Tampa Food Not Bombs Will Not Be Prosecuted

This press release came from State Attorney Andrew Warren's office.

Tampa, FL – Andrew Warren, the newly-elected State Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County, will not prosecute volunteers from Tampa Food Not Bombs who were arrested for trespassing for feeding the homeless earlier this year. On January 7, 2017, seven volunteers were arrested for trespass for distributing food to the homeless in Lykes Gaslight Square Park, a Tampa-owned park, without the required city permit. The seven volunteers were issued notices to appear in court before a judge, at which time the case was referred to the State Attorney’s Office for prosecution. The first volunteer’s appearance was scheduled for January 18, 2017. Today, the State Attorney’s Office filed a Notice of Nolle Prosequi for the first of the trespassing arrests, which serves as a dismissal of the case. The State Attorney’s Office will dismiss the cases for the remaining six defendants after those appearances are scheduled.

Regarding his decision not to prosecute, Warren said, “My mission is to make our community safer while promoting justice and fairness for everyone. Prosecuting people for charitable work does not further that mission and is an inefficient use of government resources. Furthermore, our goal is to view each case not as a person to be prosecuted but as a problem to be solved. That is why we have spoken with the Tampa Police Department, members of Tampa City Council, the Mayor’s office, and the attorney for Tampa Food Not Bombs in order to facilitate a resolution, and we commend them for working together to find a sensible solution. We will not prosecute the trespassing charges so long as the Tampa Food Not Bombs organization willingly participates in reaching a resolution to this matter and remains non-violent.”

Andrew Warren was sworn-in as the State Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, serving Hillsborough County, on January 3, 2017, after being elected on November 8, 2016. He was previously a federal prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice in Tampa, FL, and Washington, DC, and earned multiple accolades from the Justice Department and federal law enforcement agencies for his prosecution of complex white collar crime, including the 2013 Attorney General Award for Trial Litigation. A native of Gainesville, FL, Mr. Warren graduated from Brandeis University as a double-major in economics and political science before earning his J.D. from Columbia University Law School.

This is a good decision. It does not help Tampa's reputation to prosecute a charity organization attempting to feed the homeless. Sadly, downtown Tampa is filled with homeless people. The City of Tampa needs to address the housing situation for the homeless. There are simply not enough shelter beds for the homeless.

Rick Scott Campaigns With No Enthusiasm

Why is Adam Smith surprised that Rick Scott cannot connect with voters. What Governor has he been covering the last 4 year. Scott made a campaign stop in West Tampa today. Scott showed all the charisma of one of the zombies from the gore porn TV show The Walking Dead.

Maybe the enthusiastic young lady who got in his face inquiring whether he would return more than $1-million in campaign contributions from Duke Energy put Scott in a sour mood. Maybe he's just tired. But there was nothing in the body language of him or his campaign in Tampa today that projected confidence or cheer. Few TV cameras were on hand early enough to get him on the midday news, and even a few TV reporters who were there missed him because he left so quickly.

Odd

There is nothing odd about this. Scott's aides on several occasions have rushed their boss out of press conferences. Scott recently had a public freak out when voters questioned him about the minimum wage. Who knows why Scott behaves this way but he is not the greatest campaigner in the world.

Why Bob Buckhorn Isn't Endorsing Charlie Crist

I wish Tampa Mayor would get off the sidelines and endorse Charlie Crist. I'm sorry Mr. Mayor but the current batch of Republicans aren't interested in bipartisanship. From TBO.com.

"I've told everyone both Rick Scott and the Democratic potential nominees that I'm on the sidelines," he said. "I'm not endorsing. I'm not getting involved."

Buckhorn stressed the need for bipartisanship.

"I have to work with Democrats and Republicans," Buckhorn said. "I've been working with the governor for the past three years. I've been working with the Republican legislature for the last three years."

Translation: Buckhorn is afraid that Republicans will provide no funding in the budget for Tampa if he endorses Crist. Buckhorn is probably right. Endorsements have been a routine thing for members of both parties. Now Democrats like Buckhorn are afraid Republicans are willing to making residents in Tampa suffer over a single endorsement. The Florida legislature is willing to let millions go without health care because they don't want to provide President Barack Obama with a political victory by expanding Medicaid. They would certainly have no problem shafting Buckhorn.

