Canada Goes To Pot

Canada is a nation of pot heads.

\Marijuana use in Canada is the highest in the industrialized world and more than four times the global rate, according to a report from the United Nations.

Forty per cent of Canadian cannabis is produced in British Columbia, 25% in Ontario and 25% in Quebec, the report noted.

 Health

   -   One in 10 Canadian women uses marijuana.

Experts and activists are not concerned about the high rate of Canadian marijuana use reported in 2007 UN World Drug report —even though young people are the largest users of the drug.

The report states that 16.8 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 16 and 64 used marijuana in 2004. Canada is ranked fifth in marijuana use and the country’s usage percentage is four times the world average of 3.8 per cent. To compare, the report found that 12.6 per cent of people in the United States and 6.1 per cent in Holland have used the drug.

Richard Mathias, a professor at the University of British Columbia’s faculty of medicine, said he is pleased with the results from the report and is not worried about the high numbers of young people using the drug.

“I think that marijuana is a safer drug than some other options and I know that youth is a difficult, highly stressful time and it is to be expected that youth will explore and that’s good,” he said. “I teach these kids. They’re not criminals.”

A study conducted in 2002 by Carleton University professor Peter Fried also concluded that only heavy pot smokers are negatively affected by marijuana use. Fried’s 70-person study found that only heavy marijuana users between the ages of 10 and 20 had a decline in their IQ scores. The rest saw an increase in their scores.

The study also found that those who smoked heavily and later quit returned to their former IQ level.

Eugene Oscapella, an Ottawa-based lawyer who specializes in drug policy issues, said the UN report shows that the legal status of marijuana in a given country seems to have little bearing on consumption rates.

The report found that only 6.1 per cent of people in the Netherlands, where marijuana use has effectively been decriminalized, reported trying pot.

This shows decriminalization has no bearing on rates of use, and Canada shouldn't be so afraid to follow the Dutch lead, Oscapella said.

"The criminal law does not prevent people from using marijuana, nor does legalization force people to use it," he said.

Jean Chretien's Liberals first introduced a bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in 2003, but it was never brought to a final vote. Stephen Harper's Conservatives killed the bill when they came to office in January 2006.

Oscapella added that Canada should be focusing its resources on the root causes of drug abuse, rather than persecuting people for possession.

"It is a health and a social issue," he said. "The criminal law is not the appropriate mechanism for dealing with drugs in the vast majority of cases."

Marijuana and tobacco use among young adults in Canada

The authors characterized marijuana smoking among young adult Canadians, examined the co-morbidity of tobacco and marijuana use, and identified correlates associated with different marijuana use consumption patterns. Data were collected from 20,275 individuals as part of the 2004 Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey. Logistic regression models were conducted to examine characteristics associated with marijuana use behaviors among young adults (aged 15-24). Rates of marijuana use were highest among current smokers and lowest among never smokers. Marijuana use was more prevalent among males, young adults living in rural areas, and increased with age. Young adults who were still in school were more likely to have tried marijuana, although among those who had tried, young adults outside of school were more like to be heavy users. Males and those who first tried marijuana at an earlier age also reported more frequent marijuana use. These findings illustrate remarkably high rates of marijuana use and high co-morbidity of tobacco use among young adult Canadians. These findings suggest that future research should consider whether the increasing popularity of marijuana use among young adults represents a threat to the continuing decline in tobacco use among this population.

We have a large scale industry in producing illicit and licit marijuana. The latter for medicinal purposes. We have approved marijuana and its byproducts for medicinal uses.

Since the 1970's when the LeDain Commission recommended decriminalization to today when the right wing think tank the Fraser Institute recommends decriminalization for controlling grow ops and increased tax income.

Canadians favour decriminalization. However the Harpocrites ignored their old Fraser pals as they ignore 'polls' and once elected declared war on pot. Quietly without much fanfare, what had been Liberal policy waiting for a vote was squashed.

“We will not be reintroducing the Liberal government’s marijuana decriminalization legislation,” Harper announced at a Canadian Professional Police Association meeting. “I thought we might find a receptive audience here,” he added, according to a Reuters report.

The Harpocrites would rather pander to their regressive base with a phony war on drugs, blaming as they do the rise in crime and pot smoking on the Liberals, pathetic.

In view of the former Liberal government's determination to medicalize and legalize marijuana, it is not surprising that, according to a study of young people in Canada released in 2004, our youth now hold the distinction of topping all nations (Switzerland was second) in frequent marijuana use. The lead researcher for this study, Dr. William Boyce of Queen's University, stated that the increased use of marijuana in Canada was tied to the three As - affordability, availability and acceptability. He stated, "in Canada, I think all three of those things come together so that it's actually used quite a bit by kids here. It's not so expensive, it's definitely available and with the legislation introduced in the last Parliament - and perhaps again in this one - that decriminalizes marijuana use, it certainly provides a signal to kids that this is not a highly illegal activity."

Thank heaven, the Conservative government is now providing a different message to our youth on marijuana use.

Please write to Prime Minister Harper and Minister of Justice Toews to thank them for the planned enforcement of the present marijuana laws rather than legalizing its use. Their actions will make a significant difference to our nation's youth. Please also request that marijuana use for so-called medical reasons be stopped if and until such time that it can be scientifically determined that its use has in fact, medical benefits.

The Harpocrites have adopted the oh so successful American War On Drugs Policy. And they have included marijuana as a key element of their new anti-drug campaign. Look forward to more regressive stupidity in the fall sitting of the house as the Minister of Health declares a drug panic.

Clement to MDs: Get tougher on illicit drugs

Federal Health Minister Tony Clement delivered a tough, anti-drug message to doctors yesterday, saying young people need straight talk about the dangers of illicit drugs, including marijuana.

"The messages young people have received during the past several years have been confusing and conflicting to say the least," Clement told the annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association in Vancouver.

"We are very concerned about the damage and pain that drugs cause families and we intend to reverse the trend toward vague, ambiguous messaging that has characterized Canadian attitudes in the recent past," he said.

Ottawa plans a campaign emphasizing the dangers of all illicit drugs in any quantity, Clement said. "We will discourage young people from thinking there are safe amounts or safe drugs."

Meanwhile the Police and Senate disagree with the Harpocrites new War On Drugs.

Victoria's No. 2 cop testified in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday that neither the Vancouver Island Compassion Society nor its distribution of medical marijuana has ever been the subject of a criminal investigation.

Deputy Chief Bill Naughton said the society's Cormorant Street office of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society has not generated any complaints, adding marijuana ranks behind drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin in terms of Victoria police priorities.

"The enforcement of federal laws against marijuana takes a back seat," said Naughton, who was subpoenaed by the defence in the trial of Michael Swallow, 41, and Mat Beren, 33.

Also testifying yesterday in Victoria was Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, who chaired the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, which called in 2002 for the legalization of marijuana in Canada.

Nolin told the court the regulations, as they currently exist, are an obstacle to Canadians who want access to medical marijuana.

He said the rules ask doctors to be "gatekeepers" for access to legal marijuana. It's a role doctors don't want, and so Canadians are being denied access to a medical product.

"[The] medical profession is reluctant, generally reluctant," he said. "They don't want to be the gatekeepers, they don't want that responsibility."

Heck even the da Judge disagrees with the Government.

Rolling a joint might require the removal of stems and seeds, but the legal limbo in which pot smokers in Canada find themselves is far from clear-cut.
On July 13, an Ontario Court judge in Toronto acquitted Clifford Long, who was charged with possession of 3.5 grams of marijuana.
The court held that Canada's marijuana possession laws are unconstitutional. Justice Howard Borenstein cited a seven-year-old Ontario Court of Appeal case, which also described the possession law as unconstitutional, due to its ambiguity on medical marijuana.
Long argued in court that since the government of Canada allowed for medicinal use, but did not change the law on marijuana to accommodate this policy change, then all possession laws should cease to exist.

While the Harpocrites declare a War On Drugs, including marijuana, at the same time they approve big pharma profiting off Medical Marijuana.

GW Pharmaceuticals plc (AIM: GWP) and Bayer Inc., a subsidiary of Bayer AG, announce that Health Canada has approved Sativex®, a cannabis derived pharmaceutical treatment, as adjunctive analgesic treatment in adult patients with advanced cancer who experience moderate to severe pain during the highest tolerated dose of strong opioid therapy for persistent background pain.

While local marijuana growers are limited in providing medical marijuana to one or two Canadians. Clearly the Harpocrites missed the point of the Fraser Institute Report. Local grow ops legally functioning can produce medical as well as recreational marijuana that then could be taxed. Quality and consumer protection, would be assured.

A Vancouver Island grower of organic marijuana is being inundated with pleas for pot from disease sufferers, but Health Canada says he can supply only one person, a provincial court trial has been told.

Eric Nash said he wrote to Canadian Health Minister Tony Clement with a list of 121 people, all approved by Health Canada to use marijuana as medicine and asking him to grow it for them. One of them was a former RCMP officer diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

But Nash said regulations forbid him from growing for more than one person at a time. So his company, Island Harvest, can supply only two people, one each for him and his partner, although it could easily supply more.

And Tony's announcement of a new PR campaign in the War On Drugs looks suspicious in light of the governments failure to extend the license for the Vancouver Safe Injection Site.

The Canadian government is ramping up a massive anti-drug campaign, the first in 20 years, amid calls to keep open a Vancouver clinic that monitors heroin addicts as they inject themselves with the drug.

