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** BALLOT RECOMMENDATIONS

US Senate - Val Demings
US Congress – Joanne Terry
Governor – Charlie Crist
Attorney General – Aramis Ayala
Chief Financial Officer – Adam Hattersley
Commissioner of Agriculture – Noami Ester Blemur
State Representative District 34 – Karen Greb
Justice of the Supreme Court – Justice Jorge Labarga
IRC Mosquito Control District Seat 2 – Lawrence Kyzer
Soil and Water Conservation Seat 1 – Bob Adair
School Board - Cynthia Gibbs

Supreme Court recommendations: Vote to retain:
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Canaday, Charles T. - NO
Couriel, John D. - NO
Grosshans, Jamie - NO
Labarga, Jorge - YES
Polston, Ricky - NO

Amendments: Recommendations:

No on 1:
Yes on 2:
Yes on 3:



"No one can do everything,
but everyone can do something."


VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES



IT IS GO TIME! TIME TO GET OUT THE VOTE!

Weekly GOTV Rallies

Beginning Saturday, October 8 we will gather to wave signs to encourage people to VOTE! The first rally will be at Sebastian Riverview Park at 10:00 a.m. Future rallies' locations TBD. Signs will be provided and you are welcome to bring your own!

Texting and Postcards to Voters

Volunteers have already contacted 12,000 Indian River County voters via text and 2000 via postcards. And we will continue to send text messages and postcards to thousands more potential voters in the coming weeks, but we need your help. If you can give us an hour or two to help text or prepare postcards please contact Bill at [email protected]

DONATIONS

We need 1000 more donors to contribute small, monthly, recurring donations of $5, $10 or $20 a month to cover fixed expenses and help support our candidates. Or, to make a one-time donation, mail a check or stop by our office.
Our website,
democratsofindianriver.org has all the information you'll need.

The United Way DAY OF CARING

Community Service event on Saturday October 15 from 9:00 am to noon. Registration begins at 8 am, with complimentary breakfast at the Citrus Bowl. Please register by September 30 and scroll down the menu to join Team DWC of IRC.

UNITEDWAYIRC.ORG/DOC

THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!

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DEMOCRATS OF INDIAN RIVER



Democratic Women’s Club

YOU ARE INVITED!

Please join the DWC of IRC as we celebrate the club's 50th ANNIVERSARY with musical entertainment, lunch, birthday cake and a champagne toast.

Saturday October 8th at 11:30 a.m.

Bent Pine Clubhouse
6100 Clubhouse Drive
Vero Beach 32967

Lunch options are Citrus Grilled Chicken Breast, Mahi Mahi or Vegetarian Entree. RSVP your meal choice in advance to
** [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
or to Julie
Barone (718) 916-0682. The cost is $25 payable by cash or check at the door. Non-member guests are welcome to attend.


The DWC Book Group will meet at the Indian River County Bracket Library at 6155 College Lane on Friday, October 28 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. We will discuss Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny's book "State of Terror." Any questions about the book group can be addressed to Maryann and Rita at ** (mailto:[email protected])
[email protected]


Democrats of Indian River Voter Protection Team

POLL WATCHERS are STILL NEEDED!

The Democrats of Indian River 2022 Voter Protection Team needs poll watchers for the November Midterm election. Poll watchers are needed for early voting Oct. 24 - Nov. 5 from 7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. and for the general election Nov. 8 from 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Training is conducted by the Florida Democratic Party. Various days and times are offered. To sign up for the Zoom training go to:

[link removed]

For more information contact Claudia Martino at [email protected]


Democratic Club of Indian River

The next Democratic Club Meeting is October 20^th
at 6 p.m. at the Heritage Center, 2140 14^th Ave.
Vero Beach. [email protected]


CANDIDATE CONTACT INFORMATION

charliecrist.com

valdemings.com

JoanneTerry.com

KarenGrebforfloridahousedistrict34 (facebook) Twitter@WynnGreb
Ballotpedia.org/KarenGreb

YARD SIGNS AVAILABLE for

Joanne Terry, Congressional candidate

Cynthia Gibbs, School Board Candidate

Monday-Friday 10-3pm at the

Democrats of Indian River office
2345 14th Ave, suite 7
Vero Beach 32960

VOTE BLUE in 2022!


