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Texas

Keeping the church flock safe

April 27, 2016 By B.C. Manion

While many think of church as a place to lay down one’s burdens, gain spiritual refreshment and find inspiration — a house of worship is also vulnerable to potential violence.

Jim Howard, executive director of Trinity Security Allies based in Trinity, knows only too well about that possibility

When he was a teenager, living in Texas, his father shot and killed a deacon after church. Howard’s father was imprisoned, his family moved away, and Howard doubted his faith and left the church.

He subsequently went into a career in law enforcement and eventually returned to the church.

He also found a way to use his professional knowledge to serve his faith, first, by helping to protect a church’s collections and then by forming a church security team.

Jim Howard guides churches to help ensure they have a place ‘where people can come to worship, without fear.’ (Courtesy of Jim Howard)
Jim Howard guides churches to help ensure they have a place ‘where people can come to worship, without fear.’
(Courtesy of Jim Howard)

Besides serving on the security team at Generations Christian Church, on Little Road, he is the executive director of a nonprofit organization that helps churches that need guidance in creating and preserving a safe place to worship.

“Our motto for the church ministry is: ‘Have a place where everybody can come and worship God without fear.’

“Once a person doesn’t feel safe at church, then they’re not going to come to church,” said Howard, who also has a private security consulting business.

When a white man opened fire on June 17, 2015 during a prayer meeting in a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine people, it captured national headlines.

But, the issue of church violence is nothing new, Howard said.

In 1999 — the same year as the killings at Columbine High School in Colorado — there was a shooting at a church in Texas were seven people were killed, he said.

This past Easter Sunday, at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, a man was taken into custody after entering a church armed with a .40-caliber Beretta in his pants pocket and a 300 Blackout rifle in his backpack, according to news reports.

Trinity Security Allies provides presentations to help church leaders learn about precautions they can take to help keep their churches safe, and to create plans for responding to violence, if it occurs.

“We go in and educate,” Howard said.

When he gets called to do a church assessment, he tours the church and its grounds.

In the children’s ministry area, he said, “The first thing I do is to look to be sure the doors will lock.”

That’s rarely an issue where the musical equipment is kept. Typically, he said, he discovers “it’s locked behind a door that Fort Knox would be proud of.”

He said churches should have a check-in, check-out zone for their kids’ ministry. Some churches issue a set of matching badges — one for the child and the other for the parent. The badges must match, or the child won’t be released, he said.

Churches also need to vet their volunteers, he added, especially any that have contact with children.

Security team members must pay attention to people approaching and entering the church.

Look for anything unusual: Someone talking to himself; someone who appears agitated or angry; someone wearing a long coat or heavy jacket when it’s warm outside.

His church has a policy of being especially friendly to newcomers.

They are welcomed by church staff or volunteers, and when people don’t respond, the security team lets someone else at the church know, so they can try to engage them, he said.

While the church isn’t interested in gossip, it needs to know of potential issues, Howard added.

“People who are coming into church are broken,” he said. The church is there to help, but should also take steps to protect itself and those gathered.

All sorts of people walk through a church door, Howard noted.

“We’ve had people with mental illness that have disrupted the church service. We’ve had domestic issues that caused us concern. Injunctions,” he said. “We’ve had thefts.”

When it comes to having guns on a church campus, that’s an issue that a church should address, Howard said.

An active shooter can kill or injure numerous people much faster than law enforcement can respond to the scene.

“If you don’t have someone on your campus that can respond to it, that’s something to really pray about and consider,” he said.

“Our church has a policy, if you have a concealed weapons permit and you want to carry, that’s fine. If you’re on the safety team, with us, if you have a concealed weapons permit, I ask you not to carry — I’m a firearms instructor — unless you and I go out and we do some shooting, so I can see how you handle the gun.”

“Because of my background, I understand what police officers are going to be facing if they come into a church in a scenario like this,” he said.

“I don’t fear a person walking into church with a gun. I fear the gun battle.

