying to use trespass warnings against people to arbitrarily deflate the attendance numbers in order to justify leaving Tropicana Field before 2027?

I have heard a lot of reports from various sources including comments to media outlets such as Bay News 9 that your security officers mistreat fans, including making up excuses to have fans banned for life. Since the events of 11 September 2001 and the changes that had to be made as far as ballpark security is concerned, I have seen the attitude of many of your security officers as an “us against the fans” attitude. This has been an issue when Vincent Naimoli was the original owner of the Rays and is still an issue now that the Rays are under the ownership of Stuart Sternberg. Are your security officers instructed to be courteous and professional or to be rude and abusive when dealing with fans?

Fans are reminded of the rules of conduct within Tropicana Field before even entering the security check. As for that Manatee Sheriff’s deputy that you banned for life for not obeying instructions to turn out the offensive T-shirt, would your security staff have intercepted it at the outside security check before entering Tropicana Field? If your security staff cannot effectively intercept prohibited items being brought into Tropicana Field (including fans wearing T-shirts that contain offensive messages) then why have the security checks in the first place?

While we’re on the subject of the Manatee Sheriff’s deputy that you banned from Tropicana Field for life, when you found out that the offender was a law enforcement officer why did you not let it go when the Internal Affairs Division of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office did an investigation into the deputy’s off-duty conduct? The punishment that the deputy received was relevant to the infraction as far as the sheriff’s office is concerned. However, I believe your banning the deputy for life was very extreme.

In the statement that you gave to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs Division, a copy that was publicly made available by Bay News 9, you mentioned that you have a few people banned from Tropicana Field for life. In another incident where a 19 year old man was caught going onto the field during play, you more than likely banned this person for life as well. Is that statement as to how many people you ban from Tropicana Field for life that you made to Internal Affairs true or did you hide the facts by hiding the actual numbers?

On the subject of Tropicana Field, it is not owned by the Tampa Bay Rays – instead, it is owned by the City of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay Rays have a lease that commits the Rays to Tropicana Field until 2027. In other words, the Tampa Bay Rays do not own Tropicana Field, period. Instead, Tropicana Field is leased to the Rays and your relationship with the City of St. Petersburg is that of a landlord and tenant, much like when someone rents an apartment the owner of the complex is the landlord and the renter is the tenant. Does your status as a lessee give you the right to ban anyone for life from Tropicana Field just like if the Rays owned Tropicana Field? My understanding is that lessees enjoy the right of quiet enjoyment of the leased premises, subject to certain reasonable restrictions that may be imposed by the landlord from time to time.

Overall, why do you or your security staff like banning people from Tropicana Field for life, even for minor transgressions of your fan rules of conduct that is prominently posted on the premises, announced as part of pre-game ceremonies, and posted on your website? Do your security personnel evenhandedly enforce the fan rules of conduct, meaning that it applies to everyone attending a Rays game at Tropicana Field?

Anyone who has been banned for life will have a document that you or your security staff direct the St. Petersburg Police Department – working in an off duty capacity as Tropicana Field security with the power of arrest as law enforcement officers – called a trespass warning. People that have been issued trespass warnings are often humiliated as they are akin to being booked into the Pinellas County Jail. In Florida, a trespass warning is equivalent to a conviction for trespassing without the benefit of due process and trial in that a record akin to a criminal record is created on the person. Why do I say this? A police officer can find out by way of the laptop computer or via radio within a few seconds whether a person has had a trespass warning issued against the person or not.

Finally, Mr. Hardy, if you want to ban someone from Tropicana Field for a minor transgression of the ballpark rules of fan conduct, I believe it should not exceed the remainder of the season in question as well as the next season if the incident occurs close to the end of the regular season. To be honest and frank with you, banning a person for life is like sentencing a person to life in Florida State Prison for disorderly conduct as well as trespassing after warning.

I await your response to my open letter to you which I have posted on my blog as well as on my website.

###

A PDF version of this letter can also be found on my Florida Trespassing Laws topic page at EdwardRingwald.com. Stay tuned.

New Guardianship Topic at EdwardRingwald.com

2011-05-10T20:27:00.003-04:00

Back in August 2009 I wrote a blog entry about the legalized exploitation of the elderly and disabled thanks to Florida's guardianship laws, which need a major overhaul. That blog entry received a few comments and I have replied to them.

I have decided to take the issue of guardianship in Florida a step further. I have created a topic over at EdwardRingwald.com that deals with guardianship in Florida and the rampant abuse of Florida's guardianship laws. I have also created a white paper (which you can access right from the topic page) that goes into a little more detail, as I did not want to write a long web page.

You can easily get on over to my new topic on guardianship in Florida simply by clicking on this link. There you will find a brief run-down of what guardianship in Florida is, plus a link to the white paper I made as well as links to other sources on the web that deal with guardianship abuse.

After all, Florida needs to desperately reform its guardianship laws and provide for the dignity of the person who is incapacitated. A part of this reform should be enhanced criminal penalties for any guardian - personal or professional - who commits any act of exploitation of the elderly or disabled as well as veterans of our United States Armed Forces who proudly served our country. The same enhanced criminal penalties (especially for perjury related to a guardianship) should also apply to anyone who willfully fraudulently petitions the courts to determine a person's capacity; this is rampant in cases of when these emergency petitions for guardianship are filed based on my research of the subject.

Unfortunately, given the current political climate in Tallahassee with a governor that does not care about the people of the State of Florida, I don't think guardianship reform will happen. And it won't happen for the forseeable future as I see it.

Just remember, if you are concerned about your loved one (such as your parents), remember this:

GUARDIANSHIP IN FLORIDA IS A LICENSE TO KIDNAP AND EXPLOIT THE ELDERLY AND THE DISABLED AS WELL AS OUR VETERANS WHO PROUDLY SERVED AMERICA IN THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES!

And by the way, I am dedicating my topic on Guardianship in Florida on my web site to those people in the great State of Florida that have been victimized by guardianship, especially Carol Kinnear of Clearwater who was wrongfully taken away by a professional guardian and was the subject of a St. Petersburg Times article written by Drew Harwell on 20 August 2009.

Rick Scott trying to polish Florida's image? Not!

2011-05-07T19:38:00.006-04:00

Just recently I had the honor of seeing my nephew graduate from Florida State University in Tallahassee. It was an excellent graduation ceremony.

While the graduation ceremony took place in Tallahassee (the nerve center of everything the State of Florida) I had to stay in Valdosta, across the state line in Georgia. After all, the closer you got to Tallahassee on graduation weekend you are faced with either sold out hotel rooms or if there were any hotel rooms left, be prepared to pay a hefty premium. In fact, when I planned my trip back in early January 2011 (right after I got word that my nephew would be graduating this year) the only hotel room I could find near Tallahassee was in Quincy. The asking price: $200 a night! I said to myself, try Valdosta - only 80 miles from Tallahassee.

And I proved myself right. I found a hotel room in Valdosta for $99 a night. At least it was a decent hotel priced just right for my wallet.

The day I left Valdosta for St. Petersburg, I decide on taking a longer way back home instead of reliable Interstate 75 which would take me on US 84 east to Waycross, then south on US 1 to the town of Folkston. After all, Folkston is where all rail traffic headed to Florida passes through including the two Amtrak trains that serve Florida, the only exception is trains that come from the west directly into Jacksonville.

After an hour of train watching in Folkston, it was time to head towards Interstate 95 south which would take me through Jacksonville and the eastern terminus of Interstate 4 in Daytona Beach, then west on Interstate 4 towards St. Petersburg through Orlando and Tampa. Once I crossed the St. Mary's River and over the state line into my home state of Florida, this is what I found:

What? Rick Scott plastering his name at the entrance to our great State of Florida?

I better verify that. Let me stop at the State of Florida Welcome Center on Interstate 95 south to confirm this:

No other Florida governor - Bob Graham, Bob Martinez, Lawton Chiles, Jeb Bush or even Charlie Crist - ever put their names below a Welcome to Florida sign at the state line. As a lifelong Floridian, I was extremely flabbergasted and disgusted as I think Rick Scott is trying to polish the image of the State of Florida to our visitors while at the same time Rick Scott is doing everything to destroy the State of Florida as we know it.

I went inside the Florida Welcome Center to pick up my obligatory sample of orange juice. After a few minutes, I got back onto Interstate 95 towards home. After all, Rick Scott threw approximately 25,000 potential jobs in the trash can when he rejected the federal money for high speed rail. If you want proof, take a ride on Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando and look at the wide median: That wide median is the spot where the high speed rail would have been located.

Besides, the State of Florida is slowly being taken away from the people of this great state. Rick Scott is proving this point by plastering his name at the principal entrances to the State of Florida. Rick Scott's "let's get to work" mantra is nothing:

To the family whose home value is underwater and struggling to pay the mortgage.
To the state employee (including law enforcement and teachers) who is thinking, will I have a job tomorrow?
To children who want a decent education rather than constant drill and practice for the annual FCAT test.
To people who are looking for work.
To people who are subjected to discrimination when looking for work.
To a homeowner having to pay steep homeowners insurance premiums, especially when the insurer is Citizens.
To the school administrator (including school principals) who has had more pressure added to his or her workload now that FCAT scores are tied to school performance.
And the list goes on and on...

We need to take back our State of Florida, before it is too late. Now that the 2011 Florida Legislature has adjourned for the year it appears that HJR 785 - the bill that would place a constitutional amendment on the 2012 ballot paving the way for the recall of Rick Scott - did not pass. However, what we can do as Florida residents is to get a citizen initiative going to get this important amendment into the Constitution of the State of Florida and hold our state leaders - including the governor and top cabinet officials - responsible and accountable to the people of this great state.

After all, California did it in 2003. Why can't Florida?

Jaywalking: People in a Hurry

2011-04-21T13:00:00.008-04:00

Lately I found this interesting article in the St. Petersburg Times about a crackdown by St. Petersburg Police on jaywalking in front of St. Petersburg High School, located on 5 Av N east of 28 St N. At least St. Petersburg Police is doing something about an all too familiar traffic issue: Pedestrians crossing the street wherever they want rather than using the crosswalks and pedestrian traffic signals that are designed for crossing streets safely.

As I commented on this St. Petersburg Times article, jaywalking is not just restricted to 5 Av N in front of St. Petersburg High School. Instead, it happens everywhere in St. Petersburg, especially downtown St. Petersburg.

The worst offender of jaywalking in downtown St. Petersburg I have seen are students that attend the Aveda Florida Institute, which is a hairstyling academy located on the northwest corner of 3 St S and 3 Av S. Every other time I drive up 3 St S on my way to work, I have seen from one Aveda student to a group of Aveda students cross 3 St S against the traffic signal, apparently in a hurry to get to class on time.

However, what these Aveda students are doing is against the law. It is a pedestrian violation pursuant to Section 316.130 and Section 316.075 of the Florida Statutes, quoting in part:

Section 316.075:

1(c)2.b Unless otherwise directed by a pedestrian control signal as provided in s. 316.0755, pedestrians facing a steady red signal shall not enter the roadway.

Section 316.130:

(8) No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.

(11) Between adjacent intersections at which traffic control signals are in operation, pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.

Perhaps St. Petersburg Police and who is in charge of Aveda Florida need to educate their students that crossing the street against the traffic signal is not the right thing to do. Perhaps a period of education followed by enforcement is the key; any one of these Aveda students won't be as happy when they get a ticket costing $62.50 for a pedestrian violation.

I have brought this issue to St. Petersburg Police several times. Something has to be done before there is a serious accident.

And for those Aveda Florida students in St. Petersburg that may be reading this blog entry, here is a word of advice quoting and paraphrasing a fellow St. Petersburg Times user whose name is cet1119:

To those students at Aveda Florida in downtown St. Petersburg who constantly jaywalk or go against the walk signal, you step out in traffic in front of MY car while I am lawfully driving, have a lawful green traffic signal and within the posted 30 mph speed limit on 3 St S, and you're not in a crosswalk or you have a red don't walk signal and dart across in a hurry to get to your class at Aveda on time, I may have to try to stop but if in the event you get hit as a result of your jaywalking, I am not getting a ticket and you, the Aveda Florida student, are not winning a lawsuit nor collecting off of my insurance. After all, it's called leaving a known zone of safety.

(And believe me - if an insurance company finds out that you did something negligent which results in an accident, the insurance company can use that to deny your claim).

Even if the worst happens and a pedestrian is involved in a pedestrian vs. motor vehicle accident and it is found that the pedestrian was at fault, the events can haunt a driver for months, even years, after the accident. This article from the St. Petersburg Times proves the point.

The question is this: Why are people in a hurry to begin with? Why will people go to dangerous extremes such as jaywalking to accomplish a specific goal such as being somewhere on time?

The Florida FCAT Test and New EdwardRingwald.com Topics

2011-04-09T22:15:00.004-04:00

I got a couple of new topics that I recently added to the topics area of EdwardRingwald.com. But first, we got something coming up in Florida's public schools the week of 11 April 2011, and that is the much dreaded FCAT Test.

First of all, the FCAT Test. This is the test that your children study for as well as drill and practice for all school year long. This is why there is no meaningful education for your children in Florida's public schools. In fact, school officials as well as your legislators in Tallahassee will do everything and anything to be sure that your child passes the FCAT, and extending the school year to disrupt summer vacations is being recommended.

Wait! If the State of Florida wants to extend the school year to accommodate this FCAT hodgepodge, it would have to go back and repeal a law which was enacted that prohibits starting school no earlier than two weeks (14 days) prior to Labor Day, the first Monday in September. This is thanks to Sherry Sturner and her grassroots group Save Our Summers that preserved summer vacations for our students.

As you send off your child to school to take the dreaded FCAT Test, this is what I think: The FCAT Test is nothing more than a waste of time and a waste of money. Just recently our not-so-favorable 45th Governor, Rick Scott, signed legislation that would tie teacher salaries to FCAT test scores among other things, which turns the FCAT into a high stakes and high anxiety test.

Did you go to the Tampa Bay Rays' home opener on Friday, 1 April 2011 and booed Rick Scott as he threw the ceremonial first pitch? I did.

I encourage you to read my topic on dumping the FCAT Test in its entirety and replacing the test with meaningful end of course exams. After all, end of course exams demonstrate mastery in a given subject, such as English Composition or High School Algebra. After all, the FCAT has no place in our children's education in Florida to begin with!

Now on to two new features I have added to EdwardRingwald.com for your reading pleasure.

First, we have been constantly bombarded with stories in the news media regarding the housing and mortgage crisis, especially declining property values and underwater mortgages among other things. Unfortunately, the news media such as the St. Petersburg Times capitalizes on the housing crisis and reports stories for the sole purpose of drowning you in fear. I have covered the housing crisis as well as the credit crunch here at the Edward Ringwald Blog and I put everything together in a topic over in my topics area at EdwardRingwald.com for your reading pleasure.

Second, as most of you St. Petersburg residents know (as well as the rest of the Tampa Bay metropolitan area) we sadly lost a third member of St. Petersburg's finest over the span of a few weeks, Officer David Crawford. Officer Crawford was dispatched to a call during the night regarding a suspicious person on the streets when a 15 year old boy shot Officer Crawford. Despite heroic efforts to save his life at Bayfront Medical Center, Officer Crawford did not make it.

What was learned was that the 15 year old boy was attending Gibbs High School here in St. Petersburg. The 15 year old boy as was reported did not have any major issues with one major exception: Missing too many days of school. Currently the 15 year old boy is in the Pinellas County Jail awaiting trial on murder charges as an adult.

Following that major incident, I was inspired to write a topic on an all-too-important issue that faces high school students: Dropping out of high school. After all, dropping out of high school can carry with it major, if not severe, consequences later on in life. One important consequence is the chance of reduced earning potential - in other words, high school graduates make more money than those who have not graduated.

I put everything together on the dangers of dropping out of high school, plus what students can do if they indeed dropped out of school despite the consequences, into a topic over at my topics area at EdwardRingwald.com for your reading pleasure.

On a personal note, I did finish high school - at a private high school - and received my high school diploma. With that and two Associate in Science college degrees later, I am proud of myself.

Last Run of the Polka Party Express - Sadly

2011-03-06T19:51:00.004-05:00

Sad news in the polka music on the radio department:

After 25+ years of polka music on the Tampa/St. Petersburg area radio airwaves, the Polka Party Express pulled out of the station for its last run on WMNF 88.5 FM on Sunday, 20 March 2011. Believe me, listening to the last polka program on WMNF was like the day Amtrak pulled out of the St. Petersburg train station on 38 Av N back in 1984.

I have been an avid listener of the Polka Party Express, which as of today used to air on Sundays from 2 to 4 PM on WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa, from the days of the original host, Beachy Bruce. I listened to the polka show since 1984; a year earlier I graduated from high school and I was into the winter session at St. Petersburg College.

I was on a Sunday outing at John's Pass and I was in my car flipping around the FM dial. All of a sudden, I stumbled upon WMNF thinking it was a Mexican nortena music program at first. I kept it on for a few minutes and that's how I found out the show I was listening to was a polka program. The rest is history and I have been listening to the Polka Party Express since.

For the past 27 years, the Polka Party Express on WMNF has been through a few hosts since Beachy Bruce passed away in the 1990’s. The alumni that followed in Beachy’s footsteps include Ed and Adele (I don’t know their last names), Dave Magik, and Wackie Jackie Z (the current host of the show). The Polka Party Express is not just the Tampa Bay area’s only polka show on the air – it is an institution where polkas from all nationalities were played.

In fact, during the Beachy Bruce days (when the show was simply called the Polka Party) I got my exposure to not only polka music that we know here in America, I was also introduced to polka music of other nationalities such as Slovenia (such as the Slavko Avsenik ensemble and Lojze Slak, to name a few) and the Dalmatian Tamburitzan music of Croatia that Beachy used to play all the time. Today the Polka Party Express is a part of my Sunday afternoon routine no matter where I am (in fact, when I was in Los Angeles in 2007 I managed to listen to the Polka Party Express using WMNF’s live Internet stream on my laptop in my hotel room, as the show began at 11 AM Pacific which translates to 2 PM Eastern back home).

Recently I heard very heartbreaking news that Wackie Jackie Z is leaving the show. Even though Wackie Jackie Z is leaving the show and polkas are no more on the radio in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, we remember – in the words of Wackie Jackie Z – keep polkas alive on 88.5!

And one more thing: Even though polkas are gone, WMNF is listener supported community radio. It is the only station of its kind in the Tampa Bay area where the programmers select the music to be played during their shows, not Corporate America dictating what should be played as is the case on the commercial FM band. Sure you can find polka music out there streaming live on an Internet only station, but nothing comes close than listening to your favorite music the moment you turn on your car radio.

Sunday, 20 March 2011 will be remembered by avid fans of the Polka Party Express such as me that the Polka Party Express pulled out of town. Again, to me it felt like the day Amtrak pulled out of St. Petersburg in 1984.

Mark Puente's Inaccurate St. Petersburg Times Stories

2011-03-05T21:03:00.004-05:00

Lately I have been following some of Mark Puente's stories in the St. Petersburg Times searching for inaccuracies in his articles. After all, the St. Petersburg Times is well known for keeping the housing and mortgage crisis alive and well through the use of injecting fear and worry in the public as far as the housing crisis is concerned.

I have sampled two articles of Mark Puente's lately. My opinion: These articles convey nothing more than fear in the public. After all, the St. Petersburg Times has to do something to sell more newspapers, now that street hawkers selling the Sunday edition of the St. Petersburg Times have been banned in St. Petersburg. A victory for living here in St. Petersburg!

Let's sample two of Mark Puente's articles on the housing and mortgage crisis.

The first article is just recent, and it has to do with cash being king when it comes to buying a home. Traditionally, unless you are very rich you saved up the down payment for a mortgage, usually 20%. You walked into the bank, filled out the paperwork, plunk down the application fees and - depending on your credit - you got that mortgage and you can go home shopping!

In this day and age the mortgage lending standards have changed. It is still possible to find a mortgage but the playing field has changed somehow. I have noticed more and more people having to go the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage route because of difficulties with past credit that may keep them from getting a conventional mortgage.

Here's a quote from this Mark Puente article:

"Even in a market saturated with lower-priced homes, many purchasers, like first-time buyers, cannot get financing. Lenders are even turning away people with decent credit and down payments. So if they want the house, they have to pay cash. If they can't, that leaves more homes for investors to bid on."

That statement by Mark Puente is very inaccurate. It is still possible to get that mortgage for the home you want, just make sure that the price and payment are within your means. On the other hand, Mark Puente does not mention why banks don't want to lend to people with good credit: The banks received federal bailout money in the hope of loosening the credit market; instead, the banks act stubborn and hoard that money while at the same time treat their customers like second class citizens.

If you're out there trying to get a mortgage and you are running into difficulty despite your good credit, don't give up. There are organizations out there that can help you find the mortgage you need for the home you want. Moreover, if you belong to a credit union ask to see if mortgages are offered and see if your credit union can pre-qualify you. After all, it doesn't hurt to ask. It's like finding a needle in the haystack - only this time you have you have to dig deeper in the haystack.

Now to another article of Mark Puente's, and this is for you if you live in a condominium complex.

I am going to share with you part of an email I sent to Mark Puente the day the article was published in the St. Petersburg Times (the email is edited as I redacted some semi-personal information for the purposes of this blog entry):

I read your article in this morning's St. Petersburg Times with a lot of interest. Unfortunately, there are some major facets of your article which I believe are inaccurate.

I happen to be on the Board of Directors of a condominium association and I have been on the Board for many years. Condominiums are regulated in the State of Florida pursuant to Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes which deals with condominiums and the activities of condominium associations are regulated pursuant to Chapter 718, specifically Sections 718.301 to 718.303. On the other hand, a homeowners association is governed by Chapter 720 and, unfortunately, not subject to the regulation of activities compared to Chapter 718.

In 2010 the Florida Legislature passed two laws related to condomimiums in regard to unit owners that do not pay their monthly maintenance fees as required. One law is in regard to units that are rented out by a unit owner and the unit owner does not pay the monthly maintenance fees; the new law allows condominiums to collect the rent from the renter to pay the monthly maintenance fees. The other law allows condominiums to deny access to certain common areas such as the swimming pool and the clubhouse to unit owners who are seriously delinquent in their monthly maintenance fees (usually 90 days or more).

Mr. Puente, you should also know that if a unit in a condominium is mortgaged and that it is brought to the mortgagor's attention that the condominium monthly maintenance fees are not being paid, the mortgagor has the right to pay these fees owed to the condominium association in order to protect the mortgagor's interest.