"Canada has not run a serious or significant anti-drug campaign for almost 20 years. The messages young people have received during the past several years have been confusing and conflicting to say the least," federal Health Minister Tony Clement said yesterday in a speech to the Canadian Medical Association in Vancouver.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister was vague about whether the Insite injection clinic in Vancouver would stay open. "There has been more research done, and some of it has been questioning of the research that has already taken place and questioning of the methodology of those associated with Insite," he said.

Isra Levy, president of the National Specialty Society for Community Medicine called for Insite to remain open in an interview with The Globe and Mail, stating that "illicit drug use is indeed a scourge, it's the cause of untold misery for those ill with addiction and their loved ones."

Is Harpers War in Afghanistan an excuse to expand his War On Drugs.....not only against opium but against the powerful Cannabis Indica and Afghani Hash....remember Afghani hash? It ain't been around in North America since the late Sixties and early Seventies when Hippies made their holy pilgrimage to Marrakesh and on to Afghanistan and back. It remains however a staple in Europe.

Hashish is produced practically everywhere in and around Afghanistan. The best kinds of Hash originate from the Northern provinces between Hindu Kush and the Russian border (Balkh, Mazar-i-Sharif). As tourist in Afghanistan it will be very difficult to be allowed to see Cannabis-Fields or Hash Production. The plants which are used for Hash production are very small and bushy Indicas. In Afghanistan Hashish is pressed by hand under addition of a small quantity of tea or water. The Hashish is worked on until it becomes highly elastic and has a strong aromatic smell. In Afghanistan the product is stored in the form of Hash-Balls (because a round ball has the less contact with air), however, before being shipped, the Hash is pressed in 100g slabs. Good qualities of Afghani are signed with the stem of the producing family. Sometimes Hash of this kind is sold as Royal Afghani. Color: Black on the outside, dark greenish or brown inside. Can sometimes look kind of grayish on the outside when left in contact with the air. Smell: Spicy to very spicy. Taste: Very spicy, somewhat harsh on the throat. Afghani can induce lots of coughing in inexperienced users.

Afghani
aka Afghanistan
Marijuana

Afghani Marijuana Strains - The origins of this seed strain come from Afghanistan and travel to Holland. Afghani has big round fat leaves and the same beautiful big fat buds. It usually has a rich smooth hash like heavy smoke taste. The Afghani marijuana plant tends to be very bushy and will yield large amounts of very sticky buds. Well known for excellent growth because it originated in mountainous conditions and over thousands of years a very stocky, sturdy and disease resistant plant was produced.

Well Cannabis in Afghanistan is back in a big way. As Canadian forces found last fall. Hey guys don't put that to the torch or ya' all will fall down.

Maj. Patrick Robichaud, commander of the operating base, this week characterized the security situation around Ma'sum Ghar as "fragile." He said Taliban insurgents appear to have taken advantage of a change in command among the Canadians and the Afghan National Army to slip back into the region. The insurgents are looking to strong-arm local farmers for a piece of the action in the impending marijuana harvest, said Maj. Robichaud.

Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of 10-foot-tall marijuana plants.

Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defense staff, said Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices ... and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he said in a speech in Ottawa.

Weed Fields in Afghanistan Video

The United Nations has conducted surveys of poppy crops, but has not done so for marijuana plants. The focus on poppies possibly reflects the view of international donors that highly addictive heroin is the more urgent problem.

Marijuana plants are widely grown in at least three of the 16 districts in Balkh province, which is home to Mazar-e-Sharif. Local authorities have sent letters to villages urging farmers to stop growing the illegal crop, but they have yet to decide how and when they will crack down.

"The farmers have planted this stuff like smugglers," said Saheed Azizullah Hashmi, head of the province's agriculture department. "We don't know how much there is out there."

He said many people associated with the hashish trade were linked to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. But marijuana plants thrived well before they held sway over much of Afghanistan, and local commanders with large land holdings reportedly benefit from its cultivation.

Rouzudin and his fellow farmers made no effort to hide their plants, which loom over nearby cotton bushes. The two crops are interspersed along the road leading to Shibergan, the headquarters of Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek commander and powerful political figure in the north.

Farmer Majid Gul said he can get 5 million Afghanis, or about $100, for 2.2 pounds of hashish, 200 times more than he could earn for the same amount of cotton.

"When we're ready to sell, people in big cars will come from the bazaar in town," he said. "We don't know who they are, we just want the money."

. For the decade before the Soviet army invaded in 1979, the teahouses of Afghanistan were the toking tourist's hangout of choice. And even during 23 years of war, when the Afghans fought the Soviets and then one another, the hash trade thrived. "Afghan black" remained a staple sale for cannabis dealers across the world. Mazar-i-Sharif gave its name to a particularly potent variety. And last year, in the final weeks of the Taliban, Amsterdam's coffee-shop owners even boasted they were doing their bit for the war on terror by buying blocks stamped with a golden Northern Alliance stencil reading "Freedom for Afghanistan."

Now, as Afghanistan emerges from war, dope farming has never been so good�and the drought never so bad. The Taliban banned hash production, but in the postwar chaos of lawless fiefdoms that dot the land, growers and traders across the country are finding themselves free once again to cultivate and export hashish without fear, and often with warlord protection. Moreover, the international perception that cannabis is a relatively benign drug�prompting some authorities across Europe and Australia to decriminalize its use�has persuaded drug-policing agencies to largely ignore it. So, while opium cultivation is monitored to the acre, neither Interpol, the U.N. Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention nor the U.S.'s Drug Enforcement Agency can offer even rough estimates for how much hashish Afghanistan produces or what the trade is worth. But around Mazar it's almost impossible to find a field where hemp is not being grown, either openly or poorly hidden behind watermelons or knee-high cotton plants. "Everybody's farming chaars now," says former Taliban fighter Faizullah, 27, watering a verdant six-hectare oasis of hemp surrounded by desert. Cannabis used to be outlawed by the Taliban. "But now," says Faizullah, "it's a free-for-all."

Harpers War On Drugs is doomed to fail, as has the American campaign. But this proves once again that he and his pals have abandoned any pretense to libertarianism, while embracing the traditional right wing screed of Law and Order Republicanism. Heck Canadians even support the medical use of opiates despite this governments opposition.

While in the U.S. Republican Presidential Candidate and Libertarian Ron Paul embraces his inner Canadian and calls for decriminalization, and an end to Americas war on drugs. Why Is This Canadian Pot Dealer Campaigning for Ron Paul?

Also, a little known fact is that if Ron Paul got his way, there would be no federal war on drugs. He has called the war on drugs “as stupid as the war in Iraq”. He is uncompromisingly against federal laws banning medical marijuana, and completely opposed to the federal government coming in, when a state has legalized medical marijuana, and using force to nullify this legalization (such as has happened in California, where medical marijuana is legal, but the federal government uses force to effectively keep it criminalized. This would NOT happen under a Paul administration.)

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medicare, healthcare, Canada, Afghanistan, Ron Paul, war on drugs,marijuana,cannabis,pot,Stephen Harper,Tony Clement,drug war, medical marijauana,

US military researchers call for use of privateers against China

Magazine published by US Naval Institute features articles titled ‘Unleash the Privateers!’ and ‘US Privateering Is Legal’

But any such move would provoke a retaliation from China, military watchers say


Liu Zhen in Beijing and Kristin Huang Published: 10 Apr, 2020

The authors of the reports attack said an attack on China’s global trade would undermine its economy and threaten its stability. 

The  United States should encourage the use of privateers to fight Chinese aggression at sea, according to a pair of articles in magazine produced by the US Naval Institute.

The reports – titled “Unleash the Privateers!” and “US Privateering Is Legal”, and published in the April issue of Proceedings – suggest the US government issue letters of marque – a commission authorising privately owned ships (privateers) to capture enemy merchant ships.

The authors – Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and Brandon Schwartz, a former CSIS media relations manager – said that China’s larger merchant fleet represented an asymmetric vulnerability with the US, and an attack on China’s global trade would undermine its entire economy and threaten its stability.

Such a campaign would be a legal and low-cost way to contain China’s power rise on the sea, they said, adding that it could prevent, rather than provoke, a war.

The reports said privateering was legal under the US Constitution. Photo: DPA

Collin Koh, a research fellow from the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said the idea was “politically unsound”.

“That would be regarded as an outright provocation which would invite retaliation from China,” he said.

“And going by the UN Charter, it might even be construed as a use of force, and would invite international condemnation too.”

Privateering with a letter of marque dates back to a period from the mid-16th to the 18th century known as the Age of Sail, but was outlawed with the introduction of various treaties in the 19th and 20th centuries.

However, the authors of the Proceedings reports said that the US government never formally signed any agreements, and argued that the US Constitution gave Congress the power to “grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal”.

Although no such letters had been issued since 1907, that was due to “strategic and policy considerations rather than legal ones”, they said.
The authors did not say if China’s trillions of dollars worth of trade with the US should be exempted from attacks by pirates, but that probably was because it would no longer exist in a hypothetical scenario of the two nations already having decoupled.

Privateering with a letter of marque dates back to a period from the mid-16th to the 18th century known as the Age of Sail. Photo: EPA-EFE

Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping said that such decoupling, as advocated by American conservatives and far-rights, was a dangerous sign that it would place two nuclear powers in confrontation and even conflict.

“When the Americans decide to act tough against a so-called adversary or enemy, they will spare no effort and limit no means,” he said.
“Privateering on Chinese merchant ships may also be possible.”

