Thursday, May 28, 2026

Celebrate Independence! On November 3, 2026, Elect Ed Slavin to Anastasia Mosquito Control Board of St. Johns County

Election is on November 3. 

To St. Johns County voters: On November 3, 2026, may I please have the honor of your votes for Commissioner of the Anastasia Mosquito District of St. Johns County?

Endorsed by both Historic City News and St. Johns County Democratic Party in 2024.

Here's my 2024 Q&A with the League of Women Voters:

What motivated you to run for office?

It's our money. I've been a watchdog on mosquito control since 2006. Mosquitoes could bring us the next global pandemic. We will be prepared with data, research, education, and environmentally-friendly, non-toxic natural pesticides. My dad was an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper, infected with malaria in Sicily. Dad recovered in Army hospitals, but we saw dad suffer lifetime effects. LWV's Ms. Robin Nadeau asked me to help her investigate Anastasia Mosquito Control of St. Johns County, buying a $1.8 million no-bid, luxury Bell Jet Long Ranger helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter, not unlike buying a Porsche to propel a snowplow. We persuaded AMCD to cancel illegal, no-bid helicopter contract, saving $1.8 million in 2007.  

What do you see as the most pressing issues for this office and how do you propose to address them?
Advancing research and education while protecting scientific integrity and employee whistleblower rights; safeguarding the independence of AMCD, an independent scientific and technical organization; protecting public health, the environment and public funds. Let's assure that "whistleblower" ethical employees are heard and heeded whenever they raise concerns. Let's resist any further effort by the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners to take over independent AMCD, as attempted by former SJC County Administrator Michael Wanchick and County Commission Chairmen. I oppose allowing arbitration clauses in AMCD contracts, Yes, I've been a watchdog of mosquito control environmental protection and spending since December 2006.

What training, experience, and characteristics qualify you for this position?
Helped persuade our independent mosquito district to cancel unwise, no-bid luxury $1.8 million helicopter contract. Won declassification of our frail planet's largest-ever mercury pollution event (Oak Ridge, Tenn. Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant),triggering nationwide cleanups; recommended for Pulitzer Prize by DA. Clerked for USDOL Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt and Judge Charles Rippey. Staffer for Senators Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart & Jim Sasser. B.S.F.S., Georgetown U.; J.D., Memphis State U. Your watchdog, termed an "environmental hero" by FOLIO WEEKLY (after reporting City's illegal dumping of landfill in lake and illegal sewage effluent pollution of our saltwater marsh). Shall we ask questions, demand answers & expect democracy?

How important are environmental concerns when making decisions for the Anastasia Mosquito Control District?
Very important

Explain your answer.
Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" informs good science and use of non-toxic natural pesticides as much as possible. Amid global climate change, the next pandemic could be a mosquito-borne disease. Let's protect AMCD independence, education and applied research to protect public health and our environment. I support AMCD's leadership on natural pesticides. I once reported FEMA and AMCD to federal environmental law officials when bald eagles were exposed to organophosphate pesticides. Support AMCD working with other mosquito control districts and officials to share scientific knowledge to protect all of us "non-target species": mosquito control workers, residents, tourists, pets, horses, livestock, bees and other pollinators, flora and fauna. 

St. Johns County is growing rapidly. How does this impact the management of mosquito control?
Overdevelopment increases the expense of mosquito control and increases exposure of families to mosquitoes from wetlands. St. Johns County Commissioners, developers and their big money clout decide way too many unwise development decisions. This requires our nimble small mosquito control special taxing district to innovate, with sensitive adaptation of mosquito control techniques to protect entire new neighborhoods, which seem to spring up overnight, adjoining wetlands. Public education, applied research, sound science-based policies and non-toxic mosquito control methods, are all essential to protecting public health from mosquito-borne diseases. AMCD exists to prevent any outbreaks of deadly mosquito-borne diseases. We must do it right!



Posted by at 10 comments:

ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: Trump Administration Wants Federal Employees to Sign Nondisclosure Agreements. (Eileen Sullivan, NY Times, May 26, 2026)

XXXXX 

From The New York Times:

Trump Administration Wants Federal Employees to Sign Nondisclosure Agreements

Lawyers representing federal workers said the move is intended to chill speech and could be challenged on First Amendment grounds.

Listen · 7:00 min
The exterior of the Office of Personnel Management with an American flag in front of it.
The Office of Personnel Management drafted a proposal that federal employees sign a nondisclosure agreement.Credit...Eric Lee/The New York Times

By Eileen Sullivan

The Trump administration wants to roll out a uniform nondisclosure agreement across the federal government that would bar employees from sharing internal government information, citing the need to stop leaks to media organizations.