Hopefully the above should set the record straight as to foreclosures being done by condominium associations.

After all, condominium associations are regulated by Florida Statutes compared to little regulation of homeowners associations, such as the northwest Hillsborough County community of Westchase. In July 2010 two laws were implemented in Florida as to 1) the collection of rent from unit owners who rent their units and the unit owners are delinquent in association payments, and 2) the denial of the right to use the common facilities such as the pool and clubhouse for unit owners that are more than 90 days delinquent.

If a condominium unit is mortgaged like in a first mortgage, upon receiving word that the monthly maintenance fees and special assessments are behind then the mortgagor can go in and pay the back fees and at the same time add the back fees to the amount owed. This is nine times out of ten necessary to protect the mortgagor's interest. Remember the note you signed at the closing table?

When a unit owner jumps ship on a condominimum unit due to difficulty in paying the association monthly maintenance fees and special assessments, the association will step in after so many months and place a lien on the unit and foreclose on the lien. Unfortunately, if the unit is mortgaged the mortgage holder's mortgage is superior to the condominium association's lien; the association can rent out the unit to help collect back association fees in the interim but the association's lien is extinguished when the court orders the judicial sale of the unit as part of the mortgage foreclosure proceedings to satisfy the mortgagor's interest. As in any court proceeding, things go slow.

Again, Mark Puente's article on homeowners associations as I just mentioned I believe is inaccurate. Based on my past experience, I am trying to set the record straight.

OK. My overall opinion of Mark Puente and his articles in the St. Petersburg Times to date: Inaccurate and misleading, at times placing the public in fear. Again, if you are out there trying to get a mortgage in order to buy a home, don't fret - there are lenders out there that should be able to help you.

By the way, if you are trying to get a mortgage and despite your good credit the bank acts stubborn and denies your mortgage loan application, I want to hear from you. Please, do not include personal identifying information in your comment but the name of the bank you applied to is OK.

Reminder Regarding New Edward Ringwald Blog Address

2011-03-03T20:29:00.003-05:00

Just a quick reminder about our blog address:

To get to the Edward Ringwald Blog, simply type this URL into your browser's address bar: http://blog.edwardringwald.com. That's all there is to it! That URL will bring you right here. Or, you can click on the link to this blog right from the blog introduction page at EdwardRingwald.com.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you have been using the BlogEdwardRingwald.com domain address to get to the Edward Ringwald blog, you will want to update your bookmark if you got the Edward Ringwald Blog bookmarked in your favorites as the BlogEdwardRingwald.com domain will no longer exist.

So remember, Blog.EdwardRingwald.com will bring you here! Just another way I make things easier here at EdwardRingwald.com!

It's Academy Awards Time - The Technical Aspects, That Is

2011-02-27T19:42:00.004-05:00

Time for a little break from the happenings going on in the great State of Florida and our increasingly unpopular governor, Rick Scott, who recently threw 25,000 potential jobs down the drain by rejecting high speed rail which we desperately need. Not only that, Rick Scott wants to do away with the unions that represent state employees.

Well, the 83rd version of the Academy Awards telecast is just around the corner! If you are a movie buff or just want to get a piece of the Oscars action on TV, the action starts when the announcer intones: Live from Los Angeles! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the 83rd Annual Academy Awards!

Over the past several years the Academy Awards telecast had some great announcers over the years: Don LaFontaine (aka the voice of God), Les Marshak, Gina Tuttle and Randi Thomas. From what I understand another voice over superstar who did the announcing duties for the Oscars telecast in 2006 and 2008, Tom Kane, is going to be the announcer for Oscar telecast No. 83.

OK. Now how does the announcer’s voice such as Tom Kane travel from the announcer’s booth at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles to your television set here in St. Petersburg connected to Bright House Networks? After all, as the voice over announcer from 10 News (WTSP-TV) says, Bright House is the home of free HD – and I got to agree many more. So, let’s step through the process from Point A to Point B.

I think of the typical Academy Awards telecast as an Amtrak Silver Star train going out of Tampa. The telecast announcer is like the engineer driving the train (with the Oscar telecast’s script supervisor sitting right next to the announcer), while the telecast producer is the conductor and the host is the chief of on board services. The presenters are the on board personnel that take care of you, the celebrity that is either there for the ceremony or a nominee anxiously waiting to see if you get to go on stage to claim your Oscar statuette. Attending an actual Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Theatre is strictly invitation only; your ticket is the invitation.

All right. Let’s get on with the technical aspects of getting the announcer’s voice – let’s say Tom Kane from the 83rd Academy Awards telecast – speaking this line when the telecast cuts to a local commercial break: The 83rd Annual Academy Awards will return in a moment here on ABC.

Let’s start from the moment Tom utters this line into the microphone in the announcer booth over at the Kodak Theatre. From that moment the pathway from Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles to my townhome in St. Petersburg is analogous to an Amtrak Silver Star train going through a series of switches to get to a main line to the destination, then another series of switches just before your destination. And you know what, I think I threw you a curve when I compared the typical Academy Awards telecast as an Amtrak Silver Star train as far as the technical aspect is involved. And I like to, for very good reason.

The microphone picks up Tom’s voice and it is converted into a digital audio signal, as is the case with microphones of the professional broadcast type. From this point forward Tom’s voice – now a digitized audio signal – is sent from the announcer’s booth to a central master control located somewhere in the Theatre. Tom’s digitized audio signal is multiplexed with the associated video (usually a view of the Oscar statuette when cutting to a commercial break) and is steered by the telecast’s engineers onto a live feed that connects the raw audio and video to ABC Television Network’s master control in Los Angeles. Now Tom’s voice has begun the long trip from Los Angeles to St. Petersburg.

At ABC Master Control in Los Angeles, Tom’s digitized audio signal goes from the raw feed from the Kodak Theatre for a 44,000 mile ride to ABC Master Control in New York City. The audio and video signal is transmitted from a satellite dish for the 22,000 mile ride to the satellite hovering high over the Equator somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. At the satellite Tom’s voice is bounced back for another 22,000 mile trip to ABC Master Control in New York City.

By the way, the fun just got started. The feed from Los Angeles to New York City is commonly known as a raw east coast feed, and the east coast means cities in the Eastern and Central Time Zones. At ABC Master Control in New York this is the point where the national commercials for the Academy Awards telecast are inserted.

(By the way, ABC Master Control in Los Angeles does the same thing as ABC Master Control in New York, except this is the west coast feed which includes cities in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. If it’s 5 PM at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, it’s 8 PM in St. Petersburg!)

At ABC Master Control in New York, Tom Kane’s digitized audio voice is passed through again through a set of switching equipment, much like Amtrak’s Silver Star when it passes through the Neve Wye for the reverse move into Tampa’s Union Station. Now we’re ready for another 44,000 mile trip – this time, on the ABC Television Network’s east coast distribution feed, which distributes the ready to broadcast Academy Awards telecast to ABC affiliates on the east coast of the United States.

Leaving New York, Tom’s digitized audio signal is placed on the transmit – or uplink – feed for the 22,000 mile trip to the satellite hovering high over the Pacific Ocean on the Equator. Tom’s digitized voice is relayed by the satellite and is bounced back - or downlinked - to the ABC affiliate in Tampa (which is part of the Tampa/St. Petersburg Television Market, No. 14 in the USA), WFTS-TV Channel 28, known to us Tampa Bay television viewers as ABC Action News.

WFTS’ studio is located on 4045 North Himes Avenue in Tampa just across from Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The composite ABC east coast feed containing the Academy Awards telecast – which contains Tom Kane’s digitized voice – is picked up by WFTS’ receiving satellite dish and immediately sent to WFTS master control.

At any typical network television affiliate, master control consists of three items: The network feed, the live feed from the news studio, and another internal feed for programs that may be originated from the television station itself. As WFTS is an ABC affiliate (since 1994 when the great Tampa Bay affiliate switch took place), its master control processes the Academy Awards telecast containing Tom Kane’s voice and is sent out for transmission to the Tampa Bay area.

Traditionally, the signal is routed from master control to the studio to transmitter microwave link which beams the Academy Awards telecast from WFTS’ studio on Himes Avenue to the transmitter tower in Riverview. Once in Riverview the Academy Awards telecast is pulled off the microwave signal and is placed on WFTS’ regular broadcast signal for distribution to everyone in the Tampa Bay area receiving the Academy Awards telecast by traditional means.

However, I am listening to Tom Kane’s voice on a HDTV set in St. Petersburg connected to Bright House Networks. More and more network affiliates, especially in the major cities, relay their signal directly to cable companies for distribution to their customers, which helps preserve the signal as much as possible. So, at WFTS master control the Academy Awards telecast that has Tom’s voice is steered onto a special cable feed which connects WFTS with the nearest Bright House Networks signal gathering facility somewhere in Tampa, known as a cable television headend.

Once the Academy Awards telecast is at the Bright House Networks headend, it will be switched over to a series of trunk cables which will take the Academy Awards telecast – and Tom Kane’s voice – across Tampa Bay on Interstate 275 over the Howard Frankland Bridge through a dedicated utility conduit over to Bright House Networks’ St. Petersburg headend.

Once at the St. Petersburg headend the telecast is switched over for its final time to the local Bright House Networks distribution grid which will take it underground and overhead (not to mention the power boosters the signal goes through) to my place. The signal is received by the digital converter box and it translates Tom Kane’s voice from a broadcast signal to a signal that my HDTV set can understand.

Once at my HDTV set electronic brains located deep within the set itself finally convert the Academy Awards telecast – and Tom Kane’s voice – to what went into the microphone at the announcer’s booth over at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The end result: You hear Tom Kane’s voice just like if you were there at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Total distance traveled from Los Angeles to St. Petersburg: 88,000 miles, give or take a few extra when the signal arrives at WFTS’ studios in Tampa.

Time delay of Tom Kane’s voice from the Academy Awards telecast to my HDTV set here in St. Petersburg: About 11 seconds, give or take.

And one more thing I forgot to mention is the mandatory delay imposed by the ABC Television Network. This is needed so that if in the event a curse word was ever uttered at the Academy Awards, ABC would catch it just in time before it is allowed to be distributed to its affiliates. After all, one curse word on a major awards telecast such as the Academy Awards that is actually aired can cause ABC’s many affiliates to be hit with substantial FCC fines for broadcast of obscene or indecent material.

So, I gave you a rundown on the technical aspects of how the Academy Awards announcer’s voice travels from Los Angeles to St. Petersburg. Depending on where you live and how you receive your local ABC affiliate, the path is practically the same.

Now if you have watched the 83rd Annual Academy Awards telecast, if you got a rant about the telecast please feel free to leave a comment. Just keep the comments clean.

Rick Scott: A Major Embarassment to the State of Florida

2011-02-24T21:11:00.004-05:00

By now you may have read reports on the Tampa Bay area news media outlets that high speed rail is gone, according to this Bay News 9 story.

What Rick Scott is doing is devastating, if not damaging as well as a major disgrace to the State of Florida and its residents. We have unemployment running at an all time high and we have people out of work that need work - and the paycheck that goes with it - to put food on the table. Besides, if and when the economy recovers we are going to have a state that is embroiled in major gridlock, especially our state's metropolitan areas such as Tampa/St. Petersburg, Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville. Furthermore, Rick Scott's rejection of high speed rail, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, is a slap in the face not only to us Floridians but the federal government as well.

The construction of high speed rail would have brought jobs - 25,000 from what I understand - jobs that Floridians out of work need. Also, the construction of high speed rail would have been the jolt that sends our state's economy on the way to recovery. Rick Scott does not care about us Floridians not one bit.

Another benefit of high speed rail is it would have brought Tampa and Orlando closer. It would have opened up the job markets of Tampa and Orlando to job seekers on the Interstate 4 corridor. Speaking of Interstate 4, when the major improvements were built that transformed Interstate 4 from an overcrowded and dangerous four lane highway to the six lane interstate highway we know today, there is ample space in the median which was built with high speed rail in mind.

Realize for a moment that the State of Florida spent billions of dollars in transforming Interstate 4 from a dangerous highway to a safer highway with high speed rail in mind. Now Rick Scott - the crook and thief running the State of Florida from the Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee - decided to go ahead and destroy it all.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, we Floridians need to do something to save our state from irreparable ruin. We need to get HJR 785 passed and an amendment placed onto the Constitution of the State of Florida so that we can get Rick Scott recalled from office.

If you think Rick Scott is damaging the State of Florida at every turn, here's another byproduct of Rick Scott: Turning public property into private property.

This recently happened at a Polk County School Board meeting where someone was protesting the start of their meetings with an invocation was arrested for disorderly conduct, according to this article on 10 News (WTSP-TV).

Here is the comment that I left on the article, as Ellenbeth Wachs - who was with John Kieffer at the school board meeting - was taking pictures and was declared a second class citizen by the Bartow Police Department on the orders of the Polk County School District by having a trespass warning issued:

Ellenbeth Wachs being given a trespass warning for taking pictures at a school board meeting? Just a great example of Rick Scott turning public property into private property by having government meetings held in private. However, I don't condone what John Kieffer did by disrupting the meeting in the first place.

Just goes on to show you that by the way things are going, Rick Scott is Florida's #1 Section 810.09 trespass warning king. And the Polk County School District will do anything to turn ordinary citizens into second class citizens by using trespass warnings against anyone for any reason.

And yes, Rick Scott will do anything to intimidate Floridians by the use of these trespass warnings as a tool of repression against the people. That way, government meetings such as school board meetings can be held in private in clear violation of the Sunshine Law which mandates that most government meetings such as school board meetings, city council meetings and county commission meetings be held in open session with very few exceptions. All Ellenbeth Wachs was doing at the Polk County School Board meeting was taking pictures - she did not do anything wrong from what I understand.

Moreover, we can't forget Rick Scott's mantra of no government interference in private business. The Orlando area theme parks such as Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida are the biggest purveyors of trespass warnings; with theme park security standing ready to turn ordinary law abiding people into second class citizens by inventing an incident to justify a trespass warning banning the person for life. Additonally, private business - especially the retail sector such as shopping malls (like International Plaza in Tampa and Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg) and retail stores (like Wal-Mart, Sweetbay Supermarket, Winn-Dixie and 7-Eleven) - will do anything to turn a law abiding customer into a second class citizen by inventing an incident and have a trespass warning issued banning the customer for life.

After all, there is no appeal to a trespass warning issued - it is permanent. Trespass warnings issued in Florida are convictions for trespassing without the benefit of due process and trial.

Again, we Floridians need to take back our state. We need to do something now before it's too late.

Can it happen here in Florida?

2011-02-21T17:26:00.003-05:00

By now you may have been watching developments unfold from Madison, which is Wisconsin's equivalent of Tallahassee. Wisconsin's newly elected governor, Scott Walker, has declared all out war on workers in the state. The plan is to eliminate the rights of workers such as teachers, health care workers and much more to organize a union and bargain for better working conditions including decent pay and benefits among a few things.

In response, thousands upon thousands of people marched to the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison protesting Governor Scott Walker's plan. The result: Scott Walker has threatened to turn the Wisconsin National Guard against the people, much like demonstrations across the Atlantic which have so far toppled authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

Can it happen here in Florida? Potentially, the answer is yes. The potential is there for our newly elected crook and thief in the Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee, Governor Rick Scott, to unleash the Florida National Guard as well as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and other law enforcement agencies against the people of this great state. With the recent uproar on Rick Scott's rejection of high speed rail and the rejection of other federal monies that would benefit Floridians such as unemployment, the potential exists for a Madison-style protest in Tallahassee.

OK. Now how did both Rick Scott and Scott Walker get elected in Florida and Wisconsin? It's simple: Governor's Offices were bought for millions. In Wisconsin, Scott Walker was elected governor of that state thanks to partial financing by the infamous billionaire Koch Brothers. The objective in Wisconsin: The worker's unions are a nuisance.

Since 9/11/01 the mantra of law enforcement and private security companies has been this: The people are our enemy. Now with governors that are out of touch with the people, that statement is getting more true than ever. Even private businesses are getting into the act too: Private businesses - especially in the retail and amusement sectors - have tools in their arsenal to intimidate their customers, and one of the major tools in private business' toolkit is the use of trespass warnings for no reason. In Florida, trespass warnings are very easy to issue and you don't need a reason.

So, can the events that have transpired in Madison happen in Tallahassee? Potentially yes.

Remember to contact your Florida state representative and show your support for HJR 785 which would allow for the recall of Florida's high ranking officials including the governor.

RECALL RICK SCOTT NOW!

2011-02-19T19:12:00.003-05:00

I received this reply from a fellow Blogger user who replied to my latest blog entry on Florida Governor Rick Scott about a web site in operation which is an initiative to have Florida's 45th Governor, Rick Scott, recalled from office. The web site is recallrickscott.net.

Unfortunately, the process of recalling a Governor of the State of Florida from office is not defined. Florida has a recall process, but it only applies to local officials within Florida. A bill in the Florida House of Representatives authored by Florida State Representative Rick Kriseman of St. Petersburg - HJR 785 - will call for an amendment to the Constitution of the State of Florida to allow for recall of the Governor and other high ranking Florida officials from office. Only the passage of HJR 785 and the eventual approval of the amendment by the voters of this great state will get this recall process going.

We need to get HJR 785 passed and this constitutional amendment passed as soon as possible, not in 2012 when Rick Scott will more than likely have done a substantial amount of damage to Florida's economy.

In the meantime, here's what you need to do as a Floridian to bring back government to the people, not to Corporate America and Corporate Florida:

Here is a link to a list of representatives in the Florida House of Representatives. What you need to do is to write your state representative expressing your support for HJR 785. Now you are asking yourself, how do I know who my state representative is?

It's very simple: Look on your voter information card that your county's Supervisor of Elections sent you. It will have the district number of your state representative printed on it. If you are not sure you can always telephone your county's supervisor of elections or visit their web site.

Pinellas County: http://www.votepinellas.com/ or (727) 464-6788
Hillsborough County: http://www.votehillsborough.org/ or (813) 744-5900
For other Florida counties: Link to Florida Department of State's Division of Elections list of county Supervisors of Elections page

The staff of your county's Supervisor of Elections office will help you in determining who your Florida state representative is. When you call or write your state representative, tell them that you support HJR 785 in order to make our state officials such as our Governor accountable to the people of this great state. If you would like to write a letter to your elected representative and you don't know how to begin writing, here's a sample letter from the recallrickscott.net website shown below (of course, you can edit it as you like):

I’m writing to let you know that because I am deeply disappointed in the recent actions of our new Governor, and because I support the right of a state’s citizens to hold our elected officials accountable, I am urging you to give HJR785 your full support.

Rick Scott is bad news for Florida — legislators from both parties agree that his decision to scratch the long-awaited high-speed rail project was ill-advised, indefensible and unconscionable, especially considering Florida’s current unemployment rate and the fact that 25% of our revenue comes from the tourism industry.

I hope you will support not only HJR785, but any further actions aimed at the recall of Gov. Scott.

Please let your Florida state representative know today - we Floridians have a chance to save our state from major economic ruin so much that we cannot pick up the pieces. And if you have already contacted your representative, you are more than welcome to report your contact to your Florida representative simply by posting a reply.

And thanks to genepool3 for sending me the link!

Rick Scott Fallout - Part Two

2011-02-11T21:00:00.004-05:00

We’re just a month into Rick Scott’s reign as the 45th Governor of the State of Florida. Already, his campaign promises plus what I mentioned in a previous blog entry when Rick Scott was elected back in November 2010 I feel are coming to fruition. As a reference, I’ll go ahead and list for you again of what to look forward to, now that Rick Scott is in command of the State of Florida:

Our homeowners insurance rates going up.
Our property values continuing to slide.
Foreclosures at an alarming rate (and the homelessness that results).
Our civil liberties being eroded.
The State of Florida being sold to private enterprise.
Turning public property into private property.
No prospect of the economy making a comeback in Florida.
Unemployment at an all time high with no prospect of relief.
Support for oil drilling in the Gulf.
The demise of Florida's number one industry: Tourism.
Law enforcement being turned against the people.
No meaningful education anymore in Florida’s public schools.

And I need to add one more item of concern to the above list:

Health care reform denied to Florida residents.

If you think the above list is alarming, it should be. Consider the recent budget that Rick Scott is proposing: This involves major cuts to specific areas which are crucial if the State of Florida is going to survive through this major economic mess, according to this St. Petersburg Times article.

One of them is the state’s Office of Homelessness, and Rick Scott’s proposed budget closes this office completely. This is going to endanger the many Floridians that are already homeless and are in need of a place to live. Furthermore, there are many more Floridians who are in danger of becoming homeless by reason of foreclosure on their homes, thanks to those greedy banks who took the risk and lost their money when the real estate market imploded.

You know who’s cheering Rick Scott on doing away with helping the homeless? Private business, of course! The same private businesses that chase away not only the homeless but minorities and the handicapped (including the mentally handicapped) by turning them into second class citizens by using trespass warnings on them, thanks to the help of law enforcement. After all, in this day and age in Florida being homeless, a minority or handicapped can make one vulnerable.

Another facet of the proposed state budget is Florida’s Coastal Clean-Up Trust Fund, which Rick Scott wants to do away with. Just add Rick Scott’s support for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico very close to Florida’s coast and we are indeed going to see Florida’s number one industry – tourism – spiral downward so bad that it will be the demise as we see it.

So far, Rick Scott is slowly selling the State of Florida to private enterprise. This budget proposal is a great example.

Next, Rick Scott wants to do damage to Floridians who are collecting unemployment due to being out of work: Reduce benefits. In this St. Petersburg Times article the federal government wants to give states like Florida more time to repay monies that had to be borrowed to pay the vast amount of unemployment benefits. The federal government’s plan is to let Florida hang on to about $500 million; however, Rick Scott – in a nutshell – is telling President Obama no thanks.

Already Floridians who are unemployed face plenty of obstacles in their quest to regain meaningful employment. In fact, I am seeing horror stories of companies who trespass unemployed individuals – if you are unemployed, don’t bother to apply with us. I used the term trespass in a way that an unemployed individual looking for a job finds something that matches his or her experience and goes to the company looking to fill out an application. Instead, because of the person’s unemployed status he or she is shown the door and told never to return under threat of arrest rather than legitimately going to put in an application. It’s basically like a store manager banishing someone from a store for life for no reason, and in Florida you don’t need one.

So, this is Rick Scott’s ultimate plan for dealing with the unemployed: Trespass them out of the State of Florida for life.

OK. Let’s move on to another topic while we’re on the subject of Rick Scott: Health care reform. I found this blog entry by Melinda Gibson of Health Care for America Now that is quite interesting and I would like to share it with you.

