National Weekly endorsements and recommendations

With early voting underway since August 9, the 2010 Primary Elections have begun in Florida, though the official day for elections is August 24. In South Florida, several candidates are on the ballot running for various offices from the U.S. Senate to county school board.

Over the past few weeks, the National Weekly has been following the campaigns of the candidates reflected in newspapers, political advertisements, candidate forums, and the feedback generated from prospective voters.

Special attention has been placed on the candidates’ views affecting the needs of the African-American and Caribbean-American communities in reference to the issues of immigration, employment, education, healthcare, civil rights and justice, among others. Based on our assessment and analysis, we recommend candidates to be elected in the primaries.

Through the primary elections, candidates are elected to represent either the Republican or Democratic parties, or run as independent candidates in the November 2 general elections. Accordingly, the recommendations made by this newspaper pertain to the most suitable candidates from either party seeking to represent their respective party in the general elections.

National Weekly recommends the following candidates for the Primary elections:

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Wyclef Jean

Jean, who has been aggressively helping his home country through his Yele Haiti foundation, long before the January 12 earthquake, is known as a philanthropist and is widely loved by the Haitian populace, but his campaign so far has been met with more criticism than commendation.

Critics say he lacks the political vision and experience required to be president, but supporters are saying his passion and his philanthropic endeavors will go a long way.

Actor and philanthropist Sean Penn has been one of the harshest critics of Jean’s presidential bid. Penn, who has been on the ground managing a camp in Port-au-Prince since the earthquake, said Jean has been a “non-presence” in the devastated country.

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Over 500 Broward teachers will be back in the classroom for the fall term, since the federal $26 billion stimulus package got the green light from the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Aug. 10.

Broward expects to get about $54 million of the $10 billion allotted for education, allowing not only the rehiring of laid-off teachers, but secretaries, bus drivers, maintenance workers and custodians.

The education portion of the fund will be divvied up among different states and should secure some 100,000 jobs across the nation.

Broward Schools Superintendent Jim Notter said he had already rehired over 344 teachers of math and English, as well as other core subjects and expects to use the federal money to rehire over 200 more teachers and an additional 500 support staff.

Pat Santeramo, Broward Teacher’s Union President, in an email statement, said the union’s top priority was to ensure that Broward schools get the new funds swiftly and the money is used to prevent further layoffs.

Though teachers, whose jobs were on the line, see this as a victory, Republicans vehemently oppose the measure, calling it another government bailout.

Some 555 teachers were laid off earlier this summer, along with over 700 other school system workers.

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If you run a red light in Fort Lauderdale these days, you are likely to be caught on camera.

The cameras to crack down on red-light runners are up at nine busy intersections according to Fort Lauderdale officials. The intersections are: North Federal Highway at Northeast Eighth St; Northeast 15th Ave at East Sunrise Blvd; State Road 84 at Southwest Ninth Ave; West Sunrise Blvd at Northwest 15th Ave; West Commercial Blvd at Northwest 21st Ave; South Federal Highway at State Road 84; Northwest 62nd St at Northwest Ninth Ave; West Commercial Blvd at Northwest Ninth Ave, and Northwest 62nd St at Northwest 31st Ave.

Violators are now getting courtesy warnings, but come September, a fine of $158 will apply.

According to police, between 2004 and 2009, 26 fatalities occurred through vehicular accidents at intersections with traffic-lights in Fort Lauderdale.

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