Current topics -- or, inside my cluttered brain

I mentioned a few months ago that I carry around a low-tech data-storage device (that is, a piece of paper) with a list of possible column topics. The list tends to get scratched out, scribbled and stained, and every few weeks I make a new one. The trouble is that of the long list of possible topics, I usually only have time to learn about a few.

Also, I am trying to wrestle with a philosophical blog question -- is it OK to deal w/ some of these topics on a electronic-only basis, even if they don't make the print edition? Will this question be phrased in exactly the opposite way in a couple of years? I want blog readers to feel that I am giving them my best effort and NOT merely parroting what's in the print edition. But I confess to a certain psychological hurdle in getting there -- anything that I spend a certain amount of time researching, I also tend to want to be a print column.

Here's the topics list I am trying to organize at the moment -- it's in NO order at all, except I divided it into legislative and non-legislative sections, since this time of year a lot of topics deal with proposed bills. I wish you would point out other things you think I should be paying attention to, particularly at the state and community level. (I am less inclined to write grand columns about global and national affairs, unless I believe that I can have something useful to say at the community level.)

NON-LEGISLATIVE

St. Pete's land-grab in proposed Tierra Verde annexation. Rouson election/closed vs open primaries. Palm Harbor rec center roof. What the &**& is this Raytheon "plume" in west St Pete? What steps do school systems take about teacher-student sex in advance, e.g., counseling services, advance counseling & training. Those illegal campaign contributions not prosecuted in Tampa. Bill Nelson vs. the Electoral College. Pending 2nd Amendment ruling in U.S. Supreme Court. Latest plans for Brooker Creek Preserve. Controversy over Australian pines, an invasive species although some oppose its removal.

Legal argument behind the current Allstate fight. This weird battle involving the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Failure of Florida's political system to deal w/ its top two problems (taxes, insurance). Hillsborough county-mayor fight. Relative strengths of Tampa vs. St. Pete city councils. La Entrada/Toytown development. Movement to privatize toll roads. Status of public-access lawsuits in Hillsborough; government-access lawsuits v Bright House everywhere. Tarpon Springs ongoing Wal-Mart fight, w/ the underdogs winning? Same w/ Pasco malls? What's status of the Everglades compact and cleanup?

Impacts of proposed same-sex marriage amendment (many conflicting claims on what it does, e.g. domestic partner benefits). Big pipeline proposal status in Tampa; all I remember is that a big one was proposed. Legal challenges to Save Our Homes, any validity? Status of state Department of Juvenile Justice and the new juvenile "blueprint" just announced. Pending  election in St. Pete Beach on "Save Our Little Village" proposals (otherwise known as "Rocky, Part XXIII"). Shouldn't Florida join the interstate compact on Internet taxes?

LEGISLATIVE

Ken Pruitt's proposed destruction of state university independence -- still an open question of whether the House will pass it. The "1.35% solution" on property taxes. I wish I understood this CSX deal. What happened to the bills on teaching evolution, on growth management, on citizen input at public meetings, on pre-abortion ultrasounds, and on new rules for petition-gatherers? How can we as citizens possibly grasp the impact of budget cuts -- the biggest are human services and education... I am thinking of a contrarian column on why plugging tax "loopholes" doesn't solve our problems.

The 2008 topics list

I carry around a low-tech, static "data-storage device" (in other words, a piece of paper) with a list of potential column topics. The list has no real rhyme or reason, and some topics stay there for months before I just cross them off.

I cheerfully ignore my list whenever something comes up in the news that merits a column. I also cheerfully ignore my list when I am fed up with the news or just want a change of pace. The idea is to end up, on average, at a happy median between Too Trivial and Too Boring...

Here's some of what's on my current list. Most of it will never see the light of day as a column, I fear. Feel free to suggest other topics or give me a shove in the right direction...

* The property tax cut on the Jan. 29 ballot, of course. Probably my topic for tomorrow's newspaper.

* The St. Petersburg baseball stadium proposal, of course. On an ongoing basis.

* The status of the Hometown Democracy movement, which faces a Feb. 1 deadline for getting enough signatures to be on the November ballot.

* Whether we ought to support a neuter and release program for feral cats. (Hey, I TOLD you there's no rhyme or reason or ranking of priorities here.) There's an event coming up in Hillsborough this month that I promised to look into.

* This ruling by the EPA that cracks down on states like Florida that want to have tougher emissions standards. My off-the-cuff reaction is to be angry, but I saw we had an editorial the other day that said it was a reasonable decision. I want to know more.

