Life and politics from the Sunshine State's best city

Today on Context Florida: Floridian spending power, Franklin Graham, Escambia kids and Mark Foley

in Apolitical by

Today on Context Florida:

Presidential candidates talking about the national economy should be concerned with the spending power of the average Floridian, says Dale Brill. What Florida voters signal via the ballot box likely will be influenced by their weakening spending power and reactions to policies that offer viable solutions. How are Floridians doing? Let’s turn to the numbers. Trends across four indicators provide a starting point for conversations about the health of Florida’s economy: median household income; personal income per capita; average wage and disposable personal income per capita.

With all the horrors continuing to occur in the world, notably including the massacres perpetrated by Boko Haram in Africa and ISIS in the Middle East, Martin Dyckman says evangelist Franklin Graham has not exactly overlooked them. But it’s to some other crisis that he has been devoting most of his public preaching lately. He’s been praying for the United States Supreme Court to interpret Scripture rather than the Constitution in deciding the same-sex marriage case.

For many children, Shannon Nickinson says that Escambia County is a hard place to grow up. But what if there were a way to make it less so? Bruce Watson, executive director of the Escambia County Early Learning Coalition, believes he may have one solution to offer.

Dennis Hastert’s sex and financial scandal is an unwelcome reminder of Mark Foley’s disgrace, as Foley slowly returns to respectability. Jac Wilder VerSteeg recalls how the former congressman from Palm Beach County resigned in 2006 after the public learned he had sent sexually-charged messages to male former congressional pages. Now, the emerging Hastert disgrace is reminding Floridians of Foley’s misdeeds.

Visit Context Florida to dig in.

Phil Ammann is a St. Petersburg-based journalist and blogger. With more than three decades of writing, editing and management experience, Phil produced material for both print and online, in addition to founding HRNewsDaily.com. His broad range includes covering news, local government and culture reviews for Patch.com, technical articles and profiles for BetterRVing Magazine and advice columns for a metaphysical website, among others. Phil has served as a contributor and production manager for SaintPetersBlog since 2013. He lives in St. Pete with his wife, visual artist Margaret Juul and can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @PhilAmmann.

Latest from Apolitical

Go to Top