A group of women from New Tampa are headed to Peru Oct. 16 to give students in a disadvantaged, mountainous area of the country laptop computers to enhance their educations.
The women are students of Hanaq Prana Yoga Studio, located at 10323 Cross Creek Blvd., Suite E., and the group is led by studio founder and director, Lorena Saavedra Smith, who is a native of Peru.
The group will spend a week at the Willa T’ika wellness retreat near Cusco, Peru, and will have a “packed itinerary” of doing yoga, experiencing the local attractions and serving the community.
“I’ve been planning this retreat since February,” says Lorena. “It’s a time of self discovery, time to reconnect, and for many of these women, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit such a fascinating country.” She says the 10 available spots for the trip were filled quickly and she has a waiting list of three or four women who will be first to attend next year’s retreat.
“We’re going to explore the ruins, enjoy the beautiful scenery, visit the (15th Century Incan citadel) Machu Picchu, taking in all this amazing energy from the mountains,” Lorena says. “Then, the service part is the last day of the retreat, so after we’ve cleansed the body, and taken in the energy, we can serve these kids.”
Tony Selvaggio, owner of eSmart Recycling, has provided 10 laptop computers to be donated for the trip.
“Tony has an amazing business of keeping old electronics out of landfills,” Lorena says. “Thanks to this donation, students in the small village of Cusco will have the opportunity to succeed academically with the access to technology that this donation of laptops will provide.”
Republican candidate Donald Trump was trounced in the first Presidential Debate by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but our editor says he can’t vote for either of them.
So, like 80 million or so other Americans, I watched every second of the first presidential debate between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and I will admit that the former First Lady, U.S. Senator from New York and Secretary of State absolutely wiped the floor with the businessman/real estate developer/reality TV star who somehow fooled Republican voters into thinking that he would be a better choice than the dozen or so much more qualified GOP candidates he ended up besting during the primary process.
And, as a native Lawn Guylander, it was hard to not see the irony of two candidates I truly dislike, each with ties to New York, duke it out at Hofstra University, which is 15 minutes from where I grew up.
Does anyone…even the staunchest Republican supporters…still believe that the unprepared, unimpressive “La Donald” was the best choice for the GOP to try to take back the White House after eight years under President Obama? Seriously?
Trump didn’t just lose the debate; he embarrassed himself and his supporters. Registered Republicans across the country let out a collective “uh-oh” as the billionaire stumbled, bumbled and sniffed (what was that anyway? a cold? allergies?) his way to the worst on-stage performance by a Republican since Sarah Palin.
Trump railed on about the number of murders in Chicago, but seemingly only because it’s Pres. Obama’s hometown, not because he had some important (or valid) point to make. He gave himself credit for changing his mind about the president’s birth certificate not being real, but never explained why he did three+ years after that certificate was produced.
When Trump jabbed lightly at Clinton about her 33,000 deleted emails, she countered with a smashing left hook to the jaw about why he won’t disclose his taxes. “Maybe he’s not as charitable…or as profitable…as he’d like us to think,” Hillary said to the American people. “But mainly, I think it’ll show that he hasn’t paid any federal income tax for years.”
“That just makes me smart,” the precocious billionaire sniffed back.
Smart? OK, maybe he is. But, appealing to undecided middle and lower class American voters who somehow have to pay thousands of dollars a year to Uncle Sam while only making thousands themselves? I don’t think so.
As I mentioned in my editorial after the first debate, I’m a registered Republican who could have happily supported Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson or Marco Rubio (I voted for Rubio in the primary, even though I don’t agree with all of his Tea Party positions), saying that I could get behind almost anyone other than Trump.
The only other major candidate who gave me similar pause was the second-place Republican Ted Cruz, who would attempt to make Christianity our national religion, despite our country’s diverse population. Trump may have sold GOP voters on the “fact” that he was the only non-politician in the field — just as he sold unsuspecting students on the bogus Trump University and unsuspecting condo buyers in New York, Tampa and other locations on buildings with his name on them that he ultimately walked away from without completing — but his “non-politically-correct” responses did nothing throughout the campaign but convince me he was the wrong choice, even as he built up his treasure trove of delegates.