Republican congressman Ron Paul raised the issue of using letters of marque against Osama bin Laden and Somalian pirates in 2007 and 2009, but did not succeed.

Julia Xue, chair professor of International Law at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said the researchers argument was not valid.

“It has been customary international law, and the US is also bonded by it,” she said. “It was an incorrect interpretation of international law.”

Koh said the current policy elites were unlikely to seriously consider such a recommendation, but such articles represented the think tankers who advocated a much harder policy stance against China.

“If anything, it does reflect the growing schism between China and the US, as both countries see their ties sliding downhill under the cloud of strategic lack of trust,” Koh said.

‘Nowhere to be found’: Everything we know about missing Scientology leader David Miscavige

The mysterious leader behind the Church of Scientology is being sought by lawyers for three former members who are suing the religious sect alleging decades of abuse. Bevan Hurley reports


David Miscavige, the head of the Church of Scientology
(Rex Features)

Scientology leader David Miscavige is “nowhere to be found”.

Named as a defendant in a federal child trafficking lawsuit, Mr Miscavige has repeatedly dodged prosecutors who have tried to serve the 62-year-old 27 times in four months at Scientology properties in Clearwater, Florida, and California, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Every time, security guards refused to accept the lawsuit and claimed not to know where Mr Miscavige lived or worked, court filings obtained by The Tampa Bay Times alleged.

Lawyers have resorted to sending Instagram messages to the church’s official account as they try to locate Mr Miscavige, attorney Neil Glazer said in a court filing, per the Bay Times.

According to journalist Tony Ortega, who has written about Scientology since 1995, Mr Miscavige has frequently tried to dodge lawsuits by altering his address between California and Florida.

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Despite being in charge of the controversial church since the death of church founder L Ron Hubbard in 1986, Mr Miscavige remains a mysterious figure who has largely stayed out of the public eye.

Who is David Miscavige?

According to an official church profile, Mr Miscavige’s official title is ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion.

The 62-year-old is also chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center (RTC), a corporation that controls the church’s trademarks and copyrights.

While the church claims to be a force for good through its charitable outreach and practice of dianetics, which is said to help treat mental illness, critics and former members have described it as an alleged “cult” that separates families, forces members into slavery, and extorts money from its followers.

The church flatly denies these allegations.

Mr Miscavige was introduced to Scientology by his father Ronald Miscavige in the 1960s, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Sea Org, a group of the most dedicated members that essentially serves as the church’s managerial arm.

He was mentored by church founder L Ron Hubbard, a former science fiction author, and assumed leadership of the church in 1987.

Mr Miscavige has overseen the rapid expansion of Scientology from its roots in southern California to now claim tens of millions of adherents worldwide.

In his first interview with ABC News in 1992, Mr Miscavige sought to dispel claims that former members were fearful of speaking out about the church.

“Every single detractor on there is part of a religious hate group called Cult Awareness Network and their sister group called American Family Foundation,” Mr Miscavige said according to a transcript of the interview.

“Now, I don’t know if you’ve heard of these people, but it’s the same as the KKK would be with the Blacks. I think if you interviewed a neo-Nazi and asked them to talk about the Jews, you would get a similar result to what you have here.”

Miscavige has overseen the rapid expansion of Scientology
(Getty Images)

After a decades long battle with the Internal Revenue Service, the church was granted tax-exempt status in the US in 1993.

“The war is over,” Mr Miscavige told a group of thousands of cheering Scientologists in a Los Angeles arena in 1993 after the IRS abandoned its investigations into the church and granted it tax exemption.

The ruling saved the church millions in taxes and confirmed its status as a religious entity in the US.

It has subsequently gained notoriety as former members who left the church began to detail the alleged abusive and coercive practices that the church supposedly subjected its followers to.

Mr Miscavige also faced long-running complaints from the medical and scientific communities over claims that Scientology could cure mental illness.

Church doctrine, written by its founder, proclaims that psychiatry is not only bogus, but evil, and promotes a “mind over matter” philosophy that claims attaining a “clear” state will eliminate any ills.

So-called auditors are assigned to each church member to go through past events with them to help “clear” any negativity.

Despite the many controversies, high-profile members including celebrities such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta continued to praise Scientology for having changed their lives.

Scientology now claims to have 11,000 churches in 180 nations, and millions of global followers.

The Miscavige family and Scientology

Mr Miscavige’s father Ron Miscavige left the church in 2012 after falling out with his son and complaining he had been forced to work in slave-like conditions for the church..

According to his 2016 book Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me, the elder Miscavige claimed that Church members were “subjected to deprivation and violence” while detained at a punishment centre called “the Hole” - an accusation the Church has always denied.

According to a 2015 report in the Los Angeles Times, Ron Miscavige’s car was tracked, his emails read and he was followed.

David Miscavige with Tom Cruise, at the opening of a Scientology church in 2004.
(AP)

Florida-based investigator Dwayne Powell was arrested in 2013 near Milwaukee and allegedly told police he had been paid $10,000 through an intermediary, on behalf of the Church of Scientology, to follow Ron Miscavige “full-time”.

David Miscavige denied hiring the PI to follow his father. The church threatened to sue him over over his tell-all memoir.

In an interview with ABC News in 2016, Ron Miscavige said his estranged son “wasn’t always that way… He was a loveable kid, he had a great sense of humour. We got along great.”

Ron Miscavige died in 2021.

David Miscavige married wife Shelly in 1982. She has not been seen in public since 2007, leading to speculation about her wellbeing.

Former member Leah Remini, who has become an outspoken critic of the church and wrote a 2015 memoir Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, filed a missing persons report for Shelly Miscavige with the LAPD in 2013.

The LAPD later said it had resolved the case and found her to be alive and well.

Mr Miscavige’s niece Jenna Miscavige Hill published a memoir Beyond Belief in 2013, which detailed her life in the highest ranks of the sect, her "disconnection" from family who were outside of the organisation, and her ultimate escape in 2005.

Miscavige and Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise was introduced to Scientology through his first wife Mimi Rogers.

While filming the 1990 film Days of Thunder, he reportedly fell in love with co-star Nicole Kidman, according to former Scientology senior member Mike Rinder, who writes about the period in his 2022 memoir A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology.

According to Mr Rinder, the church helped to engineer Cruise’s split from Rogers in order for him to be free to marry Kidman.

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise
(Getty Images)

Mr Miscavige was invited to the set of Days of Thunder, Mr Rinder writes, and assigned a trusted lieutenant, Greg Wilhere, to convince Rogers to go through with the divorce.

“Miscavige no doubt saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate his ability to make Tom’s wishes come true,” Mr Rinder writes.

The Top Gun star divorced Rogers in February 1990, and married Kidman later that year, with Miscavige acting as his best man.

A church spokesman has previously said Mr Rinder’s claims were “utterly ludicrous”, and said he was an “inveterate liar”.

The church requires members of its Sea Org to sign a one-billion year pledge, which former members have claimed is used to make children as young as 10 work for little or no money in virtual slavery.

Mr Rinder further writes that Sea Org members were assigned to carry out work on Cruise’s homes in Aspen, Colorado, install high-end audio/visual equipment at a property in Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, and his Santa Monica air hangar.

Cruise appeared at openings of new Scientology churches around the world, including in Madrid in 2004.

In a Scientology recruitment video the same year, Mr Cruise said it’s a “privilege to call yourself a Scientologist”.

“That’s what drives me: is that I know we have an opportunity to really help, for the first time, effectively change people’s lives. And I am dedicated to that. I am absolutely, uncompromisingly dedicated to that.”

Cruise has reportedly played down his Scientology links in recent years.

Scientology in popular culture

In the 2015 documentary Going Clear, filmmaker Alex Gibney profiled eight former Scientologists who were critical of the church’s practices.

Among the former members featured in the film is Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, who had been a Scientology member since the 1970s until his departure in 2009.

In November, Mr Haggis was ordered to pay at least $7.5m to a woman who accused him of rape at a movie premier in 2013.

During the trial, jurors heard extensive testimony about the Church of Scientology, with Mr Haggis claiming members of the church had tried to discredit him.

Louis Theroux’s 2016 documentary My Scientology Movie shed further light on the church’s alleged indonctrination and disciplinary practices.

The lawsuits

Three former Scientologists filed a lawsuit in April alleging they were forced to work for the organisation from the age of 10 until adulthood for little or no pay, while suffering verbal and physical abuse.

Gawain Baxter, who is suing the church with wife Laura Baxter and a third plaintiff Valeska Paris, said in a statement released through his attorney that he was forced to sign a document at the age of six pledging to work for the Church of Scientology for one billion years.

He said he began working in low or unpaid labour for the Scientology’s Cadet Org from the age of 10 while being forced to attend “expensive indoctrination sessions”.

The Baxters later worked for the church’s military-style Sea Org before leaving in 2012.

“Growing up in Scientology, being separated from my family and subjected to severe verbal and physical abuse has scarred me in ways that I am still working through and uncovering,” Mr Baxter said in a statement released in April.

“All the while, Scientology continues to abuse and exploit its members, including young children, and does so with virtually unchecked power.”

Neil Glazer, an attorney for the plaintiffs, has asked the court to consider Mr Miscavige has been served and is in default at a court hearing scheduled in a Tampa federal court for 20 January.

“Miscavige cannot be permitted to continue his gamesmanship,” Mr Glazer wrote in a 13 December court filing, The Tampa Bay Times reports.

