"March Against Monsanto" Today

MELBOURNE, Florida -- Organizers say that hundreds of citizens on Florida's Space Coast will join tens of thousands of activists around the world on May 25 at 2 p.m. to "March Against Monsanto."

The global March Against Monsanto is taking place in over 250 cities in over 35 countries to highlight what activists claim is "the plight of Monsanto’s domination of our country’s food supply and their infiltration of hazardous GMOs (genetically modified organisms) into seed crops and animal feed."  Monsanto has patenting rights over some agricultural seed engineered from the DNA of different species of plant, animal, bacterial, and viral genes.

Organizers contend that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.  "Monsanto's products are harmful to people and the planet" said Melbourne's March Against Monsanto Facebook Host and organizer Jill Allen.


The Melbourne march will take place at the Melbourne City Hall located at 900 E. Strawbridge Avenue in Melbourne, Florida.


More "March Against Monsanto" events are schedule to take place throughout Florida at different locations and times which can be found on the "Millions Against Monsanto, Florida" Facebook page.

SIMILAR STORIES:

"Monsanto Protection Act" Voting Record

 

IMAGE CREDIT: Wiki Commons vis Ashlyak at ml.wikipedia 

NASA Contractor Pleads Guilty To Faking Minority Status

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Michael Brian Dunkel, 59, of Merritt Island, Fl., pleaded guilty today to fraudulently obtaining more than $4.4 million in government contract payments that should have gone to what the U.S. government considers a disadvantaged small businesses.  

Dunkel was charged by criminal information on May 23, 2013, with one count of major government fraud. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on October 4, 2013.  As part of his plea agreement, Dunkel has agreed to forfeit $2.9 million. 

According to court documents, Dunkel admitted that in 2005, he learned that Keith Hedman, an executive at an Arlington-based security service consulting company referred to as Company A in court records, illegally controlled Company B, another Arlington-based security service consulting company. 

Company B was a participant in the SBA “Section 8(a)” program, which enables certain small businesses to receive sole-source and competitive-bid contracts set aside for minority-owned and disadvantaged small businesses. Although Hedman controlled Company B, Company B had obtained its 8(a) status based on the disadvantaged status of Dawn Hamilton, its nominal owner.

According to the SBA website, the following individuals are presumed socially disadvantaged for purposes of the 8(a) Business Development program: Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian Pacific, or Subcontinent Asians.


The individual must provide evidence to SBA proving one’s individual social disadvantage. Evidence of individual social disadvantage must include:

• At least one objective distinguishing feature such as race, ethnic origin, gender, physical handicap, long-term residence in an environment isolated from the mainstream of American society, or other similar causes not common to individuals who are not socially disadvantaged.
• Personal experiences of substantial and chronic social disadvantage in American society, not in other countries.
• Negative impact on the individual’s entrance into the business world or advancement in the business world because of the stated disadvantage(s).

Dunkel admitted that he agreed to pay Hedman and Company B a fee in exchange for Company B allowing Dunkel to use its 8(a) status to obtain NASA and other U.S. government contracts. 

Although Company B was required to perform at least 50% of the work on the contracts and had represented it would do so, no Company B employees actually performed any work. Instead, Dunkel and others did all of the work as independent contractors, but they concealed that fact from the government agencies. 

In addition, Dunkel submitted fraudulent proposals and invoices to hide their scheme, used a third-party company’s Federal Employer Identification Number to prevent reporting of his contractor income to the IRS, and did not pay any income taxes on the income he received from Company B.
 

Seven defendants, including Hedman and Hamilton, have previously pleaded guilty in connection with the government contracting fraud scheme and a related bribery scheme. 

Protest Against IRS "Abuse of Power"

MELBOURNE, Florida -- In reaction to recent developments in the Internal Revenue Service scandal where agents selectively singled out conservative political organizations during the application process for non-profit status, local conservatives plan to hold a protest against the IRS "Abuse of Power" today.

The protest will take place at the IRS office located at 431 North Wickham Road in Melbourne, Florida at 11 a.m.

Brooke Deratany Goldfarb Announces Candidacy For Circuit Court Judge

INDIALANTIC, Florida -- Brevard County native Brooke Deratany Goldfarb, a member of the Florida Bar since 1996, has announced her candidacy for 18th Judicial Circuit Court, Group 14 judge.

