Welcome to the Space Coast Progressive Alliance
The Space Coast Progressive Alliance advances progressive policies at the local, state and national level through education on critical issues, coordination of activities among local and state progressive organizations, and providing internet resources.
We are a grassroots organization of concerned citizens who strive for domestic and international policies beneficial to the well-being and self-determination of Americans and all peoples of the world, for protection of civil and personal liberties, and for progressive environmental, economic, labor, health care, social welfare, education, foreign, and defense policies.
Current News and Information
From Our Facebook Feed
This content isn't available right now
This content isn't available right now
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted.1 CommentComment on Facebook
It is such a travesty that Hamas hides behind these precious women and children.
A city in Oregon has fined and jailed unhoused people for sleeping outside. But, in Grants Pass— a small mountain town with no public homeless shelters, they had nowhere else to go.
Now, by the end of June, the Supreme Court will decide whether their situation of being unhoused is a protected constitutional status or a crime.
Helen Cruz has been a resident of Grants Pass for roughly four decades, but for the last five, she’s had no home in which to live. She’s not alone. She is among up to 600 people experiencing homelessness in that community.
On Monday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments about their disputed right to sleep outside. At issue is an effort from 2013, when Grants Pass attempted to address the town’s burgeoning number of unhoused people by fining and subsequently issuing trespass orders with criminal penalties for sleeping in the park with as little as a blanket.
Even as someone who is employed regularly as a house cleaner, 49-year-old Cruz has not been able to make it work. She can’t afford a hotel or an apartment, much less the $295-plus tickets the city slapped her with for sleeping in the parks.
When the city’s unhoused people returned to sleep in the park after receiving tickets, city code allowed police to arrest them. The unpaid fines sank their credit scores and the jail stays showed up on background checks, further adding to the obstacles they faced when seeking stable employment and permanent housing.
“Those kinds of punishments not only don’t end homelessness or move us toward a solution; they move us in directly the wrong direction,” says Ed Johnson, Oregon Law Center’s director of litigation, who first sued Grants Pass over the fines. “They make matters worse, and they increase the number of people who are unable to escape homelessness.”
Despite a consensus among housing experts that civil and criminal penalties are counterproductive, local governments alike are turning to them in an attempt to appease critics of homelessness without addressing its underlying causes.
As Cruz notes, “They would rather push us all out of town, make sure that we don’t exist, or bury their head in the sand.”
Click the link below for more.
📸: Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty
www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/04/supreme-court-grants-pass-homeless-crime/
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
"It really is a representation of how the Republican Party has transformed with a new wave of isolationism," said John Conway, Republicans for Ukraine strategy director. "The Republican Party has fundamentally changed under the leadership of Donald Trump. It is unimaginable to think about a Republican Party not supporting our democratic allies abroad against a Russian invasion by a dictator. This is where the party is. It is now split."
MTG trolled for opposing foreign aid package. But Florida Republicans also mostly voted no.
www.palmbeachpost.com
Former President Donald Trump complained that America's allies in Europe should be shouldering more of the conflict's financial burden.0 CommentsComment on Facebook
“Brevard’s Sheriff Ivey to speak at police training event banned by 9 states”
“One of the featured speakers at this weeklong celebration of thuggery is none other than our very own top lawman and most popular politician: Constitutional Sheriff Wayne Ivey.”
Torres: Controversial police training, banned in 9 states, coming to central Florida
www.floridatoday.com
Brevard County's "Constitutional Sheriff" is scheduled to speak at a conference banned in 9 states for teaching unconstitutional policing methods0 CommentsComment on Facebook
This..
Open Letter to College and University Presidents on Student Protests | ACLU
www.aclu.org
Academic freedom and free speech are essential. Universities must protect them.0 CommentsComment on Facebook
