Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Guest AuthorAugust 6, 2014

No one yelled “go back where you came from.” No one made political speeches. There were no hateful protests in the hot sun. No one even grumbled. Instead, we slipped aside to make room for them for the three-hour trip back to Key West from the Dry Tortugas. Clean clothes, food, water, a promise of […]

Guest AuthorJuly 9, 2014

One of our phone conversations before the aneurysm burst and John died barely past his 50th birthday went like this: Me: Well, we always said we’d know we were old when “Chorus Line” returned as a Broadway revival. John: Yeah, the previews are great. Want me to book three tickets for October? You, Ed and […]

Guest AuthorJuly 1, 2014

Walt Disney, whose anthropomorphic bent morphed a large, rat-like urban scavenger into beloved Bambi and made us cry, was a piker compared to today’s U.S. Supreme Court. Or at least that five-guy majority bent on turning for-profit corporations into people. Thanks to the Supremes, corporations can donate front-end loaders of cash to political causes with […]

Guest AuthorJune 29, 2014

If you think anti-abortion activists swarming around clinics are sweet, helpful Good Samaritans, you’ve sniffed a snoot-full of cockamamie pixie dust. Or you’re swooning over the perfectly coiffed spokesmen (and, why is it they are almost always men?) whose carefully modulated tones and messages reassure that protesters are simple caring folks handing out pamphlets and […]

Guest AuthorMay 20, 2014

He was a coffee-drinking, chain-smoking Southern Baptist Democrat — early 1970s model — and he owned the weekly newspaper in southwest Virginia. He called me “little girl” in the same sentence that he named me editor. When his backroom banking buddies wouldn’t give me a credit card (you’re married, they said; you can use your […]

Guest AuthorMay 19, 2014

In what has to be a classic “duh” moment, she invited me to tag along to a Key West bar for some drinking liberally. Made sense, right? Key West? Bar? Drinking with abandon? From Hemingway to the morning’s cruise ship passenger, Key West lures them with the promise of a permanent alcohol fugue. I went. […]

Guest AuthorMay 14, 2014

Nothing like the juxtaposition of the split-rail fences of the Manassas battlefields and the sprawl of suburban D.C. to remind one that Americans are willing to kill each other to make a point. A family wedding took me away from Key West recently. I flew to Washington, D.C. and then drove a rental car through […]

Guest AuthorApril 21, 2014

“Well, good luck with that,” chuckled two Key West master gardeners as I enthusiastically explained our preparations for planting tomatoes in the front yard. Huh? This is sunshine country. Tomatoes thrive in sunshine. When grocery store tomatoes don’t come from Mexico, they come from Florida, right? Tomatoes are a fruit the last time I checked […]

Guest AuthorApril 7, 2014

Drop this question into any Key West conversation and watch the blood pressure meters soar: What are you paying for wind insurance? Monroe County property owners pay up to four times as much for wind insurance than the rest of Florida. A homeowner in Key West foots an annual bill that on average runs almost […]

Guest AuthorApril 1, 2014

Remember that childhood story, “The Three Little Pigs,” where the wolf huffed and puffed and blew away the houses built of sand and sticks? It’s something of an allegory for those of us who’ve chosen to live and work on riverbanks, lake shores and seaside dunes. Ah, waterfront property. Two words that evoke daydreams and […]

Tag: Linda Cunningham

Linda Cunningham: The United States should put children before politics

Linda Cunningham: Two Key West men challenging state’s gay-marriage ban

Linda Cunningham: Hobby Lobby ruling puts us on a slippery legal slope

Linda Cunningham: Protected by its buffer zone, court bans them at clinics

Linda Cunningham: We should not be discussing editor’s tenure in gender terms

Linda Cunningham: ‘Drinking Liberally’ lets progressives share sober ideas

Linda Cunningham: Intransigence caused Civil War; it threatens the nation again

Linda Cunningham: Naysayers proven wrong: a tomato grows in Key West

Linda Cunningham: Trying to curb the soaring cost of wind insurance

Linda Cunningham: Government must partly subsidize flood insurance