Conexion Miami / Miami’s Freedom Tower & Marco’s auction 

Marco Rubio has reserved the Freedom Tower in downtown Miami for Monday April 13, for a major announcement. The Miami Herald seems to think that the Republican U.S. senator from Miami will use that forum to announce his intentions to run for president. A Progreso Weekly source [not a very good one] tells us that Rubio has invited David Rivera to the Freedom Tower that day and will use the opportunity to also auction off their house in Tallahassee – which they are having a hard time selling. Rubio, we are told by unconfirmed sources, has promised to turn over any money they might make on the deal to David – if they sell the house. Turns out, David’s broke these days, and seems to be losing friends on a daily basis. And anyway, Marco does not want Rivera spilling the beans on the things they did together.

Florida swinging their way wouldn’t matter for Bush or Rubio

Gamblers and poll aficionados, here are numbers to chew on, and the likelihood of Bush or Rubio winning the presidential sweepstakes – because they hail from the biggest swing state. “Florida is a good example of the difficulty of a home-state advantage swinging an election,” reports The Washington Post. “Despite its massive 29 electoral votes — by far the biggest swing state — just six of 40 elections since 1856 have been decided by a margin of that size or smaller. Divide that by two, since swinging Florida would only matter if the home-state candidate was trailing, and there’s a 7 percent chance a Florida-sized swing will matter.”

Obama takes a golf break in Palm Beach

Even presidents need some time off. Barack Obama visited the Floridian National Golf Club, less than 50 miles up the coast from Palm Beach, this past weekend. The girls and Michelle stayed home while the president played a bit of golf with friends. The amigos included former Miami Heat basketball star Alonzo Mourning, a strong supporter of the president during his two elections, and former football star and now sportscaster Ahmad Rashad. Last time President Obama slipped out to the Floridian National the prez played with golf great Tiger Woods.

A painkilling dilemma

Florida is stuck between a rock and a hard place. For the past several years state legislators and regulators have been battling abuse of painkillers (oxycodone, hydrocodone, dilaudid and other narcotics effective at stopping pain but also highly addictive and prone to abuse) by illegal drug users. The battle against the druggies and unscrupulous doctors and pharmacists makes it difficult to get pain medicine when you need it. About five years ago, Florida earned the reputation as the pill mill capital of the United States and the results have hurt those who do need them for legitimate reasons.

Bush Affirmative Action statement False

“I eliminated affirmative action by executive order — trust me, there were a lot of people upset about this,” Bush said at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 27, 2015. “But through hard work we ended up having a system where there were more African American and Hispanic kids attending our university system than prior to the system that was discriminatory.” PolitiFact Florida checked this statement and determined it to be “Mostly False.”

Arts for all

The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU invites all families, especially children with special needs, to All Kids Included – Arts for All, an Accessible Arts Experience. The community art-happening is free and open to the public on Saturday, April 4, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. The family fun day, led by Zot Artz, opens up a whole new world of inclusive art-making with specially designed attachments for wheelchairs and other art-making adaptive tools created for children with cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, spina bifida, and other disabilities. The program helps children develop motor skills, concentration, social interaction and self-esteem. For more information, please visit thefrost.fiu.edu or call (305) 348-2890.

ACA reduces care costs

The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as some call it, was supposed to destroy our economy, increase unemployment and create chaos in the land. That is according to its detractors – mostly republicans. It turns out results after five years show the opposite. On the five-year anniversary of the signing of ACA, HHS is announcing that as a result of Marketplace coverage and Medicaid expansion, hospital uncompensated care costs were reduced by an estimated $7.4 billion in 2014, compared to what they would have been in the absence of the coverage expansion. Based on this analysis, Medicaid expansion states account for an estimated $5 billion of that reduction.

Kid power 2015

Children of Inmates, Inc. (COI) has designed a special Earth Day project that joins children in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with children in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The goal of “KidPower 2015,” is to encourage COI kids to be leaders in the movement to protect the Earth for future generations. The project will join fourth graders at Hollywood Central Elementary School and the children at the Light of Future School #1 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. COI is a south Florida collaborative effort between twelve Florida organizations whose mission is to help children mitigate the trauma associated with the arrest and incarceration of their parents. More than 200,000 children in Florida have a parent in prison or jail. For more information, visit www.childrenofinmates.org.

Rich pay lower rates than the poor 

With the tax deadline for most Americans fast approaching and low- and middle-income families expected to pay higher effective tax rates than the rich, the personal finance social network WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2015’s Best States to Be Rich or Poor from a Tax Perspective. WalletHub calculated the share of Floridian’s income and what he or she contributes toward sales and excise taxes, property taxes and income taxes. The tax burden in Florida (1=Best, 25 =Avg.): 17th – Low Income Earners (9.23% of Income); 10th – Middle Income Earners (7.67% of Income); 7th – High Income Earners (5.56% of Income).

Jeb could crash and burn

Here’s how the National Journal, a conservative publication, sees Jeb’s chances in the presidential sweepstakes. And yes, they refer to him as a “formidable contender”, but… “There are signs that a worst-case, crash-and-burn scenario for Bush is more realistic than even his skeptics recognize. He’s underperforming in early public polls and is receiving a frosty reception from Republican focus groups. His entitled biography is at odds with the Republican Party’s increasing energy from working-class voters, who relate best with candidates who have struggled to make ends meet. The Bush name is a reminder of the past…”

Marco Rubio: Guns needed for the American Dream

Washington, DC, the nation’s capital, has strict gun control measures in place, we’re glad to report. Still, Sen. Marco Rubio says residents of the District of Columbia need guns to achieve the American Dream, and has proposed legislation to strip local officials of the right to regulate firearms. Does Marco realize he’s from Florida, NOT DC? And, Marco proves again that he’s just another grandstander licking NRA boots.

Disrespecting Florida voters

Florida legislators have a history of disrespecting voters. Here’s another example: 75 percent of Floridians voted last November in favor of Amendment 1. Four-point-two million persons favored setting aside money for acquisition and preservation of environmental lands. “It was intended to add to, and not to replace, existing funds that were already intended for environmental purposes,” a Tampa psychologist told The Tampa Bay Times. Then the Florida Senate’s budget was released last week. It set aside $2 million for the Florida Forever program, which was created in 1999 to fund public land acquisition and was initially authorized to spend $300 million a year. The proposed amount represents an 84 percent cut from this year’s budget and $118 million less than what Gov. Rick Scott proposes.