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Whose Voice in the Committee Room? Michael Owen, Insurance Cash, and the Squeeze on District 70
Michael Owen sits where Florida’s property insurance laws are shaped: the House Insurance & Banking Subcommittee. His campaign finance reports also show substantial support from insurance companies, insurance political committees, agents’ groups, and lobbyists. The article examines that money alongside the choices he has made in office.
Owen has shown no shortage of legislative ambition when Hillsborough County government is involved. He sponsored HB 4027, which puts an elected school superintendent before Hillsborough voters, and HB 4029, which would substantially restructure the County Commission. Both measures passed the Legislature and require local voter approval.
That leaves a harder question. With homeowners still confronting steep insurance bills, what has Owen used his seat on Insurance & Banking to do for them? The campaign money does not answer that question by itself, but it makes his legislative record worth examining closely.
This article follows the money, looks at where Owen has chosen to spend his political capital, and asks what those priorities tell District 70 voters about whose concerns are getting attention in Tallahassee.
Politics
All the hot-button topics about government, state, local, and federal the courts, and the election.
Ken Gay’s Campaign For Hillsborough School Board Deserves a Much Closer Look
Ken Gay brings nearly four decades of experience in Hillsborough County public schools to the District 6 School Board race. His long career gives voters plenty to respect. But a detailed candidate questionnaire offers a much fuller picture of the political and social views he would bring to the Board.
Gay identifies himself as a conservative Republican and has taken clear positions on school choice, transgender students, sex education, books, guns in schools, religion and the federal role in education. These are not assumptions about his politics. They come from answers Gay submitted himself.
His campaign finances add another layer. The campaign is largely self-funded, while a recently formed company called Faith in Policy has received a substantial share of Gay’s campaign spending. I took a closer look at Gay’s record, his own words and where his campaign money is coming from.
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What Are We Going to Do Now?
Essay 3 of a series examining where we are at 250 years
That question is easy to ask but far more difficult to answer. It is tempting to surrender to cynicism, retreat into anger, or simply conclude that one person’s voice no longer matters. Yet history tells a different story. Every major step toward a more just America began because ordinary people refused to believe that tomorrow had to look exactly like yesterday.
This concluding essay in my 250th Fourth of July trilogy is not about despair. It is about responsibility. It is a personal reflection on the kind of citizen I have decided to be, regardless of the political climate, and an invitation for each of us to consider the role we will play in writing America’s next chapter. Because history will move forward. The only question is whether we will help hold the pen.
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Here we discuss the politics of the LGBT movement, stories of events in the community, and anything else related to the LGBT community.
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What We Owe the Worker
People often see Labor Day as just the end of summer, but its history asks us to remember something more. The day began with workers fighting for safer workplaces, better pay, reasonable hours, and the right to organize. Those fights were never only about economics. They were about dignity.
The Stoics didn’t write about labor rights as we know them, but they believed strongly in justice, cooperation, and the common good. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself that people are meant to work together, and that harm to the community eventually harms everyone. This idea matters now, when many workers still have little control over their pay, safety, schedules, or ability to organize.
This Labor Day, let’s consider what Stoicism can still teach us about work, the value of workers, and what we owe each other in a society that says it honors labor.
Trump Wants the Midterms to Be About Trump
Donald Trump has looked at a 34 percent approval rating and reached a comforting conclusion: Americans have not seen enough Donald Trump. His super PAC is preparing midterm ads built around his record, his speeches, and clips of Trump praising Trump. Apparently, the nation has suffered from a shortage.
The ads will tout stock-market highs, factory output, falling overdose deaths, and other signs of the “Golden Age.” Families will still see grocery bills that keep climbing, gasoline near $4.09 a gallon, and a job market that lost ground in July. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has yet to buy anyone’s groceries.
Trump wants voters to treat the midterms as though his name appears on every ballot. They should accept the invitation. Then they should ask every Republican incumbent whether Trump’s record belongs to them too, which votes lowered costs back home, and why the greatest economy in history remains so difficult for most people to find.
When Justice Outruns Wisdom
“I told her I was ready to give up. I wasn’t. I was frustrated.”
What began as a communication bottleneck in a church office became a lesson in leadership. When drafts moved without review and a public link went live incorrectly, urgency surged. The concern was legitimate. The tone was not. Justice rose quickly. Wisdom lagged behind. Where has urgency outrun wisdom in your week?
In this new essay, I contemplate what the Stoics understood about anger, discipline, and leadership—and why the same dynamic I saw in myself is evident at the highest levels of national leadership. Anger is a signal. It is not a strategy. Wisdom must organize justice, or institutions begin to fray.
Read: When Justice Outruns Wisdom.
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