Columns

The problems that will affect Floridas citizens and small businesses have taken a back seat to mudslinging in the gubernatorial race, and important issues, such as greenhouse gas emission regulations, are falling through the cracks.

On Oct. 27, 1964, 50 years ago Monday, a movie actor and television host delivered a 30-minute speech on primetime national television in support of the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater.There were no visual diversions, and the production values by today's standards were primitive. Few if any viewers realized it, but they were watching a future president of the United States.

There's unrest in the left-wing world of South Florida. Some are so dissatisfied that they want to break away and form their own state.

John Morgan is the ubiquitous trial attorney who has his name plastered on everything from buses to billboards all around the state.

WASHINGTON -- The early morning paramilitary-style raids on citizens' homes were conducted by law enforcement officers, sometimes wearing bulletproof vests and lugging battering rams, pounding on doors and issuing threats.

When this writer was 3 years old, the Empire of Japan devastated Battleship Row of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.Before I was 7, Gen. MacArthur was in an office in Tokyo overlooking the Imperial Palace, dictating to a shattered Japan.

I was saddened by the news last week that a young Lakeland student died from apparent bacterial meningitis. This story breaks my heart because I know this tragedy could have happened to my family.

WASHINGTON -- The president is upset. Very upset. Frustrated and angry. Seething about the government's handling of Ebola, said the front-page headline in The New York Times last Saturday.

Knowing the way our political press works, it's easy to predict that Barack Obama's presidency is just about over. Journalists will soon treat him as the lamest of lame ducks, and suggest nothing consequential will happen in the last two years of his presidency. Instead, they'll obsess over who will come next.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani took to the stump for Gov. Rick Scott and lashed out at Scott's opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, saying, Ive never met someone in politics that I disrespect more than Charlie Crist."

WASHINGTON -- If politicians preying upon your attentions this season fail to inspire, you might seek common cause with the beasts -- the four-legged variety rather than those running for office. Ballot initiatives aimed at protecting bears and wolves from hounding, trapping and other inhumane hunting practices are up for a vote in two states -- Maine and Michigan.

This pa st year has been a real learning curve on the whole topic of medical marijuana.Thanks to a good friend of mine, who is a respected physician, I learned there really are some valid and legitimate medical uses for marijuana.

The New York Times is again on the warpath against what it calls "predatory lending."Just what is predatory lending? It is lending that charges a higher interest rate than people like those at the New York Times approve of. According to such thinking -- or lack of thinking -- the answer is to have the government set an interest rate ceiling at a level that will be acceptable to third parties like the New York Times.

There has been much said recently about an overabundance of testing in schools, and I understand that it can be difficult to decide how this impacts your child's education.

Growing up in Washington in the 1930s and '40s, our home was, several times, put under quarantine. A poster would be tacked on the door indicating the presence within of a contagious disease -- measles, mumps, chickenpox, scarlet fever.None of us believed we were victims of some sort of invidious discrimination against large Catholic families. It was a given that public health authorities were trying to contain the spread of a disease threatening the health of children.