Sunday Morning Coming Down

This is the Miami Herald's final word on the battle over the County's Libraries.  The libraries as currently configured spend about $50 Million Dollars, The library special taxing districts raise about $30 Million Dollars.  Completely funding the library system is estimated to cost $64 Million Dollars.  Raising the additional $34 Million Dollars would require raising the millage rate for the libraries $17 dollars per $100,000 of valuation. The paper rightly reads the mayor and commissioners as not wanting to raise taxes and not wanting to cut services.  The public says they want good properly staffed libraries, that are open at convenient hours and not far from home, but I'm not sure they want to pay for that service. I am an avid reader, I don't use the library as much as I might because I still buy books.  Electronic books, the Internet and having a Barnes and Noble on the corner a five minute walk away give me choices others may not have.  My library...

Since leaving the Miami Herald and passing on my 2-3 days of walking as a form of exercise I have been more concerned about calories, weight, and health.  I had an ipod nano with a pedometer that kept track of steps while working and listening to the radio while walking on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. 35,000 steps in two days was the work routine.  I slept well on nights after work but was stiff and sore as well.  The ipod was stolen, replaced by a cheaper mp3 player with a radio, no pedometer. I'm on my third pedometer and am happy with it so far.  It automatically tracks all steps and aerobic steps taken if the walk is ten minutes or longer.  It figures how many steps per minute, calories used while walking and keeps tabs on my steps, speed, and calories used while walking on a daily basis for up to one week. I'm not sure what my ultimate daily walking goal will be.  I was a jogger who used to jog during the week to train for 10k races on the week...

Stanley McCrystal spoke of the need for public service and I agree completely.  He rightly says that public service goes beyond just serving in the military and there are many areas where some public service can go a long way. My own ideas about serving in the military have switched about 180 degrees.  I'm not sure having an all volunteer, professional army has worked out as intended.  There are many good things you learn in the military but making it entirely volunteer have sheltered a lot of folks from serving and really put the burden on others.  Politically I doubt we would have been as adventurous as we have been had we needed to draft young men and women to serve.  It's a little bit unseemly when poor rural areas, military families, and the urban unemployed are recruited for jobs others are too busy to consider. Going where services are needed is something we need  to relearn. Life really is a twelve month, daily activity and there is way too much...

I just finished a piece in the Daily Beast about "medical marijuana".  I think there are medical uses for weed. I think the medical uses of marijuana should be legitimately researched and I think there is a place for the recreational use of marijuana and filling the jails with nonviolent drug offenders isn't working. I've read reports about marijuana storefronts in the Los Angeles area that made it seem like they were going to be like Starbucks and I believe the County responded by establishing some zoning restrictions to slow their growth in the real estate market.  Now folks on the beach and elements of the medical profession are doing there best to expand the market by handing out prescriptions after dubious medical exams. I'm a reasonable person and this isn't good for either medical marijuana or the controlled use of a drug for recreational purposes.  South Florida has its share of bad doctors that have given palliative medicine a bad name.  Rural are...

I've enjoyed the past four years, and you are a great player.  Good luck wherever you land. Four NBA Finals, two NBA Championships in Miami is probably more a city deserves.  You don't need to go on ESPN to announce where you will be taking your family.  I know the summers are hot in Miami, the traffic stinks, and maybe you aren't a beach person. Personally, I think Pat Riley is more than a little bit full of himself and the Triple A will miss you!

The Miami Herald posted a list of the 500 best paid employees.  The County Attorney's Office, Fire Department, and Police Department have lots of folks being paid over $125,000.  In fact the top twenty make more than $250,000. The figures for salaries are published and are on the County's website. The Miami Herald had previously published a piece about the Mayor's budget for the coming year and the proposed cuts in jobs that would be needed.  Cuts are proposed in almost every county department but a lot of the cuts this year are planned for the Police and Corrections Departments. The plan is to attack wasteful administrative spending while saying that the officers on the street will not be affected.  Last year the Libraries and Fire Rescue were scheduled for huge cuts. The proposed cuts last year were delayed or reduced through the use of fund surpluses mostly from other departments. Budgeting County Services for a growing population of over 2.6 million folks...

