It’s important to set the record straight on New College, because what happened there has never been about one school.

The Sarasota honors college is Gov. Ron DeSantis’ prototype for quashing campus speech and dismantling academic inquiry. There’s speculation that it is what Donald Trump plans for Harvard.

Yet the Times article did not mention that after DeSantis stacked the college’s Board of Trustees with MAGA partisans and installed a political crony as president in 2023 who promptly hired his cronies, New College plummeted 59 places to 135th in U.S. News and World Report’s college rankings.

It did not report that New College once produced more Fulbright scholars than any other Florida state school per capita, and that in 2024, only about two of every 10 New College students graduated. The article parroted talking points on rising student enrollment but not the hiring of a student retention officer to try and keep students from leaving.

Skyrocketing costs

In the Times, New College President Richard Corcoran shrugged off $83,207 per student in operating expenses, almost four times the average of all other Florida state colleges and universities.

But there was no mention of Corcoran’s equally controversial $1.3 million annual compensation package to run a school of roughly 900 students. By contrast, the University of Florida’s president oversees 61,890 students for an annual compensation package of about $3 million. And although UF is a major research institution, its degrees cost just $150,729 to produce, state records show, while New College degrees cost $494,715.

Nor did the article reference gender studies books thrown into a dumpster without notice, or the New College trustee who applauded it as “taking out the trash.”

There were no questions about how a scholarship set aside for a person of color hasn’t been given out in years, or why four of five professors approved for and then abruptly denied tenure were minorities.

There was no note of a trustee’s description of mostly male student athletes being recruited to “rebalance the hormones and politics” on campus. The article missed the reopening of the campus cafe by a vendor with reported business ties to Corcoran’s wife, Anne, who uses coffee cups with a bible verse; there was nothing about the school accepting a “Christian” alternative to the SAT college entrance exam, offered by a company also tied to a DeSantis-appointed New College trustee.

A Charlie Kirk statue

The story does not question why, if the goal were only to balance liberal and conservative views, New College plans to erect a statue of hard-right ideologue Charlie Kirk on its front lawn.

The article quotes two current professors but doesn’t explore why other faculty members critical of the school were too frightened to speak on the record in what Corcoran described as a campus finally open to different opinions.

Everything’s fine, the article suggested. The DeSantis takeover was simply a tweak to educational philosophy.

It isn’t and it wasn’t.

There’s talk of privatizing the college, in part because the spending is unsustainable. And the DeSantis takeover was as much campaign strategy as ideology. It coincided with the launch of his failed “anti-woke” presidential campaign, generating free national publicity and MAGA bona fides far beyond Florida.

DeSantis isn’t done with New College. Far from it. His proposed state budget resurrects a plan to “give” New College 32 acres and 11 buildings belonging to the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus.

But it’s no gift: New College would also absorb the campus’ liabilities. New College’s already bloated balance sheet could be saddled with paying USF’s $53 million bill for the new dorm on the property (where most dorm rooms are used by New College students). Still, the proposed transfer is strongly opposed by many USF supporters.

For its misleading omissions, the Times story deserves a flunking grade. But then, so too do the ideological architects undermining New College.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

Already, the GOP dark horses are running wild, shooting out of the gate and into the next 11 months of campaigning. Matt Gaetz may have tripped over unsavory findings in a House Ethics Committee report and fallen by the wayside. Trump-anointed frontrunner U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds is leading the field. But Groyper poster boy James Fishback and gender-warrior and former state House Speaker Paul Renner are up and running. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins is waiting in the wings. I’m sure I’ve missed a few.

And why not? There’s gold in that governor’s mansion.

Ronald Dion DeSantis walked through the doors in 2018 with $765,821 in assets and a little more than $508,850 in liabilities. He reports he will be walking out with $2.1 million in assets and $15,095 in liabilities. He earned it the old-fashioned way. He wrote a political book that his political friends were sure to buy and that other people who needed him to be a political friend — lobbyists, businesses, party leaders, etc. — would have to buy in order to casually drop phrases from it within DeSantis’ earshot, as though they had read it, as though it was on their nightstand. More likely, it was under a 1974 telephone book and the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, but who cares? A sale’s a sale. Greenbacks shower the Governor’s Mansion all the same.

