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This summer Stetson University College of Law—in partnership with the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg—will host a week-long (July 19-24) course aimed at training underrepresented teenagers to advocate for themselves and others. Under-representation includes race, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status and school performance.

* “I will be exclusively providing one-on-one interviews with journalists of color.”–That was Chicago’s African-American Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s response to “the overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically.” The frustration is understandable, but a public official choosing who she wants covering her is hardly helpful and legally problematic.

* “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.” That’s the title of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s book that was released in October. He was paid $5 million and faces a probe into his use of advisers, who were well complimented in the book, to write it.

* The Economist: A recent cover labeled Taiwan “the most dangerous place on earth.”

* Animated, fan-favorite shortstop Willy Adames was traded by the Rays. While nobody was happy, insiders and reporters were not surprised. Adames led the team in smiles, team celebrations and—strikeouts—and the Rays have their shortstop of the future, Wander Franco, getting ready to move up to the big team.

* “PopStroke.” That’s Tiger Woods’ chain of golf entertainment centers that include high-concept putting courses, dining and playgrounds. One “PopStroke” is expected to open in Tampa next year.

* We need a blue-ribbon, Capitol1/6 Commission—just as we needed a 9/11 Commission. It’s about threats to this country from terrorists, both foreign as well as domestic. And it’s about digging deeper into the failure of the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies in order to prevent another democracy-threatening, traumatizing insurrection. And it’s about what, exactly, was the former president’s role—before and during the insurrection?

We know that there remain insurrectionists, their cult leader and enabling GOPsters. So it’s hardly surprising that the Trumplican establishment, including the spineless Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, are against such a commission. Scott even voted against certifying the 2020 election results. They disingenuously dismiss the idea as partisan politics. “It’s designed to be used as a partisan political weapon,” deadpanned Rubio.

However, Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, cut to the bottom-line chase. “This is about finding the truth and addressing the vulnerabilities of our security apparatus,” stated Katko. That’s hardly a partisan goal.

One other factor not noted by outspoken Republicans: Such a commission would be a damaging distraction to the GOP just as control of Congress is at stake in next year’s mid-term elections.

* “If Donald Trump decides to run in 2024 again, he’s going to be the Republican nominee.”–Sen Marco Rubio, on the “con man” appeal.

* No, you can’t make this up—even during the rhetorical bombast of the Trump-GOP era. It was prompted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to maintain a mask mandate on the House floor—because of concerns that some Republican members may not be vaccinated—didn’t go over well with the usual suspects. Prominent among them: outrageously outspoken Trump House toady Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. “This woman is mentally ill,” declared Taylor Greene. “We can look back in a time of history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens—so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany, and this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.” Equating mask-wearing with the holocaust? That’s, alas, exactly the type of rhetorical abuse we’ve come to expect from such self-serving, loony Trump enablers.

* Approximately 8 percent of the 400-plus colleges that will require vaccinations this fall are in states won by Donald Trump in 2020.

* A photo portrait of Trump now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. It’s among the customs associated with the pantheon of presidents past—from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt to, alas, Donald J. Trump. Also part of presidential tradition is a presidential library. We know it’s coming, even if the honoree didn’t read much beyond tabloids and a Teleprompter.

* “The U.S. has clearly expressed readiness to lift sanctions under the nuclear deal. We will continue talks until a final agreement.”–Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

* “Encouraged by Donald Trump, Bibi Netanyahu mistakenly believed that deals with peacemaking Gulf States made the needs of the Palestinians irrelevant.”–Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer.

* “I always say, you don’t judge presidents by the agenda they set for themselves but by how they respond to the agenda that’s set for them.”–James Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute.

* “Richmond is no longer the capital of the Confederacy. The Lost Cause has lost. But becoming a capital of Compassion and Justice is now the challenge before us and every city and town that experienced unrest in America.”–Levar Stoney, the African-American mayor of Richmond.

* “If the GOP were a healthy party, its losses in the Georgia Senate runoff would have been a cautionary tale about pandering to the noisy, whiny anti-establishment insurgency.”–Jonah Goldberg, The Dispatch.

* “We really need to be super aggressive about expanding rail service around the country. We don’t have decades to wait any more.”–Rick Harnish, executive director of the High Speed Rail Alliance.

* “Remote resettling.”–Term applied to the trend of people literally relocating—without leaving their jobs.

* “Life becomes much simpler once you learn to only hear, see and remember the things you choose, the things that don’t challenge you, that help you put the world into tidy little boxes.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.

* “We’ll see more inventory come to the market later this year as further COVID-19 vaccinations are administered and potential home sellers become more comfortable listing and showing their homes.”–Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. Currently, inventory remains near historic lows.

* “We put the economy in a medically-induced coma, and you don’t come out of a coma and run a marathon the next day. We don’t just flip the switch and the economy comes back.”–Cecilia Rouse, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

* “We have decided to create a statewide monopoly for one entity for money. That’s it. It isn’t the right thing to do.”–State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, the lone no vote in the Senate on the Seminole Compact that expands the gambling monopoly in Florida for the Seminole Tribe.

Must “Country First” be relegated to bumper sticker platitude or political trope? It’s hard not to make that assumption while mired in the rhetoric of party-first priorities.

Even candor comes with caveats. Here’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a few days ago underscoring Republicans’ foremost priority. “One hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new Administration.” Call it “America Cursed” if that’s how national leaders lead.