Lilli Li is the new, youngest participant in the U.S. Women's Open, at age 11.  Lexi Thompson had been the youngest participant at age 12 in 2007 and Michelle Wie won the Women's Public Links Championship at age 13 and joined the LPGA Tour at the age of 15. All three of these golfing prodigies have faced resistance because of their young age.  Lilli is reported to have started taking golf seriously at the age of 7. Michelle Wie could hit the ball a long way and even played in a PGA event and shot a round of 68 at the Sony Open.  Much was written about pushing her too far and too fast and based on raw talent and expectations and unfair comparisons to Tiger Woods she did alright but was not the savior of the LPGA. In response to Michelle Wie's early experience Lexi Thompson and her parents also warned about going pro before she was ready but also turned pro at age 15.  She has won 4 tournaments and is the current Nabisco Champion which is one of the LPGA majors. ...

Looking through the Weekend section of the Miami Herald this morning I see there is going to be lots of music in Miami this through September.  Beyonce and Jay Z, I Heart Radio Pool Party, Katy Perry and and a few groups from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. The I Heart Pool Party caught my eye.  Pop, Rock, and Souls at the Fountainebleu Hotel on Miami Beach. $479/night package, three night minimum.  $1,500 for a weekend on the beach might be a bit pricey for most of us, but I'm pretty sure the place will be rocking next weekend.  It will be broadcast somewhere I'm sure The average concert these days is somewhere between $30-40 per ticket and in some of those venues you will be watching the show on the Jumbotron. If you like slot machines deals and concerts and music are almost weekly events. This works for me because I like the idea of free, even though most places expect and get a donation either at the machines or the bar or both.  Live music, a little bit of ...

Sometimes it is interesting and really different to see how the World Cup is being covered by the various TV stations in Miami, Florida. Channel 23 featured a ride in a Brazilian Cab with El Gordo part of the duo of El Gordo y La Flaca where he is covering the games.  The guy ends up sharing a cab with a couple of ladies and a football fan.  The front seat had a TV set, about the size of the back up camera, and everyone in the cab including the driver were watching Brazil vs. Mexico. The Brazilian beach ladies, their drunken football fanatic friend, and driver sort of unnerved El Gordo He should be at home with crazy driving but from what I could gather from his commentary after the ride, maybe the TV should be out of the direct view of the driver and especially when Brazil is playing. Somehow or other I doubt open container laws are enforced if they exist at all. I'm still waiting for local color reporting like this from Channel 10 who sent Will Manso to cover the games...

I listened to the weekly countdown of the top 40 songs in Morgantown, West Virginia for about a year while in graduate school at WVU.  Previously I got my music from WLS in Chicago or WQAM in Miami.  Morgantown even though it was a college town was a little bit isolated and it was good to know who and what was popular in the rest of the world. The showed played on Sunday Mornings. Kasem really knew how to talk up a song and the bits of information he gave about the artists or the songs were more than the usual DJ drivel. The show lasted about four hours and like it or not it covered lots of different kinds of music. The most popular rock, bublegum, disco, R&B and ballads could make to the countdown.  How they got there was always a little bit mysterious, but you could almost figure that if you liked it it would be moving up that chart after debuting at #40. It's been said that as we age we continue to play the music of our youth, from the radio, dances, road trips, ...

Front page Miami Herald: This is ADVERSITY in all caps.  Sports page: Lebron James pictured "Staring into the face of doom with... a smile. The Marlins lose another and their streak is at three and Erik Compton is the feel good story of the U.S. Open. Tonight the San Antonio Spurs may finish off the Miami Heat. Or the Miami Heat may rally only to lose on Tuesday or Friday.  I think the Spurs are a better team this year and the Heat never would have gotten to the Finals without playing in the Eastern Conference.  I think anybody would take a cut to play with LJ but the Heat are showing their age against the Spurs.  But that's the way Pat Riley rolls. It's been a good year, entertaining and LJ is the best player in the game. The Miami Marlins are still above .500 barely and sort of in the hunt against the weak NL East. Tyler Kolek, the Fish's 1st Round draft choice signs for $6 Million. I wonder if he has a deal for elbow repair written into the deal like the last ...

