Desire stays substantial for South Florida’s housing market place, keeping median price ranges in February elevated as income retreat. Previously mentioned: Aerial perspective of the Miami Shores Bayfront Park community looking south toward downtown Miami, on Sept. 30, 2020.
Emily Michot
While the U.S. housing market in February faltered, snapping a streak of almost 11 years of monthly price jumps, it’s a much different story in South Florida where the housing sector keeps getting pricier as overall sales dwindle.
In fact, median sales prices of single-family homes increased from a year ago and last month, according to the housing report released Tuesday by the Miami Association of Realtors.
While the housing landscape in Miami-Dade and Broward counties gained momentum in February, real estate experts cautioned that the uncertainty swirling around the U.S. banking industry and whether the Federal Reserve keeps hiking interest rates could have a detrimental effect on the regional housing market in the coming months.
Miami-Dade reported a median sales price of $555,000 for single-family homes last month, up from $545,000 in January and $536,00 in February 2022. Broward experienced even bigger price boosts with the median for houses hitting $560,000 in February, advancing from $540,000 in January and $519,000 in February 2022.
That pricing resilience shows how mighty the South Florida housing market remains, when compared to the rest of the country. According to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, median sales prices on houses fell to $367,500 in February — the first decline after 131 consecutive months of price increases.
The condo piece of the regional real estate market softened last month. In Broward, condo prices barely moved ahead from January to February’s $272,000 median but jumped considerably from $240,000 a year ago. In Miami-Dade, condo prices actually retreated in February to $390,000 from a median of $400,000 in January, but an increase from $380,000 last year.
As the supply of homes for sale remains tight, February sales plunged on an annual basis in South Florida but jumped from January to February.
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ONE Sotheby’s International Realty real estate agent Reid Heidenry said strong demand for South Florida living sustained the housing market last month.
“People come down during winter,” he said. “This time of year is strong for us.”
Why does the South Florida residential real estate market stay strong when others have begun a backslide? Miami’s pandemic transformation into a corporate magnet, experts say. Company newcomers have brought their employees with them, in many cases.
“We’re growing rapidly,” Heidenry said. “Now we have a lot of people that are a lot more full time in the Miami area.”
Still, long lines of prospective buyers waiting outside open houses or people placing bids on homes site unseen are gone. As a result, overall house and condo sales activity dropped 40{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} last month compared to last year in Miami-Dade, where there were 2,807 closed deals, and 32{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in Broward, which had 2,687 deals.
Nearly half of South Florida home purchases were cash buyers in February, well above the national average of 29{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.
Although the lofty South Florida housing market makes the region look like a star nationally, many people here remain priced out and can’t afford to buy a home.
Kendall resident and licensed housing inspector Robert Kuiper began shopping for a new condo in July 2022. To his dismay, he has seen countless homes that he thinks are not well maintained. He said many consumers are under such duress in looking for a home to buy that they are not doing their due diligence in making sure homes are up to current standards.
“I looked at 15 or 20 condos in Kendall and Hammocks since July,” he said. “Every single property I looked at, condos, apartments or townhomes, have been remodeled without permits. People aren’t doing research on this work and it’s a mess.”
By law, real estate agents are required to disclose to any client potential problems with homes.
As Kuiper continues to shop for a new condo in a frothy market, he doesn’t think he can afford to retire in Florida.
“I lived here 44 years,” he said. “I’m 66 and can’t afford to retire in Florida. I can’t afford to buy another home in Dade County. A one-bedroom condo is between $250,000 and $300,000. In Ocala, a three-bedroom and two-bathroom home has a garage, sits on a corner and is fenced in for $200,000.”
The Fed’s yearlong posture of boosting Interest rates has depressed the regional real estate market somewhat and builders have slowed construction, said Mark Thibodeau, assistant professor at Florida International University’s Hollo School of Real estate.
“The threat of a banking crisis can encourage the Fed to be less aggressive in terms of increasing rates or even relaxing a bit. If that’s the case, you would see more transactions and investment of housing and supply,” Thibodeau said. “You would see more development and people moving.”
The Fed’s decision what to do this week with interest rates is clouded by the fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank — the second-biggest bank failure in U.S. history — and the ensuing turmoil and fears in the banking sector.
The bank opened a local branch in Brickell in 2021, and its closure has shaken South Florida’s blooming technology sector. SVB was a California-based bank that catered to tech startups nationwide.
Thibodeau said more bank collapses would trigger alarms that could blunt the South Florida real estate market.
“The problem is inflation. The Fed has made it clear they want to bring down inflation,” he said. “A banking crisis in the midst of that would be the last thing we would want to see.”
Black Luxury Realty managing broker Nathaniel Crawford said South Florida’s desirability has translated to consistent interest from buyers outside the region. Also, international interest remains high, he said.
“A lot of these international buyers are not comparing the U.S. economy to what it was 10 or 20 years ago, they’re comparing the economy to what the economy is in their own country,” Crawford said. “The U.S. economy at its worst is still better than many economies at their best. As someone recently told me, I’d rather put a million in a condo in Sunny Isles that is still there, and see its price go down rather than put it in a Venezuelan account and it evaporates.”
Michael Butler writes about the household and commercial genuine estate field and traits in the local housing marketplace. Just like Miami’s various inhabitants, Butler, a Temple University graduate, has each neighborhood roots and a Panamanian heritage.
Rebecca San Juan writes about the true estate business, covering information about industrial, professional, business office jobs, construction contracts and the intersection of actual estate and law for market experts. She analyzed at Mount Holyoke Faculty and is very pleased to be reporting on her hometown. Aid my do the job with a electronic membership
With her announcement this week that she is running for president, Nikki Haley has made a bit of history again — becoming the first prominent woman of color to seek the Republican nomination.
