The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on March 24, 2023. OUR POSITION: We would urge lawmakers in Tallahassee to take a step back and reconsider their zeal for making it easier to hand down the death penalty in Florida. The Florida Legislature is about to make a decision we believe is driven almost
The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 23, 2024. HB 991 and SB 1220: Defamation, False Light, and Unauthorized Publication of Name or Likenesses must not become law. These anti-democratic bills silence the First Amendment right of free speech in seven ways: Chill speech critical of government. Make
The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on March 21, 2023. Any day now, the Florida Senate will side with their colleagues in the House and approve a voucher bill that will give money for any student in the state to attend a private school. Republican legislators want to expand the state’s voucher
The following letter to the editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 21, 2023. Communities across Florida have a huge stake in clean water. But if two bills filed and introduced in the state Legislature early this month become law, they will abolish local governments’ ability to fight pollution, inevitably leading to dirtier
By DAVID A. LIEB, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Mar 14, 2023. Florida has long been known for sunshine — not only the warm rays that brighten its beaches but also the light of public scrutiny afforded by some of the nation’s strongest meetings and records laws. Although years of rollbacks have gradually clouded the impact, advocates are ringing
The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on March 11, 2023. The Florida Legislature is passing an expanded school voucher program. (HB1 & SB202). The program will divert $7,000 for each student whose parents decide to use a private or home school education for their student, regardless of income. The
The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on Mar 4, 2023. OUR POSITION: From the looks of bills being proposed by Republican lawmakers in Tallahassee, we are left wondering how the party could have diverted from what should be its priorities this year. Florida is flush with cash and riding a population explosion
By John Kennedy, Capital Bureau | USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA, Mar 4, 2023. TALLAHASSEE – Policy moves that may appeal to conservative voters across the country but will strike directly at Floridians are what Gov. Ron DeSantis is demanding from the Republican-controlled Legislature during the 2023 session. But here’s a spoiler alert. GOP lawmakers are poised to give DeSantis everything he
The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on March 3, 2023. OUR POSITION: The Florida Legislature opens its 2023 session this week and among the dozens, maybe hundreds, of issues its members will address there are a few we urge our lawmakers to make a priority. The Republican-led Florida Legislature will no doubt
The following editorial was published in The Daily Sun on Feb 24, 2023. OUR POSITION: The recent approval of a charter school for the Wellen Park community in North Port is an example of the lax oversight dictated by the Legislature. Let’s start a charter school. A for-profit one for sure. There’s money to be made.
The following Bloomberg Opinion was published in The Daily Sun on Feb 20, 2023. After winning reelection in November with nearly 60% of the vote, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had political capital to spend on any number of priorities. Sadly, he’s settled on one of the most the ill-considered choices available: allowing the public to
This Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on Feb 20, 2023. Governor DeSantis and the the GOP-controlled Legislature is at it again with another piece of proposed bad legislation. Specifically, the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program. This piece of ill conceived legislation would allow the use of taxpayer dollars to transport undocumented
The following Letter to the Editor was published in The Daily Sun on Feb 18, 2023. Gov. DeSantis wants you to believe that his agenda is focused on “freedom.” In reality, he is creating a patchwork of highly discriminatory laws, rules, and practices. Taken as a whole, these practices target virtually every minority group in Florida.
The following editorial appeared in The Daily Sun on Feb 4, 2023. OUR POSITION: The right to bear arms is the cry from Republican leaders in Tallahassee pushing a bill to remove the requirement for permits or training to carry a concealed weapon. Florida House Speaker Paul Renner — egged on by Gov. Ron DeSantis —
Editor: Before the Wednesday press conference began, an administration staffer told state workers at the event to applaud and be “high energy.” Moments later, they cheered and clapped loudly when DeSantis entered the Florida Cabinet room, where he announced the budget plan. The workers broke out into applause three times during DeSantis’ presentation. It’s all
By Renzo Downey, Florida Politics, January 11, 2023. Florida could be the first state to protect gun sale data with the Arms and Ammo Act. Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is unveiling his first legislative proposal since taking office, a first-in-the-nation measure to prevent businesses from tracking Floridians’ firearm and ammo purchases. Simpson, the former Senate President who
By Ryan Dailey, News Service of Florida, Jan 20, 2023. TALLAHASSEE — Calling it a move toward “universal choice,” Florida House Speaker Paul Renner on Thursday announced a proposal that would make every student in Florida eligible for school vouchers — a move that Democrats blasted as a Republican attack on public education. The legislation
By NANCY J. SEMON, STAFF WRITER, The Daily Sun, Jan 20, 2023. PORT CHARLOTTE — Teaching students about the “benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage” to prevent AIDS is one of the policy changes the Charlotte County School Board discussed this week. It is among other changes to district policies under review to abide by Florida’s
BY NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZ, Rolling Stone, Jan 18, 2023. FLORIDA HAS BLOCKED the College Board from testing a pilot Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) curriculum in the state under Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Stop WOKE” Act. According to a letter obtained by National Review, Florida’s Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the curriculum “is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly
By Jean Siebenaler. DWCF Legislative Chair Well, here we go. We’ve been waiting for some “big” controversial legislation in the new 2023 FL State Legislature to drop and we now have one. We have a new Republican-sponsored HB 1 titled School Choice. This bill is the “big kahuna” — the expanded school voucher program that has
By Scott S. Greenberger | Pew Stateline, January 14, 2023. Terry Kilgore has been a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 1994. During that time, there have been four years in which the GOP controlled the governor’s office and both chambers of the legislature. For two years, Democrats held complete control. In
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