Thu 11 March, 2010
Tribune: U.S. Senate's Medicaid funding vote will help Florida balance budget
Herald: Grand jury probing Jackson Health System
When we are eating Martini doesn’t beg at the table for food. He isn’t even aware of the concept. But last night while we were eating dinner he silently went into the bedroom, got one of his favorite toys and brought it into the kitchen. We glanced over to one of the area rugs in the kitchen to see this little dog sitting patiently with his toy. It was his silent reminder that we might have more fun if we played with him instead of eating dinner.
Did we play with him and his toy after dinner? We sure did. How could anyone resist such a sweet silent suggestion?
Did we play with him and his toy after dinner? We sure did. How could anyone resist such a sweet silent suggestion?
A bill that state lawmakers say will create a "culture of conservation" and potentially help douse Georgia's water war with Florida and Alabama is all but a done deal.
Momentum is building for a measure that would ban text messaging while driving, but legislators are still ironing out just how far the proposed law should go.
Jeb's son: 2012 run by dad unlikely
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The eldest son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said in a North Carolina political appearance that he doesn't expect his father to make a run for president in 2012.
Florida matched its highest-ever unemployment rate in January at 11.9 percent with 1.1 million Floridians out of work.
Government meetings have to be open to the public, but that doesn't mean citizens have a right to speak at them, a Florida appeals court ruled today.
For many California areas, unemployment rates moved persistently higher in January, indicating that the national economic recovery hasn't yet translated into jobs for the Golden State.
The House Wednesday passed legislation aimed at prodding lenders to forgive Haiti's $1 billion-plus in loans. The measure came as Haitian President Rene Preval left a series of meetings optimistic about getting direct US aid to his government. But warns...
Gov. Charlie Crist used the taxpayer-funded state plane Wednesday for a four-city media blitz that promoted a pro-business initiative but ended with a Miami campaign fundraiser. The ceremonial bill-signings that took him from Tallahassee to Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers and...
With lawmakers questioning its future, a top official with the Department of Juvenile Justice made assurances Wednesday that change is coming to the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.
Kim Rothstein, the wife of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, was sued in federal bankruptcy court Wednesday by a team of attorneys trying to recover more than $1 million from the purported shopaholic.
As a bill banning the sale and trade of Burmese pythons and other invasive reptiles came up for a vote at a House committee hearing Wednesday, sponsor Rep. Trudi Williams made a mockly stern request: ``No hissing, members,'' the Fort Myers Republican said.
The statement
"Florida's new fingerprint identification system is improving our rate of solving cold cases by 300 percent."
Firing teachers. Gambling. Banning dangerous reptiles and texting while driving. Today will feature a grab-bag of legislation in the second week of the Legislature's 60-day lawmaking session.
House Republicans muscled a ban on the public release of 911 calls through its first obstacle Wednesday, stacking a committee to ensure passage.
Miami accountant Lewis Freeman, who for years garnered the reputation of a trusted civic leader, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal fraud charge alleging he embezzled at least $2.6 million from client trust accounts over the past decade.
With Jackson executives using end-of-life terms like ``death spiral'' and ``insolvency'' and a grand jury starting to investigate the public health system's problems, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez said Wednesday he would help get Jackson get a short-term loan but demanded its governing body speed up a decision on a recovery plan.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture increased its Florida orange crop forecast for the 2009-2010 season by 2 million boxes today. The state's commercial growers are expected to produce 131 million 90-pound boxes of oranges.
An Italian man who allegedly served in a key supporting role for the Sicilian mafia's criminal expansion into the United States was arrested at his Miami Beach home Wednesday morning on federal money laundering and other charges.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Gov. Charlie Crist's grand plan to revive the dying Florida Everglades by buying back the land, a key part of his legacy, could be on the cusp of collapsing and dealing another blow to his Senate hopes.
Gov. Charlie Crist used the taxpayer-funded state plane Wednesday for a four-city media blitz that promoted a pro-business initiative but ended with a Miami campaign fundraiser.
Meteorologists are predicting an active 2010 hurricane season with above-normal threats on the U.S. coastline. Hurricane Forecaster Joe Bastardi, with the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center, said Wednesday that he predicts seven landfalls. Five will be hurricanes and two or three of the hurricanes will be major landfalls for the U.S.
First, thanks for all the nice responses to yesterday's QotD. It's interesting to see where people come from -- especially from sites I didn't know had heard of this little blog -- and why they stick around. So that leads -- sorta -- to this:
How many blogs do you read on average daily? (And feel free to recommend some for the BBWW blogroll.)Probably twenty or thirty with great regularity, mostly as a lurker. I know that's not a lot, but I have a full-time job that precludes browsing during working hours, and when I get home at night, I'm not really inclined to read much on-line.
In requesting resignations from three top administrators in Hillsborough County, HCBOCC Chair Ken Hagan wrote an open letter to the community. I couldn’t find a cut & paste of it, so if there are any typos, they might be mine (the incorrect date is his):
March 9, 2009
OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY
As Chair of the [...]