So, obviously, I can’t vote for Trump — or recommend that anyone else should either. Even so, I also can’t throw my support behind Clinton, as I twice did Obama. A few weeks prior to the debate, I heard the former Secretary of State take credit for being in the “war room” as Pres. Obama and our top military officials came up with the plan to ultimately “take out” Osama bin Laden, but where was the First Lady when her husband was President? Meeting multiple times with the Al Qaeda leader after he had made his first (and unsuccessful) attempt to blow up the World Trade Center?
Did we even once hear Hillary say, during either of her Presidential campaigns, that, “We should’ve taken out that SOB when Bill had the chance” all those years ago?
No. Instead, we have been (since the 1990s) — and continue to be — told about the “stand by my man” relationship between Hillary and her husband, who surely didn’t begin and end his process of wooing White House interns with Monica Lewinsky. I don’t believe the Clintons are in any way, shape or form a loving couple. I say Hillary has stuck with her hubby only because she feared that she would never become president herself if she divorced him, despite his blatant philandering.
Hillary claims to be fighting for you and me, but I honestly believe neither candidate cares as much about us as they do themselves.
Yes, Clinton dominated Trump in Round One. It was so bad that if it were a prize fight, it would have been stopped early, with Trump sniffing blood back into his nose instead of sniffling before and after every time he spoke.
Even so, I will still be at the polls on Nov. 8, voting for other offices. I just can’t see myself casting a ballot for either of these two, even though one of them has to win. Heavy sigh.
State Rep. Shawn Harrison urges voters to support Republican candidates at a candidate fair held in Carrollwood on September 13. (Photo: North Hillsborough Republican Club/Facebook)
When District 63 State Rep. Shawn Harrison, a Republican who is running for re-election on Nov. 8, stood before a crowd at a candidate fair sponsored by the North Hillsborough Republican Club at Carrollwood Country Club on Sept. 13 and urged them to help put a Republican on the Tampa City Council for the first time since he had served on the council, Jim Davison, M.D., couldn’t help but smile.
Dr. Davison, a longtime Hunter’s Green resident and a friend of Harrison’s, had just spoken a few minutes before to the same crowd, and he viewed Harrison’s comments as something of an unofficial endorsement of his candidacy in the District 7 race.
But, it wasn’t.
The next day, Harrison sent out Facebook invitations for a fund raiser he hosted at his home on Sept. 22 for one of Davison’s opponents – Arbor Greene resident Avis Harrison, a former elementary school teacher and registered independent who proudly touts her lack of experience and is no relation to Shawn.
“She has been a family friend for several years, and I think she would be an excellent member of the City Council,’’ Harrison said.
Shawn had already co-hosted a fund raiser for Avis Harrison on Sept. 8 at the Avila home of former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden, and raised more than $8,000. But, Davison was still surprised, considering what he heard at the candidate fair.
Dana Young, who represents Florida’s 60th District and is the Florida House majority leader, spoke right after Davison and also delivered glowing remarks. While the City Council race is non-partisan, it is no secret that Davison is a registered Republican and the only one so registered in a field that includes Luis Viera, Gene Siudut, Cyril Spiro, Ph.D., Orlando Gudes and Avis Harrison.
While Davison can’t refer to his party affiliation on campaign information because he is running for a non-partisan seat, Republicans who are not running for non-partisan offices are not bound by that rule.
“I just met (Davison) last night and this is a big deal,’’ Young said. “If you live in his area, he is the only Republican running for City Council, and he’s got like five Democrats running. So, if every Republican votes for him, he wins.”
Once the applause died down, Young added, “This guy is a Republican and if you are a Republican, you need to vote for him.”
