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Like most garbage that ends up in Tampa Bay’s waterways, this trash was not thrown into this narrow section of McKay Bay directly. Plastic cups discarded on sidewalks or bottles tossed from car windows made their way into storm drains and were then swept into the watershed. |
If it weren’t for a strategically placed 90-foot Watergoat device, a thread of football-sized buoys netted together from bank to bank, the trash would have continued its journey into the mouth of Tampa Bay, some into the waters beyond. |
Mark Maksimowicz, who invented the Watergoat device 11 years ago after he began cleaning garbage from local waterways, said change will only occur if the severity of the pollution crisis shakes the public to its core. |
In May, the 13 Watergoats placed in watersheds throughout Tampa Bay caught an average of 142 pounds of trash each, with plastic bottles making up about 73 percent of the haul, according to Maksimowicz. |
Coral Gables was one of the first cities in Florida to ban plastic foam in 2015, just before a new state law went into effect prohibiting municipalities from such actions. |
After the favorable ruling, Coral Gables banned plastic bags in May 2017. |
The federation’s challenge is now pending in the Third District Court of Appeals. City Attorney Miriam Soler Ramos said the outcome could either embolden other cities to tackle single-use plastics with bans or keep them relying on voluntary measures. |
“If it had not been challenged, I think we would have seen a lot of cities lining up to do this,” she said, noting some cities may interpret the 2008 state prohibition on banning “auxiliary containers, wrappings, or disposable plastic bags” to include straws. |
State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, said she intends to file a bill next year to repeal the state prohibition on plastic bag bans. One filed in 2018 died in committee. |
In voluntary efforts to curb plastic waste, disposable straws have become a go-to target locally and internationally. But straws make up only a fraction of plastic debris in the environment, and some advocates are thinking bigger. |
RELATED: In the battle against plastic straws, is banning them a good idea? |
In St. Petersburg, about 35 businesses in the Grand Central district have pledged to go plastic bag free for the month of October. The Rise Above Plastics Coalition is using a grant to supply the businesses with paper bags and plans to collect data on consumer reactions to share with local governments, said coalition s... |
The Clearwater City Council passed a symbolic resolution in May encouraging businesses to participate in waste reduction efforts. Mayor George Cretekos said it makes more sense to reward good behavior than to attempt a ban that could be challenged in court or by public opinion. |
Almost 50 restaurants in Clearwater have joined the Strawless Summer Challenge, only giving out straws upon request through August in exchange for advertisement on the city’s website and social media. |
David Hastings, professor of marine science and chemistry at Eckerd College, said government bans are far from radical. |
About seven years ago, Hastings launched a study of microplastics in Tampa Bay. It started when he and a group of students were conducting a routine analysis of plankton and found bits of plastic in their nets. |
A marine chemist, Hastings now estimates there’s an average of five pieces of microplastic per gallon of water in Tampa Bay. That’s about 9 trillion pieces of plastic smaller than an eighth of an inch contaminating all Tampa Bay. |
His research team is finding these particles 5,000 feet deep at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. These tiny pieces of plastic are consumed by plankton and other marine life, which are then eaten by us. |
“I think we are going to figure this out, but are we going to figure this out now or 10 years from now or 30 years from now?” Hastings said. |
Since earning its national Ocean Friendly certification in January, Beachcomber co-owner Bobby Heilman said staff is still finding plastic products to cut that never dawned on them before as waste. |
He walked by the bowl of toothpicks on the host stand for years before realizing every single one didn’t really need its own plastic wrapper. The same went for those individually wrapped peppermints by the door. |
He said more casual beachfront businesses may have a harder time transitioning away from plastic. But his restaurant has already hosted one open house to offer tips and advice. |
Sources: Plastic waste inputs from land into ocean, 2015; Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made, 2017; Ocean Conservancy; Watergoat inventor Mark Maksimowicz. |
