Brian Mast at Abacoa on September 14

Take Donald Ross Rd. to Parkside Dr. North on Parkside Dr. 0.4 miles to Barbados Dr. Left on Barbados Dr. to first driveway on Left

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Brian’s Bio

Brian Mast served the United States of America from 2000-2012 as a soldier in the U.S. Army. He has held the Military Occupational Specialties of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), Airborne Infantry, and Combat Engineer.

In 2012 Brian retired from the U.S. Army’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) following a catastrophic injury incurred while serving in Afghanistan. His service and many lifesaving actions on the battlefield have been recognized by multiple awards for Valor, Merit, Sacrifice, Conduct, Achievement, and Excellence. Brian has also been recognized by the President of the United States, and been made an Honorary Member of the 75th Ranger Regiment for his contributions to the War on Terror.

Though Brian’s service with our nation’s most elite Special Operations Forces resulted in the bilateral amputation of both legs, neither his pace of life nor his work ethic have slowed. Since injury Brian has continued his work in Global Security Operations. He has provided analysis and training as a member of the National Nuclear Security Administrations (NNSA) Office of Emergency Operations in accordance with U.S. policy objectives. Brian has also provided explosive and tactical training to all federal agencies with first responder capabilities as an instructor of Home Made Explosives for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

Today Brian operates as an Explosive Specialist with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (TSA). His work is to defend the multimodal transportation systems from explosive threat and advise local law enforcement and federal agencies to include U.S. Secret Service, FBI, U.S. Marshals, ATF, and U.S. Department of State on explosive threats, possible effects, trends, and solutions.

When Brian is not working he is utilizing his GI Bill as a full time student of Harvard University, is a constant advocate for countless non-profit organizations, and a contributor to veterans and veteran supporting foundations.

Honor Flight – One Last Mission

POTUS and Congressional Candidate Evaluations

CONSERVATIVE VOTERS’ GUIDES

PRESIDENTIAL VOTERS’ GUIDE

Evaluations of the conservativeness of the positions of all of the announced 2016 Republican Presidential candidates are scored (good, mixed, bad) for each of eleven policy issues (Budget, Spending & Debt; Civil Liberties; Education; Energy & Environment; Foreign Policy & Defense; Free Market; Health Care & Entitlements; Immigration; Moral Issues; Second Amendment; Taxes, Economy & Trade) at the following web site:

Presidential Candidates Comparison on the issues

Details (statements, votes) are given to support the evaluations of each of the positions for each of the candidates.

U.S. CONGRESSIONAL VOTERS’ GUIDES

Guides for all states are available

Florida Congressional Voters’ Guides.

Heritage Action (HA).

Heritage Action ranks members of Congress based on their votes, co-sponsorships, and other legislative activity to show the conservativeness of Members of Congress. Their scorecard for the Florida members of he U.S. Congress is given at
Florida HA Scorecard.
Clicking on a candidate on this scorecard brings up a detailed list of the candidate’s votes on approximately 20 issues compared to HA’s position.

Americans for Prosperity (AFP)

Americans for Prosperity ranks members of Congress based on their votes for economic freedom. Their scorecard for the Florida members of he U.S. Congress is given at
Florida AFP Scorecard
Clicking on a candidate on this scorecard brings up a detailed list of the candidate’s votes on freedom issues compared to AFP’s position.

FreedomWorks (FW)

FreedomWorks has scores for both the U.S. House of Representatives (based on 7 key votes) and the U.S. Senate (based on 3 key votes). The scores for all of the members of the House and Senate can be found at
House FW Scores and
Senate FW Scores respectively.

Club for Growth (CfG)

The Club for Growth has a Congressional Scorecard that tracks how members of Congress vote on economic legislation that strengthens our nation’s economy and shrinks the size of the federal government. The scores for all of the members of the House and Senate can be found at House CfG Scores and Senate CfG Scores respectively.

With these guides the voter can see which of the candidates’ positions most closely match the positions of the voter on the issues the voter deems most important.

The detailed backup gives some indication of the candidates’ consistency and how some of the positions have changed with time.

Honor Flight at Wellington Chapter on 8/5

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Southeast Florida Honor Flight, as well as the 133 other hubs in the nationwide Honor Flight Network, is dedicated to flying American’s veterans to their respective memorials in Washington, DC, free of charge to the veteran. Each flight typically takes 85 WWII veterans and their guardians on a one day trip of a lifetime, taking off from Palm Beach International Airport at 6:30am with stops at the U.S. Marine Memorial (Iwo Jima), Arlington National Cemetery and the World War II Memorial, returning that evening at 8:30pm. Costs include chartering the American Airlines 757, motor coach transportation with police escort in Washington, three meals and Honor Flight hats and t-shirts for the day. America’s WWII veterans are now in their later years, predominantly in the 90’s age range, so Honor Flight is truly in a race against time to honor these veterans by bringing them to see their memorials, especially the WWII memorial, which was not completed until 2004.