This is the title of a documentary and is a definitive chronology of the struggle for LBGT rights in Miami Dade County, Florida. I remember the day it snowed in Florida and only slightly remember the ordinance passed that the night before that was to protect the gay community in housing and employment discrimination.  My mind was on going to Atlanta to deliver some a grant application that would continue funding for a public service employment program that we hoped would be expanded under the new Carter Administration.  The reaction to the ordinance was swift.  A petition drive and referendum repealed the law. Anita Bryant and orange juice were Florida at the time and the Manpower Planning Council where I worked funded a couple of jobs programs that seemed harmless at the time but in retrospect were "projects" that should have been rejected as wtf were they thinking when they submitted this turkey. Promoting gay rights and a pet census in Coral Gables were a little bit ...

The conventional wisdom was  Eric Cantor would win in a walkover. It did not happen. He raised $5,000,000 to run against someone who raised about $121,000.  After the smoke settled it was reported that he spent about $168,000 at steakhouse fundraisers. I think this is a bipartisan issue. How much influence changed hands during those lunch and dinner sessions. Regular folks on both sides of the aisle realize how corrosive big money can be.  Incumbents at all levels of government need to work on the issues the country faces and stop the pay for play mentality. Marketing themselves as the ultimate insiders whose influence can be bought doesn't necessarily mean folks will vote for them, and especially in primaries where the turnout is tiny. Eric Cantor will retire from congress but I bet he will return to Washington as a lobbyist as soon as he can find an office on K Street

Bravo to the Yocha Dehe Winton Nation and their Proud To Be "commercial" that ran during the NBA finals on Sunday.  I remember the video and wondered to myself:  What is this? If the NBA can force an owner to sell a franchise for stupid racist comments, I appreciate Native American pressure for Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington DC NFL franchise, to dump their mascot which they find offensive. Money well spent.  The Yocha are a small group of folks in California and their video venture may be a game changer in efforts to change the team's mascot. 6/18/2014 U.S. Patent Office rules that Redskin nickname is disparaging of Native Americans and that its trademarks must cancelled. The ruling is being appealed by the football team owner.

Presidential pensions for life started in 1958 with the Former President's Act.  I believe we should give our former presidents a good pension.  The idea of a pension as a reward for serving the country is alright by me. The current pension is $201,000.  Medical care is available at military hospitals and they may buy insurance like other federal employees, approximately $100,000 is provided for personal assistants, and lifetime Secret Service Protection is provided. Hillary Clinton's comment in a recent interview that they were broke when they left office is more than tone deaf. It's outrageous. Nobody has be grudged a former officeholder the write to publish a book or books, make speeches for money, or do a lot of other things that are related to their previous experience in office. Hillary Clinton has also served as senator from New York and as Secretary of State and is eligible for pensions from those jobs. The advances for book deals and fees for speaking by form...

California Chrome came up short in the Belmont yesterday. he grabbed a quarter, stepped on himself and got a little bit tangled up coming out of the gate.  @#$# happens and cutting your foot at the start of a race that is going to last 2 1/2 minutes will make you uncomfortable and probably slow you down. Jockey Victor Espinosa and the DRF reported blood coming from his right front hoof after the race. I really hope it's nothing serious. Immediately after the race, commentators were blaming the jockey and his strategy and Chrome's owners were blaming other owners for entering their horses that were fresher than the potential Triple Crown winner. It doesn't mean the jockey rode a bad race, it doesn't mean the horse was tired, it doesn't mean they should change the Kentucky Derby, move the Preakness, or restrict runners in the Belmont to those that have run in the Derby and or Preakness. I would like to remind everyone of the obvious.  Horse racing is about gambl...

The first sentence of The Miami Herald Article Saturday says it all, calling Lyft the "renegade" car service.  Undercover code enforcement and police officers are busting drivers who are sort of free lance cab drivers.The Lyft company says they screen the drivers to insure the drivers carry enough insurance, their cars are safe, and their driving record is ok. The Miami Dade County Commission sets cab rates and regulates the number of cabs on the roads. A cab driver's life is not easy. Owning a cab company in a tourist town like Miami is big business.  Cab drivers usually rent their vehicles from companies and then work long hours many times just to pay their fixed expenses to the cab company.  The cab companies want to keep their monopoly and this is running up against the unemployed and underemployed that are being offered the chance to make some extra money giving someone a ride. The freelance Lyft drivers say they didn't realize what they were  doing was agai...

