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Calling all Democratic Club Members!

The annual election of club officers and board members is scheduled to be held at the Democratic Club meeting in March.
The Club always welcomes new faces and new ideas and all members who want to bring their ideas and efforts to the Club are encouraged to add their name to the list of nominees. If you are interested in any of the following positions, please contact Clay Wild at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or Claudia Martino at [link removed]. Some incumbents have indicated they will continue to serve on the Board if needed but will welcome and actively support all new officers.

President for 2-year term

Vice President for 2-year term

Secretary for 2-year term

Board Directors,1-year and 2-year terms



CALENDAR

Saturday, January 21, 2023

2:00 p.m. - Convention of States Town Hall Meeting at the Main Library 1600 21st St Vero Beach 32960.
[link removed]


Monday, January 23, 2023

6:00 p.m. - School District of Indian River County School Board Meeting at 6500 57th St. Vero Beach, FL. Speakers must arrive early to sign up with receptionist.

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

6:00 p.m. -

[link removed] ([link removed])

Thursday, January 26, 2023

[link removed]

SDIRC SCHOOL BOARD MEETING
Thursday, January 23, 2023

Our public schools are under attack from "Moms for Liberty" censorship and evangelicals' demands for PRAYER in SCHOOL. If you want to voice your opposition to religion in schools, censoring history and banning books, you must arrive early and get on the Receptionist's speakers list. PLEASE JOIN US!




** Interested in Serving on a Board or Commission?
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The Board of County Commissioners is seeking volunteers to serve on a number of unique advisory boards and commissions that help to advise the Board of County Commissioners and staff with respect to specific governmental action by making decisions on the disposition of certain matters coming before the Board or Commission.
* Learn more about Commissions and Boards ([link removed])
* Commissions and Boards Vacancies ([link removed])
* Commission and Boards Application ([link removed])

For more information go to:
[link removed] (http:// [link removed]) and for application forms please go to:
[link removed] http:// (http:// [link removed])

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Democrats of Indian River

NOTICE: Democrats of Indian River Office Hours have changed. We will be open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. You can always leave a voice message at (772) 226-5267 and email Caryl in the office at [email protected]

Democratic Women’s Club

Friday, January 27, 2023 - 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
The Book Group will meet at the Brackett Library on the IRSC Mueller campus and discuss “The Flag, The Cross & The Station Wagon:
A Graying American Looks Back At His Suburban Boyhood & Wonders What The
Hell Happened” by Author: Bill McKibbin.


THANKS to ALL of our PROUD DEMOCRATS who participated in the MLK Birthday Parade!


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Promotion of 'freedom' overlooks commitment to equality



Recently in this space, a reader informed us the Florida Board of Education had notified the Indian River County School Board its “racial equity policy” was out of line with new state statutes. This should not be surprising considering the current status of politics in Florida.

The policy in question focuses on confronting institutional racism within the school district. But acknowledgment of racism and efforts to end it seem to be anathema to many citizens. In the face of their denial and resistance, I cannot remain silent.

Some of us white folks are keenly aware that systemic racism and elements of white superiority exist in our school district as well as in other institutions of our society. Much of that racism is unconscious and unintended, but nonetheless devastating to people of color. And it needs to be examined and confronted by the local school board and administrators. As I understand it, that is exactly what the Indian River County School District’s policy is all about, so let’s see that it is acted upon without delay.

Our nation was founded on the principles of freedom and equality. However, actions on the part of Florida’s governor and Legislature to promote “freedom” have sadly overlooked a much needed commitment to equality.

Jack Stiefel, Vero Beach
TCPalm


Writer is proud of being 'woke' ― to DeSantis



Gov. Ron DeSantis declared war on "wokeness." It's so dangerous and scary, I guess I should thank him.

I am woke. I'm woke to HIM. I'm woke to his denying women autonomy over their own bodies, criminalizing abortion even for cases of rape or incest. I'm woke to him gaslighting racism, banning books, bullying LGBTs. I'm woke to him restricting voting, putting guns in the hands of disturbed young male murderers, demonizing "others," promoting white supremacy.

I'm woke to DeSantis telling lies about vaccinations, which discourages parents and others from using these researched and evidence-supported tools for fighting disease and death. I'm woke to his grandstanding about immigration and the border instead of actually working collaboratively to do something about it.

I'm woke to the governor. He's self-serving, instead of people-serving. He seeks to turn us against each other, instead of helping to find common ground to bring us together.

I'm woke to DeSantis and I'm proud of it.

Mike Eisenberg, Fort Pierce
TCPalm


To submit your letters to the Editor, go to:

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

LOCAL



December COVID: Seventh wave slams Treasure Coast as omicron variant XBB.1.5 spreads

“Our day-to-day behaviors and how seriously we take these risks may be the best predictors of what is to come.”


This holiday season gifted the Treasure Coast with an increase in COVID-19 infections ** for the first time since July ([link removed])
. And that’s just the post-Thanksgiving dust settling. Likely coronavirus spread from winter holiday gatherings won’t be reflected in ** Florida Department of Health ([link removed])
data for weeks.

The tri-county area closed out 2022 with over 2,600 infections in December — more than double the over 1,200 recorded in November.

Each county saw an increase in cases last month:
* St. Lucie: 1,407 cases (142% increase from November)
* Martin: 728 (118%)
* Indian River: 553 (76%).

