Tampa Bay Rants and Raves (TBRR) is a weekly chronicle of politics, sports, lifestyle and historical notes from a politically incorrect viewpoint. Caution, some of this content should not be taken literally.

First thing on our mind:

A message to our ultra-liberal friends: defunding the police is a great idea until you, yourself, have to call a cop.

Leading off: So a Justice walks in….

Our Constitution wisely calls for the separation of powers. We know President Trump is a smart guy, but we fear he was absent during that segment of his civics course. Imagine if a Supreme Court Justice should stroll into the White House during a cabinet meeting or in the midst of a vote in Congress. The outrage! And vice-versa an uninvited Congressman, say Elizabeth Warren, dropped in on the cabinet. President Trump’s appearance at the Supreme Court was completely out of order. The man has done some good things for our country, but remains a bull in a china shop.

Tampa Bay, politics and notes:

Stop us if you’ve heard this, we can send a man (actually three plus a woman) around the moon, but we can’t get their toilet to function properly.

Related from the 5:05 Newsletter: Astronauts aboard Artemis II were able to take stunning high-resolution images of the dark side of the moon. Among the most notable discoveries: a Somalia daycare center, a Starbucks, a Shohei Ohtani home run ball and several boxes labeled “Epstein Files,” which mission control swears “were already there." In a related story, Starbucks announced plans for a second location on the Moon, pending zoning approval.

What, no Morgan & Morgan billboard?

At “press time,” Florida had the second highest gas prices east of the Mississippi. Only Illinois is higher.

Congratulations to St. Petersburg High on their 100^th birthday. The school was a twin to the original Clearwater High and Junior High in downtown Clearwater.

Local Subways are disappearing. At least two Clearwater locations have closed and been replaced by other food operations. They are the 2000 block of Drew Street location near Hercules and the location at US 19 and Belleair Road. Worldwide, the franchise is doing well with over 37,000 locations.

While 2025 was a challenging year for fast food restaurants, Chick-fil-A was the outlier with a 5.2% increase in sales. No surprise when you see the lines at its Gulf-to-Bay location as well as others.

In 1989, the last Mr. Donut shop in Clearwater closes as the chain is swept up by Dunkin Donut. A few Mr. Donut shops remain – the closest in Kenneth City.

Sports and random notes:

Actress Tori Spelling was hospitalized after a pre-Easter car accident. Word is she is okay except for a small puncture to her lips which deflated.

Cheers for the U.S. Justice Department that is looking into possible anti-competitive practices by the NFL that require fans to pay for way too many cable and streaming subscriptions to watch football. This could spill over to MLB and other sports as well.

Illinois fell short in this year’s NCAA tournament, but The Athletic’s early 2026-27 poll has them on top just ahead of national champ Michigan. Rounding out the Top 5 are Arizona, the Gators and Duke.

Meanwhile, more than a few UNC fans are underwhelmed by the hire of former NBA coach Michael Malone, but he could join noted coach Larry Brown as the only coach to win both NBA and NCAA championships. Stay tuned.

Worst start by a MLB team most folks expected to be better – the Red Sox at 4-9 as we go to press.

The Phillies are looking for $85 million from Pinellas County to help with a $205 million renovation to their stadium on U.S. 19. The city of Clearwater is expected to chip in as well with the Phils covering the rest plus overruns. The Phillie-Clearwater relationship dates back 1948 – the second longest in major league baseball.

Number of the week: $2 billion – that’s the anticipated cost for a franchise in the NHL’s planned expansion by two teams.

Remember the name Mason Howell. He took a break from high school last weekend to play in the Masters. Just as impressive was his scoring a par on a hole at age five.

Ad blast from the past (and the present) the enduring “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.” It dates back to 1971 and the lyric for the jingle was written by hit maker Barry Manilow.

Seen on a T-Shirt: I Wanna Be Where The People Aren’t.

One last thing: Floridians need to read this book

We put Art Levy’s Made in Florida on our “to read” list when it was published nearly seven years ago. We finally got around to it and cursed our self for waiting so long. The book is a treasure chest of profiles of 90 folks who “made” Florida. You may know some of them personally like Betty Castor, Clearwater’s Zev Buffman, Ferdie Pacheco, Ed Droste, Carlton Ward, Doug Williams, Tarpon’s George Billiris and eighty-some others. Many you know by reputation like department store CEO Bob Beall, Steve Leatherman (Dr. Beach) and the infamous Joe Redner. Regrettably, some interviews were left out due to space limitations including interesting folks Gus Stavros and Frank Morsani. Others were contacted, but declined interviews such as Jimmy Buffett, Tony Dungy and Mel Sembler. And a couple of folks we think Levy should have interviewed, but didn’t like Clearwater artist Roger Bansemer and Tampa Bay media maven, Jack Harris. There were only four journalists interviewed, all from the left side of the street. We very much enjoyed the chapter on Thomas “Blue” Fulford. Who is he? Read the book! This is a book if you call yourself a Floridian, you need to read and then pass on to a fellow Floridian.

Next Up: Buy a council seat; Queen’s Centennial; Lemke

041226/370

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