Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre had nothing to do with a sadistic postcard-only mail policy at the Flagler County jail when he was targeted by an ACLU lawsuit charging First Amendment violations. A federal judge formalized the final settlement of that lawsuit on Thursday.
police state
Despite Parental Notification Law, Court Finds Room for Teens to Protect Privacy When Seeking Abortion
Florida voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that requires parents to be notified before their minor daughters can have abortions. But an appeals court ruling released Friday shows how far teens can go to challenge the law–and preserve their privacy when seeking an abortion.
As Baker Acting of Children Soars, Flagler School Board Grapples With Perceptions of “Outrage”
Baker Acts involving children in schools has reached 32 so far this year, three times more than last year, prompting one school board member to call herself “outraged” at the police-led manner in which most such Baker Acts are carried out, even with teens and younger children.
Red-Light Cameras Won’t Be Repealed This Year, But Restrictions on Profits May Yet Pass
Red-light cameras’ powerful lobby defeated Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Brandes’s attempt to end the use of the devices, but several proposed restrictions are still moving through the Legislature, such as limiting profits to safety uses and requiring safety studies before cameras can be installed.
Measure to Cut Local Red-Light Camera Revenue Falters as Cities Cry Foul
A lawmaker had initially proposed that the state ban new red-light cameras while reducing the fine from $158 to $83, eliminating the money local governments could collect. The outcry from local governments over his initial proposal to eliminate the money demonstrated that the issue is strictly about money, he said.
Federal Lawsuit Against Palm Coast Code Enforcement Charges Search and Due Process Violations
Linda Thomas, a retired attorney in Palm Coast, filed the lawsuit in federal district court, charging the city’s code enforcement division with violations of the 4th and 14th amendments. Flagler County circuit court in two rulings already found the code enforcement division had improperly and arbitrarily cited Thomas, but the court did not address constitutional issues.
Massive Police Search Just North of Flagler-St. Johns County Line, But Only For Fraudster
That heavy police presence–involving several local and state police agencies–motorists in and out of Flagler County are seeing on I-95, in the area of mile marker 315, is all for a suspect involved in… the fraudulent use of a credit card.
Trouble at the Tampa Bay Times, D.C. Decriminalizes Pot, Mozart’s “Kiss My Ass” Canon: The Live Wire
The Tampa Bay Times is losing readers and money, Orlando gets its first natural gas station, Washington D.C. sees the light on pot, Hollywood, Fla. police has a problem, Sherwin Nuland dies, and Mozart’s potty mouth takes expression in a musical piece.
A 7-Year-Old Girl Is Baker Acted at Belle Terre Elementary; It’s Not Punishment, District Says
The Baker Acting of a 7-year-old girl at Belle Terre Elementary last week, following a report of her allegedly lacerating the dean of students with thumb tacks, is one of three or four Baker Acts of students in the district every month, though they’re usually older. The district defends the Baker Acts as a necessary last resort that addresses underlying issues, and that must not be seen as retribution or punishment.
In an Unusually Brutal Arrest, a Palm Coast Woman Is Charged With Child Abuse Over Minor Pot Possession
Sophia Zhudro, 30, was parked on a quiet, residential street in Palm Coast’s B-Section when she was detained, then arrested and charged with child abuse because deputies found a small amount of marijuana in her car (near in in the child seat). Zhudro’s traumatized child was forced out of her arms by four deputies and turned over to DCF.
Rarely Punished, Guards May Be Responsible for Half of Sexual Assaults in Prisons and Jails
The federal report is based on data from all of the nation’s federal and state prisons as well as many county jails. It shows more than 8,000 reports of abuse each year between 2009 and 2011, up 11 percent from the previous report, and extremely rare prosecutions.
He Won’t Give Up: Scott Taking Drug Testing of State Employees to U.S. Supreme Court
Lawyers for Scott filed a petition this week asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled against across-the-board drug testing, but various groups blasted the Scott administration for continuing to pursue the drug tests. They pointed to repeated past rulings against such drug testing.