With Vice President Kamala Harris presumed to be President Joe Biden’s running mate if he announces a second run, as he has said he will, it’s possible that both major political parties in America could simultaneously have a woman on their ticket for the first time. And both would be South Asian, specifically of Indian descent — which observers called a massive feat considering the community makes up only about 1{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of the country’s population and produced two recent political stars.
“This is absolutely a moment,” Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College and co-author of the Indian American Election Survey, told ABC News. “We see South Asians who have largely been on the outskirts of American politics in many ways. This is a moment where we’re seeing South Asians step into the limelight.”
That representation began at the national level more than half a century ago, when Dalip Singh Saund led a push to change immigration laws so he and other Indians could become citizens. He then became the first Asian American, first South Asian and first Sikh in Congress, in 1956.
There are now five South Asians in Congress, often referred to as “the Samosa Caucus.”
“Since 2016, we’ve quintupled our representation in Congress and gone from 12 to 43 in state legislatures. Over that same period of time, our population has not multiplied the same way,” said Neil Makhija, the executive director of the Indian American Impact, an organization that helps South Asians run for elected office. “Once people start running, it shows that it’s possible.”
When it comes to world leaders, University of California, Riverside, public policy professor Karthick Ramakrishnan points to Rishi Sunak, whose parents are of Indian descent, as someone who represents how fast a community can advance — considering the British ruled India until 1947. “One generation,” Ramakrishnan said, “Someone who is the child of the empire is now the prime minister of Britain.”
Nearly one-fourth of the world’s population lives in South Asia and many of the countries within it — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka — have all already had women prime ministers or presidents.
“[Women leading countries] is not something that’s necessarily out of the norm of the cultures from which a lot of these people are coming from,” said Maneesh Arora, an assistant professor of political science at Wellesley College.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley along with her husband Michael Haley at the Golden Temple, Nov. 15, 2014, in Amritsar, India.
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Harris’ maternal grandfather, P.V. Gopalan, worked to fight for the country’s independence from Britain and she’s spoken about her parents taking her in a stroller to political protests in the ’60s. Haley wrote in her autobiography that her mom, Raj Randhawa, studied law and was offered the first female judgeship in India, although Haley said her own family blocked it because she was a woman.
“They grew up in households where public service was not looked down upon. … Plenty of Indian Americans grew up in households where it was about becoming a doctor or engineer,” Ramakrishnan said.
Harris, who ran for president in 2020 before being selected as Biden’s vice president, and now Haley are testing what it means to pursue success at the highest levels of American politics.
Haley is not the first woman of color to seek the GOP nod: Angel Joy Chavis Rocker, a Black school counselor in Florida, ran in the 2000 campaign. But Haley is the most notable non-white conservative woman to ever enter the race.
Her campaign did not comment for this story.
What Haley has said about her heritage
Haley was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to Punjabi Sikh parents who emigrated from India in the 1960s. She has said that early on she adopted her middle name, which means “little one” in Punjabi, as her first name and later took on her husband’s last name as her own.
Haley was raised Sikh and has publicly talked about converting to Christianity, once saying the language barrier was what ultimately led to her decision to convert. “At some point, you have to understand the words …. Christianity spoke to me,” she previously said while adding, “It wasn’t political.” She explained to The New York Times in 2012: “We always said ‘no’ when my mom was trying to teach us Punjabi. Now I wish we had learned, but that is why I think I made the transition.”
She joined a Methodist church with her husband but has said she continues visiting the Sikh temple with family.
But for some South Asians, the conversation about Haley rarely gets past her name or religion.
“Her example would reflect the kind of assimilationism that most Indian Americans — most South Asians — actually don’t do. They don’t change their name and they don’t convert their religion,” Ramakrishnan said.
Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley poses with her husband Michael Haley and traditional Punjabi dancers as she arrives to attend a function at Lovely Professional University LPU in Jalandhar, Nov. 14, 2014.
Shammi Mehra/AFP via Getty Images
In 2001, Haley also listed her race as “white” on her voter registration card, according to The Post and Courier. At the time, a spokesman for her declined to comment and state Republicans suggested the issue was a stunt because it had been uncovered by Democrats, who criticized her as disingenuous.
Dr. Hajar Yazhida, a University of Southern California assistant professor in sociology and faculty affiliate at their equity research institution, told ABC News that being able to have racial ambiguity has had a massive impact for both the vice president and Haley — especially on Haley’s journey. (Harris’ father is Black, from Jamaica; her mother was born in Chennai, India.)
“We might look at Kamala Harris on one side and Nikki Haley on the other and wonder how it is that two South Asian women ended up as political front-runners? But we have to remember that neither of the candidates are socially read as South Asian women,” Yazhida argued.
But Ramakrishnan said even being able to “claim” an identity is something unique to living in the United States — and something that most politicians do in some way: “We all have different aspects of our identity that we activate. … Given the context, people code-switch all the time.”
Haley has seen prejudice — even from fellow politicians.
During a runoff election for a state legislative seat in South Carolina, an opponent published ads referring to her as “Nimrata N. Randhawa” and sent out mailers with her standing with her dad in his turban.
When she was running for governor in 2010, a South Carolina state senator referred to her and then-President Barack Obama with a racial epithet.
Haley has touched on some of the struggles her family faced. “I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They came to America and settled in a small southern town. My father wore a turban. My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a black and white world,” she said at the 2020 Republican National Convention. “We faced discrimination and hardship, but my parents never gave into grievance and hate.”
