Republican Jeffrey Buongiorno subscribes to the fantasy that millions of immigrants are surging into the country illegally to vote Kamala Harris into the Oval Office. “Avoid a civil war by filing a civil complaint against the treasonous traitors who are conspiring to offset your vote,” he urged in a message on X.

There was a time when such conspiracy-wielding candidates were laughed off as unelectable. No more. After all, millions of Floridians will cast ballots for the biggest election conspiracy theorist of them all in November.

In 2020, there was just one election conspiracy. Now there are dozens, and across the state, election conspiracy theorists like Buongiorno are on the ballot or jostling to influence whose vote counts.

Take Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, who’s in charge of Florida elections.

Just as Mrs. Samuel Alito’s flags suggested what kind of political talk took place behind closed doors, Byrd’s wife Esther’s post-Jan. 6 Facebook posts warn of “coming civil wars.”

“There are only 2 teams,” she wrote. “With Us [or] Against Us.”

Conspiracy theories

A figure of speech, Cord Byrd said when asked about the posts, before he bowed to another conspiracy theory and withdrew the state from a multi-state compact ensuring the accuracy of voter rolls. The Electronic Information Registration Center (ERIC), can find voter fraud. But someone floated a George Soros conspiracy, Donald Trump chimed in, and Florida was left without a one-of-a-kind tool to find duplicate voter registrations.

Then there’s Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. Because nothing says election integrity like pressuring another state to ditch its votes, Moody joined 16 other states petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to jettison ballots in four swing states in 2020. It took all of 48 hours for the court to turn away the poor-loser arguments. Moody’s own lawyers had already derided the case as “bat-s–t insane” and, in an especially prescient description, “weird.”

The same adjective equally applies to Buongiorno’s 36-page lawsuit. He hints that House Speaker Mike Johnson introduced an election bill in part because of Buongiorno’s analysis, alleges a Haitian couple once guaranteed him a congressional primary win for $85,000, and says a new local voting tabulation center “defies the will of the people.”

Assigned to a Trump judge

Buongiorno’s fact-free claim of mass non-citizen voting has traction from Mar-a-Lago on down. Nor can you shrug off the suit. The judge assigned to his case is Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee known for her novel legal decisions.

Further, Buongiorno is just one of several conspiracy-minded supervisor of election candidates who hope to oversee Florida votes, the Tampa Bay Times found. In Charlotte County, David Kalin told reporters his radio frequency analyzer proved 99.9% of Florida’s ballot machines are connected to a modem. Lake County GOP candidate Tom Vail’s website declares that “Easy to Vote Means Easy to Cheat.”

Then there’s EagleAI, a software system backed by Cleta Mitchell, best known for being on the call when then-President Trump asked Georgia’s Secretary of State to find another 11,780 votes.

In May, EagleAI dumped the names of 10,000 Florida voters on Cord Byrd’s doorstep, alleging they might be illegally registered.

Such name dumps are cutting-edge voter suppression. A voter can only hope that their registration is not being challenged, and if it is, that underfunded and overworked supervisors of elections get around to combing through all 10,000 names before election day.

It’s the sort of thing ERIC would have accomplished, only with access to confidential detail that can distinguish between glitches and actual problems, such as a part-time Floridian registered in two states.

Solving actual problems is not the end goal of conspiracy theorists, though. Keeping people from voting is. Vail, for instance, believes that not everyone should be encouraged to register, the Orlando Sentinel reports. And one of Cord Byrd’s complaints about ERIC was its requirement that states send postcards urging people to register to vote. Floridians apparently don’t need extra nudges to participate in democracy, because the state is doing just fine, he said.

There really is an election fraud being perpetrated in Florida, one that voters need to pay attention to: It’s the clickbait fiction that the machinery of democracy is hopelessly rigged and is fixable only by limiting access to the ballot box. Plenty of people are lining up to do just that — if we let them.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

Walz once spoke of “weapons of war that I carried in war” when talking about banning assault rifles (rightly so). The problem is he was never in war. (Walz said he “misspoke.”)

