Week ending Friday the 13th of March in Florida in 2026

Introduction

I spent much of the week in meetings with county commissioners and the Mayor of Miami-Dade County as a member of People Acting for Community Together (PACT). PACT is asking the county to fulfill a promise to include the public in meetings when they are giving or selling public land to developers, to open the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, and to lower the definition of workforce housing to an income threshold below $100,000 annually.

These are tough asks, tough issues and take a bunch of people working together to even get heard. That's why PACT goes to people like the county Mayor with a large group, representing 40 congregations and schools with over 50,000 members, and bugs the hell out of them until stuff gets done.

It gives me hope.

That tied up a lot of my time this week, so no pictures of pretty birdies or handsome swamp puppies (alligators).

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington DC in February of 1968.

Table of Contents

Finite Disappointment

Florida Gonna Florida

Historic Interlude

Infinite Hope

Bear the History Hound Finds

Finite

Disappointment

The 32nd weekly Sunday prayer vigil across from the so-called Alligator Alcatraz

Try as I may, I just cannot bring myself to put this week's prayer vigil anywhere other than Finite Disappointment. Yes, there was hope. Yes, there was courage.

But there was also Brandon. Brandon, born and raised in the USA, is faced with choice this week, either self deport with his wife and child, who legally immigrated here in 2023 fleeing violence in Venezuela, or be apart from them, possibly forever. He's choosing to leave his home country.

The 32nd Prayer Vigil

By Philip Cardella March 8, 2026 Outside the so called Alligator Alcatraz on US 41 in Florida It’s been a busy week for me and the things I care about so this is late in coming. While it is dated March 8, 2026, I’m writing this on March 13, 2026.

This Week in FloridaPhilip Cardella

The so-called Alligator Alcatraz apparently continues to be full of unmentionable s***

I'm not even sure what to make of the trucks rolling in and out of the facility without the legally required markings on them. These markings are supposed to protect us from smuggling and terrorism.

The so-called Alligator Alcatraz is still operating illegally marked commercial vehicles almost a year later

By Philip Cardella March 12, 2026 US 41 in Florida, near Mile Marker 48 in front of Alligator Alcatraz People watching the construction beginning in front of the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, the racist joke nickname for the South Florida Detention Center deployed by the state and the guards within it,

This Week in FloridaPhilip Cardella

Florida

Gonna Florida

Being a member of the US House representing South Florida sometimes means putting a python around your neck

Not a petting zoo: Researchers track Burmese pythons with South Florida congresswoman

When it comes to tackling invasive species in South Florida, it’s not just about spotting and removing. A group of University of Florida researchers are using telemetry trackers to find and understand the habits of the elusive and invasive Burmese python.

WLRNSofia Zarran

Historic

Interlude

March 13, 1956 As I've said, it's been a busy week so I'm not going to do justice to the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Virgil Hawkins, a black man who spent years trying to be admitted into the University of Florida School of Law, and decades after that trying to open his own law office.

I'm not going to let the 70th anniversary of the event going unmarked, either.

On March 13, 1956 the US Supreme Court ruled that the flagship public University of Florida must admit Virgil Hawkins into its school of law, which it did.

When Mr. Hawkins was finally able to open his own law office nearly twenty years later and as an old man, the Florida Supreme Court acknowledged that Mr. Hawkins "seldom turned away an indigent client in need."

Infinite

Hope

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and PACT

Say what you will about Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, but you have to acknowledge she is knowledgable, passionate and accessible. In a county with more constituents in it than most countries have, Levine Cava took time to meet with an organization I volunteer with, People Acting for Community Together on Tuesday and on Thursday attended an "Open House Iftar" at the place of prostration of the conquering helpers, Masjid Al-Ansar, which I was also humbled by an offer to attend, which I did.

I didn't take more than a couple pictures at the iftar as I didn't want to be rude.

As for PACT, we continue to plug along on our quest towards "Yes" at our big annual assembly in April where we'll ask officials to let the community have a voice on new housing developments on public land, to open the already built and sitting idle Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery, and to lower the definition of workforce housing to something somebody actually in the workforce can afford (as it sits today, workforce housing is for, by the county's definition, people earning well over $100,000 annually).

This means lots of meetings.

The place of prostration of the conquering helpers

I was humbled to be invited to attend the open house iftar dinner during Ramadan this week at Masjid Al-Ansar, Florida's oldest mosque. Masjid is how one says "mosque" in Arabic.

I did not take any pictures other than the one of the Miami-Dade Mayor (which, to be fair, everyone else seemed to be doing) but it was a fascinating and amazing experience. I have prayed with many Muslims before in interfaith sittings, but I have never prayed with my Muslim brothers and sisters in a Masjid.

I was able to participate in the breaking of the daily fast with my friends, which begins with a drink of water and two dates at sunset.

After the evening prayer we broke bread together as brothers and sisters.

The person who invited me to the open house iftar introduced me to the Mayor of Miami-Dade County as her "buddy." The funny thing is, I was trying to make sure she got the opportunity to shake hands with the Mayor as she was one of the people speaking to the Mayor on behalf of PACT, that non-profit I talk so much about.

On Tuesday, she did not get a chance to shake hands with the Mayor. When given the chance to do so on Thursday she took the opportunity to introduce me as her buddy.

My buddy, my sister, indeed.

By the way, Mayor Levine Cava is Jewish. Here we were on the day of the horrific attack on one of the largest synagogues in the United States by a Lebanese man, and the Jewish Mayor of Miami-Dade County was breaking fast with the oldest Muslim community in the state of Florida as brothers and sisters while my Christian self joined in.

That's the stuff of infinite hope.

Bear

The History Hound Finds

Iran, Israel and the United States

I recently discovered the NPR podcast Throughline. Throughline's most recent episode is about how we got to the point where we are with Iran. That said, with one of the creators of the show being Iranian-American, the very first episode of the program seven years ago was about how we got to where we are with Iran. The most recent episode points to that. They have several episodes over the last seven years about Iran, I've listened to them all and recommend them.

Oil, Inflation and the Strait of Hormuz

This piece by Nobel Laurette Economist and former New York Times columnist Dr. Paul Krugman explaining oil and its relationship with inflation and the economy is long and partially paywalled and 100% worth your time and money (and to be clear, none of that money goes to me or Bear, lol).

Oil Crises, Past and Possibly Future

What the 70s can and can’t teach us

Paul KrugmanPaul Krugman

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