The NAACP also pointed to then-Gov. Haley’s heritage in 2011 when criticizing South Carolina for flying the Confederate flag at the Statehouse for nearly half a century. In 2015, in the wake of the fatal shooting of nine Black people at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Haley urged the flag to be removed and state Republicans quickly agreed.
Former South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nov. 19, 2022.
Wade Vandervort/AFP via Getty Images
Haley’s politics differ from most in the community
Pomona College professor Sadhwani said South Asians really want to support other South Asians, regardless of party. But the data she has collected on Haley appears to be an exception. “Haley’s unfavorable score is 55{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in our sample,” Sadhwani said. This could be in part because many South Asian people identify as Democrats, data shows
Former President Donald Trump wasn’t able to capture the South Asian vote either — but he tried. In 2019, he held a “Howdy Modi!” rally with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that attracted thousands and filmed an ad where he attempted to speak in Hindi.
That got him ahead with the group — but not by enough. “Trump made inroads among Indian American voters between 2016 and 2020. He still lost the Indian American vote,” said professor Ramakrishnan.
Biden and Harris have focused on South Asians and the Indian community as well, with Biden releasing an agenda for the Indian American community prior to the 2020 election and both him and the vice president including cultural celebrations as part of administration events.
Numbers illustrate how Asian American voters, and Indian voters, can be influential. According to AAPI Data, an organization that publishes demographic data and research, in 2018 there were an estimated 161,000 eligible Indian voters in Texas, 87,000 in Florida, 61,000 in Pennsylvania, 57,000 in Georgia and 45,000 in Michigan.
Major contests in those states, including the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, have all recently been decided by smaller margins.
And the community is fast growing. In the last two decades, for example, the Indian population in the U.S. has doubled to about 4.6 million in 2019, according to the Pew Research Center.
Roughly 70{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of Indian voters in America leaned Democratic as of 2022, according to AAPI Data. That’s more than Latinos but less than African Americans. Some of the reasons include religion, extensive training in science and living in a post-9/11 world.
In one of his most notable — and controversial — promises as a presidential candidate, Trump said he would block Muslims from entering the U.S. At the time, Haley appeared to distance herself from such a policy. Delivering the Republicans’ official 2016 State of the Union response, she said that America should resist following the “angriest voices” and welcome “properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion.”
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley makes Indian bread in the kitchen of the Sis Ganj Gurudwara, a Sikh temple, in New Delhi, June 28, 2018.
Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images
According to AAPI Data, more than three-fourths of Indians and the majority of Asian voters overall voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016, a finding that echoes other exit polling. Haley went on to join Trump’s administration, leaving some in her own community wondering how strongly she felt about what she had said just 12 months before.
Sangay Mishra, an associate professor of political science at Drew University and the author of “Desi’s Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans,” said the vast majority of the South Asian community feels strongly about issues like abortion rights, restricting guns and critical race theory.
“In politics it’s hard to predict how the community will react. But it’s clear it doesn’t align with how she thinks,” Mishra said.
‘An opportunity for Haley’
But can Haley align South Asian donors?
Indian Americans have the highest levels of income in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, a feat that’s often connected to the 1960s when the U.S. specifically engineered a demographic of highly professional immigrants. (Harris and Haley have something else in common that researchers said is powerful — they are byproducts of this era, with both of their parents coming to America around this time.)
An analysis done by The Los Angeles Times a few months into the 2020 Democratic primary race found that despite Indian Americans being a small demographic, they had donated more than $3 million to presidential campaigns — more than people in Hollywood.
Mishra told ABC News he created a list of major bundlers during the Obama administration and the number of South Asian names was a fairly big list compared to the population. “They were overwhelmingly going for the Democratic Party,” he said.
“What has not been noticed is this growth of a segment of Indian Americans who are affluent, and that goes back to the character of the community,” Mishra said.
Data from FiveThirtyEight details just the donations that South Asians made to other South Asian candidates running for House or Senate seats from 2000-2020. The numbers, especially for Democratic candidates, have exploded.
Haley’s former spokesperson Rob Godfrey said he remembered her being embraced by such donors while running in South Carolina. “Members of the South Asian community, members of the Indian community, have always been traditionally Democratic,” he acknowledged. “But when Nikki ran for governor, there was no shortage of support for her from the South Asian and Indian communities because they had a lot of great pride in her candidacy … she very much enjoyed the support of them within the state and they were very generous contributors to her campaign, from New Jersey to Chicago to California to Texas.”
Sadwani said that when it comes to South Asians though, her research showed that the numbers won’t be enough to tip the scale.
Haley’s announcement video, on Tuesday, highlighted her heritage and her optimistic vision of a society unencumbered by racial division.
“I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants,” Haley said in her video, adding: “My mom would always say, ‘Your job is not to focus on the differences but the similarities.'”
Sadwani said that message isn’t for the South Asian community — it’s for everyone else.
“We’re talking more conservative-leaning Latinos, other Asian Americans and even plenty of of non-immigrant voters who are completely opposed to the age old story of the United States being a place that welcomes immigrants and might be disenchanted by the overt racial commentary, the negative stereotypes of a Trump administration, even while supporting many of the Trump-based policies,” Sadwani said. “I think this becomes an opportunity for Haley.”
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The conversation amongst a condition senator and a legislative aide started with a seemingly program discussion about a bill. It abruptly spiraled as the senator allegedly harassed the aide due to the fact she experienced vaccinated her youthful little one, plunging the Senate into a political drama that has divided South Dakota’s Republican Celebration.