“Inside a crowded church, there’s a good possibility that somebody that you know is going to get hit,” he said, noting that two out of three shots typically miss their intended target.

It’s also a good idea to practice what to do, in the event an active shooter ever shows up at the church, Howard said, noting that’s something his church has done.

Church Safety
When:
May 7, registration at 8:30 a.m.; meeting starts at 9 a.m.
Where: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 20735 Leonard Road, Lutz
Who: Open to anyone
How much: Donations accepted for refreshments.

Published April 27, 2016

Filed Under: Local News Tagged With: Bellevue Baptist Church, Charleston, Colorado, Columbine High School, Fort Knox, Generations Christian Church, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Jim Howard, Little Road, Lutz, Memphis Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, Trinity, Trinity Security Allies

Clinton finds serious Florida challenge from Jeb

December 11, 2014 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

If the 2016 presidential election were held today, Floridians would be ready to give the Sunshine State’s 29 electoral votes to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

That is, unless Jeb Bush decides to run.

A new survey by the Saint Leo University Polling Institute said that if both Clinton and the former governor end up representing their respective parties in the presidential race, voters in Florida, at least, would be split on whom to choose.

The poll, conducted between Nov. 25 and Dec. 7, gave 43 percent of support to Jeb Bush, while 42 percent picked Clinton.

No other early contenders did too well against the one-time First Lady. Clinton got 50 percent support against Kentucky senator Rand Paul, and 45 percent against New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Clinton hit 51 percent against Texas senator Ted Cruz, and 48 percent against former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Florida senator Marco Rubio held his ground a little better, however, earning 42 percent support among Floridians compared to 46 percent from Clinton.

Bush might be a favorite among Floridians, but at least one expert says it might be difficult for the two-term governor to gain momentum in the national spotlight.

“People perceive Jeb Bush differently in the rest of the country,” said Saint Leo University political instructor Frank Orlando, in a release. “Inside Florida, he’s Jeb. Outside of Florida, he’s George’s brother,” as in George W. Bush.

“Jeb Bush continues to struggle to separate his personality from the former president. However, inside the Sunshine State, he stands for himself. He’s his own man. He’s been the most popular figure in the state for a generation.”

Bush has a tremendous lead in Florida over other potential Republican nominees, carrying 34 percent support compared to 15 percent from Romney, according to the Saint Leo poll. Rubio had 10 percent support, while medical doctor Ben Carson is pulling 8 percent.

If their first choice decided not to run, Bush still lead among second picks with 18 percent, followed by Rubio at 15 percent and Romney at 13 percent.

Among Democrats, it might be impossible to topple Clinton. She has 63 percent support in Florida, with Vice President Joe Biden a distant second at 8 percent.

Biden, however, does lead among second choices with 25 percent, followed by Clinton with 13 percent and Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren at 11 percent.

Saint Leo polled 500 Florida adults, including 420 likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Elizabeth Warren, Florida, Frank Orlando, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Joe Biden, Kentucky, Marco Rubio, Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, New Jersey, Rand Paul, Saint Leo University, Saint Leo University Polling Institute, Ted Cruz, Texas

Doctor to talk in Hudson about Ebola scare

October 31, 2014 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

What’s more scary than a witch or a haunted house right now for many people? It’s the threat of Ebola, which has now hit the United States in both Texas and New York.

But should it be that scary?

Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point is offering a lecture “Ebola: Facts & Fiction” Nov. 17 at 3 p.m., at the Rao Musunuru Conference Center, 14100 Yosemite Drive, in Hudson.

Dr. K.V. Sundaresh will conduct the seminar. He is a board-certified doctor in infection disease and internal medicine. He completed his internship in general surgery at New York Hospital Medical Center, followed by a residency in internal medicine at Bergen Pines Co. Hospital and Jersey Shore Medical Center, both in New Jersey.

He completed a fellowship in infectious disease at Finch University Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School in Illinois.

Admission is free, but reservations are required, with seating offered on a first-come basis.

