This gum tree towered nearly 300 feet within 10 feet of the back of my house.

By LAMAR THAMES

I have a confession to make. I am a big woosy. That probably isn’t surprising to those of you who know me, but let me explain.

Recently, I have had to hire two contractors for major work around my house. Both were going to cost a significant amount of money (at least to me) and the prospect scared me to death. I didn’t want to make a mistake in hiring either one of them, but I didn’t have any personal experience with doing it. Thus my dilemma.

The first chore was to pick a roofing contractor. Over the years, I have had to pay several thousand dollars for minor repairs to the old roof caused by falling limbs from a giant gum tree in the backyard. The most recent repair was going to be about $1,500. My wife and I decided to have the roof replaced instead, since it was nearly 17 years old and showing signs of wear.

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Lamar Thames

Now that the  Great Recession is officially over (according to newspaper headlines and television reports, at least), I just want to know one thing: WHERE IS MY JOB?

I understand it will take some time for the unemployed to return to work. I just hope it is sooner rather than for a lot of people. I honestly don’t think I will be able to return to the workforce anytime soon, however. There is the age thing, a lack of qualifications and, well, just the time it will take for the job market to rebound to anything resembling a healthy economy.

Thankfully, I was able to draw unemployment (which may be extended another 13 weeks), so the blow might not have affected my wife and I as much as it did others.

Like I have said before, and news reports are confirming, there are some silver linings to the dark side of the recession. Such as, laid-off construction workers are adapting to different lines of work, prices are coming down (grocers and restaurants are offering considerable discounts) and the nation’s per-person savings rate has more than doubled in the past year.

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By LAMAR THAMES

I am not sure whether the health-care protesters are all dealing with a full deck, but make sure of this: The Obama administration would be wise not to ignore them.

The protesters carry with them  the greatest threat to the status quo of the present administration — distrust. If Barack Obama wishes to carry the legacy of his presidency into the next election and beyond, he must face up to the fact that people are unhappy, scared and just plain angry about the state of the nation. And I don’t blame them.

Distrust is one of the worst enemies a political party can face, even if the distrust is founded on disinformation. Obama must share in the blame for not having more specifics in his health care proposals. All that did was leave a vacuum for naysayers to fill in the blanks, which you knew they would. Read the rest of this entry »

BY HOWARD TROXLER

Yachts! The Florida Legislature is going to pass a new tax break for buying luxury yachts and private airplanes.

Let’s hope this passes in the same year that the Legislature hurts the K-12 schools, guts the universities, makes it harder for Floridians to vote, drains the Lawton Chiles tobacco trust, kills Florida Forever, weakens wetlands protection, repeals a quarter-century of growth management law, deregulates the telephone companies and tries to paper over the indictment of the immediate past speaker of the House of Representatives and a damning grand jury investigation.

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This letter to the editor appeared on tcpalm.com

Michael Lannon, superintendant of St. Lucie County Schools, stated recently, “We’re going to become a Third World country here in Florida. People should consider leaving Florida for their children.”

I was appalled that I, a native Floridian and a Realtor welcoming people to our beautiful state, should even consider fleeing. This statement sends the message that the leader of our schools has given up hope on our kids, our schools and our state.

It is typical politics to blame others for our messes, but we have to stop shifting the blame. To point at the Florida Legislature as the sole source of our problems is not acceptable.

Yes, it is very true that the education system is well underfunded here in Florida, but we also are undertaxed, and we cannot have it both ways. We have to stop equating more dollars to better education. Read the rest of this entry »

• G-20 calls for more regulation; pledges $1T+ in emergency aid
• Oil tops $53 per barrel
• U.S. unemployment hits 25-year high
• FASB votes to relax mark-to-market rules
• ECB cuts rates
• Emerging markets rally on Mexico bid for IMF loan

U.S. stocks rose this week, buoyed by signs that the economic slowing may be abating and by efforts of world leaders to end the global crisis. News this week was dominated by a meeting in London of the Group of 20 policymakers, who called for stricter limits on hedge funds, executive pay, credit rating firms, and on risk taking by banks. In addition, the group tripled the lending power of the International Monetary Fund, expanded its reserves, and offered cash to revive trade to help governments weather the turmoil resulting from the surge in unemployment. Altogether, leaders pledged more than $1 trillion in emergency aid to lessen the economic fallout. Read the rest of this entry »

Democrats and Republicans are at it again in Tallahassee concerning taxes. Democrats want to tax everything but the air we breathe while Republicans are OK with new revenue sources as long as they can call it a fee instead of a tax increase. 

As an example, House Republicans last week sought $700 million in new fees on Florida motorists but all five Democrats on a committee “screamed bloody murder and said no,” according to an opinion piece by Steve Bousquet on tampabay.com. Click here to read the story.

The Florida Legislature is in session through May 1. Here are the key issues in the fifth week of session and what’s coming up. Get updates at floridacapitalnews.com:

Tobacco tax

What happened: A buck-a-pack increase in the state’s tobacco tax (and a dollar-per-ounce on other forms of tobacco) is moving fast through the Senate. It’s estimated to raise close to $900 million a year.

What’s next: Figuring out how to spend the proceeds.

Click here for the rest of the story.

By Stephen Sawchuk and Erik W. Robelen

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today started rolling out $44 billion in economic-stimulus aid for education that comes with new teacher-quality reporting requirements for states and districts, and also with significantly more spending flexibility on school construction than many administrators had expected.

New guidance from the Department of Education spells out in more detail how states, districts, and institutions of higher education will receive money under the $39.8 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund and the $8.8 billion Government Services Fund, as well as how they may use it. Unveiling the first payments at a school in Capitol Heights, Md., Mr. Duncan emphasized that the funding could be a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon.

“We have this magical opportunity to invest significantly in these best practices and scale up what works,” he said of aid under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

It appears that Congress wants Florida to tap into the federal stimulus money, too,
according to a story in the Miami Herald.
Democrats in the Florida delegation criticized some House Republicans in Tallahassee
who have been reluctant to spend about $444 million to extend unemployment 
benefits because the state may have to boost unemployment spending at
Florida businesses to qualify for the money.

The Democrats argued that the money should be used to help jump-start the economy.

''I don't know what part of missing out on $440 million the Florida Legislature doesn't
 understand,'' the story quoted Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar.

Click here to read the entire story.