The Senate, in which lawmakers satisfaction them selves on a genteel code of conduct as they get the job done from wood desks that have been there for generations, has appeared mostly insulated from the forces roiling the wider GOP.
But even right here, controversy was inevitable as an insurgent brand name of Republicans appear to obstacle the establishment by pushing for hardline stands on social troubles and passionately staking out positions that defy evidence, no matter whether it is from health-related authorities or election officials.
South Dakota is dominated by Republicans, and Gov. Kristi Noem, who is widely noticed as mulling a 2024 White Household bid, has branded it as the country’s most conservative condition. But social gathering tensions have grown in current years.
A contrarian team has received traction in the Property with assistance from activists. The State Freedom Caucus Network, which is hunting to drive politics rightward and disrupt enterprise-as-typical in state Legislatures, including Montana, Wyoming, Illinois, Arizona and Mississippi, has structured in Pierre.
“It’s just sound and fury, it’s blaming every single other, talking smack about every single other — and yet on most of the troubles the concepts are the exact,” said Michael Card, a former Republican formal and political scientist at the College of South Dakota.
Nationally, the GOP has been plagued with very similar strains of controversy. A politician like Rep. George Santos of New York is equipped to maintain office even with lying about his history and going through many investigations into his particular and campaign finances. Previous President Donald Trump remains an energetic and strong pressure. And a handful of U.S. Property holdouts had been emboldened to keep up the range of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Statehouses have turn into fertile floor for nationalized politics, claimed Gerald Gamm, a professor of political science and background at the College of Rochester who has researched point out-level politics.
“Polarization at the point out degree is likely as large today as it’s at any time been,” he explained.
Julie Frye-Mueller, the Republican senator associated in the incident with the aide, is between a group of hardline ideal-wing lawmakers who have clashed with leading Republicans.
The encounter took spot as the aide, who has not been publicly named, was talking about a draft bill in her business office last week with Frye-Mueller and the senator’s spouse, Mike Mueller, who was at the Capitol aiding his wife and later in the week testified in help of a resolution expressing sympathy for people dealing with expenses for the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
Both of those the aide and Frye-Mueller have mentioned their dialogue turned to childhood vaccinations and breastfeeding, but their accounts differ.
According to the aide’s grievance, Frye-Mueller asked if she had vaccinated her youngster. When the aide mentioned of course, the senator pointed her finger and aggressively informed her the little one could have health and fitness troubles or die, according to the complaint.
She also alleged that Frye-Mueller questioned her about breastfeeding. When the aide reported she wished she could breastfeed, Frye-Mueller allegedly recommended that the aide’s spouse could “suck on my breasts” to get milk to come in, the criticism said. Frye-Mueller’s spouse was in the place at the time and “smiled and nodded,” it additional.
Frye-Mueller disputed that account in testimony to a Senate committee investigating the grievance. She stated it was the staffer who brought up breastfeeding. Frye-Mueller said she requested the aide irrespective of whether she preferred advice she experienced been given as a youthful mother, and when the aide claimed sure, she reported, “Have your husband assistance.”
Frye-Mueller claimed she was “falsely accused” and identified as the aide’s complaint “shocking and filthy.” She also framed her responses as an challenge of freedom of speech.
The senator also testified that she questioned no matter if new child babies in Pierre have been acquiring vaccinations and educated the aide about laws that would have eradicated university requirements for childhood vaccinations.
Republicans, who keep 31 out of 35 seats in the Senate, moved decisively and treated the incident as a personnel problem and a serious harassment allegation. The physique suspended her past 7 days, introduced an investigation and on Wednesday overwhelmingly voted to censure her. The Senate also finished her suspension and adopted a report that concluded she harassed the aide.
Senate Republican leaders, who initially held the allegations a solution, confronted backlash from local get together activists, a lawsuit from Frye-Mueller and accusations of political retribution.
All through her Senate testimony, Frye-Mueller even pointed to a Facebook write-up from the Republican Senate Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck about the dying of a spouse and children cat. She alleged it was somehow evidence of a conspiracy that he was utilizing a “dead cat strategy” of drawing focus to some thing stunning to distract media notice from a different story.
Schoenbeck stated he was, in point, referring to the demise of a beloved household pet.
The longtime lawmaker, recognised for putting on Mister Rogers-fashion sweaters and firing colourful insults at proper-wing legislators, has minimal his opinions on Frye-Mueller’s willpower and framed it as a personnel difficulty. Other Republican and Democratic leaders have sought to tone down the political context close to her suspension and pointed out that all but a person Senator voted for her censure.
In the past, having said that, Schoenbeck has identified as Frye-Mueller and other people “wackadoodles” and funded campaigns to unseat them in primaries, with constrained accomplishment.
Noem has also clashed with the suitable-wing lawmakers and previous yr supported a number of strategies to defeat them — yet again, with minimal results.
As her political ambitions extend outside of South Dakota, she has revealed a willingness to concede to hardline conservatives, even so. When Household lawmakers innovative a bill in 2020 to ban gender-affirming health-related processes for transgender minors, she criticized the laws as hoping “to fill parenting gaps with more govt.” This calendar year, her spokesman has voiced assistance for a identical proposal.
“When you have a supermajority, you will always tear you aside,” said Tom Dempster, a previous Republican state senator who remains a near political watcher. “The key program incentivizes extraordinary candidates.”
Back again in Frye-Mueller’s property district, aid for her remains potent. Activists in the Drop River County Republican Get together drafted a resolution backing the senator.
