on and off the grid Florida Keys and US political smorgasboard
Saturday, November 10th, 2012
Ed Davidson won the race. As day turned into night on Friday and the night extended, Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Office staff and volunteers continued conducting an automated recount of more than 32,000 ballots to determine if Ed Davidson of Marathon or John Welsh from Key West will be the next District 3 representative on the School Board. Around 10:20 p.m., the winner was proclaimed: Davidson, 16,362 votes to Welsh’s 16,146. Following the Tuesday election, Davidson was up by 148 votes, or just 0.44 percent of all votes cast. Davidson received 16,410 votes to Welsh’s 16,262. One hundred and fifteen people wrote in a candidate. After the three-member Election Canvassing Board comprising county Mayor David Rice, Commissioner Heather Carruthers and county Judge Ruth Becker counted provisional ballots Friday morning, Davidson gained 43 votes to Welsh’s 25, a difference of 0.5 percent of all votes cast. When that percentage comes into play, state election law calls for an automated recount. Welsh opted not to waive it when reached by Supervisor of Elections-elect Joyce Griffin. Welsh, a former Key West High School principal, said he didn’t expect the outcome to change with a recount but opted to avail himself to it based on what he dubbed “some confusion” on Election Day. He cited memory cards that store votes that had to be resent from two Keys precincts, and 250 absentee ballots that had to be manually transported from the Upper Keys to Key West. “I wasn’t hoping the results would change but I wanted an accurate count,” Welsh said. “The idea that the recount is automatic, I might as well avail myself. I’m just kind of trying to put the whole thing behind me.” Welsh ran on a platform of restoring trust to the School District, which in recent years has been rocked by a six-figure financial scandal, plummeting budget revenues and a sour relationship between unionized teachers and the administration. Davidson stressed throughout his campaign a return to school-based management, empowering individual schools to draw on community resources to achieve success. He will be sworn in Nov. 20. The canvassing board considered 101 provisional ballots, 85 that were counted and 16 that were not. A provisional ballot is cast in one of two instances: If you show up to the polls without photo identification or you show up at the polls and say you are a registered voter but the elections office can’t verify your registration. In the case of photo IDs, “We make a copy of your voter registration card, where you registered to vote, and we present the provisional ballot and the voter registration card to the canvassing board,” which compares signatures to validate the vote, Griffin said. In the case of a registration disagreement, “You have two days to get us proof that you’re registered.” The recount process played out last in the Keys in 2008 in the race for Circuit Court judge between Mary Vanden Brook and Tegan Slaton, who ultimately won. In the School Board District 1 race this year, incumbent Andy Griffiths handily defeated political newcomer Yvette Mira-Talbott to secure a sixth four-year term. Griffiths received 20,937 votes, or 61.47 percent, to Mira-Talbott’s 13,121, or 38.52 percent.Congratulations to Ed Davidson, Godspeed, he also has my sincere condolences. The 115 write-in votes I received did not affect the final outcome.
It was all over US 1 Radio, 104.1 FM, yesterday that a Sugarloaf School substitute teacher got busted by sheriff deputies for possession of lots of child pornography in his apartment, and a shotgun and a pistol in his van. Apparently, the School District did due diligence before hiring the teacher three years ago.The bust happened after the man’s landlord evicted him for being a slob, and on entering the apartment the landlord saw child pornography material and tapes, grabbed a few and called the Sheriff Department. I hope the Teacher’s Union is as eager to have this teacher dismissed and hope the School District is eager to dismiss him. I think I heard he is charged with 118 counts of child pornography, and perhaps more charges will be filed.
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From Erika Biddle yesterday:
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 22:25:07 -0500 From: erika.b@earthlink.net To: sloanbashinsky@hotmail.com Subject: Post Request
Hi Sloan
Here is the information on the school involvement for “Hidden in Plain View” you requested.
All my Best
Erika
National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week November 10 – 18, 2012
The Studios of Key West is displaying a literary or visual artistic interpretation of Homeless Children created by four Monroe County School District students: Meredith Delostrinos -2nd Grade; Anna Schneider – 5th Grade; Willow Wood – 5th Grade and Bridget Martin – 5th Grade during the “Hidden In Plain View: Faces and Voices of Homelessness.” exhibit from November 15th–December 14th. This is truly an honor as works from some of the country’s leading artists will be on display beside them. The Studios of Key West is absolutely thrilled at having students participate in this event.
