Dateline Florida

By Times Wires
Published December 13, 2007

Museum store's closing brings gift of a sale

Racking your brain for the perfect gift for a hard-to-please someone? Maybe you'll find it at the Tampa Museum of Art's Guilders Museum Store. For the store's four-day closing sale, there's up to 60 percent off on handcrafted jewelry by local artists, books, puppets, puzzles, vases and stationery. The museum is moving to an interim location at 2306 N Howard while a new facility is being built, but the store will close until the new museum opens in 2009. Store hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The store is in the art museum at 600 N Ashley Drive.

Signing on: gay marriage ban

Florida4Marriage.org, the statewide group hoping to put a gay marriage ban in the state Constitution, says it has collected the 611,009 signatures needed for the November 2008 ballot. Organizers fell short of obtaining signatures needed for the 2006 ballot, despite a $300,000 contribution from the state GOP. But they said they would keep working toward that goal. Signatures have to be verified by the state.

Working on those droopy pants

The idea went nowhere this past spring, but Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, is hiking up his pants and getting back to work. The Senate's Pre-K-12 Committee is considering his bill that would force kids to pull up droopy, underwear-revealing britches or face penalties ranging up to suspension.

[Last modified December 12, 2007, 23:21:14]