2008 archive of links to stories from other
sources
Note: all links were live and valid at the time of original
posting; any dead links are the result of moved content on the linked-to web
sites
Prior archive of stories from other web
sites: 2007 2006 2005 2004
Hizzoner nominates Godzilla for sainthood, Mothra unavailable for comment "I have a high regard for Nancy Woodley. She is intelligent,
experienced and has the ability to choose good staff. I think she will do an
excellent job as Interim Manager" -- Well yer honor, we're sure Hans
Behrens will agree
-- Ed Martin's blog, 07/19/08
Godzilla to be named interim city manager
From the land of exploding sewers and power lines comes the one
person who can make it worse -- natch
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/19/08
Mogensen to Hizzoner: You forget about something there, bub?
Motion filed in court accuses mayor of ignoring the court's
orders; Ground Control to Major Ed, your circuit's dead, there's
something wrong, can you hear me Major Ed? Can you hear me, Major Ed? Can
you...
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 07/16/08
Waterford foreclosure: Mike Miller blames the banks for lending him money "This occurred after overly generous lending practices and
large demand from investment bankers to obtain mortgage paper fueled
overbuilding and eliminated the demand for quality housing;" TRANSLATION:
"It's their fault I stole the car, the idiots left the keys in the ignition" -- Venice Gondolier Sun, 07/16/08
WCI implodes
Initial attempt by homebuilder to discuss restructuring ends in food fight;
CEO Carl Icahn focuses instead on hostile takeover of Yahoo! ... wait ...
what?
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 07/16/08
Comcast sanctioned by FCC for deliberately blocking web traffic
Peer-to-peer and web utilities deliberately slowed or stopped;
cable giant hired street people to fill seats at public hearing to prevent
complaining customers from attending
-- Wired, 07/12/08
It's official:
Mike Miller is going down
Regions Bank is going after Miller's Waterford Co. for
defaulting on $23 million worth of
loans, has started foreclosure on occupied Waterford condo project... this
isn't just a condo or three, the bank is foreclosing on a whole condo complex
-- land, parking lot, buildings, and all!!!
-- Bradenton Herald, 07/08/08
VABA wants to be taken seriously... seriously... no, we're not joking... we
really mean it this time, honest
Gondo story |
Herald-Trib story
Nevermind that plan to discredit council, now let's see if we can't discredit
council
-- both, 07/09/08
Boone blinks
Faced with an affidavit accusing him of having an over active
imagination, Boone decides not to push the hacking envelope
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 07/02/08
Public records requests inundate city hall
City clerk Lori Stelzer can't find her desk, several staffers feared missing
in mountains of paper
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 06/29/08
Sheriff settles with Mogensen for $15,000 in SSO Sunshine Law case
Balkwill gets smart, negotiates way out of suit early; meanwhile,
Venice attorneys have already skyrocketed taxpayer legal bill into six figures
with their FOAD stance against Mogensen
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 06/25/08
Simmonds, Boone get Farked! "The Sunshine State triumphs yet again;"
"This interwebbie thing is a useful device for outing local government
corruption;"
"Hey, I saw this on Law and Order once"
-- Fark, 06/26/08
Bye bye Black "[City manager's] resignation is the latest twist in a legal
drama that continues to unfold but, since his eventual departure was likely,
he has done himself and the city a favor by hastening a transition
in administration"
-- editorial, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 06/27/08
Boone accuses Venice Florida! dot com's Patten of hacking in
a last gasp attempt to keep Simmonds' computer from being analyzed by the
court
Gondo story |
Herald-Trib story
OK, you knew Jeff Boone was slimy, but this latest panic-induced move shows
him for the pond-scum that he truly is (I wonder what it is in Simmonds'
computer that terrifies the Boone law firm?)
-- 06/25 to 06/26/08
Crime wave hits Venice:
Robbery, assault, and battery, the felon and his felony
I've got clean away but I'll be back some day,
Just the combination will have changed.
