Subject: Fort Myers

• Herald Bundles Controversial Documentary with Sunday's Paper

  September 15, 2008

• Photos that won't help the "MMA is not gay!" cause

  October 6, 2008

• Deep Throat Director Goes to the Big Porno Theater in the Sky

  October 28, 2008

• Plies' New Album, Da Realist, in Stores Today

  For those that don't already know, Plies' highly anticipated second album of the year, Da Realist, is available in stores today. It's not common for artists, especially rappers, to release multiple albums in one year, but Plies, who was born and raised in Fort Myers, seems determined to prove something to the hip-hop general public. When his first album of 2008, Definition of Real, came out in June, its first week sales topped 250,000 units. That surpassed everyone's expectations -- and that was

  December 16, 2008

• Where Have All the Spikers Gone?

  August 14, 1991

• Virginia Resident Connie Mack Waiting for Charlie Crist Before He Declares Senate Intentions

  Connie Mack IV represents Florida's 14th congressional district in Southwest Florida. He recently celebrated his first year of wedded bliss to California congresswoman Mary Bono (Sonny's non-Cher wife), but the two don't really split their time between Florida and California, instead raising their family primarily from their house in northern Virginia. Mack took heat from being largely absent from his district during the last election, but was re-elected easily thanks mainly to the "R" next to h

  January 20, 2009

• Charlie Crist Gets a Little Biparistan Curious with Prez Obama

  Gov. Charlie Crist has secretly been in the tank for Obama since the very beginning. First he did nothing to stop Florida's primary from being ignored by the Democrats, and even as the Obama campaign has admitted, if it counted we might be dealing with President Hillary now. Then, when it came time to make his endorsement on the Republican side he picked the most comically inept geezer, and set him on the path to being destroyed by Obama in the general election. Then it came time for McCain to p

  February 9, 2009

• Death Row Inmate Wants to Be the Next Supreme Court Justice

  Who says the electric chair should stand in the way of your dream job? Not Michael Lambrix. Sure, the 48-year-old waits on death row for fatally bludgeoning and strangling two people outside Fort Myers in 1983. But that hasn't stopped the articulate, overachieving inmate from applying to be Florida's newest supreme court justice. This past January 16, Lambrix penned a letter to the Judicial Nominating Commission asking them to consider him for the open position. "In all fairness," he writes,

  January 30, 2009

• Get Ready to Care About Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp

  Did anyone really care about Lt. Gov Jeff Kottkamp before, say, a few weeks ago? You know, when those rumors surfaced that Charlie Crist might resign to run for Senate, leaving Kottkamp as our 45th governor. All of a sudden, media attention bumped up ever so slightly. The Sun-Sentinel did a little digging and found that Kottkamp billed the state $425,000 for plane trips during his two-years in office. But what's this?Kottkamp's wife and toddler son flew for free on some two dozen trips, despit

  February 9, 2009

• Live From The Barack Obama Stimulus Tour

  Riptide is live today from Ft. Myers, Florida for Barack Obama's first visit to Florida as President of the United States of America. He'll be continuing the themes from his stop in Elkhart, Indiana and his first press conference last night, talking up the need for a stimulus package. The event will be a town hall style meeting, with the President taking questions from residents, and is scheduled to start around noon.We are blogging live now, right after jump. Refresh often.

  February 10, 2009

• Is There an Ulterior Motive to Picking Fort Myers?

  Riptide just settled in at the Harborside Event Center in Fort Myers. President Obama is scheduled to kick off the next stop on his Stimulus Tour in about 30 minutes, and we'll begin the live blog then.So, why of all places is Obama in Fort Myers? The official line is that the city is suffering from all sorts of economic hardships and a 10 percent job less. True, but unfortunately that's the case in lots of communities across the map. I can't help but wonder if the fact that the city is in South

  February 10, 2009

• Crist Could Be Elected Ms. Florida if He Wanted, but Floridians Like Him as Gov

  Oh, that Charlie Crist -- he's so popular. Quinnipiac, always interested in exactly how popular, finds that Charlie can be pretty much elected to anything he wants. But 41 percent of Floridians prefer he seeks re-election as governor, compared to 22 percent who would like to see him run for Senate. The poll shows he could easily win either. That's the kind of power a 67 percent approval rating gets you. That includes a 66 percent approval rating among Democrats, though it must not have hurt that

  February 18, 2009

• Crist's Admirable Stim Support Makes 2012 Prez Run Unlikely

  The economic stimulus is likely to be one of the defining actions of President Obama's first term. If it's perceived to be successful by November 2012, we're more than likely looking at four more years. But if, even as Obama himself admitted last week in Fort Myers, it's not, we might just have ourselves a new resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. So perhaps that's one of the reasons so many would-be 2012 Republican candidates are coming out hard against the stim. People such as Newt Gingrich and G

  February 19, 2009

• Kevin Burns Has a Campaign Gimmick Too

  With a field for the 2010 Senate Race filled with a bunch of long shot candidates, everyone has to have a gimmick, because, hey, it worked for Walkin' Lawton Chiles and Bob "Work Days" Graham. Dan Gelber promises to complete 100 days of public service and buy up a million Google ads (net roots!). Kendrick Meek's gimmick is that he's a well connected congressman with a strong, moderate/mainstream democratic record and early union support, which isn't much of a gimmick as much as it is politics as

  February 23, 2009

• Shear Delight

  November 10, 1993

• Evans and Odds

  March 2, 1994

• Road Show

  August 10, 1994

• Eclectic Ladyland

  August 10, 1995

• The Robes of Justice

  Death row inmate wants seat on state supreme court.

