Jax

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 1, 2016

Despite Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry’s position that no further legislation on the Human Rights Ordinance expansion is “prudent,” Councilmen Bill Gulliford and Tommy Hazouri plan to go ahead with their competing bills, to be debuted and debated heavily starting Thursday at the Committee of the Whole. “I’ll withdraw mine if Tommy wants to withdraw his,” […]

A.G. GancarskiFebruary 1, 2016

Former Jacksonville City Councilman and mayoral candidate Bill Bishop is considering a return to Jacksonville’s City Council in 2019, he told Florida Politics Monday. Bishop, who served two terms, is thinking over a run to fill what would be the open At Large seat of John Crescimbeni (assuming that Council’s proposal to extend its consecutive terms served from […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 31, 2016

U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis loves to travel. And travel he did this weekend, to Palm Springs for a Koch brothers retreat. The Freedom Partners event dealt with fundraising and fund expenditure. The hope is to funnel up to $900 million into this campaign, reports The Desert Sun. The Hill’s Jonathan Swan tweets that DeSantis was there, along […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 31, 2016

People not from Jacksonville just don’t get it. Jags owner Shad Khan described the Human Rights Ordinance expansion to the LGBT community as “like civil rights. It’s so late that it’s not even worth talking about.” That statement is reminiscent of one from 2012 from Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu, reports The Florida Times-Union. “Knowing your […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 30, 2016

Among the dozens of Jacksonville political players at Saturday’s news conference to address the wave of violent slayings were State Attorney Angela Corey and the Rev. R.L. Gundy. They went to high school together, years back. Even planned reunions together. But the next reunion committee meeting with them might be strained. Gundy has been on the offense against Angela Corey […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 30, 2016

“That baby is a symbol,” said Bishop John Guns. It has been a violent January in Jacksonville. Thirteen slayings in January so far. The latest: a 22-month-old boy. Reaction to that killing (a drive-by shooting near the Sports Complex) brought most of Jacksonville’s City Council, the Mayor, the Sheriff, and Guns and many other ministers together […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 30, 2016

In an email this week to Pastor Mark Griffin, Richard Hamlet, whose company runs the blighted Section 8 complex Eureka Gardens in Jacksonville, took the press to task for reporting issues with a similarly blighted property his company owns in Memphis. Hamlet, head of Global Ministries Foundation, lamented that “unfortunately the media in Memphis has been active […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 29, 2016

I knew something unpopular was about to happen Thursday night when I saw this Facebook post from Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry quoting Harry Truman. “Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow and only one thing endures. Character.” Truman’s motto: the buck stops here. The irony: that […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 29, 2016

Friday became a momentous day for the Human Rights Ordinance expansion in Jacksonville when Mayor Lenny Curry, at long last, took a position on the question. Curry issued a departmental directive to change city employment-related policies and practices to comply with all federal and state laws. That policy change precludes and prohibits all forms of employment discrimination, […]

A.G. GancarskiJanuary 29, 2016

Northeast Florida legislators have their share of local projects and asks in the House budget. Prominent areas, as one would expect, include education on all levels, as well as social services, and a couple of infrastructural projects. These aren’t splashy asks; they are quality of life requests, and in some cases (especially that of Lake […]

Jax
Image via Governor's Rumble

Despite Lenny Curry’s “no to HRO” position, both Council bills moving forward

Bill Bishop mulling return to Jax City Council

Ron DeSantis attends Koch Brothers’ big-money conclave in California

From 2012: Desmond Tutu “shocked” by incomplete Jax HRO

Soldier of fortune: what explains R.L. Gundy’s war on Angela Corey?

Toddler’s slaying unites Jacksonville officials against wave of violent deaths

Richard Hamlet: it’s all the media’s and the tenants’ fault

Lenny Curry’s HRO punt and the process going forward

Lenny Curry on HRO: “I do not believe any further legislation would be prudent”

Education, social services top Northeast Florida House members’ budget requests