Ladra is lucky that her puppy is a graduating senior. The rest of you may need to start looking into home schooling after a group of Florida legislators on Tuesday voted to arm public school teachers — calling them “marshals.”
This is what House Bill 7101, proposed urgently by State Rep. Jose Oliva in the wake of the Valentine’s Day school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, would do. Because that’s what we learned we need most from this tragedy, more guns in schools.
If passed by the full House (maybe as early as Thursday), the law would allow up to ten teachers at each public school to be armed. There are 4,200 schools in our 67 counties, according to the Florida Department of Education. That would mean up to 42,000 guns in schools across the state.
“It’s no different than at the movie theatre, where there might be 10, 20 or 50 people with concealed firearms,” State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, chairman of the appropriations committee, told Ladra hours after the vote had been taken.
While there were many concerns about arming teachers — and many questions that are still unanswered — and despite Parkland survivors opposition to the bill, it passed 23-6, with four Democrats voting in favor: They are state reps Lori Berman (Boynton Beach), David Richardson (Miami Beach), Katie Edwards-Walpole (Sunrise) and Jared Moskowitz (Coral Springs). They must have felt like they had to vote yes because of the other parts of the bill — the ban on bump stocks, raising the legal age to own a gun from 18 to 21, a three-day waiting period for all  gun purchases and more power to law enforcement to confiscate firearms from anyone deemed potentially harmful. There was also the creation of a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Public Safety Commission, training for school resource officers, threat assessment teams and mental health programs.
How could Dems vote against all these good ideas being held hostage to the longtime desire by GOP lawmakers to put guns in schools?
It’s almost like the legacy of Parkland will be armed teachers. How sad.
Democrat members of the committee tried to amend the bill. One proposed a ban on assault rifles. That was voted down along party lines. Another wanted to require some document from a medical professional stating that the applicant for a concealed firearm license is not a danger to himself or others. That didn’t pass either.
If the bill becomes law, it would require teachers who want to bring guns to class to undergo background checks and a 130-hour course. “It’s basically a police academy, an abridged version,” Trujillo said of the training. Each sheriff’s department or municipal police agencies like Miami-Dade Police are required to establish these training programs for teachers who want to opt into the “100 percent voluntary program,” where the district’s school board or superintendent has approved it. Trujillo, who has been tapped as the Ambassador to the UN by President Donald Trump,  said he didn’t know that Miami-Dade School Board Superintendent Alberto Carvalho had already blasted the idea. But, while everyone at the committee meeting said that superintendents could opt out, Trujillo told Ladra after the vote that Carvalho is not the last word.
“That’s his choice, but it’s up to the school board,” he said. He knows full well that the nonpartisan group is nonetheless majority Republican, even though one of those, Board Member Lubby Navarro, already came out against arming teachers at Sunday’s school safety town hall at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus.
The law would also give those teachers who opt in a $500 one-time stipend, we assume towards the purchase of a handgun — assault rifles cannot be concealed firearms and, as such, are not allowed — and/or ammunition. Ladra can see the list of supplies parents can donate on the blackboard at next year’s open house night: Copy paper, crayons and a box of .38-caliber conical wadcutters with a beveled base. Students get extra credit for hollow points.
Isn’t it an extra insult that theese lawmakers can’t find the funding to properly stock schools with the supplies and tools teachers need to teach but we’re going to pay them to carry guns?
That’s not the only question we have.
Are teachers the only ones who can volunteer? Can staff? Can the janitor be armed? How about the lunch lady? The bus driver? That’s not clear. We know students can’t carry. Except, maybe, for the problematic ones still in high school at 21, the legal age to carry a concealed weapon. That means 18-year-old high school students must leave their AR15s and Colt 45s in their cars in the parking lot.
“Students with guns! Ha! That’s a funny one, Ladra!” Trujillo sure didn’t think so. “Democrats could have offered an amendment to make the legal age 18,” he said, and Ladra does not think he was kidding.
What if an angry or unstable student is able to take a gun from a teacher? Who is responsible for what happens next?
What if a teacher with a gun is confused for an “active shooter” and is killed by police?
What if a student is killed by “friendly fire” from the teacher’s gun?
A retired teacher and self described gun enthusiast asked the lawmakers not to take this step.
“I don’t want to think about target acquisition. I don’t want to think about field of fire in my classroom,” the woman from Escambia County said, choking up. “Do not ask teachers to choose between shepherding students to safety or confronting a gunman, drawing fire toward my students.
“Depend on us to fiercely defend our students. And fund well-prepared law enforcement professionals to do the work they are supposed to do,” she said.
The mother of Scott Biegel, the geography teacher killed at Stoneman Douglas, also begged them to reconsider. Her son became a teacher to mold young minds, not to be “a law enforcement officer,” Linda Beigel Schulman said.
Trujillo kept stressing to Ladra that gun-toting at school is voluntary, but that doesn’t make parents feel better. What kind of teacher would volunteer to carry a gun in class? Could it be the teachers that already have “personnel” issues? The ones that will be in headlines about sleeping with students or selling drugs or writing porn scripts or something? Those will be first in line to get the guns. And others might feel forced to volunteer because, well, if there are going to be 10 guns at work, they want to have one of them.
Other teachers are going to quit.
That’s okay, though, we won’t need as many. Aalot of students are going to withdraw. Watch as full time virtual school and home schooling numbers boom. Wait… oh, wait… could this be a ploy by Republican legislators to get their friends’ more charter schools?
Teachers are people, too. They have emotions. They lose their tempers. Considering that we still have that oh-so-flexible “stand your ground” law in Florida, what happens if an unruly student becomes aggressive with a teacher? We’ve seen that before. And we’ve seen teachers lose their tempers and react inappropriately by striking students. What if that teacher who feels really threatened — or is just over a particular student’s stunts — pulls a gun on a student? You know that is going to happen. You just know.
“If I take a gun to school, someone is eventually going to get shot,” one teacher told Ladra. She teaches 5th grade.
Trujillo told Ladra that this program might be better suited for rural districts where a police station or officer is typically more than 20 minutes away. And where racism and homophobia are more prevalent, too.
Is that a bonus feature — voter suppression?
This “marshal program” is a poor substitute for real gun reform and school and community safety. It does nothing to stop the next school shooting. It only guarantees that bullets will fly in more directions.