Proposed Law Would Halt New Red-Light Cameras and Cut Fines By Half to End Profits
Besides no longer allowing municipalities and counties to install red light cameras after July 1, the proposal would cut fins to $83 and allow local governments to impose only a $25 surcharge on tickets to fund the existing systems, which would be allowed to continue. That would lower Palm Coast’s and its private provider’s take by two thirds, likely rendering the system too expensive to run.
Gov. Scott Now 0-For-4 on Drug-Testing as Federal Judge Harshly Criticizes Violation of Welfare Recipients’ Rights
In a harshly worded, 30-page opinion, the judge concluded that “there is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied.”
Florida Loses Out on FAA Drone Testing In Latest Blow to Kennedy Space Center
Space Florida’s $1.4 million proposal wasn’t among the six chosen Monday by the Federal Aviation Administration to develop technologies so drones could share airspace with existing traffic.
Your Backpack Please: Florida Appeal Court Rules Legal Search Based on Anonymous Tip
A high school student who took a loaded gun to school argued that the search of his back-pack, based on an anonymous tip, was illegal. A 2-1 ruling of the Third District Court of Appeal disagreed.
Pam Bondi’s Pot Problem
It’s a matter of time before marijuana is legalized, for medical uses or not, even in Florida. But Attorney General Pam Bondi is doing her best to preserve a prohibition that relies on disinformation to benefit cops and jails at the expense of greater safety, less crime and more compassion, were marijuana to be legalized.
Justices Skeptical of Red-Light Cameras as Supreme Court Hears Case Affecting Palm Coast
With one insistent exception, Florida Supreme Court justices on Thursday strongly questioned the legality of city ordinances that permitted red-light traffic cameras that spread around Florida before 2010, when the state standardized those systems. Cities like Palm Coast may have to refund fines should the court rule against the local ordinances.
Palm Coast Getting Fleeced of Red-Light Camera Dollars, Harming Local Economy
In September, the 43 red-light cameras in Palm Coast generated $255,740 in fines, what would work out to an annual total of $3 million. The state and ATS, the private company running the system, took more than seven times the revenue share left Palm Coast, which means that the overwhelming majority of the money is leaving the local economy.
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.
Rebecca Sedwick Suicide: Two Middle School Girls, 12 and 14, Arrested on Aggravated Stalking Charges
12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick’s suicide in Lakeland on Sept. 10 was the latest of a growing list of children taking their own life after being maligned, threatened and taunted online, mostly through a new collection of texting and photo-sharing cellphone applications.
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.
SWAT Team Deployed Again–For Minor Drug Arrest on Palm Coast’s Pine Grove Drive
Two young children and a middle-aged woman were detained while, for the second time in four days, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday deployed its SWAT team to serve a warrant on a suspect later charged with possession of marijuana, cocaine, and prescription pills without a prescription.
Legislature Considering Tougher Crackdowns on Sexual Predators in Wake of New Findings
DCF has been recommending fewer and fewer sex offenders for confinement, with the number falling from a high of 228 in 2000 — two years after the law went into effect — to a low of 19 in 2012.
FDLE Lays Down Florida Capitol Garrison Rule to Avoid Repeat of Summer Protests
Under the proposal by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, members of the public would be expected to leave the Capitol building by 5 p.m. each weekday or within 30 minutes of the end of public meetings. Capitol police could arrest for trespassing anyone who didn’t leave when they were told.
Banned in Flagler, Welcomed in Prisons: Corrections Reverses Cigarette Prohibition in Work Camps
Corrections officials quietly reversed a blanket ban on tobacco at prisons this summer and are now allowing inmates at work release centers to have up to 10 packs of cigarettes each–just as Flagler County readies to ban smoking among new employees.
