Showing posts with label Chris Cano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Cano. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Chris Cano for Demcratic Progressive Caucus of Florida Board Member


"I would like to announce my candidacy for our state board for the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida.  For those who do not know me as well as others, you can check out my bio below:

Christopher Carlos Cano is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and New Leaders Council Tampa Bay 2016 Fellow.

In his time serving in the U.S. Air Force, Christopher developed many of the core values that he still lives by today. His military career cut short by a knee injury, Chris matriculated to the University of South Florida where he continued his public service, interning in the Florida House of Representatives with House Minority Whip Michael Scionti and later seeking to represent his community in public office as a state representative himself.  Cano has served as the Florida Deputy State Director for Young Adults for the League of United Latin American Citizens and as regional director for Mi Familia Vota in the Tampa Bay area where has worked for the passage of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for undocumented residents.  His final act as a Student Senator at the University of South Florida included the sponsoring and passage of a resolution to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students.  Graduating with a Masters Degree in Public Administration in 2013, public service remains his calling. 

Cano’s post-graduate work includes serving as the Hillsborough County Democratic Hispanic Caucus President and working as an organizer for Charlie Crist for Governor in 2014, United for Care’s Medical Marijuana Amendment campaign in 2015, and overseeing a successful field campaign for the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s race in 2016 which unseated one of the worst Republican prosecutors in the country. Today Christopher spends his days coordinating public policy efforts for the Service Employees International Union’s members. Yet, the reason most people know him is his advocacy work as a founder of the Suncoast Chapter for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). 

Founded in 2014, almost a decade later, Suncoast NORML stands as the largest and most influential marijuana policy group in Florida having worked to make it legal for medical use statewide and collaborating with local governments to adopt decriminalization ordinances while pressuring members of Congress to end cannabis prohibition.  Chris continues to fight for a patient-centric system that will provide safe and accessible cannabis to those who need it.

Throughout his battles both publicly and privately, Christopher’s wife Anais has been a guiding light when things have been at their most tumultuous.  His values have been shaped by a moral compass consistently pointing towards protecting and expanding civil rights and advancing social justice.  His body of public policy work for students, immigrants, patients, and workers stands as a testament to his commitment to progress in America."

~ Chris Cano ~

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

Chris Cano and SEIU Local 500 testified in favor of the HOME Act

Tonight SEIU Local 500 testified in favor of the HOME Act and stood against the legalization of double digit rent increases. Our members and families deserve to live & work in Montgomery County. #RentIsTooDamnHigh

Thank you to SEIU Local 500's Political Coordinator, Chris Cano, for testifying on behalf the thousands of our members at tonight's hearing.

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Congratulations Christopher Cano

"Honored to be selected to serve on NORML's Board of Directors." 
Christopher Cano


Thursday, February 23, 2023

Neo-Fascists target Hillsborough County School Board Members under guise of Parental Rights

Governor Ron DeSantis and his neo-fascist allies are wading into school board races as part of a calculated plan to up-end all the progress made since the Civil Rights movement. Public education has been the core component of social mobility in America. It now stands under attack at every avenue. Whether the efforts to decertify teacher’s unions, remove diversity and equity trainings, or out right erase history with white-washed fallacies, all these multi-pronged attacks serve one ultimate goal, the reversal of progress in America. Progress has been characterized as “Woke” ideology. To understand this fight, first allow me tell you what “Woke” truly means…

For those familiar with the 90s-2000s movie franchise of the Matrix, a dystopian future where artificial intelligences utilize human beings asleep in a virtual reality as batteries in the real world, being woke is to unplug from the artificial reality. Much in this way the moniker of “stay woke” was popularized by young African American scholars in last 20 years as a reminder to avoid falling prey to the artificial realities created by the mainstream media and global political systems. And, somehow right-wing activists and politicians have co-opted and appropriated “woke” as a blanket term to classify any policies which forward diversity, equity, and inclusion. Their long standing war on LGTBQ+ culture has now allowed them to target African American culture and any allies to either group. Gone are the days when political correctness would have right wingers call these folks special interest groups. Political correctness itself is now seen as woke ideology. Where their grandfathers had no problems dropping racial epithets in public speech, now Ron DeSantis and his Moms for Liberty now utilize the term woke in its place. These are dog whistles to a conservative base that fears the progress in America. Years ago I recall the warnings that conservatives were going to begin targeting school board races to reverse the work of desegregation. Now it is clear that they affirm to go much further in controlling curriculum from pre-K to PhD. Fascism in America was always going to be wrapped up in rallying cry for liberty while carrying a cross. This is exactly what DeSantis and his allies intend. To play victim and say their freedom is under attack, that their Christian values are lost in a public school system separated from Church by the State.

