Former Gov. Charlie Crist made it official Friday: He will run for his old job again in 2014, setting up a potential battle with Republican Gov. Rick Scott for the state’s highest office.
Florida
Florida Blue Says It Never Dropped 300,000 Customers, Only Their Current Insurance Plans
It’s a distinction that some Florida Blue members have a hard time seeing — especially when the new plan costs more and offers benefits they don’t necessarily want. Older, sicker people who had a harder time finding health insurance in the past because of pre-existing conditions welcome the change.
Record 769 Manatee Deaths So Far This Year Represent 15% of Endangered Population
With two months to go in the year, 769 manatee deaths have bee recorded in Florida waters, breaking the previous record of 766 set in 2010. Deaths are blamed mostly on a red tide bloom that started in southwest Florida in September 2012 and that only recently dissipated. Four manatees have died in Flagler so far this year.
Marco Rubio’s Slimy Flip-Flop Against Judge William Thomas
Sen. Marco Rubio is blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge William Thomas to a seat on the federal bench for the Southern District of Florida, even though Rubio himself recommended Thomas to Obama previously.
Too Young for Medicare, Too Old for Medicaid, and Neglected By Affordable Health Act
While most of the uninsured will be able to get subsidized health coverage Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act, the poorest adults under 65 will be out of luck in many states, including Florida. Many are women in their 50s and 60s, too old to have children still at home so they can’t qualify for Medicaid. But they’re not yet 65 so they don’t qualify for Medicare, either.
Sen. Thrasher Headlining Lunch Celebrating Chamber’s Leadership Flagler Graduation on Nov. 15
State Sen. John Thrasher will join the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce and the county’s economic development department as special guest and speaker at the “Think Flagler First” lunch on Friday, November 15 at Pine Lakes Country Club in Palm Coast.
Florida’s Stand Your Ground Deconstructed Before US Senate Panel on Civil and Human Rights
The unusual Senate hearing focused almost exclusively on Florida, featured the mothers of two 17 year olds killed in its name–Trayvon martin and Jordan Russell Davis–and drew a rebuke from Ranking Republican Ted Cruz of Texas, who questioned whether the scrutiny of “stand your ground” was part of a broader “political agenda.”
Sheriff Nick Finch Trial Under Way: He’s Accused of Destroying Documents to Protect a Gun Owner
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation found that Nick Finch on March 8 released a local man who had been arrested for carrying a concealed firearm, a third degree felony, and altered or destroyed corresponding documents. Gov. Rick Scott removed Finch.
Kiss Your Tax-Free Amazon Orders Goodbye: Company’s I-4 Warehouses On the Way
The confirmation by Amazon.com that it will build a pair of massive “fulfillment” centers along the Interstate 4 corridor means that sometime in the next two years Floridians will have to start paying sales taxes on purchases from the online retail giant.
Pantry Alert: Cuts in Food Stamps Benefits Will Affect 3.6 Million Floridians Staring Nov. 1
Florida’s food hardship rate is more than 21 percent, meaning that one in five Florida households reported that in the past year they struggled to buy enough food for the family. The state is one of the hardest-hit for food security.
Attorney General Wants Florida Supreme Court To Bump Off Medical Marijuana Referendum
In a filing required because the group pushing the initiative has triggered an automatic review by the high court, Bondi wrote that the ballot language could deceive voters about the extent of marijuana use that would be allowed, a claim the measure’s proponents reject.
Masking Scott’s Low Approval, Republicans Launch Snide Website Ahead of Democrats’ Convention
In a new twist on rapid response, Florida Republicans today launched a tongue-in-cheek “Florida Dems” website the day before the Florida Democratic Party kicks off its annual convention in Orlando, ridiculing Democrats as the Party of No. Democrats have few answers in kind.
State Rakes In Cash From Seminole Casinos and Rethinks Gambling Landscape
Under the current deal with the Seminoles, which ends in 2015, the tribe makes the payments to the state in exchange for having the exclusive right to offer banked table games, such as blackjack, along with a monopoly on all slot locations outside of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The Seminoles agreed to pay a minimum of $150 million in each of the first two years, $233 million in the third and fourth years and $234 million in 2015.