The Independent did not immediately hear back after making two requests for comment in relation to the allegations against Mr Miscavige in the lawsuit.

Lawyers representing migrants dumped on Martha's Vineyard want Florida Gov. DeSantis criminally investigated over the 'stunt'

Natalie Musumeci
Mon, September 19, 2022 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference in Rockledge, Florida.Paul HennessyGetty Images

Attorneys for the migrants dumped on Martha's Vineyard want a criminal probe into the incident.


They called on state and federal prosecutors to open an investigation into the "shameful political stunt."


Last week, 50 migrants were flown to Martha's Vineyard in a move orchestrated by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Attorneys for the dozens of migrants who were dumped on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard have called on state and federal prosecutors to open a criminal probe into the "shameful political stunt" orchestrated by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights group — which says it is representing more than 30 of the migrants — sent letters to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael Rollins over the weekend, saying that "criminal laws were broken by the perpetrators of this stunt."

Last week, 50 undocumented Venezuelan immigrants were flown on two chartered planes from Texas to Martha's Vineyard in a move that was organized by DeSantis. No Massachusetts officials were notified that the dozens of migrants were coming.
Related video: 46 migrants found dead inside tractor trailer in San Antonio

The immigrants have since been relocated to a military base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

"Our clients were induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretenses," Lawyers for Civil Rights' executive director Iván Espinoza-Madrigal and the group's litigation director, Oren Sellstrom, wrote in the letters.

"Individuals, working in concert with the Florida Governor, made numerous false promises to our clients, including of work opportunities, schooling for their children, and immigration assistance, in order to induce them to travel," they said.

DeSantis' office did not immediately answer when asked for comment on the attorneys' statement.

Espinoza-Madrigal and Sellstrom pointed to how migrants were reportedly told they were going to Boston and that they could find work there.

"It was only when the flight was in mid-air that they were informed they would be flown to Martha's Vineyard, rather than to Boston as many had been told," they wrote in their letters.

"Once the planes landed, those who had induced our clients to travel under these false pretenses disappeared, leaving our clients to learn that the offers of assistance had all been a ruse to exploit them for political purposes," they said.

Espinoza-Madrigal and Sellstrom said their clients were robbed of their liberty.

"The perpetrators targeted our clients based on race and national origin in order to make the political point they wanted," they said.

Espinoza-Madrigal and Sellstrom added in their letter to Rollins, "This type of conspiracy to deprive our clients of their liberty and civil rights and interfere with federal immigration proceedings must be thoroughly investigated for violations of criminal laws."

They also said the matter must be investigated for "violations of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act and all other applicable criminal laws" in the letter to Healey.

A spokeswoman for Healey, Chloe Gotsis, told Insider on Monday: "Our office continues to review all information relevant to this situation. We are in touch with our federal and state partners, along with attorneys representing the migrants, as we gather facts and evaluate all legal options."

The office of Rollins did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider on Monday.

Judge prefers a trial for DeSantis’ removal of Tampa prosecutor

Sue Carlton, Lawrence Mower, Tampa Bay Times

Mon, September 19, 2022 

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge hearing the case of Hillsborough County’s ousted state attorney appears to favor a trial over immediately reinstating Andrew Warren to decide the issue “once and for all.”

Warren was requesting a preliminary injunction to put him back to the office Gov. Ron removed him from last month.

The twice-elected state attorney was escorted from his downtown Tampa offices Aug. 4 by an armed sheriff’s deputy. The governor accused him of refusing to enforce laws involving abortion and transgender health care, and of not prosecuting certain low-level, non-violent crimes.

Warren, a progressive Democrat, contended that his removal was a political stunt by the conservative governor with whom he had previously clashed. He said DeSantis violated his free speech rights and overstepped his authority.

Warren sued DeSantis and asked the judge for a preliminary injunction to reinstate him to his job. At a hearing Monday morning, Senior U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle indicated he’d like to avoid the possible back-and-forth effect of reinstating Warren and have a trial to settle the issue “once and for all.”

Hinkle asked the attorneys how quickly they could go to trial. Warren’s attorneys said a month. DeSantis’ lawyers said three to four months, although they’d need to confer with their clients to be definitive.

“The public isn’t served by yo-yoing this office,” Hinkle said.

He said the public interest was in trying the case as soon as possible to get all the facts.

This is a developing story. Stay with tampabay.com for updates.

As Florida shatters its record for new coronavirus cases, Democrats ask, 

'Where is Ron DeSantis?'


DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - 2021/11/22

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference at Buc-ee's travel center, where he announced his proposal of more than $1 billion in gas tax relief for Floridians in response to rising gas prices caused by inflation. DeSantis is proposing to the Florida legislature a five-month gas tax holiday. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Timothy Bella
Thu, December 30, 2021, 12:46 PM·7 min read


As Florida reported nearly 47,000 new coronavirus cases, again shattering its single-day record since the start of the pandemic, Democrats and critics called on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to do more to address the state's spike in infections driven by the highly-transmissible omicron variant.

The state on Wednesday reported 46,923 new cases from Tuesday, as the omicron surge nearly doubled Florida's previous peak over the summer. The state, which broke the record for new daily infections that was just set on Christmas Eve, is now averaging more than 30,300 new covid-19 cases a day, according to data tracked by The Washington Post - second in the nation to New York.

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While deaths continue to decline in Florida - an average of 18 a day as of Wednesday - the number of cases has exploded by 182% compared to the previous seven-day period. Florida now has reported 4 million total cases since the pandemic began, joining California and Texas as the only states with at least 4 million coronavirus infections since 2020.



Amid the surge, some in the state have argued that DeSantis, who recently signed multiple bills into law to curtail vaccine and mask mandates, has not done enough to help against omicron. Orange County, Fla., Mayor Jerry Demings, a Democrat, claimed at a news conference this week that counties have yet to receive funding for increased coronavirus testing during the holidays. He also questioned why DeSantis has been largely absent during the state's record-breaking period.

"We have not received any assistance from the state of Florida at our testing sites," he said on Tuesday. "Our residents, all Florida residents, should be outraged and they should ask the question, 'Where is our state? Where is our governor? Where is Ron DeSantis now?'"

DeSantis, one of the most prominent Republican critics of President Joe Biden's handling of the pandemic, has not made a public appearance since a Dec. 17 news conference, according to Florida Politics. DeSantis also appeared on Fox News on Dec. 19, saying that he had yet to receive a coronavirus booster shot.

"I've done whatever I did, the normal shot, and that at the end of the day is people's individual decisions about what they want to do," the governor told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo at the time.

Christina Pushaw, a spokeswoman for DeSantis, told The Washington Post on Thursday that omicron is responsible for most of the new cases in Florida, adding that many of the new infections appear to be "asymptomatic or mild." She noted how states such as California and New York are also breaking records for new infections, saying it is "evident that the vaccine passports, mask mandates and other heavy-handed government interventions did not achieve their stated goals."

"In Florida, we are continuing to emphasize the importance of early treatment and doing everything possible to expand access to clinically effective treatments," Pushaw said in a statement. "Governor DeSantis is not imposing any mandates or lockdown policies that have already proven ineffective in other parts of the country."

More than 4,400 people in Florida are hospitalized with covid, including 498 in the intensive care unit. While the hospitalization rate has increased by more than 100% compared to last week, Pushaw argued that "the percentage of cases requiring hospitalization as of now is lower overall than we saw with previous variants."

The spike in Florida comes as coronavirus cases are soaring nationwide, with the nation averaging about 240,000 new infections a day. Ahead of New Year's Eve, Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, has urged Americans to rethink any potential party plans and encouraged smaller gatherings to help prevent the spread of the virus.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Wednesday that hospitalizations remain "comparatively low," noting that those totals tend to lag behind infections by roughly two weeks. But she emphasized that omicron appears to cause milder symptoms, especially for vaccinated people.

In Florida, 63% of the population is vaccinated, which is slightly above the national rate of 62%.

Since DeSantis's last appearances, cases have skyrocketed in Florida and across the country thanks to omicron, which is now the nation's dominant variant.

The recent focus from the DeSantis administration has been on the U.S. government's pause on distributing monoclonal antibodies that have been used as treatment for many coronavirus patients who have not been vaccinated. Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo recently accused the Biden administration of "actively preventing" the distribution of the monoclonal antibody treatments from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly. The government noted that the treatments were unlikely to be effective against omicron.

In a Tuesday letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Ladapo wrote that the pause from the administration would cause an "immediate and life-threatening shortage of treatment options." DeSantis has touted monoclonal antibody treatments, specifically Regeneron, as an effective way to keep people out of the hospital.

Many of the new cases are coming from South Florida, where the state's three most populous counties - Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach - have seen their case totals increase by close to 400% in recent days, according to the Miami Herald. Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist with the University of South Florida, told WPTV that omicron outpacing the delta variant could be cause for concern for the state's hospitals. It took more than a month for delta to average 21,000 daily cases.

"For omicron, that's happened in 12 days," Salemi said.

Pushaw said that the Jackson Health System in Miami reported Thursday that more than half of its patients who tested positive for the virus were "incidental positives" - "people who were admitted to the hospital for other reasons (not covid-19 symptoms) and incidentally tested positive upon admission."

More than 776,000 new coronavirus tests have been administered in Florida over the past seven days, the second-highest total in the nation, according to data tracked by The Post. Twenty-two percent of those who've tested were positive. Raul Pino, director of Florida Department of Health in Orange County, acknowledged the lack of resources for even more testing in the area. Not even adding more testing sites could prevent the department from being overwhelmed, he told the Associated Press.

