Category: “Dead Skunk in The Middle of The Road”

Issues and events that stink to high heaven

North Idaho College Trustees follow national MAGA party into oblivion: The MAGA-fication of North Idaho College

The New York Times

The MAGA-fication of North Idaho College

Charles Homans – March 6, 2023

The North Idaho College Campus in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Feb. 22, 2023. (Margaret Albaugh/The New York Times)
The North Idaho College Campus in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Feb. 22, 2023. (Margaret Albaugh/The New York Times)

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — The February meeting of the North Idaho College board of trustees was, by recent standards, civilized.

There were no shoving matches or speeches from far-right podcasters. Nobody pulled the fire alarm. The parade of community members who, under the wary eye of campus security officers, took turns at the microphone mostly kept their voices below shouting volume, until an hour or so before midnight, when a woman cried “Shame on you!” and stormed out of the room.

Mostly, people seemed stunned that it had actually come to this.

For most of the past two years, the college’s governing board has been a volatile experiment in turning grievances into governance. Trustees backed by the county Republican Party hold a majority on the board. They have denounced liberal “indoctrination” by the college faculty and vowed to bring the school administration’s “deep state” to heel and “Make NIC Great Again.”

The injection of such sweeping political aims into the routine administration of a community college of 4,600 students, one better known locally for its technical training programs than the politics of its faculty, has devolved into a full-blown crisis. The school has faced lawsuits from two of the five presidents it has had since the start of the previous school year. A district court judge ordered one of those presidents reinstated Friday in a ruling that castigated the trustees for “steering NIC toward an iceberg.” The college has lost professors and staff and had its debt downgraded by Moody’s, which cited the school’s “significant governance and management dysfunction.”

The troubles culminated last month in a letter from the regional higher education commission, which warned that the 90-year-old college could be stripped of its accreditation if changes were not made in a matter of weeks — an effective threat of closure and a potential catastrophe for Coeur d’Alene, a town of 56,000 in the Idaho Panhandle. The college is the sixth-largest employer in Kootenai County and a source of skilled labor for much of the local economy.

“As a businessperson here, it’s heartbreaking to me to be standing on the brink of the loss of this institution,” said Eve Knudtsen, owner of a Chevrolet dealership in the neighboring town of Post Falls. Knudtsen, a Republican, attended NIC, as have both of her daughters, and she said one-third of the technicians hired by her dealership came out of the school.

“It’s pretty much a dystopian farce,” said Kathleen Miller Green, an assistant professor of child development who attended the nearly six-hour, capacity-crowd meeting at the school’s student union building Feb. 22. “It’s laughable if you don’t have to live it.”

Rick MacLennan, a former president of the college who was ousted by the trustees in 2021, describes the school as “a canary in the coal mine” — a warning of what awaits local institutions across the country as fiercely partisan and disruptive cultural battles spread into new corners of public life. He and other critics of the trustees see parallels with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ efforts to remake New College, a state-run liberal arts school in Sarasota, Florida, as a conservative bastion.

What’s different about North Idaho College, however, is that local voters have more directly driven the change — and the results have been less ideological overhaul than organizational chaos.

In Kootenai County, a magnet for conservative retirees from other states where Donald Trump won 70% of the vote in 2020, most public institutions and services are overseen by directly elected trustees. That means that Republican activists and voters, who increasingly see even once-benign institutional authorities as a threat to their values, are in a position to do something about it.

The clash over the college began in 2020 when, after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, the school’s diversity council issued a statement expressing support for social justice demonstrations, including Black Lives Matter protests. The statement caught the attention of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

That year, the committee began vetting and endorsing candidates for county board positions in what are technically nonpartisan elections. In the Coeur d’Alene Press, a committee precinct-person accused the school of supporting a “radical, racist and Marxist organization” and “guilting white male students,” and urged county residents to vote for two candidates endorsed by the committee “to balance the NIC Board” in the November election.

Brent Regan, the committee’s chair, argues the endorsements are no different from those of the local Rotary Club or newspaper.

“The mission of the Republican Party in Kootenai County is to try to find people who will run for office — any office, from sewer districts to school boards to trustee boards — who embrace the policies of the Republican Party as outlined in our platform,” Regan said.

In the matter of the college’s imperiled accreditation, he said, “We’re a convenient scapegoat.”

The committee’s college trustee candidates both won. They formed an informal majority on the five-member board with a like-minded incumbent trustee, Todd Banducci, who had clashed on occasion with other trustees and the school’s administrators and staff.

In an email to a conservative student, Banducci wrote that he was “battling the NIC ‘deep state’ on an almost daily basis,” and complained that “the liberal progressives are quite deeply entrenched.”

In a conversation after the election, Banducci chided MacLennan, then the college president, for his wife’s support for Hillary Rodham Clinton and told him that he would give him “marching orders,” according to MacLennan.

“My perspective was, you can’t do that,” MacLennan recalled. “It’s not going to work like that.”

In January, he wrote a letter to the trustees expressing his concern over what he described as a pattern of behavior by Banducci, who had been privately censured by the board the year before following a report that a college staff member had felt “threatened and intimidated” by him. (Banducci did not respond to a request for comment regarding the incident.) In March, local human rights organizations filed a complaint with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the accreditation body, arguing that Banducci’s conduct had “severely violated” several criteria for accreditation.

“They were in the process of dismantling the institution,” said Tony Stewart, secretary of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which drafted the complaint.

Regan argued that Stewart’s organization, which formed in the 1980s to combat white supremacists who were active in Kootenai County, had strayed far from its mission.

“Were there human rights violations going on?” he said. “No.” He called the accreditation review a “political” process, “started by people who didn’t like the results of the election.”

Banducci’s bloc of trustees eventually fired MacLennan without cause, installing the school’s wrestling coach as interim president. A power struggle ensued, with the state education board at one point appointing several interim trustees who hired a new president. In the November 2022 election, candidates backed by the GOP committee once again claimed a majority and replaced him, too.

The turnover has been cited by the accreditation body, along with several votes of no confidence in the trustees from the college faculty and student government, as a source of its concern. Sonny Ramaswamy, the commission president, declined to discuss the accreditation review, citing discussions with the school.

In November, Greg McKenzie, the current board chair, dismissed the prospect of losing accreditation as “Fake News” in a letter to constituents.

But at the February meeting, as that loss suddenly seemed like a very real possibility, the trustees appeared somewhat chastened. McKenzie reminded the crowd that members of the accrediting commission were watching via livestream and asked attendees to help avoid the circuslike atmosphere of recent meetings.

In December, Vincent James Foxx, a far-right antisemitic podcaster who lives in Kootenai County, took the microphone to offer the bloc of trustees his “100% support.” That meeting was interrupted twice by fire alarms.

The threat of losing accreditation — which would leave the school ineligible for federal financial aid and students’ credits worthless if they transfer — has drawn local business leaders off the sidelines.

At the meeting, Greg Green, a telecom entrepreneur and philanthropist, vowed to fund challenges to the committee-backed bloc of trustees in the next election, in particular Banducci. “I had no clue how bad things were,” said Green, a Republican.

But the bloc has withstood one such challenge already. In November, the local chamber of commerce and a new political action committee called Friends of NIC endorsed a slate of rival candidates for three open trustee seats. But a Republican committee-backed candidate won one of the three races, enough to recapture a majority.

In interviews, students said the imminent threat of losing accreditation had caught the attention of a student body that had mostly tuned out the years of confusing power struggles.

“It’s really sad,” said Madeleine Morgan, a second-year English and chemistry double major from California. Morgan said she had come to Idaho from California hoping for more political diversity. “It’s not like I really disagreed with the ideas down there,” she said. “It’s just that I wanted a place where, conservative or liberal, you could speak your mind.”

Still, she found herself siding with the faculty. “They have families to feed and bills to pay,” she said. “They’re not the problem here. The trustees are.”

You’re Now a ‘Manager.’ Forget About Overtime Pay.

The New York Times

You’re Now a ‘Manager.’ Forget About Overtime Pay.

