Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Frank TorresSeptember 11, 2015

Putting aside political differences, a group of college Democrats and Republicans from the University of Central Florida met this morning to remember those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks fourteen years ago and honor the heroes defending the country’s freedom every day. Over 60 students met at dawn to place 2,977 American flags on […]

Guest AuthorAugust 12, 2015

There’s been a lot of talk about patron use of technology in theaters, the most recent story of course being Patti LuPone snatching a phone out of a texting audience member’s hands in the middle of a scene during Shows for Days at the Lincoln Center Theater. LuPone, a Tony and Grammy award-winning actress who […]

Guest AuthorJuly 29, 2015

In December 2013, at the United Nations’ 68th General Assembly meeting, the assembled countries could not, as usual, solve the problems of world conflicts, human slavery, wide-spread famine and the Israeli-Palestinian question. So, it decided to do something it could: It declared that 2015 would be the International Year of Light. I’m quite sure that […]

Guest AuthorJune 24, 2015

As I began to write this column, my ears rang with the news of another senseless shooting. This time it’s nine people slain at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. It hit particularly close to home because it’s the same denomination church my family helped found in Sarasota and that I […]

Guest AuthorJune 17, 2015

It’s incredibly ironic to me that the University of Central Florida was started in 1963 near the nation’s spaceport to help support the exploration of the universe, and that now we find ourselves in a position as the nation’s second-largest university to exert a lot of influence on our own little piece of that universe. […]

Ryan RayJune 16, 2015

At a final budget conference meeting that began at the tender hour of 11:05 p.m. and ran until nearly midnight, state budget writers failed to fully address new state funding for hospitals — the primary impetus for the June special Session to begin with. But they did find time to load up the budget with […]

Guest AuthorJune 10, 2015

Amid the flotsam of a journalism instructor’s desk at the end of a hectic academic year – strewn business cards, papers never picked up by students, memos, meeting notes, neon pink paper clips and half a pack of Ice Blue breath mints – lies a stub of a burned-out candle. “Every journalist has talismans,’’ says […]

Phil AmmannJune 1, 2015

Carlos Guillermo Smith, the Orange County Democratic Executive Committee chairman, is running for Florida House District 49. Frank Torres of The Orlando Political Observer reported that the University of Central Florida graduate made his announcement Monday morning. Smith had previously suggested he might run in April. Smith previously was a legislative aide to Democratic state […]

Guest AuthorMay 28, 2015

I love the movie Contact about a scientist played by Jodie Foster, who has an extraordinary experience traveling through space. In the end, when she could not explain the experience, she ended up finding her faith in something unexplainable. The movie has always reminded me that there is something bigger than us, but that sometimes […]

Christine Jordan SextonMay 6, 2015

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The Florida Department of Health was the first health agency in the nation to earn the “gold seal” from a nationally recognize accrediting agency for its protocols involving human research. On Wednesday members of the DOH Institutional Review Board met in Tallahassee to discuss how the state can improve its Human Research Protection Program in […]

Tag: University of Central Florida

UCF Republicans and Democrats stand together for 9/11 remembrance event

Heather Gibson: Let theater take you to a new world … without ringing, glowing cellphones

Michael Bass: A toast to the International Year of Light

Anthony Major: “Be Nice to People”: Grandmother's advice could fix many problems

Todd Dagenais: When you have a chance to influence the universe …

In last-minute budget talks, lawmakers add some $300+ million in new spending in dark of night

Rick Brunson: A journalist’s life snuffed out reminds us to ‘Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way’

Democrat Carlos Guillermo Smith enters House District 49 race

Alaina Bernard: This is our home — so please help care for it

For human research, Florida Department of Health gets ‘gold seal’