By Bill Mattox, JMI Research Fellow
The annual Jefferson-Jackson Fundraising Dinner has been a staple in Democratic Party circles for many years.  Recently, however, a number of county organizations have been dropping references to these two 19th Century presidents since both men owned slaves.
For example, the Broward Democratic Party called this year’s event, The Democratic Unity …

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By Juan Montalvo, JMI Intern & FSU Senior, Economics
Last fall, the Capital City Tiger Bay Club featured a debate on offshore drilling along Florida’s Gulf Coast of Florida. Barney Bishop of Associated Industries of Florida and Leon County Commissioner Bob Rackleff traded jabs and articulated their reasoning on why or why not Florida should utilize …

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By Bill Mattox, JMI Research Fellow
Florida legislators and education officials increasingly are being asked to consider virtual schooling as an option for dealing with a variety of problems – from overcrowding in some schools to limited course offerings in other schools.
Nevertheless, virtual education continues to suffer from a perception in some circles that it is …

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By Bob McClure, JMI President & CEO
Similar to the ticking time bomb at the federal level regarding entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security and their effects on the federal budget, the state of Florida has its own silent killer. It is called Medicaid, and it’s a program supposedly designed as a safety net …

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By Francisco Gonzalez, JMI Development Director
Following from my previous blog post, “Libertarianism: 2010″, Cato Institute Senior fellow Ilya Shapiro also spoke heavily about the libertarian principle of the rule of law, during his lecture at FSU’s law school on February 3. He gave an account of common law and the principles of contract, tort, and …

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By Bill Mattox, JMI Resident Fellow
PBS will air the premiere of Dolley Madison today–Monday, March 1.  The 90-minute documentary takes an in-depth look at the woman who defined the role of “First Lady”. 
From all indications, the PBS broadcast will pay appropriate tribute to America’s “hostess with the mostest” – but I’ll still be curious to …

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By Robert F. Sanchez, Policy Director
Is the euro’s current rapid decline in value against the U.S. dollar but a preview of things to come for the dollar itself? Financial experts warn that it could be. Here’s why:
            The euro’s troubles stem from a financial meltdown in one of the European Union’s member states, Greece. Post-mortems …

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By Francisco Gonzalez, JMI Development Director
On February 3, I attended a lecture at the Florida State University law school, hosted by the FSU chapters of the Federalist Society and the Young Americans for Liberty. The speaker, Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, gave a talk, “So you think you know …

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By Robert F. Sanchez, JMI Policy Director
As JMI President Bob McClure writes in our just-released Winter 2010 Journal, California was once considered a model for other states to emulate. Not anymore. An editorial in that state’s capital city newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, highlighted one of the main reasons:  “Since 1970, California voters have gone to …

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By Jay Bailey, JMI Intern & FSU Senior, Political Science
Despite the setbacks to school choice in Florida, there remain reasons for optimism.  In fact, there are still some opportunities for school choice in the Sunshine State.  For example, parents with children in what the Department of Education considers “failing schools” have the option of transferring their children …

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