Mitch Perry
Two stories locally and statewide I’d like to draw your attention to this morning.
The Tampa Tribune’s Anastasia Dawson has the goods on a story that has been floating around for a few weeks — how the majority of the faculty at Hillsborough Community College want to oust school President Ken Atwater.
“A recent survey issued to nearly all full-time faculty at HCC garnered a slew of complaints against the president: He consistently misses meetings and campus events. He rarely interacts with faculty and staff. He’s failed to come up with adequate salary increases,” Dawson writes.
In his defense, Atwater references his involvement with the American Association of Community Colleges, admitting that his involvement with that national group has resulted in his not being involved with campus events as he should be, and that he wants to remedy that situation.
Can he survive? Perhaps, but the public is now aware of what the people who work under Atwater feel about his leadership.
In Tallahassee news, props to Politico’s Matt Dixon for questioning a number that all of us in the Florida media have been reporting on all week — that the Obama administration wants to resettle 425 Syrian refugees into Florida.
Dixon reports that the 425 figure hasn’t come from the White House, but from an estimate from 25 resettlement agencies here in Florida.
“We have not asked Florida to take 425 refugees,” a State Department official tells Dixon. “No specific number of Syrian refugees has been discussed with the governor of Florida.”
An official with the Department of Children and Families says that the 425 refugees may not even be exclusively Syrian, but represents the capacity the state has to absorb “additional refugees from anywhere in the world.”
In other news …
Patrick Murphy beats two Republicans in fake U.S. Senate matchups, and Alan Grayson trails those same Republicans (Carlos Lopez-Cantera and Ron DeSantis). But the poll is sort of worthless since it doesn’t include David Jolly and/or Todd Wilcox.
Speaking of Jolly and Grayson, the two continue to squabble at each other, while Jolly is laying off Murphy.
Donald Trump has a 36 percent-18 percent lead over Marco Rubio in the latest presidential poll taken in Florida.
CD 13 Democratic candidate Eric Lynn continues to pick up more local endorsements in his race against Charlie Crist next August.
Rick Scott remains indignant with the White House regarding the whole Syrian refugee situation — Florida was scheduled to receive, well, a certain number — see story above.
And An open carry bill barely squeezed through a subcommittee in the Florida House.