On the other hand, we have wild-card Republican James Fishback. I don’t think he is running for the money, although his Tesla was repossessed and he could use the Uber fare. I think he is running for the sheer whoopsie of it all. This is a man who got on Fox News by saying he was a Musk Doge advisor. Wasn’t. Said he held a senior position at an investment firm. Nope. Said his investment funds were fabulous. Board trustees shut them down.

Fishback, 31, barely edged across the 30-year-old minimum age to run, a likely asset in courting Nick Fuentes and the far-right podcaster’s youthful Groyper audience. This would be the same Nick Fuentes who has split the Heritage Foundation into thirds over the question of whether Fuentes is too Nazi-adjacent, not enough Nazi-adjacent or just the right amount of Nazi-adjacent. But you can’t dismiss the attention economy, as Hillary Clinton learned, and Fishback is terminally online.

Donalds’ golden-ticket Trump endorsement hasn’t cleared the field, but it has put him smack in the middle of the DeSantis-Trump mean girl feud. DeSantis can’t make Trump lose, but he was spotted doing the next best thing; scouting a mega donor to fund a challenger — any challenger — to Donalds. There’s also a Donalds Money Thing. His wife’s charter school income of between $1 million to $5 million wasn’t fully reported on 2023 congressional financial disclosures until Florida Bulldog reporters started sniffing around. The Federal Elections Commission caught him simultaneously raising money for reelection to Congress and the governorship, which could pave the way for diverting millions in federal contributions to the governor’s race. Donalds graciously apologized and immediately set things right. Just kidding! We’re in Florida! His campaign invited the FEC to go jump in a lake. Well. The lake leap was implied. Like the need for ethics.

Of course, it could be worse.

We could be Tennessee. Department of Defense Secretary and all-around Bomb Vivant Pete Hegseth talked about running for governor there back in July but then chose to remain in D.C. to de-beard generals and address the crisis of expanding military waistlines. The grateful voters of Tennessee thank him for his service.

Or we could be Minnesota, where Pillow Guy and all-around political conspiracist Mike Lindell is challenging Gov. Tim Waltz this November. If Lindell emerges as the GOP nominee, “We’d be cooked,” Minnesota Republican strategist Dustin Grage moaned to Politico. “I’d be moving to Florida very shortly.”

Who wants to tell him?

And they do. But they belong in a park, not in the median of a major east-west thoroughfare.

The city needs to remove those trees and build a ramp garage to eliminate the on-street parking to ease some of the downtown gridlock created by increasing density. This will also allow businesses along Las Olas to flourish.

Janet Jones, Fort Lauderdale

Focus on good design

Fort Lauderdale’s Riverwalk Center Garage, built with purpose, is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing parking garage anywhere.

The city has a tradition of wrapping structured parking in habitable spaces where they face streets, which are public spaces. Where that’s not possible, garages may be camouflaged in exceptionally creative screening.

Architects, playing off each others’ designs, have developed a form of architectural ornamentation, or art form, unique to downtown Fort Lauderdale. With the bar set that high, I refuse to believe that these designs have been deemed suitable for the city’s most heavily used park — and parks, like streets, are public spaces.

What happened to the the city’s own high standards for private development?

Good design does not require more money; it requires more talent.

Randall Robinson, Fort Lauderdale

A pleasant surprise

In the first month of Ron DeSantis’ first term as governor, even though I did not vote for him in 2018, I applauded his commitment to protect Florida’s environment.

My hope that he was a moderately conservative and caring politician was dashed early on when he rejected federal funds for 800,000 Floridians who needed Medicaid coverage.

Hope does not always spring eternal. In the seven succeeding years, he has disappointed at every level of his stewardship of this state. The list is far too long to enumerate the failures and frequent examples of retribution, bias, bigotry, bullying and illegal methods.

Yet, in a recent Sun Sentinel story, I found a reason to commend our most unlikable governor. It was his pronouncement that he wants regulation of artificial intelligence by the Legislature and state administrative boards, a proposal that I fully support.

Maybe it’s the realization that Donald Trump has no interest in any regulation that burdens his big donors’ business models, be it cryptocurrency or AI.

