Phil Ammann
A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:
Tampa Bay Times — Brighter focus on treating drug abuse, mental health issues
A surge in heroin use in Hillsborough County and throughout Florida underscores the need for increased state funding for substance abuse treatment and mental health services. Gov. Rick Scott has wisely recognized that Florida is not doing enough to help people addicted to drugs and living with mental illness, and the Legislature next year should follow his lead and invest more money in these critical services.
Heroin deaths in Florida reached an all-time high in 2014 of 447 people, according to a report released last week by state medical examiners. Hillsborough County recorded 22 heroin-related deaths in 2014, up from just three a year earlier. Officials have already linked 18 Hillsborough deaths to heroin in the first half of this year. Public health officials across the country say law enforcement’s crackdown on doctor shopping, pill mills and the opioid drug oxycodone has prompted the addicted to look for an alternative. Increasingly, drug users are turning to heroin, a relatively inexpensive opioid that is easy to obtain as drug cartels from Mexico find ways to produce a more potent product and smuggle it north, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The spike in heroin deaths highlights an enormous gap in the care offerings for drug addicts, a problem Florida would be smart to quickly address.
Last week, Florida’s Department of Children and Families reached a settlement with Disability Rights Florida, which had sued the state and accused it of failing to have enough community placement spots for the mentally ill. The settlement includes the creation of a pilot program in Hillsborough to provide wraparound services that will ease transitions from hospitals to community-based care. With proper execution, this move can positively affect the lives of one of the state’s most vulnerable populations.
The Bradenton Herald — Rick Fawley, 1949-2015, architect, community servant, gave much to improve Bradenton
Rick Fawley left an indelible mark on this community, both for his architectural skills and his public service. Professionally, his legacy and vision will stand for generations in the projects he and his business partner in the firm of Fawley/Bryant Architects, Inc., Mike Bryant, accomplished.
Fawley’s community activism earned him Leadership Manatee’s top alumni award in 2014, the Kent C. Schulz Distinguished Alumni Award. That’s no small feat given the organization’s long and distinguished list of graduates.
Richard Wesley Fawley passed away on Sept. 2 at the age of 65, peacefully at his Bradenton home, his obituary noted. A celebration of his life will be held Sunday at the South Florida Museum from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Perhaps the most colorful and celebrated of the Fawley/Bryant projects is the $10 million renovation of McKechnie Field, the spring home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the minor league Bradenton Marauders and a historic landmark that will stand for many more decades as a treasured place. The ballpark, with a unique boardwalk and deck arching around the outfield, earned rave reviews upon its debut after Fawley’s remarkable revisions.
Fawley arrived in Bradenton in 1983 from Vermont, opened a private practice in 1985 and merged with Mike Bryant in 1994.
While Fawley’s career accomplishments are considerable — the Manatee County Judicial Center in downtown Bradenton, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine’s School of Dentistry in Lakewood Ranch, and IMG upgrades among them — his personal ones will also leave a lasting impression on the community.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal — Language barriers to justice
The recent firing of an area court employee has shed light on a bigger issue: ensuring that the concept of equal justice doesn’t get lost in translation.
Claudia Villalba was dismissed in August as the 7th Judicial Circuit’s supervisor of interpreters after 11 years on the job. The News-Journal’s Patricio G. Balona reported that records gave no reason for her firing. Villalba says it was retaliation for her longtime efforts to increase the number of certified interpreters in the circuit to assist non-English speakers.
Regardless of whether Villalba’s termination was justified, the courts must ensure that language is not a barrier to justice.
Florida law requires a judge to appoint a qualified interpreter for witnesses who cannot understand or adequately express themselves in English. But there are a host of other legal situations before the court where language can be an obstacle that aren’t covered by state statute.
In 2000, President Clinton signed an executive order requiring courts that receive federal money to provide free interpreters to people with limited English proficiency. Many believe that order applies to all of a courts’ programs and activities.
The Florida Times-Union — Duval is still Florida’s murder capital. Why doesn’t anyone seem to care?
Jacksonville has fallen into bad habits regarding its state-leading murder rate.
The final stats for 2014 were released in mid-year when Jacksonville was in the midst of turnover in the Mayor’s Office and City Council.
