Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida

In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!

Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Are NextDoor website busybodies in St. Augustine a bunch of histrionic Karens?

I posted on NextDoor about angry anti-LGBQAIA+ St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee ROY ALAIMO, JR. and whether Republicans would support him for gubernatorial appointment to St. Johns County Commission.

Intolerance ensued and the post was later deleted, without notice or explanation.

I have reported it to NextDoor corporate HQ in San Francisco.

San Francisco and California have strong human rights laws, Karens.

Ed SlavinPelican Reef • 20 hr ago

Are Republicans in St. Johns County asking Governor RON DeSANTIS to appoint ROY ALAIMO, JR., hateful homophobic, transphobic St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chair?

Are Republicans in St. Johns County asking Governor RON DeSANTIS to appoint ROY ALAIMO, JR., hateful homophobic, transphobic St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chair? ROY ALAIMO, JR a/k/a "Shortcake" is the nasty lugubrious goober who sent hate letters seeking financial contributions when St. Johns County Commission Chair JEREMIAY RAY BLOCKER blocked an LGBTQIA+ Pride Day Proclamation. ALAIMO was a reliable pro-developer vote on the St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency.

"He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8)*

*My late friend, mentor and former client, Senior Special Agent Robert E. Tyndall, shared this quote with me when he was explaining corruption. He was an EPA, HUD and FBI Special Agent who helped put corrupt public officials in jail. I was proud to help Bob win a landmark environmental whistleblower precedent against EPA and its Inspector General, John C. Martin, establishing the right of all environmental crimes investigators to speak truth to power, recuse themselves, and object to improper management directives (e.g., to use materially altered Forms 302 interview forms and to cover up for malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance).https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2021/11/will-governor-ron-desantis-appoint.html

Will Governor Ron DeSantis Appoint Hateful Homophobic, Transphobic ROY ALAIMO, JR. as District 2 County Commissioner to Replace Jeb Smith?

cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

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Tuesday, November 02, 2021

St. Augustine Festival of Art permanently canceled (Renee Unsworth, St. Augustine Record/USA Today Network)

I am sad that St. Augustine Art Association has shuttered our annual November Art Festival.

I am hoping that a new St. Augustine Art Festival might one day start anew, with new sponsors, and a renewed emphasis on artistic freedom and First Amendment values.

Do St. Augustine artists need their own free democratic union or trade association?

A new organization might be an advocate for the arts and their proper respect in our town.

Is that too much to ask?

Saint Augustine said, "An unjust law is no law at all."

At St. Augustine Art Association plein air évents, uncouth rules sought banned illegal painting in prohibited areas pursuant to the City's Code of Ordinances.

How gauche and louche of SAAA. That decision made St. Augustine Art Association look extremely small, hurting its reputation in our town.

St. Augustine Art Association was unsupportive and unhelpful to the artists and musicians who were run out of St. George Street as "vermin" and "Gypsies."

Yes, my friends, those were the otherizing pejoratives emitted by entitled disgraced former St. Augustine Mayor, wicked CLAUDE LEONARD WEEKS, JR. a/k/a "Len Weeks." On September 25, 2014, then HARB Chair, the destroyed 62A Spanish Street, 211-year old Spanish colonial building, working without permits, ignoring advice and directions from City archaeologist and building officials and WEEKS' own architect and engineer., .

From St. Augustine Record:

Renee Unsworth

Special to St. Augustine Record USA TODAY NETWORK

October 31, 2021

St. Augustine Festival of Art permanently canceled

It’s the end of an era.

The St. Augustine Art Association has permanently canceled its St. Augustine Festival of Art, the annual event that for decades has drawn families and holiday shoppers to Francis Field on Thanksgiving weekend.

“Festivals really provided support for the art association … prior to that, it was a hand-to-mouth existence,” said Diane Bradley, president of the nonprofit’s board of directors and art festival chair since 2009.

In addition to the fall festival, the art association also organized a spring festival at the same location, with staff and community volunteers helping months in advance to prepare for the juried art events. The STAAA Board of Directors voted recently to permanently cancel the events.

A statement was posted on the organization’s website (staaa.org/festival) early this week: “The decision was very difficult to make and many factors ultimately contributed to the end result. The St.