Maybe DeSantis recognizes that a majority of Americans are fearful, or at least wary, of AI’s potential for harm, and he sees an opportunity to build his future political platform on it.

DeSantis has 12 months and one final regular legislative session to prove he can walk the walk.

David Kahn, Boca Raton

Bluestein and Bluestein

The paper recently posted two letters to the editor from men named Bluestein.

While I wholeheartedly agree with Lou Bluestein’s point (on the Heritage Foundation) and I rarely agree with Neal Bluestein, I must admit, the body of Neal’s letter met with my agreement, your “editor’s note” notwithstanding.

That is, until he strayed off topic and characterized the boat the U.S. double tapped as smuggling drugs.

The boat was in international waters off the Venezuelan coast and not headed to the U.S. It was far too small to carry both its load of passengers and a significant amount of drugs as well.

Why, I wonder, is the right wing of our country so bloodthirsty?

Bob Chaban, Boynton Beach

Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length. 

This year’s hunt was far less destructive, but it’s premature for state officials to call it a success. Certainly, the hunt wasn’t a “success” from the standpoint of the bears that were killed and the majority of Floridians repulsed by the hunt.

The latest hunt ended Sunday. Grim lessons were on display:

1. The hunt was less visible. In 2015, the state had check-in stations where hunters brought their bears to be tallied. This year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission eliminated them, avoiding the spectacle of bloody carcasses and stifling the ability of wildlife advocates to monitor the hunt in real time. This deliberately obscures the possibility that some victims were lactating female bears — and for every dead mother, there was probably at least one cub in danger of dying from starvation.

2. Sketchy, old data. The last time the FWC officially counted bear noses was in 2015, when it came up with a population estimate of 4,000. This time, hunting advocates took to social media to claim that the number of bears was probably higher. But the FWC’s own scientists said a year ago that populations were still lower than needed to maintain genetic bear diversity in three of seven geographic “subpopulation” areas. The state-sanctioned curriculum on Florida’s black bear population says this: “Remind students that the two most significant human-caused factors affecting bear populations in Florida are loss of habitat due to development and road kills on highways that pass through areas of bear habitat.” Those threats remain. In fact, the state estimates that vehicles kill about 300 bears a year.

3. Withhold death details. As reported by the FWC, the number of bears killed this year was far less than anyone expected: 52, not the 172 originally suggested. But critical details are missing, such as how many males and females were killed, where they were taken, and whether any females appeared to be pregnant or nursing. An FWC spokesperson said a “full harvest report will be released in the coming months.” It might take some time to uncover the narrative behind the unexpectedly low number of bears killed, but the basic information should be made available sooner, for all sides to prepare for coming court challenges and the discussion of a 2026 hunt.

Bear Warriors United, an advocacy group in Central Florida, sued the state to stop this bear hunt based on the lack of adequate scientific evidence. A judge refused to stop it, but he didn’t reach a decision on the lawsuit’s underlying merits. That battle is yet to come.

Politics over science

The Human World for Animals (formerly Humane Society of the United States) filed a brief in opposition to the hunt, said attorney Clay Henderson, arguing the decision was swayed by politics at the expense of science.

That drew this response: “The Commission’s attorneys argued there was no requirement for them to follow science as they were fully empowered to manage wildlife as they see fit,” Henderson said. “Stay tuned. This battle isn’t over.”

If FWC officials really think they did the right thing and that this hunt was a success, there’s no reason to hide details of the hunt. The longer they stall, the more suspicions they raise.

Was there another slaughter of nursing mothers? Did some bears meet death due to particularly brutal methods?

No matter what happened, the FWC owes it to the public to disclose the basic data — and to reconsider plans for more hunts in coming years, knowing none of their dodge-and-cover tactics lessened the blunt expressions of public disgust from the majority of Floridians who weighed in on this smaller slaughter.

This editorial first appeared in the Orlando Sentinel. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. Contact us at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

By not doing anything, the Supreme Court has decided to let a lower court ruling in the 5th U.S. District Court of Appeals stand, making it the law of the land. That ruling allows a governor or other official to determine what books are allowed in public spaces. As written, state and local governments in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — the states covered by the 5th District — can now dictate what can be read, purchased and shared in the state. It is the law.

