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Tropicana Field will not be ready for play until at least the start of the 2026 season, according to a three-week damage assessment report provided to the St. Petersburg City Council and reviewed by The Athletic on Tuesday. The 412-page report, published by Hennessy Construction Services, estimates that the total cost of repairs will be $55.72 million following significant damage to the facility due to Hurricane Milton on Oct. 10.

I commended Harris for acknowledging the election results early and calling Trump that evening. I would hate to see the reverse happen at the inauguration. But who knows.

Our son went to a parochial school all twelve years. He met his wife there. No regrets at all.

Ah, late stage capitulation.

So what do you say to the millions of inner city kids that don’t have a chance in hell of getting a decent education and have zero options of escaping the trap they’re in? These public schools are literally failing these kids and their future. Are vouchers not a better choice if the kid can find better options than some holding cell until they can quit? Politicians talk all kinds of promises but they aren’t interested in really addressing the problems that I’ve seen.

Competition will do that. The better options will generally come out ahead in a free market.

Vouchers aren’t a scam. The state of North Carolina’s Constitution promises that every child in NC is to be provided a good education. If the current status quo isn’t working, and that’s up for debate, the General Assembly can approve vouchers that go to the child/family rather than funding the school itself. The money follows the child, not the school. The Democrats in North Carolina oppose any system or plan that doesn’t tie the student to their district school. Like any other state, NC has schools that are not serving the purpose set forth in our constitution. Vouchers are not a scam.

If you look at the way Harris ended up at the top of the D ticket, it does raise questions about the expectations of success. She was the first out in the 2020 primary. She wasn’t moving the needle at all and wisely dropped out. She was hand picked because of her gender and color to be the 2020 VP. And lastly, Harris was literally handed the top of the ticket to defend in the general election. She was never “elected” for anything after leaving the senate. Yes, she was elected with Biden in 2020, if that’s any consolation. In my opinion the Biden administration never gave her any real responsibilities that would allow her to pad her resume. Being serious, this jumps out at me. I wonder if this combination of circumstances had ever occurred in a presidential race before. I would doubt it.

Well played.

Do you believe third party votes cost Harris the election?

Musk for Postmaster General 😉

The Department of Education (ED) misled taxpayers for decades. Policymakers have claimed that the federal student loan program would pay for itself—this is utterly false. In fact, because of faulty budgeting, this system has been costing taxpayers billions each year. Despite this, Democrats are still lobbying the Biden administration to enact massive loan forgiveness. Here’s what you need to know… NEW ANALYSIS by a government watchdog finds that ED radically underestimated the true cost of the federal student loan program. While originally expected to generate revenue for the federal government, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office analysis finds that ED underestimated the cost of the federal Direct Loan program by $311 billion. ———— A few dollars here and a few dollars there and pretty soon…

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco, who awaits trial in a sexual abuse case, was arrested for his involvement in an armed altercation in the Dominican Republic countryside, police said Monday. Meregirdo Espinosa, a Dominican police spokesman, told The Associated Press the altercation happened in a parking lot in San Juan de la Maguana, a city that is located 116 miles (187 kilometers) west of Santo Domingo. Franco was arrested Sunday. Another man and a woman were also detained, and two firearms were seized, police said. Espinosa said one of the guns presumably belonged to Franco, who was allegedly fighting with the other man over the woman's attention.

President-elect Donald Trump is selecting former congressman Lee Zeldin (R., N.Y.) to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a role with considerable influence over the incoming administration’s energy and regulatory agenda.

Nothing other than an fyi. Not you specifically, but I would guess there are others here that may not have realized that we actually educated many generations successfully prior to the existence of DOE.

Who do you think is paying the tab on the $240 billion 2024 budget for the boondoggle DOE? It’s the little guy. How much say does the little guy have in deciding where that money is spent? There is a gentleman that oversees a private school system that is between 6,000-7,000 students the last I checked. This gentleman made his money in business and was very successful prior to founding these schools. In the past two years he opened one of his schools in the Wake Forest area. He did this in an existing building that a communications company moved out of due to competition in their industry. The attendance at this particular school is in the hundreds. Unless something changed very recently, this school is tuition free. The school had to turn parents away because it was immediately filled as soon as news was out before the doors actually opened. Need more of these stories.