Walz said he retired two months before his unit was deployed to Iraq. Soldiers in his unit said he retired when he got word that his unit was going to Iraq.

Walz said he retired as a Command Sergeant Major, the highest non-commissioned rank, where in actuality he left as a Master Sergeant. (Walz retired before completing all of the requirements of a command sergeant major.)

Why won’t Mr. Walz answer questions about his military career?

Rob Berg, Boynton Beach

(Editor’s Note: Factcheck.org has thoroughly researched details of Walz’s military service.)

An attack hits home

Sen. JD Vance, as the mouthpiece of somebody who never met a deferment he didn’t like (Donald Trump), and Trump strategist Chris LaCivita, a Purple Heart recipient who should know better, set out to defame a decorated, long-serving veteran, Gov. Tim Walz.

As a Marine Reserve veteran, this hit home on many levels. I enlisted in 1970 during Vietnam. We trained on every weapon of war, from using our hands to everything in the Marine arsenal, to be able to kill in combat to defend our country. I dropped from helicopters, did beach landings and had desert training.

In a reserve unit, it’s luck of the draw, the grace of God, and Uncle Sam who decides when and where you are deployed, either in direct conflict or in support. You must be prepared.

When active duty ended, I returned home to civilian life as a history teacher and football coach and served for the next six years as required. Gov. Walz served with distinction for 24 years. Paperwork in service is not always precise so timing and dates get muddled and often delayed. Vance should know that.

You’re never a “former” Marine, but one for life. Two words a Marine should never say about another soldier are “lie” and “abandon.” I have two works for Sen. Vance: hurtful and shameful.

Jim Infantino, Delray Beach

Full of hot air

The other day I read a letter to the editor from Steven Genack on the opinion page, speaking about how Trump is a better choice than Kamala Harris and how Trump’s policies are sound.

If Trump’s policies are so sound, why didn’t he directly answer questions during his debate with Biden on June 27? Any candidate who has sound policies knows it and shouts it from the rooftops. Trump does not. He knows he’s full of hot air and lies and unsound policies. I don’t trust anything he says or promises.

His legal difficulties and felony conviction point to his future behavior as president and his horrific failures as a past president. Nothing Trump says inspires trust, hope or goodwill. Everything he says is destructive and divisive and laced with lies and untruths.

Nina Leonard, St. Augustine

Like ‘The Caine Mutiny’

Am I the only one who sees a paranoid Humphrey Bogart on the witness stand in The Caine Mutiny, rolling the three ball bearings in his hand over and over, when I see the latest bizarre actions of Donald J. Trump?

I’m no psychiatrist, but this man seems to be losing it.

W. Rick Garr, Fort Lauderdale

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True to form, most voters will resolutely avoid it, even though several major public offices are at stake and this election sets up the final choices that voters will make in the decisive general election on Nov. 5.

In a year when democracy itself is endangered, it’s not easy to detect a civic pulse locally. But everywhere, we hear that people’s eyes are on the big prize, the presidential race. Let’s hope so. Every election is important.

Despite repeated reminders, most voters have still not bothered to request a mail ballot — and most of those who did have not yet returned them.

Where is everybody?

The busiest early voting site in Broward is a regional library in Pembroke Pines, where two of the most spirited contests are being held.

They are the three-way Democratic primary for a state Senate seat and a nonpartisan race for the District 2 School Board seat. (In those races, the Sun Sentinel has endorsed Chad Klitzman for Senate and Rebecca Thompson for the School Board.)

Candidates and campaign workers sometimes overwhelm voters who show up, one or two at a time, at the library.

Some voters arrive with completed, sealed mail ballots, or are holding so-called slate cards, listing candidates recommended by a political party or an interest group.

“Everybody seems to have done their homework,” said Kathleen Angione, a candidate for county court judge who has spent many hours under a broiling sun at the Pines library. “They seem like savvy voters.”