Somehow, the fact that Duval County retained its shameful title of Florida’s murder capital with room to spare was lost in the shuffle.
What little progress that was made in the last decade in addressing the murder rate has been lost in the recession and the city’s financial crisis.
The murder rate needs to return to the top of the list of the city’s pressing priorities.
What about human lives? What about the 96 lives that were lost to murder last year and the fact that murders are running at the same pace this year?
As of early last week, Duval County had recorded 70 murders this year vs. 69 at the same time last year.
The city has largely fallen back into accepting an unacceptable situation.
As a city we have lived with our high rate for too long.
We got this way because of Jacksonville’s two cities.
One city, largely suburban, lives a reasonably safe life.
The other city lives with constant violence, gunfire and murders.
Florida Today – Columnist shares faith flops
This week begins my 15th year of writing this column. The anniversary is causing me to reflect on the purpose of why I write this weekly column for you.
First, a bit of history. I began writing the column in October 2001 when then-Features Editor Tom Clifford of FLORIDA TODAY asked me to pen a spiritual response to 9/11.
Since then, my column has spawned two books and numerous speaking opportunities, and it runs in 38 papers nationwide — including the latest one in Montgomery, Alabama, where Tom Clifford now is executive editor.
So whether you’ve been reading from the start or began just recently, I hope you see that I didn’t set out to write a religious column. From the beginning, I’ve tried to write about spirituality among everyday people in everyday life.
Much of the time, I have done that through the stories of people I meet, but sometimes I do it through self-deprecating humor aimed at giving you a glimpse into the personal struggles of a chaplain.
Unfortunately, not all of my readers see the point of my writing about personal failings in such a transparent and public way. In fact, some have written scathing letters criticizing me for the faith flubs I’ve dared to share.
For instance, 10 years ago I was working as a chaplain when I wrote about the sensuous thoughts I had while getting a haircut from a female barber. An outraged reader called the hospital where I worked and left this voicemail so that all my colleagues could hear her say: “How can a 45-year-old minister have such thoughts? I thought you were a man of God. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”
The Gainesville Sun – Cheers and jeers
It’s a good time for a Gatorade toast to the University of Florida’s most famous invention along with the innovation it continues to support.
This week, Gainesville is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Gatorade as well as the groundbreaking for the Cade Museum for Creativity and Innovation. Both were born from the creativity of the Cade family.
Cheer: The late Dr. Robert Cade and his daughter, Phoebe Cade Miles, for their contributions to the university and city.
In 1965, Cade and his team of fellow doctors developed the mixture of water, electrolytes and lemon juice that became known as Gatorade. The invention launched the sports drink industry — and eventually earned $281 million in royalties for UF that pays for research projects across the university.
In addition to events at today’s football game marking the Gatorade anniversary, Friday marked the groundbreaking for the Cade Museum. Miles is board president and CEO of the museum, will is slated to have exhibits on the invention of Gatorade as well as other inventions developed at UF and beyond.
The 47,000-square-foot museum is planned for the city’s new Depot Park. Construction of the first phase of the museum is expected to be completed in late 2016 or early 2017, the museum’s development director told The Sun. The museum will continue to award the annual $50,000 Cade Prize, given to early-stage inventors and entrepreneurs.
The Lakeland Ledger —City hit home run with sale of local landmark
The city of Lakeland’s new fiscal year began Thursday, bringing with it a 19-percent increase in the city’s base property tax rate. We, like many in the community, found this troublesome, given that the City Commission had exhibited appropriate fiscal prudence in rejecting a proposed fire fee that would have hammered a majority of homeowners — 56 percent to be precise, since that’s how many would have paid more for the fee than they did in property taxes, under the initial projections.
The city now has a way to support millions in new spending for 2016. But en route to becoming the only Polk County city to implement a property tax hike this year, the commission discovered — and wisely approved — a deal that reaped a pile of money and, simultaneously, benefitted a local icon.
Commissioners recently approved the sale of Henley Field to Florida Southern College for $1 million.