The DOE, in its present state, has only been around since 1980.

Regarding the immigration conversation as it related to the election, it is reported that 20% of voters considered that as the number concern through this election cycle. The other top concern was inflation. Not surprising on either count.

So again, Congress should work in a bipartisan way to balance the budget. Will it happen, in all likely hood, no.

I can’t speak for every state, but in NC there is more often than not a number of LP candidates on the ballot every two years. For years, and in some cases today, fringe parties have to spend time and resources on gathering X number of signatures to qualify as a certified party. That takes time and money. I think in NC the party does well in getting as many candidates on the ballot as they do. Having been a registered LP member years back, I will be the first to admit that the LP has lots of issues that are self inflicted. The LP does run candidates that are comedy acts and don’t give voters the impression that the party is serious. That’s unfortunate. At the same time there have been some really good candidates through the years. Bottom line, $$$ is always going to be an obstacle for third parties. In my opinion, the more anxious voters are in an election, the less likely they are to take a chance on an alternate choice. Last week is the perfect example.

If you have about 30 minutes to spare and are really interested in getting some good answers to the questions you posed, give this podcast a listen. The host is painful but Closky is very informative here. There are a lot of unknowns but as a local guy in the business he pretty much covers all the options and their chances of happening. Mark Topkin is another solid source for this topic.

DETROIT (AP) — A jury awarded more than $12 million Friday to a woman who lost her job at a Michigan insurance company after declining to get a COVID-19 vaccination. Much of the award — $10 million — is for punitive damages against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, according to the verdict form. Lisa Domski, who worked at Blue Cross for more than 30 years, said she was a victim of religious discrimination. The company in 2021 did not grant an exemption from its vaccine policy, despite her insistence that it clashed with her Catholic beliefs. Domski's attorney, Jon Marko, said she worked 100% remotely as an IT specialist during the pandemic; 75% before COVID-19 hit in 2020. Even without the vaccine, "she wasn't a danger to anybody,” Marko said in an interview after the trial. Besides punitive damages, the jury in Detroit federal court awarded Domski about $1.7 million in lost pay and $1 million in noneconomic damages. Blue Cross denied any discrimination. In a court filing earlier in the case, the insurer said Domski lacked a sincerely held religious belief. An appeal is possible. Blue Cross released a statement but didn't make anyone available for comment. “While Blue Cross respects the jury process and thanks the individual jurors for their service, we are disappointed in the verdict,” the health insurer said. “Blue Cross is reviewing its legal options and will determine its path forward in the coming days.”

There were numerous third party candidates that were on the ballots from every state last week. So the “nobody wants to run” isn’t true. The problem is that the system is so full of garbage now that voters are motivated to vote out of the fear that the worst of the two ****ty candidates will win. Think about that, being motivated by fear. And living in the United States no less. And again, it’s going to get worse and we didn't get here over night.

Third parties could absolutely influence the direction of the two major parties if the majority of the population would get beyond the fear of voting outside the weathered and worn path. As far as “wasting” a vote logic goes, I’ll never see it that way. You can’t expect real change by pulling the same lever every two years. SOS wash rinse repeat. Had Perot not gotten off message from his economic points and avoided the off again-on again side show, he could have drawn more votes and moved the needle on third party possibilities going forward. Additionally, if there is one thing the Democrats and Republican parties agree on, it’s the fact that they don’t want any competition. Avoid a middle ground at all costs, literally. This is the only objective the two parties work together on. Yet after Tuesday’s election we are as polarized a nation as ever. It’s going to get worse.

From the website: History “But Thomas Jefferson, who was serving a diplomatic post in France during the Constitutional Convention, believed it was a mistake not to provide for different political parties in the new government. “Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties,’’ he would write in 1824.” Jefferson was correct. It was inevitable this would be the path in time.