Noam Scheiber – March 6, 2023

The Jack in the Box where Gonzalo Espinosa used to work in Roseville, Calif. on Feb. 23, 2023. (Max Whittaker/The New York Times)
The Jack in the Box where Gonzalo Espinosa used to work in Roseville, Calif. on Feb. 23, 2023. (Max Whittaker/The New York Times)

For four years beginning in 2014, Tiffany Palliser worked at Panera Bread in South Florida, making salads and operating the register for shifts that began at 5 a.m. and often ran late into the afternoon.

Palliser estimates that she worked at least 50 hours a week on average. But she says she did not receive overtime pay.

The reason? Panera officially considered her a manager and paid her an annual salary rather than on an hourly basis. Palliser said she was often told that “this is what you signed up for” by becoming an assistant manager.

Federal law requires employers to pay time-and-a-half overtime to hourly workers after 40 hours, and to most salaried workers whose salary is below a certain amount, currently about $35,500 a year. Companies need not pay overtime to salaried employees who make above that amount if they are bona fide managers.

Many employers say managers who earn relatively modest salaries have genuine responsibility and opportunities to advance. The National Retail Federation, a trade group, has written that such management positions are “key steps on the ladder of professional success, especially for many individuals who do not have college degrees.”

But according to a recent paper by three academics, Lauren Cohen, Umit Gurun and N. Bugra Ozel, many companies provide salaries just above the federal cutoff to frontline workers and mislabel them as managers to deny them overtime.

Because the legal definition of a manager is vague and little known — the employee’s “primary” job must be management, and the employee must have real authority — the mislabeled managers find it hard to push back, even if they mostly do grunt work.

The paper found that from 2010 to 2018, manager titles in a large database of job postings were nearly five times as common among workers who were at the federal salary cutoff for mandatory overtime or just above it as they were among workers just below the cutoff.

“To believe this would happen without this kind of gaming going on is ridiculous,” Cohen, a Harvard Business School professor, said in an interview.

Cohen and his co-authors estimate that the practice of mislabeling workers as managers to deny them overtime, which often relies on dubious-sounding titles like “lead reservationist” and “food cart manager,” cost workers about $4 billion per year, or more than $3,000 per mislabeled employee.

And the practice appears to be on the rise: Cohen said the number of jobs with dubious-sounding managerial titles grew over the period he and his co-authors studied.

Federal data appear to underscore the trend, showing that the number of managers in the labor force increased more than 25% from 2010 to 2019, while the overall number of workers grew roughly half that percentage.

From 2019 to 2021, the workforce shrank by millions while the number of managers did not budge. Lawyers representing workers said they suspected that businesses mislabeled employees as managers even more often during the pandemic to save on overtime while they were short-handed.

“There were shortages of people who had kids at home,” said Catherine Ruckelshaus, general counsel of the National Employment Law Project, a worker advocacy group. “I’m sure that elevated the stakes.”

But Ed Egee, a vice president at the National Retail Federation, argued that labor shortages most likely cut the other way, giving low-level managers the leverage to negotiate more favorable pay, benefits and schedules. “I would almost say there’s never been a time when those workers are more empowered,” he said. (Pay for all workers grew much faster than pay for managers from 2019 to 2021, though pay for managers grew slightly faster last year.)

Experts say the denial of overtime pay is part of a broader strategy to drive down labor costs in recent decades by staffing stores with as few workers as possible. If a worker calls in sick, or more customers turn up than expected, the misclassified manager is often asked to perform the duties of a rank-and-file worker without additional cost to the employer.

“This allows them to make sure they’re not staffing any more than they need to,” said Deirdre Aaron, a former Labor Department lawyer who has litigated numerous overtime cases in private practice. “They have assistant managers there who can pick up the slack.”

Palliser said that her normal shift at Panera ran from 5 a.m. to 2 p.m., but that she was often called in to help close the store when it was short-staffed. If an employee did not show up for an afternoon shift, she typically had to stay late to cover.

“I would say, ‘My kids get out of school at 2. I have to go pick them up, I can’t keep doing this,’” said Palliser, who made from about $32,000 to $40,000 a year as an assistant manager. She said her husband later quit his job to help with their child care responsibilities.

She won a portion of a multimillion-dollar settlement under a lawsuit accusing a Panera franchisee, Covelli Enterprises, of failing to pay overtime to hundreds of assistant managers. Panera and representatives of the franchise did not respond to requests for comment.

Gassan Marzuq, who earned a salary of around $40,000 a year as the manager of a Dunkin’ Donuts for several years until 2012, said in a lawsuit that he had worked roughly 70 hours or more in a typical week. He testified that he had spent 90% of his time on tasks such as serving customers and cleaning, and that he could not delegate this work “because you’re always short on staff.”

Marzuq eventually won a settlement worth $50,000. A lawyer for T.J. Donuts, owner of the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise, said the company disputed Marzuq’s claims and maintained “that he was properly classified as a manager.”

Workers and their lawyers said employers exploited their desire to move up the ranks in order to hold down labor costs.

“Some of us want a better opportunity, a better life for our families,” said Gonzalo Espinosa, who said that in 2019 he often worked 80 hours a week as the manager of a Jack in the Box in California but that he did not receive overtime pay. “They use our weakness for their advantage.”

Espinosa said his salary of just over $30,000 was based on an hourly wage of about $16 for a 40-hour workweek, implying that his true hourly wage was closer to half that amount — and well below the state’s minimum wage. The franchise did not respond to requests for comment.

The paper by Cohen and his co-authors includes evidence that companies that are financially strapped are more likely to misclassify regular workers as managers, and that this tactic is especially common in low-wage industries such as retail, dining and janitorial services.

Still, lawyers who bring such cases say the practice also occurs regularly in white-collar industries such as tech and banking.

“They have a job title like relationship manager or personal banker, and they greet you, try to get you to open account,” said Justin Swartz, a partner at the firm Outten & Golden. “They’re not managers at all.”

Swartz, who estimated that he had helped bring more than two dozen overtime cases against banks, said some involved a so-called branch manager inside a big-box store who was the only bank employee onsite and largely performed the duties of a teller.

The practice appears to have become more difficult to root out in recent years, as more employers have required workers to sign contracts with mandatory arbitration clauses that preclude lawsuits.

Many of the cases “are not economically viable anymore,” said Swartz, citing the increased difficulty of bringing them individually through arbitration.

Some lawyers said only an increase in the limit below which workers automatically receive overtime pay is likely to meaningfully rein in misclassification. With a higher cutoff, simply paying workers overtime is often cheaper than avoiding overtime costs by substantially increasing their pay and labeling them managers.

“That’s why companies fought it so hard under Obama,” said Aaron, a partner at Winebrake & Santillo, alluding to a 2016 Labor Department rule raising the overtime limit to about $47,500 from about $23,500. A federal judge suspended the rule, arguing that the Obama administration lacked the authority to raise the salary limit by such a large amount.

The Trump administration later adopted the current cutoff of about $35,500, and the Biden administration has indicated that it will propose raising the cutoff substantially this year. Business groups say such a change will not help many workers because employers are likely to lower base wages to offset overtime pay.

Florida choking on the poison: DeSantis, GOP lawmakers ready for Culture Wars 2.0 as Florida Legislature convenes

Miami Herald

DeSantis, GOP lawmakers ready for Culture Wars 2.0 as Florida Legislature convenes

Lawrence Mower – March 5, 2023

Daniel A. Varela/dvarela@miamiherald.com

When Florida lawmakers met for their annual legislative session last year, they championed bills that led to months of headlines for Gov. Ron DeSantis about sexual orientation, abortion, immigration, voting and the teaching of the nation’s racial history.

For this year’s legislative session, which begins Tuesday, DeSantis has a preview: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Emboldened by an overwhelming reelection victory margin and the most compliant Legislature in recent memory, DeSantis is pushing lawmakers to pass the legislation conservatives have been wanting for years.

Lawmakers are preparing to advance bills sought by DeSantis that would require private companies to check their employees’ immigration status. They’re eyeing sweeping changes to limit lawsuits against businesses. They could do away with requiring permits to carry a concealed weapon. More abortion restrictions might be on tap, too, when the 60-day legislative session officially kicks off.