To date, just four people have been diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, two of them health workers in Texas who treated the first diagnosed case. Although there is a virus outbreak in parts of Africa, the ability to spread Ebola is still difficult, because it requires an infected person to show signs of the illness — like fever — and it requires direct contact with bodily fluids.

For more information on the lecture, call (727) 869-5498, or (888) 741-5119.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Africa, Berger Pines Co. Hospital, Ebola, Finch University Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School, Hudson, Illinois, Jersey Shore Medical Center, K.V. Sundaresh, New Jersey, New York, New York Hospital Medical Center, Rao Musunuru Conference Center, Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, Texas, United States, Yosemite Drive

Scott wants closer look of Ebola threat

October 26, 2014 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Although one nurse already under quarantine feels the measures are too restrictive in other parts of the country, Gov. Rick Scott has issued an executive order that could go as far as putting people under quarantine he feels is at high risk for Ebola.

At a minimum, however, Scott is ordering twice-daily health monitoring for people returning from certain parts of the world where the virus is in an outbreak, continuing over the 21-day incubation period of Ebola. That includes areas like Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined to be high-risk.

“We have asked the CDC to identify the risk levels of all returning individuals from these areas, but they have not provided that information,” Scott said in a statement. “Therefore, we are moving quickly to require the four individuals who have returned to Florida already — and anyone in the future who will return to Florida from an Ebola area — to take pear in twice-daily 21-day health evaluations with DOH personnel.”

The Department of Health, according to the governor’s office, started to look for people returning to Florida from those areas after a doctor returned to New York and later tested positive for Ebola. While the executive order stops short of automatically ordering a quarantine of those returning from those areas, Scott said he’s giving the health department the authority to take that action for anyone they believe is “at high-risk of testing positive for Ebola due to the type of contact they had with the disease.”

Just four people have been diagnosed inside the United States with Ebola, two of them health workers in Texas who treated the first diagnosed case. Although there is a virus outbreak in parts of Africa, the ability to spread Ebola is still difficult, because it requires an infected person to show signs of the illness, like fever, and it requires direct contact with bodily fluids.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Africa, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health, Ebola, Florida, Guinea, Liberia, New York, Rick Scott, Sierra Leone, Texas, United States

Florida prepares for highly unlikely Ebola epidemic

October 21, 2014 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

There have been just three diagnosed cases of Ebola in the United States, and less than 200 people actually exposed to the virus. Yet, the fear by many that Ebola can become an epidemic in this country — although federal officials have dismissed any real possibility of that happening — has Gov. Rick Scott pushing federal officials to help Florida prevent the virus from coming here.

In his latest move, Scott has directed the Florida National Guard to establish two rapid response teams — groups of 16 people that includes doctors, nurses and equipment personnel.

The teams are undergoing intensive training, and will be ready by the end of October to help health care workers — if they are ever needed — to supplement a hospital’s existing personnel in case Ebola does arrive in the Sunshine State. The move comes after Texas experienced a number of missteps that officials believe may have expanded the number of American-based Ebola cases from one to three.

“While our first responders and health care workers are the front line of care in the event of an Ebola case, our Florida National Guard is currently establishing two rapid response teams that can manage Ebola cases and provide support to hospitals, if needed,” Scott said, in a release.

Scott already has directed state officials to repurpose more than $7 million in federal funding Florida has received to buy equipment to help the state prepare for any Ebola response. On top of that, employees are 55 Florida hospitals have completed Ebola preparedness training, with a hope of expanding that to all 210 hospitals in the state.

The chances that Ebola will spread beyond the current containment of the virus in the United States is extremely minimal, and the chance for there being an outbreak in America is practically zero, officials said. At the current rate of infection in the United States, the odds of being diagnosed with Ebola in the United States are 1-in-105 million.

By comparison, the odds of dying from tuberculosis in the United States is 1-in-6,300, and the odds of dying from lung cancer is 1-in-23. And the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot is 1-in-175 million.

