Columns

I recently traveled to Tallahassee to represent the Florida Vacation Rental Management Association (FL VRMA), and an industry which has become a vital part of Florida’s tourism economy, at Tourism Day at the Capitol. There I had the opportunity to listen to an encouraging speech given by Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association (FRLA) President and CEO Carol Dover. One that we would like to hold her to.

Washington D.C. has been slightly abuzz over the missing FBI texts story. Reportedly, upwards of 50,000 text messages mandated to be stored were supposedly missing. (They have since been “located.”) To discuss the Strzok/Page controversy, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sat in with CNN’s Chris Cuomo. After some sober and solid points, the interview took on a surreal tone.

Like Horatius at the bridge, or the boy who stood on the burning deck whence all but he had fled, or the Dutch boy who saved the city by putting his finger in the dike -- pick your analogous heroism -- the Trump administration last week acted to stanch the flood of foreign-made washing machines that are being imported because Americans want them.

In a formal objection letter sent on Thursday to the U.S. Interior Department, U.S. Rep.

It cannot be a sign of social health that the number of tweets per day worldwide exploded from 5,000 in 2007 to 500 million six years later. And this might be related, by a few degrees of separation, to the fact that whereas in the 1992 presidential election more than one-third of America's 3,113 counties or their equivalents had a single-digit margin of victory, in the 2016 presidential election, fewer than 10 percent did. And to the fact that in 2016, 1,196 counties -- about 2.5 times the average over the preceding 20 years -- were decided by margins larger than 50 percent.

As it did last year, the Wall Street Journal this week lashed out at Florida senators -- particularly Insurance and Banking Chair Anitere Flores, R-Miami -- who oppose reform-minded Republicans "trying to shut down a trial-bar scheme that's bleeding property insurers and sending Sunshine State premiums skyrocketing."

South Florida politics were jolted on Tuesday after reports emerged that Donna Shalala, the former secretary of Health and Human Services in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet who also led the University of Miami, might run for Congress. 

It has been said that Everglades restoration efforts are often hindered by analysis paralysis. In the past, projects have been slowed, or even stopped, because concerns were raised about a good project not being perfect.

Towards the end of last week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. and U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., led the entire Florida congressional delegation in urging U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to ensure that the recent Interior Department offshore proposal does not “adversely affect military readiness and training activities off of Florida’s coasts.”

In 1790, the finest mind in the First Congress, and of his generation, addressed in the House of Representatives the immigration issue: "It is no doubt very desirable that we should hold out as many inducements as possible for the worthy part of mankind to come and settle amongst us." Perhaps today's 115th Congress will resume the Sisyphean task of continuing one of America's oldest debates, in which James Madison was an early participant: By what criteria should we decide who is worthy to come amongst us?

Maybe now -- four deaths later -- state and federal officials can stop looking at opposition to All Aboard Florida/Brightline's high-speed rail service as the product of a few sour Treasure Coast residents trying to hold back progress.

Is there anything more depressing than a cheerful liberal? The question is prompted by one such, historian David Goldfield, who has written a large-hearted book explaining that America's problems would yield to government's deft ameliorating touch if Americans would just rekindle their enthusiasm for it.

No matter how well it performs, VISIT FLORIDA apparently has to beat its chest publicly for every crumb before a skeptical Legislature. It shouldn't have to, frankly. 

During a hearing late Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., senior deputy majority whip and a member of the U.S.

As a child growing up in public housing, my mother always taught me that with hard work and a focus on education, I could accomplish my goals and live my dreams, the American dream. Unfortunately, that is not the case for hundreds of thousands of children in America today.