Times: Crist's grand Everglades deal under assault
Times: PolitiFact: Fingerprint matches increase, but not arrests as Crist claims
Times: Crist combines bill signing tour on state plane with campaign stop
Post: Late results, fouled cartridges hampered Tuesday's Palm Beach County election tallies
Sentinel: Florida bill would curb kids' tanning-salon use
Sentinel: Teacher merit-pay plan passes key Florida Senate committee
Sentinel: Critical vote today for Everglades restoration
News Herald: Florida House, Senate differ on budget plans
Herald Today: Rep proposes hiring preference for Floridians
Tribune: Canady picked to lead state Supreme Court
Tribune: Crist's Everglades plan, like Senate campaign, in precarious spot
Tribune: Crist, Rubio trade zingers in GOP Senate race
Post: Senate panel passes GOP bills requiring teacher merit pay, new grad standards
Ledger: 911 Dispatch Recordings Secrecy Bill Clears House Panel
Ledger: Florida Ban on Texting and Driving Gets Going
Ledger: Charlie Crist Attacks Marco Rubio's Conservative Credentials
Ledger: Unemployment Worsens in Polk; Joblessness Rises to 13.3 Percent in January
Sun: Gainesville-area jobless rate rises to 8.9 percent
Schools pinching pennies as Fla. hashes out budget
Sun-Sentinel: Legislators from Broward advance plan to create corruption investigator
Sun-Sentinel: Giant African snails smuggled into Florida for use in religious ritual, authorities say
Times-Union: With a huge lead in Florida polls, Rubio dazzles crowd
Court: Citizens don't have right to speak at government meetings
DBNJ: Proposal puts restrictions on teen drivers
DBNJ: History of death, drugs haunts former child abuse investigator
DBNJ: Local jobless figures break record
Democrat: Insurance execs address Senate budget planners
Democrat: Fla. jobless rate at 11.9 percent
Democrat: Committee votes 8-5 to pass 911 bill
Democrat: County sees 'glitches' with FCAT program
Herald Tribune: Everglades dreams elude Crist
Herald Tribune: State lawmakers signal an easing of insurance controls
Herald Tribune: Region's unemployment rate hits high mark
PNJ: Appeals court rejects public comment time
PNJ: 1.1 million people unemployed in Florida
Herald: Suit tries to recover $1M from Scott Rothstein's wife
Herald: Crist defends his tour on state plane
Herald: House panel approves ban on release of 911 calls
AP: Jeb's son: 2012 run by dad unlikely
Herald: Push for clampdown on exotic-reptile trade
Times: Florida receiving $61 million for jobs stimulus program
AP: Fla. gov fights for Everglades amid US Senate race
I've noted this before, but it's a good point and John Cole does it very succinctly.
When did the Republicans become such whiners? Was it always this way, because right now the entire party seems to be based on a perpetual whine. The elitists don't like us. The media is unfair. The Democrats aren't being bi-partisan. They want to force gay cocks down our throats. They want to raise my taxes. Jon Stewart was mean to Marc Thiessen. Katie Couric asked mean questions.He was speaking specifically about Chief Justice John Roberts and his petulant tantrum about being criticized in public by President Obama. The answer to John's point is that this is what they do. And as Steve M notes, it works.
On and on and on and on. Nothing but grievance after grievance building into one long sustained whine....
It works because it solves a problem in modern politics, one that affects both parties: what do you do to sustain the loyalty of a large number of ordinary American voters when you either can't improve their lives (because your fat-cat donors won't let you) or won't improve their lives (because you actually agree with the notion that helping fat cats is the proper way to govern)?It is the easiest thing in the world to do, too. They're not responsible for the terrible state of the world; someone else is, and boy, they'd better do something about it. So you win an election, get into office, run the country into the ground to the point that they throw you out, then spend the next cycle whining about how crappy things got -- for which you bear full responsibility -- and demanding that someone else fix it. What could be simpler? They don't even have to work hard to find the people to blame: The Gays, the brown people, the immigrants, the women with their uncontrollable uterus; they're all out there conspiring against them. Then once they get back into office, they don't do anything about what they were complaining about in the first place. But that was never the idea, anyway; they just want to win the election.
Well, if you're not going to make voters happy by doing anything for them, you can at least show them you feel their pain. Democrats do it by campaigning on some variant on New Deal-ism -- which they then abandon as soon as they're in office. Republicans? They show they feel voters' pain by whining about political and cultural insults -- which is just what their base voters do. And that's something they can do every day, even as they're failing to improve the lives of the people who voted for them. Their voters love them for it. And Democrats don't have anything like it.
Jon Stewart did an extensive interview with Marc Thiessen, the former speechwriter for George W. Bush, Washington Post columnist, torture enabler, and defender of witch-hunting. It's in three parts, and it's a scary insight into the bland and blase mindset of the people who ran this country for eight years and didn't really seem to think that screwing over the rule of law and the Constitution was all that bad.
Frankly I admire Jon Stewart for keeping his cool and not climbing over the desk and showing him his own version of enhanced interrogation. And I also wonder why such a good interviewer is working on Comedy Central while the Village People like David Gregory are doing Meet the Press. Oh, that liberal media.
Frankly I admire Jon Stewart for keeping his cool and not climbing over the desk and showing him his own version of enhanced interrogation. And I also wonder why such a good interviewer is working on Comedy Central while the Village People like David Gregory are doing Meet the Press. Oh, that liberal media.
Getting better -- 31 states added jobs in January.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed a bill giving $140 billion on tax breaks and aid to the unemployed.
Florida's unemployment rate is at a 35-year high.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks they're very close to a healthcare deal.
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and his affairs are back in the news.
Monica Conyers, the wife of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), is going to jail for bribery.
The House passed a ban on those fake census forms that political parties use to raise money.
Kansas City public schools are in deep trouble.
A grand jury is looking into the collapse of the Jackson Health System.
R.I.P. Corey Haim.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed a bill giving $140 billion on tax breaks and aid to the unemployed.
Florida's unemployment rate is at a 35-year high.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks they're very close to a healthcare deal.
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and his affairs are back in the news.
Monica Conyers, the wife of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), is going to jail for bribery.
The House passed a ban on those fake census forms that political parties use to raise money.
Kansas City public schools are in deep trouble.
A grand jury is looking into the collapse of the Jackson Health System.
R.I.P. Corey Haim.
Marco Rubio has a two-to-one lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in the Florida Republican primary for the Senate.
The numbers: Rubio 60%, Crist 26%. This is nearly identical to yesterday's survey from Public Policy Polling (D), which put Rubio ahead by 60%-28%. The TPM Poll Average puts Rubio ahead by 56.2%-28.9%.Yeowch.
InsiderAdvantage CEO Matt Towery told the Florida Times-Union: "I can tell you that I'm in shock because I was convinced that other pollsters were using some sort of system to strain for ultra-Republicans or something that was skewing the polls to the conservative side."