Some day they'll catch me, to a chain they'll attach me,
Until that day I'll ride the old crime wave.
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 06/25/08
Sunshine gets expensive fast Last year, the City of Jacksonville went through a nearly
identical Sunshine Law scandal as Venice is going through now; the big winners
were the attorneys, the big losers were the taxpayers that had to foot the
legal bills
-- Florida Times-Union, 06/12/08
Code enforcement Nazis are coming your way
Zavodnyik pushes for code updates, city staff adds internment
camps and storm troopers to the proposal in attempt to derail the change;
hilarity ensues
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 06/23/08
Sucks at the beach
At least the tan lines are still good
-- Homestar Runner, 06/19/08
Airport board members get to keep their computers... for now, anyway
Gondo story |
Herald-Trib story
City attorney argues that proper procedure isn't being followed; judge tells
attorney Andrea Mogensen to try again
-- both, 06/20/08
All your email are belong to us
Gondo story |
Herald-Tribune story
Moore, Martin, Carlucci, Simmonds, and... wait, what's this? "Former Mayor
Fred Hammett handed over a few e-mails but noted he did not realize he was
supposed to save them;" Fred, allow me to introduce you to Judge Bennett
-- both, 06/18/08
Oh Mr. Kiester: What's this, then?
Chuck Kiester, a city councilman in Marco Island, did the same
thing that our John Simmonds did -- delete emails to avoid public scrutiny
-- Naples News, 02/07/08
In defense of bad journalism
When a newspaper gets called out for repeatedly mixing fiction
with fact, the best defense is apparently to accuse the readers of being
stupid and partisan
-- Eric Ernst, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 06/15/08
Hackett hacks it again in Sunshine court case
Judge Bennett DID NOT order the forensic examination of John Moore's and Ed
Martin's computers -- the judge left the door open for it to possibly
happen, but he didn't order that remedy yet
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 09/12/08
It's Showtime!
The entire cast of Springtime for Marty to get dragged into
court today to swear that they have never heard of the City of Venice; City
Manager Marty Black seen rubbing his hands and muttering "Exxxcellent!"
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 06/11/08
Existentialism and the art of airport maintenance
Venice airport isn't what it isn't and is what it is, and what
it is is an economic engine that brings in $64.5 billion weekly to Venice's
economy; in other news, Søren Kierkegaard's flight
school is grounded by FAA for being too flighty
-- Eric Ernst, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 06/08/08
Vellucci goes batshit crazy
Comedy gold: TOTI owner Mike Vellucci hides behind wife
in a very strange rant on Herald-Trib's site
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, originally posted on 04/04/08
City, Simmonds escape from deadly subpoena
Gondo story |
Herald-Trib story
Simmonds admits to deleting city emails, Lorenzo's attorney
demands to examine the hard drives of Simmonds' computers, Simmonds freaks
out, and that's not even
the weird part of the story
-- both 06/04/08
City hall: computer department, city clerk not archiving city emails
Every city employee (including elected officials and charter
officers) is
responsible for storing and archiving his/her own email correspondence --
somehow, city management thought this was a good idea
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 05/30/08
No fees at the beach
Gondo story |
Herald-Trib story
County commission blinks, can't figure out what went wrong; Next up on the
agenda: neighborhood tollbooths and bicycle spoke tax
-- both stories 05/28/08
Hizzoner sued for blogging... wait... what?
Sarasota nutjob Anthony Lorenzo sues Lang, Martin, and the city
claiming, among other things, that the mayor has no right to blog -- First
Amendment rolls over and curls up into a fetal ball
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 05/22/08
Do not gouge us at the beach
Dear County Commission -- we know where you can put your parking meters, but
you're not gonna like it
-- letters, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 05/20/08
Black backpedals fast from email Sunshine Law allegations It was all just one of those wacky misunderstandings, like
an episode of I Love Lucy... pink folder? I don't have a pink folder... not
anymore, anyway (please don't fire me, please don't fire me)
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 05/16/08
County Commission to Thomas Ranch developer: FOAD
Attorney Jeff Boone takes developer client down in a fiery
crash with no parachutes -- and some people say there is no God
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 05/14/08
Say, Sheriff, are you happy to see me or is that a freshwater bass in your
pants?