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Setting up a GOP primary with Doral councilwoman

No this is not an April Fool’s joke.

Former Congressman David “Nine Lives” Rivera is nothing if not persistent.

And you never know where he’s going to turn up next.

Rivera — who lost his congressional seat in 2012 to Joe Garcia and then lost a Republican primary in 2014 to get his seat back then lost his bid to return to the Florida House last year — announced last week that he would run in a different House district: 105, where Rep. Carlos Trujillo is termed out in 2018.

He must think that’s an easier win in Doral than a rematch with State Rep. Robert Asencio, the retired school board cop and public labor advocate who beat Rivera last year in such a tight race that there was a manual recount. Asencio won by a scant 53 votes (originally it was 68 and Ladra has to wonder if a second recount would have found the gap closer). Many political observers were certain we would see a rematch in 2018, as Rivera had said to some of us that Asencio would be there to keep the seat warm, unable to get anything done in a minority.

Read related story: David Rivera collects petition signatures for 2016 state House run

But this week, Rivera filed the paperwork announcing his candidacy in 105, which is an open seat since the incumbent is termed out. He already has an opponent in the primary, however. Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez filed in December and has already raised $12,000.

“A lot of people were asking me what I was going to do after I was termed out in 2018 and I’d like to continue serving,” Rodriguez told Ladra Friday. And she’s not backing off just ’cause King Nine Lives wants his old seat back.