Disturbing Police Treatment of Tampa Homeless Woman

FOX 13 News

This a horrible video of Tampa police officer Scott Van Treese hogtying and dragging Sonya Mimminger into the Orient Road Jail. FOX 13 reports the woman dragged, Sonya Mimminger, was later taken to Tampa General Hospital. The article doesn't make clear if it was for treatment from injuries related to her arrest.

Mimminger is a homeless woman. She was arrested on a drug charge. Fox 13 reports she was scared to talk to them.

The 36-year-old woman is homeless, but FOX 13 found her on the streets of Tampa.

Initially, she was hesitant to talk -- "There's nothing I can do about it," she offered. But she then agreed to look at the video and answer some questions.

"He did me like a little rag muffin," she offered. "I wonder why he'd drag me like that?"

What is distubing is that Mimminger feels that there is "nothing" she can do about her treatment at the hands of Officer Van Treese. Mimminger is poor and homeless. Many like her have no voice in the community.

Officer Van Treese has been received a written reprimand. I'm actually surprised he got a slap on the wrist.

Tampa Church Refuses Gay Man's Funeral

Via Daily Kos: The New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, in Tampa, Florida, denied funeral services to the departed Julion Evans. The late Evans passed away from the rare disease Amyloidosis.

Julie Atwood, the mother of Evans, was informed that the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church would not perform the funeral.

Atwood said she was told it would be "blasphemous" to hold the services at the church because her son, Julion Evans, 42, was gay.

From a First amendment standpoint, the church is within its right not to perform the funeral. Although, I take exception to the church's understanding of the Bible. There is no literal passage in the Bible that states homosexuality as a sin. There is a good argument that the homosexual acts mentioned in Romans is condemning the Romans raping young male slaves.

What many of these so-called Christians lack is compassion. Ms. Atwood was devastated.

"It was devastating," she said. "I did feel like he was being denied the dignity of death."

Pastor T.W. Jenkins gave a bullshit answer to the media on why the funeral was cancelled.

Based on our preaching of the scripture, we would have been in error to allow the service in our church," Jenkins said. "I'm not trying to condemn anyone's lifestyle, but at the same time, I am a man of God, and I have to stand up for my principles."

Bullshit. Jenkins is condemning Evans's lifestyle. He should be man enough to admit it.

Rockford Files Answering Machine Messages

James Garner was a great leading man. His recent passing is sad. The several different answering machine messages shows the brilliant writing of The Rockford Files.

The great Helen Popkin wrote a fantastic article on The Rockford Files answering machine. Helen got quotes from people that were longtime fixtures of the Tampa underground music scene. Helen played bass in several Tampa bands.

Guacapocalypse Now: Chipotle Warns Investors of Climate Change

Chipotle Inc. has warned investors that climate change may change the ingredients of items on its menu.

“Increasing weather volatility or other long-term changes in global weather patterns, including any changes associated with global climate change, could have a significant impact on the price or availability of some of our ingredients,” the popular chain, whose Sofritas vegan tofu dish recently went national, said in its annual report released last month. “In the event of cost increases with respect to one or more of our raw ingredients we may choose to temporarily suspend serving menu items, such as guacamole or one or more of our salsas, rather than paying the increased cost for the ingredients.”

Chipotle fans can take heart. There is no looming guacamole crisis. Side note: I never thought I would type that last sentence.

But there's no reason for Chipotle fans to panic, says company spokesman Chris Arnold. He tells us that the warning included in the SEC filing is just a routine disclosure of risk factors that could impact business.

"There is no looming 'guacapocalypse' and I wouldn't read too much into this," Arnold tells The Salt in an email.

Chipotle Inc. has been committed to green business policies. The Chipotle restaurants in your area buy produce from local organic farmers. In Tampa, Chipotle has teamed up with Truck Farm Tampa to educate people on organic food. You can learn more about Truck Farm Tampa by contacting visiting www.truckfarmtampa.com.

View of Tampa From Space

Via Bay News 9: a view of Tampa from the International Space Station.

Shooting At Tampa Movie Theater

Two people have been shot at the Cobb Theaters Grove 16 in the Wesley Chapel section of Tampa. A male suapect is in police custody. The shoot victims were sent by helicopter to a hospital. I will update this post as more information comes in.

This is so sad. What a stupid reason to kill someone.

A man was shot dead and his wife wounded after an argument over texting in a movie theater Monday afternoon in Wesley Chapel, Florida, Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said.

The suspect, Curtis Reeves, is a retired Tampa police officer, Nocco said. He will be charged with second-degree homicide, according to Nocco.