"A lot of people are wanting to get tested," he said.

Some on social media documented the long lines for in-person testing in the state. A video posted to Twitter by Brian Entin, a journalist with NewsNation Now, showed the miles-long line of cars waiting to enter Miami-Dade County's 24-hour testing site on Wednesday night.

"This is the wait before you even get into Tropical Park where you have to zig zag around cones before the testing area," he tweeted.

Democrats and critics were quick to accuse DeSantis of being "MIA." Democratic State Sen. Annette Taddeo, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022, shared a message she purportedly received from a friend about a difficult situation at a hospital in her district.

"And where's Ron DeSantis?" she tweeted.

On MSNBC, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is also running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, was asked by host Tiffany Cross on Wednesday if she knew why DeSantis had not made a public appearance during the holiday surge.

"I have no idea ... I haven't seen him since December 17," Fried said. "I don't know where he is."

On Thursday, as DeSantis's name trended on Twitter, Pushaw tweeted that the governor "has a wife and 3 kids ages 1-5, and it's not surprising if he wants to take a few days off at Christmas to spend time with his family, especially as his wife is battling cancer."

"I don't criticize Biden for going to Rehoboth Beach all week, right?" she wrote.

Olympic gold medalist Bob Beamon calls out Gov. Ron DeSantis on race: He wants us to forget country's history

Tom D'Angelo, Palm Beach Post
Fri, January 20, 2023 

Former US Olympian Bob Beamon speaks at Palm Beach State College during the 24th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration on Jan. 19, 2023

LAKE WORTH BEACH — When Bob Beamon raised his right fist as he stood on the podium at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, he was expressing the need for change in a country mired in unrest and protests over racial and social injustices.

More than half a century later, Beamon is not satisfied with the progress. His message, as an inspirational speaker, not only is about perseverance and celebrating your accomplishments, but also one of disappointment.

"I turn on the TV to the news and there's some governor, I think he's from Florida," Beamon said Thursday at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration on the campus of Palm Beach State College. "We don't want you to talk about this. We don't want you to talk about that. We don't want you to know about the history of this country.

"So I said, 'Martin Luther King, do you hear me? You took us six steps forward. And when I turn on the news it felt like we took seven steps back.' "

Beamon, 76, is quite aware of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his pushing back against critical race theory, just one example, he says, of the changing attitudes in recent years.

Florida education officials: African American Studies AP course 'lacks educational value'

New social studies textbooks: What reviewers are saying amid new 'parental rights' laws

"I feel that, 'Do we really get it? Do we really get what is really, really happening in this day and time?' " Beamon said, emotion in his voice. "So many of us have lost a life and what we've fought so hard for back in the '60s."

Under DeSantis, Florida has passed new “parental rights” laws, which include reviewing school textbooks to make sure they are free of lessons on critical race theory, “meaning the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons,” according to the state Department of Education.

DeSantis also last year signed the Stop WOKE Act into law to restrict how colleges and workplaces talk about race, gender and sexuality.


Former US Olympian Bob Beamon speaks at Palm Beach State College

Forerunner of modern-day activists

Beamon, a one-time track and field coach at Florida Atlantic University, is best known for that historic jump of 29 feet, 2.5 inches in Mexico City that earned him a gold medal while destroying the Olympic record by nearly 22 inches. It inspired the term "Beamonesque," defined as something spectacular and remarkable, or "an athletic feat so superior to what has come before, it is overwhelming."

But just as significant, that jump inspired him to follow the example set by teammates Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who just two days prior on that same podium, gave the Black Power salute by raising their black-gloved fists during the playing of the "The Star-Spangled Banner."

And it continues to inspire and energize Beamon to push forward with his message, one that he believes has gained more strength in recent years by this generation of activists such as LeBron James, Steph Curry and Colin Kaepernick.

"I think it's the same, but it's also a different way now of communicating," Beamon said about today's activists. "It's a highway of millions and millions of words of information that is coming through every day. And so how do we capture the souls of people? How do we relate to Curry and Kaepernick and LeBron James? How do you keep individuals' attention on so many things that are going on at one time?"

Beamon's activism started months before that day in Mexico City. In April of 1968, he was one of nine athletes kicked off the track and field team at the University of Texas-El Paso for boycotting a meet against Brigham Young just days following the assassination Dr. King. They were protesting the Book of Mormon's views on Blacks.

Two years earlier, that same school — then called Texas Western — became the first team with an all-Black starting five to win the NCAA Basketball Tournament, shocking a Kentucky team coached by Adolph Rupp and featuring Pat Riley.

"Dr. King gave us courage," Beamon said.

Beamon was in Austin, Texas, on the day Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis. He remembers walking into a restaurant following the meet and staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

The man holding the gun called Beamon a racial slur and told him to leave.

"There are things that happened, even prior to the death of Martin Luther King, that gave me a rude awakening," Beamon said.

Bob Beamon of the USA breaks the Long Jump World Record during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Beamon long jumped 29 feet, 2 1/2 inches, winning the gold medal and setting a new world record.

Running with a gang

Beamon was born in Queens, New York. His mother died from tuberculosis when he was 8 months old, and he was raised by his grandmother. He joined a gang as a boy and was sent to an alternative school.

"My teachers were saying, 'You have one foot in the grave and one foot out of the grave,' " he said. " 'You are not going to be here too much longer.'

"For some reason … Maybe it was my mother and my father spiritually guiding me to something better."

He straightened out his life and was discovered in high school, where he set a national record in the triple jump and was second in the nation in the long jump. He first attended North Carolina A&T before transferring to Texas-El Paso.

In 1999, Beamon was hired by FAU as the director of development for track and field and coach of the inaugural men's and women's track teams. He left about two years later. He then was an associate athletic director at Chicago State University, served as an ambassador for the Special Olympics and worked with Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation.

In Miami, Beamon was drawn to the art community. He worked with Art of the Olympians, which showcases art by Olympians and Paralympians. He has designed ties, hats and scarves with Olympic themes.

Although his scholarship was revoked following the boycott, Beamon returned to UTEP following the Olympics to continue his studies and eventually he was accepted back into the community. Beamon, who graduated from Adelphi University with a degree in sociology, was inducted into the UTEP's athletic hall of fame in 2004 and a street is named after him in El Paso.

Today, Bob Beamon, who lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C., is much more than a man who could run fast and jump far, and whose name defines greatness.

"To best describe it," Beamon said about his role outside of athletics, "it was the beginning of something very special that changed the thinking of who we were.

"But we need to be mindful of the fact that we have to see a lot more. We have to educate a lot more people."

Tom D'Angelo covers sports for The Palm Beach Post and can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomdangelo44.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Bob Beamon takes on Ron DeSantis during MLK celebration event

Americans want to know what Gov. DeSantis’ definition of ‘woke’ is. He’s not saying | Opinion



Fabiola Santiago
Fri, January 20, 2023 

Update: U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle ruled Friday that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren violated the Florida Constitution and the First Amendment. He also said that allegations Warren prosecuted cases under what DeSantis called “woke ideology” were false.

The aspirational Florida governor waves the word “woke” around like a sword.

Woke this, woke that, wokeness, anti-woke, woke mob.

After his fiery inaugural speech on Jan. 3, in which the only other word used as much was Florida’s questionable “freedom,” a considerable number of readers — notably, not only from his but other states, too — asked me to put this question to Gov. Ron DeSantis:

What exactly is your definition of “woke,” sir?

“I know it has racial tones because it sounds like Ebonics. I know he uses it to incite his followers in that way. But what is he killing when he says, ‘Florida is where woke goes to die’?” wonders Pete from red-state Indiana.

I set out to find out.

And, although neither of DeSantis’ spokespeople would answer the question — or even confirm that they forwarded it to the governor, as is their job to do — the actions of his administration provided a clue this week.

Without bothering to give Floridians any details, DeSantis’ Department of Education rejected an Advanced Placement course on African-American studies that prepares students for the essential college-entry exam, the SAT.

The powers-that-be simply decided that, under state law — presumably the legislation Republicans dubbed the “Stop Woke Act” and allegedly protects the rights of white people to remain ignorant of American Black history — the course “lacks educational value.”

And so undefined “anti-wokeness” drives Florida education policy and attempts to tell employers how they can or can’t train their employees on issues of race and diversity. And neither the governor nor his staff feels compelled to explain their actions to citizens.

DeSantis ‘woke’ defined

Recently, however, the governor’s lawyer was forced to define “woke” in federal court by Jean-Jacques Cabou, the attorney for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, a Democrat suing DeSantis for removing him from office for his “woke” pro-choice opinions.

When he announced Warren’s suspension, DeSantis referred to him as a “woke ideologue” who “masqueraded” as a prosecutor. He didn’t care that voters elected him twice.

Ryan Newman, DeSantis’ general counsel, said that the term means “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”

Indeed, there are inequities. DeSantis’ slate of anti-Black policies and actions reminds us.

For example: DeSantis’ different treatment of white Republican voters who knowingly committed fraud by twice voting for Donald Trump in the Villages and Black ex-felons who thought their rights were restored and were given voter registration cards by officials.

Guess which group was shackled, some men in their underwear, arrested SWAT-style by rifle-carrying officers and paraded in public on body cams?

