Photo by Robert Eibl
By Cosette Paneque
Aug. 25, 2011
Here’s a roundup of environmental news.
Florida’s five water-management districts are losing $700 million and hundreds of employees in budget cuts, but Governor Rick Perry says that’s not enough and has told four of them to cut even more. Read more
Photo by Don Hankins / Flickr
By Cosette Paneque
Aug. 13, 2011
SEFFNER – Hillsborough County residents have asked local commissioners to allow beekeeping in residential neighborhoods.
Like organic gardens and chicken coops, beehives are popping up more and more in urban and suburban backyards. According the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the number of beekeepers in Florida has grown from about 600 five years ago to 2,100 now, the Tampa Tribune and Miami Herald report.
Photo by outcast104 / Flickr
By Cosette Paneque
Aug. 8, 2011
Catholic hospitals are opposing a new provision in President Barrack Obama’s recent health care overhaul, which expands benefits for women including free birth control to their employees.
The Health and Human Services Department has proposed a conscience clause, but Michael Sheedy, a spokesperson for the Florida Catholic Conference, told the Florida Independent that the clause is too narrow.
The Washington Post explains, “The administration’s proposed exemption defines a religious employer as one whose purpose is to instill religious values, which primarily employs and serves people who share its religious tenets, and which is nonprofit.”
Catholic hospitals could be ineligible and thus required to offer services they find religiously objectionable. Sheedy says the decision “violates the conscience”.
There are about 600 Catholic health care institutions in the United States.
What do you think? Should Catholic hospitals be forced to provide health care they spiritually object to? Are conscience clauses a good compromise or are they used to deny people services as some reproductive justice groups assert?
By Cosette Paneque
April 6, 2011
The PNC team in Florida is proud to welcome No Unsacred Space to the Pagan Newswire Collective family.
No Unsacred Space is the latest topic-focused group blog. It brings together the expertise and experience of Pagans from various traditions to explore the relationships between between religion and science, nature and civilization from a diversity of modern Pagan perspectives.
No Unsacred Space joins Pagan+Politics, The Juggler, and Warriors & Kin.
By Pax / Geoffrey Stewart
January 28th, 2011
ORLANDO – Having moved to Orlando from Anchorage, Alaska (where one is surrounded by National and State Parks, and an array of protected lands and habitats) the pace of development here in Florida can sometimes seem alarmingly rapid. Apparently I’m not the only one to feel that way!
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