Sheriff Bill Balkwill joins the historic long list of consecutive douchebags
that have held the office of Sheriff in Sarasota County -- nice to know that
tradition still means something in southern law enforcement
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 05/14/08
Hizzoner on airport, city manager: Once bitten, twice shy
Herald-Trib is still muffing it, Gondo got the story right, and
the mayor is finally getting smart by not giving Marty Black the chance to stab
him in the back with another meat
cleaver
-- Ed Martin's blog, 05/11/08
War of the Poses continues as
Herald-Trib blows sunshine up Hizzoner's butt
Herald-Trib poses again, demands their God-given right to rock... and to sit
in on a boring FAA meeting; WTF, let them in, give them some toys to play with, just make sure
they play quietly on the floor while the grownups talk
-- legal letter to city hall, 05/07/08
Bad hangover there, Rick?
Tacy backs off claim that he's willing to testify in court
about alleged Sunshine Law violation, says reporting it to a law enforcement
agency is not his style -- maybe not, but if he witnessed it as he states, it
is his lawful duty
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 05/06/08
Jesus died for your BMW
Carbon-monoxide belchers to get state approved crucifix plates
-- one upside Lyons fails to mention: it'll keep vampires out of your car
-- Tom Lyons, 04/27/08
Environmentalism in England: The problem is potatoes "The only way you can prevent a spud from turning into a huge
poisonous cloud of suffocating gas is to call the U.S. Air Force and ask it to
carpet bomb the potato-growing flatlands of Lincolnshire with Agent Orange"
-- Jeremy Clarkson, London Sunday Times, 04/20/08
Vellucci 1, VidCam 0
That damned Patten is causing trouble again; not in story: the
totally innocent Canon vidcam owned by Patten was killed and destroyed by
Vellucci
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 04/19/08
Venetian Golf & River Club -- sorry folks, but you are so screwed
That sand trap is a killer; You can blame the man who wrote the
annexation: Jeff Boone, but Boone is ducking and blaming the
Venice Taxpayers League for their opposition to the original annexation
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 04/17/08
All work and no play makes Ed a dull boy
all work and no
play makes Ed a dull boy all work and no play makes Ed a dull boy all work and
no play makes Ed a dull boy all work and no play makes Ed a dull boy (stephen king will get the joke even if nobody else does)
-- Ed Martin's blog, 04/12/08
Short term renters: the terrorists in our midst
Having failed at every level to wipe out the scourge of evil
tourism, city hall to try new tactic: labeling tourists as terrorists,
shooting them on sight
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 04/15/08
Meet Bluto, Otter, Pinto, and Flounder -- your Florida legislators "Negron had to take a roll of paper towels to a wolf spider
for Mahon, who ran screaming from the bathroom at the sight of it;" Oh
please, oh please, let there be video of this
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 04/14/08
Dear city council: STFU
Changing the start time of meetings is not going to reduce oral
flatulence
-- letters, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 04/12/08
Gondo's thought for the day: Let's look in the toilet!
(link may or may not go to correct story, Gondo keeps changing
the link) Fresh out of ideas for stories, the Gondo takes an in-depth
investigative look at porta-potties
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 04/11/08
Naked in Arcadia
All roads lead to nudie swimming hole
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 04/12/08
Sharks Tooth Fest kicks off today
Sharks can look but not touch as tasty
humans party at the waters' edge
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 04/11/08
Barbara Gross shows her second face
As a city commissioner for North Port, Barbara Gross has
been a huge tumor for growth in one of the state's most cancerous cities;
termed out in North Port and running for county commission against Shannon
Staub, Gross has suddenly become an environmentalist; in other news, pigs fly,
film at 11
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 04/10/08
Dent cleared of election tampering
State prosecutor declines to file charges after determining
that the elections supervisor is way too stupid to be capable of formulating
criminal intent
-- Pelican Press, 04/03/08
Say, that new Gondo web site is...
