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Archive for November, 2009|Monthly archive page

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Governor Crist signs off on tuition increase

In Financial News, News on November 7, 2009 at 6:51 pm

Governor Charles Crist has recently signed a bill that will increase the tuition for students of PJC starting in the spring semester. The bill calls for a 5% tuition increase, which adds up to about $3 per credit hour.

The bill also calls for a 4% budget cut for PJC’s budget. However, due to non-recurrent funds that were appropriated for the state budget but never spent, the school’s budget will only need to be cut by about 2%.

Unfortunately the economy of the state is not improving, and PJC’s budget may see more cuts next year without the non-recurrent funds to cushion the blow.

Crist had vetoed a similar bill last summer, feeling that the citizens of Florida were already paying too much in taxes. This time the Governor passed the full bill without feeling a need to veto any section of it.

The budget cuts were established by the State Senate and the House of Representatives in special sessions that were held early last month due to a 1.5 billion dollar state deficit.

Regardless of any cuts to the budget that may occur, students should not be concerned about the increase of any other fees or costs on campus.

“We’re not going to nickel and dime our students,” said Larry Bracken, the college government affairs director.

Originally published by The Corsair for Pensacola Junior College.

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Pensions on council agenda

In Local News, Political News on November 7, 2009 at 6:27 pm

Pension Plan Concerns Addressed to City Council

Citizens voiced their concern over the costliness of Pensacola’s pension plan during the open forum segment of the Sept. 25 city council meeting.

Pensacola resident Bill Cummins began the discussion when he presented the council with his assessment of the pension’s cost to city taxpayers. According to Cummins the sum of money that the city is obligated to pay for this pension has risen to $103 million, a huge jump compared to the $2.9 million that was owed just 12 years ago.

“You will have more money going to that plan than you will have received in taxes,” said Cummins.

The discussion was started as a response to one of the councilmen publicly denying that they had a pension plan under the city at the Sept. 22 meeting of the republican women’s club. Cummins was the first of three Pensacola residents who had attended the Sept. 22 meeting and had come before the council to express their views on the subject.

Members of the city council agreed with Cummins on the urgency of the matter. Councilman Sam Hall explained that the pension’s unfunded liability is approximately $20 million more than what the city takes in from its general fund and places like the Energy Services of Pensacola.

“It’s one of those things that the council is going to have to get its arms around, and pretty quickly,” said Hall, “I’m not sure exactly when it’s going to get to crisis level, but I think it’s going to reach up and bite either this council, the next council, or certainly the one after that.”

The city switched its pension plan for newly hired employees from the city plan to the Florida retirement system in June of 2007. When this happened all employees hired prior to 2007 were given the option of switching to the Florida retirement system or to stay with the city pension plan.

As Councilman Marty Donovan explained, the reason the city owes so much is because over 95% of employees didn’t switch to the Florida system.

Originally published at Ricksblog.biz for the Independent News.

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Bailey: current charter hurts city

In Local News, Political News on November 7, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Former CRA director says city charter limits problem solving

The Pensacola City Charter inhibits the city’s people and government from successfully working together to solve tough problems, Pensacola architect David Bailey told the Charter Review Commission at their meeting on Wednesday.

Bailey referred to a section of the charter, which states that the city council can only interact with the members of the city staff through the city manager. This rule creates a bottleneck that prevents the council from effectively dealing with major problems such as generational poverty and housing issues.

“The structure of the city government does not lend itself to leadership on the part of the elected officials,” said Bailey.

Bailey said that during his five years as the director of the Pensacola community redevelopment agency his working relationship with the city council was inhibited to the point of being meaningless. According to Bailey, there were members of the council who never met with him at his office during his time on the staff.

Commission Member Natalie Prim explained that the rule was in place to keep staff members from going around the city manager.

“It doesn’t mean that they can’t discuss, or that they can’t present or grieve, or hear what they have to say,” said Prim, “I think it’s just to keep order in the house and not let it get out of hand.”

Bailey responded by suggesting that the language of the charter provide an individual with the responsibility to keep that problem in check rather than using “soft” language that prevents the separate departments from communicating.

“The problems that I dealt with were not tidy problems,” said Bailey, “don’t let the desire to have very tidy structure prevent us, when we’re in the trenches, from solving problems.”

Pensacola’s government was also compared to that of big cities that exhibit a more progressive form of government, such as Jacksonville, Fla. and Austin, Texas. Bailey used the example of the mayor of Austin, Will Wynn, sitting down with members of the pubic to draft a budget.

Bailey told the review commission that Pensacola’s political boundaries do not reflect the significance of the city within the state of Florida or the United States, and that it should be more progressive.

Originally published at Ricksblog.biz for the Independent News.

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The Corsair visits Gotham City

In Columns and Editorials, Videos on November 7, 2009 at 6:13 pm


This is a video that I shot and edited myself to compliment a column I wrote for The Corsair. In the column I covered a viral marketing campaign rally for Harvey Dent, a fictional character from the recent Batman film, The Dark Knight.

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Presidential hopeful John McCain makes appearance at PJC

In News, Political News on November 7, 2009 at 6:13 pm

Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain made a campaign stop Jan. 22 at The Hartsell Arena on PJC’s Pensacola campus.

The Arizona senator held a Florida Military Veteran’s Rally to meet with his supporters in Pensacola as he began his campaign to win the Florida primary election.

He used the opportunity to discuss the economy and the war in Iraq.

“We are succeeding in Iraq,” McCain said. “Al Qaeda is on the run, but they are not defeated.”

McCain confessed that if it wasn’t for the war on terror and the war in Iraq, he might not have considered running for President. He said that he has the military experience needed to win the war, and promised that he could find Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden if elected.

In addition, McCain would also expand the military to keep troop rotations on schedule, and keep America present in the Middle East for as long as necessary.

“I’d rather lose a campaign than lose a war,” said McCain.

McCain also advocated restraining government spending and keeping taxes low.

He spoke passionately about improving health care for military veterans, noting that treating veterans well is an incentive for others to serve in the military.

A military veteran himself, McCain lived in Pensacola briefly to attend flight school, and considers Florida the most patriotic state in the U.S.

“[Sen. McCain] knew that something very good was going to happen in his future, he just didn’t know what,” said Col. George “Bud” Day, who met McCain in a P.O.W. camp during the Vietnam war. “We have very high expectations that he’ll do well in Florida, proceed to the next series of elections, and come out of that the number one man.”

Originally published by The Corsair for Pensacola Junior College.

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Podcast Interview with Brad Warner pt.2

In Podcasts on November 7, 2009 at 11:50 am

Click here.

In part two of the podcast, Brad Warner discusses death, the afterlife, and the science behind zazen meditation.

Click here for part one.

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Podcast Interview with Brad Warner pt.1

In Podcasts on November 7, 2009 at 11:47 am

Click here.

This was an interview that I conducted over the phone with Brad Warner, author of such popular Buddhist books as Hardcore Zen and Sit Down and Shut Up. I edited the audio content from the interview into a downloadable two-part podcast on eCorsair.com.

In this installment, Brad talks about the definition of the word “dharma,” as well as how to practice zazen meditation.

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