We can only imagine this power will spread to other states, and book banning will become the norm, not the abomination it is. It is impossible for the people to forge a more perfect union without being informed, without access to uncorrupted information.

Denying access to books, culture and history makes it easier to designate individuals and groups as enemies and scapegoats. How do you challenge government without data, without resources, and without information? With the other branches of government subservient to the executive, power becomes absolute.

There are few reliable sources of news and information as it is. Much of our media is controlled by a handful of families and major corporations. In less than a year, the Trump administration has pressured for mergers, silence and paying bribes for mergers and maintaining licenses to operate. If you step out of line, you could be sued by the president, threatened with punitive damages, feel the whole weight of the United States government upon you.

Publishers have given up on writers; stores won’t carry certain authors or journalists. If you are part of a marginalized or minority community, options evaporate before your very eyes. The only way to stop this is to embolden yourself and build a community that will be unafraid of the challenges — and there will be challenges. Even if they seem to fade, they are always waiting to return with a vengeance.

How long did the parental rights group cloister in the shadows until it was safe to resurrect the ghost of Anita Bryant? How easy was it for them to turn defense to offense and push the national agenda? Removing freedom of thought and speech makes everything else so much easier.

Information is power, and it is found in books, newspapers, magazines, in hard copy and virtual. It is our right to have access to it, no matter how uncomfortable it makes those holding onto power feel.

Don’t give up on freedom, democracy, the Constitution, or our promise of a more perfect nation. The promises made by our Founders rest in our hearts, and only we can keep them alive or let them die. America has choices to make — you have choices to make. Pick up a book, challenge yourself and challenge authority.

Robert Kesten is president and CEO of the Stonewall National Museum, Archives & Library in Fort Lauderdale.

The network put the kibosh on this story for inexplicable reasons. This “60 Minutes” segment was canceled by Bari Weiss, editor-in-chief of CBS News. Just like the Nazis tried to hide sites in Germany during World War II, those concentration camps that ended up mass murdering six million Jews, this is no different, and the public does not know what’s really happening.

Why would CBS cover this up?

If you don’t see it, then it didn’t happen.

Linda Gefen, Boca Raton

Restore the subsidies

Now that we have reached the crisis stage in health care, it is past time for the president and his party to get serious about the poor state of health care in the richest country in the world.

Many Americans cringe as they reflect back to President Trump’s comments in the campaign when his reply to a question about health care was: “I have a concept of a plan.”

Trump has a deep-seated hatred for all things Obama, with Obamacare at the top of the list. The problem is, he and his cronies have offered absolutely nothing as an alternative.

At the end of 2025, enhanced federal subsidies were to terminate. Premiums will skyrocket. An estimated 4.8 million people will lose coverage completely and 22 million will see their premiums increase by an average of 114% or $1,016 a year. It is unconscionable that the wealthiest 25% of the population will get 60% of next year’s tax breaks under the “big beautiful bill.”

The time is long past due for Democrats and Republicans to sit down together and work out a bipartisan health care agreement that will help the American people in the long run. Maybe if we call it “Trumpcare,” it will pique the president’s interest.

Bruce J. Maltzman, Wellington

All the wrong energy

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts advocates a theory of Alexander Hamilton calling for an “energetic” presidency. Nothing wrong with that, but an aging, self-enriching former New York real-estate developer isn’t well-suited for such a job.

Some of us lose memory and patience as we age. We get frustrated — even angry. This is true of Trump, too. His military may not allow him to start a global war, but his energy is all depressing, negative and hurtful. Not enough Republicans would help get him out from under the 25th Amendment. Pass the anti-depressants.

Robert Cogan, Boynton Beach

It’s TRS, not TDS

Sun Sentinel reader Robert Bialer recently shared an exchange he had with a friend who accused him of having “TDS,” Trump Derangement Syndrome, to which he took great offense.

Mr. Bialer should explain to his friend that “TDS” applies to Trump’s supporters, not his detractors. The rest of us level-headed people who despise Trump and everything he represents are blessed with “TRS” — Trump Reality Syndrome.

Rita Ouellette, Margate

Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length. 

