Columns

Barring some miraculous breakthrough, on Saturday the current government shutdown will become the longest in American history. But it has already hit another historic milestone: It is, by far and away, the stupidest government shutdown in American history.

Blaise Ingoglia, Republican Party of Florida chair -- successful against all odds -- will be a tough act to follow. But somebody's got to do it. The Spring Hill representative is a firm believer in term limits for party chairs, and when the party meets this weekend in Orlando to elect a chairman, he won't be running for a third two-year term.

Not everybody shares U.S. Rep. Brian Mast's glee over Melanie Peterson's resignation and departure from the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board. Certainly I don't.

Certainly for the past four decades Cuban-Americans from Florida have flexed impressive political muscle. But today is different. Today we've reached a time and a place where no state in the country, at any point in history, has had more Cuban-American leaders in top political positions at home and in Washington than Florida has right now.

For years now the National Football League has grappled with the swirling controversy over players kneeling or otherwise staging a personal protest during the National Anthem. Initiated most recently by Colin Kaepernick, then of the San Francisco 49ers, a number of players adopted his kneeling activism. This led to fan backlash, and surprisingly a dip in game attendance and ratings in the aftermath.

Facts are stubborn things, and facts should absolutely be used in discussing the merits of seismic testing on the Atlantic coast. Unfortunately, there seems to be more misinformation and baseless claims rather than actual scientific analysis when it comes to the topic of seismic surveying in particular. Hopefully, fact-based arguments will prevail over the fear mongering tactics used by those who will blindly oppose any action towards domestic energy production. 

Ten months after 17 people were shot to death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Scott Israel and Robert Runcie are still looking for redemption. Certainly neither one of them -- the Broward County sheriff nor the superintendent of schools -- found it in the MSDHS Public Safety Commission initial report released Wednesday.

For the past two weeks, Americans have watched petty partisan bickering in Washington, D.C. result in a partial government shutdown. And while that may go on for some time, I am optimistic this new Congress can deliver important victories for Floridians and our fellow citizens in Puerto Rico.

The abject failure of Hillsborough County to provide a sensible location and realistic financing for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium has emboldened two western cities that yearn for Major League Baseball.

In his second year in office, the list of extraordinary things President Trump has done, for good and ill, continued to grow. Today, I offer my annual list of the 10 best things Trump has done in office. (In my next column, I will give you my list of the 10 worst.)

Wonder why, even on Jan. 1, you have already broken all your New Year's resolutions? Do not blame yourself -- heaven forbid. Enlist modern sophistication and blame your brain's frontal cortex, affluence, the Internet (the "collapse of delay between impulse and action") and "the democratization of temptation."

I was arrested for having nunchucks in New York. I'm glad the law was overturned.

All for Transportation (AFT) created the 5-page tax-hike charter amendment that led to Hillsborough County Commissioner Stacy White's lawsuit, case #18-CA-011749. 

President Trump's decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria is already having unintended consequences. The U.S. departure could lead to the release of 1,100 Islamic State fighters now held in detention camps in northeastern Syria -- creating a dangerous new terrorist threat to the West.

The biggest story of the year in Florida in 2018 wasn't necessarily one of the stories we choose to present to you here. The biggest story was the personal one, the one that shook you to your foundation wherever you were, whatever you were doing, however it left you and your family. But we believe that years from now, when historians reflect on this dramatic year, these five events or conditions will go a long way toward defining our state and its people and how they responded together.