It is horrifying to think that Curtis Reeves once had a badge.

Apparently, Reeves and Chad Oulson argued over the use of Oulson's cell phone. Oulson told Reeves that he was texting his daughter.

"Their voices started going up. There seemed to almost be a confrontation," Cummings said. "Somebody throws popcorn; I'm not sure who threw it. And then bang, he was shot."

The victim staggered over and fell on Cummings and his son. A nurse who was in the theater performed CPR on the victim until the paramedics arrived, said Cummings, who like his son, had spatters of blood on his clothes.

Reeves shot and killed Oulson right in front of a young boy. What is wrong with this man?

Meet William "Hoe" Brown

William "Hoe" Brown is a slumlord. Hoe, as his friends call him, is also a Republican fundraiser. The Hoe Man has has contributed to the Orwellian named Save Our Homes and Rachel Burgin's Florida House campaign.

Mr. Hoe was the chairman Hillsborough County's Homeless Recovery program. HCHR was looking to house homeless people. Mr. Hoe Down had the money making idea of housing the homeless in his slum properties. Kill two birds with one stone and make some extra cash. This went on for 16 years.

TAMPA — The manager of Hillsborough County’s Homeless Recovery Program resigned Monday after it was disclosed the department paid more than $625,000 to Republican fund raiser William “Hoe” Brown to house clients in substandard apartments.

One of Brown's properties homeless people were referred to was a crack den in Seminole Heights.

The hotel has been ticketed by code enforcement officers 14 times in the past 10 years. Ctations ranged from derelict cars to apartments with no smoke detectors. Code officers described the hotel as a deteriorated structure.

Homeless Recovery claims they never received complaints or knowingly referred homeless people to Brown's slum properties. Emails show that is a lie.

The rent for one resident, Sharmel Troupe, and her boyfriend came to $388 for a three-week stay in a bug-infested corner of a converted garage. The couple bought caulk to combat the bugs. In interviews with the Times, managers said the agency does not refer clients to specific properties. And they insisted they had never gotten a complaint about Brown's rental properties. Neither was true, according to hundreds of emails the Times examined.

Brown and County Administrator Mike Merrill have resigned. Merrill's role in the scandal is being investigated. Don't expect charges to be filed against Brown or Merrill. That is not how things or done in Florida politics.

Justice For Travon Rally Photos

Stogie has pictures of the Justice For Trayvon Martin rally at the Sam Gibbons Federal Court House in Tampa.

Justice For Trayvon Rally in Tampa

There will be a Justice For Trayvon rally on July 20th. Here is the information.

WHERE:Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse

WHEN: 12:00 PM

Contact: PUSH – Persists Until Something Happens 813-325-7715 Jebony21@gmail.com

Check this link to find a rally in your part of the country.

Bad News For Tampa Job Market

The current Manpower employment survey rates Tampa as second weakest job market in the country. Manpower says only 11 percent of businesses are hiring in the Tampa area. 10 percent of companies are planning to cutback on hiring. The brief WFLA article doesn't indicate if this includes layoffs. The nationwide average for businesses hiring is 22 percent. Tampa is at half that mark.

Tampa In News for Mother/Daughter Porn

Tampa, Florida is in the news again. A real-life mother and daughter were nearly evicted from their home. They decided to make porn videos together to save their home.

In order to confirm the Sexxxtons are really related and not just claiming that as a marketing gimmick, The Huffington Post reviewed both women's driver's licenses, and their private Facebook pages, as well as private family photos going back 20 years.

Although mother and daughter have sex in the same room at the same time -- often with the same male or female partner -- they insist that their encounters are not incestuous. For legal and personal reasons, they don't actually touch each other during sex scenes.

The mother, Jessica, and daughter, Monica cannot touch each other during sex. They don't touch so they are not challenging incest laws. Mother and daughter both have sex with a male or female partner. Florida law considers incest penetration between male and female members of the family.

Whoever knowingly marries or has sexual intercourse with a person to whom he or she is related by lineal consanguinity, or a brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece, commits incest, which constitutes a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084. "Sexual intercourse" is the penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ, however slight; emission of semen is not required.

Mother Jessica works as an escort in Tampa.

The Downtown Tampa Market

The Downtown Tampa Market makes a successfultransition from Fridays. bit.ly/WahGIN twitter.com/TB_Times/statu…

— Tampa Bay Times(@TB_Times) October 15, 2012

The Downtown Tampa Market is on the 600 to 700 block of Franklin Street. The market is open from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The Downtown Market looks like fun and hopefully I can go check it out soon. Support Mom & Pop businesses.