Signs of disinterest

A good sign, but there simply are not enough savvy voters.

So get out and vote, and consult the Sun Sentinel’s list of candidate endorsements (which you can bring to the polls).

Broward will elect seven judges, up to five School Board members, two state House members, an election supervisor, a court clerk and its first tax collector on Tuesday, and control of the sheriff’s office is at stake for the next four years.

Palm Beach will elect its first new public defender in two decades and nominate candidates for state attorney and sheriff. Voters in both counties will nominate candidates for Congress and will help select Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s Democratic opponent.

Candidates rely on direct mail, texts, robocalls and TV ads to reach the voters they can’t find. Too few candidate forums, the slow trickle of returning mail ballots and even a lack of political signs at highway intersections all suggest a high level of disinterest.

By Wednesday morning, fewer than 8% of Broward voters had voted early or by mail, according to Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott’s website, and two-thirds of the 220,000 voters who have received mail ballots had not returned them. The numbers are higher in Palm Beach, where 10% had voted.

More Palm Beach voters (38%) had returned their mail ballots, and people were even waiting to vote at the Boca Raton library.

Broward’s loneliest early voting site, Broward College in Davie, had attracted a paltry 45 voters after four full days. Early voting in both counties will continue through Sunday.

A rare exception to the apathy occurred on July 29, when nearly 200 people turned out for a two-hour afternoon forum at John Knox Village, a Pompano Beach retirement community.

If current turnout trends continue, fewer people will vote in this local election than did four years ago in the “pandemic primary” during Covid-19 — a time when many candidates avoided knocking on doors and voters, fearful of contracting the virus, cast mail ballots from home.

In Broward, 317,160 people, or 26%, voted in the 2020 primary that preceded the last presidential election. In Palm Beach, 263,873 voted, or 27%. The statewide turnout was 28%.

There’s still plenty of time

It’s still possible for turnout to spike upward, but it will take a stampede of in-person voters on Election Day in both counties.

So in the unlikely event that you still intend to vote, here are a couple of helpful reminders.

Mail ballots must reach your county elections office by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 20. If you received a mail ballot and haven’t returned it, it is too late to mail it. You should bring it to any early voting site.

If you received a mail ballot and you decide to vote in person instead, you can do that. Broward Supervisor Joe Scott said you do not need to turn in the blank mail ballot at the polls.

“Just go vote,” Scott told the Sun Sentinel.

That’s good advice. Just go vote.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

I have first-hand experience as a discharged patient from a highly rated rehab facility, where I saw the problems of too few nurses, especially on weekends. Nurses had to cover too many rooms, testing their patience and frustrating patients.

One solution: FIU partners with nurses-in-training from California. They come here to practice their skills and learn about different cultures, knowing there may be future openings in Florida. In their white jackets, they take patients’ vital signs yet add a personal touch as they go room to room with big smiles, seeing if the patients need anything that a nurse hasn’t time to do. They are a welcome sight.

Besides excellent hands-on training, I’m sure some of these youngsters will fill the ranks of the rehab staff as nurses. It’s impressive that Florida is a leader in this kind of education.

Barbara B. Green, Boynton Beach

There they go again

When paid Republican strategists have no policies to boast about, they personally attack their opponents. They did it to John Kerry in 2004. Now they’re doing it to Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.

They attacked Kerry even though he got three Purple Hearts in Vietnam aboard Navy swift boats that engaged the enemy.

Only one of those who served with Kerry on his swift boat said he wasn’t wounded, and he was not on any missions where Kerry was wounded.

Too late, their statements proved to be nearly all lies, as George W. Bush’s chief 2004 strategist recently acknowledged (Associated Press, Aug. 13).

The strategist who orchestrated those attacks, Trump adviser Chris LaCivita, is now attacking Gov. Walz over his military record. They are posting that he lied about being a Command Sergeant Major. (The Minnesota National Guard stated he did make this rank.)