Augustine Art Association is a small organization and we have many exhibits and other programs throughout the year that fulfill our mission of promoting artistic excellence and guiding the advancement of art in partnership with the community. Unfortunately, the revenue from the festival has not kept pace with the increases in the cost of producing the event nor the time invested by staff and volunteers.”

Bradley explained that a previous art festival took place in the Plaza de la Constitucion prior to 1998, when the art association agreed to take over the art festival and move it to Francis Field, the City of St. Augustine’s event venue, located next to the downtown parking garage.

But things have changed over the years, and Bradley said it became more and more expensive to produce the festival.

“The cost of producing it has tripled … the field fee, insurance and maintaining an online platform for artists to enter the event,” Bradley said. “We have been discussing this [canceling permanently] since 2019 … the year we were wiped out on Sunday because of weather.”

Then COVID-19 hit and the art association needed alternative sources of income.

“We started putting every show online and people are purchasing the art without ever seeing it in person,” she said. “We have also decided we have to do more things in-house.”

Bradley said the art association will offer more special events and artist meet-and-greets, where partners and patrons will be invited to meet the artists and view their work before it opens to the public.

The gallery will continue participating in First Friday Art Walk, an event that features new exhibitions in St. Augustine galleries from 5 to 9 p.m. the first Friday of each month.

“We are an art association and we want to help our artists and our community,” she said. “We have been partnering with the Lightner Museum, the St. Augustine Music Festival, A Classic Theatre, Gamble Rogers Music Festival, and many others.”

Bradley said they will continue to seek out more community and corporate partners.

Art association history

Founded in 1924, the St. Augustine Art Association is located at 22 Marine St. in the heart of the historic district. The nonprofit organization produces monthly juried exhibitions; solo and group exhibits; lectures; workshops; walking tours; children’s programs; and more. Admission to the art gallery is free.

STAAA holds a permanent collection of signature St. Augustine art, including works by the organization’s founding members, known as the Lost Colony.

Moving forward

With the increase of art collectives, weekend and pop-up markets featuring artists, and other festivals and events, Bradley said that the St. Augustine Festival of Art was no longer unique.

“The whole process has changed. The uniqueness is gone,” she said. “This was a very difficult decision … it was a well-thought-out decision, but it does bring sadness to my heart. … But we are moving forward. Our young staff members have new and fresh ideas.”

Starting in early 2022, members will be able to purchase art through an online gallery, with the art association receiving a small commission.

“We will offer more opportunities for artists and more opportunities for patrons and sponsors to interact with the artists,” Bradley said.

A fall members’ show is on view through Sunday, along with the Tactile Pop-Up Exhibit, a partnership with the Florida DeafBlind Association to offer touchable artwork during National Sensory Processing Awareness Month.

Upcoming exhibits include “Florida Wild” from Nov. 5 through Dec. 31; “Monochrome” from Jan. 7 through 30; a solo exhibit by impressionist painter Doreen Hardie, also Jan. 7 through 30; and “Faces & Figures” from Feb. 4 through 27. See the full list of 2022 exhibits at staaa.org.

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Will Governor Ron DeSantis Appoint Hateful Homophobic, Transphobic ROY ALAIMO, JR. as District 2 County Commissioner to Replace Jeb Smith?

Are Republicans in St. Johns County asking Governor RON DeSANTIS to appoint ROY ALAIMO, JR., hateful homophobic, transphobic St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chair?

ROY ALAIMO, JR a/k/a "Shortcake" is the nasty lugubrious goober who sent hate letters seeking financial contributions when St. Johns County Commission Chair JEREMIAY RAY BLOCKER blocked an LGBTQIA+ Pride Day Proclamation.

ALAIMO was a reliable pro-developer vote on the St. Johns County Planning and Zoning Agency.

Here he is, pictured with another double-minded Dull Republican, State Representative CYNTHIA WARD STEVENSON, our Republican District 17 Representative, against whom I have filed to run as a Democrat.

