Rosy roundtable follows stormy ceremony

Officials have high hopes for the $13 million Port Manatee expansion that is getting under way — enough so to have a groundbreaking ceremony with Gov. Rick Scott and a whole passel of politicians and bureaucrats.

But when it came time for Scott to speak, he took one look at the black thunderheads rolling across Tampa Bay toward the Port Manatee ceremony and pocketed his prepared remarks.

“Let's do the photo,” he said and walked away from the podium and over to where the shovels were planted for the obligatory guys-in-suits-and-hardhats dirt toss.