She then turned the microphone over to Shawn Harrison, who is defending his Dist. 63 seat against Democrat Lisa Montelione, who is vacating the District 7 City Council seat for which Davison, Avis Harrison and the other candidates are competing.
“Everyone up here is a real quality conservative who you need to get out and support,’’ Shawn Harrison told the crowd. “I want to plug my friend Jim Davison, as well.”
Harrison also told the crowd that when he served on the City Council for eight years, he was, for some of that time, the only Republican.Since he left, there haven’t been any.
“There are seven democrats on our City Council now and our mayor is a Democrat,’’ Shawn said at the candidate fair. “Can’t we have just one of us? Just one? Is that too much to ask? So we’re going to get out and support Jim in his efforts here. We need one out of those seven seats to be red.”
Harrison said since he was at a Republican event, he was appealing to the Republican voters. “Frankly, I’m not sure any voters from New Tampa were there,’’ he added.
Davison said he was then completely blindsided by Harrison holding a fund raiser in his home for one of his non-Republican opponents. But, he plans on staying loyal to his party and his friend.
“Am I still voting for Shawn?,” Davison said. “Yeah.Am I disappointed? Yeah.”
Harrison says he has no obligation to support Davison just because he’s the only Republican in the race. He said Siudut has reached out to him for campaign advice, and he touted the endorsements he has received from Democrats in his race vs. Montelione.
“If you are a good candidate, party identification should play less of a role,’’ Harrison said. “I want the best person in that seat for New Tampa.”
MONEY GAME: The Gruden fund raiser for Avis Harrison helped launch her from the bottom of the fund raising race to near the top.
She raised $10,250 for the Sept. 3-16 filing period, putting her at $20,188.34 overall, right behind Viera and Spiro.
Viera, a Hunter’s Green resident and lawyer with Ogden & Sullivan, P.A., raised $6,195 during the most recent filing period, and now has $58,954 overall, which keeps him comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.
Dr. Spiro has raised $26,217.83 overall, the field’s second-largest fund-raising haul. Siudut, an editor with La Gaceta, has raised $18,630, while Gudes, a former Tampa Police officer, is at $15,766.10. Davison, who got into the race a little later, is at $7,395.30.
ENDORSEMENTS: Davison has offset his low fund-raising numbers by picking up some endorsements he says are as big as anyone else’s.
Davison received an endorsement from former Tampa City Council member Joseph Caetano, and another from Gus Bilirakis, the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 12th congressional district.
Caetano recently received 10,681 votes in his unsuccessful bid for the Hillsborough County School Board. Viera picked up an endorsement from the Tampa Bay Builders Association last week, which is generally considered an important “get” for candidates.
Watching the 2016 Summer Olympics was a real treat for 15-year-old Paul R. Wharton High junior Yasmine Gillespie. It provided a nice respite from the young athlete’s busy schedule, as she got to see martial artists from all over the world compete for gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
What the second-degree black belt did not know was that during the Olympics, several new sports were given a chance to be included in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, and making the cut was karate, both kata (one-person forms) and kumite (two-person grappling/sparring).
The former infused instant dreams into the mind of Yasmine, who over the summer found out she would be representing Team USA at the World Karate & Kickboxing Commission (WKC) World Championships in Dublin, Ireland.
In June, she attended the WKC national tournament in Dearborn, Michigan on the University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus.
“The way it works is they call you up, you do your form, they score you, then you go again and it repeats until you eventually get a compiled score,” Yasmine says. “When they called the top four qualifiers up, I didn’t realize that was what it was for, I thought they just called me up to perform again.”
Instead, one of the other girls leaned over to her and said, “You’re coming with us to Dublin. Welcome to the team.”
“I was so shocked,” Yasmine said. “I got the medals and took pictures and I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God. I’m on Team USA. That’s real.’”
From October 30 through November 4, Gillespie will be representing Team USA at the WKC World Championships, where more than two dozen countries will be participating.
Yasmine says she has always wanted to be an Olympic athlete, and she is headed in that direction.