March 11th, 2004, Madrid
Nuestros profundos condolencias en vuestra perdida.
Todos somos Madrileños.
M-11
BBC In Depth
Wed 10 March, 2010
SurrogatesA 2009 science fiction film, based on the 2005–2006 comic book series of the same name.
Directed by Jonathan Mostow, it stars Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell.
Great Si-Fi!
So much for former Gov. Jeb Bush's low political profile. He's become an endorsement machine in recent weeks -- Alabama gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne, Florida House candidate Matt Gaetz, Ohio gubernatorial candidate John Kasich and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker,...
Greetings good citizen,
A rift of epic proportions divides our nation with most of us occupying the ‘middle ground’, knowing what needs to be done but fearing to go there.
We are staring at a similar choice faced by our grandparents during the last Depression, most of us hoping we won’t need to choose.
At what price peace, good citizen? Can we afford to ‘turn the other cheek’, to let the vainglorious others have their way, so long as the superficial ‘domestic tranquility’ is maintained?
Our grandparents ‘settled’ for ‘half a loaf’. They got peace and most of the social protections they had sought (and fought for) for so long.
I believe that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the purest fiction ever devised. And when I say "pure" I mean that it is centered directly and wholly in the genre of fiction. Most stories wander into poetry from time to time, and dance rhythmically around in the domain of drama. But Alice in Wonderland is fiction, pure fiction.
My test for this is translation. Translation is a trial by fire for any work of art; translation is the Darwinian test. A novel that can be translated into drama, into film perfectly or even near-perfectly, no longer needs to exist. It has evolved into a preferred form, a form more likely to survive in our current cultural ecosystem.
My favorite examples: Breakfast at Tiffany's. Midnight Cowboy. In both cases the book is better, but in both cases, for most people, the movie is good enough.
These two novels were replaced in our cultural consciousness by the movies made from them because at their hearts both stories are dramas about characters and events.
To me, "pure" fiction is distinguished from dramatic fiction or prose-told drama by its uncompromising allegiance to ideas. A fiction will violate all good dramatic standards of character and plot and sense itself to communicate its ideas.
Most everyone knows that Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson was a mathematician, and I think this recent NYTimes Op-Ed does a great job of explaining to we lay-people how Dodgson's Alice wandered through a wonderland of ideas -- of mathematical concepts he brought to life through fiction.
There are have been more than two dozen attempts to turn Alice into a film, and while some have had more impact than others, none has ever threatened to replace the fiction, the prose as Dodgson wrote it. I believe none ever will: because film shows drama, and this story doesn't dance in dramaland, it frolics in fictionland, Wonderland, the land of questions unanswered, the land of nonsequiturs more true than sense, the land where ideas and concepts and abstractions come to life.
The single most amazing thing about mathematics is that, while the world of numbers appears to be entirely man-made, math describes our real, actual, natural world better than anything else. One, two, three, four -- these neat, discrete units of precise size and order are themselves ideas and ideals (in the platonic sense), concepts, abstractions. And yet: everything around us can be described through these strange little creatures that seem very much to be an invention and yet indicate at every turn that they are instead a discovery of something fundamental and (literally) universal.
It seems that the more dedicated we become to describing the world in terms of empirical fact, the more necessary these abstract ideals become. And it seems that the deeper we go into the misty magic land of these numbers themselves, the closer we come to that everyday complexity that seems to belie the cleanliness of a mathematical approach.
Consider the art of Nathan Selikoff: I've been considering it for days, ever since I met Nathan at an artists' workshop last weekend.
You're looking at "Chinese Warrior," a fraction of a much larger work, called "Faces of Chaos." Selikoff produced numerous images based on complex math, then sorted through the images, selecting 1024 that looked like things we could recognize. This is something like watching clouds, and making out shapes, only with much more discernible detail, and with absolute clarity on what numbers and what processes created the image.
This piece is called "Helios," (not to speak for the artist, but, very likely) because it looks like the sun. It's part of a separate project called "Strange Attractors," but it shows a similar idea: simple math gives us spheres and cubes and triangles, sure, but when the math gets complex enough, the images seem to leave that world of ideals and take a place in our real world: it looks like the sun not just because it is round and seemingly-spherical; there's more discernible detail than that:
This is a detail of "Helios" I made from a screen grab of the image on Selikoff's website: the seeming-sphere seems to have a surface, as you can see, and something seems to be radiating from it, some kind of dusty liquid heat -- a plasma. We see this image and recognize other images we've seen...
...like this actual image of the surface of the sun. And the most astonishing thing of all is that the image produced by an artist through mathematics is more clear and detailed than the image made through optics by a scientist.
I look again at Selikoff's image and I ask myself: do the numbers tell us more than our eyes and instruments? Can the mathematical models predict the physical nature of the universe? Sure, this image looks like a Chinese Warrior, and this one looks like a star, but what about all those others? What other shapes exist in the universe that we do not recognize because we have not yet seen them?
I look again at "Helios," at the ribbons of energy that move "within" the "sphere" and I wonder if these lines tell us something about the movement of energy within a star that it may take scientists decades or centuries to confirm? We know numbers are useful in describing the world we understand, because we understand it; we can compare. But what about all those numbers who are useful in describing the world we do not yet know?
What Wonderland can they reveal? Only the Artist-Mathematicians like Dodgson and Selikoff can show, and tell.
This is the second in a series of posts on Florida Artists, and how I experience their work. I would love references to more artists, working in any medium, in Florida.
Cross-posted to The Electronic Girl
Don't freak, everyone--I haven't changed sides. I'm just rethinking my earlier position on the Crist-Rubio race. Back when I wrote that, Rubio hadn't opened up a lead on Crist, and I underestimated just how much the teabaggers had taken over the Florida Republican party, and how well Rubio would be able to make himself palatable to Republicans as a whole.
So what's the current situation? Rubio's winning now, but in a head to head with Kendrick Meek, it's close, 44-39, and with more Democrats undecided than Republicans, PPP says it's probably closer than that. Independents are breaking Meek's way for now, but it's way early.