“I’m conservative like she is — she votes the way I would,” said Ken Updike, a neighborhood celebration leader who pushed the resolution. Senate leaders, he mentioned, “are a lot more aligned with Democrats than they are Republicans.”
The South Carolina Gamecocks just two weekends back have been left for lifeless by the nationwide media and, admittedly, some of Gamecock nation. They had lost in blowout vogue to a Florida Gators squad trying to rebuild their method in Billy Napier’s graphic.
Now, the South Carolina Gamecocks are coming off of two straight leading 8 wins against college or university football playoff hopefuls in Tennessee and Clemson. Even though the acquire more than Tennessee was significant, proving they could set collectively a reliable demonstrating above all 4 quarters, the win versus Clemson is even extra important.
This victory arrived from a team that had won seven straight games in opposition to the Gamecocks and, in the same extend, had won two countrywide championships and appeared in the faculty football playoff six consecutive instances amongst 2015 and 2020.
The Clemson Tigers have held a spot around or at the sport’s mountaintop for a number of years. They have been so dominant that even with their apparent deficiencies, they were being predicted by all the television specialists to acquire this football match now.
South Carolina hardly ever listened to all of the unsafe sounds outdoors of their setting up and in its place arrived alongside one another as a crew and conquered two countrywide makes on a countrywide stage for two straight weekends.
So what does this get signify for the lovers? Just after all of the down years, almost everything started off with the close of the Steve Spurrier period and ongoing in the course of the program of the Will Muschamp tenure. Gamecock nation, a fanbase whose name resides with their undying loyalty to the college and its athletic plans, has a soccer crew they can now consider fantastic delight in due to their psychological connection and the success they have demonstrated.
What does this get necessarily mean for the application? Head coach Shane Beamer and his coaching personnel have an offseason wherever they can place to the good results of transfers like quarterback Spencer Rattler and huge receiver Antwane Wells. Moreover, they ended losing streaks from Clemson, Texas A&M, and Kentucky, creating a new air all-around the creating.
Having said that, regardless of what occurs in the bowl match, the crown jewel of this period will be their previous two wins, encapsulating what this program could become if they can uncover more consistency through an whole period.
South Carolina will be a section of the discussion when all higher education soccer begins to glance at teams who could be gearing up to endeavor their cost near the mountaintop in the activity. Buckle up, and get all set for those discussions.
You can adhere to us for upcoming protection by clicking “Observe” on the prime ideal-hand corner of the webpage. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook @GamecocksDigest & abide by us on Twitter at @GamecocksDigest.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Debate around the proposed social studies standards continued Monday in Sioux Falls.
The South Dakota Board of Education Standards hosted its second of four statewide meetings on the proposed standards at 9 a.m. at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.
A total of up to 90 minutes will be allowed for proponent and opponent testimony. More than 200 people attended the hearing and those against the new standards far outnumbered supporters.
Members of the board are: Becky Guffin, Phyllis Heineman, Rich Meyer, Terry Nebelsick, Linda Olsen, Julie Westra and Steve Willard. All members were present in Sioux Falls.
Nebelsick was elected the new president of the board and Guffin is the new vice president.
The board did not vote on the approval of the standards on Monday. That vote will come after the fourth public meeting held in 2023. The next two board of education meetings will be in Pierre on Saturday, Feb. 11 and in Rapid City on Monday, April 17.
After both sides presented testimony, Shannon Malone with the South Dakota Department of Education gave a summary of the submitted public comment. Malone said as of Nov. 18, the DOE has heard 968 public comments on the proposed standards. In total, proponents have submitted 103 public comments, opponents submitted 828 and there’s been 37 neutral comments.
The DOE asked the board for an extra year to implement the proposed standards if passed. The standards wouldn’t go into effect until the 2025-26 school year. Public hearings will continue in 2023.
The board approved the motion for the changes to the implementation timeline. If the social studies are not approved, the timeline will need to be changed again.
Dr. Ben Jones, state historian and state historical society director, gave the untimed rebuttal in favor of the proposed standards. Jones said South Dakota teachers were used in the process of developing the standards along with a wider group of people.
Jones noted the American Historical Association letter and said he was surprised when it came out. Before proponent testimony, Jones said teachers adapted to remote teaching in March 2020 when Gov. Kristi Noem closed schools because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said teachers could adapt to the proposed social studies standards.
“These standards start with the content,” Jones said. “The benefit of content-rich standards are many.” He said it helps close the achievement gap.
Jones said low income students are dependent on schools to provide content. He said young students would be exposed to a wider variety of terms and events through the proposed social studies standards.
“They will be supported by the department for quality implementation,” Jones said.
Opponent testimony
Jeff Danielson spoke first against the proposed standards. The Watertown superintendent was speaking on his behalf and said time investment will shift away from other subjects towards social studies if the standards are passed.
Tanna Stadler, a mother, said the standards ignore factors that improve the learning process. She said early learners would have too much to memorize and students won’t understand what they’re being told to memorize.
“Volume does equal rigor,” Stadler said.
Stadler said the state doesn’t have a good history of funding for K-12 education and she questions if there would be enough funding to implement the new standards.
Eric Toft, a former teacher who lives in Brookings, said the proposed standards will gut the current geographic classes from the current standards. Toft said he worked on the 2015 commission and said the geography of capitals can be easily googled.
He said making connections between places and understanding how GPS works are important for geography classes today. He said world population totals are absent from the proposed standards as well as modern immigration topics.
Brian Wagner, education consultant for the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux Tribes, said all nine Native American tribes oppose the proposed standards. Wagner said Native American religion is not mentioned in the proposed standards. He said how Native American Day was created in South Dakota is also missing.