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR






Let's Not Let Profit-Takers Ruin Vero's Three Corners

Some of our self-proclaimed visionaries and elected officials believe the commercial development of the Three Corners site will benefit ALL residents of Vero Beach and our surrounding communities.

In truth, there is only one reason an outside developer would want to take on that project. Profit. Their interest is not for our community, so let us not delude ourselves in thinking otherwise.

This is a valuable piece of city property that should be directed to the long-term needs of our residents. A big ado is made of the commercial potential but minimized is the potential for resident usage and possibly even for solution of some problematic situations in our community. Indeed, this property can be transformed into a multi-use site for our youth. Water access, ball fields, concert and band competitions, etc:

What about those senior citizens who helped create the fundamental basis of what has become our beautiful city? Is there room for a senior housing site that would fit the needs of those "Zero Vero" old-timers like those facing eviction from their homes at the airport? Are we just going to ignore that situation and other social needs, and allow big money to dictate our future?

I am certain there are organizations in our community that could show how we could use this property to help those in need in our community and bring us all closer together. A commercial development will not do any of this.

Bottom line: We have allowed the draw of outside profit seeking developers to slow the transformation of Three Corners into a community-directed facility. Let us not make the wrong decision on this matter and leave the taxpayer with a future fiasco and financial burden. Let us gather ourselves together and stop this unnecessary saturation of our beautiful city with more unneeded commercialization and negative environmental impact.

Let us get this right.


Ray Grochowski, Vero Beach



Letters to the Editor links:

TCPalm:
[link removed]


Hometown News:
[link removed]

Vero News.com:

[link removed]

or via email:

Vero Beach 32963, Vero News & Sebastian River:
[email protected]


FEDERAL

In October 1982, protestors marched in Afton, N.C., against a dump for toxic waste. Many in the rural community contended that Warren County, N.C., was chosen as the site because most of its citizens were black and poor.

EPA Introduces Its Environmental Justice Office


When Dollie Burwell, now 74, reflects back on the Warren County protests, she thinks about the Black women who led and supported the protesters.

In 1982, Burwell and hundreds of others from her predominantly Black North Carolina community marched to block trucks from bringing in soil contaminated with PCBs, a known carcinogen, to a nearby landfill. Burwell, who was one of the leaders of the protests, had approached her congregation at the Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church about getting involved in the effort and to guide the work in a civil and nonviolent way. “And so, in the tradition of the Black church, you have a lot of Black women who are leaders,” she said. Black women became very involved in the protests. Many were arrested. Others played a role in supporting the protesters.

“That's what I've been reflecting on,” Burwell said. “Those Black women who fed us, who got up early in the morning and came out at the Coley Spring Baptist Church and cooked food to bring to the marches.” It’s what kept Burwell, a mother of two, and other residents marching. Burwell was arrested five times during that period for her activism. Even her 8-year-old daughter was arrested once while participating in the marches.

While the community lost the fight against the landfill — the Environmental Protection Agency had approved the permit in 1979 and lawsuits filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) failed — the battle helped birth a nationwide movement. Awareness spread around the country that toxic landfills were being placed in predominantly Black and poor communities. In her years of activism, Burwell became known as the “mother of the movement” — a leading force behind the idea that all communities have a right to a safe and healthy environment. In the succeeding decades, other women — and women of color, in particular — have fought against landfills, petrochemical facilities and fracking operations.
"I know that we are still in this fight, and that we’ve got a long way to go." said Dollie Burwell. Many of the people who spearheaded the movement saw how far their cries have reached on Saturday, when Michael Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, came to Warren County and announced the creation of a new Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights office at the federal agency. The new office will include over 200 EPA staff members, both at the agency’s headquarters and in the 10 regional EPA offices across the country. Staff will both bolster Title VI compliance, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin, and help communities access the $3 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act dedicated to a climate and environmental justice block grant program.

