Blurbex

What are you doing for the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War?

(One idea: On your way home from the office today, check out the local Tampa protest.)

Bookmark to:

One thing I noticed after moving back to Tampa Bay, after a brief stint in Arizona, was the lack of immigration debate in Florida. Immigration issues certainly don’t top the list of state problems like they do in the Southwest and Midwest. I’ve always found this surprising considering Florida has the third-largest immigrant population in the nation (and one of the highest redneck ratios, too).

But Florida’s laissez-faire attitude toward immigration may be changing.

In December, a Quinnipiac University poll reported two-thirds of Floridians want stronger immigration enforcement. And now, state legislators have filed 11 bills targeting immigrants this session, almost double the amount of last year.

One of the bills, sponsored by Republican Don Brown of DeFuniak Springs, models one of the harshest state laws in the country. Florida’s HB 73 is mirrored after an Oklahoma state law passed last year. The bill would require law enforcement officers to report a person’s immigration status, limit access to driver’s licenses for legal (and illegal) immigrants, require employers to verify the immigration status of newly hired employees, and levy extra penalties for transporting or harboring illegal immigrants. In January, USA Today reported that the Oklahoma law is “rattling” the state’s economy as illegal immigrants flee en masse.

Here’s a rundown of the other bills:

HB 159 and SB 388: The “Florida Security and Immigration Compliance Act” would prohibit contractors not registered with the federal work authorization program from receiving public contracts. The immigration status of any person charged with a crime or applying for state benefits would also be scrutinized.

HB 571 and HB 540: Would require “law enforcement officers, sheriffs, chief correctional officers, & circuit court clerks to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement office of U.S. Department of Homeland Security suspected illegal aliens arrested, detained, or convicted of a felony.”

HB 577 and HB 1086: Would charge illegal immigrants with a misdemeanor or felony for residing in the U.S. unlawfully. The bill would also create a classification system of those charged — “undocumented alien” or “illegal alien,” depending on if they’ve been deported before.

HB 821: Also called the “Florida Safe Borders Act of 2008,” this bill combines elements of HB 73 and HB 571 while adding a penalty for public employees who do not report a person’s immigration status.

SB 124: This bill “requires denial of agricultural land classification and assessment for a minimum period of 2-10 years for knowingly employing persons who are not authorized to work by federal immigration laws or the Attorney General of the United States. Provides an additional civil penalty of $25,000 for each employed unauthorized alien.” Say goodbye to Plant City, y’all.

HB 1247 and SB 2738: This law would require jail officials to determine the immigration status of every incoming inmate and report it to the federal government.

SB 1364: Creates a law prohibiting people from assisting illegal immigrants in gaining false documents.

How will Florida pay for such measures while we’re facing a record budget shortfall? The federal government, of course! Many of the bills above provide for charging the feds for having to carry out immigration duties.

My question is this: Are these bills necessary? And if so, which ones? But more importantly, would you be willing to destroy Florida’s agricultural and hospitality industries in order to create a more legal citizenry?

(Photo above courtesy of Nila Gurusinghe on Flickr)

Bookmark to:

In light of the recent ordinances targeting the homeless, and the waning influence of homeless advocates, I recently interviewed Rev. Bruce Wright of Refuge Ministries. We talked about his 15 years of activism related to homelessness and the present situation in St. Pete.

Wright, 46, could be called the Michael Moore of St. Pete: supporters praise his uncompromising fight for the city’s poor and critics deride him for his leftist rhetoric and “in-your-face“ political stunts. Though Wright still holds a lot of influence in the progressive community, city leaders have been increasingly hostile toward him.

Read the interview after the jump and then check out this week’s Urban Explorer, which examines the push for a homeless-free downtown.
(more…)

Bookmark to:

It’s starting to look like St. Petersburg might succeed in sweeping the homeless out of downtown.

At tomorrow’s St. Pete City Council meeting, councilmembers are expected to pass two more ordinances targeting the city’s homeless that would ban all storage of property in the right-of-way, and prohibit sleeping or “reclining” in the downtown area during daylight hours.

A St. Pete Times article today says a compromise might be a storage area at St. Vincent de Pauls on Fifth Avenue North and the Salvation Army on Fourth Street South, however a city official mentioned funding a guard for the storage sites, which might not go over well with taxpayers.

This follows an expanded anti-panhandling ordinance passed earlier this month and a series of rules passed last year aimed at tent cities, camping in city limits and sleeping on sidewalks.