The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, died Oct. 8. Two nurses who helped treat Dunan are now being treated themselves.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Florida, Florida National Guard, Powerball, Rick Scott, Sunshine State, Texas, Thomas Eric Duncan, United States

Florida’s unemployment rate slips, but still mostly flat

October 17, 2014 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Florida’s unemployment rate has slipped a bit in September, bringing it to its lowest point since June 2008, but still remaining mostly flat since last December.

The rate, according to Gov. Rick Scott’s office, was 6.1 percent in September, down from 6.3 percent in August. That was the result of 12,800 new private-sector jobs in the month, but the percentage of unemployed people is still larger than the rest of the nation.

The rate peaked at 11.4 percent in late 2009 and early 2010, while Gov. Charlie Crist was still in office. It was during the same time as a national economic crisis, which Florida was particularly hit hard because of its dependence on homebuilding and tourism — which suffered during the economic downturn.

However, that rate started to drop in April 2010, and was down to 10.9 percent when Scott took office in 2011. The rate would then not drop below 7 percent until September 2013, and has essentially remained flat at around 6.3 percent since last December.

The rate is still significantly higher than what it was in 2006, where the rate hovered around 3.3 percent.

In August, Florida’s unemployment rate was ranked 26th in the nation, tied with Arkansas and Missouri, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Georgia that month had the worst rate at 8.1 percent, while North Dakota could be statistically labeled as “fully employed” with a 2.8 percent rate.

Of the top five most populous states, with Florida ranked fourth with 19.6 million people, California was ranked 44th nationally in August with a 7.4 percent rate, New York was ranked 29th at 6.4 percent, Texas ranked 16th at 5.3 percent, and Illinois ranked 36th at 6.7 percent.

The governor’s office did point out other positive trends in the economy, including a 33.7 percent backlog reduction in existing homes on the market since December 2011, as well as a 2.9-percent increase in home prices in August compared to the previous year.

In September, Florida’s 24 regional work force boards reported more than 43,800 people were placed in jobs. This number is based on those who seek employment and training assistance through the center and finds a job with 180 days. Of that number, nearly 9,400 of them had been receiving unemployment benefits.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Arkansas, Bureau of Labor Statistics, California, Charlie Crist, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New York, North Dakota, Rick Scott, Texas, U.S. Department of Labor

Florida wants ‘abundance of caution’ against Ebola

October 6, 2014 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

Could Ebola come to Florida? If it does, state government officials say they want to be prepared.

Over the weekend, a Miami hospital tested a patient to rule out Ebola, despite the fact the patient “did not meet the CDC case definition” for the virus, Gov. Rick Scott said, in a release.

“The test is being conducted out of an abundance of caution,” Scott said about the efforts of both the Florida Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Florida still does not have any confirmed cases of Ebola, and we hope we never do. But we are taking every preparedness step possible to keep our citizens and our visitors safe.”

Health officials requested 30 additional Ebola testing kits from the CDC, ensuring that all of the state’s 30 public hospitals have the ability to test patients believed to be infected, the governor’s office said. The health department also requested 100 additional units of high-level personal protective equipment to ensure the state is ready to backfill any county whose medical personnel develop a future need for those supplies.

“We know Florida’s hospitals and county health offices are prepared to identify and treat patients who may have Ebola,” Scott said. “While they are prepared on the local level, the state is requesting increased federal resources out of an abundance of caution for the unlikely event that we may have an extended response that warrants additional resources.”

The health department also is working in conjunction with the CDC to determine on a case-by-case basis whether testing for Ebola is necessary. The CDC already has shared detailed recommendations to the state’s hospitals to help detect suspected Ebola among those returned from affected countries, and prevention transmission of the virus within medical facilities.

Health officials also are providing training to counties on how to investigate and respond to people suspected of contracting the virus.

Thomas Eric Duncan travelled to Texas from Liberia last month after contracting the virus, and became one of the first cases to be diagnosed in the United States. He’s currently in critical condition in a Dallas hospital, according to published reports.