Rep. Travis Hutson Will File a Bill on Animal Abuse Reporting Proposed by Flagler Students
Florida Rep. Travis Hutson worked for weeks with FPC and Matanzas High students on a mock legislative process that culminated today in a student vote choosing actual bill Hutson will file at the Legislature in the coming session. The exercise gave students direct insights into the legislative process.
FDLE Unsure How 2 Escaped Murderers Forged Papers, Duping Prison and Court System
FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey said Tuesday several suspects have been “targeted” for helping two murderers escape from prison with forged court papers mailed to a clerk of court, but the embarrassing incident is still largely unexplained.
Beyond Rebecca Sedwick’s Suicide: Colleen Conklin Campaigns for More Cyberbullying Awareness
More laws, mandates and prohibitions won’t work, Flagler County School Board member Colleen Conklin says, but more current awareness of the variety of online apps and social sites, where cyberbullying thrives, and more responsibility from both teens and their parents, are more likely to stem a pattern of bullying-induced teen suicides.
Fish and Wildlife Commission’s Lionfish Summit Will Explore Threats to Florida’s Ecology
As the linfish populations’ expansion threatens marine ecosystems in Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is hosting a Lionfish Summit Oct. 22-24 at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront hotel in Cocoa Beach, to determine research and management gaps and to bring together leaders in the lionfish issue.
Congressman Ron DeSantis: A Tea Party Fanatic Who’s Earned His Walking Papers
Ron DeSantis, who represents Flagler County, is not interested in governance. A standard-issue tea party reactionary, he’s a saboteur. He derails, with self-righteous bombast and distortions. He is part of the suicidal extremists willing to plunge the country in default over Obamacare, rather than fight to amend it legislatively. He should pay the price of his recklessness.
Say Farewell to “Antiquated” Highway Call Boxes: Cell-Flush Florida Junks Them
The state Department of Transportation is removing all but a few of the 2,752 push button call boxes from along its highways as personal cell phones have reduced the need for the roadside phones. The removal, estimated to cost around $200,000, has already started.
Florida’s U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, Immoderate Only in Longevity, Is Dead at 82
U.S. Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young of Pinellas County, the longest serving Republican in Congress, was a political icon in the Tampa Bay area and a moderate who had only announced earlier this month that he wouldn’t seek a 23rd term in Congress next year.
Harsh Outlier: Florida’s Sentencing Laws Still Lock Up More Juveniles Than Any Other State
As state legislators have tried and failed to craft a juvenile-sentencing law that conforms to landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings, a national advocacy group is calling Florida a “clear outlier” among states for its hard-line approach to trying juveniles as adults.
Forget Common Core: Here’s a Citizenship Test to Determine Who Can Survive In Florida
Florida citizenship will be granted to all who live through the experience, don’t kill anyone else while doing it and swear to never, ever try to ride a manatee under any circumstances, writes Jim McLellan.
Bowing to Hammock, Thrasher and Hutson Will File Bills to Restore Vacation-Rental Regulations
Sen. John Thrasher and Rep. Travis Hutson made their pledge to repeal the vacation-rental law during the annual legislative delegation meeting in Flagler Wednesday, which drew more than a full house because of that controversial issue. But repeal is unlikely as the 2011 law, which makes it easier to operate a house as a mini-hotel, passed the Senate unanimously, and the House overwhelmingly.
First of Three Common Core Public Hearings Brings Out Raucous Partisanship
The hearings were part of Gov. Rick Scott’s plan for dealing with the politically volatile issue. Scott has already begun distancing the state from a consortium developing tests for Common Core, and has suggested the hearing could come up with ways to amend the academic benchmarks.
Florida’s Rep. Bill Young’s Exit Spurs Battle for Rare Centrist Republican Swing Seat
Bill Young, 82, announced he will not seek re-election to the Florida seat he’s held for more than 40 years. Independents make up nearly a quarter of the voters in the Pinellas County district, considered the only true toss-up, open seat thus far in next year’s congressional races.