Walz retired before he could complete training for Sergeant Major, so even though he was currently in the rank, he could not retire at the rank. They are masters of the disingenuous slur.

Sen. JD Vance said Walz left his Guard unit when he learned it was going to Iraq. Walz submitted his Guard retirement papers in May 2005. The unit’s first call-up notice came in July 2005; the regiment deployed in March 2006. He retired because he planned to run for Congress, which he did, and which he won.

What’s truly hypocritical is that they are trying to smear a man who served 24 years in the Guard and is running against Trump, who got a deferment for bone spurs during Vietnam. Bone spurs so bad he could not serve his country — but he could still play tennis, squash and golf.

Vote Blue to save our democracy from the lies of Trump and Project 2025.

Ray Belongie, Lt. Col. USMC (Ret.), Sunrise

Thinking of staying home

The upcoming election is a complete farce because of useless information we receive from the media and politicians.

We’re supposed to know where candidates stand on various issues. I will not vote if things don’t change. I will consider not voting as a message to the media, politicians and others involved that it is very honorable not to vote, rather than try to analyze stupid information thrown at us.

Mike Brewer, Boca Raton

Fix airline delays

Hey, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: I’ve never seen so many airline flight delays and excessively long lines as in the past few years. It’s out of control.

If there’s anything you can do about it, I think the people of America would appreciate it. The lack of service is insulting to the American people.

Diane Miller, Plantation

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That message appears to quote from the Sun Sentinel and in fact looks like an endorsement from the Sun Sentinel. In reality, it’s not a direct quote, nor did the Sun Sentinel endorse Frankel. In fact, both the Sun Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post have endorsed Frankel’s opponent, Daniel Eisinger.

Putting aside the misleading nature of Frankel’s ad, the message makes clear that Frankel misunderstands the role of the office he seeks.

The public defender does not set bail; that is the role of the judge. His claims are especially troubling because public defenders, and all lawyers, have an ethical and constitutional duty to advocate for each client’s best interest. For pretrial clients who are presumed innocent, this means asking the judge to lower cash bail.

This kind of rhetoric erodes public trust in our adversarial system of justice as well as the trust clients must have in their lawyers. Calling for public defenders to not fully perform their duties destroys the constitutional right to an effective lawyer and a fair trial.

In counties where the public defender has taken a similar approach to Frankel’s message, it has resulted in disproportionately long sentences, complaints of ineffective assistance of counsel and even wrongful convictions.

Donnie Murrell, Jupiter

The writer is a founding member of, and is speaking on behalf of, the Palm Beach Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

How to track speeders

Paul Novack’s recent Sun Sentinel essay on the lack of FHP troopers identifies ways to juggle existing funds to increase FHP’s presence on our highways.

Here’s a thought: SunPass toll data has been used to identify drivers who (as public officials) may not live in communities where they are elected to govern.

SunPass tracks toll violators, and it can calculate the time taken to travel a certain distance and to calculate a driver’s average speed. Drivers breaking a certain speed should be sent tickets. Funding will roll in and some drivers may actually slow down.

Jay Pellis, Coral Springs

Cushioning Trump’s fall?

The QAnon conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec announced on his website that he was a guest at Mar-a-Lago for Donald Trump’s stumble-and-fumble press conference on Aug. 8.

Posobiec is perhaps best known for spreading the evil myth that Democrats in Washington ran a child sex abuse ring in the basement of a popular pizza restaurant in the nation’s capital. In Posobiec’s perverted presentation, children were eaten as well as raped.

In the same announcement, Posobiec plugged Mike Lindell’s “MyPillow” products, apparently to ease Lindell’s struggle with bankruptcy after Lindell failed to prove that the 2020 election was “rigged” against Trump. Posobiec directed followers to Lindell’s website, where they would get 65% off his pillow products.

Enter Trump’s vice presidential running mate, JD Vance, who is already taking heat for writing a foreword to a forthcoming book by a Trump ally, Kevin Roberts, who prepared much of the controversial Project 2025 manifesto.