Remember that as the former CEO of Columbia/HCA, Rick Scott exploited patients as well as the federal government for his own financial gain. Since the recent passage of the federal Affordable Care Act several states – including Florida – are doing everything in their power to make sure that this federal law does not apply in their state, short of a repeal which won’t happen in Congress.

After all, the Affordable Care Act provides protections against the abuses perpetrated by the health insurance industry including, among other things, imposing lifetime maximums and denying care to those who need it. A lot of the abuses at the hands of these health insurance companies have drove countless numbers of people straight into bankruptcy. Remember the Michael Moore movie SiCKO?

All Rick Scott is doing is defying the federal government by not implementing the Affordable Care Act; his main reason is for the people of Florida. What kind of hogwash! All Rick Scott is doing is pleasing his health insurance cronies so that control of health care goes back to them.

OK. Here’s another topic we need to cover briefly while we’re still on the subject of Rick Scott: The erosion of our civil liberties and the turning of law enforcement against the people. That is being done by the passing of an Arizona-style law that will bring a meaning to the phrase “your papers, please”. I won’t go into a long discussion on this topic but it is already covered in my prior blog entry on America becoming a police state and secession.

We Floridians need to put the brakes on this reckless and out of control leadership by Rick Scott. The way it is going right now, Rick Scott is going to run the State of Florida right into the ground, so much it will be next to impossible to pick up the pieces. The way we Floridians can do this is to get an initiative going to recall Rick Scott from office. After all, in 2003 Californians had enough of their Governor, Gray Davis, and he got recalled by California voters in a special recall election. In fact, when I visited the Los Angeles area back in 2003 for an ER-themed convention that did not happen, the recall effort was well underway.

Just remember who we elected as the 45th chief executive of the State of Florida in the Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee: Someone that stole from patients and the federal government for his own personal gain and benefit. Furthermore, Rick Scott is using his elected position as Governor of the State of Florida for his own personal benefit while at the same time making private enterprise happier than ever.

Where has Movie Theater Etiquette Have Gone?

2011-01-23T20:41:00.004-05:00

Recently I went to see Black Swan over at AMC Westshore 14 Theaters in Tampa. Having already won a Golden Globe for best actress (Natalie Portman), I think Black Swan is headed for the Academy Awards to pick up a few Oscars. Once in a blue moon going to the movies is a justification to get away from the monotony of maintaining both EdwardRingwald.com and Interstate275Florida.com on the weekends, among other things.

However, despite pre-show notifications asking patrons to observe silence and no cell phone and text messaging use during the feature presentation, I had the misfortune of having two young teenage girls in front of me who insisted on chatting as well as using their cell phone and texting throughout the movie. A seatmate next to me as well as I quietly asked these two girls to please keep the chatter down during the movie yet the two girls ignored us. At one point I considered leaving the movie and letting AMC management know of what happened, but I was afraid to do so for fear of retribution. I also considered switching seats but the auditorium was two-thirds full. Besides, the teens' conduct almost reminded me of a movie theater incident that took place at the Royal Palm 20 theaters in Bradenton not too long ago over the recent Christmas weekend, where a couple - the husband, a United States Marine who just returned from military duty in Iraq - told a group of noisy teenagers to be quiet only to be greeted with a major verbal confrontation which spilled into a physical confrontation outside the theater.

(UPDATE: The teenagers that were involved in the physical altercation at the Royal Palm 20 theaters were found guilty of battery charges, according to this Bay News 9 story. A victory for movie theater etiquette!)

Once the movie was over, I thanked my seatmate for quieting these teenage girls during the movie. A second later, these same teenage girls – who turned out to be teenage Hispanic girls as the lights came back on – turned around and foul mouthed us, specifically for telling them to keep quiet during the movie.

In today’s world, there are a lot of people out there who do not have any manners. It’s sad but it is true in contrast to how I was raised many years ago in a better mannered and civilized world.

After all, I support initiatives by the movie theater chains including AMC Theaters’ Silence Is Golden program asking patrons to observe proper etiquette when inside the auditorium of a theatre and the movie is playing. Besides, the top reason why movie theater attendance has been declining for many years is because fellow patrons do not observe proper movie theater etiquette.

Now for another comment regarding AMC Theaters’ Silence Is Golden program, which has been around for many years. It has been in existence for many years before the advent of cell phones as the most common complaint was people chatting in the theater throughout the movie. Now that cell phones are a part of our society, the pre-show trailers now include turning off cell phones and no texting as part of proper movie theater etiquette. Today most other movie theater chains have followed the lead of AMC Theaters when it comes to proper etiquette when a movie is showing.

Now I’ll tell you what also irks me as to movie theater etiquette other than cell phones and chatting with your fellow patrons while the movie is playing:

1. There’s a movie you want to see so much that you got to go see it the day it opens. You arrive early enough to get your concessions and go into the theatre auditorium and you find a seat that you like (absolutely, before the theatre gets too crowded). You settle in and – as you start to enjoy every minute of the movie you wanted so much to see – a huge group comes in and chases you out of your seat. Sometimes (and believe me, it has happened to me a few times), I have had to end up leaving the theater and asking at the ticket counter if I could come to a later showing as I got chased out by a group who likes to show up at the last minute.

I have advice for these groups who want to see a movie together: Give the theater a call ahead of time and see if the theater can reserve a small block of seats for you and the rest of your party. But please do your fellow movie-goers a favor and don’t show up with your group and chase me (or anyone else who is watching the movie by themselves) out of my seat. Unless informed by someone in authority at the movie theater such as an usher, I will not yield my seat to your group that insists on coming in as the movie gets started.

2. Very tall people who insist on sitting in front of someone who cannot see the movie. Back before stadium style seating became a common feature of most theaters, I personally dreaded sitting in the middle section and – a minute or two later – a very tall person sits in front of you. Today, stadium style seating in a movie theater alleviates much of this problem.

Here’s a link to a report over at The Smoking Gun about a couple who insisted on talking on their cell phone right after the movie has started. It happened right here in downtown St. Petersburg at the Muvico BayWalk 20 Theaters several years ago. Now with BayWalk in serious financial trouble including the recent foreclosure, there is talk of closing the movie theaters there. But we don’t know what the future will bring.

According to the narrative of the report, this was written by none other than the St. Petersburg Police Department:

This is an arrest of two subjects at BayWalk Plaza. The suspects were being loud and disruptive causing a disturbance inside the movie theaters. The suspects got hostile and were pepper sprayed. The suspects were placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct. The arrest served the purpose for the night.

That’s movie theater etiquette served right by none other than St. Petersburg’s finest. Period.

Until recently, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office provided off-duty security to the AMC Westshore 14 as well as the AMC Veterans 24 Theaters which provided an excellent deterrent. Unfortunately, AMC changed from hiring the off duty deputies to plain clothed private security wearing businesslike attire. The only issue here is that private security does not have the power of arrest in the State of Florida, while a sworn law enforcement officer – on or off duty – does. Perhaps if AMC still had the off duty Hillsborough deputies when I recently went to see Black Swan at AMC Westshore 14 or Bride Wars at AMC Veterans 24 many months ago (both incidents involved two young teenagers who insisted on chatting on their cell phone and texting at the same time while the movie was playing), these teenagers would have been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, akin to the BayWalk incident in St. Petersburg that happened many years ago.

As I told my seatmate as soon as Black Swan was over, I told him that there needs to be a law against people who come in to a movie theater for the purpose of disrupting other patron’s enjoyment. After all, you pay so much money for movie admission and I feel you, the movie theater patron, deserve to see a movie without any distractions or disruptions such as people chatting, using their cell phones or texting during the movie. In Florida, it should be a civil infraction on the first offense with a $100 penalty and on a subsequent violation within one year it should be a criminal misdemeanor carrying a penalty of $500 and/or jail time of up to 6 months, plus a ban on attending any movie theater in the state for one year which is imposed by the judge.

If you want to bring back civility and respect to movie theaters, especially conduct by movie theater patrons during the show, write your legislators in Tallahassee and at the same time let the manager at the theater you go to often know too of your concerns.

Happy New Year 2011!

2011-01-02T19:08:00.003-05:00

As this is the first post of 2011, I would like to take the time to say Happy New Year to all of my Edward Ringwald Blog visitors! Don’t forget, on Tuesday, 4 January 2011 our 45th Governor of the State of Florida, Rick Scott, will be anointed into office at 12 Noon; right after that, let the “let’s get to work” games of Rick Scott begin: The unraveling and the eventual destruction of the State of Florida as we know it.

Right after I watched the ball drop in Times Square in New York City on TV, I went back to my computer doing more surfing on the ‘net. I stopped by the St. Petersburg Times website and there is a story that caught my attention: Tampa community tests limits of homeowner group’s power.

The residents of a Tampa community that is testing the limits of the power of its homeowners association is a community called Westchase. For those of you out there that don’t know where Westchase is, it’s located in the northwestern part of Hillsborough County located on West Linebaugh Avenue roughly between Sheldon Road and Race Track Road (after all, Race Track Road forms the boundary between Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties for part of its way before it turns in a northeasterly direction). After all, Westchase is an upscale community which includes Westchase Elementary School and a whole lot of other amenities.

Unfortunately, living in Westchase has major responsibilities. While Westchase is mainly single family homes like you would see in a traditional neighborhood, Westchase is governed by a Homeowners Association – called an HOA – and the documents that authorize this governance are called deed restrictions.

Let’s stop for a moment.

In a condominium, you have what is called a Board of Directors who is responsible for setting policy and enforcing the rules and regulations. The day to day operation of a condominium is done by a property manager. The governing documents of a condominium are contained in the Declaration of Condominium. Condominiums are heavily regulated in Florida, and the statutory authority is codified in Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes.

On the other hand, in a deed restricted community it operates similar to a condominium but it is the less regulation under Florida law under its own statutory authority, Chapter 720, that is the difference. A deed restriction is items that a homeowner can or cannot do to his or her home. The responsibility of enforcing these deed restrictions comes under the power of a community’s Home Owners Association. Unlike the rights and obligations granted to condominium associations as far as their powers are concerned in Florida Statutes Sections 718.301 to 718.303, the power of Home Owners Associations in Florida is practically unlimited.

So, what we’re talking about is the unlimited power of Home Owners Associations in deed restricted communities. Westchase in northwest Hillsborough County is very notorious as their Home Owners Associations enforce the deed restrictions to the letter. It has created quite a controversy that Westchase’s uber enforcement of deed restrictions limiting the activities of Westchase home owners have been profiled in the St. Petersburg Times. According to the recent St. Petersburg Times article I came across, Westchase has a long reputation of deed restriction extremism.

Given Westchase’s record of deed restriction extremism over the years, I wrote this comment on the recent St. Petersburg Times article on Westchase: Is Westchase still part of the United States of America and the State of Florida? Or did Westchase secede from the United States of America and the State of Florida?

Well, for everyone of you out there including those St. Petersburg Times readers who gave me a thumbs up on the comment I made on the recent Westchase article, here is a satire parody of an article that we won’t get to see in the St. Petersburg Times – or any other Tampa Bay area media outlet including Bay News 9 – when it comes to Westchase and its Home Owners Association that harasses its residents:

TAMPA – Residents of Westchase, the upscale community northwest of Tampa, gathered in the auditorium of Westchase Elementary School for a different kind of New Years Eve celebration. A celebration that celebrates the spirit of being a community.

At 11:58 PM, Westchase residents stood at attention for the final playing of The Star Spangled Banner while the flags of both the United States and of Florida were lowered for the final time. At precisely 12 Midnight, the president of the Westchase Community Association read a declaration which declared the Westchase community a sovereign and independent nation, no longer under the control of the United States, the State of Florida and Hillsborough County.

Then at 12:01 AM, the new flag of Westchase – patterned after the flag of the Moldovan breakaway republic of Transnistria – was raised for the first time, accompanied by a performance of the National Anthem of Westchase which was sung to the tune of We Sing the Praises of Transnistria.

Right after the new flag raising and new national anthem performance, which was sung by the Westchase Elementary School Choir, the President of the Westchase Community Association became the sovereign head of state and the head of government of Westchase. The first decree that was signed immediately was that the flying of any flag other than that of Westchase – including the American flag – was prohibited, as well as singing The Star Spangled Banner as well as the display of any American patriotism while upon the territory of Westchase. Then it was on to a discussion of priorities that would make Westchase the premier sovereign community anywhere.

Several residents interviewed were pleased that Westchase is now able to control its own destiny and its future, without the interference of Washington, Tallahassee or even the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners in Tampa. On the other hand, some residents were disappointed in how Westchase went to a new kind of extremism, which was secession from the United States.

Think secession from the United States could happen? With the way our federal and Florida governments are now run, it could be a theoretical possibility.

A New Address for the Edward Ringwald Blog and the New Year!

2010-12-29T20:31:00.005-05:00

Here's a quick post to remind you of a new address for the Edward Ringwald Blog!

All you have to do is to type in blog.edwardringwald.com in your browser's address bar and that will take you straight to the Edward Ringwald Blog! Of course I have also updated the link to the Edward Ringwald Blog right from my blog intro page on EdwardRingwald.com and you can also get here using that link if you would like. Just another way I make content easier for you to access here at EdwardRingwald.com.

If you have a bookmark to the Edward Ringwald Blog, you may want to update it to reflect the new blog.edwardringwald.com URL address. This is important, especially if your bookmark to this blog has the BlogEdwardRingwald.com domain name address as the BlogEdwardRingwald.com domain will be retired soon.

With 2010 winding down and 2011 on the horizon, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! In Spanish, Feliz Año Nuevo! In Slovenian, Srečno novo leto! And in German, Glückliches neues Jahr!

The Ever-Increasing Anti-Thanksgiving and Anti-Christmas Sentiment in American Society

2010-12-23T19:17:00.004-05:00

In a few days, Christmas will be here.

My Christmas gift to you is on my website! Simply click here to go to my Christmas 2010 page; there you will find pictures of familiar St. Petersburg landmarks decked out for the holidays including the popular display at 2719 Oakdale St S. Also there you will find my greeting card to you.

The Christmas holiday season is in full swing, which started on Thanksgiving Day and it continues for a few weeks in December to Christmas Day. A week later, we celebrate the beginning of the new year – Saturday, 1 January 2011. As Christmas approaches, we see the Christmas holiday spirit everywhere we go: Christmas lights, Christmas music, the shopping malls being packed with people who are picking out gifts – you name it, Christmas is everywhere.

If you’re out and about, flip on your car radio. You’ll more than likely run into one radio station broadcasting nothing but all Christmas music. If you’re in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, as one station says, “guaranteed to get you into the Christmas spirit”. It’s the holiday season: Christmas is everywhere.

However, this year I have been getting more and more concerned as to the celebration of these two important holidays which are a part of the American (and Floridian) way of life. I have been seeing more and more instances of anti-Thanksgiving and anti-Christmas sentiment mainly being played out by Corporate America as well as other entities these days.

After all, Thanksgiving and Christmas is not just a holiday like any other American holiday. Thanksgiving and Christmas is a time to be together with family and friends. On Thanksgiving day we gather around the dinner table and feast ourselves on a Thanksgiving turkey while on Christmas we gather around the Christmas tree and open our presents.

To Corporate America, Thanksgiving and Christmas are increasingly becoming a nuisance. Let’s start with Thanksgiving.

One of the many traditions with Thanksgiving is for nearly all businesses to be closed for Thanksgiving day. Being closed on Thanksgiving allows employees of a business such as a retail store to be at home with their families. To me, I am very used to that fact.

Then things changed radically. One retailer – Sears – made a major change in corporate policy by being open on Thanksgiving Day, particularly to get a jump start on sales before Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Since when retailers can start being open on Thanksgiving Day? I thought Thanksgiving was a day to be with friends and family. The idea behind being open on Thanksgiving Day is just for the purpose of making a quick Dollar before the biggest shopping day of the year.

This open on Thanksgiving Day craze is fairly new. Not only the retailers were making themselves open on Thanksgiving, even the grocery stores are making themselves open on Thanksgiving as well.

Here in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, there are two supermarket chains that are open on Thanksgiving Day: Winn Dixie and Sweetbay. Are they being open for customer convenience or just for the purpose of making a quick profit on a major holiday?

At least there is one supermarket chain that has a long standing tradition of not being open on Thanksgiving Day: Publix. Every year when I go by a Publix store to pick up a few things that I need I see signage stating that Publix is closed on Thanksgiving Day, which I believe it should be. Besides, George Jenkins – the founder of Publix – I believe would not even like the idea of his stores being open on a major holiday like Thanksgiving.

Winn-Dixie’s customer service from what I have seen has been getting poorer and poorer: Rude and belligerent cashiers who treat you as a second class citizen if you don’t fall for their Reward Club Card where you have to surrender your personal information in exchange for lower prices. The way Winn-Dixie continues to treat their customers, I feel they are on their way to becoming the next Circuit City, grocery store style. On the other hand, Sweetbay Supermarket is not owned locally – instead, Sweetbay is a division of Delhaize America, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Belgian supermarket firm Delhaize Group. Remember back when we had Kash ‘n Karry, which was locally owned here in the Tampa Bay area? Delhaize came into town, bought up the local supermarket chain, and took down the Kash ‘n Karry name and rebranded them as Sweetbay as we know today. On another note, Sweetbay is known for turning people into second class citizens if they want to by exercising their God-given private property rights, guaranteed by Section 810.09 of the Florida Statutes: Give them trespass warnings for no reason.

Here’s a question: Does Belgium celebrate Thanksgiving? No, according to this Wikipedia article on Thanksgiving; besides, Thanksgiving is a legal holiday not only in America but in Canada, Liberia and the Australian territory of Norfolk Island, celebrated on different dates.

OK. Let’s move on to Christmas and the few weeks before 25 December. Not only Corporate America thinks Christmas is a nuisance, even some government agencies – including public schools – find that the celebration of Christmas is a nuisance.

Let’s start with Corporate America as far as Christmas is concerned.

Retailers have been increasingly substituting the word “Christmas” for the word “holiday”. What used to be a Christmas tree is now being marketed as a Holiday Tree. Talk about censorship by Corporate America here?

Like Thanksgiving, most businesses are closed on Christmas Day so that their employees can be with their family. Christmas is a time to be together with family and friends, not for Corporate America to make a quick Dollar by being open on Christmas Day – at least not yet.

Next, let’s get into the employer and employee relationship. Around the Christmas holidays, offices everywhere get into the Christmas spirit by hanging Christmas decorations in the office as well as having their office staff say “Merry Christmas” when answering the telephone. Unfortunately, the morale in the office begins to dwindle (if not deteriorate) around the holidays at the direction of corporate management.

It all starts when corporate management sends down a memo to everyone right at the start of the holiday season reminding employees that the expression of the Christmas season is prohibited on company time. Next, anything that is Christmas in nature is ordered taken down under the threat of termination for insubordination. Finally, any employee found to say “Merry Christmas” either on the phone, in person or through the corporate email network is immediately terminated and law enforcement is called to remove the person from the premises.

It has happened to one woman in Panama City Beach back in 2008. The woman was working as a receptionist at a property management office and she was using “Merry Christmas” as part of the standard greeting when answering the telephone around the holiday season. Unfortunately, management did not like this practice and ended up not only terminating the woman; the woman was also intimidated when management called law enforcement to have her escorted from the premises and trespassed.

Did I say terminated for no reason and trespassed? In Florida, it is very easy to do both. Not only Florida’s draconian trespassing laws allow for someone in authority to have anyone banned for life for no reason whatsoever, Florida is also an at-will employment state where you can be terminated for no reason whatsoever as well. This is management of Corporate America enforcing their God-given right of private property at its finest.

I see life in the State of Florida under the leadership of its 45th governor who was not just elected – instead, our state’s 45th governor, Rick Scott, bought the Governor’s Mansion for a big sum thanks to Corporate America and Corporate Florida.

Another great example of how Corporate America is shunning Christmas: Open up your local newspaper (like the St. Petersburg Times, for example) and turn to your newspaper’s comics page. There is a comic strip called Blondie (which is drawn by two people who I believe reside in Clearwater Beach) and when I picked up the St. Petersburg Times on Monday, 20 December 2010 this Blondie comic strip sums up this topic: The authoritarian boss, whose name is Dithers, tells Blondie angrily to stop spreading the Christmas cheer and get back to work for no reason.

Ask yourself: Is Corporate America increasingly turning its back on Christmas? I’ll let you answer that.

Now let’s turn to the public school system. You got that right, the public schools that you and I pay for with our property taxes every year.

If you have your children attending a private school where the true meaning of Christmas does exist, consider yourself lucky. In the public schools, I have seen in the media many instances of where students have been failed for completing assignments that have any kind of a Christmas theme to where students have been disciplined for anything that had to do with the Christmas season.

Just recently, an elementary school in Heathrow, Florida (not the airport in London, but a town outside of Orlando) went to the ultimate extreme and banned not only Christmas, but Christmas colors as well. I’m not a fan of Fox News Channel, but they report that teachers at Heathrow Elementary School have been ordered by their principal to remove anything that has to do with Christmas – from Santa Claus all the way down to the colors of red and green. The rationale? According to this Gateway Pundit article, “because someone might be offended”.

Is Heathrow Elementary School still part of the United States? Or did the school become a part of another country where Christmas is not celebrated? Well, the principal of Heathrow Elementary School ought to consider what he did for his unpatriotic act of banning Christmas in America by taking down the flags of both the United States and the State of Florida that fly in front of his school for good and hoisting the flag of a nation that does not celebrate Christmas. And by the way, when you hoist the flag that you have chosen, during morning announcements over the intercom play the national anthem of the nation you have chosen at full blast. One more thing: Have your music teacher teach the words of the national anthem of the nation you have chosen to your students as well.

Speaking of flags, who has red and green? Let’s see: Mexico has their vertical tricolor flag of green, white and red with the Mexican coat of arms in the center. Bulgaria has their horizontal flag of white, green and red. Hungary has their horizontal flag of red, white and green. Italy has the exact tricolor flag like Mexico minus the coat of arms. I hear these national anthems come to mind: Himno Nacional Mexicano (Mexico), Mila Rodino (Bulgaria), Himnusz (Hungary), or Il Canto degli Italani (Italy). And by the way, these countries do celebrate Christmas.

Here’s a list of countries (thanks to Wikipedia) that do not celebrate Christmas: The People’s Republic of China, Cuba, North Korea, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.