Sheriff Trumpets Bi-County Synthetic Pot Bust, But Inaccuracies About “Epidemic” Abound
Some 80 cops fanned out Thursday in Flagler and St. Johns to arrest 11 individuals allegedly involved in the synthetic pot trade, charging five of them under the severe racketeering law, but in an orchestrated news conference at the sheriff’s office in the afternoon, officials inaccurately hyped the synthetic marijuana problem with little evidence to boot.
Lawmakers File Bill to Prohibit Red-Light Cameras in Florida as Palm Coast Snaps On
GOP Sen. Jeff Brandes blames red-light cameras “as backdoor tax increases,” but the Palm Coast City Council Tuesday reasserted its commitment to its 43 cameras even as they siphon out more than $3 million a year from the local economy–in taxes to state government, and in revenue to ATS, the Arizona-based company that runs the system.
In a First, Flagler County Will Prohibit Legal Tobacco Use On and Off the Job For New Hires
It is the first time a local government has made new employment conditional on the prohibition of use of a legal substance, though numerous governments and private employers are increasingly taking the same approach, and Palm Cast and the school board may soon hop on board.
Supreme Court to Hear Red-Light Camera Challenge in Case That Will Affect Palm Coast
The $1.7 million Palm Cast reaped in red-light camera fines between 2008 and 2010 may be at stake if the Florida Supreme Court rules such systems illegal after it hears the much-anticipated case on Oct. 8, with ramifications for numerous cities and counties across the state.
Not So Fast Missy: How a Protester Exposed an Undercover Cop
When the author first met her four years ago, she couldn’t have known that the small-framed woman with spiky brown hair and intense eyes was anything but a fellow activist showing up for a protest in Washington, D.C. She turned out to be an undercover cop ordered to secretly spy on peaceful protesters, violate their freedom of speech and assembly, and disregard their right to privacy.
Yet Another Florida Brutality: Black, 60, Unarmed, and Shot 15 Times By Cops
Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan has been defending the bizarre July 27 shooting of Roy Middleton by his deputies, which is currently being investigated by the state and has been the subject of protest by civil rights groups in the area.
Palm Coast Sours on Traffic Cameras, Calling Fines “Outrageous,” “Overkill” and “Unfriendly”
In a surprising and radical shift, Palm Coast City Manager Jim Landon used harsh words to describe the city’s red-light camera program, saying that while the system makes intersections safer, its harsh punishments are out of proportion with the crime, and Palm Coast’s drivers–and the city’s image–are suffering as a result. But he is less clear on how to improve the system, which he does not want dismantled.
Selective Memory Surveillance: Obama, the NSA and September 11
Those making the argument that the NSA’s domestic spying program would have stopped the 9/11 attacks had it been in place have ignored a key aspect of historical record, including the fact that USA intelligence already knew the identity of a hijacker long before the attack and could have found him.
Memo to the NSA: You Have One of 725 Domestic Steve Robinsons Spooked
Our own Steve Robinson discovers not only that there are 724 other Steve Robinsons in the country, but that with the NSA tapping into every Tom, Dick and Harry’s computer histories, the pasts of shadier Robinsons, if not his own pot-luck history, could short-circuit his own.
Palm Coast Pledges to Stick to $158 Red-Light Camera Fines and Tackle Vanished Payments
The Palm Coast City Council will forego adopting steeper fines, of up to $408, for red-light camera tickets, but it has yet to find a solution to a problem particular to the city: the large number of people who pay their tickets but whose payments appear never to register with ATS, the company managing–and profiting from–the system, causing drivers headaches and additional costs.
NSA Black Holes: 5 Things We Still Don’t Know About Spy Agency’s Snooping
The FBI and the National Security Agency have been collecting Americans’ phone records en masse and the agencies have access to data from nine tech companies. But secrecy around the programs has meant even basic questions are still unanswered. Here’s what we still don’t know:
Florida Appeal Court Approves Weekly Check-Ins for Homeless Sex Offenders
In a case that may have ramifications beyond the Florida Panhandle, where it originated, a state appeals court Monday approved a Bay County Sheriff’s Office policy that requires homeless registered sex offenders to report by 10 a.m. each Monday about where, through a detailed log, they expect to spend the next seven nights.
