Free Republic

Retirement plans nationally and in Florida were already in trouble before the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though Florida has one of the healthier retirement systems in the country, this system is nearly $30 billion in debit and has approximately 85 percent of the funding it needs to pay for retirement benefits. This and a controversial bill to limit retirement options that did not make it through, gave Florida workers the jitters and an omen of what may be coming down the pike. In the report, "Retirement Insecurity 2021," conducted by Greenwald Research of 1200 working adults, two-thirds of Americans (67%) say...

Part III. “Fake News?” – No Way! The story about the Parkland shooting, though tragic, has resulted in several positive outcomes. It has spawned journalists into action to do more investigative reporting. This three-part story covered in the past several days was investigated and is verifiable. The University of South Florida failed to report the incidents involving foreigner Abdul Quddos Hussein, who allegedly burglarized two buildings at the USF location in Tampa – the Registrar’s Office and the College of Engineering. However, the Department of Education allowed USF to get away with lying to them, thereby failing to uphold the...

USF MO #2: Disclosing the Incident to the Public With the undisclosed burglaries that took place at the University of South Florida's Registrar and College of Engineering Offices back in June of 2015, FloridaÂ’s Sunshine law took a major hit. USF was not at all transparent with its most important constituency, its students, but also orchestrated a cover-up to keep the general public from knowing, and to prevent the media from covering a newsworthy story. Surprisingly, it was the ProvostÂ’s office and not President Judy GenshaftÂ’s office, that was first notified of the burglaries. After learning of the burglaries, Provost...

Part II: Missed Opportunities As the investigation continues into the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, we are learning about missed opportunities to save 17 lives. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, accused of "incompetence and neglect of duty", has been asked to step down. Resource Officer Scot Peterson, whose job it was to provide security and crime prevention services to the school, was accused of “hiding” while innocents who did not have his officer training were gunned down. The truth of the matter is that the tragedy at Parkland was facilitated by the omissions of others. This is how we begin...

Part II: Missed Opportunities As the investigation continues into the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, we are learning about missed opportunities to save 17 lives. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, accused of "incompetence and neglect of duty", has been asked to step down. Resource Officer Scot Peterson, whose job it was to provide security and crime prevention services to the school, was accused of “hiding” while innocents who did not have his officer training were gunned down. The truth of the matter is that the tragedy at Parkland was facilitated by the omissions of others. This is how we begin...

In the aftermath of 17 students and teachers being gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, schools, colleges, and universities are reevaluating campus safety and taking a closer look at their active-shooter protocols. There are questions about how this could have happened when there were so many signs for earlier detection. In a three-part series, we will examine a local well-publicized case involving the University of South Florida where an incident was detected at the Tampa campus but went unreported by the USF police department and how the failure to take appropriate action could have just...

The former Registrar of the University of South Florida, Ms. Angela DeBose, has filed a 20-count lawsuit in the Middle District Court of Florida, alleging discrimination, retaliation, and other serious civil wrongs against the University. In the lawsuit, DeBose named USF Board of Trustees and several top officials, including the University's Provost, Ralph Wilcox. DeBose alleges that all engaged in an "invidious scheme to terminate her" prior to and following her filing complaints with the USF Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Equal Opportunity, and later with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The education software company, Ellucian is also named as...