"He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8)*

Commissioner Jeb Smith Resigns Effective at 5 PM -- New President of Florida Farm Bureau

Commissioner Jeb Smith sometimes identifies himself as "a farmer from Hastings," the town Henry Flagler started to provide fruits and vegetables for his hotels and Florida East Coast Railway, He just resigned this morning, effective at 5 PM. He's the new President of the Florida Farm Bureau. Congratulations to Jeb Smkith. He is a good and decent man, well-prepared, asks good questions, and respects First Amendment rights. He is a true fiscal conservative who knows thje value of a dollar and cares about people. He would always include in his Commissioner Comments statements a brief snyopsis of current weather and growing season news, educating his fellow Commissioners and residents about the rel life work of the people who put food on our tables. We need more poople like him in public life -- humble public servants. Prediction: Jeb Smith will be back. I hope he runs for a legislative office one day. Meanwhile, I've learned that Jeb might be replaced, by an arachnid apparatchik appointment of Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS, of an unqualiied Dull Republican, ROY ALAIMO, JR., St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chair, a bumptious biggot and braggart, a homophobe and transphobe who has none of Jeb Smith's virtues. Pray that it's not true.

More than 100 world leaders pledge to halt deforestation by 2030. (WaPo)

The world is united against deforestation and we need to halt it here, in St. Johns County, Florida, starting with the monstrous proposed Silverleaf, proposed bt State Senator Travis Hutson's family, commencing 2033.

Enough is enough.,

What do y'all reckon?

From The Washington Post:

More than 100 world leaders representing over 85 percent of the world’s forests pledged to halt deforestation over the next decade Tuesday at COP26, the United Nations climate summit underway in Glasgow, Scotland.

Complete coverage from the COP26 U.N. climate summit

The announcement included Brazil, which is home to the Amazon rainforest, as well as Canada, Russia, Norway, Colombia and Indonesia. The United States also signed onto the agreement, which was backed by $12 billion in public funds and $7.2 billion in private money.

The destruction of forests is a major factor driving up global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with about 23 percent of total emissions stemming from agriculture, forestry and other land uses.

Trees play a critical role in absorbing carbon dioxide as they grow, thereby slowing global warming. When they are cut, and are either burned or decay, they release this carbon into the atmosphere.

While environmentalists and many politicians have worked to keep the world’s remaining forests intact for years during previous U.N. climate summits, they suggested the new agreement could mark a turning point.

“Our challenge now must be to halt deforestation and begin restoring forests around the world, and we must do this within the decade or risk the collapse of forests world wide. It’s a huge undertaking,” the naturalist David Attenborough said in a video prepared for the announcement. “We need to accelerate action on a global scale.”

Britain, which is co-hosting COP26 with Italy, has coined the mantra “coal, cars, cash and trees” to describe the top priorities at the climate summit: phasing out fossil fuels, switching to clean vehicles, mobilizing funding and stopping deforestation.

“Climate change and biodiversity are two sides of the same coin. We can’t deal with the devastating loss of habitat and species without tackling climate change,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at event Tuesday.

In addition to the deforestation pledge, 28 countries also vowed to work to remove deforestation from the global supply chain for goods such as palm oil, soy and cocoa. And 30 financial institutions covering more than $8.7 trillion in assets agreed to eliminate investment in commodity-driven deforestation.

“As consumers, we’ll all be able to enjoy guilt-free chocolate,” Johnson said. “I mean, I suppose that’s carbon guilt-free, not calorie guilt-free chocolate.”

In brief remarks at the event Tuesday, President Biden pledged to take a “whole-of-government” approach to safeguarding forests, saying he would work with Congress to set aside $9 billion through 2030 to protect them.

Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez said his country — 52 percent of which is covered by tropical forests — would commit to protecting 30 percent of its territory by 2022. He added that Colombia was on track to fulfill its commitment under the “1 trillion tree” initiative announced at the World Economic Forum last year in Davos, Switzerland.

Other efforts in the past have fallen far short of their goals. In 2014, more than 200 governments, companies and civil society organizations signed the New York Declaration of Forests, which called for halving the rate deforestation by 2020 and halting it by 2030.

Instead, deforestation remains rampant worldwide. A satellite-based survey by Global Forest Watch found that, in 2020, the world lost nearly 100,00 square miles of tree cover — an area roughly the size of Colorado.

“It’s become abundantly clear that the destruction of nature writ large is causing unprecedented harm,” said Morgan Gillespy, director of the Food and Land Use Coalition at the World Resources Institute.

Outside of the global framework, several countries have undertaken their own efforts to safeguard trees. Pakistan, for instance, is in the midst of a “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami” reforestation campaign. The project is a combination of tree planting and forest protection initiatives that have previously proved extremely successful.