Newman, once a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, said in court that DeSantis doesn’t believe that there are systemic injustices in the United States.

Hard to believe of a Yale and Harvard graduate.

Then, Newman stretched the truth with his own interpretation of woke: “To me, it means someone who believes that there are systemic injustices in the criminal-justice system, and on that basis, they can decline to fully enforce and uphold the law.”

Again, linking Blackness with lawlessness.

But, at least, Newman answered questions.

I had no such luck with DeSantis’ media reps.

“We have neither the time nor the desire to contribute to your opinion columns,” spokesman Bryan Griffin said in an email. “Please consider this response to stand in perpetuity.”

Does the “we” include the governor? I asked.

No answer.

Anti-woke costs Floridians

Anti-woke doesn’t come cheap.

Whether he’s policing Disney World’s diversity policies or persecuting college professors, DeSantis’ “anti-woke” obsession is costing the state government $17 million dollars in legal fees from the 15 lawsuits the new laws have drawn.

READ MORE: DeSantis’ culture wars grabbed headlines — and legal challenges that cost $17 million

In addition to the Warren trial, which, as of this writing, hadn’t been decided, he had lost, at least partially, a challenge to his “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act” restricting how race-related concepts can be taught at universities.

It may, in the long run, also cost him the presidency.

There’s a huge difference between appealing to a white-supremacist base in his home state and becoming the more moderate candidate that a post-Jan. 6, post-Trump America seems to prefer.

He’s also foolishly leading the state as if it were constantly in a state of war — and he’s scaring people who invest here.

Susan, a Northeast snowbird, bought a second home in Florida before COVID and planned to retire here with her husband, whose health requires warmer weather. They invested thinking Florida was a purple state.

But DeSantis scares her.

“How comfortable will a couple of proudly ‘woke Yankees’ be in Florida? I take DeSantis’ claim that ‘Florida is where woke goes to die,’ as a threat, and I personally have no interest in even spending winters there,” she writes me. “If it was up to me, I would not even step foot in Florida, given its current political climate.”

As a DeSantis watcher and recipient of his voters’ criticism, I know exactly what the governor’s anti-woke agenda means and his motivation: Stoking the base to constantly generate headlines that elevate his national profile: More Trumpian than Trump, but preppy racist.

Considering that DeSantis has turned his anti-Black agenda into Florida law, he makes the ex-president’s crass “my African-American friend” seem mild.

As for definition: If we know that woke, in DeSantis’ mind, refers to Black, then it “comes to die” here means the erasure of Blackness in Florida. And that makes all of us who care about Black history, want to read about it, learn it or teach it “the woke mob.”

The governor isn’t wearing the pointy white hood of African American studies textbooks.

But, given his aggressive racist behavior, does he need to?

National faculty group ‘appalled’ by 

Florida’s stand on critical race theory

Divya Kumar, Tampa Bay Times
Fri, January 20, 2023 

In a statement Friday, the American Association of University Professors condemned Florida’s college presidents for committing this week to root out course content promoting “critical race theory or related concepts” by Feb. 1.

“The hypocrisy is glaring, as has been the case so often recently in Florida,” the statement said. “But the danger is very real. Censorship of ideas has absolutely no place in a democracy.”

The national organization, founded in 1915, stated it was “appalled at the blatant violation of academic freedom” and said it was exploring options, including an investigation and possible censure.

“In a democracy, higher education is a common good which requires that instructors have full freedom in their teaching to select materials and determine the approach to the subject,” the statement said. “Instead, the (Florida College System) presidents, while giving lip service to academic freedom, have announced their intention to censor teaching and learning by expunging ideas they want to suppress. By dictating course content, they are also usurping the primary responsibility for the curriculum traditionally accorded the faculty under principles of shared governance.”

The presidents of Florida’s 28 state colleges — including Hillsborough Community College, St. Petersburg College and Pasco-Hernando State College — released a statement on Wednesday that said in part they would not support “any institutional practice, policy or academic requirement that compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts such as intersectionality.”

Intersectionality is a recognition that discrimination and oppression in society are often interwoven, overlapping and complex. The concept aims to convey, for example, how Black men and white women can experience discrimination in ways that are both similar and different.

The college presidents further stated that any course material or instruction that includes discussion of critical race theory will present it as “one of several theories and in an objective manner.”

Their statement came as Gov. Ron DeSantis steps up his effort to rid Florida higher education of “trendy ideologies,” as he described it in his inaugural speech earlier this month.

His budget office has required the state’s colleges and universities to report how much they spend on activities related to critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion. And in a separate request, the office told universities to provide details on all the gender-affirming care they have provided since 2018.

In its response to the state, Hillsborough Community College stated that they don’t offer critical race theory courses and that student programs are inclusive to all. In a statement to the Tampa Bay Times on Thursday, an HCC spokesperson said the college supports the system statement and remains “committed to the values that are foundational to our mission.”

St. Petersburg College wrote in its response that it was “actively auditing” its website, programs and initiatives for changes that need to be made. In December, SPC President Tonjua Williams, who leads the council of college presidents, penned a letter to the Department of Education saying the colleges would support the ideas behind Florida’s new “Stop WOKE Act,” which is facing legal challenges.

Pasco-Hernando State College President Timothy L. Beard said in a statement he believed the presidents’ letter reflected “our core values of equity and academic excellence while maintaining adherence to state and federal educational requirements.”

Irene Mulvey, president of the national professors group, said college presidents should act as firewalls against outside influence on their institutions.

“This is a move toward authoritarianism, totalitarianism,” she said. “The fact that the Florida college presidents have, seemingly unprompted, gone along with this kind of move toward authoritarianism has raised the alarm bell to a five-alarm fire.”

Her organization is considering an investigation that could result in censure or sanctions against an administration or a system. In the past five years, six colleges and universities have been added to the group’s censure list.

She described the designation as “sort of like a public black eye” in the higher education community.

Ron DeSantis Is Deeply Invested In Florida's Regression. This Is Why Everyone In America Should Wake Up

Candace McDuffie

Thu, January 19, 2023 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seen during a press conference to announce the award of $100 million for beach recovery following Hurricanes Ian and Nicole in Daytona Beach Shores in Florida.

It looks like Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ anti-critical race theory crusade continues. Most recently, his Florida administration made the decision to veto a new Advanced Placement course for high school students on African American studies.

CNN reported that in a January 12 letter to the College Board (which oversees AP courses), the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation stated that the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

It also said: “In the future, should the College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion.” Though this decision doesn’t necessarily surprise anyone, it still remains infuriating.

In 2021, Florida passed a law that banned teaching critical race theory, which ultimately was done to placate racist white people from acknowledging the violent founding of this country built on the backs of Black people. In addition, last year DeSantis enacted a bill limiting how schools can talk about race with students.

Not surprisingly, several Michigan Republicans are throwing support behind DeSantis to run for president in 2024, which has a disturbing likelihood of happening. His only Republican opponent at the moment is disgraced former president Donald Trump.

DeSantis has also stood proudly against vaccinations and mask-wearing since the onset of Covid. He shared a press release earlier this week that confirmed he’s pushing for legislation that will prevent employment decisions based on COVID-19 vaccination status. The bill would also prevent schools and businesses from requiring face coverings.

During a speech in Panama City a few days ago, DeSantis stated that requiring people to wear masks impeded on personal freedom. “It required us over the past few years to stand against major institutions in our society: the bureaucracy, the medical establishment, legacy media and even the president of the United States who, together, were working to impose a bio-medical security state on society,” he remarked.

The fact that DeSantis could become the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential race is horrifying. On top of being anti-vax and pushing racist narratives in Florida classrooms, he has also championed anti-LGBTQ legislation. Though there isn’t really any single Republican politician worth bolstering, DeSantis’ candidacy ultimately means bad news for this country.

His investment in Florida’s regressive and bigoted policies serves as a precursor to what he would do to the entire country, if given the opportunity. DeSantis’ behavior—and the seemingly endless amount of support he receives for it—will also inspire other politicians around the country to emulate it.

Although he’s had his slew of opponents, DeSantis remains determined to wield his power and influence to uphold white supremacist structures. This has always been the goal of the GOP, though: to disenfranchise people of color politically, socially and economically, no matter what the cost.

The Root

Florida Explains Why It Blocked Black History Class—and It’s a Doozy

Alec Karam
Fri, January 20, 2023 

Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Florida Department of Education says it banned AP African American History because it teaches students about activism, intersectionality and encourages “ending the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people,” according to a document the department sent to The Daily Beast.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected a request from the College Board to provide the class in high school classes in the state Wednesday. The move comes in the same week the far-right Republican—who a judge just ruled violated free speech laws by firing a prosecutor for being “woke”—requested info on trans students from universities state-wide.

DeSantis’ administration further made their anti-LGBTQ stance known in their explanation for prohibiting the class, simply listing “Black Queer Studies” as a violation of state law.

A representative for DeSantis said the now-banned class “lacks educational value and historical accuracy” in a statement to The Daily Beast.

The document further admonishes the teaching of intersectionality, claiming it is “foundational to” Critical Race Theory, without explaining how.

The department also takes issue with topics advocating for reparations—a movement with the goal of helping recipients overcome generations of human rights violations.

“There is no critical perspective or balancing opinion in this lesson,” the document says of one topic devoted to the Reparations Movement.