It’s an agenda that’s expected to give DeSantis months of headlines — and springboard his anticipated 2024 presidential run. Some of the bills could help shore up his conservative bona fides against fellow Floridian Donald Trump, who has already announced he’s running to take back the White House, and to further endear him to deep-pocketed donors.

“I’ve never seen a governor in my lifetime with this much absolute control of the agenda in Tallahassee as Ron DeSantis,” said lobbyist Brian Ballard, who has been involved in Florida’s legislative sessions since 1986 and supports the governor.

READ MORE: As culture wars get attention, legislators seek control of local water, growth rules

DeSantis is coy about his presidential ambitions, but legislative leaders are prepared to pass a bill allowing him to run without having to resign. Political observers believe he’ll enter the race after the session ends in May.

Already, DeSantis is promising “the most productive session we’ve had,” aided by his 19-point reelection victory.

And the Republican super-majority Legislature has signaled that it’s along for the ride. Lawmakers in his own party have appeared reluctant to challenge him.

The goal over the next two months, according to House and Senate leaders: Get DeSantis’ priorities “across the finish line.”

Agenda of long-sought reforms

Last year’s legislative session was dominated by “culture war” bills that enraged each party’s base and left lawmakers drained.

The legislation — which included the Parental Rights in Education bill that critics called “don’t say gay” — led to months of headlines in conservative and mainstream media that helped cast DeSantis as the most viable alternative to Trump in a presidential GOP primary.

This year, DeSantis and lawmakers are looking to continue the trend — and check off several bills that failed to get traction in previous years.

DeSantis wants juries to be able to issue the death penalty even when they’re not unanimous.

The governor and lawmakers are also looking to limit liberal influences in schools and state government. A bill has been filed to end university diversity programs and courses, and lawmakers are preparing bills to prevent state pension investments that are “woke.” Legislators are also considering laws governing gender-affirming care for minors.

And when lawmakers craft their budget for the next fiscal year, it’s likely to include DeSantis’ requests for $12 million more to continue the program that sent migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. DeSantis also wants a tripling of the size of his Office of Election Crimes and Security, from 15 to 42 positions. And in a dig at President Joe Biden after an official in his administration suggested a ban on gas stoves, DeSantis wants to adopt a permanent tax break for anyone who buys one.

Perhaps his most ambitious proposal is another attempt to make good on his 2018 campaign promise requiring private employers to use the federal online system E-Verify to check that employees have entered the country legally.

In 2020, DeSantis caved after resistance from the business community and legislative leaders; he quietly signed a watered-down version of the bill into law. Late last month, he announced he would try again.

That’s one of several items on some Florida Republicans’ wish lists. Others include:

▪ An expansion of school vouchers to all school-aged children in the state, the culmination of two decades of education reforms;

▪ A measure allowing Floridians to carry concealed weapons without first seeking a permit and receiving training;

▪ Tort reform legislation long sought by the state’s business associations;

▪ A bill making it easier to sue media outlets for defamation, an idea DeSantis’ office pitched last year but that no lawmakers sponsored.

“Now we have super majorities in the Legislature,” DeSantis said. “We have, I think, a strong mandate to be able to implement the policies that we ran on.”

A changed Legislature under DeSantis

If DeSantis has a chance to pass those bills, it’s during this legislative session.

The culture in Tallahassee is far different than it was when Republicans took control more than 20 years ago. Gone are the days when Republicans publicly debated ideas. Today, floor debate among House members is time-limited, and bills are often released in their finished form following backroom deals with Republican leaders. Committee chairpersons could block leadership bills they didn’t like. Today, they’re expected to play along.

In years past, lawmakers would push back hard against the governor, such as in 2013, when they refused to carry out then-Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to expand Medicaid coverage to more than 1 million Floridians.

Today is a different story.

Much as DeSantis has exerted control over schools, school boards, Disney, high school athletics, universities and the state police, DeSantis has thrown his weight around with the Legislature over the last four years.

He’s called them into special legislative sessions six times in 20 months. Once was to pass DeSantis’ new congressional redistricting maps after he vetoed maps proposed by legislators. It was the first time in recent memory that a governor proposed his own maps.

He endorsed Republican Senate candidates during contested primary races last year, something past governors considered an intrusion into the business of legislative leaders. In one race, he supported the opponent of incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. The move was considered to undermine only the third woman to be Senate president in the state’s history.

He’s also shown little regard for the priorities of past House speakers and Senate presidents. In June, he vetoed the top priorities of the then-House speaker and Senate president, joking about the cuts while both men flanked him on stage.

DeSantis is aware of his influence over state lawmakers, according to his book “The Courage to be Free,” released last week. In one part, he writes that his ability to veto specific projects in the state budget gave him “a source of leverage … to wield against the Legislature.”

Legislative leaders say they’re aligned

The state’s legislative leaders in 2023, Passidomo and House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, consider themselves ideologically aligned with the governor.

“We have a very, very similar philosophical view of things on really every issue,” Renner said in November.

Republicans have two-thirds super-majorities in the Legislature, an advantage that allows them to further limit Democratic opposition on bills. The last two Republican legislators willing to publicly criticize their leaders’ agendas left office last year. Multiple moderate House Republicans decided not to run again last year.

DeSantis’ sway over the Legislature has not gone unnoticed.

When Luis Valdes, the Florida director for Gun Owners of America, spoke to lawmakers last month, he was upset that legislators weren’t allowing gun owners to openly carry firearms. He concluded that it must be because DeSantis didn’t want it.

“If he tells the Legislature to jump, they ask, ‘How high?’ ” he said.

Former lawmakers and observers have noticed the shift in Tallahassee.

Former Republican lawmaker Mike Fasano laments that legislators don’t exercise the power they used to have. But Fasano, who supports DeSantis, said the governor’s popularity makes it risky to go against him.

“A Republican in the Legislature, I’m sure, is aware of that,” Fasano said.

The Democrats’ lament

Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Plantation, who grew up in the legislative process thanks to her father, a big-time Tallahassee lobbyist, said the changes in the Legislature are obvious.

“This is not the same Florida Senate, Florida House, as it was when the titans were here,” Book said.

DeSantis’ culture wars have overshadowed more practical problems in Florida, such as the high costs of rent and auto and homeowners insurance, said House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa.

Passidomo has proposed broad legislation to create more affordable housing, but the governor has not endorsed the bill.

Driskell said Floridians want a pragmatist, not a populist, as governor.

“This governor has never seemed to care to know the difference.”

Tampa Bay Times political editor Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this report.

How Ron DeSantis misreads Corporate America

Yahoo! Finance

How Ron DeSantis misreads Corporate America


Rick Newman, Senior Columnist – March 4, 2023

Culture warrior Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, is laying the groundwork for a 2024 presidential bid. That includes a new manifesto against the way corporate America tries to navigate shifting attitudes on race, gender, climate change, and other issues pitting those who want power against those who have it.

DeSantis has been waging a very public war with the Walt Disney Company (DIS) that now looks like a template for a broader crusade against companies practicing “woke capitalism,” as DeSantis and other conservatives put it.

“The left has pressured big corporations like Disney to use their enormous power to advance woke political ends,” DeSantis writes in his new book, “The Courage to be Free,” which The Wall Street Journal excerpted on March 1. “There is little upside for big companies to take positions on contentious political issues.”

Republicans fed up with former President Donald Trump’s antics think DeSantis could be their nominee in 2024. His book became an instant bestseller, and DeSantis won reelection to the governor’s mansion last year in a rout, establishing strong momentum should he run for president. He’s also a military veteran with a Harvard law degree who’s only 44 and could bring the generational power shift many voters crave.

But DeSantis is badly misreading corporate America and, by extension, the convulsive societal forces CEOs are grappling with. The CEOs that DeSantis dings aren’t craven tools of the left or rudderless weather vanes. Big brand-name companies sometimes have no choice but to take a stand on controversial issues, because large blocs of their customers and employees want them to. They mess up sometimes, but as an alternative, staying silent or doing nothing is often worse.