Five other Americans returned home after contracting Ebola, including a missionary doctor, and a television news cameraman. One American, Patrick Sawyer, has died, after seeking treatment in a Nigerian hospital.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dallas, Florida, Liberia, Miami, Nigeria, Patrick Sawyer, Rick Scott, Texas, Thomas Eric Duncan, United States

Fact Check: Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera’s campaign visit to Zephyrhills

September 30, 2014 By Michael Hinman

Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera made a campaign stop on behalf of Gov. Rick Scott in Zephyrhills Sept. 22, speaking in front of the Conservative Club of East Pasco.

Throughout his stump speech, Lopez-Cantera attacked Scott’s Democratic opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, but also made some other claims as well. 

For the complete story of Lopez-Cantera’s campaign stop, read the Oct. 1 edition of The Laker/Lutz News.


 “The high-speed rail was a project that is about $2 billion, but that would not have covered the cost of the project. And you know who would’ve been on the hook to cover the cost of the project? All of us.

“Look at California. They took the federal money, and they have not laid one inch of rail in their state for high-speed rail. They’re hundreds of millions of dollars in the hole. They raised the gas tax 6 cents just to cover the expense.

“And that is still not going to cover the cost, that is projected to be around $100 billion.”

President Obama announced construction of high-speed rail routes in several states, including Florida, in 2009 as part of his overall stimulus package to help jumpstart the nation’s lagging economy.

Florida was set to receive more than $2 billion, while California was gearing up to receive $8 billion in federal funds. However, while the federal dollars were expected to cover the cost of the Florida route’s first phase between Tampa and Orlando, the California contribution was just a fraction of the $68 billion needed to build the entire line in the state, that had been planned for decades.

The California project took a big hit last January, however, when a state judge there ruled the government could not sell billions of dollars in bonds that would’ve helped finance the project, according to the Washington Post.

In August, the New York Times called the high-speed rail project a failure, claiming the Obama administration spent $11 billion on the project, with nothing to show for it. However, Michael Grunwald from Time magazine disputed that report, saying just $2.4 billion has been spent nationwide, and that major construction of the first high-speed rail lines are just beginning after years of planning.


“In the next two years, you can expect another $1 million in tax cuts, and this is not a Charlie Crist rhetoric tax cut. Another $120 million will be cut in taxes if you have a cellphone. Your cellphone bill will go down.

“And we’re going to eliminate the manufacturing sales tax once and for all, so that we can continue to attract manufacturing jobs to our state, because those are good, high-paying jobs.

“We are going to get a constitutional amendment passed that if your (home) value does not go up, your property taxes will not go up. It is not fair.”

The Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research think tank based in Washington, D.C., has called some of these policies a “mixed bag.”

The constitutional amendment, for example, would require the approval of 60 percent of voters. At the same time, this would affect local government revenue, not state government revenue, said Lyman Stone of the Tax Foundation.

“Restrictions on property tax assessments can reduce local taxation, but only if there are also restrictions on property tax rates, effective standardization of tax-assessing practices, and strict limits on other local revenue sources,” Stone said. “Otherwise, if property taxes are ineffectively capped, localities will just raise the same revenues through less transparent means, like excessive fees, fines, or budget gimmicks that just push expenses further out.”

However, in the same analysis, Stone praised the proposed reduction in cellphone taxes. Florida, he said, has the fourth highest taxes on cellphone usage, and would bring the state closer to norms experienced elsewhere in the country.


 Drug testing those people receiving state funds “was passed in 2011, and has been challenged by liberal groups since then. We are still appealing it. There is an injunction in place that doesn’t allow (the state to enforce drug-testing) until it makes its way through the courts.”

A federal judge last December struck down the law forcing welfare recipients to be drug tested, saying the law violated the Constitutional protection against unreasonable searches. It was similar to a ruling made in Michigan in 2003 that put many proposed drug-testing policies on hold for several years.

The suit that led to the decision was put together by the American Civil Liberties Union, a group generally described as “liberal,” on behalf of a U.S. Navy veteran, Luis Lebron, who had filed for public assistance and was asked to submit to testing.

The New York Times reported late last year the program cost far more than it saved, finding less than 3 percent of those tested with positive results for narcotics.