But we’re talking about Broward County Public Schools, so it took a second one  — and a whopper at that — to force the inevitable departure of Wanda Paul as the district’s chief of operations.

In back-to-back bureaucratic failures, Paul’s operation mishandled an office building lease, then botched a bid procurement to select a vendor to manage a chronically delayed construction program.

But if you’re looking for Paul to accept responsibility for these failures, look elsewhere. She issued a two-sentence resignation letter Sunday, between Christmas and New Year’s, an annual holiday break when too few taxpayers were paying attention and schools were closed.

“Please accept this letter as my formal resignation as Chief of Operations, effective June 5,” Paul wrote. “My last day in the office will be April 3, 2026, to allow for an orderly transition and continuity of operations.”

That’s it. No apology, no mea culpa, no acknowledgement of what forced Paul out — that she helped create a crisis that will not soon fix itself.

A state of emergency

Superintendent Howard Hepburn declared an emergency in mid-December over the lapse in construction oversight and warned that a slowdown could lead to failures in school life-safety systems, “which creates a risk of injury or death.”

In the first case, the district somehow needed to spend $2.6 million to rent staff space, even as it  faces historic declines in student enrollment, with plans to close seven schools while offering its own headquarters for sale or lease, and with a budget shortfall approaching $100 million.

At a meeting on Nov. 4, board members learned that taxpayers were on the hook for $275,000 in rent even before any employees were working there.

Those optics were awful enough. But school board members broke the lease that was tilted in the landlord’s favor, again due to a lack of due diligence. The building’s owner is suing the district, in part for alleged damage to its reputation.

The greater reputational damage here is to the school district, and to the school board, for what appears to everyone as self-inflicted wounds. It will be a long time before the nation’s sixth-largest school district will be able to ask voters for more money.

Still on the payroll

We had heard rumblings of Paul’s resignation for weeks, and Hepburn was well aware that she had lost the board’s confidence. In an editorial on Dec. 28, we noted that she was “vulnerable.”

Hours after the editorial appeared, the board’s newest member, Adam Cervera, demanded Paul resign.

“The scale, repetition and impact of these breakdowns leave no credible path forward under the current leadership structure,” Cervera said in a statement.

Paul will leave, eventually. She remains on the payroll for five months, including two months of accrued leave, at her yearly salary of $221,450. That will not restore public confidence in how Broward schools are managed.

After all that’s happened, it’s best that Paul not be part of any “orderly transition.”

This may be a pivotal moment for Hepburn. One more fiscal fiasco could be politically catastrophic.

Time for decisive action

After only a year-and-a-half as superintendent, and weeks after a glowing job review, Hepburn needs to take decisive action to restore trust with teachers, parents and board members. A single resignation isn’t enough.

Next Tuesday, Jan. 6, Hepburn is scheduled to present a plan of corrective action to his nine School Board bosses, five of whom are up for election in 2026 (if all five run).

The atmosphere is thick with suspicion, and that can make the campaign trail a very treacherous place for board members.

The size of the district and the frequency and magnitude of the challenges remain daunting. At the last board meeting Dec. 16, the agenda backup materials totaled 3,074 pages. Meetings run for seven, eight, nine hours. The work is vastly tougher when the staff and board don’t trust each other.

Blaming staff in this case appears justified. But it is not a solution. In the end, only the board members are accountable to voters.

In the uproar over the botched lease, board member Allen Zeman cautioned against finger-pointing and challenged his colleagues to keep asking questions.

“It’s our responsibility to review contracts. It’s our responsibility to ask questions, and it’s on the Broward County School Board for making this mistake,” Zeman said. “I don’t think that we can walk away from our own responsibility.”

And so, a new year begins for Broward County Public Schools.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.

I grew up in Delray Beach, where I was guided by hope and the possibility of changing my family’s story. So, my success belongs to those who came before me — especially my parents — whose sacrifices make this opportunity possible and inspire me to approach my education with purpose, responsibility and gratitude.

Early in my senior year of high school, I realized that while I had the ambition, work ethic and academic credentials to attend college, my family and I simply could not shoulder the financial burden that came with it. I knew that without meaningful financial support, my dream of attending college and fully participating in the experience could easily slip away.

