From blocking debate on equal pay for equal work for women, to a head-in-the-sand approach to protecting our environment, the list of issues ignored by this legislature is as long as it is indefensible, argues Mark Ferrulo.
Guest Columns
Charlie Crist on Ending the Cuba Embargo: Not Flip-Flopping, But Facing Reality
Crist wants to lift the 53-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. He hasn’t flipped soft on the Cuban government, which he calls “oppressive,” “totalitarian,” and “wrong.” He just says that the embargo hasn’t worked and that it’s insanity to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, argues Stephen L. Goldstein.
Sheriff Manfre on Medical Marijuana: “I Am Receptive to the Arguments Favoring the Amendment’s Passage”
“For me,” Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre writes, “it comes down to whether medical marijuana has a medically beneficial effect and if it could help my Mom or any of our loved ones from the debilitating side effects of radiation treatments or the other diseases it claims to affect.”
Voucher Scams: Floridians Should Be Fighting the Privatization of Public Schools
We’re decades into a war waged by shadowy business interests and religious groups, working through “cooperative” legislators and governors to gradually undermine most of the state’s public schools and ultimately privatize them, argues Daniel Tilson.
“Growing Up Fisher” Is Perpetuating Stereotypes About Blind People
“It’s hard for me not to cringe,” writes Kathi Wolfe, a legally blind writer, when the main character on Growing Up Fisher “does things that most blind people in real life would rarely, if ever, do. He hits cars in crosswalks with his white cane, checks his guide dog into a restaurant cloakroom, chops down trees with a chainsaw, and takes his clients’ cars for rides.”
Progress Florida Launches Executive Accountability Project as Culture of Secrecy Pervades Scott Administration
The culture of self-serving deal-making that grips many of our state capitals has operated essentially in secret, relying on tactics to avoid Government in the Sunshine laws and a lack of public attention. The Executive Accountability Project will focus on providing the public a never-before-seen look at the inner workings of how their elected officials are conducting “the people’s” business behind closed doors.
Corruption Theorem: Money as Speech and the Supreme Court’s Death Blow to Democracy
We’ve come a long way from the days of Lawton Chiles, who won his election for governor despite limiting contributions to $10 a pop. There is no longer any bidding limit on the vast auction block American politics has become since, writes Martin Dyckman.
The Problem With “Step Up for Students,” Florida’s Voucher Jockey
Step Up For Children CEO Doug Tuthill is shameless about the way his organization–the administrative agent for Florida’s school voucher program–spends lavishly on political races, which may explain why a Senate proposal to vastly expand the voucher program this year foundered.
After the Attack: A Pit Bull Owner Speaks In Defense of Second Chance Rescue
In the wake of a pit bull’s–or a pit bull mix’s–attack on two young children at Second Hand Rescue last week, a dog owner who took possession of a pit bull that had been rescued and rehabilitated by Second Hand Rescue writes in defense of the Bunnell animal shelter.
If It’s Economic Growth You Want, Raising the Minimum Wage Crushes Wall Street Bonuses Every Time
If the $26.7 billion Wall Streeters pulled in on their bonuses last year had instead gone to minimum wage workers, our economy would be expected to grow by about $32.3 billion — more than triple the $10.4 billion boost expected from the Wall Street bonuses.