Email Updates From the City of Tampa

You can sign up to receive email updates on the latest that is going on with Mayor Buckhorn, the police department construction projects and other City of Tampa-related events.

Numbers for Republican National Convention

The City of Tampa have released the numbers for the Republican National Convention. There were only two arrests five incidents of heat stroke. There were only a small number of protesters at the RNC. Media seemed to outnumber everyone else.

Anyone downtown would have noticed the huge police presence. It cost $50 million for the extra law enforcement. The Hill estimated that police outnumbered protesters 4 to 1 on the cancelled Monday. From what I saw, the police to protester ratio was much higher.

Food Not Bombs at Tampa RNC

WUSF reports that Food Not Bombs will be feeding protesters during the Republican National Convention. Food Not Bombs will be at Voice of Freedom Park during the convention.

Food Not Bombs founder John McHenry told WUSF that the Tampa RNC was chosen for their world gathering because of Florida's strict anti-homeless laws. Food Not Bombs have had several run-ins with law enforcement for feeding the homeless in public parks. Apparently, the parks are public until someone tries to feed homeless people.

Voice of Freedom Park is owned by Joe Redner, the owner of Mons Venus and liberal activist. Redner is currently letting Occupy Tampa use the park. The Tampa Police Department is forcing Redner to evict Occupy Tampa by September 15th.

"I am not making them leave," Redner says. "The city was kicking protesters out of public parks downtown. They were being harassed and getting put in jail. I thought I was doing the city a favor by letting them stay at my park, but I know they can't stay forever."

Redner also said that the Occupiers have caused no problems for the surrounding communities. The area near Voice of Freedom Park is poor. Occupy Tampa is hardly dropping the property values.

Tampa RNC Strip Club Update

It is no secret that Tampa strip clubs are looking to make big money from the Republican National Convention in Tampa. There was this tidbit in the New York Times that I found hysterical.

As further evidence of the clubs' nonpartisan appeal, Don Kleinhans, the owner of the 2001 Oddsssey, said when the Promise Keepers, a male evangelical group, came to town years ago, business was rollicking.

"We had phenomenal numbers all weekend, and they walked in wearing badges and name tags and weren't shy at all," he said.

I bet Republicans would be embarrassed if Occupy Tampa was protesting outside and video-recorded delegates entering the clubs. I am not saying that should be done or those videos should be posted on Youtube. If those videos are on Youtube, I wouldn't suggest you send me the link. Especially, if it is a famous Republican. I would never ever suggest such a thing.

It may not be possible to film Republicans entering several of the strip clubs. The clubs are making special VIP entrances the aren't visible to the general public. That doesn't mean it is impossible for someone with mad ninja skills to get record a video of a prominent Republican. It would be most unfortunate if that was to happen. However, citizen journalists have the First amendment on their side.

The Gunshine State

Alternet has a must-read piece on Florida's worst laws. The law that deeply disturbs me is gun owner are now allowed to carry weapons into state buildings.

Another provision of the law is truly frightening. It makes it easier for anyone to bring a concealed weapon into the state government complex in Tallahassee. No longer can police ask people to check their weapons before entering the state capitol itself. Adding insult to injury, many lawmakers spent taxpayer money to install emergency alert buttons on their phones, just in case someone starts shooting. But as one Democratic senator notes, panic buttons won’t be much good if someone charges into a government office with guns blazing. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says violent crime has fallen statewide, but gun-related deaths increased 35 percent from 1999 to 2009. And here’s something that really worries gun opponents: In a state with 19 million residents, there are 6 million gun owners, almost a million of whom can now carry concealed weapons.

Republicans caving into the whims of the NRA is the reason we now have the Stand Your Ground law. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn plans on setting up a "clean zone" at the Republican National Convention. Items such as water pistols, glass bottles and rope longer than six inches will be banned from the clean zone. The one item that won't be banned is guns. That is because the Florida legislature took away the power for towns and cities to create their own gun ordinances.

"If we'd tried to regulate guns, it wouldn't have worked," said City Attorney Jim Shimberg. "Any local ordinance that regulates guns is void"

This creates a safety nightmare for the Secret Service and law enforcement. This is what happens when the legislature places the interest of the paranoid over public safety.

Side note: I bet we aren't going to hear any Republicans talk about violent revolution or watering the tree of liberty in Tampa.