Vance was anything but Q-Anonymous when he wrote a blurb for Posobiec’s book: “Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions.” The “unhumans” targeted in this work included domestic civil rights activists. Maybe Trump, Vance and Posobiec need a few Lindell pillows to cushion the inevitable fall on Election Day.

Paul Doell, Hollywood

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We refer to the Florida Commission on Ethics, which just threw out two well-founded complaints against Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Both concerned his failure to report as gifts what the ethics code most certainly should have required him to disclose. But the commission said the law didn’t apply.

One complaint cited unreported free air travel to speeches DeSantis made in the three months before he formally announced his run for president.

A $28,000 golf simulator

The other dealt with a golf simulator worth a reported $28,000, gifted to him at the Governor’s Mansion by his longtime political supporter Mori Hosseini of Ormond Beach.

Hosseini is one of Florida’s largest homebuilders and — thanks to DeSantis — holds a highly coveted patronage appointment as chairman of the University of Florida Board of Trustees.

Hosseini told the commission’s investigator that the virtual indoor golf practice setup was a loan to the state intended not only for the governor’s use but by “anyone” who works there.

What? The simulator is in an outbuilding on the grounds of the mansion, with fortress-like security, that houses a gymnasium normally off-limits to all but the governor and his family.

Nevertheless, the ethics commission, five of whose nine members DeSantis appointed, ruled unanimously that as a loan to the state, Hosseini’s generosity didn’t have to be reported as a gift to the governor. It would have cost DeSantis dearly had he bought or rented one for himself.

One online vendor quotes prices ranging from $199 to $550 an hour to rent similar golf simulators for special events.

Even as a loan to be returned to Hosseini eventually, it was a gift of wild generosity.

Free flights? No problem

The other dismissed complaint cited free airplane rides DeSantis took as a guest of And To The Republic, a conservative group. The flights were in connection with about a dozen speaking events in eight states arranged by the organization in 2023.

The commission ruled DeSantis didn’t have to report them as gifts because they were considered honorariums for his speechmaking.

The staff investigation of the golf simulator neglected to mention the scandal over the DeSantis administration’s 2022 decision to spend $92 million in federal Covid stimulus money on a highway interchange that would directly benefit a major housing and commercial project of Hosseini’s near Daytona Beach, as the Washington Post disclosed last year.

DeSantis has had use of the simulator since September 2019.

The commission’s investigator, Ronald Moalli, reported that Hosseini, chairman and CEO of ICI Homes, disclaimed any lobbying or contractual relationships with the executive branch.

Stonewalling, again

The investigator wrote also that three key people had been unavailable to speak with him.

They were Mary Mica, the mansion’s curator at the time, who refused; James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ deputy general counsel and now his chief of staff, who did not return his phone call; and the governor himself.

“Given the governor’s busy schedule and the information that the governor’s office has already provided, the governor will not be available for an interview,” his assistant general counsel wrote.

Mica, Uthmeier and the governor were the people with the most direct knowledge of Hosseini’s original intentions.

The ethics commission has power to subpoena witnesses and take testimony under oath. Asked whether the commission chair had considered that, Executive Director Kerrie Stillman said the agency doesn’t discuss investigations.

The commission’s chair, Ashley Lukis, is married to a lobbyist who is a former DeSantis chief of staff. Lukis herself is deputy chair of the litigation department of a law firm, GrayRobinson, that has been paid more than $3 million for representing the governor’s office in the past year.

Stonewalling, a show of contempt, has become the default response of the governor’s office to inconvenient information requests.

A clear pattern of secrecy

In one example, DeSantis got a circuit judge to agree that he has an “executive privilege” to withhold records; an appeals court decided the case on other grounds. In a pending case before another judge, the governor’s office contends Uthmeier’s private cell phone records are not public despite his using the phone to conduct public business.