So how have I changed? Well, back then I was rooting for Crist in the primary in part because I thought that if Crist won the primary, Rubio might run as a third party to his right and siphon off enough votes for Meek to win. But it looks now like if Crist runs as an independent, it helps Rubio.
But the polls right now are pretty clear. Meek has a shot against Rubio, if he can shore up his base, get us excited, and hold the independents. That's a lot to do, but it's possible. It would be great to see that seat go back to the Democrats, when the rest of the country is looking shaky.
So what's the current situation? Rubio's winning now, but in a head to head with Kendrick Meek, it's close, 44-39, and with more Democrats undecided than Republicans, PPP says it's probably closer than that. Independents are breaking Meek's way for now, but it's way early.
So how have I changed? Well, back then I was rooting for Crist in the primary in part because I thought that if Crist won the primary, Rubio might run as a third party to his right and siphon off enough votes for Meek to win. But it looks now like if Crist runs as an independent, it helps Rubio.
In a hypothetical three way contest Rubio leads with 34% to 27% for Crist and 25% for Kendrick Meek.I knew Crist had been cratering, but I had no idea just how large a crater we were talking about. This is extinction of the dinosaurs quality. Crist could conceivably pull it out, but it seems less likely every day, so now I'm left hoping that Crist does everything he can to drag Rubio down with him, leaving Meek unscathed and looking like the only decent one in the bunch (which he is).
Crist gets 32% of the Democratic vote but only 18% of Republicans running as an independent. He also leads among independents with 35% to 24% for Rubio and 22% for Crist.
Crist's overall approval rating now is a 35/51 spread. He's most popular with Democrats at a 45% approval rating followed by independents at 29% and Republicans at 28%.
But the polls right now are pretty clear. Meek has a shot against Rubio, if he can shore up his base, get us excited, and hold the independents. That's a lot to do, but it's possible. It would be great to see that seat go back to the Democrats, when the rest of the country is looking shaky.
I can't shake this feeling that perhaps a civil rights complaint could be filed by the family members of those citizens designated as sex offenders by the state of Florida.
Due to the immediate access to the Florida Sex Offender Registry by anyone with a computer, private citizens who have done nothing but stand in support of their registered loved one, risk ostracization in their public, familial and employment life due to the listing of their home address online.
Follow my thinking, using the DOJ Civil Rights Division criteria as a guide.
| Who is charged: | Usually an organization: Florida Legislature | |
Standard of proof: | Preponderance of evidence: FSOR | |
| Fact finder: | Judge | |
| Victim: | Individuals and/or representatives of a group or class: Family members | |
| Remedy sought: | Correct policies and practices, relief for individuals: Removal of home addresses, maps from the FSOR | |
| Govt's right to appeal: | Yes |
If there is no violence or threat of violence, whom should I contact?
Q. What do I do when my civil rights have been violated, and can I make a complaint on behalf of someone else? Must it be in writing? A. Individuals may report possible violations on their own or on behalf of others if they have sufficient first-hand information about the incident. The information provided should include names of the victim( s), any witnesses, and the perpetrators (if known), a description of the events, and whether any physical injuries or physical damage were incurred. Complaints in writing are preferred, but there may be circumstances when a telephone complaint is appropriate (especially if there is an immediate danger). The "blue pages" of your local telephone book should have the phone numbers and addresses for the agencies shown below. |
There is very much a reason our lawmakers will not legislate away the voting rights of RSOs (well, at least those who still retain voting rights). Doing so is a civil rights violation and nobody wants a civil rights complaint breathing down their neck.
What do you think, Froggers?
I'm listening.
Quick Emeline update: she's doing great. Growing like crazy. More than nine pounds as of more than a week ago. It seems like every time I come home from work, there's something new or different about her. She's already lifting...
Oh dear. It seems Glenn Beck has discovered the truth about me. I hope you'll still be my readers and friends. ;-)
Blogging will be a bit weird for the next few days. We've set it up as a minor mystery with one-word clues and music. You'll figure it out over the next few days. Broad hints start now: 
"Come Fly with Me," by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen
Glenn Grenwald at Salon.com: "It's not actually a unique event of oppression or suffering to have to sit and listen to a speech where someone criticizes you."
Roy Ashburn, he never flaunted it.
But leaving a gay club he got caught at it.
He still claims that it pays,
To go bashing gays.
But only if your constituents wanted it.
Executives from the Las Vegas Sands are making rounds throughout the Capitol today in preparation for their report Thursday to the House Committee on the Seminole Indian Compact Review. The committee will hear a report from legislative economist Amy Baker...
The U.S. Senate has just voted 62-36 for a bill that would extend emergency stimulus funding for state Medicaid programs through June 2011.
The enhanced Medicaid funding is a key budget issue for Florida, which stands to receive more than $1 billion in additional federal funds if Congress and President…
Gov. Charlie Crist's labelling of Senate opponent Marco Rubio's earmark spending as "pork" looks like revisionist history to the Rubio campaign. It just sent out a letter from Crist to Rubio where the governor lauded Rubio's biggest appropriation: an $80...
The Legislature is staring at a $3.2-billion deficit, but that doesn't mean lawmakers can't scare up some money for member projects -- especially in an election year when it's important to take something home to the constituents. In the Senate...
State representative Stephen Precourt (R-Orlando) has proposed using state tax dollars to promote the production of "family-friendly" movies and television productions.
No surprise there. Republican office holders all across the nation are scrambling for ways to suck up to the increasingly narrow base of wackos, ignoramuses, and flat-Earthers that constitute their base. To identify HB 697 as "a priority for the Republican House majority" only shows how bankrupt of ideas that party has become.
In the late fifties and early sixties, we saw life as it really was. We were growing up in a classic small Midwestern town. There were perhaps 800 residents, total. Nine streets went one way, about eight the other.