Can better data fix Florida’s prisons? |
A landmark law lets the state track people through the justice system. But that’s tougher than it sounds. |
What are the happiest countries on earth, and why isn’t the U.S. one of them? |
Tampa Bay is more affordable than any other urban area in Florida, according to a new report. |
Tampa, Orlando, Lakeland and Jacksonville are among the most wallet-friendly cities to retire, according to a new survey. |
Here’s what readers had to say about some of the biggest stories of the past week. |
Violence and fraud are a few reasons why. |
Business and professional groups are scheduling a slew of social events this week. Mixers, potlucks and luaus are on the agenda. |
Ginger Jacobs of Jacobs & Schlesinger LLP will discuss “Immigration Remedies for Survivors of Domestic Violence and Other Violent Crime” from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday at San Diego Law Library's main branch, 1105 Front St. in San Diego. For more information, see sandiegolawlibrary.com. |
Poway Chamber of Commerce will hold a membership orientation for members and prospective members from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Poway Chamber of Commerce Conference Room, 13381 Poway Road. For more information, call 858-748-0016 or visit www.poway.com. |
The topic of the TAG Nonprofit Leadership Forum will be “Branding in the Digital Age and How to Position your Nonprofit for Competitive Success.” The talk will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at the San Diego Foundation, 2508 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 200 in Liberty Station. For more information, see www.team... |
San Diego SHRM will hold its August membership mixer luau from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Dave & Buster's, 2931 Camino del Rio North in San Diego. For more information, see www.sdshrm.org. |
MIT Enterprise Forum will hold a wine social with more than 20 boutique wineries from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Birch Aquarium, 2300 Expedition Way in La Jolla. For more information, call 858-964-1300. |
Urban Land Institute will host a project tour of the completed Sofia Lofts at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at 3045 Broadway in Golden Hill. Sofia Lofts are a stylish renovation of an existing historic home with modern development. For more information, see sandiego.uli.org. |
The Iranian American Bar Association will hold a sunset summer mixer from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Hotel Solamar and JSix, 435 Sixth Ave. in San Diego. For more information, email hass@sadeghilegal.com. |
San Diego Workforce Partnership will hold a workshop on “How To Do Business With SDWP,” covering federal funding, services and submitting proposals. The event will be from 9 to 10 a.m. Friday at Parkway Community Center, 373 Park Way in Chula Vista. For more information, call 619-228-2900 or email rsvp@workforce.org. |
Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego will hold its annual potluck summer barbecue from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at Gazebo 6, the northernmost one on Toscana in UTC, Nobel Recreation Center, 8820 Judicial Drive in San Diego. For more information, contact palsd@hotmail.com. |
GWG Holdings Inc. - Minneapolis, 1.6 million shares, priced $12 to $14, managed by MLV & Co. Proposed Nasdaq Capital Market symbol GWGH. Business: Holds a portfolio of life insurance policies worth over $250 million. |
Green Bancorp - Houston, 4.7 million shares, priced $15 to $17, managed by Sandler O'Neill and Jefferies. Proposed Nasdaq symbol GNBC. Business: Texas bank with 12 branches in the Houston, Dallas and Austin MSAs. |
Hoegh LNG Partners LP - Oslo, Norway, 9.6 million common units, priced $19 to $21, managed by Citigroup, BofA Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley. Proposed NYSE symbol HMLP. Business: MLP formed by Höegh LNG Holdings Ltd. to own three floating storage and regasification units. |
iDreamSky Technology Ltd. - Shenzhen, China, 7.7 million American depositary shares, each representing 4 class A ordinary shares, priced $12 to $14, managed by Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan, and Stifel. Proposed Nasdaq symbol DSKY. Business: Mobile game publisher with 100 million monthly active users. |
Independence Contract Drilling Inc. - Houston, 10 million shares, priced $14 to $16, managed by Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, and Tudor, Pickering, Holt. Proposed NYSE symbol ICD. Business: Operates nine contracted land drilling rigs for E&Ps in the Permian Basin. |