In addition to being part of the exhibit at The Studios of Key West, each of the four students had a $50.00 gift card, donated from PUBLIX grocers, given to a local FOOD BANK in the Upper, Middle and Lower Keys in the students’ name.
All of the pieces created by the students will be displayed in a scrapbook available during the exhibit and then circulated throughout the schools with a viewers comment page. Congratulations to all the students who participated and please take the time to view the Exhibit.
HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW: FACES & STORIES OF HOMELESSNESS
November 15, 2012 – December 14, 2012 The Studios of Key West Opening Reception: November 15, 6-9pm
Erika told me yesterday that she has talked with Key West area schools about classes taking field trips to Studios of Key West to see the exhibition. She said field trips can be arranged by calling Studios of Key West.
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On a parallel front, from Father Steven Braddock:
Subject: Fun Way to Help the Hungry in Time for Thanksgiving! From: frbraddock@cs.com
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 23:50:07 -0500
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On any given day in Monroe County there are men, women, and children who are homeless, living and sleeping in the street, the mangroves, vehicles, derelict vessels, or other inappropriate and…
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Added on 4/02/12
810 views
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GRAB A SHOPPING CART AND HELP OUR KEY WEST
FOOD PANTRY !
Go shopping with Episcopal Charities to support enhanced funding for the Loaves and Fish Food Pantry. The need is great, the shopping is easy and fun!
Online donations received during National Hunger and Homelessness week, November 10th -17th, will be distributed to the Loaves and Fish Food Pantry, a program sponsored by St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and the Florida Keys Outreach Coalition www.FKOC.org
A collaborative anti-hunger ministry, the Loaves and Fish Pantry provides food, disposable diapers and personal hygiene items to needy individuals and families in the Key West area.
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Supermarket Have fun while helping to feed the hungry. Directions: Enter our supermarket and click on the grocery items to fill up your shopping cart! Its so much fun we know youll want to keep shopping!
>Enter Episcopal Charities Market Now!Please forward this email to others.
Thank you!
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There is no way to imagine what being homeless is like, unless you have been homeless.
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Also down Key West way:
From: Homebigpine@aol.com
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 17:46:41 -0500
Subject: sent to Coconut Telegraph
To: several people
The Citizen’s editor says that they endorsed Romney because orders came down from corporate headquarters. Whether you supported that candidate is not important , but what is really disgusting and typical is that the Keys WORST newspaper followed orders from who knows where. Very sad as the old Citizen almost used to be a credible newsppaper. Who else are they schilling for , the Navy? They certainly have not published any letters to the editor, or let Mark Howell do any investigative reporting on the Balfour Beatty deal. Pitiful paper and fifty cents? Bah!~ =========================
From: keysmyhome@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: sent to Coconut Telegraph
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 19:58:45 -0500
Todd German emailed me word came down from above for The Citizen to endorse Romney, and he and the other volunteer members of the Editorial Board knew nothing about the editorial until it ran in The Citizen last Sunday. I published Todd’s email. However, I have heard nothing to that effect from Tom Tuell. I don’t see linkage between Balfour Beatty and and the Navy putting The Outer Mole out to bids. If any of you have more information, please let me know. Thanks.
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From: Christine Russell of Key West to me and the other people
Subject: RE: sent to Coconut Telegraph
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2012 21:43:24 -0500
I heard Tom T say something about this on US1 Radio Friday morning discussing the endorsement with Bill Becker – go back and listen to the interview.
If I was on the Editorial Board I would resign out of disgust. Subscribers too should question where they want to line the pockets of this papers owners and read such garbage! Maybe it’s time for a boycott.
Christine
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From me to All:
Subject: RE: sent to Coconut Telegraph
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 06:38:04 -0500
Thanks, Christine.
I just listened to the Tom Tuell interview, it’s just past the 57 minute part of Friday’s Morning Magazine. Tuell said whoever owns a newspaper can run whatever editorial he wants to run. No inquiry by Becker about Tuell taking his name off the Editorial Board staff letterhead for that editorial, nor about the volunteer Editorial Board members not knowing about the editorial, nor about the editorial looking as if it was the Editorial Board’s doing. My understanding is, correct me if I’m wrong, the same outfit which owns The Citizen owns US 1 104.1 FM Radio. I hear, again correct me if I’m wrong, that Tuell and Becker are good buddies. In any event, it wasn’t the kind of interview I would have conducted.