It was an era when the hulks of abandoned cars and oil run-off from nearby leaking storage tanks filled the creeks all around the town. Margarine was sold in the grocery store only as pure white lard, which your mother then took home and mixed with yellow food coloring that came with the lard in order to simulate butter. The only air conditioning we knew of was in the movie house and the bank lobby. Burma Shave signs passed for high brow humor. And mothers who could afford to buy their kids new shoes took them to Sears & Roebuck, first, where they made their kids -- we're not making this up -- step up and stick their feet inside an x-ray machine to see if the bones in their toes were crowding the tips of their shoes.
An x-ray machine! Maintained and run by a shoe salesman! It's a wonder we didn't all die of toe cancer decades ago.
Good jobs were scarce, decent housing was in short supply, and the schools were but a cut or two above the classic congregational one-room school house run by the town pastor a century before. Public ignorance was rife. Socks were darned and re-darned and re-darned again until one's socks were little more than darning thread.
Even so, things in that small town were a damn site better than they were in Florida, if the history books are any guide. But many, many Midwestern families struggled. Even people with good jobs barely scraped by. There was no Medicare, no Medicaid, and not much for general assistance to the poor. Few of the old people of the town lived long enough to collect Social Security.
At the north edge of town on the other side of the railroad tracks there was a shanty town known as "Goat Hollow." It was peopled mostly with what the adults called "Oakies" -- Southerners, mostly, who were trying to find work to support their families. As bad as our town was, it was much worse where they came from.
Most of the "Oakies" lived in flimsy tar-paper shacks perhaps half the size of a typical attached garage one see these days. A few of the luckier ones had "basement homes." This was considered fancy living in Goat Hollow. A "basement home" was just a basement, period, covered with planks and topped by a door frame that descended to the "living quarters" below. So far as we could see, none of them ever saw a real house built on top of the basement. Apparently, no one could afford it. They lived like moles.
Personally, our family was comparatively well off. Both parents worked good jobs, we owned a modest but comfortable two-story frame home, and our family was well-connected. Not so our best friend. Like many others on the "right" side of town, he lived in a cramped two-bedroom trailer with no toilet. Years later, we figured out this was because there was no sewer system large enough to serve all the trailer lots.
Everybody in that trailer park had to use a communal bathroom. Or, as our friend told us decades later, he and his brother "had to shit in a bucket." We had never known that, as often as we played together with our friend at his 'house' and ours. To a kid, it just seemed normal.
Some of the girls our age were raped by adult relatives. Many of the mothers could be seen at the grocery store with black eyes and bruises. Quite a few of the fathers beat their kids with belts.
We were present when one dirty old man -- we didn't know the word "pedophile" back then -- drove up to a small bunch of nine year olds, gestured for them to come closer, and then exposed himself and tried to force one young friend of ours into his car. The alcoholic "constable" in town -- he worked and drank alone -- could do nothing about sex crimes (or any other kind of crime, come to that) assuming anyone thought to complain. Mostly, things like this were just kept in the family.
That would be the "traditional family" value.
In winter, many of the "Oakie" kids walked more than a mile to school without boots or mittens. Their parents couldn't afford to clothe them properly. We can still hear the screams of those kids echoing down the hallway as the school "nurse" defrosted their hands and feet by running hot water -- hot water -- over them before sending them back to class. Once a year, the mother of a severely retarded boy our age who was wheel-chair bound brought him to class for an hour or so, just so he could feel like a 'normal' boy. The rest of the year, he was a shut-in.
We could go on and on and on, but we don't have the time right now, for reasons which will become apparent on this blog over the next few days. The point is just this: "Mayberry" never existed in the real world of America in the 1950's and 1960's. If the Florida legislature really intends to limit its film-promotion efforts to anodyne "family-friendly" entertainment like the Andy Griffith Show, on the delusional theory that it depicts the way America was, then they should call it what it is: "Prevaricated Propaganda Productions."
Needless to say, an honest film made about the way things really were in Florida of the "sixties" would not only show us the all-too-oppressive nature of "traditional family" life, it also would show stuff that we, at least, rarely encountered in the Midwest: segregated restaurants, schools, and drinking fountains; lynchings of innocent blacks; the same smug, self-satisfied, willful and violent racism that pervaded the South; and more.
Unlike the cartoon fictional life presented in Mayberry, U.S.A, the real story of life in the "sixties" is one that needs to be told again and again. Especially as so many right-wingers continue trying to roll back all the advances in life which came with the federal programs they now are directly attacking.
minor edit 3-10pm
No surprise there. Republican office holders all across the nation are scrambling for ways to suck up to the increasingly narrow base of wackos, ignoramuses, and flat-Earthers that constitute their base. To identify HB 697 as "a priority for the Republican House majority" only shows how bankrupt of ideas that party has become.
"Think of it as like Mayberry," state Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando, said, referring to The Andy Griffith Show. "That's when I grew up — the '60s. That's what life was like.Life was not "like" Mayberry anywhere, anytime. Mayberry U.S.A. was a fictional television show, for goodness' sake!
In the late fifties and early sixties, we saw life as it really was. We were growing up in a classic small Midwestern town. There were perhaps 800 residents, total. Nine streets went one way, about eight the other.
It was an era when the hulks of abandoned cars and oil run-off from nearby leaking storage tanks filled the creeks all around the town. Margarine was sold in the grocery store only as pure white lard, which your mother then took home and mixed with yellow food coloring that came with the lard in order to simulate butter. The only air conditioning we knew of was in the movie house and the bank lobby. Burma Shave signs passed for high brow humor. And mothers who could afford to buy their kids new shoes took them to Sears & Roebuck, first, where they made their kids -- we're not making this up -- step up and stick their feet inside an x-ray machine to see if the bones in their toes were crowding the tips of their shoes.
An x-ray machine! Maintained and run by a shoe salesman! It's a wonder we didn't all die of toe cancer decades ago.
Good jobs were scarce, decent housing was in short supply, and the schools were but a cut or two above the classic congregational one-room school house run by the town pastor a century before. Public ignorance was rife. Socks were darned and re-darned and re-darned again until one's socks were little more than darning thread.
