Columns

Despite a new, business-friendlier commission majority elected last fall in Martin County, the dictatorial regime of the last commission woke up a pair of unincorporated Martin communities.

This column is a vehicle for a number of items in a bits-and-pieces, strictly opinion, sometimes irreverent format. Look for "Just Sayin'" to run once a week in this spot.

What is it with Democrats and emails? We seem to get caught up in something that should be so simple to navigate.

It's incredibly sad to watch House members who heartily supported Enterprise Florida during other sessions now talk nonchalantly about  flushing Florida's economic success down the toilet as if it happened by magic. As if Rick Scott didn't spend the last six years kicking the door open, hauling the state economy up by its bootstraps, turning Florida into the envy of every governor in America.

When he was Ronald Reagan's secretary of state, George Shultz was once asked about the CIA's disavowal of involvement in a mysterious recent bombing in Lebanon. Replied Shultz: "If the CIA denies something, it's denied."

In his opening-day speech, Senate President Joe Negron dashed past the strike-all filed moments earlier in his southern Everglades reservoir bill. But lawmakers shouldn't be fooled. They might want to pump the brakes, crack the hood and take a closer look at this sneaky little amendment.

In his Feb 28 address to the Joint Session of Congress, President Trump called the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) an “imploding disaster.”

Floridians should feel relieved Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature insisted on open and competitive bidding for a new Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System (SLERS).

Among the many unintended legacies of Barack Obama, one has gone largely unnoticed: the emergence of a novel form of resistance to executive overreach, a check-and-balance improvised in reaction to his various presidential power grabs.

The President issued an executive order last week calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to review and revise the indefensible U.S. Army Corps if Engineers and EPA rule redefining “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) subject to federal control under the Clean Water Act. I can think of a no more qualified candidate for regulatory rollback than this infamous rule.

My father, George Barley, never ceased to amaze me with his passion for nature and wildlife. It was evident from my first memories when we lived on the pristine shores of Playalinda Beach in the late 1950s, which is now the Cape Canaveral National Seashore where the rocket launch pads sit.  

It didn't strike me until Thursday, when I read Senate President Joe Negro

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I had the opportunity to meet in Washington with Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Bill Nelson, members of Congress, senior budget staff, and high-level representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the best way to reduce and ultimately eliminate the devastating discharges from Lake Okeechobee.  After completing these meetings and reviewing related documents, here are five things I know:

Responding to President Donald Trump touching on the national debt in his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., took to the House floor to weigh in on the issue. His speech is below:

We either need the cool head of state economist Amy Baker on the economic impact of a massive reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, or we take the James Madison Institute's study of economic impact a