Florida has the third-highest cumulative coronavirus infections nationwide — over 7.3 million — behind only California and Texas, according to the ** Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ([link removed])
. The Sunshine State ranks 10th in cases per 100,000 residents.

Still, recent bursts of infection probably are underestimations, said ** Dr. Marissa Levine ([link removed])
, a professor at the ** University of South Florida College of Public Health ([link removed])
. While some at-home rapid tests correspond to a smartphone app and encourage people to ** report their results ([link removed])
to the CDC or state health department, many people don’t do so, she said.

“This has been a very challenging winter given all the respiratory infections from different viruses — the so-called ‘** triple-demic ([link removed])
,’ ” Levine said, referring to COVID-19, the flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). “It has been worse in the colder climates, but many visitors to Florida came to escape the cold and brought these viruses here with them.

“Or we ourselves have brought them back after visiting friends and family up North.”

Among those who had completed their primary vaccination series, just 17% ages 5 and older had received the updated, bivalent booster dose that targets omicron. Even among locals 65 and older, who were ** the first to clamor for primary vaccines ([link removed])
, less than a third had gotten the new booster, according to the CDC.

Boosting the vaccinated is as important as administering the primary series to the unvaccinated, said ** Dr. David Peter ([link removed])
, interim president and chief medical officer of ** Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital ([link removed])
in Vero Beach.

“Vaccination is especially important in preventing severe illness and hospitalizations, and this is particularly important for those at high risk,” he said. “That includes our older individuals, individuals with underlying health conditions and those with compromised immune systems.”

The health department continues to thwart ** CDC recommendations ([link removed])
, which urge parents to vaccinate and boost their children as soon as possible.

COVID hospitalizations more than quintuple

As coronavirus infections surged across the Treasure Coast in December, so too did hospitalizations.

The region’s seven hospitals collectively saw a 33% increase in adult COVID-positive patients in the five weeks ending Jan. 5, HHS records show. ** HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital ([link removed])
in Port St. Lucie showed the biggest increase of 264%.

** Lindsey Leake ([link removed])

TCPalm

STATE

DeSantis pushes to make COVID-19 changes permanent


At an event that featured a dermatologist who spreads COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said he will push Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature to make permanent many of his pandemic-era policies that have made him a star with many in the GOP and a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

The proposal, announced during a press conference in Panama City, would put into state law many of the policies DeSantis implemented through executive order or were temporarily passed during a 2021 special legislative session. It was at a time when he was actively making himself a counterweight to elected officials in other states who instituted pandemic mitigation measures such as mask and vaccine mandates.
DeSantis’ proposal would make permanent a handful of policies that were temporarily already in place, including banning mask mandates, COVID-19 vaccine mandates in schools, COVID-19 passports and prohibiting employers from making hiring and firing decisions based on vaccine status.

House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa) noted that DeSantis was a champion for the COVID-19 vaccine when it first became available, and that only roughly one-third of Florida nursing home residents are up to date on their vaccination status.

“The governor made the point that Florida is the only state in the nation giving this type of vaccine guidance,” she said. “There is a reason for that. It is backwards thinking.”


** MATT DIXON ([link removed])

POLITICO



FEDERAL

Biden blasts 'fiscally demented' Republicans in MLK Day speech



"They campaigned on inflation," Biden said. "They didn’t say their plan was to make inflation worse."


President Joe Biden lambasted House Republicans’ tax agenda on Monday, targeting the new majority’s push to revoke new Internal Revenue Service funding, abolish the federal tax agency and replace the income tax with a federal tax on consumption.

Speaking at the National Action Network’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast in Washington, D.C., Biden referred to Republicans as "fiscally demented" and pledged to veto their tax legislation, which is all but certain to fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"Raising taxes on working families, making inflation worse," he said. "Let me be clear, if any of these bills happened to reach my desk, I will veto them."

** The first bill ([link removed])
, sponsored by Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., would rescind more than $70 billion in new IRS spending approved last year as part of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, including ** money to hire 87,000 new agents ([link removed])
, a frequent target of Republican criticism. That legislation was approved by the House on a 221-210 party-line vote.

Biden said he “was disappointed” Smith’s legislation was the first bill the new GOP majority voted on, saying it “would help the wealthy people and big corporations cheat on their taxes at the expense of ordinary middle-class taxpayers.”

“All these new IRS agents we have is because they fired a lot of them, a lot are retiring and guess what? Who needs serious agents to know what they’re doing or not doing? The billionaires, the multi-multimillionaires,” he said, ** noting the nonpartisan ([link removed])
Congressional Budget Office projected the bill would add $114 billion to the deficit. “This is their first bill. They campaigned on inflation. They didn’t say if elected their plan was to make inflation worse.”

The other tax bill in Biden’s crosshairs was introduced last week by Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., and would abolish the IRS, eliminate income taxes and institute a federal consumption tax. The bill is also likely to fail in the Senate.

“What in God’s name is that all about, other than what is obvious?” Biden said. “They want working-class folks to be paying another 10, 20% of their taxes depending on where they live and how they spend their money. And they’re going to reduce taxes for the super wealthy.”

Allan Smith
NBC News


VIDEO of the WEEK

Republicans demand visitor logs from Biden's residence
- Stephen Colbert

[link removed]



Office Hours

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
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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