• Everybody at the table: The Policy Leadership Group in Hillsborough County conducts its first meeting

While Pinellas County officials have worked toward having their citizenry vote on light-rail plans in 2014, nothing much has been done in Hillsborough since the resounding defeat.

But finally, lawmakers in the county who have gotten off the canvas are ready to revisit discussions about the area's transportation needs, which have only gotten more extreme in the intervening years.

• Ed Turanchik, and Greg Dronkert and Mark Fernandez of HMS Ferries at the Tampa Bay Times Forum

Turanchik said his law firm — Ackerman Senterfitt — decided to get involved after the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) conducted two studies that proved Tampa Bay area citizens had substantial interest in the idea. Turanchik added that a ferry could transform the community and offer a "Wow! factor" (a comment that was repeated by public figures like Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn).

"We have a high level of confidence," said Greg Dronkert, the president of the Seattle-based company, on the chances of success. Dronkert said even though the population density is as strong as his group prefers, there is also a "captured market" of riders — a large group of people who would exploit the opportunity to stop driving and take the ferry to work.

• Douglas Coggeshall, one of the last supporters to leave the Anti-IRS rally.

The corrupt attacks and denials follow “a pattern like Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, and even Watergate. The Obama administration is as corrupt as it can be and we won’t stand for this.” Douglas Coggeshall, engineer and history buff, believes that history is repeating itself once again and he plans to stand up against the cycle.

On Tuesday, Tea Party Nation demanded attention from the American people as they stood up and rallied against what they said were attacks on conservative Americans, following reports that the Internal Revenue Service excessively scrutinized their groups seeking tax-exempt status going back to 2010. Local participants gathered on the sidewalk out front of the Columbus Ave IRS building in Tampa to join the movement.

These individuals and conservative organization members came out to support the Tea Party movement with American Flags, yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” Flags, several “Fire Obama” signs, and numerous anti-IRS signs demanding for liberty and freedom from the unconstitutional taxes and scrutiny.

Approximately 120 protesters came out in full force against the IRS and even the President. The majority of the individuals wanted to show their support of the cause and their disapproval of the IRS’s behavior.

The Tea Party Patriots’ website made note of the various stages of the IRS scandal. They claimed that, as early as February 2010, the IRS agents began targeting organizations with the words “tea party” and “patriot” in the name. The site continues to reference occasions where the IRS denies the allegations of the scandal.

The proposed fiscal year 2014 operating and capital budget for Hillsborough County's transit agency will come in nearly 27 percent lower than last year. The $62 million slated to spend next year is slightly higher than the current amended budget, but it's part of the agency's capital budget, which is expected to have significantly lower revenues — it's penciled in at $15.2 million, compared to $28.5 million in FY 2013.

Nevertheless, HART is expecting even more passengers to ride buses next year, despite keeping the operating budget almost the same.

Scandals like the I.R.S. targeting the Tea Party in recent years are custom made for cable news and its network equivalents, the Sunday morning talk shows. Add in the revelation about the Justice Department's seizure of the records of nearly 100 people at The Associated Press, and oh yes, Benghazi, and let's just say that programming decisions weren't a challenge for Sunday show producers this week.

Doing the "full Ginsberg" today was White spokeman Dan Pfeiffer, who seemed to have his talking points down cold to take on the slings and arrows of an assortment of news anchors - some more hostile than others.

President Obama's supporters say he's not directly involved in any of the scandals (which critics said was the problem with Benghazi), and that he learned about what was happening at the IRS at the same time as everyone else - thru the media 10 days ago. That's led for some to say that he's out of touch, or even incompetent, but Pfeiffer's message to all the talk show hosts was that it was actually a good thing.

"No President would get involved in an independent I.R.S. investigation, that would be wholly inappropriate," Pfeiffer told Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace. "For very good reasons in this town, the White House needs to stay as far away from the IRS and let them do their business."

• Protesters at a Scouts office off of Central Avenue in North Tampa

The five separate rallies held in the Sunshine State were organized by social conservative John Stemberger of the Florida Family Policy Council. He predicts that if the ban is repealed there will be a "mass exodus not only of major denominations but of common sense parents saying, 'We can't trust scouting anymore.' There's not that moral consistency in the program."

"The reason we believe this resolution is a bad one for scouting is because it brings sex and politics into scouting," says Greg Roe of the Gulf Ridge Council troop #402, the Tampa-based chapter of the Boy Scouts of America. Sounding like officials with the military who defended "don't ask, don't tell," Roe says that the Scouts have always had gays in their ranks, but not openly declared gays.