FILE - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks as he announces a proposal for Digital Bill of Rights, Feb. 15, 2023, at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. DeSantis has emerged as a political star early in the 2024 presidential election season even as he ignores many conventions of modern politics. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
‘The target was purely political’

The Disney flap arose over a 2022 Florida law that limited what schools can teach young kids about sex and gender issues. Opponents dubbed the measure the “Don’t say gay” law and pressured Florida companies to lobby against it. Disney initially took no stance that angered some Disney employees, who staged walkouts and other types of protests. The CEO at the time, Bob Chapek, then apologized for the company’s silence and said Disney would work to overturn the bill.

That angered DeSantis, who worked with the state legislature to revoke a special self-governing status Disney has enjoyed near its Disney World theme park since 1967. Instead of managing its own municipal affairs, Disney will now have to answer to a five-person board staffed with DeSantis allies. DeSantis characterizes the move as the long overdue end of a corporate boondoggle, yet it reeks of political retribution.

“People ask us: Was there any merit behind this? Was Disney deficient?” says David Kotok, chairman of investing firm Cumberland Advisors, which is based in Sarasota. “When we do the research, there is no merit financially or in a business context for the attack on Disney. Disney is a huge employer, a model citizen, it attracts huge economic interests to Florida. Why attack a model corporate citizen? The target was purely political.”

DeSantis argues that small cadres of “loud and militant” liberals are driving companies like Disney to embrace radical issues most Americans disagree with. He extends this to ESG investing and has taken new steps to prohibit any consideration of environmental, social, and governmental factors for the investors managing Florida’s pension money.

This is another area where DeSantis goes awry: by dismissing substantial shifts in public opinion on hot-button issues as mere manipulation by liberal activists. Those shifts are much deeper. The Florida education bill, for instance, is pushback against new efforts to normalize LGBTQ representation in public education. A company such as Disney needs to think not just about its employees, but about customers, suppliers, partners, and everybody else it does business with.

220122 -- ANAHEIM U.S., Jan. 22, 2022 Xinhua -- Visitors pose for photos with the cartoon character Tigger during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. Disney's California Adventure Park kicked off celebrations of the Year of the Tiger Friday, featuring a string of Chinese culturally-themed performances, art shows, lantern decorations and Asian-inspired dishes. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua via Getty Images) TO GO WITH Feature: Disneyland celebrates Chinese Lunar New Year with dynamic cultural activities
Visitors pose for photos with the cartoon character Tigger during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney’s California Adventure Park in Anaheim, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. (Photo by Zeng Hui/Xinhua via Getty Images)

If Disney’s customer base reflects the overall population, then around 7% of them identify as LGBTQ. More than that, public attitudes are clearly liberalizing over time. More than 71% of Americans, for instance, think same-sex marriage should be valid, according to Gallup polling, up from just 27% in 1996.

As society evolves, companies need to update their policies to keep up. That’s not “wokeism” — it’s sensible business. And it’s inevitable that there will be uncomfortable moments when cultures clash and companies get tangled in fights they’d rather avoid because they end up alienating somebody.

Members of the National Rifle Association, for instance, tried to boycott Delta Air Lines a few years ago when it ended an NRA discount in the aftermath of a mass shooting. The flap blew over. Most of the time, the best way for a company to navigate cultural minefields is to take a principled stand that will endure the test of time. You can’t please everybody, yet people respect resolve.

‘Make America Florida’?

Republicans in general are testing the war on “woke capitalism” as a bedrock theme of their 2024 electoral efforts. While the terms “woke” and “antiwoke” are vague, so-called ESG investing is a more tangible target because some adherents call for disinvesting in fossil-fuel companies and others with a big carbon footprint or other demerits.

But again, it’s a mistake to assume this is some goofy liberal plot. Polls show Americans generally support the goals of ESG investing, even if they don’t feel strongly that investment portfolios are the right tool. Solid majorities of Americans favor more action to combat climate change. Young voters are most passionate about the issues fueling ESG investing.

Guess who obsesses about the coveted 18-to-34 demographic? Consumer companies that want to capture young spenders as they’re forming their values, and make them customers for life. This is a much more powerful motivator for companies than any political agenda, liberal or otherwise. Ambitious politicians aiming for a long career might even learn something from successful companies that align with the values of people they aim to convert into customers.

The last chapter of DeSantis’s book is titled, “Make America Florida.” That’s pretty clever. It’s a variation on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” that’s meant to highlight Florida’s booming economic growth and a lifestyle that has made the Sunshine State a top target for relocators. You may hear that in 2024 as a DeSantis campaign slogan.

New College of Florida student Fatima Ismatulla speaks during a rally at the New College of Florida, where students staged a walkout from the public liberal arts college to protest against a proposed wide-reaching legislation that would ban gender studies majors and diversity programs at Florida universities, in Sarasota, Florida, U.S. February 28, 2023 . REUTERS/Octavio Jones
New College of Florida student Fatima Ismatulla speaks during a rally at the New College of Florida, where students staged a walkout from the public liberal arts college to protest against a proposed wide-reaching legislation that would ban gender studies majors and diversity programs at Florida universities, in Sarasota, Florida, U.S. February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Octavio Jones

But how many Americans want to be Florida-fied? Probably a lot fewer than DeSantis thinks. Even some Florida Republicans don’t love DeSantis’s war on business. Billionaire Ken Griffin is a DeSantis supporter who moved both his hedge fund Citadel and his market making firm Citadel Securities from Chicago to Miami last year. He agrees with the “don’t say gay” legislation, but he objects to DeSantis’s heavy-handed tactics against Disney.

“I don’t appreciate Governor DeSantis going after Disney’s tax status,” Griffin said last year. “It can be portrayed, or feel, or look like retaliation.”

Swing voters crucial to winning national elections don’t seem especially interested in wokeism, either for or against it. In focus groups with swing voters in DeSantis’s own state, research firm Engagious mostly evoked yawns on the topic of wokeism, with some respondents interpreting DeSantis’s attacks on business as his own effort to rouse extremists on the right.

“He has clearly tapped into sentiment on the right that is profound,” says Rich Thau, president of Engagious. “But it doesn’t seem to have much traction with swing voters.”

DeSantis may also be undermining the type of support Republicans typically get from businesspeople who favor low taxes and gentle regulation.

“I have Republican friends who are disillusioned with what’s happening in Florida,” says Kotok of Cumberland Advisors. “I’m worried on the business side because I know businesses that are reexamining their investments in Florida and looking at other locations because they don’t like what they see here.”

Maybe DeSantis’s Florida should be a little more like the rest of America.

Clarification: This post was updated to mention both Citadel and Citadel Securities.

House Judiciary Committee Repub’s mimic KGB/GRU tactics: GOP Witnesses, Paid by Trump Ally, Embraced Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theories

The New York Times

GOP Witnesses, Paid by Trump Ally, Embraced Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theories

Luke Broadwater and Adam Goldman – March 3, 2023

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) listens during a House judiciary subcommittee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government, at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) listens during a House judiciary subcommittee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government, at the Capitol in Washington on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON — House Republicans have spent months promising to use their majority to uncover an insidious bias against conservatives on the part of the federal government, vowing to produce a roster of brave whistleblowers who would come forward to provide damning evidence of abuses aimed at the right.

But the first three witnesses to testify privately before the new Republican-led House committee investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government have offered little firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing or violation of the law, according to Democrats on the panel who have listened to their accounts. Instead, the trio appears to be a group of aggrieved former FBI officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, and received financial support from a top ally of former President Donald Trump.

The roster of witnesses, whose interviews and statements are detailed in a 316-page report compiled by Democrats that was obtained by The New York Times, suggests that Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chair of the panel, has relied on people who do not meet the definition of a whistleblower and who have engaged in partisan conduct that calls into question their credibility. And it raises questions about whether Republicans, who have said that investigating the Biden administration is a top goal, will be able to deliver on their ambitious plans to uncover misdeeds at the highest levels.

“Each endorses an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the COVID vaccine, and the validity of the 2020 election,” Democrats wrote in the heavily footnoted report, which cites scores of statements made by the witnesses. “One has called repeatedly for the dismantling of the FBI. Another suggested that it would be better for Americans to die than to have any kind of domestic intelligence program.”

The report also notes that the men are tied to far-right Republican operatives and former Trump administration officials who have an interest in promoting false claims about the Jan. 6 attack and the Biden administration while working to defend Trump, who is seeking a second term.