As for boycotting The Citizen, when I tried to download the entire edition a while ago, something came up on the screen of my laptop saying the program was defective and could not be downloaded. That never happened before – I download the entire edition each morning. I had a dream about being beside the Mississipi River shortly before waking this morning, and of moving in that direction. Sean Kinney, who writes for the Keynoter, is an Old Miss graduate, as is his wife. I took the dream as a signal for me to rely on the Keynoter in the future, since The Citizen told me to stop using its material in my posts after I published Todd German’s email the other day explaining the Romney endorsement editorial and his sentiments about how Tuell had handled it. [Todd is a volunteer member of the Editorial Board.]
After talking about the editorial yesterday, Becker asked Tuell about the Navy saying it wants to put The Outer Mole in Key West out for bids. Tuell said he felt that, and the Balfour-Beatty purchase of Peary Court, seems to represent a shift in the Navy away from giving surplus Navy property to local communities, to selling surplus Navy property. Tuell meant the US Navy generally, not the local Navy base. Given how expensive the US military is, about one-half of the total US budget, given the light that is being cast on that in Congress and the national news, perhaps the Navy decided it needed to find other ways of generating revenue. In the case of The Outer Mole, perhaps the Navy wants to increase the rent the City pays, and this talk of putting the pier out for bids will have that effect. Wouldn’t bother me, though, if the City and Ed Swift’s Conch Trains lose the pier altogether, and the City loses that cruise ship business altogether. I think the regular monster cruise ships, which call on Key West now, are a bad idea. Super monster cruise ships would be a super bad idea.
On the US budget, a M.I.T. PhD graduate amigo, very conservative Republican, and I agreed the other day that the US is doomed if Congress and President Obama don’t produce a balanced budget next year. I said the cuts needed for a balanced budget would have Republicans and Democrats squealing equally loud. My friend said a balanced budget is not going to happen. I said military spending could be cut. My friend bristled, said get rid of EPA, it’s choking America to death financially. And there’s the rub. The Republicans don’t want to experience pain, the Democrats don’t want to experience pain. They want the other side to experience pain. I told Sancho Panza up New York way yesterday, he and his family are struggling to cope with Hurricane Sandy and the storm behind her, that perhaps we should start referring to the two major US political parties as the red and blue religions. They sure do behave like religions.
Ciaosky,
Sloan
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I also would resign from the Editorial Board if I were on it. So far, nothing further in The Citizen about the Romney editorial, nothing from The Citizen, nothing from members of the Editorial Board.
Not long ago, Christine told me she is so fed up with Key West and US politics that she is liquidating her Key West and other US assets and moving out of the country. I replied that I hoped I am not still alive when the chickens come home to roost in America, and wherever she ends up, Christine will find politics she doesn’t like.
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So far, The Citizen has not published this letter to the editor:
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I was told in my sleep in 2008 that Barack Obama had the potential to be the Anti-Christ. After President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, while he waged George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was hardly able to have a bowel movement for a month. The malaise ended only after some pretty rough poetry about what President Obama had done erupted out of me. As Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc in NY City on the eve of the election, it came to me that that was karma for the wqay America reacted to 911, which could have been mitigated if President Obama had not continued George W. Bush’s wars. The day after the re-election of the President Obama, a second rough storm hit NY City, with snow and plummeting temperatures. To top off the whole affair, I read on Facebook yesterday that George W. Bush “accidently” voted for President Obama. Some people took that as God’s way of saying Barack Obama was supposed to be re-elected. I took it as God’s way of saying war birds of a feather flock together. Meanwhile, when is The Citizen going to tell its readers that its Editorial Board had nothing to do with The Citizen editorial which endorsed Mitt Romney, and that Editor Tom Tuell removed his name from The Citizen Editorial Board staff head above that editorial, but did not remove any of the other Editorial Board members’ names? I was told all of that by another Editorial Board member, who backed Romney. Sloan Bashinsky 1031 Grand Street Little Torch Key (305) 872-1705
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