“We talked about how we increased funding for education the last three years, and how Gov. Scott was a champion of a $480 million pay raise (for teachers). That was not a bonus but a pay raise.”

The raises, according to Scott, would amount to $2,500 per teacher, and up to $3,500 for those deemed “highly effective.” However, while the Legislature did approve a measure that would make an additional $480 million available to school districts, it’s still up to county school boards — not the states — on how that money will be distributed, if at all.

Also, the allocated money is not just for teachers in the classroom. It’s also for guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, librarians, principals and assistant principals, according to the bill, which means at least some of the money is earmarked for those who aren’t in front of students.

Scott has pushed for increased education funding in recent years, but that came after he slashed the education budget in 2011 by $1.3 billion. In fact, despite his most recent increase, education funding per student is still below the levels under Crist in 2007, according to Politifact.


“Charlie (Crist) doesn’t want anyone to remember that he was governor for four years, and what the state looked like when he took it over. It had a 3.5 percent unemployment rate, and when he left, it was much higher. He is going to say it was the global recession, and that it would’ve happened to anybody. That is not true. The same time that Florida lost 830,000 jobs, there was another governor who focused on jobs, and they added 200,000 jobs. And that was Texas.”

Crist moved into the governor’s mansion in January 2007, enjoying an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent. However, by that July, it had climbed to 4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As the Great Recession went into full swing, unemployment would rise to 4.8 percent after Crist’s first full year in office, and then 8.8 percent after his second.

Florida’s unemployment rate peaked at 11.4 percent in December 2009, and started to drop by April 2010.

When Scott took office in January 2011, the unemployment rate already was declining, dropping to 10.9 percent. It would take nearly three years for Scott to see unemployment rates drop below 7 percent, which it finally did in September 2013, but has plateaued around the 6.3 percent mark since last December.

In terms of what states weathered the recession better than others, Texas did gain attention for its job growth. However, many of those jobs, according to news reports, came in the oil and natural gas industries, which took only a minor hit during the recession.

Florida, on the other hand, was hit hard by the crash of the housing market, losing many jobs in that field — something Texas was able to absorb.

Last July, NPR reviewed job growth in all 50 states between January 2008 and May 2014, using data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that time, North Dakota had the biggest job growth at 21.2 percent, followed by Texas with 8.4 percent — both taking advantage of growth in the petroleum industry.

In total, 18 states and the District of Columbia saw positive job growth since the time the recession was in full swing, but none of them are Florida. The Sunshine State is ranked 38th in job growth since January 2008, tied with Maine, showing it’s still short of reaching its pre-recession levels by 1.7 percent.

Of the 19 states and territories that have seen positive growth since the recession, eight are led by Democrats, and seven by Republicans. Two other states — Oklahoma and Iowa — went from Democrat to Republican governors during that time span, while two others — Minnesota and California — went from Republican to Democrat.


“The first two years, he was chasing the vice presidency and not focusing on the state. The second two years, he was running for a United States Senate seat.

“And he is the first governor in the history of Florida to not run for re-election.”

Charlie Crist was touring and campaigning with John McCain after the U.S. Senator won the Republican nomination in 2008, and many news outlets said Crist was one of the contenders to possibly accompany McCain on the presidential ticket, especially since that could help deliver Florida in the presidential election.

McCain, however, chose Sarah Palin instead, and would go on to lose to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the November race.

Less than a year later, Republican Mel Martinez resigned from his U.S. Senate seat some four years after winning it, and Crist appointed his chief of staff, George LeMieux — who many largely saw as a placeholder for Crist — and Crist soon after announced his intentions to run for the seat.

When it became obvious Marco Rubio was going to win the Republican nomination two years later for the senate seat, Crist would stay in the race as an independent, eventually losing to Rubio in 2011.