The inclusion of acclaimed author bell hooks in the topic Black Feminist Literary Thought is also cited as a problem, apparently because hooks used the phrase “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”

DeSantis hasn’t been shy about his anti-“woke” stance, passing the STOP W.O.K.E. act in 2021, which banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory, even though the governor failed to prove it’s taught in public schools in the state.

The Department of Education says it is “willing to reopen the discussion” if the College Board can provide a class that abides by state law and is historically accurate, although the department’s statement doesn’t provide specific details of what the class teaches that is historically inaccurate.

“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” the department said in a letter to the College Board.

The department apparently doesn’t want people to think DeSantis is against Black history, however. After all, according to department representatives, he specifically promotes teaching (some of) it.

“One example from his first term is HB 1213, passed and signed into law in 2020. This is a bill that requires all Florida students to learn about the Ocoee Massacre,” Cassie Palelis, press secretary for the Florida Department of Education, said in a statement.

The Daily Beast.

White House: Florida ban on African American studies course is 'incomprehensible'

Alexander Nazaryan

·Senior White House Correspondent

Fri, January 20, 2023 

WASHINGTON — Florida’s ban on teaching an advanced placement course on African American history is “incomprehensible,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday, in the latest dispute between the Biden administration and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential nominee who has energized conservatives with his eagerness to engage in the culture wars.

Jean-Pierre’s statement comes a day after the public release of a letter Florida’s education department sent last week to the College Board, which administers AP courses and exams. The letter said that the new African American history course would not be taught in the state’s schools because of concerns that it would become, in the words of DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin, “a vehicle for a political agenda,” as furor over the announcement mounted.

For the most part, decisions about education are made on state and local levels, but political polarization and social media have effectively nationalized the conversation about schooling, especially when that conversation includes issues of gender and race. “It is not our place to direct or be involved in any school curriculum. But this is concerning,” Jean-Pierre said.

In a statement emailed to Yahoo News, DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said the “study of African American history is not only permitted in Florida under [DeSantis] but required by law.”

“In fact,” Griffin said, “the teaching of African American History has been expanded in Florida since Governor Ron DeSantis took office.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in the briefing room on Friday. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The decision on the African American history course appears to be part of DeSantis’s campaign to make Florida the state where “woke comes to die,” as the governor is fond of saying. Attorneys and other officials in his administration have defined wokeness as a reference to “systemic injustice,” particularly in the criminal justice system.

The dispute between the White House and DeSantis over education-related issues began at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when the Florida governor resisted mask mandates for children in schools.

As the pandemic subsided, the animosity persisted.

Early last year, President Biden criticized DeSantis for what he called a “hateful” law that would make it difficult, if not impossible, to teach or discuss sexual orientation in the classroom. Although the law’s supporters said it was designed to protect young children from inappropriate materials and concepts, the measure’s language was vague enough to have a widespread chilling effect.

In March 2022, DeSantis oversaw passage of a new law that allowed parents to challenge school reading lists, course materials and library collections. The measure appeared to cater to a burgeoning movement of conservative parents angry at the state of American schools.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after signing the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., April 22, 2022. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“They have banned more books in schools and libraries than almost every other state in the country,” Jean-Pierre said on Friday. In fact, Florida ranks second in the number of book bans implemented by states, according to a recent PEN America report. Texas is first.

Many of Florida’s educational policies in the last two years appear to have been guided by Christopher Rufo, a right-wing activist who emerged in 2021 as a standard-bearer in the educational culture wars. (Rufo was recently one of six DeSantis appointees charged with turning New College, a small liberal arts school, into a beacon of conservatism.)

In April, with Rufo at his side, DeSantis signed the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which makes it almost impossible for educators to teach about racial or gender discrimination. He and Republican lawmakers — who control the state Legislature — have also mandated that civics education in the state focus on patriotism. Among the institutions allowed to review the civics guidelines was Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian institution. (Hillsdale is the model for the governor’s and Rufo’s vision for New College.)

Florida has 2.9 million public school students. Any curricular decisions made there are potentially consequential for educators and students in other states, especially as Republican governors seek to emulate the moves that have made DeSantis popular with the party’s base. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Arkansas’s new and first female governor, recently attracted a top Florida education official to run her state’s schools.

Parent Andria Derio of Yorba Linda, Calif., is opposed to the teaching of critical race theory in school, and wears a sign at a school board meeting stating she will remove her children from the district if a resolution banning CRT does not pass. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Administered by the College Board, Advancement Placement courses allow high school students to earn college credit by doing college-level work. Conceived in the 1950s at Kenyon College, the AP program now has about 40 courses, from statistics to Chinese. More than 1.1 million high school students have taken at least one AP course annually in recent years.

The African American history AP course was introduced in August as a pilot project. Conservatives immediately expressed concern that it would be used to inculcate students with critical race theory, a concept that is as divisive and nebulous as wokeness — and seems also to connote, in the broadest sense, a concern for examining the legacy and persistence of racial injustices.

“I think people need to understand that critical race theory is not an element of this course,” a teacher involved in the pilot told the New York Times, pointing out that the contentious 1619 Project — a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times Magazine series that sought to reframe the American experience around slavery and racism but also faced some criticism from historians — was not part of the curriculum.

“There might be elements that cross over,” the teacher explained. “But this course is a comprehensive, mainstream course about the African American experience.”

Schoolchildren holding signs against the concept of critical race theory, Hialeah Gardens, Fla., April 22, 2022. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

According to a copy of the proposed syllabus published by a Florida news outlet, the course is a straightforward history lesson that covers the rise of African kingdoms, the advent of the transatlantic slave trade, the experience of enslavement in the American South, abolition and emancipation, the Harlem Renaissance, the civil rights movement and the challenges faced by African Americans today.

Many of the suggested texts are by canonical authors like the pioneering sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois and the writer James Baldwin, as well as Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father who owned slaves. But reference to Kimberlé Crenshaw, who pioneered the concept of critical race theory, and other contemporary thinkers, appeared to provide conservatives like DeSantis with all the evidence they needed to dismiss the course outright as nothing more than an exercise in activism.

A factsheet compiled by the state Education Department and sent to Yahoo News also raises concerns with topics like Intersectionality and Activism, Black Queer Studies and the Reparations Movement, as well as with specific authors such as Angela Davis, bell hooks and Robin D.G. Kelley.

Some Florida educators have raised concerns about the Advanced Placement African American history course.

Last week, Florida’s education department notified the College Board that it would be prohibiting the teaching of the new course because “the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law.”

After the letter was made public on Wednesday it was immediately criticized by many educators. But conservatives who fear that mainstream American culture has been given over to progressive rhetoric and ideology cheered DeSantis, as they consistently have during his battles with Democratic politicians and corporations like Disney that have embraced progressivism.

The White House is aware of DeSantis’s rising clout and barely concealed presidential ambitions, and thus sees little downside in picking a fight with a figure many Democrats have come to regard as perhaps a bigger political threat than Donald Trump. (The former president has already announced that he will seek the presidency next year, and he too has come to view DeSantis as a threat.)

Jean-Pierre implied on Friday that the decision on African American history was motivated by racial animus. “And let’s not forget, they didn’t block AP European History, they didn’t block our music history, they didn't block our art history — but the state chooses to block a course that is meant for high-achieving students to learn about their history of arts and culture.”

In his statement, Griffin said Jean-Pierre was “demonstrably incorrect.”

Responding to what quickly became a national controversy, the state Education Department told the Daily Beast that it was open to revisiting the issue. “If the course comes into compliance and incorporates historically accurate content, the department will reopen the discussion,” a spokeswoman said.

Florida 'proudly' teaches African American history, official says, as he defends rejecting AP course


 Republican Governor DeSantis

Sharon Bernstein
Fri, January 20, 2023 a
By Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters) - Florida's education chief on Friday defended the state's rejection of a proposed Advanced Placement course in African American Studies, saying the public schools already teach about racism and slavery, while lashing out at "woke indoctrination."

The rejection of the course was the latest in a series actions by the administration of conservative Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on issues that strike a nerve in the country's culture wars, including outlawing some educational efforts regarding racism, slavery and LGBTQ rights. DeSantis is widely expected to seek his party's nomination for the presidency in 2024.

"We proudly require the teaching of African American history," Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. posted on Twitter. "We do not accept woke indoctrination masquerading as education."

The program, which is in the pilot stage, was developed by the College Board, a non-profit that administers Advanced Placement tests that help high school students gain college credits.

Florida is one of several states that have banned public schools from teaching "Critical Race Theory," an academic framework that teaches that racism goes beyond individual prejudices and "is embedded in laws, policies and institutions that uphold and reproduce racial inequalities," according to the NAACP.

On Jan. 12, Florida sent a letter to the College Board saying the AP course violated Florida law and lacked educational value.

The White House on Friday condemned the move, with spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre calling rejection of the course “incomprehensible.” She noted that Florida was not banning AP courses on European history and said the action was of a piece with earlier moves by DeSantis, including banning teaching young children about LGBTQ issues.

Diaz called the White House comments "lies" and released a chart showing the state's objections to the course.

Among the concerns were readings about intersectionality, the idea that discrimination can impact an individual in multiple ways if people are members of more than one marginalized group, a section on Black Queer Studies, a discussion of Black feminism, and a topic called Movements for Black Lives. A section on whether the U.S. should pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved people does not offer arguments against the idea, the chart says. It rejects a reading by 1960s radical Angela Davis, whom it called a "self-avowed" Communist.