I spent much of that year in my guidance counselor’s office, researching and applying for every scholarship I could find. I focused particularly on academic and merit-based opportunities tied to creative writing, a passion I had been nurturing through a personal project: publishing my first collection of poetry, “Nesting Dolls.”

Writing has always been my way of understanding the world, and I hope to one day combine storytelling with meaningful engagement as a journalist who bridges cultures and lived experiences.

It wasn’t until I learned about the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties that my dream began to feel truly attainable, without being overshadowed by debt.

Through a college-preparedness program at my high school, I was introduced to the Community Foundation and its extensive scholarship and grant programs. The foundation partners with donors, nonprofits and community leaders to provide students with the financial resources to pursue higher education.

But what sets the Community Foundation apart is that its support extends well beyond tuition assistance. The organization invests in students as whole people.

I know this because I am living proof.

In the fall of 2024, I was honored to receive the Lawrence A. Sanders Scholarship Fund for Creative Writing, offered by the Community Foundation. I am now enrolled at the University of Central Florida and majoring in communications, where I am able to focus on my studies while actively participating in campus life.

I currently write for UCF’s Her Campus chapter, an online magazine that allows me to sharpen my voice and grow as a writer — an opportunity made possible by the stability this scholarship provides.

The Community Foundation’s support has also allowed me to pursue a lifelong goal of studying abroad. This summer I will study intercultural communication in Rome.

As a Black student, this experience carries particular significance. According to Open Doors data, Black students comprised just 6.1% of Americans studying abroad during the 2023-2024 academic year.

That statistic highlights how rare and how important this opportunity is. I am proud to be part of the change.

Beyond financial aid, the Community Foundation offers wrap-around services, including success coaching and peer connection opportunities. Through this program, I have navigated college challenges, gained confidence and experienced things I never imagined, including attending my first Broadway show.

To students who dream of college but feel intimidated by the cost: Don’t let numbers define your future.

Organizations like the Community Foundation exist because they believe in education, equity and potential. They invest in students not just to succeed, but to give back and lift others as they rise. And to the donors who give through the Community Foundation, thank you. Your generosity transforms aspirations into opportunities and makes dreams like mine possible.

Nedjie Aurelien of Delray Beach is a sophomore at the University of Central Florida.

I refer to those willing to trade empathy and compassion for complacency. The ones who believed the hate raging against immigrants and the LGBTQ community and were fine with the demeaning treatment of women journalists.

More importantly, I’m thankful and wish to acknowledge the diverse group of academics, political leaders and everyday Americans — teachers, librarians, doctors, scientists, journalists and park rangers — who showed us how to protest.

They’re the heroes at the forefront of this resistance, fighting fascism and supporting science and truth. In the coming year, I want to be part of a resistance that opposes right-wing extremism and authoritarianism. I want to help squelch lies and disinformation and assist in spreading truth, compassion and love.

Rosemary Blumberg, Plantation

A guilty pleasure

Although I’m an oldster, I live an extremely active life. Time is precious to me. For guilty pleasure, like reading a book or painting to “steal” time out of the day. I’ve not watched TV news for years, as who knows what’s really correct? I record everything I watch, so I can fast forward through commercials — a waste of time.

But sitting down with my coffee every morning and my newspaper, I can take my eyeballs to the articles that interest me.

Many times I find an article about something I would never think to google, and it is very valuable to know about money, health, etc. I cut out interesting articles on science or animals to send in cards to my grandkids. The Sun Sentinel is my guilty pleasure!

Sandra Hill, Tamarac

The Epstein coverup

Anyone with half a functioning brain has figured out by now that no valuable information regarding the Epstein files will be released anytime soon. Unless Democrats take back both houses of Congress in 2026 and the Department of Injustice is dragged kicking and screaming before a Senate committee, there will be no meaningful insight into this hideous coverup.

All the breathless, inane coverage of “deadlines” to release the files means less than nothing. The goal of this regime is protecting Trump and other rich and powerful men involved in this nauseating scandal, no matter what.

So now we wait to see if voters are prepared to do the right thing. The old cry of “throw the bums out” could not be more relevant to these times, if justice is to see the light of day.