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Scott’s Drug-Testing of State Workers as Too Broad
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declared an executive order by Riock Scott to drug-test 85,000 state employees and all job applicants as mostly unconstitutional, but left room for a lower court decision to be rewritten to allow for certain employees in certain categories to be drug tested–essentially restoring Florida’s drug-testing standard to what it was before the governor’s executive order.
Surveillance Drones Give Germans Bad Memories
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn wants to police its rail yards with tiny drones to fight graffiti, triggering a debate in a country where clandestine surveillance is a strongly emotional issue. Florida banned police surveillance by drone this year, absent a warrant.
Rediscovering Color, Palm Coast May Relax Restrictions on Homeowners’ Paint Schemes
Palm Coast isn’t about to go Miami Beach, but the City Council approved going ahead with a plan by the Flagler Homebuilders Association and its own administration to broaden allowable colors homeowners may use to paint their own houses, a restriction that has often vexed newcomers unused to a city government controlling private property to that extent.
Palm Coast Mayor Netts Would “Violently Protest” Raising Red-Light Fines From $158
New legislation gives local governments like Palm Coast authority to raise red-light camera ticket fines to $408 if a drivers contests the ticket and loses. Netts’s opposition signals a slight but discernible shift in the mayor’s thinking about red-light cameras.
Matanzas High Student Allen Brown Tasered After Allegedly Punching Student and Deputy
Matanzas High student Allen Brown, 18, was Tasered by a Flagler sheriff’s deputy Monday after being involved in a fight with a 15-year-old student and allegedly punching the deputy, in the first use of a Taser on a Flagler school campus in six years.
The IRS’ Nonprofit Dysfunctions: A Problem Deeper Than Conservative Targeting
The IRS division responsible for flagging Tea Party groups has long been an agency afterthought, beset by mismanagement, financial constraints and an unwillingness to spell out just what it expects from social welfare nonprofits, former officials and experts say.
President Barack Aux Scandals
The Benghazi story is a bogus scandal. IRS targeting of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s hacking of reporters’ phones is not. The Obama presidency is getting derailed, and that’s without going down the path of even more serious scandals Washington and the electorate are accepting as business as usual.
Red-Light Camera Fines May Go Up to $408 and Be Harder to Fight Under Newest Rules
A new law awaiting Gov. Scott’s signature returns hearings to the control of local governments that have red-light cameras, such as Palm Coast, and allows them to impose an additional fee of $250 on top of $158 tickets, when contested, among other changes.
Stop-and-Frisk in Bunnell Turns Into Brawl With Officers, and Threats of a “Hit”
Theodore Moore, 25, was observed by a Bunnell cop allegedly trespassing–near Moore’s home. The cop briefly pursued Moore and handcuffed him, finding a gun and contraceptive pills on him as Moore resisted his arrest and dared cops to Tase him as a crowd gathered in South Bunnell.
Militarizing the Border: Where Those Billions for More “Security” Will Go
The U.S. spent nearly $18 billion dollars on immigration enforcement agencies last fiscal year, more than all other law enforcement agencies combined. Where would another $4.5 billion go? Here’s a closer look at what is being proposed, and how the government has spent (and often wasted) border money in recent years.
Ahead of National Police Week, A Sheriff Remembers That Knock at the Door
Commemorating National Police Week in May, Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre remembers his first memory of law enforcement, when he was 7 years old and a police officer knocked at the family home’s door to report his father’s accident with a drunk driver.
Police Drones Are Banned from Florida Skies Absent a Warrant or Other Exceptions
The bill (SB 92) prevents law enforcement use of drones unless a judge has issued a warrant, or in cases where there is a “high risk of terrorist attack,” or a case of imminent danger, such as in a missing person case where the person is thought to be in immediate danger.