T2 Biosystems - Lexington, Mass., 4 million shares, priced $15 to $17, managed by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Proposed Nasdaq symbol TTOO. Business: Developing diagnostics tests that screen for sepsis and hemostasis. |
Auris Medical Holding AG - Zug, Switzerland, 6.9 million common shares, priced $10 to $12, managed by Jefferies, and Leerink Partners. Proposed Nasdaq symbol EARS. Business: Biotech developing treatments for inner ear disorders. |
Tobira Therapeutics Inc. - San Francisco, 4.6 million shares, priced $12 to $14, managed by BMO Capital Markets, JMP Securities, and Oppenheimer. Proposed Nasdaq symbol TBRA. Business: Biotech developing an immunotherapy treatment for liver disease (NASH) and HIV. |
Zosano Pharma Corp. - Fremont, Calif., 6.4 million shares, priced $10 to $12, managed by Wedbush PacGrow, Ladenburg Thalmann, and Roth Capital. Proposed Nasdaq symbol ZSAN. Business: Biotech developing a transdermal delivery system to treat osteoporosis. |
The Commerce Department issues factory orders for June; and the Institute for Supply Management releases its service sector index for July. |
CVS Caremark Corp. and Walt Disney Co. report quarterly financial results. |
The Commerce Department releases international trade data for June. |
Mondelez International Inc. reports quarterly financial results. |
The Labor Department reports weekly jobless claims; Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates; the Federal Reserve issues consumer credit data for June; and selected chain retailers release July sales. |
Fannie Mae reports quarterly financial results. |
The Labor Department reports second-quarter productivity data; and the Commerce Department issues wholesale trade inventories for June. |
Three years ago, there was no school-sanctioned boys' tennis team at North Salinas High. It had been 14 years since there were enough players to organize a team. |
But in 2016, some students got together and set their sights on bringing the game back, starting with a tennis club that spring. |
And now, in just their season in the Monterey Bay League-Pacific Division, the Vikings finished as undefeated league champions. |
Coach Gonzalo Gonzales had spent four years coaching the girls side for North Salinas when the prospective players approached him. |
"I had some guys come up to me and ask, 'How can we start a tennis team?'" Gonzales said. "I told them one of the ways you would want to do it is by getting a tennis club started." |
The players quickly created an organized team that resembled the school-sanctioned ones in the area. |
"They started having meetings and so on," Gonzales said. "They appointed presidents, vice presidents and captains." |
A lot of the players had never picked up a racket. |
"I thought it was a cool sport," senior No. 3 singles player Ivan Vasquez said. "I saw some guys hitting out here and it looked like fun." |
"I'd never played tennis until then," junior No. 1 singles player Prince Rios said. |
"Nope," Rios said with a laugh. |
The team spent a year on the practice schedule team in order to prove to the school district they had the ability to play with teams in the area. Then they secured a spot in the Pacific division for the 2017 season. |
The team's first season was a triumph by any measure. First-year teams in any sport rarely fight for a league title, but the Vikings finished second behind Palma. |
"The young guys were really instrumental," Gonzales said. "The sophomores got the rest of the wheels working and kept it going." |
The then-sophomores, like Rios, understand the importance of continuity. |
"When they started this thing, I didn't want it to die out right away," Rios said. "I knew we could get more guys involved and we're still doing that for the future." |
Gonzales acknowledges he helped get the team rolling but credits the players for what it became. |
"If it wasn't for the guys putting in those suggestions, asking me what to do, coming to the fence and getting it started, we wouldn't have a boys' tennis team," he said. "And we wouldn't have done so well to start." |
A runner-up finish wasn't the peak of what the team could achieve. This season, the players knew they could hang with the best of the Pacific Division and the wins came quickly. |
A 7-0 win over Oakwood March 6 showed what was to come. More 7-0 wins over Pacific Grove, Gonzalez, Hollister and Oakwood again for five weeks of perfection proved last season was no fluke. |
"I knew that we could do it," Rios said. "I knew that we were a good team. We were taking it one game at a time, of course, but our mentality was that we could win every game." |
The confidence was infectious and the wins kept coming. The team finally dropped a point against Alisal March 22 and came away with a 6-1 win. Another 6-1 win over York preceded another four-game streak of perfect matches. |
