Jordan Park: Crist pens letter to HUD, invites Secretary Carson to St. Pete

Last Friday, in response to demands from St. Pete City Council chair Lisa Wheeler Bowman, Congressman Charlie Crist penned a letter to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson, sharing the community’s concerns and asking for HUD intervention.

The letter comes after Bowman, who represents Jordan Park in District 7, organized a press conference that same day to address the St. Petersburg Housing Authority (SPHA) and its plans for the redevelopment of Jordan Park. Bowman became concerned when she heard the stories of displaced senior and disabled residents living in Jordan Park’s Historic Village, who were required to move out to accommodate the property’s proposed demolition.

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Off the beaten path: How one couple’s year-long backpacking trip sparked a start-up

Akeelah Kuraishi and her husband Tim Minnick were deep into the grind of their corporate advertising careers in Chicago when wanderlust struck.

After all, travel is what brought them together in the first place. Kuraishi, a native of Great Britain, was studying at the University of Illinois – Champaign on a semester abroad from the University of Nottingham when their paths first crossed. Minnick followed her back to the UK when her trip was over, and the rest is history.

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Opinion: When a big city newspaper is gutted, local news suffers most [Chicago Sun-Times]

The news of the layoffs hit like a sucker punch. Not because it was the first — far from it. Or because it means journalism is dying. Plenty of media outlets and other businesses have to make painful cuts to save and strengthen their products, and I’m resigned to that being the case at the Daily News, despite my sadness.

But it feels particularly disorienting and disturbing considering the desperate need for good journalism now more than ever.

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