Crist, however, is not the first governor in history to not run for re-election. Assuming Lopez-Cantera was only referring to sitting governors eligible to seek re-election (which would exclude the likes of Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush), C. Farris Bryant chose to serve just one term as governor, and did not seek re-election in 1964. He would be succeeded by another Democrat, W. Haydon Burns, in a two-year term in 1965.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: American Civil Liberties Union, Barack Obama, California, Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Charlie Crist, Conservative Club of East Pasco, D.C., District of Columbia, Florida, Iowa, Luis Lebron, Lyman Stone, Maine, Michael Grunwald, Michigan, Minnesota, New York Times, North Dakota, NPR, Oklahoma, Orlando, Politifact, Rick Scott, Tampa, Tax Foundation, Texas, Time, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Navy, Washington, Washington Post, Zephyrhills

Refinery problems freeze gas prices

September 29, 2014 By Special to The Laker/Lutz News

The dream of gas under $3 may have to wait a little longer, at least in Florida.

Refinery outages in both Canada and Texas put a halt to the summer-long decline in gas prices, and even went as far as pushing prices up in some places, like Pensacola.

“Refinery maintenance, especially in the Gulf, is causing the tightening of supplies in some areas,” said AAA spokesman Josh Carrasco, in a release. “As a result of these refinery issues, the downward pressure eon gas prices motorists saw earlier this month has stopped.”

Several companies in the Gulf region — home to more than 40 percent of U.S. refining capacity, announced an unplanned maintenance, AAA said, which reduced gasoline output in this areas. Those outages occurred the same time as other refineries in the region are conducting seasonal maintenance.

Oil prices also are rising again, with West Texas intermediate crude rising $1.13 to $93.54 a barrel on Friday.

“Overall, motorists are still seeing value at the pump,” Carrasco said. “Gas prices are at a seven-month low, and we expect gasoline to continue trending downwards in the coming months.”

Prices in Florida held steady this week at $3.29, but was down 8 cents from a month ago, and 6 cents from a year ago.

The cheapest gas in Land O’ Lakes was $3.16, and found at a few stations in the area, including the Hess on State Road 52 and U.S. 41, as well as the RaceTrac at State Road 52 and Silver Palm Boulevard, and another RaceTrac on Land O’ Lakes Boulevard, near Lake Patience Road, according to GasBuddy. The most expensive gas reported to the site was $3.29 at the Shell station on the corner of State Road 54 and State Road 56.

In Wesley Chapel, prices ranged from $3.12 at Sam’s Club near Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, and $3.29 at a Shell station nearby. Lutz gas was as low as $3.16 at the Chevron and Sunoco at State Road 54 and Collier Parkway, and as high as $3.39 at the Shell on North Dale Mabry Highway and Van Dyke Road.

Gas prices in Zephyrhills climbed a little bit to a low of $3.15 at the Marathon on Eiland Boulevard and Geiger Road, as well as the Mobil on State Road 54 and Allen Road. The most expensive was reported at the Cumberland Farms on Gall Boulevard and State Road 39, where gas was $3.26.

The cheapest gas in Dade City was $3.13 at Clark, on U.S. 301 near Long Avenue. The most expensive there was said to be at Chevron on the corner of Fort King Road and Clinton Avenue, were prices came in at $3.24.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: Allen Road, Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Canada, Chevron, Clark, Clinton Avenue, Collier Parkway, Cumberland Farms, Dade City, Eiland Boulevard, Florida, Fort King Road, Gall Boulevard, GasBuddy, Geiger Road, Hess, Josh Carrasco, Lake Patience Road, Land O' Lakes, Land O' Lakes Boulevard, Long Avenue, Lutz, Marathon, Mobil, North Dale Mabry Highway, Pensacola, RaceTrac, Sam's Club, Shell, Silver Palm Boulevard, State Road 39, State Road 52, State Road 54, State Road 56, Sunoco, Texas, U.S. 301, U.S. 41, Van Dyke Road, Wesley Chapel, West Texas Intermediate, Zephyrhills

Moore tops $100,000, makes district race most expensive

August 22, 2014 By Michael Hinman

With just days before voters will choose just one of three candidates to represent the Republican ticket in the Pasco County Commission District 2 race, Mike Moore will clearly take the fundraising title after a final push this week put him over $100,000.