Southeast Florida Honor Flight, based out of Stuart, Florida, is a 100% volunteer 501(c)(3) organization serving Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Okeechobee and Palm Beach Counties. All funds raised make sure every veteran flies absolutely free. For more information, to get involved, donate or shop the Honor Flight store, please visit: www.honorflightsefl.org, or www.facebook.com/honorflight or call 1-855-359-2838.

Honor Flight at Boca Chapter on 8/4

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Southeast Florida Honor Flight, as well as the 133 other hubs in the nationwide Honor Flight Network, is dedicated to flying American’s veterans to their respective memorials in Washington, DC, free of charge to the veteran. Each flight typically takes 85 WWII veterans and their guardians on a one day trip of a lifetime, taking off from Palm Beach International Airport at 6:30am with stops at the U.S. Marine Memorial (Iwo Jima), Arlington National Cemetery and the World War II Memorial, returning that evening at 8:30pm. Costs include chartering the American Airlines 757, motor coach transportation with police escort in Washington, three meals and Honor Flight hats and t-shirts for the day. America’s WWII veterans are now in their later years, predominantly in the 90’s age range, so Honor Flight is truly in a race against time to honor these veterans by bringing them to see their memorials, especially the WWII memorial, which was not completed until 2004.

Southeast Florida Honor Flight, based out of Stuart, Florida, is a 100% volunteer 501(c)(3) organization serving Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, Okeechobee and Palm Beach Counties. All funds raised make sure every veteran flies absolutely free. For more information, to get involved, donate or shop the Honor Flight store, please visit: www.honorflightsefl.org, or www.facebook.com/honorflight or call 1-855-359-2838.

Jack Oliver of FLIMEN on 8/3 at Abacoa

Take Donald Ross Rd. to Parkside Dr. North on Parkside Dr. 0.4 miles to Barbados Dr. Left on Barbados Dr. to first driveway on Left

Please click on the RSVP button above so we are prepared to accommodate you.

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Rebecca Negron on Common Core

The Common Core standards and the processes that they have created, have a wide impact on K-12 education, with policy implications at the local, state, and national levels.

Many see them as an onerous regimen imposed on local school districts by the federal government, loaded with progessive bias in content, and counter to the local control of education that our system has featured since the dawn of public education. Teachers don’t like the program because it has too much emphasis on testing, and whittles away at their autonomy in the classroom. Administrators oppose them for the high stakes they impose on scoring individual schools. Parents object to the way subjects are taught (which some find incomprehensible, particularly in basic mathematics), the critical importance given to test results, and the lack of local control over the classroom.

In spite of this opposition, the train has left the station and Common Core is being implemented to various degrees across the country. Our speaker, Rebecca Negron attempted to make sense of all this from the point of view of a Martin County School Board member who was drawn to the office when she did not like the way her own children were being taught.

So what is the current state of Common Core in Florida?

In her view, testing is out of control – the tests are too frequent, and because teachers pay and school rating depend so heavily on the results, the objective of learning is sometimes lost. Martin County this year has opted out of giving End of Year exams.

Teachers evaluations – an attempt to separate the excellent from the mediocre, have failed – after spending $1.3M on implementing an evaluation process for the county, almost all teachers fall in the top two categories – hardly the differentiator that was intended.

School choice (vouchers) – in her view a good, market driven program, has caused a circle the wagons mentality within the system, with the FSBA (Florida School Board Association) joining with the teachers union (FEA) in a lawsuit to end the Tax Credit Scholarship Program. Martin County has considered withdrawing from FSBA membership for this reason.

Mrs. Negron claimed that the problem is not the content of the Common Core Standards themselves, but the implementation, particularly in the “approved” textbooks that she describes as choosing the “best of the worst”. Change is hard though, and she has had little success in convincing her school board colleagues to seek new textbooks or push back against the state imposition of the standards and curriculum. The issues have moved up in the government food chain and local School Boards can do little given what is mandated at the state level, which in turn is influenced by the education dollars flowing from the federal government.

Quite a few questions led to a lively discussion at the end of the session, with many in the audience having been on the front lines of the common core fight. Identified by some as the villian of the piece, Jeb Bush and his “Excellence in Education” foundation have been a driving force for common core. It was pointed out that many in the legislature, including Rebecca’s husband Senator Joe Negron, have served on Bush’s board, making opposition in Tallahassee an uphill fight.

As many continued the discussion with Mrs. Negron after the session ended, it seemed clear that her assessment of the state of common core does not sit well, and there is much frustration that School Boards in Martin and Palm Beach County are not doing enough to push back against the common core juggernaut.