Taxi Slaves - a documentary

Eric Martin of Chicago is currently producing a documentary film about the abuse and exploitation that exist in the Chicago taxi industry and believes this is endemic across the United. States. He hopes his efforts lead to reform at the legal and political level. I am at risk of my job by commenting further on this matter. I don't want to shit where I eat. However, I support all forms of free speech, and believe documentaries can be very effective (Edward R. Murrow HARVEST OF SHAME about exploitation of migrant farm workers lead to Bobby Kennedy's involvement) . As you know, the RNC. will be here next week. Not too many sympathetic ears in that group.

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What happened to Tommy Duncan and Sticks of Fire blog?

The image below is a 2005 TBT article I still have about the Tampa blogger scene. The big boy was Tommy Duncan. He stopped blogging around 2008, and was never seen again. Here is what Creative Loafing said about that era: "The 40-something blogger founded the most-often-cited independent Tampa Bay news blog, Sticks of Fire, in Feb. 2004, and the site, without much financial assistance from advertising, is still going strong today with a stable of more than a dozen regular contributors. In 2005, Duncan was featured in a tbt* story about the young lions of the local Internet. Today, about half of them have fallen by the wayside or (in the case of famous sexy blogger Rachel Moran) moved to New Jersey. Duncan keeps on posting. The local digital scene has grown, but he's not sure it has improved in quality."

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Angel The Rescued Kitten

I have a new and wonderful friend. Her name is Angel. George found her on his way home at 3 in the morning running around on the elevated span of highway 19 in Clearwater. He pulled over and pulled out of a storm drain. He took her home and knocked on my door. He has two cats and wanted me to keep her overnight until he could find a neighbor to take her. I fell in love with her. She is now my best friend and keeps me company for I live alone. It's not fair that so much cuteness can be crammed into such a little thing.

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The city of Tampa

If JFK was visiting Tampa, he would see this on the side of a building on Florida ave. How cool would that be? Graffiti art can be good sometimes.

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Sleeping with the enemy

I sort of stick out in this sea of pink I always seem to get on TV. This is Tim Fasano (in the yellow shirt with camera) sitting in the room full of Lyft and Uber drivers. Did you ever feel really alone? These rideshare people are operating an illegal business that is cutting into my livelyhood, and I wanted the Hillsborough County Commission to know it. The Lyft drivers are a bunch of punks and kids who have never worked a day in their lives. They will get whats coming to them. How do you spell douchebags? You will see me in the video shown on the local news.

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The Taxi Truman Show

I may have found the escape hatch Regulated Taxi driving is now dead. Uber has taken over. The current situation is no longer tenable for drivers who face an old model of cab leasing, and can no longer continue paying a Pre-Uber lease. Today was the tipping point. This time of year we should be very busy...EXTREMLY BUSY. We are not. It is dead as a doornail with drivers at the airport waiting up to 5 hours to a ride. It should be off the hook. It is for Uber. They pay no fee to the airport, yet they are allowed to operate. I made a good living for years. Transportation was regulated in Hillsborough County. This insured uniformity or rates, insurance, and accountability. But no more. The HCPTC has now allowed a gypsy cab company take over. Uber has not only taken some or part of our business - they have taken it all. This is because they are low balling the market in an attempt to establish a monopoly. They are well on their way to doing that with the compl...

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Houston UBER DRIVER ARRESTED for rape

Duncan Burton served 14 years for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, according to court records and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. He was convicted by a jury in Houston and served time in Beaumont, Louisiana and Georgia before being released in 2012, according to the federal prison agency. Although sentenced originally to 18 years, he had earned nearly three years of good conduct time and had about two years of jail time. Burton, 57, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of sexual assault, a second-degree felony. If convicted, Burton faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He remains in the Harris County Jail without bail. Uber spokeswoman Debbee Hancock said Monday that Burton passed the company's background checks. She could not immediately be reached Tuesday to respond to the disclosure of Burton's drug conviction. Someone with a negotiated drug conviction on his or her record would not be eligible for a city-issued permit, ...

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What Lyft and Uber will take from the Tampa taxi business

A lyft car at the Iconic sign on Florida ave downtown Tampa I have been a hack in Tampa Florida since 1995. Unlike the estimated 50% of Americans that hate their jobs, I have never had a day when I did not feel like going to work. Certainly, the last few years have not been fun because the economy fell apart like a three dollar watch. However, economies are like tides and this one is on the rebound, at a snail's pace. I would like to thank Mr. Obama for that but that would not be fair. The economy is recovering despite any fiscal policy of his. That being said - there are challenges. My job is inherently difficult. We face strange and deranged people street level on a daily basis. Taxi companies in Tampa (which are regulated) must serve the general population. We have no choice. Short fares, drunk fares, people going to buy drugs (they don't tell you that) we must pick up. Don't get me wrong, there are business people, beautiful women, great trippers, and long haul...

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Dana Young is a Liar or very confused about Uber

A very bad person with no honor or integrity I attended a meeting at the hockey arena downtown which was attended by all the Tampa Bay area state senators and representatives. In attendance was one Dana Young (R). When it was her time to speak, so told a story about a young women that was being raped. While the college student was being sexually assaulted, the student hit the Uber app on her phone and the police now knew the GPS coordinates of her location. What MS. Young did not disclose was that it happened on the UCLA campus and that it was an UBER DRIVER THAT WAS RAPING HER! "As students prepare to return to college, one thing female students cannot go without is caution. Assaults, especially sexual assaults, are a haunting part of daily life for so many students. Uber has made that nightmare even more of a reality . We tell our students that getting a driver when they’ve had too much to drink is the responsible course of action — it’...

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EVIDENCE and CRYPTID FOSSILS in Central Florida

I went back home to Mulberry Florida and went to the Mulberry Phosphate History Museum. It is only about 3 miles from the old family home but never went there. When I was younger, I was not so interested in these matters.

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Hillsborough County bans Uber today as taxi company

The HCPT and Hillsborough County public commission today affirmed Uber is an illegal taxi company and bared them from operating in the Tampa area. This is wonderful news to longtime drivers like me. An Uber attorney asked Hillsborough County to make new rules to fit the trendy ridesharing movement pioneered by his company and Lyft, but was told flatly on Wednesday that Uber is an illegal taxi service. The county's Public Transportation Commission unanimously affirmed that an appointed officer had enough evidence to fine Uber, based in San Francisco, for providing hiring and public taxi services without proper licensing. Uber attorney Drew Sorrell held to the company's argument that it isn't in transportation. As a technology company, it doesn't need to follow transportation regulations as they are written. "There's a perfectly good way to do this, and that is to write the rules so that they fit," said Sorrell, of the Lowndes Drosdick Doster Kantor...

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