Columns

In 1960, when John Kennedy was elected president, America's population was 180 million and it had approximately 1.8 million federal bureaucrats (not counting uniformed military personnel and postal workers). Fifty-seven years later, with seven new Cabinet agencies, and myriad new sub-Cabinet agencies (e.g., the Environmental Protection Agency), and a slew of matters on the federal policy agenda that were virtually absent in 1960 (health care insurance, primary and secondary school quality, crime, drug abuse, campaign finance, gun control, occupational safety, etc.), and with a population of 324 million, there are only about 2 million federal bureaucrats.     

Why did it take a newspaper 100 miles away in Miami to tell Martin County citizens three of their commissioners have been breaking the law for the last four years?

One region, one voice. One united goal. When millions of gallons of oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico in the country’s worst environmental disaster, Northwest Florida was devastated. It was an overwhelming punch to the gut for the people and economy of our region.

John Delaney has opened the door to a political comeback even as Jacksonville politics continue to remain in flux. 

Many veterans of war, including myself, have concerns with foreign products being purchased from countries at war, namely those in the Middle East. We have come a long way in recent years to obtain our own oil and natural gas within the U.S., however we can’t lift our feet off of the pedal.

Let's face it, the establishment wing of the Democratic Party cares about two things: its position and its power, and there was no way in hell it was going to let anyone come between it and what it has torn down the party all these years to get.

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and President Donald Trump are two peas in a pod.

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.

Florida would take a devastating economic hit if Senate President Joe Negron's SB 10 becomes law, reveals an eye-opening study released Thursday by the James Madison Institute.

If Senate President Joe Negron thought Wednesday was the day a House version of SB 10 would lift off the launch pad, he must have been beyond grief at day's end.

I was wondering why, on Feb. 15, the FDP sent out a press release detailing the accomplishments of Stephen Bittel's first 30 days as chair of the party.

The House Appropriations Committee voted 18-12 Tuesday to advance a measure that 1) eliminates Florida's 21-year-old economic development agency and 2) emasculates its tourism marketing arm. 

Remember when conservatism meant deep thinkers and big ideas? Get over it.

As I physician, I proudly recited and adhere to the Oath of Hippocrates, which commands physicians to “use treatment to help the sick according to [their] ability and judgment … and [to] abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.” Physicians don’t all think alike—medically or politically—but when a patient’s health is at stake, we find a way to work together for the patient’s best interest.

This session I have joined several of my friends, neighbors, and fellow Glades residents in the many efforts to stop the ill-conceived plan to buy more farmland south of Lake Okeechobee. Why? Because Senate Bill 10 puts our economic, environmental, and financial future at risk.