Each agency could determine whether to adopt the agreement, which would require federal workers not to disclose “nonpublic, confidential or proprietary” information and to notify the agency of any theft or loss of such information, according to a proposal released on Tuesday by the Office of Personnel Management. Agencies could ask both current employees and new hires to sign the agreement.

Employees who breach the terms could face potential disciplinary action, as well as civil and criminal penalties, according to a draft agreement, although it did not state which civil and criminal statutes would apply to disclosures not already covered under federal law.

The Trump administration said the proposed nondisclosure agreement would not add additional restrictions on employee speech or disclosures. But the broadly worded agreement could go beyond laws that already govern the improper release of classified information and protected personal details held by the government.

Lawyers who represent public workers said the requirement could be vulnerable to legal challenges on First Amendment grounds, noting that a government employee’s speech is protected if the person is speaking as a private citizen.

The push to impose the agreement on federal workers comes as the Trump administration has sought to crack down on unauthorized disclosures to journalists, including through leak investigations. Advocates for federal workers said it could create additional fear among government employees, who have already been buffeted by major job cuts and other changes since President Trump returned to office.

In its proposal, the administration said that authorized whistle-blower disclosures to inspectors general, the Office of Special Counsel and Congress would remain intact.

The nondisclosure agreement “is designed to provide agencies with a standardized mechanism for employees to acknowledge and agree to comply with obligations that already exist under law and regulation,” the personnel office wrote. The public has 30 days to comment on the proposed draft.

Scott Kupor, the office’s director, said the policy is similar to how employees are treated in the private sector, an argument he has made for several of the administration’s rules for the federal work force.

“In much of the private sector, employees handling sensitive business or customer information are routinely required to sign confidentiality agreements, and the federal government should not be held to a lower standard,” Mr. Kupor said in a statement.

Esha Bhandari, the director of the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, called the move an attempt to restrict press freedom.

Are you a federal worker? We want to hear from you.

The Times would like to hear about your experience as a federal worker under the second Trump administration. We may reach out about your submission, but we will not publish any part of your response without contacting you first.

She added, “Such broad gag orders would leave the public in the dark about how the government works, preventing the kind of informed debate that is critical to democratic accountability.”

Kevin Owen, a lawyer with Gilbert Employment Law who represents federal workers, said the agreement appeared to be devised to stop them from speaking with the media and to prevent the spread of “politically inconvenient speech that bothers the administration, or significant whistle-blower disclosures, which also are a problem for the administration.”

It is already a crime for federal employees to improperly share classified information. Federal employees are also bound by the Privacy Act, which prohibits the disclosure of personal information held by the government, such as Social Security numbers or medical records. There is also a federal law that bans the release of a company’s trade secrets, such as information that is shared with the government as part of a regulatory requirement.

And some agencies already have policies in place to restrict employees from speaking without authorization. During the first Trump administration, some agencies issued widespread gag orders. Last year, the Labor Department threatened employees with legal consequences if they spoke to journalists, ProPublica reported at the time.

Mr. Trump, who has used nondisclosure agreements throughout his business career, has also had campaign staff members sign such pledges, and he has sued people who violated them. In some cases, courts have ruled in favor of his former employees.

In its notice Tuesday, the personnel office cited specific examples of unauthorized disclosures that the government says underpin the need for the new policy, including news accounts detailing planned immigration operations and the secret military raid that led to the capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The notice asserted that reporting obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post about the Maduro raid put members of the military at risk, and that the news organizations delayed publication until after the operation to protect American lives.

Joe Kahn, the executive editor of The Times, has previously said that The Times did not have verified details before the raid and did not withhold publication of a story at the request of the Trump administration. The Post did not respond to a request for comment.

Orly Lobel, a law professor and director of the Center for Employment and Labor Policy at the University of San Diego, said there were already laws and regulations that prohibit federal employees from disclosing such information.

“The concern is that these kind of overly broad provisions create chilling interim effects, both in silencing employees when they see unethical or simply wasteful or incompetent government behavior,” she said.

As part of its rationale for the new policy, the personnel office pointed to the Supreme Court’s decision in late 2024 to require staff members to sign nondisclosure agreements.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. instituted the policy after a series of leaks, including when a draft opinion on the landmark abortion law Roe v. Wade was shared with a media organization in 2022.

“The problem is so widespread that the Supreme Court itself has instituted the use of nondisclosure agreements to attempt to dissuade staff from the harmful practice of disclosing confidential government information and as a means to hold individuals accountable for such behavior,” the personnel office wrote.

Eileen Sullivan is a Times reporter covering the changes to the federal work force under the Trump administration.

See more on: U.S. Politics, Office of Personnel Management




Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)