In fact, more ordinances governing homelessness have been passed in the last year than any other year in recent memory. By next week, those unfortunate individuals who have found themselves living on the street will no longer be able to sleep (day and possibly night), ask for money or store their belongings. Many of the ordinances have targeted the downtown region, which in all likelihood will push these individuals into surrounding neighborhoods or municipalities.

All issues have multiple sides, but most of the attention has gone to the opinions of city officials and business owners. Below are two letters CL has received in recent weeks regarding the situation in St. Pete.

The first is from G.W. Rolle, a formerly homeless man who spent four years on St. Pete’s streets. Last year, he was featured in the widely viewed Easy Street documentary chronicling the homeless situation here.

The second letter is from Richard Shireman, one-half of the city’s Homeless Outreach Team and a longtime staffer of Operation Par Inc., which serves the needs of people suffering from mental illness.

Follow the jump for both letters (mostly unedited, though I’ve added Web site links for context):

(more…)

Bookmark to:

Just in case you thought those anti-war types only like to protest against the Iraq War, Jay Alexander from Tampa’s monthly Vigil for Peace sent me these photos as proof of what some demonstrators do to support the troops.

Over the holidays, Alexander and other volunteers passed out 700 phone cards to veterans at Bay Pines VA Medical Center and James A. Haley VA Medical Center. The phone cards were provided by the national Veterans for Peace and CREDO (part of the group, Working Assets).

And if you didn’t read my December Urban Explorer column on Tampa Bay’s anti-war protests, check it out here.

Bookmark to:

The Buena Vista Neighborhood Association isn’t wasting any time to work on their improvements to St. Pete’s Bartlett Park neighborhood and for city recognition. Resident Scott Swift forwarded me information on the new association’s latest clean-up and petition drive this last weekend:

We picked 10 full bags of garbage on 13th Avenue and went door to door with our petition to have our new association recognized by the City. I am thrilled to report that everyone we met with supported the formation of a new neighborhood association and NO ONE declined to sign! Some people weren’t home, but we collected 19 signatures (excluding several people already in our group who will sign later) just on 13th Avenue alone!

Going door to door allowed us to get feedback from 13th Avenue residents regarding their concerns. The key things we heard were disillusionment with the status quo & concerns about drugs and speeding. Other broader concerns were drop out rates of school children and lack of parental responsibility.

I have attached pictures from the cleanup. Since some of you receive e-mail at work, I have excluded shots of the more “interesting” litter we found (at least 3 used bullets and several drug baggies and one pink thong!!). Not surprisingly, all the ammo and drug paraphernalia was located in front of the 2-3 properties that residents have constant concerns about regarding drug dealing.

So far we’ve had a positive meeting the Deputy Mayor David Metz and Susie Ajoc, have covered about 15-20% of the area we need to cover with the petition, distributed our 1st newsletter, cleaned up 10 bags of litter on 13th, met lots of interested residents, and finalized our mission statement. All in just our first 2 weeks!

The new association split from the established and recognized Bartlett Park Neighborhood Association. Read what caused the split here. And don’t forget to read the reactions to the new organization on my first blog post about it here.

Bookmark to:

The results are in and Barack Obama has “won” Iowa. Of course, as soon as I walked into a local caucus precinct tonight, I knew it.

At the Des Moines precinct I attended, over 200 people showed up to support their favorite candidates, almost triple the amount in 2004; 130 of them were for Obama. And during the part of the caucus where candidate supporters persuade and cajole each other into switching sides, there were no Obama defectors.

The significance? In the cafeteria where I sat, I saw a microcosm of America: young, old, men, women, black, white and brown, first-time caucus goers and longtime politicos.  There was definitely energy in that room and it will be interesting to see how far that takes Obama.

Oh, and Huckabee took the Republican side. But considering the evangelical base in Iowa, that’s hardly news.

I almost heard a collective sigh in Des Moines when I stepped out of the high school. Political eyes will be off Iowa for a while and this Midwest state can go back to the normal stories it produces; namely, septuplets and ethanol.

Bookmark to:

Here are two photos from an Obama rally I attended last night at my old high school in Des Moines. I’d put the number of attendees at a few hundred. This is the first time I’ve heard Obama speak in person and let me say — I was not impressed. The crowd didn’t seem impressed either. The Illinois senator was hoarse from long days of campaigning and his talk about hope, change and special interests sounded too forced and familiar. Still, I imagine this 10 p.m. rally was not typical Obama flavor.

The only real significance of the rally was the amount of 20-somethings in the crowd. Obama is the leader in polls here, but only based on a projected 60 percent of Iowans who will caucus for the first time. If these young Democrats decide to go out for a few beers instead of caucusing, Obama may not do well.