A.) not bad.
B.) not working.
C.) craptacular.
D.) not.
(and we love the tombstone -- Venice is dead, long live Venice)
-- Vneice Glandalyre Sonnnn
Tampa man is still a Golden Beacher at heart "Look, I know I sound like a lunatic, but I'm not. I'm just
a guy who wants them to admit that there's a problem here." -- St. Pete Times, 03/21/08
Norris hears a clue - dead link "I have two years and three
months remaining on my contract, but my bosses are trying to push me out the
door." -- Figured that one out all on your own, eh Sparky?
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/21/08
Faulty valve blamed for island water outage
Not in story: It doesn't help that utility supervisors couldn't
find the valve to determine if it was actually faulty or not until well into
the water outage
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/22/08
Good thing that Nick Carlucci is not bitter
Ousted from the Airport Advisory Board after allegations of
Sunshine Law violations surfaced, Carlucci is back in the news for some
unknown reason; oh, and he's not happy
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/22/08
Milo wins, planning commission grins: "We told ya so"
Gondo story |
Herald-Trib story
Judge tells city council that they're pulling law out of their
butt, which is what the planning commission said way back when; official word
from city hall: "No comment"
-- 03/20 & 03/21/08
Planning commission to city council: Die in a fire
Planning Commissioner John Osmulski has a few unresolved issues
on building heights that he'd like to bring up in group
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/19/07
County Manager Jim Ley wants to calm your fears about his job and salary --
they're safe As for the rest of you slobs that still call yourselves
county employees, Ley wants you to know that the welfare and unemployment
benefits in this state are a pretty good deal, so please stop your pathetic
whining about feeding your kids
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/19/07
Venice High School rebuild to include paranoia and claustrophobia
The downside: Orwell Cameras® everywhere;
The upside: School district can make extra money in the summer renting the
school out to movie makers who need location footage for prison movies;
Bonus upside: Cheerleader dressing room security cameras
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/19/08
Attn.: Mike Miller
Pay close attention to this news story -- it might be the one
thing that could save your ass
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 03/15/07
Play nice or we'll tell you again to play nice
The same paper that told Councilwoman Sue Lang to please move
away now wants to be treated civilly; in other news, scientists discover new
method to measure the blackness of pots and kettles
-- editorial, Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/16/08
Sex scandal slide show
Somewhere out there, Barney Frank is rolling on the floor
laughing his ass off
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 03/11/08
She's such a bitch: It's all Sue Lang's fault
Are you starting to notice a trend here in media coverage?
Council gets sold a bill of goods, Sue Lang notices it first, is promptly
called a bitch; council quiets down, gets another pile of rubbish dumped in
front of them, Lang speaks out, she's a bitch again -- oh, and this is from
the same newspaper that asked her to move back up north... nope, nothin'
stilted here
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/09/08
Norris is going staying going staying going
Eh, who gives a crap? The guy's a wiener, he's screwed us over
more than a couple of times, let's just run his sorry carcass out of town with
pitchforks and torches and be done with it
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 03/10/08
Do you know me? (PDF) If you do, the Sarasota Sheriff's Office would like
to have a word with you
-- Sarasota Sheriff's Office, 03/06/08
Simmonds wants to give a spankin' to Sue Lang
Comedy gold from Venice's Get-Off-My-Lawn Man: "If
(council members) misbehave, I have to do something;" BONUS COMEDY:"By
the time Simmonds made his motion, the city TV crew had shut down for the
night" -- that would explain how
the video clip ended up on YouTube a
week ago
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/07/08
Sen. Schumer (D-NY) blasts Venice Airport flight school
Our flight schools are at it again, Schumer is angry, city hall
is staying mum: "One
of the schools that has recently been investigated for allowing foreign
students to enroll without the proper documentation was attended also by 9-11
hijackers Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi."
