Legislators came to town for the autumn ritual of political harlotry they call “committee week.” Tallahassee’s collective IQ dropped by a good 60 points. That’s bad, but what they propose doing to Florida is worse. Diane Roberts reports.
Guest Columns
Stop Yelling. Have a Point: Advice for School Board Meeting Disrupters from Someone Who’s Been There.
In the wake of two turbulent school board meetings, Randall Bertrand was left wondering what all the sound and fury was about since many speakers’ loud and disruptive message was already made moot by school board votes or state policy.
What the Expanded Child Tax Credit Means to Me
The expanded child tax credit is on track to lift half of all kids living in poverty out of it. That will help them lead safer, happier lives well into adulthood. If we have the political will, we can make more smart economic choices like these to give all children a safe and secure childhood, writes the author.
Texas Unleashes Bounty Hunters on Women
A Texas law deputizes ordinary citizens to hunt down and sue anyone who helps a woman defy the ban (e.g. clinic staff, taxi drivers, someone who provided money for the procedure) with a minimum payoff of $10,000 if they’re successful.
After A Fraud: A Tax Accountant Explains What To Do If You’re a Victim of an Unscrupulous Tax Preparer
Chris Kocher, a licensed CPA since 2003 and a long-time tax accountant in Bunnell, explains how to handle the fallout from revelations that numerous clients of Robert “Bob” Newsholme’s Flagler Tax Services may have been defrauded.
How Another President’s Vaccine Rollout Eradicated a Deadly Disease, Without Ideological Animosity
On May 31, 1955, just weeks after the Salk polio vaccine was proved effective against the deadly and paralyzing disease, President Eisenhower outlined the benefits of universal vaccination and hinted he would use the full powers of the government to ensure inoculations. But cooperation from federal, state and local governments made that unnecessary. Polio was eradicated within a few years.
Partisanship First, Good of Country Last
The change in who we are as a country has been caused by partisan leaders being willing to rally their minions for any purpose so long as it might lead to demolishing their opposition. The good of the country no longer is even part of the goal, argues Irwin Connelly.
People Don’t Want to Work? Wrong. They Just Don’t Want to Work for Your Kind of Substandard Workplace.
After an earth-shattering 16 months that have seen hundreds of thousands of our family members, friends, and neighbors die at the hands of an implacable and indiscriminate foe, there’s just a genuine question of whether grinding it out for 40 hours a week at a job with substandard pay, low benefits, and little work-home balance is really worth it.
‘Our Darkest Hour’: Flagler County Sheriff Eulogizes Deputy Paul ‘Looch’ Luciano, ‘Invisible Hero’ Felled by Pandemic
“This is a tough day for all of us. And, we begin this service doing the same thing we have been doing for the last 7 days, wondering why Paul lost his life serving and protecting our community. We may never know that answer,” Sheriff Rick Staly said today in his eulogy of Corrections Deputy Paul Luciano, the jail’s first line-of-duty death in the department’s history.
An Emergency Room Nurse Pleads from the Darkness of Covid’s Front Lines: ‘Start Supporting, Stop Fighting’
“Stop fighting over what is real or not. Stop fighting over whether you should get the vaccine or not. Stop fighting over whether to wear a mask or not,” Megan Dunaway, an ER nurse manager, writes, pleading against covid denialism and for more support for hospital staff. “We, as a community, are in crisis.”