Singles players Rios, Vasquez, Denize Ignacio and Antonio Kline all finished the season undefeated for the Vikings. As a team, they finished the season 14-0 with a total match record of 95-3. |
And this team didn't exist three years ago. |
Action-thriller “American Assassin” has launched with a moderate $915,000 at 2,400 North American sites on Thursday night while Jennifer Lawrence’s “Mother!” took in $700,000. |
“American Assassin,” a joint production between CBS Films and Lionsgate, is expanding to 3,154 locations on Friday amid expectations of a weekend take in the $12 million to $15 million range. The movie, an adaptation of Vince Flynn’s 2010 novel of the same name, stars Dylan O’Brien as a CIA black ops recruit trained by... |
Paramount’s enigmatic horror-thriller “Mother!” is expected to open this weekend at around $11 million at 2,368 venues in the wake of screenings at the Venice and Toronto film festivals. But prospects for “Mother!” may have been muted by the stunning performance of New Line’s horror blockbuster “It” — which will domina... |
“It” will wind up on Sunday with a sensational 10-day total of at least $210 million. On Thursday, “It” took in $7.2 million at 4,103 sites, setting a record for a horror film on that day of the week, for a first-week gross of $158.7 million. Critical support for “It” has been stellar, earning the film an 85% “fresh” r... |
“American Assassin,” directed by Michael Cuesta, carries a relatively modest $30 million budget. It also features Sanaa Lathan, Shiva Negar and Taylor Kitsch, whose character wants to start a world war. |
The “American Assassin” preview number is similar to 2014’s “John Wick,” which took in $870,000 in previews on its way to a $14.4 million opening weekend. |
“Mother!,” helmed by Darren Aronofsky, is also a low-risk proposition with a $33 million price tag. The story involves a married couple, portrayed by Lawrence and Javier Bardem, dealing with two strangers — played by Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer — at their tranquil country home. |
Paramount decided in July to move the “Mother!” release date forward by a month from Oct. 13 but did not offer any explanation at the time. |
Narayana Kocherlakota, Lionel W. McKenzie Professor of Economics, received a PhD in economics from The University of Chicago in 1987, under the guidance of Lars Peter Hansen and Jose Scheinkman (Rochester PhD and Lionel McKenzie student). Since that time, he has held academic appointments at a number of institutions, i... |
There is that four-letter word again: back. |
Romo is 35. At that point in his career, The Man had exactly three highly productive seasons remaining in his Hall of Fame career. Like Romo, Roger had suffered a major injury before, as well as six concussions. As frightened as we all are that Tony Romo will suffer a career-ending back injury, thus killing this team’s... |
“You just have to be a little lucky when it comes to this,” Staubach said. “The game is such that you have to play it the way you play it. Tony really is a magician, and that’s what makes him so good. He breaks out of the pocket and he makes plays and he does his thing. You can’t take that away from him, but he has a l... |
Anybody who watched Romo play last season could see he had the look of a man who very much worried about his back. How could he not? Think about what is riding on it. |
The Cowboys limited his practice time, and after one game Romo said, “As long as it’s not the back, it’s OK” — and then knocked on the wood podium for good luck. You can never be too careful. |
This is the first time in three years Romo has been able to participate in all of the team’s off-season workouts. He has been repeatedly saying how good he feels, and we have no choice but to believe him. |
For those of us too young to remember, the major injury Roger suffered was a torn right shoulder in the 1972 season that forced him to miss the final 10 regular-season games. |
The only way Romo has three to five years remaining on his career is if he is as lucky as Roger. The only way the Cowboys are any good is if Romo is lucky. There is no Plan B. |
After nine highly successful, numerically impressive seasons as the quarterback of the Cowboys, Romo is very much a part of the discussion as one of the greatest ever to play the position for this franchise. |
One longtime Cowboys coach at least thinks Romo is better than Roger and Danny. Exactly where Romo finishes among that crew will be determined over the final few years of what has been a thrilling, inspiring and sometimes maddening career. |
Like Roger said, Romo is going to have to be a little lucky, and we shouldn’t worry about the rest. |
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