Janelle Irwin - page 189

If the massive blowback from St. Pete voters over the fate of St. Pete’s iconic inverted pyramid is any indication, ‘burgers don’t like their landmarks being messed with. But they’re probably going to be OK with this one. The massive globe sign marking the corner of Central Avenue and 16 Street in front of World Liquors is coming down. It’s a cool sign, but what’s going to replace it is even cooler. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the plot…

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All of the incumbent Tampa City Council members running for re-election have challengers for the 2015 municipal election, but they don’t all have formidable ones. Mike Suarez faces community activist Susan Long for his countywide district 1 seat. Long, a Seminole Heights resident and frequent public speaker at meetings, has raised just shy of $500. All of the funding was brought in during October with one Tampa couple, Helen and Randy Baron, providing more than half of her contributions. Long…

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Fundraising in the three-way race to replace outgoing Tampa City Council member Charlie Miranda continues to grow well over $100,00 with Jackie Toledo leading the way with more than $67,000 raked in as of the end of October. Toledo faces Thomas Clark Castellano and Guido Maniscalco. Castellano owns an air conditioning company and Maniscalco is a vintage watch retailer. Toledo is a 25-year Tampa resident originally from Peru. She works as a civil engineer and runs a performing arts school…

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Congressman David Jolly is asking President Barack Obama not to issue an executive order to enforce parts of Immigration Reform Congress has yet to approve. The executive action is expected to expand deferred action of undocumented children to their families and could stall deportations of as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants. Deferred action currently only applies to those who had no legal status in the U.S. on June 15, 2012 and were younger than 31 on that same date.…

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In what is so far one of Tampa’s most competitive fundraising battles for city council candidates, incumbent Harry Cohen is just out-raising his opponent Kent King. Cohen has so far brought in $48,450 while King, a relative outsider, has managed to raise $35,587. The latest fundraising numbers for October were released this week. During that month, Cohen brought in $5,200 and King $3,456. Both candidates’ fundraising efforts seemed to have slowed after peaks in August and September when Cohen brought…

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The St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce is celebrating a win for equality this week. Mayor Rick Kriseman and other local leaders announced a perfect score on the 2014 Municipal Equality Index. In an email today, chamber president Chris Steinocher touted the recognition, which is based on the city’s policies, ordinances and available LGBT services. In 2013, the chamber adopted a phrase to go along with its diversity task force, “The Chamber values diversity and equality as core fundamentals of…

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St. Petersburg is officially gay-friendly. Based on the annual nationwide Municipal Equality Index rating, St. Pete earned a perfect score on its level of LGBT equality. “I’m proud to say our score is the best in the Tampa ay region,” mayor Rick Kriseman said during a press conference on the steps of City Hall. The city received a score of 100, up from just 66 last year. “This dramatic increase in our score is not an accident. Here in St.…

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