Conexion Miami/ Clinton and Obama in Florida this week
Hillary Clinton and President Obama will be in Florida this week. Obama holds two Miami fundraisers Wednesday and makes a public appearance at the National Hurricane Center on Thursday. Hillary Clinton on Thursday and Friday plans four Florida fundraisers from Orlando, Parkland and Miami. Speaking of Hillary, a New York Times article explained why a Marco Rubio candidacy scares the Clinton team. “Democrats express concerns not only about whether Mr. Rubio, 43, … will win over Hispanic voters. … They also worry that he would offer a sharp generational contrast to Mrs. Clinton … who will turn 69 before the election.”
New cheap drug scares authorities
A hazardous new synthetic drug originating in China is being blamed for 18 recent deaths in a single South Florida county, as police grapple with an inexpensive narcotic that causes exaggerated strength and dangerous paranoid hallucinations, reported The New York Times. The drug, alpha-PVP, is more commonly known as flakka. The drug is a synthetic cathinone that mimics the khat plant grown in Africa. It is made from alpha-pyrrolidinovalerophenone. It is also goes by the name gravel and sells for $5 a dose.
Homes selling in Miami
Miami’s single-family home market registered its most robust sales month since December, according to a new report by the Miami Association of Realtors. 1,247 single-family homes were sold in April, the most transactions for the market in the month of April since the 2007-09 global recession. In comparison, Miami had 950 sales in April 2012, 1,094 in April 2013, and 1,155 in April 2014. Last month’s sales total marks the most single-family transactions in a month since December 2014 when Miami had 1,250 sales.
Tony Montana’s house for sale
Tony Montana’s Miami mansion in the 1983 movie Scarface hit the market last year asking $35 million, and was reportedly still asking that as of two months ago. The listing just reappeared with a significantly reduced asking price, down to $17.8 million. Russian billionaire Sergey Grishin, its owner, has lost faith in the property’s cultural cache as a selling point. The listing doesn’t even mention the movie anymore.
Obama in Havana
The following news has little to do with Miami or Florida, but we bring it to you because we know it bothers some people we love to bother. President Obama could visit Cuba before the end of his term in office, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday. “I know there’s one person particularly that hopes President Obama will be in Havana at some point in the – at some point in the relatively recent future, and that’s President Obama himself,” Earnest said when asked by a Cuban reporter if the president had plans to visit Havana prior to leaving the White House in 2016.
League of Women Voters elects new president
The League of Women Voters of Florida has elected Pamela Goodman as its new leader. Goodman was previously vice president of the state league. She is a former President and CEO of the clothing chain Limited Express. She is also president of The Homeless Coalition of Palm Beach County.
Not knowing what they’re doing
The Florida Department of Education says that the math tests taken by nearly 550,000 students won’t count this school year. A memo was sent to school districts telling them the results from end-of-course exams in Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II will not be available until September. The reason for the delayed results is that a testing law passed this spring by the Florida Legislature requires an independent study of several new standardized tests.
Rapes on the rise in Florida
Even though the recently released 2014 Florida Department of Law Enforcement annual crime report shows the state’s overall crime rate dipped 4.9 percent, there is one alarming upward trend: Forcible rapes are on the rise, reported Francisco Alvarado for the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. In 2014, all state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies combined reported 7,104 forcible rapes, 365 more than the prior year. Yet, police across Florida only made 2,557 arrests for “forcible sex offenses” last year, 91 less than 2013, according to FDLE’s statistics.
Republicans don’t care about planet earth
Carlos Curbelo may be doing something right. He told the Miami New Times that he understands climate change is “a major challenge and threat we all face, especially in South Florida.” That’s a welcomed change when it comes to other Florida republicans like Marco Rubio, Gov. Rick Scott, or even Jeb Bush, who are non-believers or use the excuse that they are not scientists… “I actually believe that more people agree with me in my party than they’d like to admit,” Curbelo says. “Unfortunately it’s become part of the political game.” In other words, Republicans care more about party politics than the planet.
Where are Ileana and Debby?
CQ Roll Call, which describes itself as a source of timely news, objective reporting and analysis, and coverage of elections and the politics of legislation, recently released Powerful Women: The 25 Most Influential Women in Congress, a book written by Emily Ethridge and the CQ Roll Call newsroom, available as an eBook and in print. The only name that appears from Florida is Gwen Graham, touted as a “Freshmen on the Rise.”
Aid to hospitals cut in half
In a move certain to affect Florida’s deepening budget crisis, the Obama administration said that aid to hospitals and other providers treating uninsured patients in the state will be cut by more than half – leaving this hospital with $1 billion this year. Health-care financing has divided the state’s Republican leaders, with the Senate on one side and Gov. Rick Scott and the House on the other. It led to the recent collapse of the two-month legislative session, which ended with lawmakers leaving the Capitol without approving a budget for the year beginning July 1. And it all stems from ideological differences with the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
Florida CHAIN health conference
Florida CHAIN, a statewide consumer health advocacy organization with Miami headquarters, will host a health policy conference on July 15-16 in Orlando. It’s an opportunity to learn from and engage with national and state health care policy experts and discuss some of the individuals who contributed to Florida being named the Affordable Care Act’s ‘greatest success story’. If interested, click here to learn more about the conference.
Bee colonies growing
Florida’s managed bee colonies have increased by more than 145 percent in the last eight years, thanks to a successful partnership between beekeepers and growers, reports the Associated Press. State agriculture officials say bee colonies play a critical role in helping pollinate Florida’s agricultural commodities and stabilizing the nation’s food supply.