“He has the right to run. I’m kind of surprised he’s running in this district, but he has every right,” Rodriguez said, adding that she will keep her campaign clean and positive. They are both Republicans and have been friendly. Both serve on the Miami-Dade Republican Committee. Here they pose for a photo together at the Jose Feliciano concert dinner for Lighthouse for the Blind in 2011. No, it was not a date. That’s her husband, Clemente Canabal, on her right (our left).

“I’m going to be transparent as always and focus on the issues that matter,” Rodriguez told me in a telephone interview after the mother of two had finished washing the dinner dishes at home. “I’m going to run on my merits, on my accomplishments, on my record.”

Read related story: Doral councilman succeeds in ousting clerk — now what?

Among those accomplishments was starting the local conversation about paternal leave. Doral was the first Miami-Dade municipality to pass the parental leave ordinance, sponsored by Rodriguez, that gives employees four weeks paid for childbirth. Other cities have used it as a model.

She was also able to pass a workforce housing ordinance last year that provides an incentive bonus for developers to build affordable housing in booming Doral.

And, until order was restored in last year’s election results, she was known by many as the “voice of reason” at council meetings — the only elected in Doral not embroiled in some kind of political drama at some point or another. That’s got to be worth something in Tallahassee.

If she wants to go negative, however, the councilwoman has plenty of fodder.

Rivera, who did not return a call and a text message Friday, has been dogged by headlines about an alleged criminal investigation into whether or not he propped up and financed a plantidate against Garcia in 2012. But federal prosecutors have not charged him with anything or questioned him about anything — and the statute of limitations is going to end this year.

So could Rivera finally be able to campaign on something as positive as vindication?

Gathering photos of our electeds from social media sites to share with you, dear readers, is time consuming and laborious and not all that personally fulfilling, which is why Ladra stopped doing it months ago.

But this week marks a special ocassion. We had a few South Florida politicos in D.C. for the inauguration festivities surrounding our new President Donald Trump. It’s a historic moment. And these electeds — especially State Rep. Jose Felix “Selfie King” Diaz — made it easy for me. Diaz is so proficient on twitter one has to wonder where he finds the time to legislate.

So here are some of my favorite photos from this week’s mayhem in the capitol. The first five are courtesy of the Selfie King himself, who looks like he had a ball. Or two. Or three. And an actual run-in with the POTUS, who Diaz said was the first person to ever fire him. Did he yell “You’re fired!”? We need more of this story, State rep.

And with our new Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

And with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

And with Congressman Matt Gaetz.

And with State Rep. Carlos Trujillo, who is being considered for an ambassadorship.

That was at the Florida Ball, which was also attended by Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who unfortunately did not post photos, and Miami-Dade Commmission Chairman Esteban Bovo and State Sen. Rene Garcia, who did.

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen may not have supported Trump’s campaign at first, but she fell in line and did not boycott the inauguration. I don’t know about Carlos Curbelo because he has me blocked on social media. But IRL tweeted several pictures, including this one “enjoying bipartisan representation” with Congressman Ted Deutch (D-Boca Raton/Margate)

Doral Councilwoman Ana Maria Rodriguez enjoyed the nice D.C. weather with Republican superwoman Marili Cancio. Love that tree behind them.

Former Doral Councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera posted several photos of herself and her friends on Facebook. Some during the day getting to and at the actual inauguration. And then later at a reception and at the Freedom Ball. Nice gown, chica!

Miami-Dade is going to own Tallahassee this year.

Half of the leadership positions in the Florida House — the most powerful half — have gone to 305 legislators, giving the Miami-Dade delegation a louder voice in how priorities are sought and funded in the Sunshine State.

It starts at the top with State Reps. Jeanette Nuñez (R-West Kendall) as House Speaker pro tempore and Carlos Trujillo (R-Doral) as chair of the appropriations committee. Then we have State Rep. Jose Oliva (R-Miami Lakes), presumed the next Speaker of the House, serving as chair of the Rules & Policy Committee, and Reps. Jose Felix Diaz (R-Kendall) and Michael Bileca (R-Pinecrest) serving as chairmen of the Commerce and Education committees, respectively.