The 43-year-old is president of Peaceful Beach Mediation and Collaboration Inc. and a graduate of Harvard Law School.  Goldfarb, who was valedictorian and student body president at Melbourne High School in 1987, worked as an attorney in Miami and Washington, D.C., before returning to Brevard in 2004.  She has conducted trials and hearings in felony criminal, family, circuit civil, juvenile, dependency and immigration cases. 

“When people go to court, they are naturally nervous, angry, upset or afraid. Much usually hangs in the balance,” she said. “I will be that calming courtroom presence so that all people who come before me feel like they have been heard and respected, even if the ruling doesn’t end up going their way.” 

Goldfarb serves as adjunct faculty and prelaw mentor at Florida Institute of Technology.  She also is a volunteer child advocate with the Brevard County Guardian Ad Litem program and on the board of Brevard Family Partnership. 

Previously, she served on the Judicial Nominating Commission for the 18th Judicial Circuit, which includes Brevard and Seminole counties. In 2009, she was recognized as one of LEAD Brevard’s “4 Under 40.” 

Goldfarb is a candidate for the seat held by Judge Jack Griesbaum, who is retiring at the end of his term.  The election will be held in August 2014. 

She is married to Loren Goldfarb, deputy mayor of Indialantic, and has two children.  Her father, Tim Deratany, is a former state senator, and her mother, Dr. Andrea Deratany Blasy, was a Brevard County commissioner. 

Visit BrookeForJudge.com for more information.

Melbourne "March Against Monsanto"

MELBOURNE, Florida -- Organizers say that hundreds of Brevard citizens will join tens of thousands of activists around the world on May 25 at 2 p.m. to "March Against Monsanto."

The global March Against Monsanto is taking place in over 250 cities in over 35 countries to highlight what activists claim is "the plight of Monsanto’s domination of our country’s food supply and their infiltration of hazardous GMOs (genetically modified organisms) into seed crops and animal feed."  Monsanto has patenting rights over some agricultural seed engineered from the DNA of different species of plant, animal, bacterial, and viral genes.

Organizers contend that Monsanto’s genetically-modified foods can lead to serious health conditions such as the development of cancer tumors, infertility and birth defects.  "Monsanto's products are harmful to people and the planet" said Melbourne's March Against Monsanto Facebook Host and organizer Jill Allen.


The Melbourne march will take place at the Melbourne City Hall located at 900 E. Strawbridge Avenue in Melbourne, Florida,

SIMILAR STORIES:

"Monsanto Protection Act" Voting Record

 

IMAGE CREDIT: Wiki Commons vis Ashlyak at ml.wikipedia 

Governor Scott Stops Amazon Jobs From Coming To Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- Florida Governor Rick Scott has denied a behind-the-scenes deal that would have brought an Amazon.com distribution warehouse to Florida where Amazon would have been given a break on Florida sales taxes until after the 2013 Christmas shopping season, the Associated Press reported.

The Governor's rejection of the deal is in stark contrast to the millions of Florida tax dollars given to companies to relocate in the Sunshine State such as the recent Northrop Grumman deal in Brevard County, Florida.

Just last week, Governor Scott appeared on CNBC to tout that Hertz was moving its headquarters to Florida at a cost to taxpayers of around $19 million for 700 jobs.  During the same segment in the video below, Scott was repeatedly asked about the internet tax because the interviewers were unclear about his position after his responses to their questioning. 

Kneessy: More Brevard Schools Could Close

VIERA, Florida -- More schools could close if the Brevard County Commissioners decide to suspend the educational impact fact fees, Brevard School Board member Amy Kneessy warns.

During the last County Commissioner meeting, Brevard Commissioner Robin Fisher brought up the idea of taking away the impact fees.  

"We still got the school board impact fees, and the school board is making your kid go two distances away to Palm Bay High when you're right next door to another high school," Fisher said to fellow Commissioner Andy Anderson.  

"The schools are getting $4,700-$4,900 a house for impact fees because we never suspended on them a moratorium.  I’m watching them close schools and I’m watching them spend $8 million for software stuff, and they're suppose to be in dire straits, they're doing pay raises.  We keep sending money over there and they’re closing schools.  If you're closing schools, you can’t have an impact on roads."

