For independence in Coral Gables, vote Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez – Political Cortadito

This Coral Gables election is not just a contest between like-minded candidates who want to protect and improve the City Beautiful. It’s a referendum on Mayor Vince Lago, who ran unopposed and has campaigned for his two handpicked pocket votes.If Lago gets his way, and Ivette Arango O’Doski and Alex Bucelo are elected, he will have the three votes to do anything he wants for the next two years. No doubt about it, they will be rubber stampers. Not that he needs them. Commissioners Rhonda Anderson and Kirk Menendez have been very amenable. There is nobody to challenge the mayor on the dais.

For independence in Coral Gables, vote Melissa Castro and Ariel Fernandez – Political Cortadito

Coral Gables race gets ugly with separate texts for blue and red voters – Political Cortadito

“It shows desperation,” Fernandez said. “Alex had commited to not going negative. We had a handshake and we were going to stick to the issues. “Our differences are striking when it comes to the issues.”

Coral Gables race gets ugly with separate texts for blue and red voters – Political Cortadito

Opinion | ‘The Death Knell for Higher Education in Florida’ – The New York Times

Over the past decade, a liberal faction within America’s colleges and universities, corporate America and the media has promoted goals of diversity, equity and inclusion, endorsed regulations restricting “harmful speech,” encouraged the ostracization of dissenters and sought to grant enhanced status to the previously marginalized.

Now, in reaction, come the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, his allies in the state legislature and Republican politicians across America with a blunt-force counteragenda that uses the coercive power of government to impose its own speech code and ideology on education, including higher education, as well as on private businesses.

In this, DeSantis and his emulators are demonstrating that the hard right is willing not only to jettison the conservative principle of restrained government but also to endanger the accreditation of a state system of higher education — a crucial pillar of economic growth — in order to promulgate their own repressive version of permissible language in America’s universities and colleges, which have traditionally been bastions of academic freedom.

Opinion | ‘The Death Knell for Higher Education in Florida’ – The New York Times

FL university system under siege as state lawmakers convene for 2023 legislative session – Florida Phoenix

Two years ago, a GOP Florida lawmaker wanted to discourage students from pursuing liberal arts degrees to promote more lucrative careers. It didn’t pan out, but there was far more to come:University of Florida professors were told they couldn’t testify in a federal court case. Lawmakers pushed through a bill to undercut tenure protections. Universities had to show, financially, whether their programs promoted critical race theory, a precursor for eliminating certain courses. The DeSantis administration overhauled an entire public university, New College of Florida, into a conservative-leaning institution.Those actions and several more have accelerated to a “draconian” and “hostile takeover” of Florida’s higher education system that could chill free speech on college campuses, according to the university community.

FL university system under siege as state lawmakers convene for 2023 legislative session – Florida Phoenix

SMALL GROUP OF RADICAL EXTREMISTS

THE SUPREME COURT

Totally unrepresentative of the American people at large.

‘We’re playing with fire’: US Covid cases may be 30 times higher than reported | Coronavirus | The Guardian