-- press release, Senator Schumer's official U.S. Senate site, 03/02/08
Larry Norman -- R.I.P. "Larry was an interesting person in every sense of the
word," Gospel Music Assn. president/CEO John Styll
says. "He was one of the first to record what later became known as
contemporary Christian music, but what he did in the early '70s was far edgier
than most of what comes from that genre now."
-- Reuters, 02/29/08
Tourism is way, way, way up "January bed tax collections in Sarasota County were
$1.2 million, the most ever for the month"
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 03/05/08 ↑
IRONY ALERT
↓
County pushing for $300 million infrastructure bond
County commissioners are using words like "visionary" to describe the
initiative; somehow, that's not the adjective that immediately springs to mind
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/05/08
The sunny side of foreclosure
Cue the Monty Python music:
♫♪
Look on the sunny side of life ♪♫
-- Sarasota
Herald-Tribune, 03/02/08
Annexations bamboozle annexers
City hall has now been reduced to a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney
movie: "Hey kids, I know -- let's put on a show!"
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 03/02/08
Norris wants out of school system... again... again...
Somewhere out there is a perfectly good school system that
needs to be as screwed up as Sarasota County's, and our school superintendent
is on a quest to find it
-- Venice
Gondolier Sun, 03/02/08
Germany is the new Florida
Maybe hurricane season here isn't all that big a deal after all
-- The (German) Local, 03/01/08
Council to Sharky's: ...and the horse you rode in on
Blank lease engineered by... oh you know, that guy... is most likely headed
for court; courthouse soon to be renamed Venice City Hall, South Annex
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/28/08
Insurance reform: We have good news and bad news
The bad news: State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide are outta here; The good news:
OK, we lied about the good news part
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 02/27/08
Oh
dented Kathy, thy doom is named Levko
Elections bungler Kathy Dent has made Sarasota County famous for all
of the wrong reasons and yet she somehow holds onto the fairy tale fantasy
that she will be re-elected
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/22/08
Of forests and trees
It's official: the honeymoon is over as the Herald-Trib accuses
the new council of not being able to see the forest or the trees; Oh look -- a
squirrel!
-- editorial, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/21/08
Hizzoner on Hizzoner
Hey, how we doin'?
-- Mayor Ed Martin, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/21/08
De-re-envisioning Venice
Earl Quandt has a problem with the way Envision Venice was
re-envisioned over the past two years; apparently, so does the current city
council
-- letters, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/20/08
Amendment 1: The lawsuits begin
Here it comes, the first of what we predict will be many legal
attacks on a badly written and ambiguous law -- it's only your homestead
exemption at stake, nothing to worry about here
-- Orlando Sentinel, 02/14/08
The redemption of Herb Levine
Levine has been staying on message for over ten years and many,
too many, didn't want to hear it -- time has finally caught up with a
'stop-the-madness' message that should have been heeded years ago
-- Eric Ernst, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/17/08
U.S. 41 Bypass to go wideless Wideless traffic will speed/slow things up/down, seen as an economic benefit/hindrance; in other news... wait, what? -- editorial, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/14/08
A young person's guide to Sorrento Ranches vs. City of Venice Watch for the careful use of the word "cluster" in this article... cluster... that's a very useful word... can anyone think of another word that goes with cluster? -- Venice Gondolier Sun, 02/13/08
Boone doggled in fight with mayor Dear Dan Boone: Congratulations on your retirement. You deserve it. So do we. Sincerely, The citizens of Venice -- Venice Gondolier Sun, 02/13/07
Fire fees, beach fees, utility fees, fee collection fees: A note to county and city governments: Read our lips, what part of "no new taxes" didn't you get? "We do not expect our local government to cut taxes at the front door, then sneak around to the back and launch new taxes to make up for it, [yet] the Sarasota County commissioners and staff are doing just that" -- Eric Ernst, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/10/08
Utilities get examined... finally
A compounding of problems that started under the former city
manager and continued under the current one have led our city's utilities
department into an engineering and fiscal critical mass situation -- but
wait, that's not the bad news...
