August 2013 - Page 2 of 4 - Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorAugust 29, 2013

It’s a classic American coming of age story, so the critics say, but everyone remembers “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” as the quintessential tribute to playing hooky and classic hot-red Ferraris. Going off to Wrigley Field and fancy French restaurants for a day of laughs and fun with no consequences is only made for the movies, […]

Guest AuthorAugust 28, 2013

My, that’s quite an ego I have. What could a former governor, education commissioner and attorney general who parties at the White House possibly need from a first-term Democratic state senator from a notably safe district? The answer is emblematic, of course. Former Gov. Charlie Crist doesn’t really need me, specifically. But there’s no question […]

Guest AuthorAugust 28, 2013

For the time being, the St. Johns and Withlacoochee are the only two Florida rivers that flow north. But if Georgia keeps sucking up more of its headwaters each year, the Apalachicola might just become the third. The good news is that the State of Florida has stepped up its efforts to keep that from […]

Guest AuthorAugust 28, 2013

On August 5, BP requested in federal court in New Orleans that the judge suspend any settlement payments for claims resulting from the Deepwater Horizon explosion that spewed 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The British oil giant claimed that it had uncovered new allegations of fraud and […]

Guest AuthorAugust 28, 2013

Earlier this month, Tesla Motors and PayPal co-founder Elon Musk introduced the Hyperloop to the world. Using solar power to fuel magnetic bursts, a large, train-like tube will propel passengers faster than the speed of sound on a cushion of air from point to point. Musk wants to build it in California. The Hyperloop would […]

Guest AuthorAugust 28, 2013

The recent budgetary restraints the Lee County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) have endured are putting stress on some of the even necessary services, such as public transportation while attempting to not raise taxes. The BOCC has gone to lengths of increasing utility fees and even eliminating their state lobbying budget to save money, but […]

Guest AuthorAugust 28, 2013

Imagine that you are the new United States Secretary of Education and in the interest of higher education reform have put into place on a trial basis a new rating system for our nation’s universities. You create a ranking scale based on a simple A-F formula, taking into account a number of common sense variables […]

Guest AuthorAugust 27, 2013

There was a recent lull in the acrimonious gun-control debate until last week when three Oklahoma teenagers, two black and one white, gunned down a visiting Australian teenager named Christopher Lane out for a jog. Although an estimated 36,000 murders by guns take place in this country each year – that’s four people an hour […]

Bob SparksAugust 27, 2013

Over the years, Florida has been home to some well-known public servants. Some have had Tallahassee government buildings named after them. Leroy Collins, Claude Pepper, Doyle Conner and Ralph Turlington are just a few. All were Democrats. Republican Gov. Bob Martinez has one of the Department of Environmental Protection buildings named after him, but that’s […]

Martin DyckmanAugust 27, 2013

There exists somewhere, I strongly suspect, a school that trains politicians in the art of unctuous hypocrisy. Like a black hole in space, it can’t be seen. But its presence can be deduced from its unmistakable effects. The latest such manifestation is the Republican National Committee’s decision to blacklist CNN and NBC from broadcasting presidential […]

Month: August 2013

Stacy Gromatski: A renewed focus on confronting school truancy

Jeff Clemens: Why Charlie Crist needs people like me

Jim McClellan: More at stake than oysters in Apalachicola water wars

Rick Outzen: Not so fast, Mr. Dudley and BP

Ben Kirby: Florida must have a conversation about innovative transportation

Joseph Russo: Time to consolidate Lee County’s fire districts

Jacob Perry: In defense of Tony Bennett

Steve Kurlander: Race complicates the discussion about gun responsibility

Bob Sparks: It’s time for Gov. Scott to name a new lieutenant governor

Martin Dyckman: Objections to Hillary Clinton film is GOP hypocrisy