Should Marijuana be legalized in Florida?

Florida is among a number of states where the legalization of marijuana is being debated. But whether legalization would help or hurt the Liberty City community is a question that has yet to be answered. And what would the impact — social, economic, health and legal — be on our community?

On Saturday, May 18, the Urban League of Greater Miami will host a forum discussing this important topic. The meeting will be held at the Joseph Caleb Center, 5400 NW 22nd Avenue in Miami. The featured speaker at the event will be Calvina Fay, Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation and Save our Society from Drugs (SOS).

If you plan to attend, please RSVP at www.urbanleaguemiami.eventbrite.com.

See the flyer below, print it out, and bring a friend (or two, or three).

It’s that time of year again!

High school seniors and other college-going students from around the state of Florida will have their chance to get FREE help filling out the financial aid forms they need, in order to help pay for college.

From Florida ICAN – the College Access Network:

Florida Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators along with higher education leaders and organizations throughout Florida have partnered to help college-going students find money for college by hosting College Goal Sunday Florida on February 23 and February 24 from 2pm-5pm at various locations throughout the state. The one-day event is designed to help students and families pay for college by providing free expert assistance with completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

A completed FAFSA application is required by the U.S. Department of Education and higher education institutions to determine student eligibility for federal student aid such as the Pell grant, work-study aid, and loans. The FAFSA can also determine student eligibility for state, private, and institutional aid. Students and families who need assistance completing the FAFSA form are invited to attend any College Goal Sunday Florida site on February 23rd or 24th, 2013 from 2pm-5pm for free assistance.

The Urban League of Greater Miami is one of 35 locations across the state where students and parents can come to get assistance filling out the FAFSA application.

Come to the Urban League on Sunday for help!

We’re located at 8500 NW 27th Avenue, Miami, Florida 33147.

For information on other locations where you can get help on College Goal Sunday, or for information on participating locations, what students and parents should bring to College Goal Sunday, and volunteer opportunities, visit www.fasfaa.org/cgs or email College Goal Sunday Florida at cgsfl@fasfaa.org

College Goal Sunday Florida is coordinated by Florida Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators in partnership with the Florida Department of Education, USA Funds, and the Florida College Access Network.

Download the full size poster here.

From the Miami Herald, one young woman, Fabiola Fleuranvil, fights the cynicism of her peers and refuses to leave Miami behind.

From Fabiola’s op-ed:

FLEURANVIL
BY FABIOLA FLEURANVIL BY FABIOLA FLEURANVIL
FABIOLA@BLUEPRINTCREATIVEGROUP.COM
Miami raised, Tallahassee educated, Atlanta sharpened, and now back in Miami using my social, business, and political capital to do good for something bigger than myself.

That’s because Miami is so open with an abundance of undiscovered opportunities waiting on emerging leaders to take charge and do something to effectuate change. Yes, there are things that could use changing if we are to continue developing as a world-class city, but it won’t happen without us owning up.

Unfortunately, many of us do not realize this and sit by idly, complaining about what Miami does not have and comparing it to cities that appear to have what we lack, and then taking our talent and intellectual capital elsewhere, leaving Miami with a severe brain drain.

Even after being back in Miami for four years now and seeing my peers leave in a heartbeat, I still get asked why I haven’t left. My simple answer: “You can create in Miami. You can’t in D.C., Atlanta, New York, etc.”

While I love those cities and credit Atlanta for my entrepreneurial and professional development, those cities are oversaturated and everything you’re thinking about doing is already being done and dominated by someone else. So while it is true that you can easily experience a different level of living in those cities, you will just fit with the pack.

Read more at the Miami Herald…

From the Grio health-

Question: I am a 46-year-old man. I would like to know if there is something I can take over-the-counter that could raise my testosterone levels?

Answer: Perhaps.

As men age, the level of testosterone in the body decreases. Without testosterone, men have a decreased interest in sex, larger breast tissue and can suffer from depression and fatigue. “Low T” also makes it harder to develop large muscles and more likely to have weaker bones.

Read more here

From the Huffington Post – Puberty is one of the biggest, and often most awkward, changes that boys go through, and a new study shows it starts six months to two years earlier than previous data indicated. The findings raise concerns about the cause of the change and how boys could be affected by a sped-up timeline.

“Our question was, ‘What’s actually going on currently?’ The data that was out there was old and of questionable validity,” said Dr. Richard Wasserman, an author of the study and director of Pediatric Research in Office Settings at the American Academy of Pediatrics. “My interest [as a doctor] is, ‘How do I know what’s normal for boys?’”

From Foundation for Florida’s Future – Our state’s transition to the Common Core State Standards will change the expectation of what students need to be learning in Florida classrooms. Standards will be fewer but deeper, and more aligned to what they’ll need for success after high school in our changing world – this brings incredible opportunities for students and teachers but also challenges as we prepare for the change.

Governor Rick Scott is working to help teachers prepare for these standards, and we applaud him for taking proactive steps to ensure they have the tools they need to grow professionally and become even better educators. The Governor recently announced a $2 million teacher professional training matching grant program to be in his recommended budget for 2013-2014. According to a press release from the Governor’s Office, the competitive grant program will be matched by private sector investment and local investment in order to support Florida’s teachers as they work to grow and improve in their field. Common Core State Standards implementation is a critical training piece that teachers will be able to receive with the help of this grant.

Read more here

From the Miami Herald – Years of school construction delays. Hundreds of millions in cost overruns. Broken promises. Shoddy construction.

Those were the headlines from the last time Miami-Dade voters agreed to pay extra property taxes to fund school construction and renovation.

When the measure passed in 1988, the $980 million bond was the largest ever in the country for school construction. It was meant to relieve crowded classrooms in the boom times of real-estate development and growth.

That program will end in 2017. Now, the Miami-Dade school system wants to launch a new one to fix aging buildings and modernize technology. Schools like Hialeah Senior High have cracks in the walls. Miami Norland Senior High has outdated electrical panels. Shenandoah Elementary needs plumbing.

From the Huffinton Post – Columbia University president and great American legal scholar Lee C. Bollinger recently published in the LA Times an editorial on the moral obligation for the Supreme Court to uphold affirmative action in admissions processes at public universities. At stake, diversity requirements at many of America’s state flagship institutions of higher education, which consider race, along with socioeconomic and gender factors as key elements in manufacturing diversity on college campuses.

With new discussion on a possible reversal of affirmative action in the admissions process, there’s a very real possibility that historically black colleges and universities could greatly benefit from its demise. And while no HBCU president or chancellor worth their salt in political savvy would admit it, many HBCUs can’t wait to welcome back some of the best and brightest of Black America has to offer.

Read more here

From Education week – When the student-government president here at City Springs Elementary/Middle School turned into the class clown last school year and began treating teachers disrespectfully, administrators had many options for how to deal with him, including sending him home for a few days to cool his heels.

But the “restorative practices” approach the school uses took educators in a different direction. They called the boy’s mother to work out a punishment that would be more fitting. Her idea: Strip him of his title. The school agreed and also required the student to tell the whole school at an assembly that he didn’t deserve to be president.

Read more here