Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to prevent new federal oversight of state wetlands and waterways.
In the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the nation’s attention has turned to the issue of police brutality. The problem of abuse and excessive force by law enforcement also extends to America’s prison system. Nowhere is inmate abuse more evident and prevalent than in Florida.
Low voter turnout has been a prominent feature of American elections for the last several decades. In the 2012 election, only about two-thirds of all voters cast ballots.
There’s a common trope in the conservative movement that liberals control American schools and use them to brainwash and indoctrinate impressionable American youth.
There’s an old Japanese proverb that says, "When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends."
Two members of Florida’s congressional delegation, Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have gained reputations during their time in office for speaking out forcefully and frequently against communism, particularly the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba.
In the 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations, for all intents and purposes, are human beings with the same rights as any American citizen. Citizens United and the recent Hobby Lobby case established that corporations are protected by the First Amendment, with both freedom of speech and religion.
Florida’s junior senator, Marco Rubio, has been very vocal in recent weeks on the topic of immigration reform.
Despite never having held any elected office, Charles and David Koch are two of the best-known, most influential political figures in the U.S. The brothers, who own and operate the megacorporation Koch Industries, have spent vast amounts of money on political advertising and campaign donations in recent years.
It’s no secret that Americans are frustrated and disillusioned with Congress. A recent Gallup poll found that a whopping 83 percent of Americans disapprove of the federal legislature’s performance. In another poll, Gallup found that just 19 percent of Americans believe most members of Congress deserve to be re-elected, nearly a historic low.
There’s never been a better time to become an Alligator columnist — OK, maybe that’s a hyperbole. Regardless, as we prepare for Fall 2014, we have a lot of unanswered questions: Who will win the Florida gubernatorial election? Will Amendment 2 (that one about medical marijuana) pass? Will voters overturn the Florida gay marriage ban? Will Pitbull do us a favor and just run for governor already?
Unless you’re a TV-less hipster (getting all your shows on Hulu/Netflix/HBO Go — yeah, we’re on to you), you’ve been bombarded with the predictable mud-flinging political ads as November elections draw closer and closer. As they’d have you believe, Rick Scott is a reptilian warlord in a human skin suit, and Charlie Crist is a slick turncoat pushing for education cuts.
For a brief moment at the end of last week, it seemed that Florida would claim a victory in the fight for gay rights. On Thursday, Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia overturned Florida’s 2008 ban on gay marriage and ordered that the two men who appealed for a marriage license, along with all other gay couples, be allowed to wed.
It’s easy to forget, what with daily strange Gawker headlines and a certain highly anticipated magical theme park opening, that Florida wildlife is in danger. From rising sea levels threatening the southern coast to black bears ransacking neighborhood trash as a result of overdevelopment to Big Oil drilling in the Everglades, Florida’s natural resources are under attack.
In 2006, Florida voters showed overwhelming support for Article X, a state constitutional amendment that granted funding for a comprehensive tobacco education and prevention program. Article X would later birth Tobacco Free Florida, a hugely successful anti-tobacco campaign whose ads continue to make us cringe. If you haven’t seen the TV spots or billboards, the campaign uses graphic imagery — a girl drinking a beaker of formaldehyde, another girl peeling the skin from her cheek as payment for a pack of cigarettes and testimonials from cancer-stricken adults who were lifelong smokers — to drive home the message that a small action like smoking can harm yourself and others.
Christian conservatives call the Supreme Court ruling granting three family-owned businesses the right to refuse to pay for certain forms of contraception for their employees based on their beliefs a victory for religious freedom.
On Friday, Gov. Rick Scott passed HB 1047, which stipulates that pregnancies may not at any time be terminated in the state of Florida if doctors determine that the fetus could survive outside the womb.
On Tuesday, the Alligator ran a column titled “‘Pull and pray’: Yay or Nay?” singing the praises of the pull-out birth control method. We realize that the piece didn’t emphasize a few key pieces of information: That, like all birth control, the pull-out method isn’t for everyone, and furthermore, the study quoted in the article stipulated that the pull-out method should be used in conjunction with other forms of birth control.
It’s easy to shut down arguments about environmental policy made by scientists. In fact, it only takes one word: “alarmist.”
The University of Florida’s latest education venture, UF Online, may have some formidable competition: Cannabis University of Florida.
Solutions by The State News