In Costa Rica, the government has been paying farmers to protect forests near their farms. The project was among the five inaugural winners of Prince William’s Earthshot prize, which highlights creative climate solutions and comes with a 1 million pound prize.

In secret tapes, palm oil execs disclose corruption, brutality

As for the latest agreement, “it is unclear who has participated in the negotiations,” wrote Luciana Téllez Chávez, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Forest Deal should commit to goals that are more ambitious, rather than simply duplicate past pledges to end deforestation by 2030.”

More details on COP26 proposals are expected throughout the conference, including on Saturday, which is themed as “nature” day.

“I can’t think of anything we can do that’s not founded on nature’s processes,” said Partha Dasgupta, an emeritus professor of economics at the University of Cambridge, also in the COP26 video. “If we jeopardize that, it’s not just our economies that are in trouble — our lives are in trouble.”

Sean Penn Non-Profit Faces Trial Before National Labor Relations Board Adminisrativer Law Judge

Worker rights to engage in protcted concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act must be protected and not neglected. They were neglected under Trump and are being protected under Biden. No employer is above the law, including non-profits. The late David Brian Wallace and I both brought NLRB actions against our employers in Washington, D.C. and we both won. The organizations in quo were the American Association for the Advancement of Science (SCIENCE Magazine) and the Government Accountability Project, Inc.

Brian and I both admired Sean Penn as an actor and a liberal, and I still do.

But Sean Penn's impassioned e-mail broke the law, it would appear, and an Administrative Law Judge of the National Labor Relations Board will hold a hearing in January. Like me, Sean Penn is then scion of progressive parents, and I know he will learn from this.

Footnote: I found it was helpful and fruitful having Brian, or my mentor, the late U.S. Department of Labor Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt, or another good friend or colleague, to read my passionate writing before hitting the "send" button on the fax machine or putting it in the mail. To Sean Penn: I would be happy to review drafts in future.

From The New York Times:

Sean Penn the Focus of N.L.R.B. Amid Comments on Hours and Food at Vaccine Site

Two online commenters complained of working 18-hour days and not getting food from Krispy Kreme or Subway. Penn saw “narcissism” and “betrayal.”

Credit...Pool photo by Irfan Khan

By Colin Moynihan

Published Oct. 28, 2021Updated Oct. 31, 2021

A nonprofit group co-founded by Sean Penn is facing a National Labor Relations Board hearing over an accusation that he implicitly threatened employees after complaints about long hours and the food served during a Covid-19 vaccination effort.

In January the group, Community Organized Relief Effort, played a key role in an operation to administer vaccines in a parking lot of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

The work drew praise, but an anonymous online comment posted in response to a New York Times article late that month about the vaccinations said that employees were working up to 18 hours a day. A second comment, also anonymous, said there had been a lack of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Subway sandwiches — food described by the Times report as being at the site.

Soon, CORE employees were sent a long, impassioned email by Penn. He wrote that he was grateful for their work and mindful of his responsibilities in “the race against mutations and the fight against the current strains of Covid-19.”

He also appeared to suggest that the online commenters were guilty of “reckless narcissism” and “broad betrayal.”

And Penn proposed that those who might feel inclined to gripe online amid a pandemic ought to simply leave the group instead.

“Any of us who might find themselves predisposed to a culture of complaint, have a much simpler avenue than broad-based cyber whining,” he wrote. “It’s called quitting.”

A labor lawyer in Los Angeles read the message after it was published, in early February, along with an accompanying article, by The Los Angeles Times. That lawyer, Daniel B. Rojas, said Penn’s remarks struck him as unlawful and that he quickly filed a charge with the N.L.R.B. The N.L.R.B. process calls for a charge to be followed by an investigation, which can lead to a complaint or a dismissal.

In this instance, the N.L.R.B. issued a complaint, dated Oct. 25, saying Penn’s email violated federal labor law. Penn had, the complaint added, “impliedly threatened” employees with reprisals or discharge.

A hearing before an administrative law judge has been scheduled for January.

A lawyer for CORE and for Penn said that “on principle and merit,” both had rejected a settlement offer from the N.L.R.B. that did not involve any fine or monetary payment, and will “vigorously contest and fight” the charge.