* St. Pete's attempts to annex parts of Tierra Verde, and the suspicions of residents as to why. In a related vein, the proposals for higher tolls to the barrier islands and points south. The problem of annexation in Pinellas County in general, especially in the Lealman area. The ongoing Wal-Mart fight in Tarpon Springs. The city of St. Petersburg's foot-dragging over vendors at Albert Whitted Airport.

* Whether to have a county mayor in Hillsborough, and the county's decision to fight a county-mayor petition. I still have half an itch to do a public-records request and figure how much it cost to make Commissioner Al Higgenbotham's holiday-greetings commercial at public expense.

* The open fire hydrants at the southern tip of St. Petersburg, an almost daily event to flush the city's water system (I happen to live down there and see it all the time.) I'd like to videotape it and show it to the governors of Georgia and Alabama.

* A look ahead at curriculum reform in Florida and what our Legisalature might do. Touches on the whole evolution-vs.-faith thing but that's just one piece.

* Florida's energy future, especially now that several coal plants have bit the dust, along with the real usefulness of biofuel and the governor's global warming efforts.

* Odds and ends: Whatever happened to the USF kids thrown out for blowing up plastic soda bottles with water and dry ice. Compensation for wrongly imprisoned Alan Crotzer. The quest for a new state song. Whether to privatize toll roads such as the Sunshkine Skyway. Visiting St. Petersburg's homeless camp and visiting a public-school science class.

* More odds and ends: The status of the lawsuits against Bright House for moving government access channels. I want to stick up for state Sen. Charlie Justice's bill, which he has filed again this year, to crack down on local governments that take sides in their own elections. I'd like to know more about the various malls and development springing up in Pasco County and the near "border war" between Pasco and Hillsborough over development.

* Yet more odds and ends: A proposed pipeline trunning hrough Tampa. The upcoming same-sex marriage amendment. Whether the Bush Administration ever followed up on the idea of selling parts of the Ocala National Forest. The status of the Everglades. The rules for buying and selling used music CDs in Florida, which apparently are more rigorously than for guns. The never ending-fights over feeding ducks in various Pinellas burgs.

Again, happy new year to all... is it too early to start plugging the return of the weekly live chat next Tuesday?

The Readers: Baby, It's Coal Outside, And, By The Way, You're Liberal

First, this friendly chastisement from reader Edward Porter on Sunday's column on Progress Energy Florida:

Troxler, even a good man can be blindsided, undermined and led down the primrose path... The public's lawyer has the right and obligation to reopen a decade's worth of fuel charges... We do not owe Progress' investors a stable environment, when they owe us.

On the other hand, this from former company lawyer Jim McGee:

As a former Progress Energy/Florida Power lawyer, it does my heart good to see someone recognize that even the power company can have the equities on its side every now and then... anyway, thanks for making my day.

Sigh. Fortunately, before I become too depressed at being praised by my friends at the electric company, this bracing comment on (I infer) the dismissal of gender-changing Steve Stanton in Largo:

I have been reading your paper daily for 35 years and I am finally fed up with your liberal agenda.  I am canceling my subscription and will encourage others to do the same.  Perhaps you think that the general public in Pinellas County is liberal or that you can educate us by insulting us with your liberal rhetoric.  In case you haven't noticed a majority of us voted Republican in the last several elections and practically none of us are interested in your gay, lesbian diversified agenda.  By the way I still vote to fire Steve Stanton. -- Charles Train, Largo

To which I am thinking: You put up with it for 35 years? I woulda quit a long time ago. Don't worry, though; the majority of readers who agree with you are equally strong on the point that we haven't fooled them. They are, however, worried about their more weak-minded neighbors who might be taken in.

By the way, the comments are still going strong in the Stanton debate to be found below -- more than 200 so far. If you can think of something new to say, have at it.

Howard-festo: What Would Barry Say?

Liberal media? Riiiiight. I am putting this post here so that I can send people to it as a reply when they throw out that knee-jerk "liberal" label, instead of talking about the actual merits of an issue.

Nobody is "liberal" or "conservative" on every  issue (few of us, anyway). We're all mixed bags. Me, I support the death penalty, the Second Amendment, gay marriage & Roe v. Wade. I also thought Clinton lied under oath and deserved to be impeached. Go figure.

I was in a cranky mood about people who use labels instead of their brains the day I wrote this.