Mike Moore is a Wesley Chapel-based entrepreneur that says he can bring his business experience to the Pasco County Commission. He faces a primary against Ken Littlefield and Bob Robertson in an effort to succeed the retiring Pat Mulieri on the commission. (Courtesy of Mike Moore)
Mike Moore

Combined with the efforts of fellow Republicans Ken Littlefield and Bob Robertson, the three candidates have raised $134,348, already making it the most expensive District 2 race in the past decade. It tops the $121,111 raised in the 2006 election, and the $116,669 collected in 2010 — both won by Pat Mulieri. And those numbers included the general election.

Moore goes into the primary election day with just under $103,400, picking up $4,400 between Aug. 9 and Aug. 21. That includes $1,000 from the political action committee HCA West Florida Division, and $1,500 from Orsi Development and Springfield Homes in New Port Richey.

In all, Moore has spent just under $100,000 of that, with less than 45 percent of those funds — or $44,376 — staying inside Pasco County. Moore spent nearly $50,000 on advertising, all but nearly $3,000 of it, however, with a Ponte Vedra Beach company called Majority Strategies Inc. He also spent more than $15,000 — or about 15 percent of his money — with an Odessa company called Capital Consulting.

Robertson picked up a little more than $2,000 in his final two weeks of campaigning ahead of the primary, bringing his total to just under $15,600. That includes $500 each from Dobies Funeral Homes in Holiday, as well as listed Tampa property manager Lloyd Riales and also Eric Gilbertson, a volunteer director with the Samaritan Project of Zephyrhills.

Bob Robertson has stayed closely involved in the community, and wants to continue being the public advocate Pat Mulieri was on the board. In fact, the Zephyrhills financial analyst earned an endorsement from Mulieri heading into the Aug. 26 primary. (Courtesy of Bob Robertson)
Bob Robertson

Robertson has spent $14,270 of those funds, half of it locally. However, business cards and signs, among other things, were purchased outside the county — and sometimes the state — including $921 to a Texas company called Signs on the Cheap, and just under $2,300 to Delivery Signs of Orlando. Robertson, however, did do social media and other work locally with the Wesley Chapel company The Busy Buddy to the tune of $1,155.

When it came to advertising, Robertson spent far less than Moore, just $233, or less than 2 percent of his total expenditures.

Despite Friday being the deadline for final primary campaign reports, Littlefield did not file his financials by 6 p.m. with the Pasco County supervisor of elections office. Before that, he had raised $10,450 — about half of what he did four years before in his primary against Mulieri. That includes about $7,600 Littlefield put in of his own money, and not including about $9,000 in a listed in-kind donation on his own behalf for what he said was printing and postage.

Ken Littlefield, during his years as a state lawmaker, giving a speech on the floor of the state House in Tallahassee. Littlefield wants to continue serving government at the Pasco County Commission. (Courtesy of Florida House)
Ken Littlefield

Littlefield spent $10,300, with 57 percent — or $4,967 — taking place locally. Most of his non-local spending was done through Gulf Coast Imprinting in Largo.

After being asked by The Laker/Lutz News about why there was a delay in filing, Littlefield said via email that he was just getting home from work, and planned to file “after dinner.”

Republican voters will have a chance to choose from among the three candidates Aug. 26. The winner will face Democrat Erika Remsberg in the general election.

Filed Under: Top Story, Updates Tagged With: Bob Robertson, Capital Consulting, Delivery Signs, Dobies Funeral Home, Eric Gilbertson, Erika Remsberg, Gulf Coast Imprinting, HCA West Florida Division, Holiday, Ken Littlefield, Largo, Lloyd Riales, Majority Strategies Inc., Mike Moore, New Port Richey, Odessa, Orlando, Orsi Development, Pasco County, Pasco County Commission, Pat Mulieri, Ponte Vedra Beach, Samaritan Project, Signs on the Cheap, Springfield Homes, Tampa, Texas, The Busy Buddy, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills

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