How about another example of how school principals increasingly shun Christmas? Well, this incident did not even happen in Florida – instead, it took place at a high school in Manassas, Virginia. According to this 10 News (WTSP-TV) article, a small group of students at Battlefield High School, calling themselves the “Christmas Sweater Club”, was spreading the spirit of the season in a dignified and orderly manner. However, that did not sit very well with Battlefield High’s principal, Amy Etheridge-Conti, and the students were disciplined.

Discipline is when a student breaks school rules, not when a student is enjoying the spirit of the Christmas season and it is being done in an orderly manner. The response to the mother of one of the students from the school administration: Students don’t want Christmas cheer.

Students do not want Christmas cheer? Come on. That statement was more than likely coached.

As for Amy Etheridge-Conti, the Principal of Battlefield High School in Manassas, VA, may I offer a few words of suggestion for your anti-Christmas stance that you have taken and forced on your students?

Take down the flags of both the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia that fly in front of your school, and replace them with a flag of a country that does not celebrate Christmas. Then during morning announcements, play the national anthem of the country you chose that does not celebrate Christmas.

If that does not work for you, and if Christmas still offends you in any way, purchase a one way airline ticket out of the United States and to another country where Christmas is not celebrated.

After all, principals sometimes control their schools much like the governments of Belarus (think Alexander Lukashenko, who did everything lately to rig his country’s presidential elections and in the process prevent the right of Belarusians of exercising their freedom of choice by turning their national police force on their people by beating and imprisoning them), Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, North Korea, or even the People’s Republic of China. Parents practically have no say in the education their children are getting, and parents are not even allowed on school property unless there is an exceptional reason. More increasingly, children are becoming the property of the local school district, usurping the authority of the parents to provide whatever is right for their children including proper discipline among other things.

Although children are out of school for around two weeks during Christmas and New Years, holiday concerts put on by public schools have to be severely curtailed so that no legal issues arise from the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Yeah right. Government offices have to do everything that does not violate the First Amendment. However, there is no reason why Christmas can be celebrated from a secular perspective.

Finally, let’s turn to government offices that you and I pay for thanks to our property taxes.

One recent instance, according to 10 News (WTSP-TV), was the banning of any display of Christmas on the Florida Turnpike, especially at the toll plazas. Apparently someone complained to the Florida DOT and the Florida Turnpike Enterprise – the Florida DOT proprietor of the Florida Turnpike system – ended up enacting a ban on holiday related items in offices, including toll booths and toll plazas.

Now here’s my take regarding the anti-Thanksgiving and anti-Christmas sentiment that is increasingly going on in America today:

1. Being a native born American citizen, I firmly and strongly believe in all the holidays that our country celebrates, including Thanksgiving and Christmas.

2. I believe in the tradition that most businesses should be closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. The sign on a McDonald’s Restaurant door says it all: “We rest on Thanksgiving and Christmas”. That’s the way it should be.

3. If Corporate America wants to open on Thanksgiving and Christmas, you might as well consider doing away with the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Public schools might as well consider holding school on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

4. If I want something and it’s on Thanksgiving Day, I will wait until the Day After Thanksgiving and get what I need. Same thing with Christmas.

5. Finally, if the spirit of the American Christmas holiday season offends you in any way, please consider leaving the United States of America and find another country where Christmas is not celebrated and/or observed.

I could go on forever, but I can point you in the direction of a web page written by none other than Andrew Dart (akdart.com) which has plenty of links to more articles that deal with the ever increasing anti-Christmas sentiment in American life.

In closing, I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! In Spanish, ¡Feliz Navidad! In Slovenian, Vesel božič! And in German, Frohe Weihnachten!

The Media Wants You Scared!

2010-12-04T20:05:00.004-05:00

On Wednesday, 10 November 2010 (just before Veterans Day) I picked up a copy of the St. Petersburg Times from a friendly seller on a downtown St. Petersburg street corner. In the B section I found something quite obvious: Tampa Bay home values drop still among worst in nation.

This time, it wasn’t written by the St. Petersburg Times’ number one fear monger when it comes to articles about the economy, house values, the housing crisis or the credit crunch (which is none other than Jeff Harrington, of course). Instead, the article was written by Mark Puente. As I mentioned in a comment I made on this article, I think Jeff Harrington gave Mark Puente a hand in writing this article so that the St. Petersburg Times can sell more newspapers (and make a great profit, especially if the article ends up on the front page).

(After all, the St. Petersburg Times can’t sell any more newspapers using hawkers on street corners in St. Petersburg thanks to St. Petersburg’s new panhandling ordinance which, among other things, bans street hawkers from the street corners of St. Petersburg among other things. But the St. Petersburg Times can across the bay in Tampa and Hillsborough County, but hurry fast: Both the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County are considering ordinances similar to St. Petersburg’s which can put the street hawkers – not only the St. Petersburg Times but the Tampa Tribune as well – out of business.)

As you know, both the St. Petersburg Times and Bay News 9 have a very strong alliance with each other when it comes to sharing stories. If you watch Bay News 9 from time to time you’ll notice on occasion that a story you see on Bay News 9 was presented with the help of their partner newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times. To me, this very strong alliance gives the St. Petersburg Times carte blanche to spread the word in an electronic medium by using the resources of Bay News 9, even if the stories written by the St. Petersburg Times are nothing more than placing fear in the public.

Earlier, on Friday, 5 November 2010, I also picked up a copy of the St. Petersburg Times only to find another article on the housing crisis plastered on the bottom of the front page, which was written to scare people about their house values. Do you think Jeff Harrington wrote that article?

No!

Instead, it turns out that the article was written by a news outfit called McClatchy Newspapers. I did a little research on Google on McClatchy Newspapers and it turns out that it is a media company that owns several newspapers across the United States, including The Bradenton Herald and The Miami Herald. For those of you that don’t know where Bradenton is, it is a city in Manatee County just south of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

However, The Miami Herald happens to have another alliance, as they share reporting operations on stories that come out of Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital. And do you know what that alliance is? The St. Petersburg Times, of course! So, that makes it easy for McClatchy Newspapers (The Miami Herald’s owner) to happily supply the St. Petersburg Times with articles that think will sell more newspapers. Even if it’s stories about the housing crisis or the credit crunch written to scare the public.

OK, OK. Here’s my take on how the media wants you scared, especially when it comes to the housing crisis:

The St. Petersburg Times – especially Jeff Harrington and Mark Puente – wants you scared.
Bay News 9 wants you scared.
Your county property appraiser wants you scared.
Zillow – the online home values service – wants you scared. So does RealtyTrac.

Now for a dose of reality.

If you think that, as a homeowner with a mortgage, you may be underwater as to your home’s value, the best thing to do is to get a professional appraisal done on your home. After all, professional appraisers do more research to arrive at a home’s probable value than the appraisers do in the county property appraiser’s office (after all, what your county property appraiser says what your home is valued at is for the computation of your annual property tax bill, and these appraisals are done en masse). Besides, you will have an appraisal that you have ordered in your own hand, and you can use it to refinance or when the time comes to sell your home; appraisals that are ordered by the banks as part of the mortgage underwriting process are biased towards the bank that ordered the appraisal in the first place.

Home appraisals cost anywhere in the ballpark of around $300. Talk to a few appraisers in your area and get cost estimates before you agree and check out their reputation. But believe me, it may sound expensive but it’s worth it.

If your appraisal shows that you are not underwater after all, congratulations! However, if the worst happens and you are indeed underwater, there is still hope. My blog entry on The Housing Crisis and the News Media from earlier has details on what you can do if you are indeed underwater and are at the same time struggling with your mortgage.

After all, we’re going to survive this housing crisis one way or another! The people that are really intent on prolonging the housing crisis is the news media such as the St. Petersburg Times and the way it is being reported.

And another thing…

I did a media cross check on my lunch break (using my trusty laptop) when the St. Petersburg Times article came out about the worst housing values in the country as I mentioned earlier in this blog entry by going over to 10 News (which is WTSP-TV, the CBS affiliate here in St. Petersburg). I checked 10 News’ website and found nothing about the housing crisis. Based on what I have seen, it seems like if you see an article in the St. Petersburg Times about the housing crisis written to place fear in the public, you won’t see it on 10 News. Besides, 10 News would not carry a story similar to what is in the St. Petersburg Times, again based on my research.

Oh, and by the way…

Mr. Jeff Harrington, are you reading this blog entry? And Mr. Mark Puente, are you reading this blog entry as well?

Rick Scott Fallout, Part One

2010-11-21T20:26:00.005-05:00

In my previous blog entry on 3 November 2010 being a sad day in the State of Florida I outlined a list of many things to expect now that Rick Scott is going to become the 45th Governor of the State of Florida. One of these items I mentioned is the conversion of public property into private property.

You know how the City of St. Petersburg gave away the sidewalk on the northern half of 2 Av N from 1 St N to 2 St N to BayWalk, the shopping and entertainment complex in downtown St. Petersburg. Doing so was a conversion of what used to be public property into private property. You know what private property is, especially in a commercial environment? The authority of a person such as a store manager or a security guard to brand anyone, including law-abiding citizens, as second class citizens by having trespass warnings issued banning a person for life.

Unfortunately, Florida's trespassing laws do allow for this. Once a trespass warning is issued, it is a conviction for trespassing without the benefit of due process and trial. Moreover, banned for life is like a life sentence in Florida State Prison in Raiford for trespassing. Like there is no parole for anyone sentenced to life imprisonment, there is no appeal for a trespass warning issued against a person.

OK. If any of Rick Scott's ideas regarding privatization comes to fruition, it is going to mean that what used to be public property has been turned into private property. So, I drew up a sign based on the many blanket trespass warning signs found throughout Florida which I believe would have to be erected at all principal entry points into the State of Florida:

Above sign does not apply to Florida residents who are in possession of their REAL ID compliant Florida Driver's License showing your physical street address, which is a goldmine for stalkers and domestic violence perpetrators if your ID is lost and eventually found somehow. As a Florida resident, you will be expected to have your ID ready for inspection if Rick Scott gets his way with the Arizona-style immigration law which was his main campaign promise.

Just stay tuned when Rick Scott is anointed as Florida's 45th Governor on the steps of the Capitol in Tallahassee come January 2011.

A Sad Day in the State of Florida

2010-11-04T19:07:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, 3 November 2010, the day after the general election for the Governor of the State of Florida. It will be remembered as the saddest day in the history of the Sunshine State.

The players:

On the Democrat side, Alex Sink who is Florida’s Chief Financial Officer (term expires January 2011). For many of you out there, Alex Sink is well remembered for being the president of NationsBank’s (today Bank of America) Florida operations. She was elected as Florida’s Chief Financial Officer in 2006.

On the Republican side, Rick Scott who is a Florida businessman. He is well remembered for being the chairman and CEO of Columbia/HCA, who happens to be the owner of many for-profit hospitals in the Tampa Bay area including Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg. Columbia/HCA was raided by Federal agents in July 1997 which resulted in criminal charges consisting of 14 felony counts, among them overcharging the United States Government for Medicare charges among other things.

Election Day, Tuesday, 2 November 2010:

Tuesday, 2 November 2010 was an important election day not only in Florida but in the United States as well. Not only governors races were being decided in Florida and several other states, Congressional races were also being decided which had the strong potential of altering the makeup of Congress. Would the Democrats retain control or the Republicans take over?

Voter turnout in Florida, especially Pinellas County, was high. Despite early voting and voting by mail, turnout at the precincts was high and there were times when polling places got congested.

Then came 7 PM, the official closing time for the polls in the State of Florida. Rick Scott was ahead a little bit with Alex Sink trailing. By 11 PM, the results were in a dead heat; by that time we would not know who would be Florida’s 45th Governor – yet.

Until sometime after 10 AM on Wednesday, 3 November 2010. I took a quick peek at Bay News 9’s web site only to find the bad news: Despite a very close race, Alex Sink conceded to Rick Scott. Upon that announcement, Rick Scott became Governor-Elect Rick Scott.

My jaw dropped at that moment. A former CEO of a healthcare company involved in criminal charges now going to be in charge of the Sunshine State?

You got that right.

Wednesday, 3 November 2010, at the moment Alex Sink conceded to Rick Scott:

Today is a sad day in the State of Florida as it will be the day we elected an individual who stole from the federal government (as an executive with Columbia/HCA) Florida's 45th governor. Considering the economy and its impact on Florida, life in Florida as we see it is going to get worse instead of better.

Here's what we Floridians are looking forward to, now that Rick Scott is going to be the 45th Governor of the State of Florida. Now those of you Floridians out there that voted for Alex Sink in the recent election, as well as those of you Floridians out there that are out of work and cannot find work, are in danger of losing your home to foreclosure, finding out that you owe more than what your house is worth and struggling to make the monthly mortgage payments, or experiencing any other crisis related to living in Florida, you got yourself a front row seat in the house as to what to expect:

Our homeowners insurance rates going up.
Our property values continuing to slide.
Foreclosures at an alarming rate (and the homelessness that results).
Our civil liberties being eroded.
The State of Florida being sold to private enterprise.
Turning public property into private property.
No prospect of the economy making a comeback in Florida.
Unemployment at an all time high with no prospect of relief.
Support for oil drilling in the Gulf.
The demise of Florida's number one industry: Tourism.
Law enforcement being turned against the people.
No meaningful education anymore in Florida’s public schools.

Speaking about our civil liberties being eroded, remember Arizona’s unpopular immigration law that was passed earlier this year? Now that Rick Scott is going to be the 45th chief executive of the Sunshine State, he is going to see to it that such a law will get passed here in Florida. Want proof of what can happen if an Arizona-style immigration law were to be passed in Florida? Take a look at my related blog entry, America slowly becoming a police state and secession!

Remember when the City of St. Petersburg turned over ownership of the northern sidewalk of 2 Av N from 1 St N to 2 St N in downtown St. Petersburg over to BayWalk? This is a great example of public property being turned into private property, paving the way for private property owners – especially shopping center and store managers – to turn ordinary hard working Floridians into second class citizens by giving them trespass warnings banning them for life. The same thing is going to happen when the State of Florida suddenly begins to sell or give public property to private interests, only on a bigger and repeated scale.

Education in a Florida public school is meaningless anymore, thanks to the state mandated FCAT test the State of Florida shoves on public school students in many grade levels right around March. Parents can no longer be involved in their child’s education as far as public school is concerned: In fact, parents are no longer being allowed on school campuses unless there is a real reason, such as parent-teacher conferences. One elementary school in Manatee County (outside of Bradenton) has taken this to an extreme – parents who even step out of their car for non-school related business are declared second class citizens on the orders of the principal by issuing trespass warnings and banning them for six months at least. (Who says picking up your children from school is non-school related business?)

With the economy on a downturn and the housing crisis prevalent with no end in sight, I think the final nail in the coffin has been driven as to the fact if Florida will survive this economic crisis. With the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, tourism in Florida tumbled downward. Remember too that the Republican Party has had a stranglehold on Florida for the past 12 years under two recent Republican governors (Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist) and the Republican Party will continue their stranglehold on the Sunshine State as long as it takes.

Rick Scott mentioned as part of his victory speech that he works for every Floridian. In my opinion, I don’t think so.

3 November 2010: A day that will be remembered as a sad day in the State of Florida. Just sit back and enjoy the show when Rick Scott is inaugurated in January 2011 and takes the reins of the highest office of the State of Florida in Tallahassee.

The Tampa Bay Rays 2010 Postseason – All The Way but End of the Line

2010-10-08T22:01:00.008-04:00

History is being made again - almost!

The Tampa Bay Rays is in the postseason playoffs, the first time since 2008 and that almost-championship season where we won both the AL East Division Title and the AL Championship then. We went to the World Series and our hopes of winning the World Series were dashed by Philadelphia.

Fast forward to 2010.

We have entered the postseason on a high note, winning the AL East Division Title. That high note seemed to sour when we began play in the ALDS Game 1 and 2 against the Texas Rangers over at Tropicana Field and – so far in both games – we lost. You got that right, lost!

Game 1, 6 October 2010: Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1. Uh-oh!
Game 2, 7 October 2010: Texas 6, Tampa Bay 0. What is going on here???

You got that right: What is really going on here?

Well, I was there just for the ALDS Game 1 (I could not make it to ALDS Game 2 due to work commitments) and I have noticed several things: Lack of a defense and the pitchers we were using. Then you had Joe Maddon (the Rays’ Manager) arguing with the home base umpire over some scoring decisions; in fact, Maddon got ejected in Game 2 right around the fifth inning for arguing with the umpire.

When I was at Game 1 I noticed that the umpires were ruling heavily in favor of Texas at every opportunity. Aren’t the umpires supposed to be fair and impartial or show favoritism towards a team? The way I look at it, it looks like favoritism from the umpires was rampant.

And we can’t forget Evan Longoria, whose comments about low attendance at Tropicana Field at the next-to-last home game against the Baltimore Orioles prompted the Rays to give away 25,000 tickets at the last home game of the season, which resulted in an almost sellout crowd (and Evan getting his wish). Evan, if you are out there reading my blog you got your wish for the last home game of the season as well as ALDS Games 1 and 2: Sellout crowds. However, why didn’t you play a great game in the ALDS and let the Rays catapult to wins instead of losses?

OK. Three more games in the 2010 ALDS Rays-Rangers matchup. If the Rays want to move on to the ALCS it has to win all three games: Two against the Rangers in Arlington, TX (a city about the size of St. Petersburg in population) on Saturday, 9 October 2010 (ALDS Game 3; Rays won 6-3!) and Sunday, 10 October 2010 (ALDS Game 4; Rays won 5-2!) and one more game over at Tropicana Field on Tuesday, 12 October 2010 (ALDS Game 5).

But at ALDS Game 5 at Tropicana Field, we thought we would make it to the ALCS to take on the New York Yankees. As I had other commitments that evening I could not make it to the ALDS Game 5 at Tropicana Field but I monitored the game on my BlackBerry and on the first inning, Texas scored 1-0. No need to worry - yet.

Then the third inning, Rays tied with the Rangers 1-1. I'd thought, we can climb out of this given the Rays' record of coming from behind.

Fourth and sixth inning, Rangers scored 1 each, making the score as we went into the 7th inning stretch Rangers 3, Rays 1. We got a problem.

Top of the ninth inning, the Rangers sealed their trip to the ALCS by scoring 2 more runs, making the score Rangers 5, Rays 1. Once B.J. Upton popped out on the bottom of the ninth it was game over.

You got that right, game over for the Rays as far as the postseason is concerned. End of the line. No reentry southbound, like the sign on southbound Interstate 275 at 4 St N (Exit 32) says. Opportunity for the Rays in the World Series denied.

Hoping that the Rays would win, I bought tickets for Game 1 of the ALCS featuring the Rays vs. the Yankees on StubHub - while the prices were low. I figured, if the Rays won the prices would go sky high. But the Rays did not advance in the postseason and I got my money back - no problem.

Why did the Rays lose in ALDS Game 5 and not advance to the ALCS? There are a lot of variables that I hear from a lot of angles. But here's what I think: Rays manager Joe Maddon I feel made a mistake in allowing Kelly Shoppach to pitch as a starter. I feel if Joe Maddon used another pitcher to lead off I think we would have went on to the ALCS. Additionally, the Rangers had something up their sleeve as far as defense is concerned in ALDS Games 1, 2 and 5.

If the Rays want to do better in 2011, it needs to do some housecleaning. First, keep Maddon as well as Upton, Crawford, Pena and Longoria - the Rays would not be the same without them. (I know, Crawford from what I hear may be leaving the Rays because his salary is high and keeping him would be out of the Rays' budget). Second, get rid of the underperforming players - I'll let you decide on that.

Now for another issue, if I may have your undivided attention for just a moment.

Right after the Rays lost to the Rangers in ALDS Game 5 at Tropicana Field, the St. Petersburg Times came out with this article written by Gary Shelton. I took a look at this article and all it contains is disappointment as well as fear that the Rays will fall back to its losing days in the Devil Rays era. At its best, the article in my opinion was poorly written so that the St. Petersburg Times can make more money selling newspapers. And by the way, Jeff Harrington, did you assist Gary Shelton in writing this article just to put more fear and worry in Rays fans?

Now I want your prediction as to how the Rays will do in 2011. Will we get to go back to the postseason and this time go all the way to the World Series?

The Housing Crisis and the News Media

2010-08-15T20:42:00.006-04:00

Several months ago I wrote a blog entry about the credit crunch and the news media. I wrote it because of the way the news media was reporting about the credit crunch in a manner that would scare the public. Now with the housing crisis in its full upswing I have been seeing articles about house values which I feel is being mishandled in the mainstream news media including none other than the St. Petersburg Times.

First of all, here’s some background on how the news media handles the housing crisis.

Like the credit crunch, the news media has turned to a kind of journalism called speculative and sensational journalism, which is intended to serve one purpose: Blood sells. You got that right; sell more newspapers and inflate the TV ratings to maximize more profit.

In the newspaper industry, what the newspapers do nowadays to report on the housing crisis is to either write stories using their own reporters (such as Jeff Harrington of the St. Petersburg Times, for instance) or use a story from a news service such as the Associated Press or the New York Times. The idea here is for a story on the housing crisis to be written in a fashion that will place fear in the general public; in other words, to get the public scared about what may happen or has happened. What is this being done for? The answer is simple: Sell more newspapers!

Here in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, the St. Petersburg Times has a very strong alliance with Bay News 9, a 24-hour local cable news channel which is exclusive to Bright House Networks. (What that means for us Tampa Bay area residents, if you are on Verizon or on Knology (Pinellas County only), you are out of luck). If the St. Petersburg Times wants to spread its scare tactic stories on the housing crisis further, it can ask Bay News 9 to do so practically in a heartbeat.

(By the way, Bay News 9 has a voiceover announcer – not the one that has been there since Bay News 9’s inception in 1997 – it’s the one that does the “sponsored by” TV spots and, in my opinion, speaks rather angry and mean. If you want to believe me, tune in just before :30 past the hour on Wednesdays when this voiceover announcer is doing a sponsorship promo for a Dodge dealership in St. Petersburg. I could go on more and more, but I’ll save this for a possible future blog entry).

On the other hand, in the television news industry stories on the housing crisis are basically done in the same way as newspapers. A reporter will write a story on the housing crisis and interview people such as a bank representative or an analyst and then in preparation for putting the story on the air the reporter (along with their supervisory editor) will take statements made out of context. Don’t forget, that same story has to be written for a television station’s news web page. The main idea here is that a story on the housing crisis is to be presented on television in a way that it will place fear in the general public, just like how it would be written in the newspaper. Again, why does a television news outlet do a story on the credit crunch in order to create maximum fear in the public for? The answer is simple: Increase the viewer ratings! (And maximize advertiser profit too!)