The 5-acre facility is the root of Lakeland’s long-time link to Major League Baseball, opening in 1925 as the spring training home of the Cleveland Indians. Local enthusiasm died off and led the Indians to leave after four years, but the Detroit Tigers eventually filled the vacuum created by their departure. The Tigers began playing at what was first known as Athletic Field in 1934 — the team went to the World Series for the first time in 25 years that year — and remained there for three decades until their current spring home, Joker Marchant Stadium, opened.
That first spring now has evolved into the longest-running relationship between a major league franchise and the spring training host city — and one that will continue into the foreseeable future.
But the Tigers migration to Marchant Stadium didn’t leave Henley Field in the lurch. Another team has used the park for decades.
The Miami Herald —Another chance to move Haiti forward
On the surface, Haiti’s presidential elections seem to be a robust competition. Fifty-four candidates are vying for the votes of 5.8 million registered voters, and they’re all debating their competing visions across the island — and even here in South Florida.
One of their debates takes place Sunday in North Miami, an acknowledgment of the importance of the local Haitian community and that the residents care deeply for their homeland.
This election is another chance to turn the page politically, to move the country forward. But one doesn’t have to look far to sense the uncertainty hovering over the Oct. 25 presidential vote, which is also the second round for the violence- and fraud-marred Aug. 9 elections. By many accounts, the vote may be headed for another disastrous train wreck.
This time, the result could be worse than the last presidential election that led to accusations that the international community put President Michel Martelly in power in 2010 over the wishes of the Haitian people. The unending crisis ever since has produced four years of political gridlock that culminated in January with one-man rule by Mr. Martelly.
Given this history of crisis and political dysfunction, it’s hard to be optimistic about the upcoming election. The international community, insisting that these are Haitian-led elections, is standing on the sidelines watching but quietly exerting pressure against an expensive negation of the $38-million Aug. 9 vote.
The community’s silent diplomacy has allowed the Provisional Electoral Council to illegally remove a presidential candidate, university provost Jacky Lumarque, and to declare 10 legislative races over, despite announcing to voters that election-day violence had disrupted balloting around the country and the vote needed to be re-run in 25 constituencies. This led Mr. Lumarque’s Vérité (Truth) Party to announce that it was boycotting the October balloting.
The Orlando Sentinel — Improved campus plan bolsters case for funding
This past June, only hours after Gov. Rick Scott sucker-punched the University of Central Florida with a politically motivated veto of funding for its proposed downtown Orlando campus, President John Hit was already thinking about Plan B.
“We’re not giving up,” said Hitt, who can take a punch.
Last week UCF unveiled its revised proposal, starting with a new $60 million academic building downtown and $5 million in renovations to the university’s existing Center for Emerging Media, which is already downtown. Instead of asking the state to pick up the entire tab for the new building, UCF will seek just a third of it — $20 million — from Tallahassee. While this year’s vetoed line item was $20 million, it was envisioned as the first of three installments.
Now UCF plans to make up the balance with $20 million in donations and $20 million in other university funds. Valencia College will remain a partner in the project, moving its hospitality and culinary arts programs downtown.
If the state board that oversees higher education signs off, and lawmakers put up the money, Scott will have an even harder time explaining a veto next time. Too hard, we hope.
UCF might have escaped this year’s veto if its proposal had been championed by someone other than Senate President Andy Gardiner of Orlando. Gardiner and Scott waged a bitter battle over health-care policy.
The Ocala StarBanner — Webster’s pursuit of speaker’s job
After running point on the House Republicans’ stunning slaughter in the 2010 congressional elections, John Boehner was not just second in line to the presidency early in 2011. Until the Senate fell to the Republicans in 2014, the Ohio Republican was the GOP’s top dog in Washington.
Yet, the speaker’s gavel frequently appeared shaky in his hands, despite the fact that GOP lawmakers had a large, cohesive majority opposed to President Obama’s agenda, and were egged on in that fight by loud and dedicated bands of tea party proponents.
Boehner’s luster had worn off just two years later, when 15 GOP lawmakers voted to deny him another term as speaker.
This year, Boehner faced a wider, more open mutiny. Twenty-five Republicans opposed him continuing as speaker this past January, with 12 of those votes going to Rep. Daniel Webster, a Winter Garden Republican. It was the biggest public revolt against the sitting speaker in more than a century.
