LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT WEEK

Dan Gropper, dean, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University. A recent AP poll found that about 80% of the survey participants felt that the country is on the wrong track. As interest rates continue to rise, the financing costs of the national debt will become astronomical and will surpass other key elements of the budget. As current fiscal and monetary policy effects continue to work, our national economic policy must shift, or even more damage will occur. The 80% are on to something.

Marty Kiar, property appraiser, Broward County. The United Way is working to help ease the housing crisis in South Florida. Using federal funds and philanthropic donations, the United Way is working to bring 2,500 affordable units to Broward over the next five years. With rents and home prices skyrocketing, the nonprofit organization is working to provide affordable housing to Broward residents as well as help attract new businesses to the area that may be concerned about the expense of living in Broward. Thank you to the United Way for helping address the affordable housing shortage in our community.

Alissa Jean Schafer, member, Broward Soil and Water Conservation District. Let’s address the climate elephant in the abortion rights waiting room. SCOTUS’ decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will have deadly results. The decision, combined with worsening, climate-fueled natural disasters, increases the risk of death for those able to get pregnant. Access to health care in the event of a hurricane or catastrophic storm is already limited. Anti-abortion laws provide an additional challenge, forcing the patient to beat an arbitrary deadline or attempt to finance an expensive out-of-state trip. In Florida, that deadline is 15 weeks. For those already facing disaster-related financial burdens, this situation could present an impossible situation.

Howard Simon,

retired executive director, ACLU of Florida.

We are experiencing a cultural revolution driven by ideologues in robes who have been appointed to our judicial system. They have required states to allow more guns on the streets, permitted imposing sectarian prayers on captive audiences, and permitted the outlawing of women’s access to abortion. Judges have also evaded responsibility and ignored assaults on democracy by allowing restrictions on voting and brazen gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts. We will soon see whether Florida judges will respect or ignore decades of rulings that have recognized women’s access to abortion as a right of privacy under our state constitution.

Richard Stark, former member, Florida House of Representatives. With Roe v. Wade overturned, pro-life activists will be pushing for more adoptions. In a footnote of a Justice Alito brief, the term “domestic supply of infants” was used, infuriating many adult adoptees nationwide. This validates feelings by many adoptees that they are a product to be bartered. Moving forward, the narrative for adoptees and birth mothers must be changed. Adoptees as adults should no longer be denied their biological records by the state, and the shaming of birth mothers must stop.

Gregory Tony, Broward sheriff. This past Friday, a new Florida law went into effect prohibiting music from inside a motor vehicle that is audible more than 25 feet away. The violation is considered non-moving and will result in a $115 fine. Going forward, Broward Sheriff ’s Office deputies will issue warnings and provide public education as the first step of enforcement. This holiday weekend, our traffic enforcement and marine patrol units will also be patrolling for aggressive driving/ boating while our DUI Task Force conducts overnight operations throughout the county. We hope you have a safe and enjoyable Independence Day weekend.

Chad Van Horn,

Let’s talk monkeys. Forty vervet monkeys, descended from a dozen brought here in the ’40s from Africa, live around the airport. After the Park ’N Fly closed its lot, a real estate developer purchased the land, where a mangrove is home to these long-tailed, mischievous critters. Animal lovers sighed in relief when the developer said the areas occupied by the monkeys “are not part of the development plan,” according to the Sun Sentinel. Given the popularity of this colony of cute primates, perhaps Florida should promote monkey sighting tours in its cache of tourism offerings. Monkeys in Florida, who knew?

founding partner attorney, Van Horn Law Group, P. A. Thomas Wenski,

archbishop, Archdiocese of Miami. The Supreme Court upheld First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom in three recent decisions. Last week, the court backed a Washington state high school coach, ruling that he was wrongly fired for praying on the field after games. Earlier, the court held that Maine could not deny funding to a faithbased school available to other private schools, and in May it held that Boston unjustly excluded a group wishing to fly a “Christian” flag when it allowed other groups to fly their own banners. The “establishment clause” does not require states to be hostile to the religious beliefs of their citizens.