Ryan Rolfs, the executive director of the South Dakota Education Association, said teachers are busy teaching and can’t speak to the standards. He said SDEA requested a weekend meeting so more teachers could participate without taking paid time off but no answer to that request has been received.
Rolfs asked if the board would listen to educators because they are making their opposition known.
Emily Fink said she is a parent and no one has paid her to speak. She said she has an 8th-grader who would not be considered successful based on the proposed standards.
Emily Fink said she is a parent and no one has paid her to speak. She said she has an 2nd-grader who would not be considered not successful based on the proposed standards. She said they are too complex.
Paul Harens, a retired Yankton teacher and member of the original 2021 social studies commission, said K-12 teachers are not teaching Critical Race Theory in classes.
Harens said the proposed standards don’t allow for debate. Harens said Gov. Noem and Hillsdale College want to use South Dakota as an example.
“The real propaganda is coming from the national GOP,” Harens said.
Michael Amolins said he is speaking on behalf of his family. He said verbs matters and that’s why these proposed social studies standards matter. He said there’s a lack of active learning, applied skills and accountability in the proposed standards.
Robert Hoffmann, a retired teacher, said he is not concerned with the content of the proposed standards but the process of the social studies standards. He said the process has been hijacked by out-of-state, partisan influences.
Shannon Steckelberg, a mother with students in the Harrisburg school district, said she really likes the Harrisburg school system. She said she doesn’t understand why more South Dakota teachers were used to make the proposed standards.
“You must work with those who have experience,” Steckelberg said. “Memorization and understanding concepts aren’t the same.”
Steckelberg said first graders would be required to memorize the preamble and said many first graders don’t understand many of the words in the preamble.
Dr. Stephen Jackson, a University of Sioux Falls history professor and member of the 2021 workgroup, asked why the process of inquiry is left out of the public education standards.
“Inquiry is a significant part of history,” Jackson said. “South Dakota would be the only inquiry-free state in the United States.”
Jackson said he understands there is political pressure on the board but he asked to do what is right by students and oppose the standards.
Clayton Lehmann said he is a history professor and is speaking on his own behalf. He said the proposed standards are backwards looking at facts and findings instead of looking for critical evidence. He quoted the letter from the national American Historical Association, which criticized the proposed standards, saying they would do significant harm to students in the state.
Crystal Groeneweg, a parent and special education teacher, said the proposed standards will take an emotional toll on younger learners as well. She said there will be a bigger need for special education teachers.
Benjamin Daggett, a high school senior in Tea, said there is a teacher shortage and students like him would be driven out of the state because of the standards. He said he wants to teach in South Dakota.
Brianne Bolstad, a teacher in South Dakota and member of the 2015 social studies group, said the proposed standards have too much memorization. She said there’s a lot of violent events expected to be taught at young grades.
Brenda Van Beek, a parent in Harrisburg, said the process hasn’t served South Dakota. She said major changes in complex systems cause many complications. She asked why there needs to be another burden on teachers and mentions how little teachers are paid in South Dakota.
Van Beek said she votes Republican but believes this has been a very bad idea.
Katherine Erdman Becker, a parent, said the proposed standards won’t achieve the intended outcome.
Dawn Marie Johnson said there should be a more inclusive process for social studies standards. She said there’s no Sioux Falls School District representative on the commission and she said she supports a weekend meeting to allow more teachers to attend.
Linda Heerde, a longtime teacher and school board member, said she is speaking on her own behalf. She said she’s heard concerns from parents, teachers and administrators all opposed to the proposed standards.
Kyrie Dunkley, an artist in Sioux Falls, a parent and member of the Indian education committee in Sioux Falls, said she doesn’t support religion or charter schools from out-of-state having influence on the curriculum of public schools in South Dakota.
She also advocated for the expansion of the Oceti Sakowin-based curriculum along with language immersion and a deeper understanding of treaty knowledge.
Kathie Tuntland, a retired teacher and administrator, brought up the American Historical Association letter. She said students won’t be allowed to compete in National History Day sanctioned competitions if the proposed standards are adopted.
Ruth Grinager said she doesn’t like to see South Dakotans lose out on decision making.
Kevin Cole, who teaches at USF, thanked teachers and said he wished more lawmakers had faith in them. He said the standards are objectives and curriculum mandate.
RoxAnn Neeman, a longtime teacher from the Lennox school district, said there’s not enough South Dakota history in the proposed standards.
Proponent speakers
More than 20 speakers spoke in favor of the proposed social studies standards for a total of 90 minutes.
Four people not from South Dakota spoke in favor of the social studies standards. Two were involved with education in Idaho, one was a principal in Colorado and one with the John Hopkins Institute for Education Policy in Maryland.
The first proponent speaker was Aaron Levisay, a member of the social studies standards commission. He referenced JFK’s famous speech about America going to the moon because it is hard. He said people in South Dakota are ready to sacrifice to teach the new social studies standards.
Cole Heisey, a Sioux Falls resident, said he’d like to go back to school to learn what he wasn’t taught and he was impressed by the new standards. He said it will be up to teachers to teach to a curriculum.
Penny BayBridge,a homeschool parent, spoke in favor of the standards and said a TV game show showed there was a shortage in civics. She said children are sponges and want to learn.
Steve Sibson, of Mitchell, said the current social studies standards were written by someone from Wisconsin from a national education organization that supports Critical Race Theory. Sibson said protests in 2020 were more about destroying American history rather than learning from it.