OK. If you want the real truth on the housing crisis, here’s how I look at it.

First, the developers. Here in St. Petersburg, the developers from Miami came into town and turned apartment complexes into condominiums. In the process, these greedy developers jacked up the prices artificially high to begin with in the very first place, and it was done for this major purpose: Run the middle working class out of St. Petersburg. What that meant was to have people live somewhere far and make a 45 to 60 minute commute on Interstate 275 to and from their place of employment daily. In so doing, housing that would be closer to work would become unaffordable. These greedy developers were living the life of luxury while the working middle class had to make do with a new place to live, somewhere out in the countryside.

Second, the banks and their mortgage loan officers. While the housing boom flourished, these mortgage loan officers were told not to even consider a customer’s credit history and income in deciding whether to approve a mortgage loan or not. All these mortgage loan officers cared about was that sizeable commission check plus that all expense paid trip to somewhere in the Caribbean for closing that big loan deal.

The banks took their risk, like at a gambling casino. Then the banks lost when the housing crisis evolved. That meant homeowners were being approved for mortgages that clearly the homeowner could not afford. When the credit crunch ensued, the banks were given United States Government bailout money in the hope of loosening the credit crunch; instead, the banks hoard this money and begin treating their customers like second class citizens.

How about mortgage modifications? How about the person who got laid off through no fault of their own and is struggling to make ends meet? Banks and mortgage companies – according to what’s reported in the media – like to mess up a person’s credit report when it comes to having to modify the terms of a mortgage. In this day and age, if a borrower as a legitimate reason to have his or her mortgage modified to allow for lower monthly payments, he or she should be allowed to do so without any black mark being noted on a credit report. After all, it’s these banks and their mortgage loan officers that approved these loans in the first place, knowing that he or she would not qualify to begin with.

OK, OK. For those of you out there who fear that they may be underwater in their mortgage and if you are trying to sell your home, may I give you some words of advice?

1. Do not believe what your county property appraiser tells you what your home is worth. This figure is used for the computation of your annual property tax bill. There are two values, assessed value and market value. If you happen to have homestead exemption on your home, your assessed value will be less than your market value as your homestead exemption is deducted and there is a cap called the “Save Our Homes” cap. On the other hand, if you do not have homestead exemption then your assessed value will be the same as the market value. Besides, the property appraiser conducts appraisals based on both qualified and unqualified sales and the appraisals are done on a mass appraisal basis.

Now do you know what a qualified sale and an unqualified sale means? A qualified sale is your typical sale of a home from one person to another which takes place at the title company and that there is no undue pressure from either party. On the other hand, an unqualified sale is your typical bank foreclosure sale, but it can mean other factors as well. Unqualified sales typically tend to sell for much less than what a property is worth.

2. There is a website out there that is dedicated to house values, and that is called Zillow. While Zillow is a handy tool that can be used to gauge what house values are throughout the United States, it like your county’s property appraiser should not be believed in what your home is worth. Zillow from what I understand has two methods in determining your home’s value: First, Zillow gets its data from publicly available sources including – where else – your county’s property appraiser. Second, Zillow applies a formula which is kept secret from you and I and then taking these two elements together, Zillow comes up with what they call a “Zestimate”.

Before I go on further, let me say this: Your county’s property appraiser and Zillow are not the gospel of property values, including that of your home.

3. Hire a qualified appraiser and have him or her do an all-purpose appraisal of your home. What an appraiser does is researches the property appraiser records of all qualified sales over a certain time period in the vicinity surrounding where you live. However, the major benefit of having an all-purpose appraisal is that you have an appraisal in your hand which you have ordered, not one that the banks order as part of the mortgage underwriting process as bank ordered appraisals are often times biased. Besides, when you have an all-purpose appraisal in your hand you can show this to prospective buyers showing what your home’s value is really worth. For those of you considering refinancing, you can take this all-purpose appraisal with you to the bank to prove what your home is worth. Appraisals usually cost in the ballpark of around $300, but it is money well worth spent.

OK. Now that you have an appraisal in your hand, you can tell if you are underwater in your mortgage for real. If you find that you are not underwater, congratulations! On the other hand, if you find that you are indeed underwater, there is still hope for you.

If you intend to stay in your home but are struggling due to the mortgage payments, by all means DO NOT STOP PAYING ON YOUR MORTGAGE!!! Instead, contact your mortgage lender and ask for the person responsible for loss mitigation or a similar department. In this day and age of home foreclosures, a mortgage lender would more than likely work with you rather than commence a foreclosure action.

On the other hand, if you intend on placing your home on the market there is what is called a short sale. A short sale is where the mortgage lender accepts for less than what is owed on a mortgage. Short sales are complicated and may have financial and legal implications; therefore, consultation with an attorney is highly recommended before you pursue this route.

There is also deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure, but this is for homeowners who have had foreclosure proceedings already begun or about to begin. Again, consultation with an attorney is highly recommended.

Now for another thing, if I may have your attention for just a moment.

If you presently do your banking business with a bank, consider taking your banking business to a credit union in your area. You may be able to join a credit union in your area; some have residing in a certain zip code as a membership qualification. Call around or check their websites for more information.

Believe me, credit unions are more better to deal with than a bank as far as customer service is concerned. After all, credit unions treat you like a real person compared to these greedy banks who only treat you like a number as well as pay lip service to courteous customer service. And besides, when you are a member of a credit union you’re not just a member – you are an owner. After all, credit unions answer to their owners, which are its members, while banks answer to their stockholders.

Besides, if you are in the market for a mortgage, the better credit unions have mortgage rates that are often times lower than a bank. Qualification criteria may be a little less stringent than a bank but it always depends on your credit history and your income.

Now if you are having problems with a bank or a mortgage company that you cannot seem to resolve, consider posting your experience on a complaints board or forum out there on the Internet. RipOffReport.com is the better known forum out there for consumer complaints; it’s like creating your own website to let others know of your bad experience so that others don’t fall into the same fate. Besides, it’s free.

The last part of this blog entry will be the last part that I wrote on the credit crunch entry, so I’ll be glad to repost it here:

For the past few months I have seen a billboard on the left side of southbound Interstate 275 in Downtown St. Petersburg just before you approach the exit for Interstate 375, Exit 23A. This billboard sums it all up about the current state of the American economy (unfortunately, this billboard has been replaced since my blog entry on the credit crunch which I posted in September 2009):

“Recession 101: Quit obsessing about the economy; you’re scaring the children”.

The message is superimposed on college rule paper. A wonderful job done by the creator of that billboard.

If I could afford a billboard, here’s what I would say:

“Journalism 101: Quit obsessing about the real estate crisis and the credit crunch; you’re scaring the public”.

What the Tampa Bay area news media ought to do is to write and broadcast or publish stories in a positive manner which would bring the credibility that once was how the news media reports the news. Don’t take stories and shuffle them out of context in a way to create maximum fear and distrust in the public.

Now Mr. Jeff Harrington of the St. Petersburg Times, are you reading this blog entry?

America slowly becoming a police state and secession?

2010-05-02T19:36:00.003-04:00

This blog post is not just your ordinary blog post – instead, this blog post is a warning if you have already read the news about Arizona enacting sweeping legislation to control your freedom of movement within that state. If Arizona's newly enacted law passes constitutional muster, it has the potential to have a profound impact on civil liberties in America as we know it today. If you are a concerned American who values and cherishes your civil liberties, I urge you to please read this blog entry word for word.

Remember back in January of 2010 when the standards for getting and/or renewing a Florida driver's license got tougher? You can thank the federal REAL ID law for this, as its main purpose is nothing more than turning our driver's licenses into de facto national identity cards.

Now we have a situation which fits the phrase, "your papers please". If you have heard in the news lately Arizona just passed a new law which gives their state and local police broad, yet sweeping powers to arrest anyone who thinks that they may be in the USA illegally. Furthermore, their new law makes it illegal to go out and about without your identity papers.

Does this sound scary? I'm sorry, folks, but the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is slowly giving way to the Land of the Oppressed and the Home of the Afraid. Should Arizona's newly passed law aimed at curbing illegal immigration pass constitutional muster this is going to set the stage for life in a country where your freedom of movement is now being restricted.

Want proof? Want the facts?

Virtually in every European country their citizens and permanent residents are required to carry a wallet sized card – similar to an American driver's license – which is called a National Identity Card. Carriage of these cards is not an option – instead, it is the law in Europe depending on the country you are in. Now suppose you are stopped by the police just for the sole purpose of checking to see if you have your National Identity Card with you; if in the event you do not have it you will end up being taken into custody by being placed in handcuffs and being taken to the nearest police station and placed in a jail cell while the police check your identity.

Wikipedia has a discussion on national identity card policies by country. Even much better, Andrew Dart (akdart.com) has a well written page on The Proposed National ID Card as well with links to more information you should know.

So, if Arizona's newly passed law does pass constitutional muster this is what we are going to see, if Florida ever passes a law like Arizona's:

OK. You are at a Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field enjoying a baseball game against your favorite baseball team and you are having the time of your life. You splurged a little bit to sit in the 200 Press Level area.

During the top of the fifth inning, you get out of your seat to go grab something to eat at the Grand Slam Grill which is not too far from where you sit. As soon as you approach the Grand Slam Grill, two people – a Rays security guard and a St. Petersburg Police officer – tap on your shoulder and motion you over to the small table area next to the Grand Slam Grill. With the Rays security guard as a witness, the St. Petersburg Police officer asks you for identification.

What? Identification? You did not do anything to attract the attention of Rays security and St. Petersburg Police in the very first place!

In response to the police officer's request for identification, you left it behind in your vehicle and you respectfully tell the officer accordingly. You offer to go and retrieve your identification.

With the Rays security guard watching, the St. Petersburg Police officer places you under arrest. That's right, under arrest. Handcuffs are slapped on behind your back and you are escorted down an elevator from the 200 level to an undisclosed location somewhere in Tropicana Field.

While you are in that office, shackled to a fixed object by handcuffs, you are detained for a few hours while the police officer checks your identity. The wait is intense that you end up missing the entire game.

A few hours later, the police officer has ascertained your identity and you breathe a sigh of relief. Not so.

Not only you have missed the remainder of the game, there was a secret discussion behind closed doors between the Rays security guard and the St. Petersburg Police officer while you were shackled in handcuffs. As a result, the Rays security guard decides that you are unwanted and orders the police officer to brand you a second class citizen by giving you a trespass warning banning you from Tropicana Field, potentially for life. To add further insult to injury, you are asked to give your personal information just like if you are being booked at the Pinellas County Jail and then you are escorted out of Tropicana Field in handcuffs and the handcuffs come off once you are at your vehicle.

Did I mention trespass warnings here? Florida law allows anyone in authority – including a store manager or a security guard – to have you banned for life and neither reason nor rationale is needed. Trespass warnings are convictions for trespassing without due process and trial. If you have not already, please see my white paper on Florida's trespassing laws over at EdwardRingwald.com.

In the scenario that I just presented, this is something that can happen if a law similar to what was passed in Arizona is allowed to be passed here in Florida. This is something that can happen in a police state, especially if you are overseas and the country you are in requires mandatory National Identity Cards. After all, this is America and we cannot let this happen!

Now let's change gears here.

What Arizona is doing is completely against the Constitution of the United States. Specifically, the Tenth Amendment spells the powers not given to the United States Government to either the fifty individual states or the people:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Immigration law and its enforcement is the responsibility of the United States Government as a sovereign nation. Every sovereign nation in the world – including Canada, Mexico, Germany and even Slovenia – has laws written in its books governing who may enter and for how long people may stay, as well as laws pertaining to people wanting to take up residence on a permanent basis within their borders.

The United States of America is divided up into fifty individual states – Arizona, California and Florida as examples.

Within the framework of the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, there are powers that the State of Florida has such as the following:

Providing for education through a system of public schools, colleges and universities

Giving Florida's 67 counties the power to collect property taxes

Providing for a criminal code which meets constitutional muster, both the United States and Florida

Providing for the issuance of driver's licenses and motor vehicle license plates

Providing for the construction and maintenance of Florida's highway system including a network of Interstate highways such as Interstate 275, United States highways such as US 19, and state roads such as FL 687 (which is known as 4 St N in St. Petersburg)

Providing for a family law code which addresses family, probate and guardianship matters

Providing to foster a uniform system of business and commerce by appropriate legislation

Providing for a uniform motor vehicle code which address what you may and may not do on the roads

Now an American state such as Florida cannot have the following powers, as these powers are exclusively reserved to the United States Government:

Matters related to immigration

Matters related to our national currency (states are not allowed to print their own money)

Matters related to the movement of mail

After all, when you cross an international border you cannot cross it just anywhere you please. You can only cross an international border at a designated crossing point. When you approach an international border such as coming from the United States to Canada you are legally obligated to stop at the designated checkpoint and report for immigration and customs clearance. On the other hand, when you cross an American state line such as when you head south on Interstate 75 from Georgia into Florida you do not have to stop unless you want to stop at the welcome center on either side of the state line. In fact, you are allowed to cross an American state line anywhere you please, no official permission is required.

However, American states are allowed to have these so-called "agricultural inspection stations" at their borders but they must be for the sole purpose of enforcing state law related to what you are allowed to bring in as far as agricultural items are concerned. For instance, if you take a road trip out to California by way of Interstate 10 to Los Angeles or Interstate 8 to San Diego you will encounter two of these agricultural checks: One in Arizona on Interstate 10 when you cross over from New Mexico and another in California when you cross over from Arizona from Yuma (Interstate 8) or Blythe (Interstate 10). Besides, every American state has the right to control what agricultural products may be brought across their borders.

In the same vain American states are not allowed to set up checkpoints at their borders for the purpose of enforcing immigration laws. Immigration matters are the responsibility of the United States government and are not for the fifty individual states to enforce.

What I can say as an American – and as a Floridian – is this:

If the State of Arizona wants to control the movement of persons within their state and at the same time require persons to carry identification and allow law enforcement to stop anyone for the sole purpose of identity checks, it ought to consider doing what no American state did since the end of the American Civil War: Secession from the United States of America and let the State of Arizona become a sovereign nation.

Secession from the United States of America? Wait a minute.

First and foremost, let me type out the words of the Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America; and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (Emphasis added)

Notice that I highlighted the word indivisible. That means that America cannot be broken into fifty individual nations. However, the Pledge of Allegiance was written into its current form in 1956 when President Eisenhower (the father of the Interstate Highway System) added the words "under God" to the Pledge. The original Pledge of Allegiance – with the word indivisible already written in – was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. But did you know that there is a Tampa connection to the Pledge of Allegiance? Francis Bellamy lived in Tampa from 1924 until his death in 1931. Today there is an elementary school in Tampa named after the author of the Pledge of Allegiance and a road named after Bellamy in the northwest part of Tampa which is east of the Veterans Expressway (FL Toll 589) on Ehrlich Road.

But in this day and age with Arizona passing its unpopular immigration law and with health care reform being met with plenty of backlash from Republicans (even the State of Florida is trying to sue the United States Government over the recently enacted health care reform law which is going to cost you, Mr. and Mrs. Florida Taxpayer, plenty of money), the word indivisible in the Pledge of Allegiance these days does not matter.

Now what's going to happen if Arizona decides to secede from the Union? Will other states like Florida follow suit? Will the Pledge of Allegiance vanish into thin air?

I'll let you decide. (Just keep your replies clean as replies are moderated – any offensive and/or negative comments (such as a comment that someone wrote in reply to a Bay News 9 viewer center post I made recently – I won't tell you who wrote that comment nor what was said) will not be posted).

It’s that time again – Daylight Savings Time, that is

2010-03-13T22:28:00.002-05:00

Well, it's that time again.

At 2 AM on Sunday, 14 March 2010 the time will advance one hour to 3 AM, marking the start of Daylight Savings Time for 2010. What happens is that it will get dark an hour later in the evening; however, sunrise comes an hour later as the trade-off. What does this mean? Here's a brief history thanks to Wikipedia's article on Daylight Savings Time in the United States.

First, Daylight Savings Time was implemented as early as 1918 – during World War I. However, it did not last for long and Daylight Savings Time was abolished after World War I ended. From the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II Daylight Savings Time in America was basically a local option but it became confusing.

Right after America's entry into World War II, in 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt instituted Daylight Savings Time year round, which was also called War Time. This lasted throughout World War II, ending on the last Sunday in September 1945 after World War II ended. However, things got confusing in 1946 when states and localities began observing Daylight Savings Time throughout the summer months.

The United States Government got into the act to settle things once and for all with the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The act provided for, among other things, that Daylight Savings Time be observed every year from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. At the same time, the states were allowed to opt-out of observance of Daylight Savings Time, with Arizona being the first state to do so in 1968.

However, during the 1973 energy crisis a trial experiment was done putting America on year round Daylight Savings Time from 6 January 1974 to 27 April 1975. However, concerns about school children having to go to school in the dark forced Congress to amend the experiment, reverting to Standard Time on 27 October 1974 and back to Daylight Savings Time on 23 February 1975. After the experiment America returned to observing Daylight Savings Time during the summer.

In 1987 Daylight Savings Time was widened, starting from the first Sunday in April but still keeping the last Sunday in October thanks to an amendment to the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Twenty years later Daylight Savings Time was widened again thanks to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which starts Daylight Savings Time on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November which we observe today.

Now how does Daylight Savings Time impact Florida?

Consider the fact that Florida is on two time zones – Eastern and Central. The boundary is on the Apalachicola River from the Georgia border to just before the Gulf of Mexico where the boundary makes a slight zigzag to the west and then finally to the south. By the way, the time zone boundary continues after reaching the Gulf of Mexico – it follows Florida's west coast all the way to the mouth of Tampa Bay, then it goes in a straight line south wrapping around Cuba.

Did I mention the Tampa Bay area? You got that right.

Practically you may not know this, but there is a time zone boundary three miles west of John's Pass. That means if you go under the John's Pass Bridge and go out for three miles, you have crossed into the Central Time Zone without you knowing about it. However, for all practical purposes all activities offshore observe Eastern Time, which is the time zone we are located in – makes sense, doesn't it?

With Daylight Savings Time being expanded over the years, our school children have to suffer in the form of getting up early and going to school in the dark. That's right, in the dark. While Daylight Savings Time gives us more daylight in the evening, we have to suffer by sending our children to school and having to commute to work while it's still dark. Moreover, if you are one of those commuters who work in downtown St. Petersburg or downtown Tampa, use a parking garage and have to walk a ways to your office that can be dangerous with it being dark in the morning.

But Florida has the right to opt-out of participation in Daylight Savings Time. All it takes is an act of the Florida Legislature to make it happen. In fact, in 2008 Florida State Senator Bill Posey tried to pass a bill that would indeed opt Florida out of participation in Daylight Savings Time but the bill did not pass unfortunately.

I feel Florida needs to opt itself out of Daylight Savings Time, at least the part of Florida in the Eastern Time Zone. Why?

First and foremost, we are sending our children to school in the dark. According to the FloridaHatesDST.org web site when we are on Daylight Savings Time in the Eastern Time Zone, at 6 AM the sun is already up in places like Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City. Not in Florida, however – at 6 AM it is still dark yet.

Now realize that Florida is the southernmost state in the 48 conterminous United States, and we sit on two time zones, Eastern and Central. Hawaii does not observe Daylight Savings Time and neither does most countries of the Caribbean due to the fact that the sun rises and sets at the same time year round. Florida's southernmost point, Key West, is not too far from the Tropic of Cancer. Furthermore, Florida is the last place in the Eastern Time Zone to see the sun rise as far as Daylight Savings Time is concerned, according to FloridaHatesDST.org.

And one more thing: Daylight Savings Time was designed to be observed from the original last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, not extended out to the point that we are sending our children to school in the dark more often.

How can we Floridians make this happen? It's very simple: Write or email your legislators in Tallahassee. In fact, feel free to print a copy of this blog and send it to your legislators along with your letter. We'll do our children a big favor, and that is not having to send our children to school while it's still dark outside.

Ongoing Problems at John Hopkins Middle School

2010-03-10T20:41:00.002-05:00

As we St. Petersburg residents have read about in the St. Petersburg Times as well as Bay News 9 and 10 Connects (WTSP-TV) recently, problems have been rampant at John Hopkins Middle School in St. Petersburg. So far this school year, it has been reported that over 60 arrests have been made at that school and even faculty members have expressed their fears; one of them say that there is no control of the students.

Lately, the Pinellas County School District has stepped up to the plate to help curb some of the problems going on at John Hopkins Middle. Among one of these improvements include transferring the students who have serious disciplinary issues to other schools throughout Pinellas County including Pinellas Secondary School located in Pinellas Park on 66 St N. Pinellas Secondary School sits on the former site of the District Offices of St. Petersburg College. However, transferring a student from a student's assigned school to Pinellas Secondary is not an easy task for a principal as evaluations have to be done and a student's educational record has to be reviewed, not to mention that a transfer of this nature also requires the approval of the Director of School Operations in the area where the student's assigned school is located.

For those of you who do not know where John Hopkins Middle School is located, it's on 16 St S just south of Interstate 175, directly opposite Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. I had the privilege of visiting this school a couple of years ago when public hearings were held regarding the Pinellas County School District's changeover from the Choice Model (where students can pick a school within a given attendance area) to the Neighborhood Zoned School Model where students are assigned to a school based on where the student lives. You may also want to see my related blog on this topic in which sometimes close to home school is not the case.

Now let me offer you my solution to the problems that have taken place at John Hopkins Middle School, which I feel should be applied county wide:

1. Remove the students who have chronic behavioral issues from John Hopkins Middle and reassign them elsewhere, including Pinellas Secondary. This should apply to any other school county wide.

2. Students who commit a violation of the law such as battery on a school official or another student as well as threatening a fellow student or staff member among other things should be dealt with in the juvenile justice system, with no release to their parents until trial. That's the equivalent of no bond until trial in the adult system. A judge can order that the student be suspended from school until trial and expulsion can be ordered if the student is found guilty. The suspension would be from the school that the student regularly attends, as children who are confined to juvenile detention still continue their education in a secure environment.

3. The Pinellas County School District should do away with out of school suspensions - this is nothing more than a license to be away for a certain number of days. (Look at it this way: An out of school suspension is a license granted by a school principal to roam the streets for a certain amount of days). Instead, send the students to in school suspension; at least students are still in school, doing their schoolwork, and not out there wandering the streets. Remember what happened in 1988 at Pinellas Park High School? The perpetrators - Jason Harless and Jason McCoy - were students from Pinellas Park High School that were given out of school suspensions.

