The slippery slope of marijuana enforcement

We agree with Times’ columnist John Romano about once, maybe twice, a year. Very few guys successfully pull a Lewis Grizzard and transform from the sports department to being a good general news columnist and Romano isn’t one of them. But we digress. His argument that there should be at least a country-wide policy concerning penalties for pot possession makes sense. St. Pete wants to go their own way while even their top cop, Tony Holloway, suggests a county-wide approach. And since Tampa also seems hell-bent on making pot penalties less than a stop sign violation, why not have a region-wide policy?

Around Tampa Bay:

1. In a related note to our lead item, while bay area policy makers are moving towards virtually decriminalizing pot usage, nationwide occurrences of marijuana-related fatal vehicle accidents are jumping in our states from anywhere from 25 to 44 per cent, depending on the state. That fact is probably not reported in Marijuana Business Daily. Yes, there really is a daily publication devoted to the pot industry. Amazing.

2. Liberal spin doctors are criticizing U.S. Senate candidate Carlos Beruff because he has supported various political candidates on both sides of the aisle in the past which somehow makes him an “insider”. What it makes him is someone who cares about good government as opposed to a Pinellas political candidate a few years back who actually won an election after it was revealed that he had not even voted in the past several elections.

3. Does there come a time when the bill comes due in Pinellas School superintendent Mike Grego’s office for the underperformance of the county’s school system?

4. We know we whined and complained about road work being done on Court and Chestnut Streets during high season, but the final results are great. Traffic patterns on both streets make much more sense and avoid last minute merges.

5. You’ve lived in Tampa Bay for a long time if you remember when local artist Roger Bansemer’s hot air balloon was a familiar site in the Pinellas sky.

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Speaking of flying, a guy who set a bunch of speed records flying the Convair B-58 bomber and is in the Air Force Hall of Fame, Col. Henry Deustschendorf, worried less about flying at supersonic speed as he did about his son John who spent all day doing nothing but playing the guitar. The son turned out all right, shortening the last name to Denver.

7. Fifty years ago this week, the newest album on record store shelves was the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds – one of the two or three most important albums of the sixties. It contained, among others, Caroline No, Sloop John B, God Only Knows, Wouldn’t It Be Nice and one of the anthems of the sixties – I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.

8. If the National Observer had a funny bone, it would be called the 5:05 Newsletter. Another gem from this great publication: A new study suggests that a chemical released when a person is hungry can lead to poor decision-making. It is what Taco Bell calls “our entire business model.”

9. Fredi Gonzalez finally stopped swinging in the wind when the Braves fired him last Tuesday. Couple things – you had to question the timing – in the middle of a road trip; why not wait until the Braves returned home? Then there was the embarrassing email from an airline confirming his ticket home before he was informed of his dismissal. Finally, this is the first time in 26 years that MLB’s ultra-stable franchise has fired a manager – perhaps that’s why they butchered it.

10. It is kind of a “circle of life” thing. Your HB (humble blogger) and young wife spent their Sunday nights watching that new CBS show 60 Minutes. Years later, our thirty something kids watch it. There have been many fine journalists on the show over the years but the three faces of 60 Minutes were Mike Wallace, Morley Safer and the irascible Andy Rooney. With Morley’s passing all three have left us and heaven’s newsroom is a lot better for it.

Some potentially successful managers just need a chance

As this is written, if the season ended today, the Phillies would be in the playoffs. The Phillies! Many prognosticators predicted they would lose 100 games this year. There have been several glass slippers that have fallen their way, but a great deal of their success has to do with Manager Pete MacKanin - a solid baseball man who incredibly was passed over for a manager’s job more than once. Some guys don’t interview well, we guess, but they know the game in and out. Finally at age 63, Pete gets his chance and the results are gratifying. Here are three more guys who have lost out in interviews that should be in a major league dugout somewhere – Dave Martinez, Charlie Montoyo and Jose Oquendo. Eventually they will be – and, like Pete MacKanin, they will be good. And, in view of the item above, the Braves, if they are smart, will talk with all three.

SNEEK PEEK AT NEXT WEEK – A ONCE GREAT SPORTS SHOW THAT’S GONE SOUTH