The document centers on three men who have been interviewed by the panel’s investigators: George Hill, a retired FBI supervisory intelligence analyst from the bureau’s Boston field office; Stephen Friend, a former special agent who worked in the Daytona Beach, Florida, office; and Garret O’Boyle, a special agent from the field office in Wichita, Kansas, who has been suspended.

Other potential witnesses for the new subcommittee are FBI employees who were disciplined for attending protests on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Jordan.

Friend, who resigned from the FBI, is part of a group of former agents who were placed on leave and called themselves “the suspendables.” In a letter sent last year to Christopher Wray, the FBI director, the group claimed that the bureau had discriminated against conservative-leaning agents.

Hill has claimed on Twitter that the Jan. 6 attack was a “set up,” and that there was “a larger #Democrat plan using their enforcement arm, the #FBI.” He also described the FBI as “the Brown Shirt enforcers of the @DNC,” making an apparent reference to Nazi storm troopers to describe the federal law enforcement agency and its relationship to the Democratic National Committee.

O’Boyle and Friend both testified that they had received financial support from Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist and former high-ranking official in the former president’s administration. Friend said Patel sent him $5,000 almost immediately after they connected in November 2022 and that Patel has helped to promote Friend’s forthcoming book on social media.

In a statement, Patel declined to confirm that he has provided financial support to the witnesses but suggested that his organization has been focused on helping FBI employees facing retaliation for speaking out publicly.

“Whistleblowers who provide credible information exposing government waste, fraud, and abuse serve a critical role for constitutional oversight,” he said.

Democrats said they produced their report after they learned that Republicans on the committee were planning to leak material from the transcribed interviews. It was written by Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, the top Democrat on the weaponization subcommittee.

Russell Dye, a spokesperson for Jordan, said that Democrats were misrepresenting the testimony gathered to smear public servants who had come forward to expose wrongdoing.

“It is beyond disappointing, but sadly not surprising, that Democrats would leak cherry-picked excerpts of testimony to attack the brave whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak out on abuses at the Justice Department and FBI,” Dye said. “These same Democrats vowed to fight our oversight ‘tooth and nail,’ and they are willing to undermine the work of the Congress to achieve their partisan goals.”

The Democratic report includes excerpts from depositions and evidence of conspiratorial social media posts.

It also details the ties between Trump’s inner circle and the witnesses. For instance, Patel found Friend his next job, working as a fellow on domestic intelligence and security services with the Center for Renewing America, which is run by Russ Vought. The center is largely funded by the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is run by Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff, and former Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.

“Based on this evidence, committee Democrats conclude that there is a strong likelihood that Kash Patel is encouraging the witnesses to continue pursuing their meritless claims, and in fact is using them to help propel his vendetta against the FBI, Justice Department, and Biden administration on behalf of himself and President Trump,” the report says.

Republicans argue they received useful information from the men for their investigation. For instance, Hill told the subcommittee the FBI regularly conducted nationwide calls involving all 56 field offices after Jan. 6. Hill described the calls as “bordering on hysterical,” according to excerpts from transcripts reviewed by the Times.

Friend has been celebrated in conservative circles, with right-wing pundits seizing on his accusations as evidence of wrongdoing at the FBI. But those claims did not appear to hold up during his testimony.

Friend has said he refused to take part in a SWAT raid of a Jan. 6 suspect facing misdemeanor charges, which at the time he called an “excessive use of force,” to which he was a “conscientious objector.” The suspect, Tyler Bensch, was accused of being a member of a right-wing militia group connected to the Three Percenter movement. Documents in Bensch’s case indicate that on Jan. 6, 2021, he posted a video of himself outside the Capitol wearing body armor and a gas mask and carrying an AR-15-style rifle.

Under questioning, the committee said that Friend “confirmed that ownership of a firearm, even without any additional factors, in fact would be enough of a factor on its own to justify deploying a SWAT team in an arrest.”

Friend also testified about being asked to surveil a person attending a school board meeting, touching on a claim promoted by Republicans that the government mistreated conservative parents. But according to the report, Friend conceded during his interview that the man being tracked was a Three Percenter who was under counterterrorism investigation. He was later arrested with Bensch and three other individuals.

Friend also engaged with Russian propaganda outlets while he was an FBI employee, the report noted, including being quoted extensively in an article in Sputnik headlined “Under Biden Federal Agencies Turned Into Instrument of Intimidation, FBI Whistleblower Says,” and appearing for an interview with Russia Today.

The report cast doubt on the relevance of the witnesses’ accounts. Democrats wrote that nothing in O’Boyle’s testimony “suggests misconduct at the FBI” and that Hill had “made multiple claims about the FBI’s handling of criminal investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, despite having very little personal involvement in those investigations.”

The report also said that Hill had embraced a conspiracy theory that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was a federal informant who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prominent Republicans — including Trump — have widely promoted the claim, which Epps denies and the House Jan. 6 committee determined to be unfounded.

The witnesses also embraced the language and views of the right wing on other matters. At one point during his testimony, the report said, O’Boyle compared coronavirus vaccine mandates to a Polish reserve police unit during World War II that began as a group of “just normal people,” but ultimately “were basically engaging in genocide just like the rest of the Nazi regime.”

New College conservative board votes to abolish DEI office

Associated Press

New College conservative board votes to abolish DEI office

Curt Anderson and Jocelyn Gecker – February 28, 2023

A group of parents of New College of Florida current students and one recent alum protest dressed as handmaids from Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," ahead of a meeting by the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. A sign in German addressed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, reads, "DeSantis, Are you copying the Nazis?" The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A group of parents of New College of Florida current students and one recent alum protest dressed as handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” ahead of a meeting by the college’s board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. A sign in German addressed to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, reads, “DeSantis, Are you copying the Nazis?” The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A person cheers as New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A person cheers as New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college’s board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New College of Florida's Interim President Richard Corcoran, center, listens during a meeting of the college's board of trustees, alongside trustee Matthew Spalding, left, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up measures making changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New College of Florida’s Interim President Richard Corcoran, center, listens during a meeting of the college’s board of trustees, alongside trustee Matthew Spalding, left, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up measures making changes
New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college’s board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion
New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college’s board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
New College Conservatives Protest
New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college’s board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Two members of a group of parents of New College of Florida current students and a recent alum who came dressed as handmaids from Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," talk together as they wait to give public comment during a meeting of the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up measures making changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Two members of a group of parents of New College of Florida current students and a recent alum who came dressed as handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” talk together as they wait to give public comment during a meeting of the college’s board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up measures making changes in the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices.(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college's board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida's public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school's diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

New College of Florida students and supporters protest ahead of a meeting by the college’s board of trustees, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Sarasota, Fla. The conservative-dominated board of trustees of Florida’s public honors college was meeting Tuesday to take up a measure making wholesale changes in the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs and offices. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Trustees picked by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee New College of Florida voted Tuesday to abolish its small office that handles diversity, equity and inclusion programs targeted by conservatives throughout the state university system.

The trustees voted 9-3 to get rid of the school’s Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, with four full-time staff positions to be transferred elsewhere to vacant jobs. The board also voted to permit interim President Richard Corcoran to consider ending a single online mandatory employee diversity training program that few actually take.

“This is not a very impressive DEI bureaucracy, is what I’m seeing,” said student body president Grace Keenan, who is a trustee and was not appointed by DeSantis. “Any DEI practices we do have here are all about inclusion. We don’t discriminate against anyone here.”

Although they are relatively small programs, some of the seven new trustees at the historically progressive college said it was important to take a stand on issues they believe cause discrimination based on racial, gender, LGBTQ and other group identities rather than focusing on a student, faculty or staff member’s individual merit.

“I think it’s important that we take a position,” said trustee Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist on education issues nationally. “It is essential to say we are taking this mandate seriously.”

The decision comes as DeSantis, widely expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, has said a key goal for Florida’s higher education system is to defund DEI programs so they “whither on the vine” on campuses. DeSantis is backing a measure introduced for the upcoming legislative session to prevent colleges and universities from promoting, supporting or maintaining programs related to DEI or critical race theory.