While the student is reassigned to Pinellas Secondary or another school, a plan of action consisting of counselors, social workers and school administration should be put into place that addresses the student's behavioral issues while at the same time emphasizing academic success. Only when a student has demonstrated true improvement over at least two semesters – both academic and behavioral – should a student be considered for transfer back to his or her assigned school or to another different school depending on the recommendations of the administration.

However, if the student was referred to the juvenile justice system due to a violation of the law and if the student is subsequently found guilty in juvenile court and sentenced to the custody of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the student would be expelled from the Pinellas County School District by court order. In that case, the student would be able to continue his or her education in programs offered by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice such as programs in residential treatment facilities if the student is committed to such a facility.

I believe in the concept that school is not just a place to learn; it is also a place where our children are taught today to become productive members of society to meet the challenges of tomorrow. Learning is something we pass on from generation to generation; this is called the gift of knowledge. After all, our children deserve a learning environment which is free of disruptions and, as a taxpaying citizen of Pinellas County, I feel the Pinellas County School District has an obligation to provide students with a safe learning environment.

Are we seeing the horrors of Florida’s new driver license requirements?

2010-01-31T21:55:00.003-05:00

A recent Bay News 9 article came across my laptop computer regarding Florida's new driver license requirements, thanks to the federal REAL ID law. The clerks who work in the Hernando County Tax Collector's office are bearing the brunt of customers who are very unhappy due to the fact that they have to produce the multitude of paperwork needed to obtain or renew a Florida driver's license.

To those people who feel frustrated when you show up to get or renew your driver's license yet get turned away due to Florida's new requirements, I feel your pain. Yes, Florida's new driver's license requirements are a pain after I have read the horror stories from articles not only on Bay News 9 but the St. Petersburg Times and 10 Connects (WTSP-TV) and the comments that were submitted in response to these articles.

I feel there is going to be a lot of people who have had enough of Florida's tough requirements. Yes, a lot of people – including Floridians – who say enough is enough of Florida's new driver's license requirements.

Going to another state and getting a driver license there (at least it was done – you can read about it as a topic over at the FlyerTalk.com forum). It depends on if the state is complying with the federal REAL ID law – at least several states have plans not to upgrade.
If someone moves to Florida they will keep their out of state license and renew the out of state license (which is in violation of Florida Statutes; you are obligated to obtain a Florida driver's license within 30 days of obtaining employment or placing children in public school; however, this law I feel is rarely enforced).
People whose licenses are ready to expire will not even bother to renew their drivers license due to the new requirements. Again, this is a big risk – letting your Florida driver's license expire for four months or less is an infraction while if it's over four months it becomes a misdemeanor requiring a court appearance.

I have said this before and I will say it again: Florida's new driver license requirements are dangerous in that it requires your residential street address - not your mailing address as past practice - on your license; if somehow you misplace your license and a stalker or domestic violence perpetrator finds it then your license is a goldmine as to where you live.

There are plenty of Floridians such as me who do live here and have a residential street address yet have their mail sent to a post office box for security reasons. Until the new Florida requirements became effective you could have placed your mailing address on your Florida driver's license while at the same time your residential street address is also kept on file and is accessible to law enforcement in the course of a traffic stop. That's the way it has been and it is the way it should be.

There is also another item that needs to be addressed while we're on this topic. Despite a federal law long enacted before REAL ID – the Driver Privacy Protection Act of 1994 – there is the issue of the State of Florida selling your personal information including where you live to third party marketers. To make things more scarier, the state's driver license computer systems have been breached – that is your personal information in the hands of who knows who.

To me, REAL ID is a clear violation of states' rights as driver licensing in the United States is the responsibility of the individual fifty states including Florida. I have a page over at EdwardRingwald.com which explains Florida's new driver license requirements in a nutshell.

Now I want to hear from you! If you tried to obtain or renew your Florida driver's license but were unable to do so due to the new requirements please feel free to share your experience here by posting a comment. This also applies if you tried to renew your Florida driver's license online but were told that you have to go in person to renew your driver's license.

Happy New Year 2010!

2009-12-31T13:43:00.008-05:00

As 2009 draws to a close and 2010 is on the horizon, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year 2010! And as they say in Slovenian, Rad bi zaželel vsem srečno novo leto 2010!

I am amazed that the first ten years of the new millenium have gone by so quickly - to me it seems like 2000 was just like yesterday. But we have seen a lot happen during these past ten years: The day America was attacked on 9/11/2001 is the biggest event that will be on our minds as a part of American history.

Moreover, in August 2004 we in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area held our breath and wondered if our area would be devastated as Hurricane Charley churned out there in the Gulf of Mexico. The preliminary forecast tracks had Charley coming through the Tampa Bay region and with it being a Category 3 storm, it had the potential of extensive damage. Pinellas County's Emergency Management officials took no chances and ordered the evacuation of persons residing in Evacuation Levels A and B - that's a lot of Pinellas County residents alone, and you got to factor in the mobile home residents who have to evacuate at any evacuation level.

Hurricane Charley got a lot of extensive media coverage, not only here in America but worldwide as well (even RTV Slovenia had coverage too!) Unfortunately, your blogmaster (and webmaster at EdwardRingwald.com and Interstate275Florida.com) had to evacuate and relocate to a hotel to ride out Charley; believe me, I was worried if the condo that I bought a few years earlier would hold up to Charley's devastating winds. Fortunately, Charley made a turn to the northeast sooner than expected and made landfall in the Port Charlotte-Punta Gorda area; when I watched the images of destruction on TV days after Charley hit I said to myself, what if Charley hit the Tampa/St. Petersburg area as originally forecasted? I was able to return home a few days after Charley passed.

The next year, in 2005 Hurricane Katrina took its toll on the New Orleans area with extensive damage, which is taking years to rebuild. I was on a Southwest Airlines flight to Baltimore a couple of days after Katrina hit New Orleans; I was headed to Baltimore to do US Copyright Office business in Washington, DC when I registered the copyright on both EdwardRingwald.com and Interstate275Florida.com. I was inspired to register for copyright on both websites after an incident involving the principal of Springstead High School in Spring Hill, Florida (an hour north of Tampa on the Suncoast Parkway, FL Toll 589) when she took words from other sources and passed them off as her own and used it for a graduation speech. You can read more about it on my copyright topic at EdwardRingwald.com.

Then the next few years came the collapse of the real estate market and the credit crunch that followed. The news media was more than willing to write stories about the credit crunch in a manner that would scare the public. In fact, I have a related blog entry you can read here that explains how the news media is misleading and scaring the public about the credit crunch.

May I throw in something for a moment? I used to subscribe to The Tampa Tribune as an alternative to the St. Petersburg Times. Right after the credit crunch started, everything in The Tampa Tribune was stories about the credit crunch that were presented in a way to scare the public. I was so fed up of the Trib's scare tactic stories that I ended up cancelling my subscription. Now the St. Petersburg Times is intensifying the scare tactic stories not only on the credit crunch but on the real estate market as well. But print and electronic media's goal is this: Blood sells.

Well, this was the first decade of the new millenium in a nutshell. Of course there are a lot of other things that have happened but to describe them would take a very long blog entry.

As 2009 fades slowly into the sunset and the dawn of 2010 on the horizon, there's going to be a lot of you celebrating New Year's Eve. Some of you will celebrate at home like I do, but some of you will be out and about partying until the stroke of Midnight. If you are out and about for New Year's Eve, please designate a driver and if you drink, don't drive. I have posted a blog topic over at the Interstate 275 Florida Blog on New Years Eve and the dangers of drinking and driving, which you can read here.

One more thing: 2010 will mark the tenth anniversary of EdwardRingwald.com! My websites have come a long way from its early days since it started out as a class project for a college introductory Internet course. More on that later.

Onward with 2010!

The Holidays are Upon Us

2009-12-15T19:34:00.010-05:00

I know, the Christmas and New Years holiday season is already upon us. It's always the same ritual year after year: Crowded shopping malls, the constant sounds of Christmas music on the radio all the way up to Christmas Day, the countless Christmas parties both at home and at work, and - what you get in the mail from family and friends - Christmas cards.

You got that right. Christmas cards.

Back in the old days (even 10 years ago) we went to the gift shop and picked out a series of Christmas cards. You decided who got what and that was about it. Then came the most tedious task as far as Christmas cards are concerned, especially if you have so many: Addressing them by hand, sticking postage stamps on each card, and getting them to the Post Office as early as possible. After all, it's the holiday season and the US Postal Service is feverishly moving all that important holiday mail.

Well, we now got this revolutionary technological marvel which is the personal computer. We now have stuff like Windows, Word, Office, and Adobe PDF among other things, and we can't leave out a very important technological marvel which has shrunk our world even further: The Internet.

Which leads us to Christmas cards taken to a new level: The E-card. You got that right, the e-card.

The best thing about sending a Christmas e-card is that you don't have to worry about spending a lot of money on postage and worry whether the card will make it on time before Christmas. Besides, a Christmas e-card uses the Internet as its distribution medium rather than the traditional postal mail medium.

Additionally, sending a Christmas e-card saves on paper. That's good for the environment, especially in the going green era we live in.

While we're on the subject of Christmas, let's turn to another Christmas related topic if I can have your attention for just a few more minutes of your time. It is a topic which disturbs me, and that is the anti-Christmas sentiment that keeps growing in America year after year.

Andrew Dart (akdart.com) has a well done page on the anti-Christmas sentiment that is growing in America along with links to related articles on the Internet. To go to that page, simply click on this link.

However, there are other areas of increasing anti-Christmas sentiment which we hear about year after year. In December 2008 10 Connects (WTSP-TV, the CBS affiliate here in St. Petersburg) had a story on a woman in Panama City Beach (the Florida panhandle town, that is) who was fired for saying "Merry Christmas"; to add to the humiliation the employer called law enforcement and had the woman declared a second class citizen by having her trespassed from the premises.

(Did I mention trespassed? Sad but true: Florida's trespassing laws allow a person in authority such as a store manager or a security guard to ban a law abiding person from a place for life, no reason or rationale is needed. After all, trespass warnings in Florida are convictions for trespassing without the benefit of due process and trial. For more information on this please feel free to read my Florida Trespassing Laws White Paper, available at EdwardRingwald.com.)

Now here's another area which I would call anti-Christmas sentiment in the workplace. How many of you out there read the comics in the St. Petersburg Times? There was one comic strip that caught my attention which is Blondie and it consisted of two panels which is the norm for a weekday comic strip. In the 23 December 2004 Blondie comic strip one panel had a group of office workers celebrating an office Christmas party, while the next panel had the boss (who I believe was in an anti-Christmas mood) angrily yelled at the workers to "get back to work" in an intimidating manner.

After I saw this comic strip, I felt that the anti-Christmas sentiment was well represented. Add to that how the boss yelled at and intimidated his subordinates as seen in the strip. To most people, it might be humor as is the case with comic strips out there but to me, I feel this is bullying by the boss.

Now may I digress for just a moment? In my opinion, I feel the phrase "get back to work" is nothing more than a way for a boss to demoralize and treat his employees like if they were not important. Moreover, a boss who resorts to micromanagement as a way to motivate his employees and uses demeaning and abusive phrases in the workplace contributes to low employee morale and high turnover. In a nutshell, I feel the phrase "get back to work" is nothing more than a threat and it accomplishes no purpose other than to create a hostile work environment.

Back in 1986 and 1987 while I was going for my first Associates degree at St. Petersburg College (which was St. Petersburg Junior College back then), I took two management related classes, which were Human Factors in Supervision and Principles of Management. Believe me, it gave me an introduction to the world of management and the terminology that goes with it.

I just wanted to give you an example of the disturbing anti-Christmas trend that is increasingly going on year after year. Now that I had your attention I feel that it is more appropriate for the season to give you a Christmas card - this time, an e-card that I created myself rather than spend money on one. (After all, you have to spend money on Christmas cards whether it's a traditional card or an e-card).

To see my Christmas card, just click on this link! I hope you enjoy it!

And as they say in:

English: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Spanish (Espanol): Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Slovenian (Slovenscina): Vesel božič in srečno novo leto!

And I will say this once again: Merry Christmas!

Tougher Standards for Florida IDs Coming on 1 January 2010

2009-12-12T20:50:00.027-05:00

Link to article over at Bay News 9: Tougher standards for IDs go into effect Jan. 1.

We have heard about REAL ID for a few years and the Federal government's role in implementing REAL ID. It is coming to Florida come 1 January 2010 and it's going to mean different, if not difficult, ways in obtaining or renewing your Florida Drivers License. The new rules are supposed to enhance security of identity documents such as drivers licenses.

Now here's the lowdown on what to expect on 1 January 2010 when you go to obtain or renew your Florida drivers license. Here's what you are going to have to bring with you when you go to the drivers license office to obtain or renew your license:

1. Primary identification: A certified US birth certificate, a US Passport or a US Passport Card. For US citizens born outside the United States you will need the Consular Report of Birth Abroad (issued by the US Department of State) and it has to be a certified copy; however, if you have a US Passport that's better as it is absolute proof of United States citizenship. (After all, passports are easier to replace than birth certificates if they get lost for some reason).

2. Social Security Number: You will want to bring your original Social Security card; that's the best.

3. Two proofs of Florida residential address: The State of Florida wants proof that you actually live here in the Sunshine State to get or renew a Florida drivers license. Here is a partial list of the documents you will need to prove Florida residency according to the folks over at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles at their speciality site, GatherGoGet.com:

Residential deed or monthly mortgage statement
Residential lease
Florida Voter ID card (this is your Voter Information card)
Florida vehicle registration or title
A utility connection order (60 days old or less)
Homeowners, condo unit owners or renters insurance policy or bill
A utility bill 60 days old or less

Now what if you are living with someone else such as your parents? They will have to accompany you to the drivers license office, provide a statement and provide proof of residence address as shown above. If you are living in a transitional shelter a letter from the shelter verifying that you live there is required.

OK. Now that you have your required documents, you can proceed to the nearest Florida drivers license office and obtain or renew your drivers license. When you receive your drivers license, it will have, among other things as required by the federal REAL ID law, your residential street address printed on your license.

What? Invasion of privacy? What's going on here?

Here's a comment that I posted over at Bay News 9's Viewer Center on this article:

To me, Florida's new drivers license requirements in the name of REAL ID is very dangerous. Why? There are a lot of Floridians like myself who have a residential street address but have all mail sent to a post office box for security reasons. Florida's new requirement effective 1 January 2010 will require that the residential street address be listed on the drivers license.

What makes this so dangerous is that if let's say someone obtains a domestic violence restraining order and the person who obtained the restraining order somehow loses his or her drivers license with the residential street address on it. Bingo! The domestic violence perpetrator who is not supposed to even come within 500 feet of the street address now knows where you live! Furthermore, Florida's residential street address requirement for drivers licenses will also make it very easy for stalkers to find you - if somehow you lose your drivers license and the stalker finds it then - voila - it's a gold mine!

And I agree with everyone else: Our Florida drivers licenses are slowly being turned into national identity cards thanks to REAL ID; a drivers license is simply that - a license by the State of Florida to operate a motor vehicle and nothing more. After all, driving is a privilege and not a right. (Emphasis mine)

A residential street address on a voter ID card is fine, as it proves where you live and what polling place you have to go to. On a drivers license, it is a different matter as it is used as a primary identification card; I do have a residential street address but all my mail goes to a post office box for security reasons. Presenting it to a law enforcement officer (especially if you get pulled over) is very important; you're supposed to carry your drivers license with you when you are operating your motor vehicle in the very first place. On the other hand, presenting a drivers license with where you physically live to a total stranger for identification opens up Pandora's Box to unwanted invasion of your personal privacy; that's why so many Floridians such as me have a post office box for privacy and security reasons.

Moreover, despite the security precautions taken by Tallahassee to safeguard the data on Florida's drivers licenses, leaks of personal data have occurred. Moreover, the State of Florida has a habit of selling your name and residential street address information that is on your drivers license to third parties despite a Federal law that provides for confidentiality of driver license information. Here is a link to a post I found on the FlyerTalk.com forum which addresses this subject very well.

Until recently, you could get a Florida drivers license, prove your residential street address, and have your license with your mailing address on it. That has changed thanks to REAL ID. The only exception to this new rule is only law enforcement officers.

In a nutshell, I agree with making identity documents such as a drivers license more secure but I do not believe in trading privacy for security. This is something our federal and Florida lawmakers need to address.

Now for one more thing, if I may have your attention for just a moment.

At the end of my comment I made to Bay News 9, I mentioned that driving is a privilege, not a right. That is true: The State of Florida gave you the privilege to drive when you apply or renew your drivers license, and the State of Florida can take away that privilege if you accumulate too many points on your record or are convicted of something more serious such as DUI.

I was reading the comments that followed mine on the tougher standards for Florida IDs and I found a comment made by someone under the pseudonym Mighty Mouse. Please let me quote part of the comment that Mighty Mouse made about me:

...I've been making that very same point here for over 7 years now every time some "DUMBO" like Edward Reinwald comes here and post's "Driving is a privilege, not a right"...

Luckily, I contacted Bay News 9 about this and found out that Mighty Mouse's offensive comments were removed. As you will see, Mighty Mouse misspelled my name and then went ahead and called me something that was very offensive and demeaning. While constructive criticism is welcomed the use of language that is offensive and demeaning is not.

Bay News 9 allows anyone to post a comment to any of their stories on their web site without any form of user registration; however, this is not the case here at the Edward Ringwald Blog or the Interstate 275 Florida Blog. In order to post a comment to any entry I have on either blog there is a two step process; registration with a Google account for first timers and when you actually post a comment it is sent to me for moderation prior to allowing your comment to be seen. This is why I ask when you make a comment to please keep it clean and family friendly.

And as for Mighty Mouse's surly comment about me, I feel that he thinks driving is a right, not a privilege. This is untrue. The Florida drivers license you hold in your wallet is a privilege granted to you by the State of Florida, of which it can be taken away. This is emphasized in the Florida Driver's Handbook and again when you go into the drivers license office to apply for or renew your license.

The Credit Crunch and the News Media

2009-09-24T20:29:00.007-04:00

Lately I have seen a lot of stories on the credit crunch on practically every media outlet here in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. However, I have read stories on the credit crunch that I feel are nothing more than scaring the public, and that bothers me.

These acts being committed by the greedy big banks are byproducts of the credit crunch:

Interest rates on credit cards being jacked up so high on purpose that you cannot pay it off.

Creditors playing games with the FICO credit score.

Credit limits being trimmed for no reason despite a customer’s satisfactory credit history.

Customers being denied lower interest rates on credit cards. If a customer’s APR was so high banks would lower the rate on request in the interest of retaining good business.

Well, let me give you the low down on how the credit crunch is being covered by the media, especially The Tampa Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times and Bay News 9 (our 24-hour local news channel in the Tampa Bay area). Back in the old days journalism was just old fashioned common sense; you could believe in what the news media were saying. Now with the real estate bust and the credit crunch that followed, the news media anymore turns to a kind of journalism called speculative and sensational journalism. Why?

It all boils down to two words: Blood Sells.

In the newspaper industry, what the newspapers do nowadays to report on the credit crunch is to either write stories using their own reporters or use a story from a news service such as the Associated Press or the New York Times. The idea here is for a story on the credit crunch to be written in a fashion that will place fear in the general public; in other words, to get the public scared about what may happen. What is this being done for? The answer is simple: Sell more newspapers!

On the other hand, in the television news industry stories on the credit crunch are basically done in the same way as newspapers. For the past few years, Bay News 9 has had an alliance with several partner newspapers in the Tampa Bay area including the St. Petersburg Times; that means stories and ideas are exchanged between one another. A reporter will write a story on the credit crunch and interview people such as a bank representative and then in preparation for putting the story on the air the reporter (along with their supervisory editor) will take statements made out of context. Don’t forget, that same story has to be written for a television station’s news web page. The main idea here is that a story on the credit crunch is to be presented on television in a way that it will place fear in the general public, just like how it would be written in the newspaper. Again, why does a television news outlet do a story on the credit crunch in order to create maximum fear in the public for? The answer is simple: Increase the viewer ratings!

Now on to another note. I subscribed to The Tampa Tribune for a few years; it was a good paper if you wanted an alternative to the St. Petersburg Times as far as their reporting is concerned. When the credit crunch came along The Tampa Tribune began carrying stories on this subject practically every day; these stories I feel were written to place fear in the public. I got so fed up of how The Tampa Tribune was covering the credit crunch to the point that people were getting scared that I ended up cancelling my subscription.

OK. If you want the real truth on the credit crunch, this is how I look at it.

Let’s start with the banks. The greedy big banks whose purpose is to treat its customers – even its best customers (who of course pay their bills on time among other things) – like second class citizens. When the big banks were being given federal bailout money in order to recoup their losses due to the bad mortgage market it was in the hope that access to consumer credit would be loosened. Instead, the big greedy banks sit there and hoard that money while at the same time treat its customers like second class citizens such as jacking up interest rates or cutting credit lines.

After all, banks who practice poor customer service by jacking up interest rates and/or cutting a customer’s credit line (such as a credit card’s credit limit) will eventually suffer in the form of lost business. The majority of customers practice good money and credit habits by only spending within their means.

How about mortgage modifications? How about the person who got laid off through no fault of their own and is struggling to make ends meet? Banks and mortgage companies – according to what’s reported in the media – like to mess up a person’s credit report when it comes to having to modify the terms of a mortgage. In this day and age, if a borrower as a legitimate reason to have his or her mortgage modified to allow for lower monthly payments, he or she should be allowed to do so without any black mark being noted on a credit report. After all, it’s these mortgage loan officers that approved these loans in the first place, knowing that he or she would not qualify.

Now for a horrific credit crunch story that I feel was mishandled in the media. A homeowner who had a second mortgage and who wanted to sell can do so; anything owed on a second mortgage would be paid at closing (provided the funds were available of course). Instead, the bank who holds the second mortgage keeps the homeowner in the home until the second mortgage is paid in full. The end result: A homeowner who cannot sell even though the bank holding the second mortgage would be paid at the closing table. In my opinion, I would not be dealing with this mortgage lender at any time, period, no questions asked.

OK, OK. I have some advice for those of you who feel victimized by your greedy big bank as a part of the credit crunch.

1. If you receive a notice of adverse action in the mail – whether it may be your interest rate jacked up or your credit limit being decreased arbitrarily despite being a good customer – call your bank and request to speak to a senior supervisor about your situation. It’s worth a try.

