While the Republican Party of Florida continues to send out daily emails blasting the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the Democrats who support it, there's nary a word of outrage from them regarding the botched launch of the state's CONNECT website, which has left tens of thousands of Floridians without their unemployment check. The problems have grown so bad that for the second time Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is asking the Labor Department to investigate.
But forget about that and just read the Tampa Bay Times' Leonora LePeter Anton's front-page story today to see how the failed website is absolutely wrecking havoc on a particular individual. Tina Cash's life is hard enough — but for her to have to wait for the government relief that she's owed is absolutely heart-breaking.
Moving on, as you know Jeff Atwater is hoping to become the next president of Florida Atlantic University, which would leave an opening for the Cabinet-level Chief Financial Officer position in Tallahassee. And so far the Democrats don't have a notable candidate in that race. Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner has been rumored to be interested in that position, and confirms to CL that he is possibly — but not until 2018.
While Pinellas County's government is strongly pushing for the Greenlight Pinellas initiative that would kickstart work on the Bay area's first light-rail system, they're not the only local government in the region with a referendum on transit this November.
And Equality Florida called on its members yesterday to send a letter of support to former Minnesota Viking punter Chris Kluwe. Kluwe became a prominent advocate of same-sex marriage in his last seasons with the Vikings, a rarity among professional athletes. He was cut by the Vikes before this past season ended, and he wrote an explosive blog post last week inferring that he lost his job because of his outspoken support for the prominent social issue.