The conservative dissidents who fought Boehner got what they wanted last week. He announced he was stepping down and leaving Congress next month.
Next week the Republicans will choose a new speaker, and California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, appears to have the inside track.
Webster, however, is gamely making a bid. “I’m working as hard as I can to win it, and I would love to win it, and I want to win it,” Webster told The Hill last week.
Make no mistake. Should he prevail, Webster would not veer very far from the agenda of the tea party followers and conservative House members who wanted Boehner ousted. His supporters both within Congress and on the outside would expect no less.
The Pensacola News-Journal — Council deserves skepticism
Despite questions surrounding the Pensacola City Council’s hiring of a new executive, council members have doubled down on their decision. As the taxpayers financing the council’s $100,000-per-year bet, we just hope they know what they’re doing.
In August, the council voted to hire Donald Kraher, an assistant city manager of a small city in Missouri, as its new executive. Councilmen P.C. Wu and Larry B. Johnson voted against the hiring. Councilman Brian Spencer was absent. For all others, it was “aye.”
Then, as reported by the PNJ’s Will Isern, “at the Sept. 17 Pensacola City Council meeting, Councilman Larry B. Johnson got up from his seat behind the dais to hand-deliver two unmarked envelopes to assistant city attorney Rusty Wells. Johnson had been given the envelopes by a constituent he said he did not want to identify. Inside the envelopes was information about … Donald Kraher.”
The documents detailed Kraher’s personal financial troubles that included a list of court judgments and bankruptcy filings in the state of Missouri. Furthermore, council members learned that Kraher had incorrectly indicated on his resume that he was a practicing lawyer, when in fact, he allowed his law license to expire in 2013.
To be clear, neither a law license nor a credit score were listed as prerequisites for the position of council executive. But the city has seen resume-induced controversy before. It was just a few months ago when misrepresentations and inaccuracies in the qualifications of Mayor Hayward’s Chief Operations Officer Tamara Fountain caused major disruptions at the city. You’d think city officials would be all the more cautious in hiring another high-level, six-figure executive.
The Palm Beach Post —Will owners fix their VWs?
Hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen diesel cars on the road in the United States with “defeat devices” are spewing 10 to 40 times the allowed amount of nitrogen oxide into the air — and will never be repaired. Because most recalls are optional, many owners won’t bother to comply.
From 2000 to 2008, the Government Accountability Office found on average that about 30 percent of defects were not fixed within 18 months of a recall. For some recalls, the failure-to-fix rate rose above 70 percent.
Volkswagen diesel owners are particularly likely to forgo repair of the emission problem because the solution will actually reduce their cars’ fuel efficiency. Would you want to drive your car to a dealership and lose use of it for a day or two, so that in the end the car will drive 4 miles fewer per gallon? Sure, in the abstract, VW owners care that nitrogen oxide is linked to serious respiratory problems, including emphysema. But the concrete hassles and certain miles-per-gallon degradation make it easier for the manufacturer’s recall notice to slip their minds.
We can do better.
To increase cooperation rates, Volkswagen could compensate only those owners who have repaired their cars. What’s more, the federal government could make it harder for owners to keep driving faulty vehicles. Some states will not allow a car to pass its emissions test if it has not completed all emission-related recalls; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could mandate that all states follow suit.
The Volkswagen scandal presents us with an opportunity to revise our recall regulations more generally. When I failed to take in my Prius to repair a sudden-acceleration defect, I wasn’t just putting my family at risk; I was also endangering other people that my accelerating car might hit. Yet nothing in our current law stops me from driving a car with a well-known safety defect year after year.
The Panama City News-Herald — Putin in Syria: so what?
Vladimir Putin is having a field day in the Middle East. He has sent Russian planes to bomb rebels in Syria. He has reached an intelligence-sharing agreement with Syria, Iran and Iraq. At the U.N. Monday, he reaffirmed his commitment to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He seems determined to fill the regional vacuum allegedly left by the United States.
What should the Obama administration do? Let him.
Republicans regard this as a calamity. But what’s the downside? There are two main ways this gambit could go. And neither would be a bad deal for us.
