Attorney Mogensen blows more Sunshine up city hall's ass
Gondo story || Herald-Trib story
Hammett added to lawsuit for one count; Simmonds nailed for destroying public records; Lang, Martin, Moore, most of airport board accused of acting like lawless brigands; c'mon, this is Venice, what did you expect?
-- both stories 08/22/08

This is normal?
City hall is back to normal... wait... what?
I gotta send Hizzoner an MP3 - The Trouble With Normal Is It Always Gets Worse by Bruce Cockburn
-- Ed Martin's blog, 08/18/08

Area man finds $2 million while doing laundry
Jeff Snyder, the city's finance director, says he always checks the pockets before tossing clothes into the washer because that's the way his wife taught him
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 08/15/08

Council to airport board: Go with God, but go
Tacy sobers up, waves a rubber around; Noren mumbles something about 'hey, you guys did it, too;' Simmonds threatens to drive through a farmer's market -- just another day in pair-a-dice
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 08/13/08

Airport board picked a bad day to stop smoking crack

Engines ablaze, tail shot off, no landing gear: hey, no problem
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 08/12/08

Ummmm..., what's this then?
Kevin Ward purchased a lot of ads last election supporting CQG candidates -- looks like we now know why
BONUS LINKS:
Video tour on YouTube
Location map surrounding John Nolen Park
-- Royal Manor Park web site

City hall is officially a no-Black zone
Marty Black's parting shots at Rotary Luncheon: Venice can either do it my way or die a horrible, cancerous death at the hands of its own idiotic voters
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 08/08/08

Tree huggers take over city hall
"Damned hippies... I hate hippies" - Eric Cartman
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 08/08/08

$1.8 billion in debt: WCI files for Chapter 11
Would the last person to leave the Venetian Golf & River Club please turn out the lights?
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 08/05/08

Alien takeover of planning commission almost complete
Pod people continue stealth takeover of government; Kevin McCarthy, Donald Sutherland unavailable for comment
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 08/03/08

Hate me now -- I'm from 941
Local rapper Vell Venture kicks out his second album, video shot here in Venice and in Sarasota
Hate Me Now video on YouTube
Vell Venture on MySpace
CD review of Vell's 1st album from CDBaby
(yo Vell -- I want one of those 941 t-shirts)
-- links posted on 08/02/08

Comcast ordered to stop throttling and spying on customer internet traffic
Comcast: We did nothing wrong;
FCC: Uhhhh, yeah, you did, and it was really, really wrong
-- Wired, 08/01/08

City's legal team adopts new strategy in Sunshine Law lawsuits: roll over and play dead
An attorney for the city said he filed a motion to dismiss the suit and it did not get to the court in time; "It was a scheduling error," said attorney Dale Scott. "We are going to see if the judgment can be set aside" -- good luck with that
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 08/01/08

Ed Taylor -- have you been a naughty boy again?
Gee, what a surprise: Point man for the failed attempt to bring a Marriott to the airport is noticed by H-T's Tom Lyons for running anonymous smear campaigns under the moniker People for a Better Sarasota County: "Ed Taylor ...is paying for billboards that falsely make it look like Gov. Crist has endorsed Furst"
-- Tom Lyons, Sarasopta Herald-Tribune, 08/01/08

WCI posts record losses
Venetian Golf & River Club builder is down $100 million in last quarter alone, has defaulted on loans, is scrambling to reconsolidate debt in order to pay for day-to-day operations; on the upside, the phosphate mines next to country club are doing just fine, thanks
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/30/08

Bad day at the coffee shop for city manager
"The uproar contributed to Venice City Manager Marty Black's decision to resign, effective next month, to avoid being fired;"  in other news, CQG overlord CJ Fishman sees the light, is now suddenly a proponent of ethics in government
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/28/08

Airport Advisory Board "gone wild" (?)
Herald-Trib doesn't want to see AAB showing its ass any more, asks board to put pants back on and go away
-- editorial, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/29/08

Herald-Trib: In praise of Godzilla
Ummmmm... on the one hand, the Herald-Trib wants due process; on the other, there's this editorial... go figure
-- editorial, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/28/08

Martin: I have a plan
I have a plan... that one day... little taxpayer boys and girls will be able to join hands with little CQG boys and girls... I have a plan
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 07/25/08

The search for Venice's new city manager
Let's just hope it goes better than the search for Osama bin Laden
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/25/08

I want to believe
Where are your priorities, people? Forget everything else -- this is THE important story this week
-- Wired, 07/23/08

U.S. Rep. Buchanan's employees talk of election donation coercion and fraud
Used car salesman turned politician is a bit on the shady side -- go figure, who could have possibly seen that coming?
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/24/08

--> Godzilla named to interim city manager job
--> Airport board asked to shoot self
--> City now wants your pocket as well as what's in it
Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now
-- various sources, 07/23/08

Herald-Trib urges council not to shoot airport advisory board
Spot on and rightio, good chaps: why waste the bullets when we have a perfectly good pier that we can march them off of?
-- editorial, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/22/08

A young person's guide to the Venice airport
The planes go up, the planes go down, the wheels on the planes go round and round -- oh, and those crack dealers that stiffed us for $1.5 million in consultant fees are back with a new drug... no, it's just more crack
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/22/08