The News: Abandoning their personal attacks, the Republican candidates had their most intelligent and substantive debate of the season in Miami last night. Trump said, “So far, I cannot believe how civil it’s been up here.”

The upcoming Florida primary is live or die for Marco Rubio. We note, because The Rooney Report is coming from Cuba, that Rubio said he would not support normalized relations with Cuba unless it changes its government. Being of Cuban heritage in Miami, he can’t say anything less than that.
>Former candidate Ben Carson is expected to endorse Donald Trump.
>Amid a scandal about how the organization spends its money, the board of the The Wounded Warrior Project has fired its top two executives.
Moors and Christians: Cuban food is a little bland. They don’t use hot spices and very few herbs. They grill their meats — a lot of pork and chicken. The fish tends to be fried and so are the bananas. Tomato, cucumber, and shredded cabbage are usually served on the side. They make great ice cream and the black beans and rice are known as “Moors and Christians.”

Here is an English language menu item: “Fritos bistec, sprout, Tropical, Roasted to the Juice, Fried masses, Beefsteak, Strips or in Creole Sauce.”

Cuba is a little light on vegetables as well. We visited a large urban farm in a suburban area of Havana where they grow a dozen different vegetables from lettuce to tomatoes, parsley, cilantro, peppers, eggplant and more in rich red dirt. It is the most manicured and orderly garden you ever saw.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russians pulled out of Cuba and took their economic subsidies with them. The large plot of land where the garden is now was supposed to be the site of a hospital, but the Cubans couldn’t afford to build it. They made the garden instead.

The garden had to be organic because after the Russians there were no chemical fertilizers are insecticides. They choose plants that are somewhat resistant to bugs and place insect repellant plants nearby. They make their own humus in giant troughs of manure crawling with red worms. The vegetables are sold to people in the neighborhood and the government takes 5 percent.

Despite the deprivations, most services Cuba are free. We visited an old age home in a convent with a large interior courtyard. The elderly are up in the morning and out in the street doing exercises. Then they go inside, listen to lectures, and play dominoes all day. There are elementary school classes in the building and a nursery school for children of the employees. The young and the old are mixed. A member of our group said, “they have so little and choose to do this. We have so much and choose not to.”

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