Category: Florida

Florida State and South Florida made news recently, and it has nothing to do with basketball.

“Moonlight,” the Oscar winner for best picture, was made by a group of FSU film school graduates, most notably Barry Jenkins, the movie’s director. It’s a reminder that, yes, there’s life after STEM curricula, and that the FSU College of Motion Picture Arts is, indeed, a big-time player in the arts world.

As for USF, a dozen faculty members have been named as Fullbright Scholars in the 2016-17 academic year. USF actually led the nation in producing winners of the prestigious awards.

Tallahassee’s intramural Republican fight between the governor and the house speaker over abolishing Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida is part schadenfreud for Democrats and part shoot yourself in the foot for all Floridians. It’s tempting to enjoy the spectacle of the jobs panderer and a GOPster ideologue going at it, but the reality is that a zero-sum approach is not good for Florida. Both EF and VF need to be transparent and streamlined–not scrapped.

For example, there’s a middle ground between “corporate welfare” and “unilateral disarmament.” The real world of what works and how the competition plays the job-inducing, incentives game has to be factored in.

But there’s no lack of irony–and maybe karma–where Rick Scott is concerned. His “Fighting for Florida’s Jobs” tour has taken him to the legislative turf of certain House members, where he has called them out for backing Speaker Richard Corcoran and not seeing the error of their “job-killing” ways.

But where was Scott nearly seven years ago, when the Orlando-Tampa megalopolis high-speed rail was positioned to bring jobs and a lot more to this region? Recall he never even permitted bids so that cost overruns and ridership projections could be covered without Florida being “on the hook.”

Scott is still the con-job governor.

Another fortnight, another guns-in-the-news cycle.

* Considerable attention–here and elsewhere–is being focused on the high-profile case of Curtis Reeve, who fatally shot a fellow Wesley Chapel movie patron three years ago. The defendant will either head toward trial on a second-degree murder charge or be acquitted under Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law. To refresh, SYG stipulates that a person has no duty to retreat when faced with a violent confrontation and can, as a result, use deadly force if he or she fears great bodily harm or death.

However this tragedy turns out legally, the bottom-line remains a mindset. Imagine going to a matinee movie with your wife and bringing your gun? SYG law is center stage, but another law has already been applied: the law of unintended consequences.

* Among the proposals that could come before the legislative session that begins March 7 is one that would end Florida’s “gun-free” zones. Filed by Republican Sen. Dennis Baxley of Ocala and Republican Rep. Don Hahnfeldt of the Villages (yes, it has its own Representative), the proposal (SB 908 and HB 803) would mean concealed guns could be carried in all those places now prohibited. Fifteen in all, they range from seaports and airport passenger terminals to university campuses and bars. No, not juice bars, but the alcohol-serving ones.

It makes no sense to most folks, including the vast majority of law enforcement officials who know best. But with a legislature in the pocket of the NRA–and 1.7 million Floridians having concealed weapons permits–no one is precluding the possibility that “Flori-duh” will again live down to its name.

* There’s also a variation on the anti-gun-free zone proposal (SB 610) that would ostensibly incentivize businesses to allow those with permits to pack on the premises. It would make businesses that ban guns liable if an attack occurs. It’s the unsurprising work of Senate Judiciary Chairman Greg Steube, R-O.K. Corral.

* It’s been called a victory for free speech, and it was. But that recent 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that rejected the (“Docs vs. Glocks“) Florida law that restricted doctors from asking patients about firearm ownership, was a lot more. It was a win for the common good. Literally. Allowing doctors to ask about guns in the home and assessing their safety risk is well within their preventive-medicine purview. In fact, not to ask–about guns as well as swimming pool gates or insecticides–should be considered malpractice and at odds with common sense.

The good guys won one, but the verdict is still in the cross hairs of those who may push it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It used to be that elementary school recess was as routine as lunch. Of course, time was provided every day. Kids need exercise. Anyone not know that?

Well, whatever we knew has been long forgotten when it comes to daily recess. In some school districts, such as Pinellas, students get it twice weekly. In some districts, such as Pasco, it’s left up to individual schools whether to squeeze it in or not. Hillsborough allows 150 minutes per week of physical exercise. Unstructured playtime, as it turns out, can get in the way of other educational priorities, including overtesting and all its subplots.

But there is hope. A proposal (SB 78/HB 67) for mandatory recess is back in the legislature for the second consecutive year. Last year’s version came close. Here’s hoping this time another small-government legislator doesn’t get caught up in comparing this to some other top-down mandates that were ultimately neither student-nor-teacher-friendly.

This is about time reserved for kids to be kids. Enough of the uber-organized, a trophy-for-everybody team experiences. Enough of helicoptering parents. And enough of the computerized down time that robs children of kid time. Recess has never been more necessary.

This Florida Legislative session will feature another confrontation between a sacrosanct constitutional amendment–and common sense. But, no, this one has nothing to do with the Second Amendment and the Marion Hammer fan club.