Their next target is Hillsborough County. Jessica Vaugh and Nadia Combs, two outstanding school board members are being targeted in this next election cycle by Moms for Liberty for their progressive ideals and desire to keep kids safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Make no mistake, if DeSantis gets his way, Hillsborough County will no longer be a school system that produces scholars that can compete on an international level. We will become a bastion of pseudo-science, fascism, and false history instituted by a regime of his choosing as part of the greater culture war to destroy American progress. Gone are the days when David Duke and Klan are actively working to reverse our hard fought progress, now its Karens claiming their parent rights are infringed upon because their kids have to learn that their grandparents didn’t want to attend integrated schools. I would encourage any human being with an ounce of sanity and the right to vote to get out in this next election and ensure that these Moms for Liberty have several seats, and not ones on the school board.

Christopher C. Cano, MPA, Concerned Tampeño

Chris Cano's Tampa City Council Recommendations

District 1: Sonja Brookins
District 2: Robin Lockett
District 3: Lynn Hurtak
District 4: Bill Carlson
District 5: Orlando Gudes
District 6: Hoyt Prindle III

We need a shake up and a council that will challenge Mayor Jane Castor’s plan to dumpy shitty water with chemicals into our drinking water and a council that will stop her rubber stamp of police misconduct at TPD.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Debate over the legalization of Marijuana in Florida with Suncoast NORML Executive Director Chris Cano

This Thursday, Tiger Bay Club of Volusia County will feature a debate over the legalization of marijuana in Florida between Lobbyist Barney Bishop and Suncoast NORML Executive Director Christopher Carlos Cano.


Friday, January 27, 2023

Mike Tyson meets Chris Cano

Thanks to the Champ Mike Tyson for taking the time to meet with us despite all the red tape. Looking forward to having him on a future episode of The Rotation.


Monday, January 23, 2023

Suncoast NORML Suncoast NORML at SPC/Gibbs Campus

"Join us this Wednesday at the West Community Library in Pinellas County on the SPC Gibbs Campus at 630pm for a free and public workshop on the Health Benefits of Medical Marijuana'" Chris Cano


Sunday, December 25, 2022

2022 Sydney Eastman Courage Award: Connie Burton

Connie deserves the Courage Award for her fearless truth telling. Her exposure of corruption in City Hall and among our CRA’s is vital to our community. She has long been a freedom fighter that the working people of Tampa need.

Chris Cano

Friday, September 9, 2022

Chris Cano: Generations of People


 “Generations of people: Black, White, Latino, Asian, and Natives have sacrificed much so we could be free. Free to vote for our leaders. We have fought wars against foreign nations and even with one another all over this idea that people should be free. And, yet good times make for weak people. Complacency and apathy run amok in a society that is more interconnected and disconnected at the same time. We have forgotten the sacrifices of those who died in battle. We have forgotten the sacrifices of those who were beaten at lunch counters and set upon by K-9s. We take for granted the freedom of the right to choose what we do with our bodies or who we choose to love with our hearts. This election has more on the ballot than changing politicians. This election will determine the future of Freedom in America. So do your part as a citizen, register to vote. Cast your ballot. Let your voice be heard not just by those in the halls of government but by the ancestors who sacrificed so that we may be free.” Chris Cano

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Celebration of Collective Bargaining Rights Rally





"Today it was my honor to MC the Celebration of Collective Bargaining Rights Rally recognizing the Maryland Community College Employees Freedom to Collective Bargain Act becoming law. All community college workers in Maryland now have the right to organize and form a union." Chris Cano

Images by Chris Cano

Friday, May 20, 2022

Betty Reed RIP

"RIP to Betty Reed a true public servant who set an example for all to follow." Chris Cano

Friday, July 31, 2020

Florida GOP Nancy Torchia Riley



Local Republicans complain about the integrity of our Vote by Mail process due to the possibility of Voter Fraud and then the Pinellas County Republican Party State Committeewoman advocates for Voter Fraud.
---
Chris Cano

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Democratic Party Platform Committee votes Down Legalization

Shame on you
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor
Ana CruzOscar Braynon II
Mia Jone and Khurrum Wahid
Yesterday, the Democratic Party’s delegates appointed to their Platform Committee convened to vote on several key issues. One issue of importance was the topic of the legalization of cannabis. The presumptive nominee for the Democrats, former Vice-President Joe Biden, has not been a champion for legalization. Rather, he has adopted a lukewarm stance on the issue. This should come as no surprise to students of American politics. Biden served as a U.S. Senator for over 30 years and VP to Barack Obama for another eight, yet in all that time his record on criminal justice reform remains tarnished by his own support for the prison-industrial complex. He is no paragon of justice. Joe Biden is often credited as the architect behind the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. The ’94 crime bill is frequently reference by social scientists as the driving force behind mass incarceration and the racial disparities in the modern criminal justice system. MORE

Chris Cano
---
"I am disappointed in Congresswoman Kathy Castor’s vote, and in the votes of all those who struck legalization of cannabis from the DNC platform. It stifles progress, discourages voters, and is contrary to what a majority of Democrats want — registered voters and elected officials who ran for President in 2020! What is their rationale here?" Asher Edelson