2. If your bank balks, there’s still hope. If you can qualify in your area, consider taking your banking and financial business to a credit union. Believe me, credit unions are more better to deal with than a bank as far as customer service is concerned. After all, credit unions treat you like a real person compared to these greedy banks who only treat you like a number as well as pay lip service to courteous customer service. And besides, when you are a member of a credit union you’re not just a member – you are an owner. After all, credit unions answer to their owners, which are its members, while banks answer to their stockholders.

3. Post your experience with your unfriendly and greedy bank somewhere on a complaints board or forum. I highly recommend RipOffReport.com, as it is like creating your own website letting others know of your bad experience so that others don’t fall into the same fate.

After all, according to an email newsletter from Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11, SiCKO, and the upcoming movie Capitalism: A Love Story (starts nationwide 2 October 2009)) contrary to what the media is saying about the credit crunch the sky is not falling. Yes you can still get that mortgage for the home you want or that loan for the vehicle you want; it will take a little more looking around to get a decent loan at a decent rate.

Now for one more thing.

For the past few months I have seen a billboard on the left side of southbound Interstate 275 in Downtown St. Petersburg just before you approach the exit for Interstate 375, Exit 23A. This billboard sums it all up about the current state of the American economy:

“Recession 101: Quit obsessing about the economy; you’re scaring the children”.

The message is superimposed on college rule paper. A wonderful job done by the creator of that billboard.

If I could afford a billboard, here’s what I would say:

“Journalism 101: Quit obsessing about the credit crunch; you’re scaring the public”.

What the Tampa Bay area news media ought to do is to write and broadcast or publish stories in a positive manner which would bring the credibility that once was how the news media reports the news. Don’t take stories and shuffle them out of context in a way to create maximum fear and distrust in the public.

Guardianship in Florida: Legalized Robbery and Exploitation of the Elderly and Disabled!

2009-08-20T17:27:00.005-04:00

I picked up a copy of today’s St. Petersburg Times (Thursday, 20 August 2009) only to find an article in the B section which broke my heart. It is the story of a woman who was stricken with Alzheimer’s Disease who had a trust drawn up earlier and amended it so that she can live out her last days at home. I know, it is very heart breaking when your loved one has a terminal illness such as Alzheimer’s and you want to provide the best possible so that when the time comes that your loved one passes away, at least your loved one got his or her wishes.

I urge you to please read this blog entry word for word.

According to the St. Petersburg Times article written by none other than Drew Harwell (who, by the way, wrote the article on how dangerous the Interstate 375 ramp is), Carol Kinnear owned a multi-million dollar home out on Clearwater Beach where she wanted to live out her last days. After all, when the home that you lived in happens to be the home you grew up in or lived there a long time, it takes on a special meaning not only for you but for your relatives as well.

However, Carol’s relatives wanted to make sure that the estate was preserved. As such, papers were filed for a member of the family to become Carol’s legal guardian; however, once the court approved the guardianship the legal guardian for Carol was not any of her relatives – instead, it turned out to be total strangers. According to the Times article, Carol’s legal guardian – a professional legal guardian – had her removed from her home and taken to a facility, all against Carol’s wishes. To make matters worse, Carol’s legal guardian even barred her relatives from even seeing her.

Unfortunately, Florida’s guardianship laws do allow for legalized robbery and exploitation of an elderly or disabled person, especially when a professional legal guardian comes into play. Learning back from my days when I was going for my Legal Assisting degree at Hillsborough Community College, I learned the process of guardianship in a class called Wills, Trusts and Probate.

A guardianship starts when the papers are filed in the Probate Court starting with a petition to the court explaining why a person should have a legal guardian. Next, a committee of experts examines the person that is the subject of guardianship – called a ward – and reports back to the court with a recommendation as to whether guardianship is recommended and if that is the case, who the legal guardian should be.

The process of getting someone declared legally incompetent from what I understand is rather very easy. Too easy, in my opinion. An attorney can intervene during the process and recommend that a professional guardian be appointed, against the wishes of the ward and his or her family. This is where guardianship can get ugly here.

Once the ward is declared incompetent and a guardian is appointed, practically all of the ward’s civil liberties are completely stripped: The right to vote, the ability to hold a driver’s license, the ability to own property, and so on. If a professional guardian as in the case of Carol Kinnear comes into play, it means that a total stranger is in charge of everything.

During a guardianship, papers are required to be filed with the court including an accounting of the assets of the ward both initially and every year. Moreover, if a professional guardian is involved the guardian has to be bonded as well. Unfortunately, papers can be falsified while at the same time a professional guardian is out there misusing the assets of the ward. To make matters worse, a professional guardian can also have the ward committed to an institution, all against the family’s wishes.

This is what I see: A professional guardian who is supposed to look after the best interest of his or her ward actually misappropriates the ward’s assets to the professional guardian’s own benefit, such as paying the monthly mortgage among other things. Next, the professional guardian has the ward committed to an institution at some unknown place and at the same time keeps the ward’s relatives away; who knows what kind of treatment the ward is getting: Abuse? Neglect?

In short, guardianship – especially when a total stranger is appointed as a professional guardian – is actually a license granted by the court to steal a ward’s assets and to have the ward locked away and put out of sight of the ward’s immediate family. Here in Pinellas County from what I understand, there is little to no oversight of professional guardians when engaged in their duties.

However, there are alternatives to guardianship out there that may be a better choice for your loved one. I won't get into any detail here, but the best way to explore these alternatives is to discuss them with your attorney.

Unfortunately, Florida’s guardianship laws make it easier than you think to get someone declared incompetent. Once you get involved with guardianship, it is essentially permanent and when a total stranger is in complete charge of your loved one’s affairs, the end result can be disastrous.

Take Me Out To The … Ball Game?

2009-06-13T22:39:00.005-04:00

Baseball, our American national pastime. There are two important songs that are associated with the sound of “play ball!”, first being The Star-Spangled Banner which everyone knows that it’s our national anthem played as a part of pre-game ceremonies and second being Take Me Out To The Ball Game, played in the middle of the 7th Inning and is known as the “7th Inning Stretch” (or, in Tampa Bay Rays speak, the “7th Inning Squeeze”).

From time to time, either one of these songs of baseball somehow get botched up when performed in front of a stadium type audience. Remember back on 25 July 1990 in San Diego at a San Diego Padres game and Roseanne Barr’s performance of our national anthem? In my opinion, it is the most botched up performance of our national anthem to date and is well remembered.

What about Take Me Out To The Ball Game? Doesn’t that sometimes get botched up as well?

If you have been to Tropicana Field here in St. Petersburg on Saturday, 13 June 2009 when the Tampa Bay Rays took on the Washington Nationals, you probably noticed something out of the ordinary. First, the national anthem was performed properly by Miss St. Petersburg (which was a part of City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County employees appreciation night and it was advertised), albeit the harmonics were a little distorted but did not get anyone’s attention, in my opinion.

What happened during the 7th Inning Squeeze surprised me.

Someone was invited to sing Take Me Out To The Ballgame over in the area where the piano musician plays right next to Section 203. The performance was … well, the most botched up and unintelligible rendition of Take Me Out To The Ballgame I have ever heard, especially in all the Tampa Bay Rays games I have attended over the years at Tropicana Field.

That brought back memories of Roseanne Barr and the way she botched up our national anthem in San Diego many years ago, even before there was a Tampa Bay Rays here in St. Petersburg. However, I believe a botched up version of Take Me Out To The Ball Game would somehow make it onto one of the sports networks like ESPN, quoting one fan who was next to me at the Rays-Nationals game at Tropicana Field.

On the flip side of the coin, I believe a botched up version of The Star-Spangled Banner sung at a Rays pre-game at Tropicana Field would get much more media attention, first locally with Bay News 9 and the other Tampa Bay area media outlets and the potential to make national news on CNN and MSNBC. Wouldn’t you think so?

Now if you were at the Rays-Nationals game at Tropicana Field on Saturday, 13 June 2009 and stayed through the middle of the 7th Inning and tried to sing along to Take Me Out To The Ball Game but you couldn’t somehow, I would like to hear from you.

And by the way, the Rays won 8-3. LET’S GO RAYS!

Are you ready for the DTV switch?

2009-06-09T21:14:00.003-04:00

We’re a few days away from Friday, 12 June 2009. After all, that will be a day in history not only for television in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area but everywhere else in the United States as the technology used to provide you with over the air television signals for over 50 years, analog TV, will cease to exist. However, it will be the dawn of a new era in television broadcasting, and that will be digital television, or DTV for short.

I have an informative web page over at my web site that explains to you what the DTV switch is all about and whether you may be affected. However, here are some important things you will need to know:

If you receive your TV programs by antenna and you already own a DTV converter box or a new TV set that receives DTV programming, on Friday, 12 June 2009 you will want to rescan your channels as TV stations will more than likely move to their permanent channels as the digital feeds were being broadcasted temporarily on another channel.

If you still own an older TV set and still have not made the switch, you have choices when it comes to DTV: Purchase of a converter box, purchase of a new TV which incorporates the DTV tuner, or subscription to a cable TV service (such as Bright House Networks for those in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area).

Some low-power TV stations will remain broadcasting in the analog format; an example in St. Petersburg is the TV station operated by the City of St. Petersburg, WSPF-TV which operates on Channel 35. If you are using a DTV converter box for off the air signals, most DTV converter boxes feature an analog pass-through so that you can still view the low-power stations that have not transitioned to digital TV.

On the other hand, if you are connected to cable TV (such as Bright House Networks in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area) you do not have to do anything – you should be good to go! As a safeguard, be sure to check with your cable TV provider. The same thing goes for those of you that watch TV by way of satellite – your satellite provider will handle the conversion for you; again check with your satellite provider as a safeguard.

Don’t forget: Friday, 12 June 2009 is the day the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, along with the rest of America, makes the switch to DTV. If you are watching TV in the analog format, once the switch is done your analog TV will go dark if you have not taken action.

Now I would like to hear what you are doing to prepare for the big DTV switch.

Failed the Florida FCAT Test? You have options!

2009-05-11T19:55:00.006-04:00

In the next few weeks high school graduation will be around the corner for those of you who have children graduating from high school. After all, your child went through four years of hard coursework in order to earn those good grades (and the credits that go with these grades) and both you and your child should be proud of the four years of great accomplishment.

Unfortunately, high school seniors that are on track to graduation with the good grades and everything else have one major hurdle to cross, and that is the Florida FCAT test. Florida is one of those states that do not reward highest student achievement through academics; high school students can excel academically but cannot pass the FCAT test for some reason.

The bad news for those high school students who excel academically yet failed every sitting of the FCAT test since 10th Grade receive recognition for their work at graduation. Unfortunately, that recognition is nothing more than a Certificate of Completion from your child’s high school; a Certificate of Completion is not a High School Diploma which can make the difference when your child goes into the world outside of high school.

If you are the parent of a high school senior and you receive notice from your school that your child is going to get a Certificate of Completion due to failing the last FCAT test, do not be disappointed. Instead you and your child have options to get that coveted piece of paper that your child worked very hard for the past four years.

One increasingly popular option is to transfer your child’s high school credits to a private high school out of state. There is a private high school located in Lewiston, Maine which is called North Atlantic Regional Schools, abbreviated NARS for short. It’s mostly targeted towards homeschoolers, but they know how it feels for your child who excels academically in the four year public high school setting yet cannot graduate because of a state mandated test such as the FCAT. NARS has a wonderful website where you can learn more about pursuing this valuable option for your child.

A side note: If you pursue the NARS (or any other private high school) route, always obtain a copy of your child’s high school transcript. You can get this from your child’s high school for a nominal fee; the copy you will get will more than likely be an unofficial copy which is great for review by you and your child. The official version is the one that your school will send directly to which private school you select, even it it’s NARS in Maine.

Another option is to take the tests of General Educational Development, commonly known as the GED test. While the GED test is an equivalent of a High School Diploma, according to the NARS website a GED diploma can raise red flags for your child post-high school: It could mean to a potential college or employer that there were significant problems in high school; it could also send a red flag that your child was in a treatment center or detention facility. While a GED diploma is an easy way out it brings along significant social stigma that goes with having a GED diploma. This is why a High School Diploma is a lot better because it carries a lot of prestige for your child.

If your child’s high school guidance counselor even suggests that your child who excels academically take the GED all because of a failed FCAT through the 12th Grade, think again. Do your research and check out the NARS website.

Another option would be to see if your child can use his or her SAT or ACT test scores, especially if your child took the SAT or ACT tests for college admission earlier in the school year. If your child has equivalent scores on the SAT or ACT – which the Florida Department of Education calls Concordant Scores – your child can still graduate from high school with a High School Diploma using the passing SAT or ACT scores your child earned. But there is one catch: In order to use this option your child must have failed every opportunity for the FCAT test between the 10th Grade and graduation. However, there is a brighter side: Think of your child’s passing SAT or ACT scores as an insurance policy against a non-received High School Diploma due to a failed FCAT.

I also encourage you to please read my topic on why Florida should abolish the FCAT test altogether over at my website. After all, FCAT is nothing more than a time waster for Florida’s high schools, and teachers can have more time teaching the subjects they were qualified to teach. Students would also get a quality education that you and I as taxpayers in the great State of Florida pay for, not have to go to school to study for a state mandated test. Besides, the FCAT breeds nothing more than increased test anxiety in our students, among other things.

And you know what drives the FCAT in Florida? A federal law enacted in 2002 called the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states that want to receive federal education monies to have a statewide student assessment test in place. This is much like the days when states had to have speed limits at 55 mph or lose interstate highway money.

On the Florida level, I am all for total abolition of the FCAT test and to have it replaced by meaningful end of course exams which demonstrate mastery of the subject involved, such as English Composition or Algebra. Further, on the federal level I am for the substantial – if not complete – repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 as that federal law infringes on states’ rights. After all, education of our children is and should continue to be the responsibility of the states rather than the federal government telling the states what to do as far as education is concerned.

FREE SPEECH SILENCING ATTEMPT!

2009-03-09T20:56:00.012-04:00

SPECIAL NOTE TO OUR READERS: This blog entry has been published over at my sister web site, The Interstate 275 Florida Blog. For the convenience of our readers, I am publishing this entry here at The Edward Ringwald Blog as this carries a lot of significance in defending my First Amendment rights to speak my opinion without interference from anyone, including my employer.

By now you have seen the article in the St. Petersburg Times on Friday, 6 March 2009 regarding how dangerous the ramp from southbound Interstate 275 to eastbound Interstate 375 is. Like I mentioned earlier, it was a well done article by St. Petersburg Times staff writer Drew Harwell.

If you haven't already seen my prior blog entry including the update, by all means click on this link. (Internet Explorer 7 users, you may want to right click and open as a new tab and that way you can read this entry and the prior entry side by side).

Now before I go on any further, in order to avoid any retribution by my employer, I am not disclosing who my employer is nor the personnel involved. However, if you are a member of any First Amendment advocacy group that would like to speak with me privately about my First Amendment rights, please contact me. Now on to the story.

While I was at work one of my higher superiors called me into the office to speak to me about my name appearing in the paper. The conversation was not of a congratulatory tone but of a tone that clearly violated my First Amendment rights. Specifically, I was told that:

1. I was not to speak with the St. Petersburg Times at all, period, on or off duty.
2. I must clear everything I speak through my superior.
3. My employer, for all aspects, practically owns me despite my explaining to the contrary.
4. I cannot practically write anything about my hometown anywhere, including my two websites, Interstate275Florida.com and EdwardRingwald.com!

Now please let me explain.

First of all, I was contacted by Drew Harwell at home. I never made any initial contact with Drew from my office. I was contacted because I had a prior blog entry on the March 2007 tanker incident which closed this very same ramp for a few weeks.

I never maintain my Interstate 275 blog or website from work. I only maintain them from home on my personal laptop computer. The same thing goes for EdwardRingwald.com or the Edward Ringwald Blog.

I am fully aware of my employer’s procedures when it comes to any contact with the news media. However, that applies whenever I am on duty and on my employer’s time. When I am off duty (as I am writing this blog entry as we speak) my employer cannot regulate my First Amendment activities when it comes to my blogs or websites. This is compared to a school principal disciplining a student over a student’s personal web page when it is done off of school time and off of school property.

What my employer did on 6 March 2009 was an attempt to silence the First Amendment rights of your Interstate275Florida.com and EdwardRingwald.com webmaster by having a meeting with me that would have led into disciplinary action. Luckily, at this point no disciplinary action was taken but I am not going to let this conversation deter me from speaking with any member of the news media, including the St. Petersburg Times, when I am off duty.

Now here’s another situation which closely borders what I experienced. Take the case of Laura Berg, who was a federal government employee.

Laura wrote an editorial in her weekly hometown newspaper in New Mexico about the Bush Administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq. This would be compared to me speaking with Drew Harwell while I was not on my employer’s time.

In an attempt to silence Laura’s First Amendment rights, her employer investigated her for “an act which potentially represents sedition”, according to an ACLU report on defending First Amendment rights. By comparison, my superior was investigating me for a possible violation of my employer’s policy when in fact no violation had indeed taken place.

Now you see there is a situation that closely borders what I experienced with my employer. Again, I am not letting my employer attempt to put a muzzle on my protected First Amendment rights when it comes to The Interstate 275 Blog or Interstate275Florida.com, as well as the Edward Ringwald Blog or EdwardRingwald.com.

As an American citizen, I do not relinquish my rights upon entering any workplace, and I am free to speak to anyone I want, including the news media. As long as I do it on my own time (which I have done as mentioned earlier), that is fine.

In other words, it is business as usual here at EdwardRingwald.com as well as The Edward Ringwald Blog. Stay tuned.

Television End of Day Sign Offs

2009-02-11T20:46:00.003-05:00

Remember back to the old days when our TV selections were limited to the big three networks – NBC, ABC and CBS – the local PBS affiliate and the independent TV station? Here in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, before there was Bright House Networks and Bay News 9 (even before there was cable TV in the first place) our selections were limited to 3, 8, 10, 13, 16 and 44 with an outdoor antenna.

Back in the pre-cable days all of the broadcast stations in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area did not operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Contrast this with the world of television we live in today, 500+ channels of programming on your digital cable box with the time - normally when the station would sign off for the day – filled with nothing but boring infomercials, program length commercials heavily touting stuff that I personally would not spend my hard earned money on.

The typical sign off routine would be an announcement that the TV station is ending its broadcast activities for the day, followed by the locations of the main studios and transmitter location. Before the advent of VCRs and DVRs some stations – including WTVT FOX 13 here in Tampa – would run a disclaimer that programs are for home viewing only and that no commercial use is permitted. After that, viewers are given a postal address in which to send comments or suggestions regarding station operations and/or programming. Finally, the national anthem is played and then about a minute of color bars plus tone and then the transmitter carrier is turned off.

It should also be noted here that some television stations, just before signing off for the day, run a one minute daily devotional either produced locally or nationally. WTSP, known as 10 Connects here in St. Petersburg, used to run a daily devotional at the start of and at the end of the broadcast day back in its days as an ABC affiliate.

Now that we sometimes miss the old days of when TV stations sign off for the day, you are wondering how TV stations in other parts of the world sign off at the end of their broadcast day. Even though we have TV stations that are now 24/7/365, only a handful do sign off, either nightly as part of the broadcast day or for about a half hour once a week in order to perform transmitter adjustments.

I recently came across a blog that is dedicated to television sign offs from not only here in the United States but around the world as well. It is called The Television Close Down and Start Up Blog, and it hosts a growing collection of sign off and sign on routines from television stations not only here in the United States but from all over the world.

Here is a sampler of what you will find over at The Television Close Down and Start Up Blog:

XETV Channel 6, San Diego: There are two videos, one from its days as a FOX affiliate and another from its present day as a CW affiliate. While the station serves the San Diego area, the transmitter is located across the international border in Tijuana, hence the Mexican call letters. What makes their sign on and sign off so unique is that the Mexican National Anthem (El Himno Nacional Mexicano) is played first, followed by the American National Anthem (The Star-Spangled Banner); as the station is based in Tijuana the playing of the Mexican National Anthem is mandatory per Mexican law. After both national anthems are played then the sign on information is read, first in English and then in Spanish; the sign on information is identical to other American television stations except that the licensing authority is that of the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (Secretaria de Comunicaciones y Transportes) rather than the Federal Communications Commission that regulates American radio and television stations.

JOEX, Channel 10, Tokyo, Japan: This is the flagship station of a Japanese TV news network, All-Nippon News Network. What makes this sign off unique is that Japan’s Emergency Alert System – similar to the Emergency Alert System we are accustomed to here in the United States – is tested right after the sign off announcement is complete. By comparison, Japan’s Emergency Alert System consists of a tone (known as “the pips”) played three times followed by an announcement explaining the test, while America’s Emergency Alert System consists of three long data tones, followed by the two-tone test signal of the old Emergency Broadcast System (only used for a required monthly test or if an actual emergency message is to follow), and three short data tones signaling the end of the test. After all, the Japanese know how to test their emergency system without alarming the general public by doing it only at night and at the end of a broadcast day; here in America I don’t know why broadcast stations have to break into the afternoon soap operas or why ER reruns on TNT have to be interrupted for these tests.

I can’t list them all here, but you will have a great time watching these television sign off videos from around the world over at The Television Close Down and Start Up Blog. To get there, simply click on this link or you can click on the link to the Television Close Down and Start Up Blog from my Links of Interest page over at EdwardRingwald.com. By the way, the blog owner of The Television Close Down and Start Up Blog updates on Wednesdays and Saturdays with new sign off and sign on videos.

Four Steps to Voting in Pinellas County on Election Day

2008-10-31T22:13:00.004-04:00

Election Day is just a few days away!

With 2008 being a year we elect a new President of the United States as well as a sizeable number of state and local officials, not to mention the amendments to the Florida Constitution. As you probably know, Florida allows early voting or voting absentee by mail because it helps alleviate congestion at the polls on Election Day.

Now we got Election Day – 4 November 2008 – just around the corner I imagine the polls will be crowded with people like you and I exercising our rights as an American citizen: The right to vote. In Pinellas County there are four steps to the voting process and you can do your part to make the voting experience go smooth for you.

Most important step:

Bring a picture and signature identification to the polls on Election Day! Doing so will help with a smooth voting experience and help you get in and out of the polling place in the shortest time possible. According to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections, the following is acceptable picture and signature ID at the polls:

Florida Driver License
Florida Identification Card
United States Passport
Debit or credit card
Student or Military ID
Retirement Center ID
Neighborhood Association ID
Public Assistance ID

Note that if your photo ID does not have a signature, another ID bearing your signature has to be presented. Many years ago, the Supervisor of Elections used to issue Voter Identification cards; today this is not the case as the cards issued are now Voter Information cards.