Jon Nash, a recent South Dakota State University graduate, said he wishes he could go back and learn these standards. Nash said he’s been taught there are many things wrong with America. He said K-12 education should teach what is right with America.
Nash said Native American education were just a “blip” in his education and the new standards would allow more Native American history to be taught.
Allen Weate, a former teacher who moved to South Dakota four years ago, said he supports the standards because it requires students to search for truths – bad and good. Weate said the standards do require critical thinking by learning past history.
Janet Finzen, a member of the social studies standards commission and former teacher in Nebraska who lives in Dakota Dunes, said the standards are written with students and parents in mind. Finzen wrote an op-ed in favor the standards.
“No one owns history, but we are all responsible for it,” Finzen said.
Christina David, representing herself, said she was excited to read the standards. She said she is concerned about the protests against the standards. She said her sons switched to homeschool and thrived.
Larry Fossum said he has 16 grandkids in schools and supports the proposed standards. He said there’s a massive disconnect between the Indian reservations and people in other areas of South Dakota. He said it is time to stop focusing on who wrote the standards.
Maggie Sutton, an outgoing lawmaker and substitute teacher, said students need to embrace thinking and to think out-of-the box. She said she’s worried about the public school system.
“We need to teach students not to settle for the norm,” Sutton said.
Stephanie Hiatt, a member of the commission, is testifying via Zoom. She said the committee went over every line of the proposed standards. She said students in Sioux Falls are learning Spanish at the same time as English and the new standards will challenge young learners.
Hiatt said there is more memorization but it helps students build knowledge that will be helpful later in education.
Steve Lambert, a teacher of a classical academy in Fruitland, Idaho, testified via Zoom. He said his school is a Hillsdale K-12 school full of a rich, civics curriculum. Lambert said the Hillsdale curriculum at his school has been successful and the school leads in statewide tests.
Robert Garrow, a principal in Colorado, said his school uses standards similar to the content at his school. He said teachers are more than capable of teaching these standards and students are capable of learning from them.
David Steiner, John Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, said the standards don’t “whitewash or indoctrinate” and noted how hard that is to accomplish. He said South Dakota would have the best social studies standards in the country. Steiner said memorization is also learning by heart.
He said education has given up on content and focuses on the process too much now. He said the social studies standards provide a good bedrock for students to learn and benefit from.
Linda Montgomery, from Fairview, South Dakota, said she has four grandkids and she supports the proposed standards. She said she’s proud her 4-year-old grandkid can do The Pledge of Allegiance.
Jessica Pollema, a Lincoln County resident, said she wants to trust teachers. She brought up a “white privilege test” taught in a Sioux Falls high school revealed during the legislative session last year.
She brought up litter boxes in schools and wondered what is actually happening in schools. She said she wants to set the bar higher in South Dakota.
David Goodwin, President for the Association of Classical Christian Schools in Idaho, spoke in favor of the standards. Goodwin said the standards lay out an excellent timeline.
Karla Lems, a newly elected lawmaker from District 16, said students deserve an honest education and the bar should be set high. Lems said look at how Gov. Noem has been challenged in life and has rose to the occasion. She said kids can also rise the challenge of harder standards.
Sue Peterson, a state lawmaker from District 13, said the submitted written public comments come from paid lobbyists. She said the new standards come from parents and the board should listen to parents over teachers.
9 a.m.
Malone discussed how the process with content standards works.
Malone said the proposed social studies, if implemented, would take time for all teachers to feel comfortable and confident in teaching. The DOE will provide professional development in Summer 2023 and ongoing to build knowledge and capacity to implement the new standards.
Malone said there will be a social studies summit to explore resources available. Malone said there’s more than $800,000 to go towards implementation of the standards.
Laura Scheibe, the division director for college, career and student success with the South Dakota Department of Education, is discussing the standards for Business Management & Administration, Hospitality & Tourism, Marketing, Transportation, Distribution, & Logistics and Capstone Courses.
Ahead of the meeting, more than 800 pages of public comments on the social studies standards have been released.
Many of the comments opposed to the proposed standards center around concern that they are not “developmentally appropriate” for the various grade levels.
The South Dakota Department of Education has released three op-eds in support of the proposed standards. Janet Finzen, a member of the Social Studies Standards Revision Commission who worked on the proposed standards, wrote “complex social studies standards empower students to succeed in school and later in their careers and life.”
Sandra Waltman, SDEA director of communications and government relations, told KELOLAND News in October the proposed standards haven’t changed and therefore the opposition remains from the SDEA and many other education associations and teachers across the state.
Waltman said the main concerns are about memorization, the amount of content and the cost of changing curriculums to match the proposed standards.
There is no current state or federal test that measures how students are learning about social studies in South Dakota. The proposed social studies standards doesn’t change that, but Waltman said part of how public schools are accredited is through aligning with statewide standards.
Johannesburg, South Africa – In December, South Africa’s ruling African Countrywide Congress (ANC) will maintain its elective meeting, and critical provinces have indicated that they will assist President Cyril Ramaphosa’s bid to be re-elected as the party’s chief.
But a private scandal could see him deal with an impeachment vote right before the meeting even can take put.
On June 1, 2022, the former national spy company boss Arthur Fraser filed a criminal criticism versus Ramaphosa, accusing him of revenue laundering and bribery to protect up a February 2020 heist at his activity farm, in which it is alleged that $4m in illicit dollars was stolen.
Ramaphosa subsequently issued a assertion confirming a theft took place at his Phala Phala farm but denying any wrongdoing.
The opposition would like Ramaphosa to reply issues about the scandal. But the president also has to remedy to several investigating companies which include the elite criminal offense-preventing agency, the Hawks, as effectively as the place of work of the General public Protector and the South African Reserve Lender.