“This new elevation of this office will provide the structure that we need internally, not just on the enforcement side,” said EPA administrator Michael Regan in an interview on Friday. ‘[It will provide] the assurance that as we develop all of our regulations, all of our policies, contracts and procurements, [that] every single thing we do at EPA has an infusion of environmental justice, equity and civil rights.”

For Burwell, who attended the announcement, it felt like a full-circle moment.

At the time of the landfill decision, Warren County residents thought the EPA would protect the community from the toxic waste. “A lot of people were disappointed when the EPA allowed the state to put in the landfill,” she said. “And so 40 years later, having the EPA come to Warren County and recognize the birthplace of the environmental justice movement is a big deal to us, it is a really big deal to us.” Black women like Burwell have played a key role in shaping the fight for environmental justice from a grassroots level all the way up to how federal agencies are addressing the issue. “I've been on the ground with Catherine Flowers in Alabama, spent time with Peggy Shepard in New York and Dr. Beverly Wright in Louisiana,” Regan said. “We learned a lot from the work that they have been doing over the past 30 to 40 years. And that has been integrated into our thinking and while we are able to be where we are today.”

Flowers is known for her fight to bring attention to the lack of wastewater treatment facilities in rural Alabama; Shepard is the co-founder of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which fights for environmental health protections both in New York and nationally; Wright is an environmental justice scholar who has been studying the impacts of petrochemical plants on Louisiana, in a part of the state known as Cancer Alley.

All three of these women also sit on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, created by the Biden administration to provide recommendations on how to enact policies that address environmental injustice.

Jessica Kutz



STATE

Hurricane Ian Damage Predicted Drive insurance Rates even higher and Cripple Insurance Industry




With early predictions of $50 billion in damage from Hurricane Ian, experts worry whether the state’s struggling property insurance system will become another casualty of the storm and lead to even higher premiums. If it fails, the cost will be passed on to all Florida homeowners, not just those who suffered damage, because of assessments levied on them to cover the losses.

The state has allowed many insurance companies to enter the market without enough capital to cover catastrophic events, relying on unregulated, offshore reinsurance companies, which is insurance for insurance companies.

Reinsurance jacks up the cost of premiums further, with every other dollar spent on premiums going to it.

Compounding matters are the thousands of homeowners whose policies don’t cover the extensive flood damage caused by Hurricane Ian’s epic storm surge. They will have to rely on the limited assistance available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

CoreLogic estimated that wind losses for residential and commercial properties in Florida are expected to be between $22 billion and $32 billion, while insured storm surge losses are expected to be an additional $6 billion to $15 billion.

Hurricane Ian is the costliest storm in Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and “will forever change the real estate industry and city infrastructure. Insurers will go into bankruptcy, homeowners will be forced into delinquency and insurance will become less accessible in regions like Florida,” said Tom Larsen, an associate vice president at CoreLogic.

The industry has already lost $1 billion a year over the last three years – without any hurricanes to deal with. Since 2017, six companies have gone out of business and four others are in the process of liquidating, shedding hundreds of thousands of policyholders who then have to rush to find new insurance with ever-shrinking options available.

Some consumers “just simply aren’t able to find any insurance company that is willing to write them” a policy, Tasha Carter, Florida’s insurance consumer advocate, told the Washington Post. Hundreds of thousands of those dumped homeowners wind up with the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Company, which has seen its customers grow from 500,000 to over 1 million in just a couple of years. Fitch said the “strain on Citizens and its continued growth adds to the vulnerability of the insurance market to the next catastrophic event. Citizens now accounts for 13% of the property insurance market and could balloon to 2 million customers before the Legislature finally fixes things."

OIR Commissioner David Altmaier has issued an emergency order prohibiting carriers from canceling or not renewing policies for the next two months.

“The order further protects policyholders by prohibiting a company from canceling or non-renewing a policy associated with a damaged home for 90 days after the home is repaired,” Carter said in a statement. “During a time when there is limited capacity and availability, these actions are vital to ensure consumers are able to maintain coverage through the remainder of hurricane season.”