  February 5, 2009

• Letters from the Issue of May 15, 2008

  "The public school system has created a shameful legacy."

  May 15, 2008

• Toke It Easy

  Snap out of it, 4/20 revelers: Florida legislators want to stomp on your buzz.

  April 17, 2008

• Commemorate Your Ponzi Scheme Losses with a Nice Decorative Tile

  Have you been swindled out of your life savings in a massive Ponzi scheme? Are you looking for the perfect way to remember all those heady days of 15 percent returns before the market collapsed? Do you just love R. Allen Stanford's manly Texas mustache? via eBay listing We suggest you buy enough to re-tile your bathroom with this face. A Florida entrepreneur has the product for you! Kosmas Ballis, proprietor of the Fort Myers-based Edison Clay Co., is hawking ceramic tiles with the like

  April 16, 2009

• Spin Yourself Silly

  November 23, 2006

• Breakaway

  November 30, 2006

• United and It Feels So Good

  August 24, 2006

• Personal Best

  May 12, 2005

• Letters from the Issue of November 11-17, 2004

  November 11, 2004

• Letters from the Issue of December 18, 2003

  December 18, 2003

• Letters from the Issue of , 2002

  March 27, 2003

• Street Team Dream

  May 30, 2002

• BEST WEEKEND GETAWAY

  May 16, 2002

• Vox Populi

  December 28, 2000

• Musical Feast

  November 23, 2000

• Kulchur

  April 20, 2000

• Prosecution Complex

  November 26, 1998

• Where Man Meets Mud

  November 19, 1998

• Our Swamp Beautiful

  September 3, 1998

• A Bull Market

  August 20, 1998

• Creature Feature

  February 19, 1998

• Calendar for the week

  November 27, 1997

• The Sixth Step to Getting Signed

  September 18, 1997

• When Vicki Met Syl, Part Two

  May 15, 1997

• When Vicki Met Syl

  May 8, 1997

• Letters

  August 29, 1996

• Girls in Bands To Kick Off Area 7's Avant-Garde Series on May 16

  Area 7's new Avant-Garde Series will kick off May 16 wth "Girls in Bands," an event promoting acts that feature an experimental, noise, and/or indie sound and have at least one female member. The bands hail from across Florida, including Jacksonville, Miami, and Orlando. Curious Hair will open the show, followed by Reptile Theater, Lighthouse Music, performance artist James Roberson (the one exception to the obligatory "girl" and "band" theme), Matrix Infinity, headliners Cotton Candy Cookies &a

  May 7, 2009

• Pop-ska Band After The Fact to Play Area 7 on May 17

  Fort Myers pop-punkers After the Fact will play Area 7 after streak-attacking the performers and audience at the Girls in Bands event the night before. The boys, though seemingly naked at all other shows as well as in this corresponding photo, will be dressed up as a chipmunk, pig and polar bear. For all you sci-fi, fantasy, anthropomorphism fans, there will also be a furries' dance-off. Show starts at 8 p.m.

  May 8, 2009

• Let's Play Identity Politics For a Moment

  So after the NRSC endorsed Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio in the Republican Senate primary, a lot of people implied it was a snub to Hispanics. We thought this was silly. Crist has won three statewide campaigns in a row, is an extremely popular governor, and has a national profile. He's going to win the primary unless there's some shocking surprise. But, it does raise an important point. Both parties in Florida need to embrace the Hispanic population, and the future of Florida's government

  May 15, 2009

• Study: Miami Amongst 20 Weakest Metro Areas

  via Brookings InstituteFlorida is the only state that starts with an FHere's the bad news: According to a new study of the 100 most populous metro areas in America by the Brookings Institution, the Miami area, including the rest of South Florida, is one of the 20 economically weakest metro areas in the country. Here's the good news: We're only 82, and doing better than almost everyone else in Florida. The Brookings' MetroMoniter report took into account a number of factors including the percen

  June 18, 2009

• Crist Denies Endorsing Stimulus Bill; Owns Up to Accepting Reality

  Capture of an anti-Crist ad paid for by the Club for Growth​Charlie Crist went on CNN yesterday and said that he didn't endorse the stimulus package. Huh? What? Riptide was there when he appeared with President Obama touting the stimulus in Ft. Myers. Even though the White House is claiming that he did in fact pretty much endorse the bill, Crist says he was just trying to make the best of a political reality. Here's what Crist said to the press today, via The Buzz: "The bill t

  November 5, 2009

• Slip N Slide DJ Purfiya Can't R.I.P. Because He's Not Dead

  via myspace/djpurfiyaDJ Purfiya with Suga Shack from Wild 98.7​DJ Purfiya is from the city of Palmetto, Florida, just south of Tampa. He's affiliated with Miami's own Slip N Slide Records as one of their official DJs.Wednesday, rumors hit the Internet -- namely Twitter -- that he had died due to complications of the flu. Yesterday we found out he's alive and well, and claiming hackers got into his MySpace and Twitter accounts and spread the false message of his death.According to his former bo

  November 6, 2009