In August, Ramaphosa refused to response concerns in parliament associated to the theft and once again reiterated that he desires “law enforcement agencies investigating the situation to be offered the space to do their work”.
On September 9, numerous opposition functions marched to the workplace of acting Community Protector Kholeka Gcaleka to need the launch of a report on the alleged theft.
But whilst legislation enforcement businesses are hectic investigating many elements of the burglary, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has appointed an impartial panel that incorporates the country’s leading judge, previous Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, to carry out a preliminary evaluation on no matter if Ramaphosa must deal with an impeachment inquiry around alleged misconduct related to the theft.
The panel of three persons has nonetheless to commence its evaluation, but will have 30 times from when it commences to report back to the speaker. If the panel recommends impeachment, a particular parliamentary committee then decides no matter if to simply call an impeachment vote in parliament. If at minimum two-thirds of legislators help the movement, the president is to be instantly eradicated from workplace.
Even though the ANC continue to has a parliamentary the vast majority – keeping 230 out of 400 seats – Ramaphosa has enemies in the social gathering, the scandal has brought on a public outcry, and the impeachment approach will very likely be finished ahead of the ANC’s elective conference.
‘Ramaphosa have to go’
In South Africa’s political procedure, there are no direct presidential elections. The leader of the celebration with a vast majority in parliament will become president.
Because the fall of apartheid rule in 1994, Nelson Mandela and Kgalema Motlanthe have been the only presidents not wrested from power.
Former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma were being both of those pressured to resign above allegations of misconduct.
Ramaphosa took office in 2018 immediately after defeating a Zuma-backed prospect in the ANC common elections and pledged to root out state corruption.
He has confronted a hard couple many years, tasked with steering the region through the COVID-19 pandemic as effectively as dealing with significant unemployment, violence and criminal offense, major unrest, crippling electrical power blackouts and inside ANC squabbles.
But the Phala Phala farm scandal now poses the largest risk to his presidency.
The public has been outraged by the scandal, with #RamaphosaMustGo and #PhalaPhalaFarm often trending on social media and protesters calling on him to step down.
Opposition political parties have called for him to move down, with the loudest calls for coming from Julius Malema, a former ANC youth league leader who now leads the left-wing Financial Independence Fighters party.
“Ramaphosa need to know that his times are numbered in that business of the president,” Malema told hundreds of EFF associates at the party’s ninth anniversary celebrations on July 30.
Malema and his EFF have been instrumental in the removal of previous President Zuma by disrupting his addresses in parliament and maintaining calls on him to resign.
Ramaphosa has also confronted dissent from within the ANC more than the Phala Phala farm scandal, with ANC supporters becoming a member of protests and senior get together figures indirectly criticising him or urging him to move apart.
In July, senior ANC politician Mavuso Msimang explained to a radio programme that Ramaphosa “should quickly stage aside as head of condition right until his title is cleared”.
At a collecting in the Eastern Cape on September 18, Minister of Tourism Lindiwe Sisulu criticised politicians who “hoard income under mattresses whilst the country starves”.
In the meantime, at a memorial provider for ANC celebration stalwart Jessie Duarte held in July, Mbeki told mourners that the place could confront an “Arab Spring” design and style uprising if the ANC does not get its dwelling in purchase and build concrete strategies to offer with the country’s several problems – specially the youth unemployment price of 66.5 {515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.
“You are unable to have so several persons unemployed, so several people residing in poverty, faced with lawlessness and faced with corrupt leadership and not count on the predicament to not 1 day explode”, reported Mbeki.
Ramaphosa did not react right away to Mbeki’s criticism, but addressing ANC members at the KwaZulu-Natal convention in July, he claimed the troubles South Africa faces are longstanding.
“[Unemployment] did not start off two yrs back,” he claimed. “We have lived with this issue for a quantity of many years and we have been involved among the social companions on getting or producing steps that we need to consider to address all these difficulties.”
Ramaphosa’s allies have reported that cleansing Africa’s oldest liberation motion of corruption has been unpopular with many in the social gathering, and this is triggering the infighting and calls for Ramaphosa’s removal.
Oscar van Heerden, an author and political commentator who was an ANC member in the 1980s, stated Ramaphosa’s opponents can make lifetime hard for him but are not likely to be successful in winning an impeachment voteas he is still supported by the rank and file within just the ANC, which is also fearful about the 2024 election efficiency and sees Ramaphosa as a safer wager.
Zuma and Mbeki have been only eradicated from office soon after they ended up deposed as leaders of the ANC.
“If Ramaphosa wins the ANC presidency race, which I think he will, the ANC will be far better poised to get the 2024 election,” van Heerden explained.
Benedict Xolani Dube, head of the Xubera Institute for Investigate and Improvement, explained to Al Jazeera that – even though he thinks the nation wants new leadership – Ramaphosa will endure as president due to the fact divisions in the ANC could threaten its electoral possibilities and for the reason that ANC politicians who oppose Ramaphosa still call for his assistance to be nominated in the upcoming election.
“This is the predicament for the ANC and the state: with no him, there is no 1 else to govern,” Dube said.
“[But] we will have to no more time look at the ANC as the messiah who will modify things. We want management in the country.”
Political analyst Levy Ndou told Al Jazeera that if the National Prosecuting Authority provides costs in opposition to Ramaphosa, it could change the complexion of the predicament.
“If there is no proof,” he claimed, “there is practically nothing to stand on and the ANC will keep on to assistance Ramaphosa as suitable now there is no a single else to switch him.”
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