“Despite its utter lack of legal merit, the N.L.R.B.’s General Counsel and Regional Director have decided to waste federal resources and taxpayer dollars by filing an ill‐advised and meritless lawsuit, even as CORE continues its groundbreaking work,” a statement from the lawyer, Mathew S. Rosengart, said. “The N.L.R.B.’s actions to distract CORE from its crucial mission for a case where no employees were harmed, are shameful.”

In May, Rosengart and two colleagues sent a letter to the N.L.R.B. saying the complaint about long hours was false and that charges by Rojas were “utterly frivolous” and should be dismissed. Penn’s email, the lawyers added, was “a motivational rallying cry.”

The N.L.R.B. general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, said in a statement on Thursday: “Although CORE engages in important and admirable work, like all employers, it must respect the right of its employees under the National Labor Relations Act to engage in protected concerted activities, such as discussing matters of mutual concern with one another and bringing workplace concerns to the public, federal agencies, or other third parties.”

This week, Rojas explained his motive in filing the charge, writing in an email: “It’s neither selfish nor un-American to discuss your wages or working conditions with the public.”

By many measures, CORE’s pandemic work has been a success. The group, which Penn co-founded after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, has provided free coronavirus testing in California and beyond. At Dodger stadium, CORE assisted the Los Angeles Fire Department, which led an operation that administered nearly 56,000 vaccinations in its first nine days.

The description of the parking-lot scene in The Times article in late January included: “There is Krispy Kreme for breakfast and Subway for lunch (the fruit on the tables is for poking with syringes during training sessions). At the trailers marked ‘Vaccine Draw,’ runners elbow past Mr. Penn, slide their empty coolers inside and await a fresh batch of syringes.”

Among 150 comments in response to the story were the two that purported to come from CORE workers. One, attributed to “CORE staff,” referred to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, writing: “We have staff working 18 hour days, 6 days a week,” adding: “This is an OSHA violation.”

A second commenter, “staff #2,” wrote: “We do NOT get krispy kreme for breakfast. In fact, we usually DON’T get breakfast, just coffee. And the lunch is NOT subway. It’s the same old lettuce wraps every day. It’s free lunch for staff/volunteers so I’m not complaining but still … not subway.”

The day after the article ran, Penn’s message addressed to “All CORE Staff” went out, citing “a pair of highly visible comments on a major news outlet’s platform.” He began by commending CORE workers and wrote that he is consumed with the fight against Covid: “I awaken pre-dawn and pass out post-midnight every morning and every night, pulling at my hair and pounding pavement.”

Penn wrote that CORE has strong complaint procedures and complies with OSHA regulations, but also warned against “obscene critiques” and stated that “valuable, organized response is most vulnerable to destruction from within.”

And although he wrote that he had “taken counsel” and would refrain from using certain language, Penn left little doubt about his feelings toward the commenters.

“And to whoever authored these,” he wrote, “understand that in every cell of my body is a vitriol for the way your actions reflect so harmfully upon your brothers and sisters in arms.”

Correction: Oct. 31, 2021

An earlier version of a headline with this article described incorrectly the vaccination site at Dodger Stadium. The Los Angeles Fire Department led the operation there, with Sean Penn and the nonprofit CORE assisting. The effort was not led by Mr. Penn.

Clean Up City of St. Augustine, Florida

Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Are NextDoor website busybodies in St. Augustine a bunch of histrionic Karens?

Will Governor Ron DeSantis Appoint Hateful Homophobic, Transphobic ROY ALAIMO, JR. as District 2 County Commissioner to Replace Jeb Smith?

Tuesday, November 02, 2021

St. Augustine Festival of Art permanently canceled (Renee Unsworth, St. Augustine Record/USA Today Network)

Will Governor Ron DeSantis Appoint Hateful Homophobic, Transphobic ROY ALAIMO, JR. as District 2 County Commissioner to Replace Jeb Smith?

Commissioner Jeb Smith Resigns Effective at 5 PM -- New President of Florida Farm Bureau

More than 100 world leaders pledge to halt deforestation by 2030. (WaPo)

Sean Penn Non-Profit Faces Trial Before National Labor Relations Board Adminisrativer Law Judge

Sean Penn the Focus of N.L.R.B. Amid Comments on Hours and Food at Vaccine Site

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