“Why would we have public records laws?” asked a visibly exasperated Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh. He declined at the time to cite the governor’s office for contempt but left the issue open.

DeSantis also signed a law forbidding the ethics commission to investigate any new complaints, such as the two filed against him, that aren’t based on the personal knowledge of those filing them. That was equivalent to forbidding police from investigating crimes they don’t see. Both the Hosseini and air travel complaints were based on newspaper exposés.

Earlier, he had signed a law shielding even his state travel records from public view.

The lessons to be drawn are self-evident. The two new public-be-damned laws need to be repealed. There should be an alternate authority, perhaps an ad hoc panel of judges, to substitute for a governor’s appointees when he’s the subject of a complaint. The Legislature should declare that anything of value loaned for a public official’s use is a gift subject to disclosure. The same should go for free travel.

No such reforms are likely while DeSantis is governor and his obedient Republicans have their engorged supermajorities in the Legislature.

But he’s term-limited, and his legislative lapdogs have to run for re-election. That creates an opportunity for the voters to give ethics a chance.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, send email to letters@sun-sentinel.com.

I wonder how much money that has cost Floridians in addition to further shorting FHP staff members, who would normally be on our state’s roads.

Or perhaps chartering more planes and buses to transport the masses of “illegal immigrants” to various cities in the U.S. Or how about the costs associated with resurrecting, training and equipping (for some level of combat) the governor’s very own State Guard militia.

It seems to me that this is just the start that demonstrates where our governor’s emphasis is. It certainly appears that this governor has squandered millions on his own ego as opposed to properly staffing the FHP — not only for our safety, but for the troopers’ safety as well.

Paul De Young, Pembroke Pines

Marijuana misinformation

Bruce Grant’s recent Another Viewpoint essay, “Setting the record straight on marijuana,” purports to rectify false beliefs about the drug (in relation to the upcoming statewide vote on Amendment 3).

Yet his last paragraph includes this: “The same damages we suffer from alcohol abuse will come with marijuana abuse …”

This is laughable propaganda that Grant is spreading. Any cursory research reveals that such a statement is indefensible rubbish.

Marty Kane, M.D., Delray Beach

Joy versus mean

It was such a happy moment to see Kamala Harris and Tim Walz together on the campaign trail, for all the voters in the audience and for those of us watching on TV.

I am sick and tired of seeing Donald Trump’s mean face and all his racist comments regarding Harris. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, are the epitome of women-haters.

Hey, Donald, what is the fear here? Must be V.P. Harris and her running mate, Walz.

It will be a great feat for all of the women in this country in November to get our freedom back — with or without our cats.

Angelina Cimmino, Delray Beach

In politics, words matter

We hear violent and aggressive terminology by politicians and TV commentators on almost a daily basis.

Terms such as attack, fight, combat, battle, torpedo and punch back are used with regularity without recognition of their violent association.

The language we use, especially by those in positions of power and influence, plays a role in shaping societal attitudes and behaviors. The use of violent and aggressive language in political discourse and media can contribute to a normalization of such behavior and potentially influence individuals to act out violently.

This matters because language has the power to shape perceptions, beliefs and actions.

It’s important for all of us to be mindful of the language we use and its potential impact on others.

By refraining from using aggressive and violent language, we contribute to creating a more peaceful and respectful society. It’s our collective responsibility to be aware of the words we choose and the messages we convey, as they can have far-reaching effects on the well-being of our communities.

Irwin Rosenzweig, Boynton Beach

The writer is a retired assistant professor at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.

Write to us

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Is it President of the United States (Barack Obama); Vice President (Kamala Harris); General (Colin Powell); Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice); Nobel Prize winner (Toni Morrison); TV host (Oprah Winfrey); actor (Morgan Freeman); Senator (Cory Booker); member of Congress (Barbara Lee); Governor (Wes Moore); journalist (Lester Holt) or Olympics gymnastic champion Simone Biles?

Which is it?