If you do not have any ID on you when you go the polls, you can still vote. However, you will have to vote on a provisional ballot which will be evaluated by the Canvassing Board to determine voter eligibility. Having your ID with you is the best – a Florida Driver License, Florida Identification Card or United States Passport is the best.

Now that you have your required photo and signature ID with you, let’s go to the polls and cast your vote!

The Pinellas County Four-Step at the polls:

Let’s go through the four steps of voting a ballot at the polls in Pinellas County on Election Day! Once you arrive at the polls, you will be greeted at the front door by a poll worker whose job is to maintain order in the polling place. The poll worker will direct you to the table to begin Step 1.

Step 1: This is the voter check in station. Here you will show the poll worker your ID and prove that your address is correct. If everything is OK then you will be directed to sign the precinct register in the space provided. After that the poll worker will give you a yellow ticket to take to Step 2.

Step 2: This is where you will receive your ballot. On the yellow ticket you received in Step 1, check to see that everything is accurate. If so, sign the yellow ticket in the space provided and fill in the oval. Hand in the ticket to the poll worker who will exchange it for your ballot, a black ballpoint pen and a secrecy envelope. Proceed with all three items to Step 3.

Step 3: Step on over to any one of the empty voting booths and complete your ballot. Make sure that you completely fill in the oval next to your selection with the black ballpoint pen provided to you in Step 2. If you make a mistake – no problem, just see the poll worker back at Step 2 for a replacement ballot. When you are finished, review your selections on your ballot and, when you are ready, proceed on to Step 4 to wrap up the voting process.

Step 4: This is the optical scanner machine where you will feed in your ballot. A poll worker is stationed at this step to assist you in using the optical scanner. What you will do is to feed in your ballot into the slot on the optical scanner. If your ballot is marked correctly, the optical scanner will take your ballot, record your votes and deposit it in a locked and secured ballot box.

Once your ballot is successfully accepted, return the secrecy envelope and the black ballpoint pen you were given in Step 2 to the poll worker.

If you run into any difficulties, by all means ask the poll worker for help.

REMEMBER: Make your ballot selections very carefully! Once your ballot is fed into the optical scanner and it is accepted and your votes recorded, YOUR BALLOT CANNOT BE RETRIEVED!

Finally, collect your “I Voted” sticker from the poll worker as you exit. Now you have completed the Pinellas County Four-Step and you can be proud of yourself!

How About Them Rays!

2008-10-20T21:12:00.006-04:00

The year was 1998. The place was Tropicana Field, right here in St. Petersburg.

I was just ready to get my second Associate in Science degree in Legal Assisting. I had all the courses completed and I was taking an extra Legal Assisting related class on a non-credit basis to round out my schedule now that I was on my way to graduation.

Meanwhile, on a sunny day in St. Petersburg, the Tampa Bay Rays – which was formerly known as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays – began their inaugural season at Tropicana Field. While it was sunny outside, it was a cool 72 degrees inside Tropicana Field, which would make for a great game of baseball. The Rays took on the Detroit Tigers on 31 March 1998 before a sellout crowd of 45,369.

The first ten years of the Rays were anything but. We were basically the laughing stock of the American League East: Finishing last in the season, practically low attendance at Tropicana Field (save for a very miniscule number of near-sellout games), and more losses than wins season after season, not to mention fan dissatisfaction when Vince Naimoli was at the ownership helm.

Ten years later. The year is 2008.

Instead of being the laughing stock of the American League East, our Rays made a complete turnaround. We were winning more games than ever this season and we have had many sellout games. In fact, more than a handful of next to sellout games than past seasons.

We made it to the American League Divisional Series and we managed to beat the Chicago White Sox. We made it to the American League Championship Series and we managed to beat the Boston Red Sox – after seven games. After all, Boston was not going to let go of their defending World Series champion title without a fight. Until the very end at the seventh game on Sunday, 19 October 2008.

Now we made it. The Tampa Bay Rays – long known as the laughing stock of the American League East – is now going to the World Series!

You got that right. The Rays going to the World Series for the first time! I can’t believe it before my own eyes: I was watching Game 7 of the American League Championship Series at home on my widescreen HDTV when – in the top of the 9th Inning – the Red Sox’s Jed Lowrie hit a ground ball to Rays Second Baseman Akinori Iwamura. Once Akinori (or “Aki” for short) stepped on 2nd Base to make that final out history was being made right in front of my eyes on TV. Believe me, here is one Rays fan that was very excited!

There are plenty of things I feel that made the World Series possible for the Tampa Bay Rays. One important item of interest was the day when the word “Devil” was dropped from our team’s name and the uniform and logo was changed. Remember when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the laughing stock of the NFL for years? They changed their uniform and got rid of that “Bucco Bruce” logo that used to be part of the Buccaneers since 1977. And the reward for the Buccaneers? The Bucs are the 2003 Super Bowl champions!

There are more things I feel too that played an important role in the Rays going from the worst to the first. First, the change in managers when Joe Maddon was named the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays back in December 2005 replacing Lou Piniella. Second, when Stuart Sternberg bought into the Rays’ ownership group in 2004 he took a faltering team and basically rebuilt it from the ground up including improvements to Tropicana Field as well as revitalizing the fan experience.

2006 was really the turnaround year for the Rays when attendance began to increase resulting in sellout crowds. 2006 also saw the introduction of the “cowbell” which we Rays fans know by heart now.

Then to 2008 and that (almost!) championship season! The Rays did anything and everything to bring in the crowds to Tropicana Field, especially on Saturdays throughout the regular 2008 Baseball season when the Rays hosted a concert series when we had a home game. The Rays brought in the hottest acts in town including Latin superstar Gilberto Santa Rosa, among other things.

Now we have a baseball team right here in St. Petersburg – a Tampa Bay Rays we can now be proud of. And with the World Series being played right here in St. Petersburg (Games 1 and 2 and possible Games 6 and 7), St. Petersburg has finally earned its place on the map. Just don’t forget, the Tampa Bay Rays play right here in St. Petersburg at Tropicana Field, on the corner of Interstate 275 and its Exit 22, Interstate 175. If any announcer on TV says that the Rays are from Tampa, that announcer did not get a lesson in geography yet.

St. Petersburg celebrates the Rays!

And one more item: Tropicana Field is a great stadium for baseball. Why move to another venue when Tropicana Field is just good enough? Downtown St. Petersburg is a great place for baseball, and Tropicana Field is the perfect place for it.

On another note: I know that tickets for the 2008 World Series at Tropicana Field are hot commodities and practically the only way is to either go on to StubHub.com and purchase tickets (but be prepared to pay a steep premium!) or be one of the lucky few to be selected to purchase tickets from the Rays if you entered your name for the postseason ticket opportunity. If you do plan on going to any game of the 2008 World Series at Tropicana Field, I would like to know if you were successful in getting tickets at a reasonable price.

I personally congratulate the Tampa Bay Rays for the best season - that championship season - ever in 2008!

LET’S GO RAYS! ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE WORLD SERIES!!!

Major updates to EdwardRingwald.com!

2008-09-27T22:49:00.005-04:00

If you have logged in to EdwardRingwald.com starting today (Saturday, 27 September 2008) you may have noticed some updates I have made to the site. Here are the details of the updates I have made to EdwardRingwald.com.

In the Roadtrips category:

I visited the Los Angeles area a little over a year ago over Labor Day weekend 2007 and I brought you photos and much more from that trip. A highlight of this trip is the side excursion to San Diego and across the Mexican border into Tijuana. I recently noticed pages of broken links to the pictures in days 3, 4 and 5 and I have fixed them; turns out I added a preceding zero to the day number when I had it set up otherwise (for example, I had it set up as “Day1” and when I coded the web page to make the links I typed in “Day01” – just a little web design reminder to check your work as you go along for any typos you may make!). But days 3, 4 and 5 have been fixed and the picture links have been brought in line with days 1 and 2.

After a few years here on EdwardRingwald.com it was time to retire the Baltimore and Washington roadtrips I made in 2005 and 2006. Like the other roadtrips I have made in the past my server space is limited and I can’t show all the roadtrips I have made since EdwardRingwald.com premiered in 2000.

In the Interesting Topics category:

In my Christmas 2007 and New Year 2008 post on the Edward Ringwald Blog one of the items I have mentioned was a discussion on one of Florida’s draconian laws, specifically Florida’s trespassing laws and how it is applied in a discriminatory manner when it comes to commercial public places. So, I spent the first half of 2008 crafting a white paper on why Florida’s trespassing laws are a recipe for discrimination and abuse of power. This is a must read for everyone, especially Florida residents, and you should read it word for word.

Another topic I have posted is about the Florida FCAT exam. For you parents of K-12 students out there the FCAT test is a required rite of passage, especially in the 10th grade of high school as this decides whether your child gets a high school diploma or not. I feel that the FCAT test needs to be done away with completely and replaced by meaningful end of course exams that truly reflect what was learned; doing so would put some meaningful education back into Florida’s public schools rather than the FCAT song and dance your children learn presently.

In the Drawbridges of the Pinellas Beaches category:

As we St. Petersburg and Pinellas County residents know the new span of the Johns Pass Bridge is complete and open to traffic. The new bridge is much more beautiful and more attractive than its 1971 northbound counterpart. What makes it so unique for you motorists out there is that the new bridge is concrete all the way across; you will not have to dread the monotonous sound of the steel grid deck which is the case with many of Pinellas County’s other drawbridges.

This is the second new drawbridge to be built with the movable span being a concrete deck. The first new drawbridge to get a concrete deck on the movable span was the new Treasure Island Causeway which opened in 2007.

If you haven’t been by the Johns Pass Bridge lately, you owe it to yourself to take a ride across the new span. If you drive south from Madeira Beach to Treasure Island, when you drive across it has the look and feel of Interstate 275 because of the emergency breakdown shoulder on the right lane. However, this is a new bridge carrying Gulf Blvd. (FL 699) across a body of water created by a hurricane way back in 1848. In fact, you should take a stroll across the new Johns Pass Bridge as it features a much wider sidewalk and observation decks on either side of the movable span; you can even get up close and personal as the drawbridge lifts and the tall boats go by.

The new Johns Pass Bridge is actually the new southbound span that will eventually carry southbound Gulf Blvd. (FL 699) traffic. Presently the new bridge carries two-way traffic while the 1971 northbound span is demolished and a new northbound span is constructed. In fact, I paid a visit to the new Johns Pass Bridge recently and the old steel grid decks have already been taken down. The new northbound span of the Johns Pass Bridge is scheduled to open around 2010.

I have added newer photos of the Johns Pass Bridge showing the construction and opening of the new southbound span for your viewing enjoyment.

In the overall EdwardRingwald.com category:

A security deterrent has been added to all EdwardRingwald.com pages on the site. If you attempt to right click anywhere on any EdwardRingwald.com page including any links you will get a pop-up message. I have tested this out on a few pages with good results and I have decided to apply this security feature site-wide.

I have had a few incidents with MySpace users who either (1) right click on a link to find out the exact URL for an image so that it can be copied onto a user’s MySpace page or (2) worse yet, download the image and then re-upload the image into MySpace. It is true: To download an image you can right click on the link and click on “Save Target As”; indicate where you want the file saved and you are in business.

However, EdwardRingwald.com and my sister site, Interstate275Florida.com, are hosted on shared web servers where I pay a monthly fee for. Part of that monthly fee is for bandwidth; if I go over my monthly bandwidth allotment my web hosting provider charges me for this. My pictures I have posted are my own creation and I don’t like to say this, but I cannot have users from MySpace or any other similar site going around and sapping my bandwidth. In other words, my pictures are there for your viewing pleasure and not for downloading and posting or hyperlinking to your MySpace page. Besides, EdwardRingwald.com and Interstate275Florida.com are copyrighted.

This same security deterrent will be also applied to Interstate275Florida.com when it gets a major update somewhere down the road. But it takes time, especially if you want to do things right.

Hopefully you will like the changes I have made to EdwardRingwald.com recently. Let me know what you think of the changes I have made.

Laptop Computer Miseries!

2008-08-05T20:17:00.004-04:00

I know, it’s been a while since I last made an entry to any of my blogs as well as my websites. However, just after the 4th of July holiday my trusty laptop computer – basically the web design nerve center of both EdwardRingwald.com and Interstate275Florida.com - began acting sluggish. A couple of days later for no apparent reason, when I turned on my laptop it began to report that there are corrupted Windows system files (the files that enable your computer to work) among other things which prevented my laptop from starting up properly as it should. Once I got my laptop going (finally!) I immediately backed up all the files on my laptop – which contains my work on both EdwardRingwald.com and Interstate275Florida.com including revamping work I was doing on Interstate275Florida.com – onto a portable hard drive.

Once that was done, it was off to the Geek Squad located inside Best Buy on North Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, just north of Interstate 275’s Exit 41. The Geek Squad technicians – called “agents” – took a good look at my laptop and it indeed required service. Luckily, my laptop was covered under a service plan I purchased at the same time I purchased my laptop in December 2006 thanks to a wonderful Best Buy sales associate. Ironically, that was the same sales associate who helped me when I purchased my nephew’s laptop when he graduated from high school several months later!

So, out goes the paperwork that the Geek Squad needed to check in my laptop for service. With an in-store turnaround of one week at the time, that meant I would be without my laptop and I would have to be dependent on my two desktop computers I have at home for a while, if not longer. That’s right, no laptop.

One week passed. Geek Squad called me and informed me that there were hardware issues that could not be resolved in the store such as the memory modules, among other things. In short, my laptop had to be sent out to Geek Squad Central for repair. That meant another two weeks without my laptop – ouch!

Welcome to the world of life without my laptop computer.

Things would be a little tougher without my trusty laptop: No checking my email, no working on my websites – I was without my laptop while it was in the hands of the Geek Squad. But I managed to sell a couple of items on eBay using my desktop computer at home. At least that’s what backup computers are for.

All of this while my laptop was shipped out of state for repair.

Another two weeks have gone by without any word on how my laptop is doing. So, I pay a visit to the Geek Squad over at Best Buy one Saturday afternoon while I am out and about to check on its status. You can check the status of your computer repair at Geek Squad online, but it only gives you little information. However, since I was in the vicinity of Best Buy on Dale Mabry and Interstate 275 I stopped by.

Some good news came out of my visit to the Geek Squad:

The good news was that Geek Squad Central found nothing serious with the hardware part of my laptop, which was a relief. The memory modules were OK and the Windows system files were repaired in order to get the laptop working.

Now the bad news:

Due to file corruption issues within the system files of Windows XP, Geek Squad strongly suggested that I reinstall Windows completely from the restore DVDs. Geek Squad offered to do it for me, but I rather save the money for an upcoming trip by doing the Windows restoration by myself. Unfortunately, the extended service plan does not cover software repair, only hardware repair.

So, my laptop was on its way back from Geek Squad Central to Tampa. Wait practically an extra week to allow for UPS to deliver.

I got the telephone call when I got home from work that I was expecting: It was the Geek Squad saying that my laptop was ready to be picked up. In other words, after almost a month without my laptop it was time to be reunited once more.

It was simple as hopping into my car and making the short drive on Interstate 275 to Exit 41 (the Dale Mabry exit) and to Best Buy. I was excited to get my laptop back, minus some difficulty with a Geek Squad agent who was not interested in rendering good customer service when I picked up my laptop (I spoke to the manager about what happened and it was resolved to my satisfaction). Once I had my trusty laptop back in my hands I took it back home.

The next day it was time to reinstall Windows XP using a format and reinstall method to ensure that all the Windows system files are good as intact. But I made sure that I backed up all of my data files – including my website files – before doing so.

I spent practically all Saturday afternoon performing a clean reinstall of Windows XP using the recovery DVDs that I had. By late Saturday night after plenty of laptop restarts and uninstalling unneeded software (as well as installing the software I use) my laptop was back in business. Just restore all the data files and I am good to go, which I have done.

I got to admit, the Geek Squad did the best job possible in identifying what went wrong with my trusty laptop and even took the time to send it out for evaluation and repair. Now I can work on my websites once again.

Without the miseries, of course.

Sometimes Close To Home School is not the case

2008-04-12T21:07:00.002-04:00

If you live in St. Petersburg, Clearwater or anywhere else in Pinellas County and you have children going to public school you know already about the new student assignment plan that will take effect as of the 2008-2009 school year. Since 2000 school assignment in Pinellas County public schools was based on the choice model in which parents chose a school from among so many schools within a given area. For instance, middle schools had three different areas and high schools are one area, being countywide. As a parent, you got to choose the school you want your child to go to. That’s fair enough.

All that is going to change.

After much heated public debate and so many public hearings, the Pinellas County School District adopted a new student assignment plan effective as of the 2008-2009 school year. The intent of this plan is directed by a set of guiding principles, and one of them is to have students attend a school closest to their home. Another item in the guiding principles is that the Pinellas County School District saves money on transportation costs, as it costs quite a sum of money to operate the District’s so many school buses throughout Pinellas County.

Just recently the finalized attendance zone maps were released for middle and high schools; attendance zone maps for the elementary schools have been released but we’ll get to that later. I had a look at these attendance zone maps and, while a school may indeed be close to home, for many that school around the corner which could be a close to home school for you is not your assigned school.

Take Windward Pointe as an example.

Located in the far northeast reaches of the Gandy area of St. Petersburg at 4th Street North and 115th Avenue North, Windward Pointe is a 308-unit condominium complex. It was initially constructed in the early 1970’s as an apartment complex and the second phase was constructed around 1979. Two years later, in 1981 the apartment complex was converted into condominium living units and assumed the current Windward Pointe name. Its location is ideal to Tampa International Airport and Tampa via a direct connection on 4th Street North to Interstate 275 as well as St. Petersburg via 4th Street North south to Gandy Boulevard and beyond. The Carillon Office Park, home to numerous well known St. Petersburg companies, is located nearby and makes a quick commute for Windward Pointe residents who work there.

If you have children who live at Windward Pointe who go to school, you think that Meadowlawn Middle School (4.97 miles) and Northeast High School (5.45 miles) are the closest schools for your child. Under the Choice model Northeast High was accessible to you as there is one attendance area for high schools and that is countywide; however, for middle school Meadowlawn is not accessible to you because it is located in Middle School Attendance Area A. Instead, Windward Pointe is located in Middle School Attendance Area B and you could only choose from the following middle schools: Morgan Fitzgerald, Largo, Madeira Beach, Osceola, Pinellas Park or Seminole.

You got that right. None of these middle schools are in St. Petersburg. Under the Choice model your child has to travel a great distance to one of these middle schools; for example, Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School is 9.02 miles from Windward Pointe.

With the Close To Home Model coming in the 2008-2009 school year your choices for middle and high school are very limited. Again, you think that Northeast High School and Meadowlawn Middle School will become Close To Home schools for you: Think again.

Under the Close To Home Model if you live in Windward Pointe your children are going to be bussed to schools which are further than Northeast High or Meadowlawn Middle. So, your children that are entering the 6th Grade in 2008-2009 will be bussed to Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School (a distance of 9.02 miles) and those entering the 9th Grade in 2008-2009 will be bussed to Pinellas Park High School (a distance of 9.16 miles). Again, none of these schools are in St. Petersburg: Your children are going to be bussed to Largo because that’s where the two schools are located. Both schools are located on 118th Avenue North just east of 66th Street North.

Now if you are wondering where you would live to have your children attend Meadowlawn Middle and Northeast High Schools: The dividing line for middle and high schools is none other than Gandy Boulevard. That means those living south of Gandy Boulevard in the far northeast area of St. Petersburg can attend Meadowlawn and Northeast, while those north of Gandy Boulevard have practically no choice but to be bussed to Morgan Fitzgerald and Pinellas Park. Unless, of course, you get your child into one of the magnet programs offered at the schools or try to get into the school you want during the open enrollment period which I believe will be in August 2008 before the new school year starts.

In my opinion, the Pinellas County School District has done quite a disservice to the residents of Windward Pointe as well as the rest of the far northeast St. Petersburg area north of Gandy Boulevard as far as middle and high school assignments are concerned. Why?

First, the school assignments are a clear violation of the District’s Guiding Principles when the Close To Home Model was adopted. Not only will be a major expense to the District when it comes to transporting these students to these too distant schools, students on board the school buses will be mixed in with the morning and evening commutes. That means too much transit time when our children can participate in after school activities and/or to get homework done.

Second, Windward Pointe along with the rest of the immediate far northeast area of St. Petersburg loses its identity as a St. Petersburg community. Personally, I believe your children should go to school in the community that you live in. If you live in St. Petersburg, your children should be going to St. Petersburg area schools, not shipped off to Pinellas Park or Largo. This can also have the potential to drive property values downward, especially in an already depressed real estate market.

Why will it affect the real estate market as far as Windward Pointe is concerned? Families with children depend on quality education from our public schools; after all, all Pinellas County property owners have to pay taxes to the Pinellas County School District whether you have children going to school or not. People ask as part of the neighborhood evaluation process in buying a home what schools their children will have to go to. Once it is learned that children are going to have to be bussed to a distant school as opposed to the nearest school people will more than likely think twice before buying into a neighborhood.

Now for the flip side of the Close To Home coin: Elementary schools. How does that fare for which elementary school your child will be going to, especially if your child is starting school for the first time or just moved in. After all, Pinellas County has so many elementary schools.

Let’s look at the elementary school assignment, again from a Windward Pointe perspective like we did with middle and high school assignments. You may be surprised.

You will be pleased to know that your assigned elementary school is a close to home school and located in St. Petersburg. That elementary school is Sawgrass Lake Elementary School, which is located on 77th Avenue North just west of 16th Street North. At least in elementary school your children will not be bussed to a distant school outside of St. Petersburg and somewhere in the far reaches of Pinellas County.

My recommendation would be for the Pinellas County School District to go back and revisit their middle and high school close to home school assignment maps. Perhaps the boundary line for middle and high schools ought to be redrawn so that it follows Interstate 275 all the way to the Howard Frankland Bridge. I feel it is the people who live west of Interstate 275 and north of Gandy Boulevard – which is the Carillon and Feather Sound areas – that Morgan Fitzgerald and Pinellas Park should really be their close to home schools and those east of Interstate 275 and north of Gandy Boulevard should be assigned to Meadowlawn and Northeast as their close to home middle and high schools respectively.

There’s a related article in the St. Petersburg Times where a Palm Harbor mother was hoping to send her daughter to a close to home school, Palm Harbor University High School. However, it turns out that her daughter will have to be bussed to Tarpon Springs High School, which is much further away. You can read this article just by clicking on this link.

Now I want your reaction to the Pinellas County School District’s Close To Home school assignment plan.