Speaking of caucuses, I’m on my way now to one. Despite living here for the 2000 and 2004 elections, I’ve never attended one.
I’m actually excited.

I’m attending a Democratic caucus and not because I’m partisan. Democratic caucus are so much more fun than Republican caucuses. Today, Republicans will simply gather in a high school gym and vote privately. But for Democrats, it’s a little more complicated.

First, attendees find their candidate’s crowd and stand with them. Then the precinct captain counts the number of people in that group. Candidates with less than 15 percent support aren’t considered viable, so their supporters disband. Then the other candidates’ groups will try to get those disbanded to join their teams. This is where grand promises are made. Afterwards, supporters are counted again and a complicated formula decides the number of delegates.

But the most fun is the part where supporters cajole each other into joining their candidate’s group.

Last night, over a pitcher bought for my friends by an Obama supporter, a female friend of mine told me caucus goers enjoy making huge promises during the caucus. In 2004, she was supporting Kucinich, but their group didn’t have enough people. So, one of the Kucinich supporters offered to mow an Edwards supporter’s lawn for a month to get her to switch.

It worked.

Bookmark to:

I’m usually a Letterman-over-Leno fan, but I have to say that in their first late-night faceoff since going back to work, Leno was the winner. Letterman’s material was tired, and so was he, whereas Leno was definitely on top of his game. And Huckabee — well, it was clear why he’s winning hearts, if not minds. Like an Iowan told Ben Montgomery in today’s Times, “He has that charm in front of people that makes him look human.” A reasonable facsimile of a human! Perfect!

But something’s bugging me about Huckabee (besides his insane flat-tax talk and his belief that rampaging Pakistanis are pouring through our borders). He reminds me of someone, and I can’t settle on who it is. I know there’s some Nixon in there someplace, but it’s more Nixon crossed with… Jack Lemmon? Kevin Spacey? The guy who played Bosley on Charlie’s Angels? Anyone else have a suggestion?

Bookmark to:

I’m in Iowa this week visiting friends and family and let me tell you — the political ads and phone calls are as thick as the snow on the ground. You can’t even throw a snowball without hitting some campaign staffer. Two or three candidates come into town every day and more than a few conversations have involved “Who would win?” bets if Chuck Norris and Oprah Winfrey got into a scrap.

What does it matter? Good question. Our own Wayne Garcia gives his own take on the Iowa buzz here. He’s agreeing with the New York Times assessment that Iowa doesn’t matter.

Those comments, some of the columnists at the daily here write, are fighting words. Des Moines Register columnist Marc Hansen says the big issues of the day — like immigration and overseas outsourcing — are played out in Iowa every day.

My past experience living here for eight years puts Iowa’s importance somewhere in between. Either way, there’s no denying that Iowans love their few months in the spotlight. Everywhere I’ve went for the last four days, someone was talking about the candidates, giving their opinion.

Some of the stranger highlights:

• Drunk 26-year-old Jewish woman: “What? You’re voting for Obama because he makes good speeches? That’s like Hitler!”

• 22-year-old nursing student: “Wouldn’t you like to live in an alternate universe where Al Gore was running?”

• 27-year-old audio/visual engineer: “Huckabee is scary. But I like Chuck Norris. If Chuck Norris was his vice president, I might actually vote for him. Wouldn’t that be great? Chuck Norris as VP!”

• 62-year-old retired lawyer: “John Edwards made 40 million from hedge funds and he fights for the little guy? Never believe anybody who says they became rich fighting for the little guy.”

(That last quote says a lot about the race here. Edwards has essentially been campaigning in Iowa for the last four years, and yet, polls consistently put him below Clinton and Obama. I doubt he’ll last after the caucuses.)

One thing that I have noticed is several younger people plan to caucus for the first time tomorrow. A Des Moines Register poll published this week makes the same point. And so far, Obama and Huckabee are leading in the Iowa polls.

Representative? Probably not. But there’s no denying this cold little state will set the tone for the next several weeks.

Tomorrow, I plan to attend a Democratic caucus to see what it’s like. I’ll post my experiences. In the meantime, enjoy the Florida weather. It was -5 degrees here last night.

Bookmark to:

If you’re still looking for some Good Santa nonprofit opportunities, check out the Christmas/Kwanzaa Toy and Gift Drive at 1221 22nd Street South tomorrow.

A.J. Ali, who used to produce the Straight From Da Streets public access TV show, says this is the first drive of its kind for the children of Midtown.

It will run from noon - 4 p.m.

Bookmark to: