Look at this quote from a Sarasota Herald Tribune story: “Pettit bought the 996-square-foot house in 1990 for $70,000 and is hoping to sell it for $469,000.” Sarasota’s Hartland Park, where this little home is located, is the kind of well-kept, modest neighborhood where cops, teachers, nurses, and other middle-class workers like to live and raise their children. And if houses there sold for $150,000 or $200,000, most new buyers would probably be middle-class workers. But at $469,000 — or even at the $387,000 price the article says was Pettit’s most recent offer — no one with a normal, work-derived income can afford to move there.
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It happened again today. I was trying to write an article when my little GAIM beep went off, and I got a message from a good friend with a YouTube link in it. It was a four minute video, and quite funny. After I watched it I went back to work. But two minutes later I got the GAIM beep again.
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We noticed several BPD cars apparently patrolling the area between 9th St. W and Tamiami Trail, bordered by 13th Ave. W and 17th Ave. W., on the evening of May 12. While you were in the neighborhood the number of annoying, badly-driven “boom boom” cars — and the open drug dealing often associated with them. — was noticably lower than usual.
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I have trouble understanding how any decent American could want to tax investment or inheritance income at a lower rate than work income.
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Offshore Oil Drilling: No Need to Rush
Natural gas drilling near Florida’s coast is inevitable. After that will come offshore oil drilling. But the longer we delay, the better it will be for all Americans, not just those who enjoy Florida beaches and other waterfront attractions.
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I sent Allan Bense an email Monday. Wednesday he decided not to run against Katherine Harris in the Republican Senatorial primary. I therefore take blame/credit for his decision.
Here’s what I wrote:
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Not long ago, the owner of a “motorsports-oriented” franchise eatery called Quaker Steak & Lube was not allowed to take over a defunct restaurant on Bradenton’s main Cortez Road shopping strip. Residents of a nearby condominium complex objected loudly to the idea of outdoor parties with potentially hundreds of motorcyclists in attendance. I personally would love to have Quaker Steak & Lube in my Bradenton neighborhood. I think I may even have found them a location that, with a little imagination, would be better than Cortez Road.
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I am looking at Bradenton plumbing permit # PL.06.0605. I see the inspector’s initials — TJ 4-11-06 — for the sewer part of the permit, which means he was here on the 11th of April, 2006. He’d already failed the job twice, improperly. Now he says that his 4-11-2006 inspection was not complete, so the contractor needs to tear up our garage floor again. Arrgh!.
This is not our first problem with the City of Bradenton’s Department of Development Services. In fact, we’ve had so many problems with them that I hope they have it in for me personally. Otherwise, we’re dealing with corruption or incompetence that affects everyone who tries to build or improve anything here.
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BRADENTON, FLA — Oil supplies have become so tight that even the slightest disruption in the market causes a price jump at the pump. When several quarts of generic-brand 10-40 were stolen from the East Bradenton MegaParts store Monday, “This was enough to trigger a 10 cent per gallon increase,” said N. Ron Petro, a spokesman for the International Association of Oil Profiteers.
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I see that most major newspapers, from my local no-longer-Bradenton Herald to the New York Times, talk endlessly about “immigration” without using the word “illegal.” We are seeing heart-warming stories about individual (illegal) immigrants who are successful in the U.S. and will be torn from the bosoms of their families if immigration laws are tightened — or even if current ones are enforced. These stories are interspersed with quotes from plantation, factory, and packinghouse owners who say they rely on (illegal) immigrants to do hard, dirty work. I think there are three truths buried in all of this talk, and that in many ways they contradict each other.
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