The first possibility is that he will inflict significant damage on Islamic State. In that case, one of our most vicious enemies would be weakened — at little cost or risk to Americans. The only thing better than defeating Islamic State is getting someone to do it for us.
In that scenario, of course, another enemy, Assad, would survive. But someone named Assad has held power in Syria since 1970. We managed fine before this civil war. If Putin can bring it to an end with the Assad government still in power, we’ll manage fine afterward.
The second possibility is that Putin will fail: His bombing raids will prove unavailing, the insurgents will gain ground, and the regime will be in jeopardy. Then he may be forced to send ground troops.
He could find himself in a costly, bloody war. Or he might decide the prize is not worth the effort and pull back, which would dash his dreams of regional power and discredit him at home. Either way, he’s worse off, and we’re not.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel – Hey, if you live near an airport. . .
I live right near a major thoroughfare in Broward County.
The road was there when my family moved in. We knew all about the noise from the cars.
The noise has gotten worse over the years.
The neighborhood has grown, there are more cars, and youngsters use the major road as a dragstrip at night.
We knew all about the road when we moved in. The fact that the noise has gotten worse, well, we kind of expected that, too.
Which is why I am having trouble feeling a great deal of sympathy for all the people living near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport who are complaining about the noise.
Yes, there are some who weren’t aware that the south runway would be built, although that was in the works for 20 years – long before most people moved into that area.
And yes, some flight patterns are making things rough for homeowners.
And things get particularly noisy when the winds are out of the west.
Airports expand. They get bigger, particularly in South Florida.
You know that when you move in. If you didn’t, you should have. Airports have noise. Such is life.
The Tallahassee Democrat – Florida gun debate will be hot, but nothing changes
The gunshots at Umpqua College last week will echo in Florida House and Senate committees during the run-up to the 2015 legislative session — just as Columbine, Sandy Hook and so many other horror stories have been cited by both sides in many past gun debates.
The result will probably be the same as always. Little or nothing will change.
A House criminal justice subcommittee this month voted 8-5 for a bill allowing concealed weapon permit holders to carry their guns on college campuses. It failed last session, hotly opposed the State University System and campus police, but it’s going to pass — next session or the one after that, or the one after that.
Next Tuesday, another smoking gun bill comes up in that committee. This one would let concealed-weapon permit holders carry their guns openly, Wild West style. There’s a certain logic to it. A weapon’s danger depends on who carries it, not where they wear it.
But there’s a visual component to that one. What’s a tourist from Japan or Denmark going to think, strolling down International Drive or Collins Avenue and seeing Floridians toting sidearms? Canadians already think we’re crazy.
But logic has little to do with gun legislation.
Gun-control advocates have a faith that surpasses facts, wistfully hoping that evil, crazy people will obey any kind of law. They haven’t, since Cain slew Abel, but we can always try a few more laws, can’t we?
The National Rifle Association and other adamant gun-control opponents seem just as convinced that the second half of the Second Amendment (skipping over that “well-regulated militia” stuff) means we just have to live this way. The courts currently tend to concur.
The Tampa Tribune —Toughen laws in Florida that ban texting while driving
Florida continues to lag behind other states when it comes to cracking down on the dangerous practice of texting while driving.
It remains one of only a handful of states that continue to treat texting while driving as a secondary offense, meaning a motorist must be stopped for an offense like speeding or reckless driving before a texting citation can be issued.
And the penalty in Florida for texting while driving? A paltry $30 fine for the first offense.
Lawmakers passed the secondary texting law in 2013, removing Florida from a list of only five states in the country with no texting bans whatsoever.
The law brought Florida into the 21st century but didn’t go far enough.
A new bill introduced in advance of the 2016 legislative session — which begins Jan. 12 — by Sen. Thad Altman, a Republican from Rockledge, would take the ban a necessary step further.
It would elevate the offense of texting while driving from a secondary to a primary offense, meaning law enforcement officers who see someone headed down the road with their gaze cast at a mobile device can pull the driver over and cite them for violating the texting law.
It would bring Florida more in line with the rest of the country, which has increasingly seen the need to curb the use of mobile devices while driving.
Text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times greater than driving while not distracted, according to a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2012 that driver distraction accounted for 18 percent of all crashes resulting in injuries or death.
