Category Archives: Articles

In early February 2015 a committee was formed to look at Gainesville Police policies and practices. This was on the heels of the increased concern over police misconduct which came to light in Ferguson, MO. After a year of meeting monthly, the Committee presented its report to the City Commission.  Its recommendations were as follows; how seriously they are taken remains to be seen:

Background:

To support the work of the Mayor’s Community Response Council, the Committee was formed and open to all MCRA representatives to attend. Meeting monthly since the inception of the MCRC, with an average attendance of 4 – 8 members present, the Committee discussed current policies and practices, listened to presentations to gather information, requested and received supporting information from GPD Leadership and reviewed 3 key reports: President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Department of Justice, and Campaign Zero Report.

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Pierce Pettis will be in concert at the Civic Media Center April 9 at 8pm. Pierce, adored by both critics and public alike, is one of this generation’s most masterful songwriters. His music is distinguished by his uncanny ability to capture universals in human experience by drawing on the humor and trials in daily life. Pettis’ music can simultaneously pull on our hearts and keep us laughing. In live performance his mastery of the craft is moderated with an endearing ADD infused spontaneity.

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Jim A Stevenson gave a rousing speech at the Save Paynes Prairie and our State Parks event on Jan. 23. He is a 50-year veteran of working with the multi award winning Florida State Parks system, which provides not only habitat for wildlife, but also a connection to Florida history. As a public commons that have provided respite and adventure to over 30 million people, they are over 80 percent self-supporting, with the 20 million Florida taxpayers only having to kick in about a dollar each.

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by Carol Thomas

The president’s fiscal year 2017 budget has more bad news than good news for senior citizens. While Social Security beneficiaries will see no changes in the way Social Security benefits are determined, proposals for Medicare are downright bad news.

What’s proposed are higher deductibles, means-testing and more cost-shifting to seniors and their families.

Medicare is the good and moral healthcare program for seniors that was designed to keep retirees and their families free from the added burden of healthcare costs as family members deal with the obligation of caring for their aging relatives. President Johnson signed Medicare into law in 1965 and former President Harry Truman was the first to receive a Medicare card.

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By: Kevin Funk, Co-President, Graduate Assistants United (GAU)

Every semester, the University of Florida’s 4,000 graduate, teaching, and research assistants are responsible for paying exorbitant university fees. This spring 2015 semester, most of us will pay around $700 back to our employer. For many, this is more than the amount of their biweekly paycheck.

That the university would charge its graduate assistants such a significant amount in fees — hundreds of dollars higher per semester on average than its peer institutions — is especially ironic given the recent campaign, which Graduate Assistants United (GAU) supports, to turn the University of Florida into a Top 10 public research institution.

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By Susan Hegeman
UF Chapter President, United Faculty of Florida (FEA/AFT/NEA)

On January 28, the impasse over faculty salaries between UF and the faculty union ended with a Kafkaesque flourish, with UF’s own Board of Trustees deciding in favor of UF against the union.

At the end of a hearing attended by about eighty faculty, students, and other UF constituents, Trustee Steven Scott gave a short statement, in which he lectured the faculty on fiscal responsibility. UF sits on the largest reserve of funds, both in dollars and in percent of operating budget, of any university within the Florida state university system. Yet Scott told the faculty that it wasn’t prudent to give them the raise the union had proposed. Instead, he said, UF’s millions in accumulated funds were for things like replacing the “shrubbery” after a hurricane.

With very little deliberation, the Board voted for what is effectively a 1.25 percent faculty raise for 2015-16.

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Community Supported Agriculture is a growing trend across the country, and we are well represented in our area with local farms that can be contacted at the various Farmer’s Markets in our area. The Family Garden is one example of a new generation of small farms and farm families giving people healthy, locally grown food alternatives. (Citizen Co-op at 435 S. Main St. is also a buyer of locally grown veggies and other products and needs community support as well. They are open every day except Tuesday from 10 am to 8 pm.)

NOTE: The Downtown Farmer’s Market is now (thankfully) back at the Bo Diddley Plaza on Wednesdays from 4-7pm

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by joe courter

As most of you have gathered, I am a political junkie.  It was the Presidential campaign of 1968 that first caught my attention,  specifically the Democratic party debate I watched after Robert Kennedy joined the race.  I was 17, had already started to question things I was seeing in the world.  The news of his assassination devastated me a few weeks later, in him I thought there was hope. And going forward, it’s been a cycle of hopes and horrors.  Nixon over Humphrey, and then trouncing McGovern. Yikes. Carter in with hope, then Reagan twice followed by elder Bush … a dozen years of bad news, some obvious then; others revealed as decades have passed.  Hope with Bill Clinton, but major disappointments and flat out bizarre-ness in that term, followed by the installation of George W. Bush and the shit-storm that followed.  Then, yes, I bought into the hopes again with Obama, but again disappointment and disgust at a ideologically paralyzed government and a President who did little but compromise with the right and  conspire with the corporations.

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By Joe Courter

Please exercise your right to vote March 15 (or sooner with early voting). Outside the City of Gainesville you just have the Presidential Primary for those registered D or R. We say Bern Baby Bern! Let’s make Alachua County the higher percentage for Bernie in the state!

Within the City everyone (D, R or other) has the chance to knock out Ed Braddy from the Mayor’s seat by voting for Lauren Poe. Lauren is a solid forward thinking person and we agree with the letter which follows from Eileen Roy; Braddy has a record of ethical problems and questionable judgment. Go Poe! In the District 4 race we very strongly support the election of Adrian Hayes-Santos, a life long Gainesvillian with a strong progressive vision.

The March 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.