Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorJune 4, 2014

Back in the 1950s, my nana squeezed out her sixth kid and decided to get a job. Without even a high school diploma, she enrolled in nursing school and made it happen. This was a radical thing to do. But Kitty Durkin was a radical chick and didn’t care that her neighbors and friends thought […]

Guest AuthorJune 3, 2014

When some voices are stilled, a chorus must sound in their honor. Maya Angelou falls in that category. The woman who gave a spectacular lyricism to a childhood under Jim Crow stepped off stage last week. Her shadow will linger for a long time. For me, an immigrant, a man of color, I discovered Maya […]

Guest AuthorJune 3, 2014

Republicans have just discovered poverty and income inequality — a remarkable revelation, considering they have caused so much of it. The Tea Party GOP has declared Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” a failure. And with the 2014 elections looming, following the advice of their pollsters and word-testers, Republicans are trying to remake themselves as sympathetic […]

Shannon NickinsonJune 3, 2014

When the First Amendment Foundation publicized its transparency scorecard last month, it found that on average, cities and counties in Florida had lots of room for improvement in sharing the workings of government with the governed. On average, local government websites earned 52 out of 100 possible points on a transparency scorecard. The scores were […]

Guest AuthorJune 3, 2014

Last week, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki took the public-relations bullet for President Obama in an attempt to ease the damage of the growing VA scandal. VA officials have routinely hid months-long wait times that veterans faced when seeking care at VA facilities across the nation. Shinseki ended his five-year stint at the VA and […]

Guest AuthorJune 2, 2014

Amidst the Memorial Day barbecues, shopping sprees, sporting events and endless miles of “are we there yet?” there were speeches and commentaries to remind us of the fallen and the freedoms they died to protect. Typically, these tributes mentioned the rights specified in the Constitution: religion, speech, assembly and press. U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross wrote […]

Peter SchorschJune 2, 2014

Gov. Rick Scott deserves some credit for being one of the loudest critics of the Obama administration’s handling of the scandal at the Veterans Administration. Last week, Scott announced that Florida is suing the VA to grant state health inspectors access to VA hospitals. For more than a month, the Obama administration denied state health inspectors […]

Guest AuthorJune 2, 2014

Income inequality hovers over our economy like the mother ship from “Independence Day.” It affects millions of individual Americans and the nation as a whole. The problems are systemic, spread out in a web across a wide variety of industries, with interactions, causes and consequences. All you have to do is follow the threads to […]

Guest AuthorJune 2, 2014

Much is made about the decline in public discourse. Thorough and sensible discussion about issues has fallen prey to the brevity of tweets and the anger and anonymity of blogs, online comments and Facebook posts. I am pleased to be “friends” with so many people on Facebook. They use it to send good wishes and […]

Mark FerruloJune 1, 2014

Secret meetings. Deleted emails. Hiding documents from the public. Perhaps nothing exemplifies Florida’s “Government in the Shadows” under Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican Party of Florida more than the ongoing legal battle over redistricting. The redistricting trial is exposing the partisan hijinks and shady backroom conniving that enabled Republican leaders to pick their voters […]

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Catherine Durkin Robinson: Why most women should work outside the home

Andrew Skerritt: Maya Angelou helped black women find their voice

Stephen Goldstein: Republicans ‘discover’ how to end the poverty they created

Shannon Nickinson: Cities, counties do poor job of sharing information with citizens

Steve Kurlander: VA’s problems will spread to the entire health-care system

Martin Dyckman: Republicans are winning the gerrymander game in Florida

Peter Schorsch: Scott outraged by VA scandal, but unfazed by DCF cover-up

Gary Stein: When CEO earns 365 times more than workers, everyone gets hurt

Ed Moore: Nation’s future is bright if we can stop the social media vitriol

Mark Ferrulo: Government in the shadows, not the sunshine