Established in 2014 and published every Sunday, Tampa Bay Rants and Raves is a weekly airing of local and national news, politics, sports and historical notes from a politically incorrect viewpoint.

First thing on our mind:

It’s gotten so you need some sort of app to take a walk, buy a burger or ring a doorbell.

Leading off: So long, Penny

Our friend Alan Bomstein has to be smiling these days. For years, the founder of Clearwater’s Creative Contractors has been campaigning for the demise of the penny. Last week, President Trump took care of that with a stroke of his pen. The one cent piece, which costs over three cents to make, will be no longer. We join our northern neighbors in Canada who did away with the coin in 2012. Hopefully, US business will follow the example of their neighbors to the north by rounding up or down on cash totals i.e. $5.01-4 becomes $5.00 and $5.06-9 becomes $5.10 with no change in electronic transactions. Either way, an instrument that costs more than three times its value to mint finally goes away.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Front page headline in a major metro newspaper last week, “Musk and Trump shake government’s foundations.” Given how the country has been run the past couple decades, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Remember when you could count on the AP for straight news? Now, it has joined the left wing newspapers and networks in a cabal. For instance, bad price news in January they blame on President Trump who was in office 11 days and a bit busy cleaning up Biden’s hot mess.

We baby boomers remember the mega companies of our youth, GE, Westinghouse, Honeywell and others. Now Honeywell will follow the example of other giants by splitting into three separate, but according to company officials, more agile units.

Biz note: the vast majority of the Dow Jones 30 Industrials did not exist when the index was first established 130 years ago.

Number of the week: 1100 – the number of former churches for sale in the U.S.

Related: The federal government owns 7967 vacant buildings. It’s time to post more than a few For Sale signs.

Breaking political news from the 5:05 Newsletter: Trump Offers Buyout of Democrats in the House and Senate – and Mitch McConnell.

This week in 1899 (Feb. 22) the United States grows by four as President Cleveland signs a bill admitting North and South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.

Sports, media and other notes:

We ask this again this year – what exactly is missing in the resumes of Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka that continues to exclude them from the Rock and Roll Hall of fame? Between them they had 83 charted records, numerous number ones plus hits written for Sinatra, Fifth Dimension, Captain and Tennille, Connie Francis and several others. You look at this year’s nominees and, for the most part, you ask, “who?”

Welcome back, Dickie V!

And a fond farewell to Hubie Brooks who ends his NBA career as a coach and analyst at age 91.

It’s always cool to see a golfer win his first PGA event. Congrats to Belgium’s Thomas Detry.

Each year, the Super Bowl becomes a contest as to who can junk up our National Anthem more than the clown from the year before – not to be outdone by some low talent halftime show.

Seen on a T-shirt, “It’s not the New Year until pitchers and catchers report.”

A recent poll by the Major League Trade Rumors website found their readers spilt 50-50 on the question, “Would you support a salary cap even if it meant loss of part or all of the 2027 season? Interesting.

Play ball! Spring Training games start this week. In addition to our three local spring teams, we’ll get visits from big draws like the Braves, Cards, Orioles and Red Sox.

One last thing: No eyes in the sky

They kind of slipped away without much fanfare over the last decade – airborne and, in some cases, road-borne traffic reports. In the bay area, there was Gary McHenry at WFLA, Capt. Dan at WLCY and Clearwater PD’s Fred Casale at WTAN. Each brought personality to what could be hum drum traffic days. Casale, for example, on a slow day would slip in his native New York City thoroughfares, along with Gulf-to-Bay, Drew Street and Missouri Avenue. All these folks have now been replaced by traffic cams with New York City and Atlanta, the last markets to do away with airborne traffic last year. Another piece of Americana, sadly, gone away.

NEXT UP: Required course; Condo crisis; Add to cart

021625/486.

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