The Miami Heat got beat by the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday.  They did not get beat by a broken air conditioning system.  The Spurs beat the point spread, shot lights out and seemed a lot quicker.  I watched the game.  It was a close one until Lebron James left the game with severe muscle cramping. It's not a question of James being soft or drinking Powerade instead Gatorade. Ultra high level athletics that are played in less than ideal conditions like 90 plus degree heat can cause some strange things to happen.  Lebron James is a warrior who crossed the pain barrier after becoming dehydrated. The NBA is a league dominated by star players and showtime teams and a league that is notorious for intrigue and a lot of other crap.  Referees and the calling of fouls.  Please! Traveling and palming the ball are hardly ever called. MJ taking time off to play minor league baseball because it was more socially acceptable than in patient therapy for a conflue...

There will be a lot of good, really good, and really really good horses running at Belmont Park on Saturday. in fact there will be five Grade 1 races along with the Belmont Stakes and California Chrome gunning for a Triple Crown victory. If the weather holds up there is good chance that there will be over 100,000 in attendance. I'll be watching and playing along, and I'll be happy if California Chrome is able to win the Triple Crown. Love That Chase, Chrome's mom won only one of six races and was bought for $8,000, Lucky Pulpit, the proud papa's fee was $2,500 and his record was 3 for 22. It's been reported that someone at the sale said only a "dumb ass" would buy that mare for $8,000. Owners, Coburn and Martin became the Dumb Ass Partnership, that turned down $6,000,000 for 51% of the horse after it won the Santa Anita Derby and will be running to be part of horse racing history if they win the Belmont Stakes on Saturday. California Chrome is big,...

I'm having a hard time accepting WGN radio giving up the rights to broadcast the Chicago Cubs. Sort of like it's not over until the fat lady sings but she is warming up. Baseball has its roots in radio.  Before television the games were broadcast on the radio and often the announcers used sound effects because they were reading wire reports for away games.  Then it became possible to broadcast games on the radio from everywhere on both the radio and TV.  And now I have a hard time counting all the different ways all the different ways you can follow the Cubs or just about any baseball team. If you own a radio station on the AM band you are probably looking at a shrinking audience and an increasingly older audience that may have the radio on for company.  Lot's of folks used to listening to you during drive time are retiring and retreating to daytime TV, and dinner at 5:30.  And in most places the game from the night before is replayed in the afternoon so you...

George Washington set a good example by stopping at two terms.  The tradition lasted until FDR was elected, and reelected three more times.  This was way before my time and I can see how it happened. A few days ago I received a a fund raising letter that was in support of Hillary Clinton.  The letter was from a group that supports her candidacy and cynically the company that did the mailer will probably get paid a percentage of what gets raised.  Running for office is big business and in some ways this is just another example of how out of control big money and politics has become. We have already had eight years of Bill Clinton, and George Bush, and by the time President Obama's term in office, eight years there.  Seems like Jeb Bush is getting ready to run for President after eight years as Governor of Florida.  Compared to Rick Scott, Jeb was a good governor. We already have a problem cleaning up congress with incumbents getting reelected and getti...

One of the advantages of the computer age is the ability to edit, change formats, and change fonts almost instantly.  I resented supervisors changing stuff that was in written form up until moments before documents were released either in a hard copy or electronically.  Yes it is easy to change, but often the change was cosmetic at best and really important stuff that needed some thought was ignored.  The just in time nature of putting together documents for meetings often scrambled other deadlines or really shafted clerical staff that had to insert somebody's last minute "improvement".  The new standard is that almost nothing is ever "done" and always subject to revision. This perceived ability to change stuff at will, really complicates getting any satisfaction from your job and there is always time away from doing stuff for meetings, conference calls, and the like which puts pressure on anybody that works these days.  Bosses act badly, supervisors eventuall...

Economics and politics have collided.  Robert Reich has made a second career it seems by writing about all the evils of large concentrations of wealth and its impact on the political system.  The folks on the other side of the issue are almost uniformly against governmental intervention in anything. A closer look at just about anything related to anything related to anything else leaves you looking at money and where it goes and what it does. Waking up this morning I heard the China and India are making an attempt to corner both the gold and silver markets respectively.  Cornering the market involves buying enough of a commodity so that the owner can effectively manipulate the price of the commodity.  This practice does not end well usually because the market takes notice and either regulation or other alternatives are found for the manipulated commodity. We'll see if the same thing happens in the political market.  I can see tough sledding if the only way...