We haven’t had that many reps in leadership positions since… well, Ladra can’t remember when.

State Rep. and Speaker Pro Temp Jeanette Nuñez looks over the rest of the House leadership team from the 305 squad: (Clockwise from top left) Reps. Jose Oliva, Carlos Trujillo, Jose Felix Diaz and Michael Bileca

These are, arguably, the most important committees. And it could translate to a big year for Miami-Dade issues and projects. Tallahassee is a trickle up process. The agenda for those different policy areas are dictated by the chairmen of the committees. No education bill will move without Bileca’s approval. No bill on insurance, workman’s comp, gaming, energy, alcohol or tobacco will get to the floor without Pepi Diaz giving the green light. Oliva basically decides which bills make it to the floor, which Nuñez will now help run as Corcoran’s No. 2.

Appropriations is perhaps the most important because it has to do with the money. The pet projects all have to go through this committee — and Trujillo’s hands. He can rack up a ton of favors. 

“We are the leadership team,” Trujillo told Ladra. “Issues dealing with education, all policy, insurance and budget are controlled by Dade County. We have a seat at the table, influencing the decisions that are made.”

His priorities, he said, are going to be passing a balanced budget and increasing state reserves. “We will face a $1.8 billion dollar shortfall,” Trujillo told me about the upcoming session.

The number of local legislators in positions of leadership might be an indication that, after many years of infighting and bickering, the delegation has matured and there is a unified front that is gaining respect.

This could represent a legislative bounty for Miami-Dade residents in issues that are near and dear: changes in insurance rates, funding in education, funding for Jackson, funding for the Port of Miami.  

Nuñez, for example, has long waged war against MDX and their power to increase tolls. She may gain traction on this front this year because of the 305’s leadership role. Not necessarily because she will champion a bill. Committee chairs and Nuñez will be too busy to present their own bills this year. Its because she’s got more palanca now.

“People across the capitol and in the House know it’s important to the delegation,” Trujillo said.

What he didn’t say is that what’s important to the delegation just became important to them. Didn’t it? 

It should be a very good year for us.

Democrat activist Carlos Pereira, a candidate for Doral City Council, was suspended this week from the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee (DEC) because he allegedly endorsed Republican State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.

Pereira says he has not endorsed anybody in the race for House District 105 and that he cannot control a photo that Trujillo posted on Facebook touting an endorsement. He also told Ladra that nobody in the DEC even contacted him to ask him about it and that there must be another reason why they are creating this controversy six weeks before the Doral election.

Miami-Dade Democrats Executive Director Juan Cuba says there is an investigation into it. Pereira is suspended until the committee meets to vote on it.

An endorsement would be a violation of his loyalty oath, a document signed by all members of the DEC that swears not to support any opponent of a Democratic nominee. Trujillo has a challenge from Democrat Patricio Moreno. It’s a throwaway challenge, sure. The Dems just tossed a bunch of token candidates into the state races at the last minute, again… but nobody expects them to actually compete. Even in District 105, which went to President Obama with the widest margin in 2012 and where the Dems apparently expect to win just because there’s a D next to Moreno’s name.

Maybe the DEC should have better supported Pereira, a DEC member since 2012, when he actually ran against Trujillo in 2014. None of the $13,000 or so he raised two years ago seems to have come directly from the party, although $2,500 comes from the SEIU, which many might think is an extension of the party.

Trujillo, who raised almost $265,000, easily beat Pereira 60 to 40 percent. 

Read related story: Doral considers condemning Trump, taking back city key

But apparently, Pereira is over it.

Despite leading the charge to take away the Doral key to the city given to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump because of his anti-immigrant stance, Pereira has been MIA from multiple immigrant advocate protests against Trujillo, who wants to pass a law that would make illegal immigrants felons just for being in this country without permission. Cuba says Pereira had Trujillo on his webcast show.