Even so, things in that small town were a damn site better than they were in Florida, if the history books are any guide. But many, many Midwestern families struggled. Even people with good jobs barely scraped by. There was no Medicare, no Medicaid, and not much for general assistance to the poor. Few of the old people of the town lived long enough to collect Social Security.
At the north edge of town on the other side of the railroad tracks there was a shanty town known as "Goat Hollow." It was peopled mostly with what the adults called "Oakies" -- Southerners, mostly, who were trying to find work to support their families. As bad as our town was, it was much worse where they came from.
Most of the "Oakies" lived in flimsy tar-paper shacks perhaps half the size of a typical attached garage one see these days. A few of the luckier ones had "basement homes." This was considered fancy living in Goat Hollow. A "basement home" was just a basement, period, covered with planks and topped by a door frame that descended to the "living quarters" below. So far as we could see, none of them ever saw a real house built on top of the basement. Apparently, no one could afford it. They lived like moles.
Personally, our family was comparatively well off. Both parents worked good jobs, we owned a modest but comfortable two-story frame home, and our family was well-connected. Not so our best friend. Like many others on the "right" side of town, he lived in a cramped two-bedroom trailer with no toilet. Years later, we figured out this was because there was no sewer system large enough to serve all the trailer lots.
Everybody in that trailer park had to use a communal bathroom. Or, as our friend told us decades later, he and his brother "had to shit in a bucket." We had never known that, as often as we played together with our friend at his 'house' and ours. To a kid, it just seemed normal.
Some of the girls our age were raped by adult relatives. Many of the mothers could be seen at the grocery store with black eyes and bruises. Quite a few of the fathers beat their kids with belts.
We were present when one dirty old man -- we didn't know the word "pedophile" back then -- drove up to a small bunch of nine year olds, gestured for them to come closer, and then exposed himself and tried to force one young friend of ours into his car. The alcoholic "constable" in town -- he worked and drank alone -- could do nothing about sex crimes (or any other kind of crime, come to that) assuming anyone thought to complain. Mostly, things like this were just kept in the family.
That would be the "traditional family" value.
In winter, many of the "Oakie" kids walked more than a mile to school without boots or mittens. Their parents couldn't afford to clothe them properly. We can still hear the screams of those kids echoing down the hallway as the school "nurse" defrosted their hands and feet by running hot water -- hot water -- over them before sending them back to class. Once a year, the mother of a severely retarded boy our age who was wheel-chair bound brought him to class for an hour or so, just so he could feel like a 'normal' boy. The rest of the year, he was a shut-in.
We could go on and on and on, but we don't have the time right now, for reasons which will become apparent on this blog over the next few days. The point is just this: "Mayberry" never existed in the real world of America in the 1950's and 1960's. If the Florida legislature really intends to limit its film-promotion efforts to anodyne "family-friendly" entertainment like the Andy Griffith Show, on the delusional theory that it depicts the way America was, then they should call it what it is: "Prevaricated Propaganda Productions."
Needless to say, an honest film made about the way things really were in Florida of the "sixties" would not only show us the all-too-oppressive nature of "traditional family" life, it also would show stuff that we, at least, rarely encountered in the Midwest: segregated restaurants, schools, and drinking fountains; lynchings of innocent blacks; the same smug, self-satisfied, willful and violent racism that pervaded the South; and more.
Unlike the cartoon fictional life presented in Mayberry, U.S.A, the real story of life in the "sixties" is one that needs to be told again and again. Especially as so many right-wingers continue trying to roll back all the advances in life which came with the federal programs they now are directly attacking.
minor edit 3-10pm
President Barack Obama welcomed Hatian President Rene Preval to the White House Wednesday, pledging that as it rebuilds, the earthquake-wracked country "will continue to have a steady and reliable partner in the United States of America. "America's commitment to Haiti's...
Back in 2003, a last-minute complicated provision got added to a conforming bill (ahh! the sunshiney ole’ days) that ultimately ensured that an HMO like Miami-Dade’s Preferred Medical Plan would automatically get 15,000 Medicaid recipients. Guaranteed. Big HMOs like Humana...
Republican Tommy C. Castellano will launch his campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives at an evening reception tonight.
Castellano is one of six candidates in the Aug. 24 Republican primary vying to face House District 11 incumbent Kathy Castor in the general election.
Castellano’s kickoff party is scheduled from…
Here's a short video from our March meeting, held in a new venue, the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens.
The main message from this meeting was a call for volunteers to help staff the new office of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party -- in the Terranova Building at 801 Arthur Godfrey Drive in Miami Beach. Call 305 477-4994 or email info@miamidadedemocrats.com.
And welcome to a nice group of new members!
The main message from this meeting was a call for volunteers to help staff the new office of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party -- in the Terranova Building at 801 Arthur Godfrey Drive in Miami Beach. Call 305 477-4994 or email info@miamidadedemocrats.com.
And welcome to a nice group of new members!
The field is smaller this morning. The Anchorage Daily News has reported on four more scratches at Rainy Pass, in addition to Pat Moon. Michael Suprenant and Zoya DeNure both have medical problems, Karin Hendrickson has a busted sled, and Kirk Barnum scratched because his dogs were too tired to race.
Zoya, along with Colleen [...]
The same polling firm showed Marco Rubio widely outdistancing Charlie Crist in the GOP Senate primary now shows that either Republican would beat Kendrick Meek, but only narrowly in Rubio’s case.
Crist’s campaign yesterday questioned the polling numbers from North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling because it’s a Democratic-oriented firm that…
A leadership-pushed proposal that was the focus of a 30-minute workshop in the Senate Regulated Industries Committee offers up new limits on how far the state will compromise with the Seminole Tribe in its gambling compact -- and opens the...
Gov. Charlie Crist insists he is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican and won't switch to an independent. Besides a likely drop-off in campaign donations the new Public Policy poll might add some more evidence as to why:...
The retiring Miami Republican offered rare words of praise Wednesday for the Obama administration, saying he's been impressed with its response to the earthquake that leveled Haiti. "We have here a lot of partisan differences and debate," Diaz-Balart said at...