The trustees’ vote to abolish the New College DEI office and transfer staff to other positions will save about $250,000 a year, according to documents provided at Tuesday’s meeting. Although that amount may seem relatively minor, supporters of the change said it will send a message.

“This is a question of what is being imposed and advocated, supported and funded, by the college,” said trustee Matthew Spalding. “If it’s a minor situation, it should be abolished.”

The trustee meeting drew a crowd of about 300 protesters before it began, holding signs that read, “Our Students Are Not Political Pawns” and, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention,” among others.

Chai Leffler, a third-year student, said he came from a southern, conservative family where being gay was difficult, but New College changed his life.

“I was taught how to love myself again and to stand up for myself like we all are today,” Leffler said. “I understand we are everything DeSantis hates.”

New College, nestled along Sarasota Bay, has fewer than 1,000 students. It was founded in 1960 as a private school in part by funding from the United Church of Christ, said Rev. John Dorhauer, the church’s president and general minister. Dorhauer gave public testimony at the meeting and spoke to the protesters about the “moral outrage” he feels at the changes being made by the conservative trustees chosen by DeSantis.

“The long arc of history will grind you into dust, and they (students) will win this battle and you will be remembered for the sycophants you are,” he told the trustees.

Anderson reported from St. Petersburg, Florida.

Emotional meeting ends with DeSantis’ New College of Florida board abolishing diversity office

USA Today

Emotional meeting ends with DeSantis’ New College of Florida board abolishing diversity office

Zac Anderson, USA TODAY NETWORK – March 1, 2023

Gov. Ron DeSantis proposes a plan to remove and reform diversity-based education programs

Governor Ron DeSantis plans to remove and reform education programs that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from state universities.

New College of Florida’s Board of Trustees abolished the office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs during a contentious and emotional meeting Tuesday that included testimony from students worried that a board reshaped by Gov. Ron DeSantis is making the school unwelcoming to minorities.

DeSantis appointed six members to New College’s board on Jan. 6 in an effort to transform the school, putting the small Sarasota institution at the center of the GOP’s nationwide pushback on education policies aimed at supporting historically marginalized groups, including racial minorities and LGBTQ individuals.

DeSantis has emerged as a key national figure in this debate after he pushed through legislation governing how K-12 schools discuss race and gender identity and recently prohibited an Advanced Placement course in African American studies, which caused an uproar. The governor is now taking aim at university programs.

Eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives − which have become a major flashpoint for conservatives and a target of DeSantis throughout Florida’s public university system − is among the first substantive actions by New College’s revamped board, which also fired the former president last month and hired DeSantis ally Richard Corcoran as interim president. Corcoran’s first board meeting was Tuesday.

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‘We value academic freedom’: Students walk out in protest of Ron DeSantis’ education policies

A review of DEI programs

Among DeSantis’ New College board appointees is prominent conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who pushed at his first meeting on Jan. 31 to abolish diversity programs.

The board opted to wait until more research could be done. College administrator Brad Thiessen presented the results of his DEI review Tuesday, delving into everything from faculty training to hiring practices and student admissions.

Thiessen said there was little mandatory diversity training and that only recently had prospective faculty been asked to submit a statement in their job application outlining how they would promote diversity.

Richard Corcoran the new interim president of New College of Florida was not welcomed by the majority of students and adult speakers.
Richard Corcoran the new interim president of New College of Florida was not welcomed by the majority of students and adult speakers.

Additionally, only one of the employees in the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence was primarily focused on DEI programs. The others managed grants, worked on community outreach and performed other activities that aren’t controversial.

That led Trustees Grace Keenan and Matthew Lepinski to question whether the impacts of the DEI programs had been overstated.

“I’m concerned that we’re solving a problem that isn’t serious, or doesn’t really exist,” Lepinski said.

Keenan wondered if the board was spending a lot of time and energy on something that was relatively limited in scope. She suggested that the effort spent weeding out DEI programs was out of proportion to the amount of DEI that actually exists on campus.

“This is not a very impressive DEI bureaucracy,” Keenan said.

Keenan, Lipinski and Trustee Mary Ruiz voted against eliminating the diversity office.

Conservative appointee Christopher Rufo: DEI efforts discriminatory

Rufo conceded that DEI isn’t as deeply embedded in the college’s practices as he expected, but said it was still important to remove it on “principle.” Rufo and Trustee Matthew Spalding both suggested it is discriminatory to take race into account when setting the college’s priorities.

“It treats people differently on the basis of their skin color,” Rufo said.

“This is discrimination, it should be gone,” Spalding added.

The majority of trustees voted to have Corcoran move forward with eliminating the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, which handles DEI programs. The Office’s four employees will be offered other jobs.

New College students protest before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.
New College students protest before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.

Trustees also voted to eliminate the diversity statement when hiring faculty and to direct Corcoran to consider adopting a prohibition on diversity training for employees.

Additionally, the board voted to have Corcoran create a school policy that prohibits spending money on any DEI efforts.

Under the new regulation, DEI will be defined to include “any effort to manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of the faculty or student body with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity.”

The definition of DEI also would include: “Any effort to promote as the official position of the administration, the college, or any administrative unit thereof, a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts.”

The rollback of New College’s diversity programs came at the end of a 3-1/2-hour meeting that featured emotional testimony for students, parents and others. About 200 people attended the meeting.

Economics and finance student Joshua Epstein, 17, argued diversity programs are important at a meeting of the board of trustees of New College of Florida Feb. 28, 2023. The board votes to abolish the school's office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Economics and finance student Joshua Epstein, 17, argued diversity programs are important at a meeting of the board of trustees of New College of Florida Feb. 28, 2023. The board votes to abolish the school’s office handling diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Where is New College of Florida?

New College of Florida is in Sarasota, in the central part of the state just south of Tampa on the Gulf Coast. The college bills itself as a community of “Free Thinkers, Risk Takers and Trailblazers,” and invites prospective New College students to “discover a public arts and science education driven by your curiosity, career aspirations, and individual learning style.”

Parents, students decry abolishing diversity programs

Economics and finance student Joshua Epstein, 17, said he graduates next year and plans to become a corporate lawyer or banker.

“Folks, I am so far from woke,” Epstein said.

Yet Epstein argued that the school’s diversity programs are important. Epstein said his grandparents on his father’s side survived the Holocaust and his grandfather on his mother’s side was a tank commander in the Israeli Army “where he fought for the survival of a Jewish state to fight to have a place where I’d be safe from persecution if people ever saw Jews as less than human again.”

“Today I fear that other groups of people are being seen as less than human; today I fear that we may eliminate the office that ensures that the composition of our classrooms resemble that of our great nation,” Esptein added.

The concerns raised by the public extended beyond eliminating diversity programs to DeSantis’ broader effort to reshape the school, Corcoran’s $699,000 base salary and other issues.

Corcoran thanked DeSantis during his first public remarks as interim president, saying the governor has “a heartfelt desire to have New College be a leader” in liberal arts education.

Diversity and equity demand: Why are colleges offering up more DEI degrees? Demand for diversity expertise is growing.

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Students vow continued resistance

Earlier in the day students joined religious and political leaders in a large protest before the board meeting.

About 300 people gathered in front of the Hamilton Center on New College’s Sarasota campus to again criticize DeSantis’ conservative takeover of the school and vow continued resistance. Many of the speakers were minority students who criticized the push to eliminate the Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence.

DeSantis has targeted DEI programs across all of Florida’s public universities, and New College is first in line.

Lianna Paton, a minority student in her first year at New College, said targeting DEI programs is an attempt to suppress and “erase students of color.”

“You do not get to say diversity is divisive when its very existence is what makes communities like my own feel welcome and safe,” Paton said.

New College supporters protested before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.
New College supporters protested before a board of trustees meeting on campus Tuesday.

Members of the crowd held up signs saying “Black history is American history” and “Jesus was/is woke.”

Chai Leffler, 21, a gay third year New College student, said he struggled with his sexuality growing up and went through a dark time in high school. He went to a youth center in Sarasota where he met New College students who made him feel welcome.

“There’s one thing they cannot change,” Leffler said. “Us. We the students of New College are the spirit of New College and we will not let that be taken away from us.