Leonor Sanchez, Miami

(Editor’s Note: Trump clarified his remark, ABC News reported, to say that “a Black job is anybody that has a job. That’s what it is.”)

Pay-to-play politics

In a story reported by Jason Garcia of Seeking Rents, if you’re a Republican donor, you get an exclusive seat at the table for your share of taxpayer money in Florida.

As Gov. Ron DeSantis was vetoing funds earmarked for arts and culture, he was handing a check for $6 million to John Rood, a megadonor to the governor and a charter school cheerleader. Your tax money will build a gymnasium for the Jacksonville Classical Academy. Playhouses may go dark and events will be canceled due to the arts veto, but rest assured that affluent parents will get their gym with no strings attached.

Pay-to-play politics is alive and well in Florida. Just ask the Commission on Ethics. The commission ruled that a $28,000 “golf simulator” given to the governor by an influential supporter did not have to be disclosed as a gift because it was technically a donation to the state. Sure it was.

The donor, Mori Hosseini, gained a highway interchange benefiting his development, with $92 million in leftover Covid funds. The Commission on Ethics is a group whose main purpose is to congratulate each other.  A hand-picked group of well-connected people is not likely to rule against the governor.

Fiscally conservative Republicans, are you watching all of this?

PJ Whelan, Orlando

Depriving Florida kids

If, according to a recent report by the United Way, nearly half of all families in Florida are struggling to make ends meet, why would Gov. Ron DeSantis turn down federal money to provide these families with extra money for food?

Is he somehow teaching these children a lesson that going hungry builds character, or, maybe, intermittent fasting for a five-year-old is a good dietary practice? Has he tried these approaches with his own three children?

Thirteen states declined free food allowances for children. All 13 are run by Republican governors. Let’s remember this when we cast our ballots and consider, before children can pull themselves up from their bootstraps, they have to be nourished enough to walk in them.

Stacie M. Kiner, Hypoluxo

Schoolyard taunts

Is Donald Trump so cognitively impaired that he can’t figure out how to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name, or is he just so politically impotent that he has to resort to schoolyard taunts and name-calling?

Margery Resnick, Boca Raton

Vance on shaky ground?

I wonder how long it will be before the Orange Man’s advisers realize that his selection of JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate was as bad as Sen. John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin of Alaska to be his running mate?

Or is it possible they already have and they are trying to figure out how to move him out?

Alan B. Wackerling, Plantation

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Both districts recently regained the highly coveted A rating from the state Department of Education, a reflection of learning gains by students in the two K-12 systems.

Palm Beach County slipped from an A to B just last year.

“Students, you did it,” Superintendent Mike Burke says in an upbeat online video, which concludes with this important message: “Palm Beach County schools remain your best choice.”

Indeed, both urban districts can and must use this bright seal of approval to market their schools more aggressively in an effort to reverse the trend from public to private and charter schools.

For Broward, the return to top-tier status has been a very long time in coming.

The Broward district has been B-rated since 2012, and the uphill climb to an A has been a longstanding priority of the School Board and of Superintendent Howard Hepburn and his immediate predecessor, Peter Licata.

‘A great motivator’

All of them contributed to this achievement, but the greatest credit goes to Broward students.

“It means a lot to everybody. We’re at the top of our game. I think it’s a great motivator,” School Board member Debbi Hixon told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board. “It’s about having all of our schools reach that proficiency level.”

Equally gratifying, Hixon said, is that Broward has no D- or F-rated schools, another positive sign for the nation’s sixth-largest school district.

Two other major changes await the 251,000 Broward students who return to classes Monday.

For the first time, all high school students will need to walk through metal detectors at the start of each school day — a safety measure that has been under consideration since the Parkland mass shooting in 2018.

A little patience, please

We urge students and parents to exercise patience as the district works out the kinks. Some common items, such as metal eyeglass cases and three-ring binders, may set off alarms, as they would in any airport security line.

For more details, go to to browardschools.com and its “What’s New” page.