The Charlie Crist campaign has issued a statement responding to Marco Rubio’s first campaign ad.
Predictably, it hits the Crist campaign’s recent themes of criticism of Rubio over earmark spending while Rubio was in the Legislature, and Rubio’s use of a Republican Party credit card to pay for some personal…
It's hard for us to understand, if I can put it that way.
— United Kingdom conservative party leader David Cameron, quoted by Vanity Fair, on Sarah Palin's popularity.
Several weeks ago, reader Jacqueline sent me this gorgeous YouTube creation: it's Aaron Copland's haunting piece, The Promise of Living, set to a montage of old 8mm and 16mm films of human beings doing what we do best: living and loving. I wonder if you can make it all the way through without tearing up. I certainly couldn't.
I'd also like to share this gem, by tripsadelica, from the comment section beneath the video:
Snippets of light captured upon powdered silver, of a time long ago. Gone, but somehow not gone...preserved forever as if light was the essence of life itself. Most all of these people have left this earth but here they are, walking, dancing, playing...living. You know the expression, "they live on in our hearts"...they live on here in light; light captured with fine silver powder. Luminous argent.
Here in Florida, it's sparkling and sunny outside for the first time in a long while. Spring is almost here--hooray!--the boys will be on break next week, and I have visions of sugar cones and sandy shores dancing in my head. Carpe diem! I say, as I will say next Monday morning when I wake the boys and haul them off to Fort DeSoto for some much-needed vitamin D and fresh air. What will you be doing when it warms up?
The picture, spread virally on the Web, was the last straw for state Sen. Frederica Wilson. It showed a man posing in front of the White House with a noose wrapped around an American flag.
It's a "significant" buy on Fox News in all major media markets. Why so early? "First is to let voters get to know who Marco is, what he believes and why he's running,'' said Rubio adviser Todd Harris. "And the...
Gov. Charlie Crist took a swipe this morning at his Senate opponent, former House Speaker Marco Rubio over this story concerning the $250 million in earmarks Rubio had inserted in the budget, despite his campaign persona as a no-earmarks kind...
Marco Rubio has launched the first television ad of his U.S. Senate campaign.
The campaign wouldn’t say how much money it’s spending to buy time for the ad, but it’s running across the state on the Fox network.
The ad—see it here —is 60 seconds instead…
Would you like to become more involved in your neighborhood? Hillsborough County can help.
Hillsborough County’s Office of Neighborhood Relations is gearing up for the 7th Annual Hillsborough County Neighborhood Conference.
The one-day conference is scheduled for March 27, 2010, from 8am to 2:30, and features a variety of educational workshops for homeowners and neighborhood leaders.
The goal [...]
Usually conservatives aren't keen on remembering that many of our founding fathers were slave owners. But Tony Blankley is a more positive fellow, and, in his latest article, argues that slave-owning actually helped our founding fathers.
I suppose the parallel to today would the corporations - corporations do control our lives to an increasing extent - and yet they are champions of freedom, simply by being aware of how precarious freedom is. Which is why they work hard to protect their own freedom - freedom to pollute, freedom to treat their workers poorly, freedom to foist unsafe products on consumers, freedom to buy votes as they see fit. One might argue that these "freedoms" impinge on the freedoms of other American citizens. But like in the time of our founding, without this impingement, these champions of liberty would not realize how very valuable freedom is.
Or something like that.
He [Edmund Burke] recognized that it wasn't despite being slaveholders that American Colonists felt so powerfully about liberty. Rather, being in the midst of the obvious evils of slavery, those men who were free more fully appreciated their freedom. "Those who are free are by far the most proud and jealous of rank and privilege," Burke argued. Or, as Jedediah Purdy (from whose historically rich and ingenious book "A Tolerable Anarchy" I have abstracted these observations) put it: "Slavery made masters uniquely sensitive to any invasion of their independence."It's a tricky argument isn't it? Slaveowners were very sensitive to losing their freedom because they were so dependent on removing the freedom of others. This transformed the denier of freedom into the champion of freedom. Somehow.
I suppose the parallel to today would the corporations - corporations do control our lives to an increasing extent - and yet they are champions of freedom, simply by being aware of how precarious freedom is. Which is why they work hard to protect their own freedom - freedom to pollute, freedom to treat their workers poorly, freedom to foist unsafe products on consumers, freedom to buy votes as they see fit. One might argue that these "freedoms" impinge on the freedoms of other American citizens. But like in the time of our founding, without this impingement, these champions of liberty would not realize how very valuable freedom is.
Or something like that.
By a party-line vote -- and a stacked committee -- a measure to restrict the public release of 911 tapes won approval in the House Government Affairs Policy Committee. The legislation (PCB GAP 10-03) is a top priority for House...
Senate President Jeff Atwater just released initial budget allocations to his chamber, stressing that he aims to make the budget process for the 2010-11 year will be even more "transparent" than last year. "Line-item spending and proviso will be discussed...
"Is the world's greatest deliberative body ready for man hugs and back waxing?"Those two images so far have defined the red-hot and increasingly hostile battle for Florida's Republican U.S. Senate nomination between Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio.Both men hope to use the images to paint the other as out-of-step on fiscal issues.A picture of Crist hugging President Obama
Beck to Massa: "Do you realize my family is at stake? You've got a little scandal with your children in college. I've got one for all time now, because I am not going to resign. I'm not going to back down. I have come to a place where I believe at some point the system will destroy me."
After reading the hard copy of your hometown newspaper, please consider becoming a site fan on Facebook and following us on Twitter. Our digest of, and commentary on today's Florida political news and punditry follows.
"A poll released Tuesday shows former House Speaker Marco Rubio trouncing Crist for the Republican Senate nomination, 60-28."
Rubio trouncing Crist, 60-28
"Is the world's greatest deliberative body ready for man hugs and back waxing?"
Those two images so far have defined the red-hot and increasingly hostile battle for Florida's Republican U.S. Senate nomination between Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio."Crist attacks heat up as latest poll shows Rubio 32 points ahead in Senate race".