Church leader accuses DeSantis’ of prioritizing presidential ambitions

Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer leads the church that helped found New College as a private school in 1960 before it became part of the state university system. He said he is outraged by what DeSantis is doing to the school.

“I want to express my moral outrage at Gov. DeSantis willing to compromise and sacrifice the future, the vision, the hopes, the dreams and the safety of the students on this campus for his aspirations to serve as president,” Dorhauer said.

Dorhauer’s United Church of Crist provided funding to create New College and church members were active in the school during its early days.

Dorhauer also spoke at the board meeting, where he told trustees that their actions will be judged harshly by history.

“The long arc of history will grind you into dust and… you will be remembered for the sycophants that you are,” he said. “That’s what history does.”

‘Incomprehensible’: White House slams DeSantis administration for rejecting AP Black studies

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‘Trans people go to dances and find joy and are whole’: A mom’s viral photos of her daughter send a powerful message

Yahoo! Life

‘Trans people go to dances and find joy and are whole’: A mom’s viral photos of her daughter send a powerful message

Beth Greenfield, Senior Editor – February 28, 2023

Jaime Bruesehoff recently shared side-by-side photos of her daughter Rebekah
Jaime Bruesehoff recently shared side-by-side photos of her daughter Rebekah, one at age 10 and one at 16, to show that trans people “find joy and are whole people.” (Photo: Twitter/Jaime Brusehoff)

Rebekah Bruesehoff may only be 16 years old, but she’s spent almost half her life publicly fighting for her rights as a transgender person.

It’s why her supportive, activist mom Jamie took a moment this week to tweet a joyous photo of Rebekah in a green gown and holding white flowers, primped and ready to attend a high school dance — an update to one that went viral in 2017, of Rebekah at a rally holding a sign that read, cheekily, “I’m the scary transgender person the media warned you about.” That image appears alongside the new one.

“There’s this juxtaposition,” Jamie tells Yahoo Life, referring both to the two photos and her daughter’s life. “The photo from six years ago popped up in my memories, and I was struck: It feels so long ago and like it was just yesterday.” When the photo came up, she says, she was at a nail salon with Rebekah, who was getting a manicure before her sophomore cotillion. Sharing both photos, Jamie explains, felt like an opportunity to show a more well-rounded view of her teen, who plays field hockey and loves musical theater.

Image
Image

“She’s spent six years fighting publicly — but she’s also just a teen going to a fun dance,” she says. “That’s so much of what the Twitter thread was about… that trans people go to dances and find joy and are whole people, and that trans people are more than just their fights for rights and for life.”

The original photo of Rebekah, then 10, holding the sign inspired by a story she had found online, was snapped just before a protest in Jersey City, N.J., over the Trump administration rescinding federal support for transgender students. The tween was asked to speak in front of the crowd of 200, which she agreed to, and then her mom posted the image to Facebook, where it “went crazy viral.”

Looking back now, says Jamie, “It’s certainly not what any of us had planned. But what was really powerful was to see her use her voice and say, ‘I deserve a safe school.’ But even more impactful for her was she heard the voices of the other people… trans kids who were not supported, trans adults… it was the first time, at 10 years old, that she realized how good she had it and how much work we had to do.”

That idea, of work left to do, is especially important now, says Jaime on Twitter: “In ways, things are worse than I could have imagined 6 years ago… and yet she continues to resist with advocacy, speaking and education. She resists with her joy, she resists by growing into this beautiful young woman that so many wish she wouldn’t have the chance to become.”

She’s referring to the unprecedented number of anti-trans and anti-gay bills popping up across the country: Just two months into 2023, LGBTQ-rights organization the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is tracking 340 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced at state levels, 150 of which would specifically restrict the rights of transgender people, 90 of which would prevent trans youth from being able to access gender-affirming medical care; two have become law, in Utah and South Dakota.

“Things are pretty awful right now,” Jaime tells Yahoo Life. “We live in New Jersey … so there’s some privilege and some level of safety that comes with that — and also, you’re not safe anywhere, we know that. My heart breaks for all transgender young people. Their identities are being used as a political football.”

Because Rebekah is an athlete — and luckily having a “really positive experience” on her hockey team — her family “really jumped into” having public conversations supporting transgender athletes, only to see “attacks on health care getting worse by the day,” she says, adding “it’s become very clear” that the anti-trans fight “is not about protecting children. It never has been. It’s about political power and removing transgender people from public life.

“https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm45juJuVbN/embed/captioned?cr=1&v=12

But even in New Jersey, where there are some protections in place — like state’s LGBTQ-inclusive school curriculum and the Babs Siperstien Law, which allows people to change their gender identity on their birth certificate without “proof of surgery” — there’s no way to fully escape the national rhetoric.

“What people don’t understand is that young people are impacted by these messages … They are seeing what’s happening, watching their identity be banned from public conversations in schools,” she says. “People, even in states like New Jersey and New York, know what’s going on. And for a young person to see their identity being debated on every front? That’s exhausting.”

Luckily, the mom notes of her daughter, “Rebekah is a big joy-as-resistance kind of person. She focuses on the positive, has friends, loves to laugh. It’s how she, I think, sustains herself.” She also recognizes her relative privilege: “She’s white, she exists within the gender expectations people have for girls and she has supportive parents who have been behind her and who have resources.”

Rebekah’s glowing spirit, her mom says, has powerfully influenced the entire family — including her “super-supportive” brothers, ages 8 and 13, and her father, a Lutheran pastor who, Jaime says, “preaches the gospel … that calls for us to work towards justice.” She adds that “he preaches the message of inclusion and of celebration of LGBTQ+ people.

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But it’s Jamie, who identifies as “queer” and uses “she/they” pronouns (including on her website and social media profiles), who might be most influenced by her teen’s courage.

“I’m bisexual,” she tells Yahoo Life. “I came out more publicly in 2018. I think there was some part of doing this work, of advocating for my daughter to show up in all her authenticity, that started to feel inauthentic for me not to share.” As for her use of she/they, which is new as of about a year, Jamie adds, it’s one way she is “continuing to break down those boxes of gender, and understand myself in the fullness of who I am. ‘They’ feels really great.

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Jamie, who has written a book due out in September — Raising Kids Beyond the Binary: Celebrating God’s Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children, meant to fill a gap wherein there is no guidance about raising “gender expansive kids in faith, when we know it’s people of faith who are doing the most harm” — adds that coming out has been powerful.

“I think with me sharing my identity as a bisexual person and my identity not as nonbinary, but as someone who feels constrained by the gender binary, and I think watching Rebekah live her life as who she knows herself to be and the positive impact it’s had,” she says, “I know that showing up as ourself changes the world.”

People Boycott Popular Beer After Producer Breaks Promise to Pull Out of Russia

The Street

People Boycott Popular Beer After Producer Breaks Promise to Pull Out of Russia

It’s not a good look.

Colette Bennett – February 24, 2023

People Boycott Popular Beer After Producer Breaks Promise to Pull Out of Russia

More than 10,000 people are spending their Friday morning on Twitter calling for a boycott of Dutch beer company Heineken.

A tweet featuring an incendiary fan-made image first used the hashtag on Feb. 23, which transformed Heineken’s signature green bottle into pointed bullets and stated “proud supporter of Russian genocide.”

Image

The post also stated: “Heineken launched no less than 61 new products on the #Russian market last year after promising to stop investing there because of the war in #Ukraine.”

Heineken in March 2022 had vowed to pull its business from Russia after the country invaded Ukraine. But an investigative report from Netherlands-based website Follow the Money states that the company’s reports showed its Russian arm “launched 61 new products ‘in record time’ and sold 720,000 hectoliters more beer and soft drinks.”

Heineken was quick to respond to the controversy in a formal statement: “We’re working hard to transfer our business to a viable buyer in very challenging circumstances and we expect at a significant financial loss to the company, amounting to around €300M. 

“In the meantime, our local colleagues at Heineken Russia are doing what they can to keep the business going, after fully delisting the Heineken® brand, to avoid nationalisation and ensure their livelihoods are not at risk.”