"Now you made me think," Anderson said with a chuckle.  "I’d like to look at it too."

"If they are not expanding or adding capacity, does that money just sits in an account somewhere?" Anderson queried to Brevard County attorney Scott Knox. 

"I think there’s certainly an argument to be made that if you are not in expansion mode any longer, then the impact fees aren’t serving any purpose," Knox replied.

But Kneessy warns that such retaliatory action taken by the Brevard County Commission because they are not happy with the School Board's decision to close schools would only result in more schools closing because the impact fees are used to service existing debt on expansion projects that were undertaken in the last few years.

Kneessy projects that, "At least one, maybe two more schools would be cut," and added that "all the programs that were on the chopping block this year that survived the cut could be back for consideration next year."

Kneessy will be on the Bill Mick Live radio show, channels AM 1240 and 1350, this morning at 8 a.m. to take listeners' questions about the issue.


UPDATE:  A replay of today's Bill Mick Live show can be listened to here.

Florida Environmentalist Warns Of Acid Oceans

Image: Wiki Commons

MELBOURNE, Florida --  Corry Westbrook, a Democratic candidate who is hoping to unseat Republican Congressman Bill Posey from the 8th Congressional District located on Florida's Space Coast, will talk about ocean acidification and other concerns impacting the cleanliness and health of our oceans at the Front Street Civic Center located at 2205 South Front Street in Melbourne, Florida at 6:30 p.m. on June 6, 2013.  

This free event is presented by the Space Coast Progressive Alliance.

Image: Corry Westbrook For Congress

Westbrook creates federal policy and legislation for Oceana. As Federal Policy Director, she has worked on all of Oceana’s North American campaigns including: fisheries management, fighting seafood fraud and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, stopping new oil and gas leasing, mitigating ocean acidification, expanding off-shore wind capacity, eliminating foreign government subsidies for commercial fishing that she claims are environmentally unstable and unfairly distorting global markets, and protecting threatened and endangered species, including her favorite – whales.

Prior to her current role at Oceana, she was a Legislative Director at the National Wildlife Federation, a Regional Grassroots Coordinator for the National Audubon Society, a Policy Analyst for Environmental Protection Agency, and served as a Peace Corp Volunteer in the Eastern Caribbean.  

Westbrook holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies, with a minor in Biology, from Florida International University and a Masters in Environmental and Natural Resource Policy from the George Washington University.

Food Stamp Enrollment Drops 2 Months In A Row

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- According to the latest U.S. Department of Agricultural report released on May 10, 2013, the number of U.S. participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or also referred to as Food Stamps) has declined for the last two consecutive months after hitting an all-time high of 47,791,996 for the month of December 2012 with an average per person benefit of $133.73 per month. 

47,558,101 people were on Food Stamps for the month of February 2013, down slightly from 47,772,063 in January.  The last time a straight two-month decline in food stamps occurred was during the exact same calendar months a year ago (December 2011 through February 2012.)

Despite the recent economic data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that U.S. unemployment has reached a post-recession low of below 7.5% for April 2013, over 14 million new Food Stamp participants were added since President Barack Obama took office in January 2009.  Meanwhile, the U.S. civilian labor force participation rate remains at its lowest level since 1979.

SIMILAR STORIES:

Authorities Monitor Social Media For Food Stamp Fraud

Food Stamp Outage Denies Millions Food

Tracfone Defends New 'Obama Phone' Broadband Subsidy

U.S. Unemployment Rate For Women Drops To 6.7%

Unemployment Benefit Cuts Coming To Florida

Florida Unemployment Drops To 7.5%

Poll: Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993, Public Unaware

National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. 

Looking back 50 years, the U.S. gun homicide rate began rising in the 1960s, surged in the 1970s, and hit peaks in 1980 and the early 1990s, researchers found.  

RELATED STORY: Obama's Gun Control: Facts and Statistics

Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew.  The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993.  Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%) over two decades.

Despite the attention to gun violence in recent months, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is markedly lower than it was two decades ago.   A new Pew Research Center survey conducted March 14-17 found that 56% of Americans believe the number of crimes involving a gun is higher than it was 20 years ago; only 12% say it is lower and 26% say it stayed the same.

Source and Infographic Credit: Pew Research Center