Category Archives: Articles

Stand By Our Plan has worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the Alachua County Comprehensive Plan, and its importance for our wetlands, strategic ecosystems, regional wildlife corridor, and the rural way of life that many of our citizens have chosen.

All of this is now threatened because a corporation from the west coast wants to turn the Comprehensive Plan on its head, in the interest only of its shareholders.

County staff have strongly recommended denial of Plum Creek’s proposal, and we’re now down to the wire: time for the County Commission to decide.

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Transcript edited by Pierce Butler

This is the 32nd in a series of transcript excerpts from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program collection at the University of Florida.

James Steele was interviewed by Jessica Charlton [C] in 2011.

S: I was born May 20, 1950. My dad was stationed in the Navy in Key West, so when I was two years old, we moved to Miami. The Seminole Indians still lived in the Everglades, and you can see their chickee huts. They’re canoeing around just a few miles from our house. Now, it’s miles and miles of city built up.

I grew up in North Dade County, just below Hollywood/Fort Lauderdale area, from 1952 to 1974. I owned a home in Miramar when I was nineteen. I turned my yard into a garden and grew trees and herbs. Mother Earth News just came out with its second issue in 1970, focused on getting back to the land. I said, that’s me.

I was a land surveyor at the time. I would travel all of the state surveying. it was the best job in the world, making maps. Traveling around Florida allowed me to see rural land and how pretty it was up here.

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by Fred Sowder, WGOT Board Member

For eight years now, WGOT has broadcast on the Gainesville airwaves at 94.7FM, sharing the frequency with two area churches. Two years ago, the FCC gave us permission to move up the dial to 100.1FM to have our own 24/7 broadcast schedule. After renewing our original 18-month window to give us an additional, final 18 months of time, only about a year remains to make the big jump. That will take some fundraising.

To that end, we’ve begun a crowdfunding campaign through generosity.com. Our $33,000 goal will help WGOT’s expansion in many areas, including the new transmitter and equipment to make the move to 100.1; equipment such as mixers, amps, microphones, and turntables for a physical studio location (our staff have been recording shows mostly on their laptops this whole time!); the resumption of our worldwide internet stream (which was recently suspended for financial and legal reasons); and funds to cover rent/lease of a studio space for at least 12 months.

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There are two dates to remember regarding the Spring elections.  One day is Feb. 16, and the other is March 15. Wednesday, Feb. 16 is the last day to either register to vote or change your party affiliation so you can participate in the presidential primary election, which is on Tuesday, March 15.

Since the presidential primary is limited to the voters registered to that party, anyone who is registered as No Party, Green, Libertarian or whatever, does not get to vote in the Bernie vs. Hillary race.

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by Martin Maldonado

The passage of a landmark education bill, Every Student Succeeds (ESS) has brought recent attention to Congress as a rare display of bipartisanship. It has even been hailed as a “Christmas miracle” by President Obama himself.

The federal retreat from the supposed invasiveness of the Bush era No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program marks a new era of education. Unsurprisingly, it has easily drawn in Republicans whom for decades have zealously pursued state-led education policy and the removal of federal performance mandates generally advocated for by Democrats and the Bush family statesmen.

The Bush era bill was ridden with issues. Signed in 2001, the bill enacted a byzantine system of testing mandates, private sector access to curriculums and menacing “teach to the test” incentives for teachers. NCLB has received criticism from both sides of the political spectrum for years despite widespread acknowledgement of the law’s good intentions.

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The January-February 2016 issue of the Iguana is now available! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.