James Call - page 24

A University of Central Florida economic development program is gaining notoriety. It seeks to produce jobs by growing companies with fewer than 100 employees and revenue between $1 million and $50 million. Florida TaxWatch says it could be the source of an additional 25,000 jobs over 10 years. Instead of using monetary incentives to lure companies to invest in a community GrowFL assists second-stage companies already rooted in the community to grow. Second-stage companies are beyond startups but not establish…

Keep Reading

Medicinal marijuana advocates posted a substantial victory in 2014 and did well enough in a losing effort to begin plotting a second ballot initiative to end the state’s prohibition on cannabis. Florida became the first southeastern state to allow doctors to use a cannabis product in a patient’s treatment plan when the Legislature passed and Gov. Rick Scott signed SB 1030 in June. A much broader proposal, a citizen-led initiative authorizing the medicinal use of the plant itself, failed to…

Keep Reading

A grass-roots effort is under way to restore automatically convicted felons’ right to vote once their sentence is served.  The ACLU, NAACP and The League of Women Voters are supporting a petition gathering effort to place a  proposed constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot. The proposed ballot initiative would state:  “. . . voting rights shall be restored upon completion of all terms of sentence including parole or probation.” When Gov. Rick Scott and the current Florida Cabinet was first…

Keep Reading

The Satanic Temple holiday display went up Monday at the state Capitol Rotunda. The diorama of an angel dropping from the sky into a pit of flames stands on the opposite side of the Great Seal of Florida from a Menorah and a Festivus pole.  A handful of atheists accompanied John Porgal when he setup the Temple’s holiday greeting to demonstrate their profound belief in silliness. “If they are going to be silly, said Robert Mulcahey of the faith community…

Keep Reading

An open letter to John Armstrong, M.D., Florida’s surgeon general and secretary of health. Dear John, We can’t go on this way. We need to talk.  If not for the children, John, then for the “suffering families,” as politicians are apt to say. It would help both of us do our jobs better. That stunt you pulled Wednesday at the Drug Policy Council meeting was cute. Any basketball fan would appreciate how you and your communication staff executed a pick and roll;…

Keep Reading

Cuba conflicts people. President Barack Obama’s move to normalize relations with Cuba divides the Cuban immigrant community of Florida and the hearts of many individuals. I cannot think of a time that I did not know of Cuba, a crisis like the Cuban Missile Crisis sears your memory regardless of age. Castro’s revolution and the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs had U.S. Cuba relations on the minds of people even in the Pennsylvania factory town where I grew up.…

Keep Reading