Then in June, Pereira received a $1,000 donation from Conservative and Principled Leadership for Florida, a PAC controlled by Carlos Trujillo. It is more than a quarter of the $3,775 raised as of Aug. 31. Then Tuesday, via Facebook, Trujillo announced the endorsement of Carlos Pereira. 

“Honored to receive the endorsement of my Democratic opponent from 2014, Carlos Pereira,” Trujillo posted with a photo of the two in front of Doral City Hall. “Thank you for your support!”

That caused Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Bullard, a Florida senator facing his own re-election challenge, to suspend Pereira just hours later.

Read related story: Rep. Carlos Trujillo draws protests over anti-immigrant bill

“It is unfortunate that Carlos Pereira would endorse a Republican who wants to further criminalize undocumented immigrants, privatize public education, eliminate the minimum wage, and end collective bargaining,” Bullard said, hinting that the contribution to his campaign bought the endorsement. “It’s also deeply troubling that Pereira would accept a $1,000 contribution from Trujillo’s PAC and create a perception of quid pro quo.”

“Carlos Pereira should no longer be considered a spokesperson for the Democratic Party on any media outlets,” a statement read.

Pereira said that he and Trujillo are friendly.

“He treated me with respect during the 2014 campaign and since. He was a gentleman. He is supporting me in the non partisan race in Doral,” Pereira said, adding that the photo was taken during an art exhibit opening at Doral City Hall. “I can’t control what he puts on his Facebook page.”

The Democrat activist also told Ladra that he has “a good relationship with Patricio, too,” and had not yet decided who to support in that race. “At no moment, have I declared that I am with one candidate or the other.”

Perhaps the Miami-Dade Dems should place more efforts on helping Moreno, who is hung out to dry just like Pereira was in 2014, with only $1,200 raised and a $2,000 loan to himself. Meanwhile, Trujillo — who, by the way, qualified via petition signatures — has outdone his bank from two years ago with $282,000 raised as of Sept. 16.

The Republican Party is having a fundraising reception and dinner for Donald Trump somewhere in Miami tonight — but you can only know where if you pay $25,000 a plate.

Or you look for the protesters outside.

(Pssst! It’s at the Trump National Doral, of course!)

“And I don’t have any way of getting you in for free,” wrote supporter Juan Fiol, a member of the Miami-Dade Trump Committee, on his Facebook page.

No, for that you would have to contact the hosts, Gov. Rick Scott or lobbyist Brian Ballard or State Rep. Carlos Trujillo. Other hosts on the committee include former FIU President Mitch Maidique, sugar baron Pepe Fanjul Sr., Sunshine Gasoline’s Max Alvarez and lobbyist Syl Lucas.

Trujillo is the only local elected on the list. Maybe he feels emboldened because he is basically unopposed. There’s someone named Patricio Moreno, but he’s unlikely to make a dent, even in the district that went to Obama voters by the widest margin in 2012. Democrats just threw a bunch of challengers in at the last minute, not with any real expectation of winning. They are counting on Republicans staying home but Ladra thinks that just as many Democrats will be loathe to vote for Hillary Clinton. This bodes well for Trujillo, who still has $145,000 left to spend of $226,000 raised compared to the $2,000 that Moreno loaned himself.

Read related story: Rep. Carlos Trujillo draws protests over anti-immigrant bill

And Trujillo is not afraid of comparisons to Trump. Last year, after he proposed legislation that would make undocumented immigrants felons (it failed), Trujillo became the target of immigration rights protesters at his district office.

Many of those protesters will be back in front of the Trump property on 87th Avenue and Northwest 41st Street to protest the presidential nominees immigration policies and racist overtones. Traffic alert: Avoid the intersection at rush hour. The reception begins at 5:30 p.m.

Trump won’t be meeting with the Hispanic leaders he cancelled on when he was supposed to meet with them the day after the Dallas police officers were shot. According to the media reports, some of the Latinos aren’t going to be available. That includes Sen. Marco Rubio, who will be in Boca Raton and Chicago raising money of his own.

So does that mean The Donald will come again before the November election? If so, we need a traffic alert in Doral.