You're a peon to BoA

St. Petersburg, FL — Bank of America has added 24-hour armed security to their downtown drive up ATM ahead of the RNC's big welcome party.

If you're a Bank of America customer living in downtown St. Petersburg there is a good chance you use their drive-up service and ATM at 565 1st Ave S. In March of 2012 a woman was robbed at gun-point at the location and the armed security seems long overdue. Several other robberies have occurred nearby.

Don't count on feeling safe for long. According to a security guard on-site the 24-hour presence will end after 11 days. The manager of the BoA branch confirmed security was added due to the upcoming RNC event.

The welcome party is expected to bring 20,000 people to St. Petersburg including lobbyists, journalists, celebrities, protestors, and some of the nation's political elite.

Contact the BoA branch: (727) 821-5350

Sweet sap of the Ixora (Jungle Flame)

If you grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida, or probably anywhere else on the protruding member of America that is the Sunshine State, there is a good chance you tasted the sweet sap of the Ixora flower.

When I was a kid my friends and I wouldn't hesitate to taste a handful of the flowers, but I doubt any of us knew the name or anything more about the free treat. If I had ever confessed any of this to my mother she would have surely forced me to drink an entire gallon of milk like that time she thought I ate Oleander.

The Ixora is common mostly in tropical Asia but has become a popular hedging plant in Florida. Its fiery blooming bundles have long been used as a natural remedy for a number of ailments including treatment of the poo poos. According to www.medicalhealthguide.com:

". . . it has been identified that the plant contains important phytochemicals that are known to have antioxidative, antibacterial, gastroprotective, hepatoprotective, antidiarrhoeal, antinociceptive, antimutagenic, antineoplastic and chemopreventive effects. This analysis suggests the validity of the plant’s folkloric and erthnomedicinal uses.  "