Unions are strengthening in Florida!

After being attacked on many fronts by the Republican-dominated Legislature for several years (3% pay cut for all state workers to aid the pension fund, an effort by the Republicans to end paycheck deductions and collective bargaining rights for unions, merit-based pay for teachers, etc), unions across the state are working together. 

In Florida, unions representing a broad swath of workers have united for the first time in decades, fired up over what they see as an unprecedented attack by state legislators over the past two years.

New to the table are law enforcement groups, including unions representing firefighters and police officers, who have traditionally backed GOP candidates and enjoyed a comfortable relationship with the Republican-dominated legislature.

The law enforcement unions are now holding hands with historically left-leaning labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO and the Florida Education Association.

[Source: Palm Beach Post]

CIA denied Sen. Bill Nelson his request to be waterboarded

Wow. Apparently during the controversy over the CIA’s use of waterboarding, Senator Nelson requested that he be waterboarded, to fully understand the experience. According to a book by former CIA official Jose Rodriguez (Hard Measures - How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives), the agency denied Nelson’s request.

“The agency decided that it would not be wise to accommodate the senator’s thirst for knowledge,” Rodriguez writes. And while Nelson, known for liking to do his homework, “appeared to be in great shape,” he was in his mid-60s at the time.

“Even though we would have had medical personnel standing by, we wondered what would happen” if Nelson had a heart attack and died from the unpleasantness. 

Funny how Rodriguez insists that waterboarding is not torture, but refuses to allow a U.S. Senator to experience the treatment. The former official describes the procedure as “harsh and unpleasant.”

This is a good reminder of how awesome Senator Nelson is. As much as I love politics, I feel more and more jaded about the intentions of politicians. But Bill Nelson is someone who I trust to do the right thing, and someone who has the best interests of the American people in mind.

[Source: Washington Post]

The South now completely bans gay marriage

With the resounding passage of Amendment 1 in North Carolina yesterday (61% in favor), all Southern states have effectively banned gay marriage. An entire region of the United States is legally unwelcoming to the LGBTQ community.

Knowing North Carolina, I expected Amendment 1 to pass, but for some reason it really struck me to read in a NY Times article this morning that North Carolina became “the 30th state in the country and the last in the South to include a prohibition on gay marriage in the state constitution.”

As a Florida resident and voter, I am ashamed. We are part of the South, but we are so much more than just a stereotypical Bible-thumping, gun-toting state. We should be able to do better than this.

I just graduated with my bachelor’s degree on Sunday, and so many of my progressive friends are leaving or have already left this state. Two incredibly smart gay men I know, who will go on to do incredible things with their lives, have gone to law school in California. Others are going to Washington, D.C, Boston, Chicago.

I want to tell everyone - don’t leave! Florida needs us. The South needs us. As young people, we see another city or state as more accepting, more liberal, more forward-thinking, and we want to go and make a life there. But there is so much work to be done right here at home.

Without us, change will come much more slowly.

Florida does poorly on Senior Hunger Report Card

Florida:

Florida scored poorly on the first Senior Hunger Report Card conducted by the Meals on Wheels Research Foundation.

The just-released study placed Florida at No. 9 among the 10 states with the highest percentage of those 60 and older facing the threat of hunger or “food insecurity.”

Florida joins Mississippi, at No. 1, and five other Southern states on the list. Especially vulnerable among the estimated 8.3 million seniors at risk nationwide: senior women.

Nationwide:

The Senior Hunger Report Card also scored America as a whole, giving the nation an F in overall progress due to a 78 percent increase since 2001 in at-risk seniors.

“No one in this, the richest nation on Earth, should face the threat of hunger, no one,” said Enid Borden, the research foundation’s executive officer.

[Source: Florida Today]

Interesting updates on UF CISE (Computer & Information Science and Engineering Dept)

First, this statement was released yesterday by the UF College of Engineering:

A Forbes article by contributing writer Steven Salzberg falsely claims that the University of Florida is eliminating the Computer Science Department. There have been similar claims made by others on other media platforms.

The Dean of the College of Engineering has put on the table for discussion a budget plan to reorganize the Computer & Information Science and Engineering Department.

Under that proposal, all undergraduate and graduate degree curriculum would remain the same and the college would maintain its brainpower and research capacity. The plan calls for no lay-offs of tenure-track faculty. Faculty lay-offs are expected, however, if across-the-board cuts are made in the College of Engineering.

The proposed budget plan would grow the number of graduates from the CISE department because faculty members would be expected to assume a greater teaching responsibility. About $1.4 million in savings would come primarily from the elimination of graduate teaching assistants.

We are aware faculty and students have expressed serious concern with this plan. The Dean and Provost have been meeting with faculty and student groups for the past two weeks. From the comments and suggestions the Dean has received, we are confident that a solution that maintains the quality of the educational programs in the College can be achieved while making the required budget reductions.

Lastly, shared governance takes some time. We ask for everyone’s patience as we work through this process.

I think UF is overreacting here. The Forbes article attacked the proposal by Dean Abernathy to dismantle CISE as we know by reshuffling the professors, eliminating lots of TA positions, and cutting funding for research. This may not literally end the computer science and engineering majors at UF, but it would certainly harm the prestige and legitimacy of the program (and therefore of its degrees).

Second, the official UF twitter account (@UFlorida) backtracked this morning regarding a statement they tweeted yesterday. I don’t know who runs this twitter, but it has been answering questions and interacting openly with fellow tweeters. 

(If you have no idea what any of this is, background here.)