“We anticipate that with a $3.7 billion loss, we will be able to pay all claims without having to levy surcharges or assessments,” Citizens spokesman Michael Peltier said. Citizens has $13.4 billion in claims-paying ability, he said. Of that, $6.8 billion in surplus, or money in the bank.

In the account for homeowners, Citizens would have to reach losses of $4.7 billion before it would begin to levy surcharges or assessments, he said.
In the commercial and coastal accounts, there is no surcharge indicated. Citizens wouldn’t have to levy surcharges on the Coastal Account unless it reaches $6.2 billion in losses, and wouldn’t levy surcharges on the commercial account until it exceeded $2 billion.
By comparison, Hurricane Irma in 2017 caused major damage to 48 counties declared eligible for federal disaster relief. Citizens processed 77,150 claims totaling nearly $2.4 billion for an average of about $31,700 per claim. It has 4,000 claims still pending being challenged in court.

Jeffrey Schweers
Orlando Sentinel


LOCAL


HELPING OUR HEROES


With over 40,000 linemen stationed in the west coast of Florida, food is scarce, supplies are limited and lodging is not available so these HEROES are sleeping in work trucks. Local linemen family members request donations that will be collected throughout the county and delivered in two semi-trucks to the west coast to those impacted by Hurricane lan.

Items most needed: Underwear, socks, linens (twin) blanket, pillows, towels, toothpaste bug spray, sunscreen, wipes, hand sanitizer, OTC Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Band-Aids and Iarge black garage bags.

Non perishable/NOT expired most needed items: Peanut butter crackers, cheese crackers, raisins, fruit cups, chips, cookies, protein bars, granola bars, breakfast bars, snack mix, peanuts, popped bagged popcorn, jerky, dried fruit, rice cakes, Rice Krispies, Goldfish, pretzels, cheese its, wheat thins, grapes, carrots, celery, gum and drinks for hydration

Nothing in cans and nothing refrigerated, please.

Drop off locations needed:
They need local churches and businesses to be designated as drop off sites for the requested
supplies. CDL drivers with trucks are needed.
First trip will be by the end of this week when volunteers will drive semi trucks(2) are available.

Please message Julie Sharkey-Villars via FaceBook for collection sites and to sign up for truck transportation.


CALENDAR

Thursday, October 6, 2022** ()


7:00 p.m. - Fellsmere City Council, 22 S. Orange St, Fellsmere, FL 32948
For agenda and meeting information go to www.cityoffellsmere.org/citycouncil

Friday, October 7, 2022

11:30 a.m. - Taxpayers Association Luncheon at the Vero Beach Yacht Club at
3601 Rio Vista Blvd, Vero Beach, FL 32963 Reservations are required by Wednesday morning at their website. $22

Saturday, October 8, 2022

SIGN WAVING RALLY to VOTE BLUE!

10 a.m. - Make signs for your favorite candidates or issues, such as; GUN CONTROL, EQUAL RIGHTS, REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM, EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, HEALTHCARE, or simply say VOTE! Or VOTE BLUE!
Riverview Park, Sebastian

11:30 a.m. - DWC of IRC 50th Anniversary Celebration luncheon at the Bent Pine Clubhouse. 6100 Clubhouse Drive, Vero 32967 RSVP to Julie Barone (718) 916-0682 or at [email protected] $25


Tuesday, October 11, 2022

9:00 a.m. - Indian River County Commission, County Administration Offices – Council Chambers, 1801 27th Street, Building A, Vero Beach 32960-3388

For agenda and meeting information go to: [link removed]

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

** 6:00 p.m. - Sebastian City Council, 1225 Main Street, Sebastian, FL 32958 ()

For agenda and meeting information go to [link removed]



President Jimmy Carter turned 98 years of age on October 1st,
and still does everything he can to help people in need.



VIDEO of the WEEK


If this little girl's energy is contagious, lets catch it!

** [link removed] ([link removed])



Office Hours

Monday through Friday 10am to 3pm

2345 14^th Ave. Suite 7
Vero Beach 32960

(772) 226-5267

[email protected]


STAY SAFE OUT THERE!


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