The second and much bigger change will require a serious attitude adjustment for students. Starting Monday, students will be prohibited from using their cell phones while in school — even while changing classes or during lunch.

This change, recently approved by the School Board, is a positive, necessary step — phones mean big headaches for teachers. At best, they can be a tempting distraction. At worst, they facilitate cheating. During school hours, students can keep their phones, but they must be either off or turned to airplane mode.

The policy also applies to any device capable of two-way communication, such as Apple watches.

Making the new policy work will demand effective, consistent enforcement among teachers and principals, which is no easy feat in a district of this size.

“We’re trying to help students who disconnect to reconnect and engage socially in a positive way,” Hepburn said in an online forum earlier this week.

The superintendent noted the link between excessive phone use and mental health, and that restricting them should improve socialization among students. The big problem in school used to be that kids talked too much; now, obsessed with their phones, they don’t talk enough.

Hepburn, who was recruited to Broward from Palm Beach, was engaging and humorous during the 45-minute forum on X and Facebook, as he discussed the new school lunch menu options, such as ham and cheese Strombolis and shredded rotisserie chicken.

He kept his sense of humor even during the inevitable questions about how students will find ways to dodge the cell phone restrictions.

With a knowing look, he said: “We used to be kids, too.”

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and the  editor-in-chief, Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

Harris was one of the most far-left members of the U.S. Senate, as liberal as Bernie Sanders.

She said in the past she was totally against fracking. She supported access to public health for illegal immigrants. She did nothing as Joe Biden’s point person on the border. A massive wave of illegal immigrants included criminals, at least one of whom is accused of murder.

The stock market dipped this week by 1,000 points and some economists foresee a recession.

Harris has refused to hold a news conference to answer questions.

I don’t like some of Donald Trump’s statements, but with his Abraham Accords, we had peace in the Middle East and prosperity at home. The people deserve a lot better than what Democrats have offered them.

David G. Ellenberg, Pembroke Pines

A champion of freedom

As an Army veteran who proudly served our nation, I’ve seen first-hand the immense strength that comes from unity and the challenges that arise from division. My journey is shaped by my experience in uniform and as a member of the LGBT community.

Our diverse nation finds strength in unity. In my military service, I learned that coming together with a shared purpose enables us to overcome any obstacle and achieve remarkable feats. Whether in peace or conflict, the bonds forged through mutual respect and common goals always prevail.

We now face unprecedented threats to our democracy and we need a leader who fights for our core values. That leader is Kamala Harris.

Like veterans, she is deeply committed to defending our freedoms. From voting rights to a woman’s right to choose, she has consistently held the line against Trump’s anti-freedom agenda. Her experience as a prosecutor uniquely equips her to hold Trump accountable for his criminality and corruption.

Harris’ respect for those who serve is genuine and unwavering. She has championed expanded VA benefits, housing assistance for veterans and a fix for “other than honorable” discharges that have unfairly denied benefits to veterans struggling with chemical exposures, traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

We must remember that our differences are not a weakness but a source of strength. By supporting Kamala Harris, we honor our service and protect our freedoms, ensuring a brighter future for all Americans.

Adriane Reesey, Tamarac  

Thinking of staying home

The upcoming election is a complete farce because of useless information we are receiving from the media and politicians.

We’re supposed to know where the candidates stand on various issues. I will not vote if things don’t change. I will consider not voting as a message to the media, politicians and all others involved that it is very honorable not to vote, rather than try to analyze stupid information thrown at us.

The information being thrown at us is useless, hurtful and often vague, so that it will make everyone happy. I do not favor debates because they often turn out to be the same garbage information that we have already been fed.

Mike Brewer, Boca Raton

Fix airline delays

Hey, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: I’ve never seen so many airline flight delays and excessively long lines as in the past few years. It’s out of control. If there’s anything you can do about it, I think the people of America would appreciate it. The lack of service is insulting to the American people.

Diane Miller, Plantation

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