This is about the First Amendment and a bill (HB 111) designed to break the so-called “no-snitch” culture that prevails in too many black communities. State lawmakers want to protect murder witnesses by shielding their identities in public records for two years after the crime. The public-records exemption would address the all-too-prevalent “no-snitch” mindset that discourages witnesses from cooperating with police primarily because of intimidation from the murderers. It’s a vicious cycle.

Among those backing the proposed legislation: Florida Police Chiefs and county sheriffs. The opponent: the First Amendment Foundation, which advocates for open government.

This is as baffling as it is frustrating. The public good of open records is beyond question. But not doing enough to help break the cycle of inner city murder begs the question of priorities. Protecting the integrity of the criminal justice system should not be at cross purposes with a common-sense measure that could literally save lives.

This should be a no-brainer, unless it’s being deliberated by the brainless. A similar bill was filed last year but stalled in both chambers.

One other point. Before there are witnesses, there have to be murderers. That’s the overriding problem–not a “snitch culture.” Perhaps “Black Lives Matter” can also get involved.

Doesn’t it speak volumes when Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran can’t abide the off-putting ways and policies of Rick Scott, but has been beyond impressed with Donald Trump through his first fortnight as president? “I’d give him an A-plus,” assessed Corcoran. Say what?

* When it comes to Florida and Cuba, frustration and irony are an unholy alliance. The head-scratching, Rick Scott-provoked political flap over proposed seaport memoranda of understanding “with a Cuban dictatorship” is just the most recent reminder. It defies political pragmatism, let alone Sunshine State self-interest. It’s a symbolic reminder that he’s clueless on Cuban policy beyond exile pandering. And it hardly helps that the Tampa Port Authority is no paragon of proactivity when it comes to Cuba.

Imagine, no state profits from rapprochement with Cuba more than Florida. And no city benefits the way Tampa would if there were totally normal Cuban-American relations. And yet this state’s governor and this city’s mayor remain unhelpful at best when it comes to fostering U.S.-Cuba cooperation. We know the reasons and rationales–from blatant pandering to mis-prioritized allegiance–none of which justifies not doing what’s best for Florida and Tampa.

* A Mexico-Florida trade summit, scheduled for Orlando later this month, has been abruptly postponed. It’s hardly happenstance in the context of turbulent U.S.-Mexico relations right now.

*It’s official. Miami’s Little Havana is now on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of “national treasures.” The bottom line: Such a notable designation helps in preserving a significant, Cuban-heritage community from developers. Hopefully, that won’t also include preserving its agenda politics.

State Sen. Jeff Brandes, the St. Petersburg Republican, is a key proponent of autonomous vehicles and has been highlighting the fact that Florida doesn’t even require a permit for driverless cars. How un-Flori-duh, to be in the vanguard of something that doesn’t involve guns. What’s next? A legislator-less Legislature?

It’s back. It wouldn’t be a new year in the Florida Legislature without more guns in more places, including college campuses, making a return engagement. It’s as predictable as Rick Scott answering any media question with a reference to jobs.

Courtesy, as it were, of Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, the senate bill could also open up airport terminals, elementary and secondary schools and government meetings to concealed weapons. And in a state with 1.7 million concealed weapons permits, that’s quite the arms-expansion scenario.

So, here come those NRA Second Amendment perspectives along with the rationale that more good guys with more guns can only help when horrifics happen. Countering that: those who note the militia context of the Founding Fathers’ reasoning and what they surely could not have anticipated nearly two and a half centuries later. In short, in order for good guys to weigh in on rare, but high-profile mass shootings, they have to always be packing because you, well, never know. And the law of unintended consequences, of course, will never be repealed.

Business as usual shouldn’t be this frightful.

In a move that surprised no one, the respected Brennan Center for Justice hammered Florida for having what it deemed a virtual “lifetime” ban on felons’ voting rights. The process to have rights restored is as arduous as it is lengthy.

As a result, more than 1.6 million Floridians are denied voting rights because of state law. That’s about 10 percent of all residents of voting age.

The Brennan Center was especially critical of Gov. Rick Scott, who rolled back the vote-restoration process that had been in force under former Gov. Charlie Crist. For example, in 2009 approximately 25,000 Floridians had applications approved for rights restoration under Crist. Under Scott, the average has been under 500 annually. One year it was 52.

“The right to vote should not be used as a tool for lifetime punishment,” said Erika Wood, the author of the Brennan Center report and the director of the Voting Rights and Civic Participation Project of the Impact Center for Public Interest Law.

There’s also another bottom line besides Florida ridding itself of its criminal disenfranchisement law. It’s also in society’s enlightened self interest to ensure fairness for non-violent felons. The rate of recidivism drops dramatically when released felons have their rights restored and are formally acknowledged as societal members in good standing.

The restoration of voting rights to non-violent felons who have served their time is doing what is right. For the released, now ex-felons and for the non-felon rest of us as well.