But before 2020 rolls around, she has other goals. She was advanced a grade level when she started public school, and plans to finish in the top 10 of her graduating class academically. She plays Libero on Wharton’s varsity volleyball team, and also is a varsity tennis player.
How does she manage all of this?
“I’m really good with time management,” Yasmine says. “I find time to work on homework after lunch and in that hour between volleyball practice and karate class. It’s hard to fit it in but I make sure and find time; I plan ahead.”
That careful planning and management has helped Yasmine succeed not only academically, but also in her athletic pursuits.
She trains under fourth-degree karate black belt, Master John Augello at Core Martial Arts in New Tampa. While Yasmine cracks the pads and rolls around on the mat with the other students in the adult class, her specialty is one-person forms, called “katas” in Japanese or Okinawan martial arts disciplines.
A form or kata is a series of movement combinations fused together to simulate combat against an imaginary opponent or opponents. Oftentimes, an intense energy/vocal expression called a “kia” is used to punctuate some of the techniques.
“She just has this natural flow,” Augello says, “and you can’t teach that.”
Yasmine competes in both regular kata and classical kata. She started training in martial arts when she was three years old, and advanced quickly, especially in her teenage years. She now competes in the adult class.
“She was just too big and strong for the little guys,” Augello says. “We had to set the bar higher for her.”
Yasmine keeps jumping over that bar.
In July, she earned her second black belt, and also competed in the U.S. Open Karate World Championships in Orlando and won the International Championship in regular kata in the 15-16 age group.
Her brother Sammy, who is 11, also competes and will join her in Dublin.
“My wife and I wanted to get our kids into karate at an early age,” Yasmine’s father Brian said. “And, not just for self defense but also for confidence and having experience getting out and performing at a young age.”
The 3rd Annual Wesley Chapel Fall Jazz Festival is coming back to our area, but not to its usual locale.
After two years at the Wesley Chapel District Park on Boyette Rd., the 2016 Festival will be hosted on Saturday, October 15, noon-8 p.m., by the Avalon Park West (APW) community off S.R. 54.
Located at 32659 Coldwater Creek Lp. in Wesley Chapel, Avalon Park West has held a number of successful open-to-the-pubic events, including its Fourth of July celebration, which drew a big crowd estimated at more than 2,000 people.
The Wesley Chapel Fall Jazz Festival, which is free to attend, should be another large gathering at the new development.
“The last one, we had like 5,000 people, so we’re back by popular demand,’’ says Tim Hancock, the president of Jazz Tyme Productions, which is organizing the event.
A lacrosse tournament may have bumped the festival from the District Park, but it’s all good, Hancock says, noting that the jazz festival will be combined with APW’s own Fall Festival.
“They have been trying to get me to bring it over there (to Avalon Park West) for the longest,’’ he says.
Hancock also says that this year’s festival will have bounce houses, face painting, a pumpkin patch and dozens of food vendors. But, the main draw will be the music, which will be highlighted by nationally-known smooth jazz artist Nathan Mitchell — who released his debut album “For All Eternity” in 2013 — and Tampa-based saxophonist Marlon Boone, who also plays with his R&B band City Groove.
“It’s going to be awesome,’’ Hancock says. “It will be live and smooth. This ain’t no backyard BBQ.”
Hancock is estimating a crowd of 3,000-4,000 this time around. Both the Neighborhood News & WCNT-tv will be on-site, too!
A group of women from New Tampa are headed to Peru Oct. 16 to give students in a disadvantaged, mountainous area of the country laptop computers to enhance their educations.
Watching the 2016 Summer Olympics was a real treat for 15-year-old Paul R. Wharton High junior Yasmine Gillespie. It provided a nice respite from the young athlete’s busy schedule, as she got to see martial artists from all over the world compete for gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Yasmine says she has always wanted to be an Olympic athlete, and she is headed in that direction.
The 3rd Annual Wesley Chapel Fall Jazz Festival is coming back to our area, but not to its usual locale.