Basketball superstar LeBron James' new voting rights group is donating $100,000 to help pay fines and fees for ex-felons in Florida so they can register and vote.
More Than a Vote was founded in June by the Los Angeles Lakers' small forward and other current and past basketball stars including: former NBA player Jalen Rose; Sklyar Diggins-Smith of the WNBA; and young NBA phenom Trae Young.
In 2018, voters in Florida overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative restoring voting rights to convicted felons who had served their terms. But the GOP-controlled Legislature passed a bill, signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, that required ex-felons to pay all of their outstanding fines and fees before being allowed to vote. They argued that paying these fees and fines constituted completion of their sentences.
Opponents said requiring people to pay fees and fines was equivalent to the poll taxes that had been used to block Blacks from voting in the South after the Civil War.
Udonis Haslem, a former teammate of James' and a member of More Than a Vote, said the fees and fines are "a barrier we all have to come together and break down together" in a video posted on the More Than a Vote Facebook page.
The group is calling on others to donate to pay the fees and fines through the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition.
A federal district judge in May struck down the law requiring fees and fines be paid before voting rights would be restored. The state appealed and earlier this month the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request from DeSantis to put the trial judge's decision on hold until the full appeals court could hear arguments on Aug. 18.
An estimated 1.4 million Floridians could be eligible to have their voting rights restored. There are no hard numbers, but ex-felons in Florida owe upward of hundreds of millions dollars in fines and fees.
In announcing the donation, a news release from More Than a Vote indicated that more announcements about the group's partnership with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition would occur in the coming weeks.
One already announced: James' group will host public screenings of "John Lewis: Good Trouble," with the proceeds going to the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition fund.
The coalition already has raised a total of $1.8 million toward a goal of $3 million.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."