"As submitted, the course is a vehicle for a political agenda and leaves large, ambiguous gaps that can be filled with additional ideological material," DeSantis' spokesman, Bryan Griffin, said in a statement to Reuters. "As Governor DeSantis has stated, our classrooms will be a place for education, not indoctrination."

If the course is amended to meet Florida's standards and comply with its laws, the state will reconsider, Griffin and Diaz said.

The College Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Friday. But on Thursday, it said in a statement to Reuters that the course aims to "explore the vital contributions and experiences of African Americans." It is a humanities course and as such does not teach theory, the statement said.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Florida blocks high school African American studies class


 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks after being sworn in to begin his second term during an inauguration ceremony outside the Old Capitol on Jan. 3, 2023, in Tallahassee, Fla. DeSantis' administration has blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African-American studies from being taught in high schools, saying the class violates state law and that it is historically inaccurate.

 (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
Thu, January 19, 2023 


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration has blocked a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies from being taught in high schools, saying it violates state law and is historically inaccurate.

The state education department rejected the program in a letter last week to the College Board, which oversees AP classes.

Florida education officials did not specify exactly what content the state found objectionable but said, “As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, (the education department) will always be willing to reopen the discussion," the letter continued.

In a statement, the College Board said, “Like all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multi-year pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars and policymakers.”

“The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result,” the statement read.

The College Board website describes the course as interdisciplinary, touching on literature, arts, humanities, political science, geography and science. The pilot program is debuting at 60 schools across the country before it expands to additional schools. The organization has been working on constructing the course for more than a decade, according to its website.

DeSantis, a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate, has opposed what he calls liberal ideologies in schools, including lessons around critical race theory, which examines systemic racism and has become a frequent target of conservatives.

Last year the governor signed legislation dubbed the Stop WOKE Act that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses. The law bars instruction that says members of one race are inherently racist or should feel guilt for past actions committed by others of the same race, among other things.

More recently the governor's budget office called on state colleges to submit spending information on programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, raising concerns of potential funding cuts around such initiatives.

Sharon Courtney, a high school teacher in Peekskill, New York teaching the African American studies course, said her students were "shocked" to learn Florida blocked the class. She described it as a factual African history course that also details what Africans experienced upon their arrival in North America.

“There’s nothing objectionable, it's history that hasn’t been traditionally taught in the United States in a K through 12 setting,” she said, “but it's also history that once known and understood could change race relations and improve them.”

What we know about AP African American Studies, and why Florida doesn’t want it

Nick Papantonis

Thu, January 19, 2023

Florida Department of Education leaders are refusing to explain why the College Board’s new AP African American Studies (APAAS) class “lacks educational value,” one day after a letter informing the Board that the class couldn’t be taught in the Sunshine State was made public.

In a letter dated January 12 – right before the nation commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. day – the department’s Office of Articulation sent the board its decision, saying “this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter read.

APAAS was first offered this school year in a multi-year pilot project. Sixty high schools across the country were allowed to teach it, including a charter school in Tallahassee. The pilot was set to expand to other schools next year before being formalized in 2024.

Due to its status as a pilot, few course materials have been publicly released. Multiple broad course overviews posted by the various schools involved in the pilot describe the course as a part-history, part-culture evolution of African American culture over time, beginning in medieval Africa and ending with modern protest movements.

The descriptions promised a heavy focus on primary source documents throughout, as well as a focus on resistance movements and oppression.

“Intersectionality, which refers to how various systems of oppression overlap, will also be a key tenet of the class,” another school’s description read.

That sets it apart from the African American history classes commonly found in high schools. Florida law requires students learn about the topic, although not necessarily in a dedicated class.

“Instruction shall include the roles and contributions of individuals from all walks of life and their endeavors to learn and thrive throughout history … and the courageous steps they took to fulfill the promise of democracy and unite the nation,” Florida law reads. “Instructional personnel may facilitate discussions and use curricula to address, in an age-appropriate manner, how the individual freedoms of persons have been infringed by slavery, racial oppression… curriculum may not be used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”

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Florida’s new “Stop WOKE Act” restricts how teachers may address race and oppression in their classrooms.

The department’s attention to this issue may have come from the outlet that broke the news of the rejection, the National Review. Contributing Editor Stanley Kurtz has spent months railing against APAAS, taking aim at texts he said were being used in the class.

“APAAS clearly proselytizes for a socialist transformation of the United States,” he wrote last year. “The long and short of it is that APAAS promotes leftist radicalism. The sheer one-sidedness of the readings establishes that. The course’s political bias is so egregious that the presence or absence of [Critical Race Theory] laws is almost beside the point.”

Critical Race Theory is a graduate-level program that theorizes racism and racial bias is present in the structure of society and the legal system because the system was set up by white people. It definition has been twisted and broadened by social conservatives looking to rally voters to topics that deal critically with the issue of race. The “Stop WOKE Act” emerged because of that political push last spring.

In an emailed statement College Board representatives pushed back on the accusations of indoctrination and political bias.

“The course is designed to encourage students to examine each theme from a variety of perspectives, without ideology, in line with the field’s tradition of debates,” the statement read. “In the spring of 2024, the AP African American Studies course framework will be posted on the AP Program website after it reflects learnings from the pilot, so that anyone can read the course material directly and see the evidence-based content and skills that students learn in the course.”

The state’s ban was met with astonishment from the history community. Documents reported 100 college curricula and more than 130 professors were consulted during the design of the course over the last decade, including a during well-attended seminar for high school teachers involved in the pilot at Howard University this summer.

Some pointed out AP European History was still available for students to take, along with AP courses in Art History and various European and Asian languages.

“I find it hard to believe that a governor, state employees, or state politicians are also qualified historians who can say whether any AP history course has “historically inaccurate information.” Howard University History Department Chair Dr. Nikki Taylor said. “Only historians can make such calls, not politicians.”

Dr. Christopher Tinson, chair of the African American Studies department at St. Louis University, was involved in vetting the course curriculum. He said he wanted a class that didn’t begin the African American experience with slavery, and also wanted to focus on topics like how the Haitian Revolution helped expand the US.

He said he was disappointed by the state’s comments. At no point during the course’s development were corners cut, he explained, nor did the class teach Critical Race Theory to high schoolers, despite covering tough topics like racism and oppression.

He defended the course as a well-rounded effort to better prepare the next generation of scholars.

“We can’t continue to say that we want an informed citizenry that... that wants the best for each other, if we don’t understand the histories that people will carrying with them,” he said.

Universities respond to DeSantis, saying they spend $35M on diversity programs

Divya Kumar, Tampa Bay Times
Thu, January 19, 2023 

Florida’s 12 public universities plan to spend about $34.5 million on diversity initiatives and related efforts, according to records gathered at the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget office.

The records were assembled in response to a late December request that all state colleges and universities tally what they spend on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and activities related to critical race theory. Since then, the governor has criticized universities for accommodating “trendy ideologies” and begun what some are calling an effort to “recapture” higher education from “woke” influence.

In addition to asking for diversity records, the DeSantis administration has restructured the board of trustees at New College, a progressive school in Sarasota, and is requiring the 12 universities to detail the treatment they have provided since 2018 for people seeking gender-affirming care.

The first batch of university responses shows that $20.7 million — or about 60 percent of what universities spend on diversity efforts — comes from the state, with the remainder from sources like the federal government.

A 35-page document details expenses ranging from a $63 graduation ceremony for LGBTQ students at Florida Gulf Coast University to a $4.1 million Upward Bound program at the University of South Florida for low-income, first-generation college students. State funds did not go toward either of those.

The University of South Florida spent the most of any school — a total of $8.7 million, with about $2.5 million coming from the state. Other expenses included the university’s supplier diversity program, which was touted for creating economic opportunities for minority-owned local businesses and trainings; a handful of general education courses; and funding for USF’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which is in the process of hiring a chief diversity officer.

The university’s latest strategic plan, approved by its trustees and the state Board of Governors, adopted social justice as one of its main tenets.

Florida A&M University spent the highest amount of state funds: $4.1 million. The historically Black university in Tallahassee listed among its expenses a research center and museum for Black archives, a center for disability access and the Center for Environmental Equity and Justice, which was funded into existence by the Legislature in 1998.

The University of Florida spent a total of $5.3 million, of which $3.3 million came from state funds.

Florida State University spent $2.45 million, with $2.25 million coming from the state. Among the programs that received money: FSU’s Power of We civil discourse initiative; NCAA compliance training; and 35 courses, including Topics in Buddhism, Black Women in America and Classical Perspectives in Dance.

Florida International University spent $3.1 million, with $2.25 million from the state, and the University of Central Florida spent $4.47 million, including $2.3 million in state funds. Expenses at UCF included the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, which issues a national race and gender report card.

The Department of Education has yet to release records on diversity efforts at the state’s 28 public colleges. But on Wednesday the department said all of the college presidents issued a joint statement that “rejects the progressivist higher education indoctrination agenda.”

Responding to requests by the Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg College and Hillsborough Community College provided records of their spending on diversity initiatives.

St. Petersburg College spent $1.8 million, of which $217,413 came from the state. The majority of expenses were for an initiative funded by the Helios Foundation that supports Black male students, the most underrepresented demographic in higher education.

Hillsborough Community College spent $552,029, of which $40,555 came from the state. The college said it does not offer studies in critical race theory, adding that its student events and programs are all-inclusive.

Divya Kumar covers higher education for the Tampa Bay Times, in partnership with Open Campus.

(Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story contained incorrect information on the number of state colleges in Florida.)