Mitch Perry - page 520

On Tuesday, the Florida Public Service Commission is expected to eliminate energy efficiency goals for several electric utilities operating in the state, accepting their contention that it costs more to conserve energy than it does to build more power plants. They’re also expected to decide on whether or not to rollback a solar pilot program, which offers a rebate for customers installing home solar water heating systems. Today a group of activists held a conference call on the eve of…

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On page three of your Tampa Bay Times this morning is a quarter-page ad paid for by Americans for Prosperity, calling on Republican Congressmen Gus Bilirakis and Vern Buchanan to oppose wind subsidies. The ad says that “Extending the wind energy handout will cost $13 billion over the next decade,” with one photo of a wind farm and another of dollars being printed. It then advocates that readers call the two GOP representatives to oppose such wind subsidies. Two weeks…

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President Obama’s announcement on Thursday night that he would sign an executive order shielding up to five million undocumented immigrants from deportation predictably has outraged Republicans, but the question about how they’ll fight his action is still being decided. On Friday afternoon, House Speaker John Boehner announced that he was following through on a threat to sue the President – but on the Affordable Care Act, not immigration. The Miami Herald’s Mark Caputo has a fascinating story about how many of…

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Sparks flew on Sunday’s Meet The Press when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani sparred with professor and author Michael Eric Dyson when discussing violence in the black community. The duo were part of a panel discussion on the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which led to civic unrest earlier this summer. A grand jury is expected to soon on whether it will indict the white officer, Darren Wilson, who shot Brown, an unarmed black teenager.…

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Democratic Party political adviser Steve Schale and Republican consultant Adam Goodman are two of the very best strategists in Florida, so it was entertaining to hear the two pontificating about this month’s election results in Florida on Friday. Speaking at a Tampa Tiger Bay event at Maestro’s restaurant inside the Straz Performing Arts Center on Friday afternoon, Schale had a bit more of an inside look, as he was a close adviser to Charlie Crist’s unsuccessful bid for governor, while…

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It was one of the wild-cards in what was otherwise in an all too predictable gubernatorial contest dominated by millions of dollars spent on negative television ads. While appearing as a guest on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” back in February, Charlie Crist announced it was time for the 53-year economic embargo against Cuba to end. “I don’t think it worked,” he said on the live broadcast. “It is is obvious to me that we need to move forward and…

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Beach Park resident Jackie Toledo has a full life, but she wants more. A senior project engineer at CPH Engineers in Tampa, she’s also a mom to five kids, has created a summer arts camp for children and serves on the Tampa Mayor’s Advisory Council. Not bad for an immigrant who came to the U.S. from Peru at the age of  five over three decades ago. Now she’s running for political office for the first time in her life, and even…

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