U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, was in Gainesville on Monday for a special conference examining the impact of climate change on farming practices. She, along with agriculture industry leaders, lawmakers and professors, discussed how climate change is impacting agriculture. Wendy Lin-Bartels, professor at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) and Jim Strickland, owner of Strickland Ranch and managing partner of Big Red Cattle Company and Blackbeard’s Ranch, joined Sundial to talk about the most concerning environmental challenges facing farmers in South Florida and how the federal government is going to take action.
The death of Jeffrey Epstein in a New York jail cell on Saturday and the ongoing investigation into his alleged sex trafficking of young girls across the U.S. has shed new light on the issue of child sex trafficking. A new partnership between PowerPlus Tutoring, a Miami-Dade County nonprofit, and sex trafficking advocacy organization Kristie’s House of ProjectGOLD, is focusing on helping victims by providing important tools for women seeking to escape the world of sex trafficking. The focus of the program is to provide training and education for victims and find new careers. Lizzie Schaul, founder of PowerPlus Tutoring joined Sundial to talk about the new partnership and how it’s changing these women’s lives.
During the month of August, the Sundial Book Club has been reading “Mostly Dead Things,” by Kristen Arnett. The story centers on a queer taxidermist named Jessa-Lynn Morton, who early on in the book finds her father has committed suicide. The book follows Jessa-Lynn’s and her family’s grieving process. This is Arnett’s debut novel and it’s filled with dark humor, heart-wrenching moments and loads of taxidermy. She joined Sundial to talk about the research she did for the book, the reason she focused on grief and how essential it is to do more queer stories.