The Difference Between Name-Calling and Calling Out Yahoos Holding America Hostage
Steve Robinson angered some people with his last column when he compared tea party Republicans to Know-Nothings. But, he argues, likening the narrow-minded nativist sentiments of that short-lived 19th-century party to the ideals of this current group of ideological fringe-dwellers is really not that far off.
Florida GOP Rep. Dennis Baxley Compares Gay Parents to Drunks and Drug Abusers
Florida’s Dennis Baxley, a Republican member of the Florida House representing the Ocala region, made the startling comparison of lesbian moms to abusers and dysfunctional parents during a House subcommittee meeting on middle school reforms this week.
Flagler’s Teachers Still Waiting on Their $1,900 Raise as District and Union Negotiate Contract
Flagler’s teachers are in the same situation as teachers in 53 other counties where negotiations with unions have delayed the raises. A sticking point in Flagler: the district wants the authority to renegotiate annual “step” raises, while the union wants those step increases to continue to be awarded automatically, as they have been to date.
Senate Proposal Would Bar “Aggressors” From Using Stand Your Ground; Approval Unlikely
Prompted by a national outcry over George Zimmerman’s acquittal this summer in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a Florida Senate committee gave approval to minor changes in the state’s “stand your ground” law. But whether a Legislature dominated by gun-loving lawmakers will ultimately sign off on a bipartisan compromise remains a long shot.
Kathleen Sebelius to Florida Legislature: That $51 Billion Offer Is Still Good for the Taking
Kathleen Sebelius has visited Florida half a dozen times since June, trying to get the word out to the state’s millions of uninsured to sign up for a health plan., but she hopes the Florida Legislature reverses its opposition to expanding Medicaid and accepting $51 billion over the next 10 years.
Assisted Living Facilities Beware: State Looking to Shut Down Unlicensed Operations
A Florida Senate panel Tuesday instructed the Agency for Health Care Administration to draft legislation — fast — that would allow the state to shut down unlicensed assisted-living facilities as quickly as possible.
Should Cops Have Power to Track You in Real Time Through Cell Phones? Court Will Decide.
Grappling with privacy rights amid fast-changing technology, the Florida Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a challenge to police using “real-time” cell-phone information to track a suspect in a drug case.
A Tiff, and Broader Implications, In County’s Hope of Eliminating Voter Voice in Economic Development
In a reflection of government-backed economic development’s dim luster, Flagler County want to eliminate voters’ role in giving local governments authority to extend tax breaks to companies. That proposal led to a clash Monday between government critic Dennis McDonald and Commissioner Barbara Revels.
Fast-Tracking Executions Proves Slower than Expected Under “Timely Justice Act”
The new law designed to fast-track executions in Florida, called the Timely Justice Act, will not spark a flurry of executions after all even as 132 convicts have been certified as being partially “warrant ready” to be killed, perhaps dashing some lawmakers’ expectations.
A Confederacy of Choices: Marketplace Plans Vary Widely In Costs, In Counties And Across U.S.
Consumers shopping in the new health insurance marketplaces will face a bewildering array of competing plans in some counties and sparse options in other places, with people in some areas of the country having to pay much more for the identical level of coverage than consumers elsewhere.
Shutdown Geezers: The Medicare
Generation’s Immoral War on Obamacare
Opponents of Obamacare think that by doubling down on hurting Americans through a shut-down, they might stun them into submission. They must be stupider than they let on. The Affordable Care Act has its issues. Lacking for moral high ground isn’t among them.
Florida Voter Purge 2.0: More Complicated and Cautious, Less Brazenly Discriminatory
The complicated new voter-purge process comes after supervisors scrapped last year’s non-citizen purge — the brainchild of Gov. Scott — after learning that many of the voters flagged by matching the state’s voter registration database and driver’s license records were naturalized citizens. More than half of the voters on the list were minorities.