Linda Ribner, Lauderhill

For a floating holiday

Kudos to letter writer Freddie Dunn and seven-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady for advocating President’s Day as a floating national holiday the day after the Super Bowl (Feb. 8, 2026).

With the holiday in mid-February anyway (Feb. 16, 2026), it makes perfect sense that it follows the big game, eliminating “Super Sick Monday” forever.

And it would save the U.S. tax revenue due to the lost productivity of hung-over workers who show up for work — if they show up.

Aside from being an efficient use of the calendar, it’s wildly popular with employers and employees alike. Doesn’t everyone like to have the next day off following a big party event?

President Trump, who prides himself on common sense, should see this as the quintessential no-brainer. It should take him five seconds to sign the executive order.

Ed Dignan, Boynton Beach

Please submit a letter to the editor by email to letterstotheeditor@sunsentinel.com or fill out the online form below. Letters may be up to 200 words and must be signed with your email address, city of residence and daytime phone number for verification. Letters will be edited for clarity and length. 

Upon closer inspection, these dragnets are rarely precise; reports frequently surface of legal residents and even American citizens being swept up in the chaos. But in the cold math of the detention industry, the identity of the detainee matters less than the fact that a bed is filled.

Who truly benefits from this brutal efficiency? Follow the money, and you’ll wind up on the doorsteps of CoreCivic and the GEO Group (headquartered right here in Boca Raton). As the nation’s largest private prison contractors, these firms have secured multi-billion dollar contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The incentive is built into the contract: a per diem payment for every person held. The more people arrested, the higher the profit margin.

Is it a coincidence that these corporate beneficiaries of exorbitant government contracts were also some of the largest donors to Donald Trump’s inaugural committees? While loyal Trump voters may cheer the display of force and the sight of foreign families being split apart, the boardrooms of the prison-industrial complex are toasting to record quarterly earnings as their stock prices skyrocket.

At first glance, it looks like these deplorable policies serve his base, which often complains of lost jobs to foreign workers. But it is a mistake to believe these sweeps are designed to reclaim jobs for the American worker. Even Trump, throughout his pre-political business life, staffed his gaudy resorts with cheap, undocumented labor. Many industries that form his core base — construction, agriculture and manufacturing — practice similar business strategies.

My perspective comes from the front lines of this data. During my time as an assistant editor for the Human Rights Defense Center, which publishes Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News, the two most frequently read periodicals by the incarcerated, I saw firsthand how the “profit-per-head” model has corrupted our justice system.

The private prison lobby doesn’t just manage cells — they help write the laws that fill them:

“Three Strikes” Laws: Once promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) — a nonprofit organization of conservative lawmakers and businesses partially funded by private prison firms — these laws mandated life sentences for third-time offenders. This ensured that prisons remained teeming with an aging, non-threatening population that raked in billions for decades.

“Truth-in-Sentencing”: By eliminating parole or “good time” credits, these laws ensure offenders serve nearly 100% of their time, stripping away incentives for rehabilitation while maximizing “bed-days” for contractors.

“Pay-to-Stay”: Perhaps most insidious is the practice of charging inmates for their own incarceration. For many, the harshest punishment begins after release, as they are hounded for “room and board” fees they can never hope to pay. Good luck to any former felon finding legal work that’ll pay those steep bills. This creates a never-ending cycle of debt and recidivism that ensures the revolving door of the prison keeps spinning.

Any action of an elected politician should serve their supporters, yet these policies primarily serve the balance sheets of corporate donors. Who pays the price? Lady Liberty. The statue that greets families of refugees that risk everything to come here is not that of a warrior, but a welcoming mother, armed only with a blinding torch and a book. This book promises the “tempest tossed” that they are now governed by laws, not the tyrannical whims of a dictator.

By putting the profits of his donors ahead of the rule of law, the Trump administration simultaneously destroys our country’s identity as a refuge in a dangerous world. Once upon a time, anyone could reject the shackles of their old lives and relish the taste of freedom in America. Today, Trump has sold the American dream to the highest bidder.

Jordan Arizmendi was an assistant editor at Prison Legal News and Criminal Legal News. He lives in Pompano Beach.