Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorSeptember 30, 2015

Nowadays it is politically correct to be “green” – to say and do things that seem to minimize one’s impact on the environment and to preach to others to do the same. But I am tired of people who portray themselves as somehow better environmentally than others just because they follow the latest trend without […]

Shannon NickinsonSeptember 29, 2015

This should be the University of West Florida time in the sun. Pensacola’s university saw funding restored this year following a marked improvement on the new state-mandated performance metrics. The measurements –10 in all from academic progression rates, to graduation rates to median first-year salaries for graduates — are Florida’s latest salvo in the ever-expanding […]

Martin DyckmanSeptember 28, 2015

The comedian Jack Benny, generous in private life, cultivated the stage persona of a world-class skinflint. In one of his most famous radio skits, he’s accosted by an armed robber who demands “your money or your life.” When Benny doesn’t answer, the thug loses patience. “Look, bud, I said, your money or your life,” he […]

Sally SwartzSeptember 28, 2015

Two members of Martin County’s legislative delegation listened for hours last week while more than 30 residents buttered them up, begged for money, griped about the Florida Legislature’s recent bad decisions and brought wish lists for 2016. Republican Rep. Gayle Harrell of Stuart turned the annual event, held at the Martin Commission headquarters in Stuart, […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 28, 2015

Our country faces an epidemic. On average, 308 people die every week from prescription opioid pain medications, the vast majority unintentional. Over the past five years, more Americans died from prescription opioid overdose than during the entire Vietnam War. Sadly, our state is not immune from this epidemic. Drug poisoning, has surpassed car accidents as […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 28, 2015

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Guest AuthorSeptember 27, 2015

Since Wednesday, it’s officially been fall. Fall is my favorite time of the year. Crisp leaves falling from grand trees, cool but pleasant weather, and the quickening of the daily pace as the lull of summer drops off and families and children come back from their summer vacations. The beginning of fall is also the […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 25, 2015

Prescription drug misuse has been identified as Florida’s “fastest-growing and deadliest public safety issue,” according to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Prescription Drug Diversion and Abuse Roadmap. Prescription painkiller overdoses have more than tripled in the past two decades, killing more than 15,500 people in the United States in 2009 according to the CDC. On Saturday, […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 24, 2015

“Oh father, maybe someday, when I look back I’ll be able to say you didn’t mean to be cruel…somebody hurt you, too.” If I can let the above quote settle in my mind, without cringing because it’s a Madonna lyric, so can you. An overwhelming number of friends and peers from my generation had absent […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 24, 2015

I headed to D.C. this summer to attend the wedding of a former colleague of mine, Ryan Newell. Ryan plays guitar in a band called Sister Hazel. They were a local bar band when I was in college and I got to know them as I went to a bar once, just that once, and […]

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Image via AP

Michael Bass: Don't just blindly follow all 'green' trends — do your research first

Shannon Nickinson: University of West Florida’s story is Pensacola’s story — striving to do more

Martin Dyckman: Rising price of pharmaceuticals is no joke

Sally Swartz: Constituents still want environmental action

Dr. Julio Gonzalez: Florida takes action to reduce prescription drug, heroin-related deaths

10 Fascinating Facts About Personality

Chris Timmons: Season’s change tempers summer’s disappointment

Mary Elizabeth Elliott: Pilot project to make medication disposal safer, more effective

Catherine Durkin Robinson: What deadbeat dads taught us: The lessons go deeper than fatherhood

Blake Dowling: Somewhere more familiar: The 1999-2015 tech revolution