The GOP’s Shutdown Zealotry: What John Boehner and Yasser Arafat Have In Common
Republicans’ reincarnation of Know-Nothings have let their tea party zealots control them at the expense of the nation’s welfare, and of their own party, argues Steve Robinson, consigning themselves to the dustbin of political hacks.
Bill Filed to Give Henry Flagler His Own Bronze Statue near State Capitol in Tallahassee
State Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, wants a bronze sculpture of Henry Morrison Flagler, who was integral in the development of Miami and Palm Beach–and gave Flagler County its name–to go up in the courtyard between the state Capitol and the Historic Capitol in Tallahassee.
FPL Customers in Flagler Will Again Pay Nuke Surcharge for Plants at Least 10 Years Off
A residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month will pay about $5.5 extra a year, but the cost is part of a broader controversy over a law that allows utility companies to charge customers for power-plant construction that hasn’t even begun yet, and may never be completed.
Shutdown Hits Home: Castillo de San Marcos and Ft. Matanzas Among Parks Off Limits
Starting Tuesday, the National Park Service closed all 401 national parks, including Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National Monuments in St. Augustine, affecting the local tourism economy. Potential foreign visitors’ visas are facing processing delays.
State’s Claim of $40 Million “Potential” Fraud in Early Learning Programs Proves Groundless
A December 2011 report by the state Office of the Auditor General projected that parents with children in school-readiness programs could have used as much as $40 million worth of public-assistance benefits for which they weren’t eligible over a three-year period–a claim that proved wildly inaccurate, but needlessly panicked lawmakers.
Texting-While-Driving Ban Goes in Effect as Do Food Stamps Limits and Other New Laws
An attempt to curb motorists from texting while driving goes into effect Tuesday, along with laws that put limits on funeral protests, late-night massages and the use of tax dollars at strip joints and liquor stores.
Flagler Democrats Will Demonstrate For Obamacare in Front of Health Department Tuesday
The noon demonstration by the Flagler County Democratic Club marks the first day of Obamacare’s insurance exchanges, and protests Florida’s sustained opposition, and various obstacles, to the law, including the prohibition against use of local health departments to make it easier for the uninsured to get coverage.
When Southern Heritage Is a Lost Cause
As surely as their chosen symbols profess a sentimental attachment to an era of racist brutality, Confederate nostalgists insist that what they really pine for is the Old South of country roads, shady front porches and long, lazy afternoons at the fishing hole. Steve Robinson doesn’t buy it.
A Republican Abandons Rick Scott: Paula Dockery and Florida’s Fraying GOP
Democrats now look like a party united compared to the Republicans, Cary McMullen argues, as Paula Docker, one of Florida’s increasingly endangered moderate Republicans, announces her desertion of Gov. Rick Scott’s campaign for re-election.
Bill Would Grant Immunity From Harsh Sentences for Firing Warning Shots
A bill filed by a Polk County lawmaker is intended to address what he called “the negative, unintended consequences” of Florida’s 10-20-Life sentencing law by granting immunity to people who fire warning shots to protect themselves and others. The new bill was filed on the same day that the 1st District Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville woman sentenced to a mandatory 20 years in prison for a shot fired during a domestic dispute in her home.
Appeal Court Orders New Trial for Marissa Alexander, But No Redo on Stand Your Ground
Marissa Alexander, a 32-year-old mother of three, was convicted on improper self-defense instructions to the jury, the court ruled. Alexander was serving a 20-year sentence for shooting a gun during an argument with her abusive husband, against whom she had a restraining order.
Florida Prisoners Will Wash Dishes and Sew Their Own Clothes in Bid to Save Money
Florida’s prisons have a $45.5 million deficit despite shuttering 10 prisons in recent years, so department head Mike Crews is finding new ways to save money, including refusing to replace broken dishwashers and making inmates do the work instead.
Gov. Scott Defends Exiting Common Core Testing In Face of Criticism and Fact-Checks
Scott did not say specifically how he thought tests developed through a state-led initiative could be an instrument of federal intrusion, or cite an example of federal intrusion, as he defended his order to move Florida away from the Common Core testing consortium.