And McConnell’s response to Democratic proposals to counter voting restrictions spoke disturbing volumes about the zero-sum approach to America’s needs. “We all learned early in life if you can write the rules, you can win the game,” noted McConnell through his (much-appreciated) mask.

Although America became more divisive under Trump, the signs and signals predate his cult candidacy and election. Recall that more than a decade ago, McConnell declared with party-first clarity that “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” We know the reasons, and they weren’t all ideological. Back then the issue was America’s first African-American president, a precedent that didn’t sit well with what became the Trump base. If you didn’t like your life, you at least had someone to look down on. Now one of “them” was president.

Trump came along in mid-angst for those who craved a president more like American neo-Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell than American icon Abraham Lincoln.

Now, ironically, it’s the Republican Party that is dividing against itself. The ouster of Liz Cheney, a hard-core conservative, from GOP leadership is all about rallying Trumpublicans for 2022. She drew the impeachable line on insurrection incitement and blatant election-fraud lying as harmful to our democracy. The party draws the line on contending for House and Senate seats sans support from Trumpsters. Country First? How quaint. Wonder what Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill would think.

* President Joe Biden’s overall approval rating, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, was 63 percent. On handling the pandemic: 71 percent.

* For obvious reasons it’s imperative that the Dems—approaching a historically dicey mid-term election—stay together and rally not just around Joe Biden, but the concept that neither Trump nor an opportunistic Trump parasite regain the Oval Office. Vulnerable America can’t, arguably, handle another democratic devolution. What certainly can’t happen is anything like the 2016 hissy fit of too many Bernie Sanders’ followers. Because they couldn’t countenance the nomination of Hillary Clinton, who was the favorite of the DNC and not nearly progressive enough, they sat out the election and morphed into ironic Trump enablers.

This time there’s turmoil in the ranks over America’s relationship with Israel—and with the Palestinians. The Biden Administration has underscored America’s historic support of Israel, an ally, while supporting a ceasefire and trying to be fair and humane about the tragic loss of life on both sides. It’s too equivocal for the far left that sees the Palestinians as victims of a right-wing, nationalist state, one that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has labeled an undemocratic “apartheid state.” Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar has called Israel’s response to Hamas’ rockets “terrorism.” Massachusetts Sen. Bernie Sanders has called for revisiting and potentially cutting aid to Israel, and he and others have urged the U.S. to stop being an apologist for Israel. “If the Biden Administration can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to?” asked AOC.

Meanwhile, Trump—who moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to JerUSAlem and is popular with Jared Kushner, minions of the late Sheldon Adelson, Orthodox Jews and Israelis—is likely gearing up to pin any anti-Israeli rhetoric on the Biden Administration.

* So far, there’s no clear national plan to ensure that the detained ICE immigrant population–more than 16,000—gets vaccinated.

* Only 0.3 percent of the vaccine doses administered globally have been given in the 29 poorest countries—home to about 9 percent of the world’s population.

* The CDC reports only 9,200 infections in 95 million fully vaccinated people—an infection rate of less than 0.01 percent.

* According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 1.4 million state and local government workers—many of them employed by schools—have lost their jobs since the beginning of the pandemic.

*4 million: The number of people in the U.S. who say they face eviction or foreclosure in the next two months, according to the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.

* People going maskless because they’ve been fully vaccinated: It’s the honor system. What could go wrong with that?

* The virus can trigger diabetes.

* Flight patterns. The number of people who traveled on airplanes on May 7 over the last three years: 2019-2.6 million; 2020-215,000; 2021-1.7 million.

* These pandemic times have seen a surge in street racing across America—prompting police crackdowns and legislation aimed at harsher punishments in several states.

* Publix, Trader Joe’s, Costco, Walmart: No longer requiring customers and employees who are fully vaccinated to wear masks.

* 82 percent: Pinellas County hotel occupancy in April. That’s 4 percentage points higher than April 2019—the highest-performing year on record.

That February Tampa tour of Ana Cruz, Mayor Jane Castor’s partner, with the Related Group founder didn’t look good—given that Related was later named the city’s top choice for a contract to develop the prime West River property known as Rome Yard. Cruz is a lobbyist for Ballard Partners, who had been hired to help prep Related for its presentation. She says the tour was unrelated to business. “The optics aren’t good, I get that,” said Cruz. “But the optics and the truth are very, very far apart.”

But optics always matter. Business and politics shouldn’t appear conflicted or conflated. Any politically-savvy, communications consultant could tell you that.

* So Richard Corcoran, career politician and charter school fan, will not be the next Florida State president. Good. FSU already has a reputation for hiring non-academics and John Thrasher’s successor should not be culled from a Who’s Who of Tallahassee insiders. The short list is now down to three finalists, all with serious academic credentials: the executive vice chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill, the vice provost of research at Harvard, and the vice president for research at Tulane.

While the model for higher ed presidents has understandably evolved, it need not be synonymous with political operatives and professional gladhanders. Personality, people skills, creative thinking, networks, fundraising aptitude and business acumen are not the sole province of politicians.

*Miami-Dade County has announced that it will create a first-of-its-kind position: chief heat officer—to “coordinate our efforts to protect people from heat and save lives.”

* The Sunshine State is second in the nation in electric vehicle sales. According to the Florida Energy Office, the number of EVs on the state’s roads is expected to double in the next decade.