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 02/08/08
Nolen, Nolen, Nolen
John Nolen is the golden name to drop into any discussion on
height and density, an instant win for whatever is being advocated; so who,
really, was John Nolen?
-- Larry Evans, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/08/08
County's Republican Party head stands up for elections supervisor Dent
Eric Robinson writes that Kathy Dent has been an advocate for
accessibility and oversight and that the state's determination on local
oversight surprised Dent as much as everyone else; Robinson is responding to
this news article from a few days ago
-- letters, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 01/08/08
Town hall meeting afterglow -- pillow talk, a sigh,
and a cigarette
Editorial |
Eric Ernst column Fire fees go bye-bye? Herald-Trib thinks so, but
watch for this beast to raise its ugly head again
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/07/08
Gondo on Town Hall -- leave anything out of the story, guys?
OK, the tale of reaction to fire department fees is here, but
one of the bigger criticisms by residents was the lack of accurate news
reporting on city hall -- oh look, that's not in this story; neither is the
proposed idea to do away with council seat numbers
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 02/06/08
Town Hall meeting -- last night!
Biggest gripe: taxes and fees; curiously, one of the
community's bigger complaints was that the news print media and the city's
PR department both suck when it comes to covering Venice -- that, of course,
did not make the papers
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/05/08
Elections supervisor wants less scrutiny -- yeah, there's a good idea
Kathy Dent, who has has been in national news time after time for screw-up
after screw-up, figures that all of her problems will go away if people just
stop scrutinizing her and her office
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 02/02/08
Video highlights of the big game -- Puppy Bowl
Animal Planet's fluffy contenders dominated the tube yesterday; meanwhile on
Fox, we hear that a bunch of humans were on a TV yawner trying to re-enact the puppy game
-- Animal Planet via YouTube, 02/04/08
Nokomis mega-developer Henry Rodriguez backs off
"The current state of the economy for this product
necessitates we hold off one year and see how it is at that point,"
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 02/04/08
Amendment 1 -- post-election blah blah yada yada
Nobody has a clue how this is all going to play out yet, so
here's a bunch of interview quotes of folks all saying that they don't have
a clue how this is all going to play out
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 02/01/08
Tax
cut terror tactics start
Oh you wanted stop lights and paved roads? Sorry,
can't have both, pick one or the other. As to what you can have: more
fees... fees for beach parking, fees for fire departments, fees to fund the
newly hired fee collectors, and we'll think of some others along the way
--
Sarasota
Herald-Tribune, 01/30/08
Property tax amendment passes by an almost 2-1
margin
Gondo story |
Herald-Trib story
At this point in time, Venice Florida! dot com would like to suck up to it
readers by lying in stating that we supported this amendment 100%
-- both stories, 01/30/08
Council cuts off planning staff from lucrative lobbying contracts
Staff to provide facts, not advocacy, to council from here on
out; in other news, chairs are being angrily thrown out of windows at the Boone
law firm for no discernible reason
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 01/24/08
Family
friendly park ideas
Testers needed as Fark comes up with some wonderful new ideas for
playground equipment for Tramonto Vista
-- Fark, 01/23/08
Tom Lyons is confused and paranoid about tax amendment
He suspects that it all may be a sinister government plot to
deliberately confuse him; actually, he just might be right
-- Tom Lyons, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 01/22/08