Ukrainian soldiers with life-changing war injuries posed for portraits saying they are ‘living monuments’ of a brutal war

Insider

Ukrainian soldiers with life-changing war injuries posed for portraits saying they are ‘living monuments’ of a brutal war

Mia Jankowicz – February 24, 2023

A photo by Marta Syrko of Ukrainian soldier Sasha, whose lower legs were amputated. Sasha, lying on his side and propped up by one elbow, is naked except for a strip of cream cloth over his loin, and looks down. He is muscular, has multiple tattoos and is bathed in a pearly, blue-and-cream light.
Oleksandr lost both his lower legs to a Russian missile.Marta Syrko
  • Ukrainian photographer Marta Syrko has asked war-injured soldiers to sit for her.
  • Oleksandr, who lost his lower legs, said he wanted to show that injured bodies can be powerful.
  • The pictures, both stark and tender, are a reminder of the human cost of Putin’s war.

Last summer, 26-year-old Oleksandr was resting in a trench.

Exactly six months earlier, he had been working as a barista while he trained in graphic design. But after Russia invaded, he became a leader in a mortar batallion.

He was exhausted. The safest place to rest would have been under tree cover along with his squad, but there was no more room there. So he drifted off in the trench.

The next thing he knew he was buried in soil, his legs in excruciating pain. After his friends had scrabbled through the earth, they laid him on his front, not wanting him to glimpse his legs.

It was August 24, Ukraine’s independence day, and Ukrainians suspected Russia would seek grim trophies.

Oleksandr’s lower legs were later amputated.

He told Insider he accepted his injuries “from the first moment” the missile hit him. (He spoke to Insider through an interpreter.)

So when photographer Marta Syrko asked Oleksandr to sit for her, he felt he could send a message with his body: among other things, to show the world the carnage Putin is inflicting and the cost of defending his country.

‘We need an artist, not just a photographer’

One of Syrko’s main subjects is bodies. A skim through her Instagram feed shows the human form in all its glory, from an advertising-perfect washboard stomach to the soft millefeuille creases of her grandmother’s skin.

After Russia’s invasion, however, more and more people were returning to her hometown of Lviv with life-changing wounds.

So she approached a rehabilitation clinic near the city to ask if any of the soldiers — whose bodies had been radically transformed by war — would let her take portraits of them.

Four men agreed, three of whom lost limbs and one who received serious burns.

A black-and-white photo by Marta Syrko of Sergiy, Ukrainian soldier who lost his left lower leg. He is sitting up in a chair, mostly unclothed with tattoos on his torso, and his prosthesis visible. He looks down at a baby swaddled in a white cloth that partially covers him. Part of the foreground is blurred.
Serhii agreed to become one of Syrko’s “Heroes.”Marta Syrko

Among the soldiers was Serhii, pictured above cradling his second child, who had his leg torn off in the shockwave of a blast near Izyum, in Kharkhiv Oblast.

Another, Stanislav, also lost a leg last summer, in Bakhmut — one of the most fiercely contested cities in the entirety of Russia’s bloody war.

Syrko said she was inspired by the classical statues she saw in museums like the Louvre.

Foundational for Western art history, they, too, through wear and tear, are often missing limbs.

A photo by Marta Syrko, of Ilya, Ukrainian soldier who was badly burned. A top-down view shows his bare white legs, one bent sideways at the knee, and his lower arms, both partially burned. He wears a red cloth and sits on a grey floor with dark blue paint marks.
Illya Pylypenko received severe burns in a tank.Marta Syrko

Later, Neopalymi, a charity devoted to treating and rehabilitating people with severe burns, approached Syrko with a request. They asked her to photograph Illya Pylypenko, a soldier who had burns on much of his body after his tank caught fire.

Syrko’s unflinching photos of Pylypenko show how his face, in particular, was transformed.

A photo portrait by artist Marta Syrko of Ukrainian soldier Ilya, who was badly burned. Ilya is seen topless in a three-quarter view, chin in hand, looking ahead. Skin on his hand and arm, and much of his face, is badly damaged with red-colored burns on his otherwise white skin.
A photo portrait by artist Marta Syrko of Ukrainian soldier Ilya, who was badly burned. Ilya is seen topless in a three-quarter view, chin in hand, looking ahead. Skin on his hand and arm, and much of his face, is badly damaged with red-colored burns on his otherwise white skin.

Neopalymi, a burns rehabilitation center, asked Syrko to photograph Illya Pylypenko.Marta Syrko

Maksym Turkevych, Neopalymi’s CEO, told Insider in an email that the project needed “an artist, not just a photographer.”

‘We don’t know what to say. How to behave.’

Syrko’s work has many fans, but she said she’s had occasional comments from people who say she’s exploiting disabled people through her work.

Asked about this, Syrko — who is able-bodied — said her aim is to make a real and complex discussion happen.

“It’s a hard question for Ukrainians now, because we don’t know how to act near them,” she said. “We don’t know what to say, how to behave. And so that’s why we have to discuss it.”

A photo by Marta Syrko of Stanislav, Ukrainian soldier whose right lower leg was amputated. He is seen bathed in golden light through wet glass, wearing a cloth round his waist, sitting on the floor. One knee is up, while his amputated leg rests on the ground. Stanlislav rests his forehead on his arm, propped on his raised knee.
Stanislav also lost his lower leg.Marta Syrko

For Oleksandr, the decision to become a “monument” for Syrko’s photos, as he put it, was a deliberate choice that he embraced.

He liked Syrko’s thinking about statues, saying in an Instagram post that people like him are “living monuments, who have been close-up witnesses to war.”

A closely-cropped black-and-white-photograph by Ukrainian photographer Marta Syrko, showing soldier Serhii and his son. Serhii is seated and unclothed except for long bands of white cloth, under which his tattoos can be seen. He looks down at his baby son in his arms. In the lower half of the picture, his prosthetic lower leg is visible.
Serhii, pictured here with his son, lost part of his leg near Izyum.Marta Syrko

But public attitudes can be disappointing, even though he was injured defending their homeland, he said. People “look away, and they break into lively talk when ‘monuments’ walk past.”

Society, he said, stops seeing these bodies as beautiful.

“I wanted to become something that would inspire others like me to feel that people are looking at them not with shame, but with exaltation!” he wrote.

This was Neopalymi’s goal, too. “The main reason for us to do it is to show the society that there is a beauty in it, and that they should not be scared or disgusted by this,” said Turkevych, the CEO.

A photo by Marta Syrko of Ilya, Ukrainian soldier who was burned in combat. A closely-cropped overhead view of his hand, red with burn marks, as well as part of his thigh, other hand, and a swathe of red cloth.
Syrko’s unflinching images of Illya show the effects of his burns.Marta Syrko

With a 122,000-strong Instagram following, Syrko said she had conversations with her subjects about the exposure the pictures could bring.

“I told them that they are probably going to be a little bit popular,” she said. And so they turned out to be — her pictures have been shared by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Twitter account, and by newspaper Ukrainska Pravda.

Oleksandr told Insider, laughing, about his surprise when he arrived at the studio and realized that Syrko wanted him to pose nearly nude.

But he quickly got comfortable. “Marta’s the kind of person with whom you can feel comfortable and free,” he said.

Rebuilding an accessible Ukraine

Oleksandr spoke to Insider from the US, where thanks to a partnership with Ukrainian organization Without Restrictions, he has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation.

There, he’s learning to walk and run on high-tech prostheses. But for some weeks before he flew out, he was using a wheelchair.

A photo by Marta Syrko of Stanislav, Ukrainian soldier whose right lower leg was amputated. He appears to have been photographed through gauzy white fabric, seated on the floor with his right knee up, arm resting on it. Mostly unclothed, his waist is wrapped in white fabric.
Syrko photographed Stanislav in her contemplative artistic style.Marta Syrko

While the Ukrainian government has not confirmed exact numbers of casualties, the number of people with life-changing injuries — whether civilian or soldiers — is likely to make accessibility a key concern for the country’s future.

It’s a realization echoed by disability organizations supporting relief efforts in Ukraine, who at a joint conference last year issued the Riga Declaration, a document calling for the country’s rebuilding to employ universal design principles.

“A lot of cities are in a rebuilding phase,” Syrko said, envisioning a new, post-war Ukraine. “We can start to build it from zero — why can’t we do it correctly?”