Both men hope to use the images to paint the other as out-of-step on fiscal issues.
A picture of Crist hugging President Obama was used in Rubio's online fund-raisers and to ridicule the governor for being one of the few Republicans to support the federal stimulus plan.
The image helped transform Rubio's campaign from long-shot to front-runner. A Public Policy Polling survey showed Rubio up 60 percent-28 percent on Tuesday.
Crist is attempting to claw his way back by casting Rubio as dishonest with other people's money. Crist reminds voters that Rubio used his state party-issued credit card to ring up $16,000 in personal expenses, including $135 at a Miami barber shop.
Rubio said he used his own money to pay those bills and recently told Fox News that barber shop charge wasn't for just a haircut.
Crist, on the same cable channel Monday night, suggested Rubio may also have received a back wax.
"A poll released Tuesday shows former House Speaker Marco Rubio trouncing Crist for the Republican Senate nomination, 60-28."
The landslide margin reported by Public Policy Polling (PPP) of North Carolina is being read as another sign of deterioration -- if not impending implosion -- by a campaign that had held a similarly commanding lead just three months ago."Crist Ship Sinking".
The PPP polling was done March 5-8, well after the dust-up over Rubio's questionable GOP credit card expenditures.
Tally today
"2010 Legislative session daily summary". See also "In Tallahassee today, it's teachers, texting and reptiles".
Thank you, Mr. Obama
"As state economists confirmed the $3.2 billion shortfall that Florida is facing next year, a bill advanced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday that could shrink Florida's budget gap by one-third."
The economists' deliberations coincided with the advance of legislation in Congress that could pump more than $1 billion into Florida's Medicaid program."U.S. may aid Florida budget".
Medicaid is the biggest budget buster that lawmakers face this session, as high unemployment has forced more people to seek government assistance. Last year's federal stimulus package provided enhanced federal Medicaid funding only through the end of the 2010 calendar year, six months shy of the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year.
Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. Senate voted 66-34 to end debate on a sweeping bill that includes extending the Medicaid stimulus through June 2011. Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson voted to advance the bill.
Republican Sen. George LeMieux said he voted no because it would add $100 billion to the federal deficit without a clear means of paying for it. In a statement, LeMieux said he cast his vote "with a heavy heart," agreeing that many proposals in the bill would help Florida.
Rubio "helped push loads of hometown spending"
"Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Marco Rubio brags on his Web site that he didn't officially request budget pork in his last four years as a leader in the Florida House."
But during Rubio's eight years in office — including the final two when he was House speaker — he unofficially helped push loads of hometown spending: $250 million, according to a Times/Herald analysis of little-known budget documents."Marco Rubio sent his share of pork".
Turnaround?
"State economists Tuesday found some good news in the fact that there wasn't any more bad news on the fiscal horizon." "State economists predict revenues will increase for first time in 3 years". Related: "New state jobless figures to suggest turnaround or new high".
Entrepreneurship
"An inmate and three relatives have been charged with tax fraud in a second federal indictment stemming from an IRS tax scam that was run out of a jail near Key West." "2nd Florida Keys inmate indicted in prison tax scam".
"Poll incident"
"Poll incident in Pompano Beach livens up otherwise dull Election Day in Broward, Palm Beach counties".
Free records
"Floridians could get public records free of charge if it takes less than 30 minutes to produce them under a Sunshine law overhaul bill unanimously approved by its first Senate committee Tuesday." "Public records could be free".
Dead wood
"AP: Crist names power co. chief to Fla. school board". More: "Crist Reappoints Bush Staffers to State Board".
Return of "the old-fashioned chain gang"
"With budget cuts paring back landscaping along city roads, Orlando is bringing the old-fashioned chain gang to The City Beautiful." "Prisoners to mow Orlando medians".
It must be OK then ...
"As lawmakers waited Tuesday for the latest state revenue estimates, state Senate budget writers learned that other states are being forced to make widespread cuts in funding for popular school programs." "Lawmakers hear how other states have cut education".
Sales Tax Holiday
The Tallahassee Democrat editorial board likes the Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday.
Counties benefit in direct proportion to the size of their school-age population, but all counties and even the state treasury benefit from this almost perfect form of tax relief — which provides an automatic economic stimulus for local and state governments as well as businesses."Our Opinion: Perfect tax relief".
Gov. Charlie Crist has recommended that the Legislature set aside 10 days for the tax holiday that Floridians enjoyed from 1998 until 2007 (during which it lasted between seven and 10 days). It was suspended last year on the theory that the state couldn't afford any loss of revenue during the recession.
But a study by the Washington Economics Group indicated that a proposed tax holiday would generate $1.7 billion in economic activity, of which close to $1 billion stays in the Florida economy.
Absolutely, 100% not guilty
"The Republican Party of Florida is demanding the Florida Democratic Party drop an elections complaint. A GOP lawyer wrote to the Democrats today saying a complaint filed last week has no merit." "State GOP: Democrats' complaint has no merit".
'Glades
The Tampa Tribune editors: "Florida environmentalists are worried that a Monday New York Times article could derail a $536 million deal to purchase 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar as part of the effort to rescue the Everglades. It would be better for the deal to be derailed if taxpayers are being fleeced. But that is not at all clear, despite the Times' effort to put the proposal in the worst possible light." "Proceed carefully with Glades". Related: "Key vote nears on Crist's Everglades restoration purchase of U.S. Sugar land".
No nooses
"Long characterized as a symbol of racial terror, the noose might soon be banned in the state." "Lawmakers push measure to ban public display of noose".
911 exemptions
"A controversial proposal under consideration in the Florida Legislature would exempt 911 calls from the public record." "Bill prohibits release of 911 calls".
PSC
"PSC inspector general requests FDLE investigation".
"Leadership"
"Republican lawmakers are reviving leadership funds, which legislators used in the past as a place to funnel unspent campaign money in return for choice committee chairmanships." "Once-reviled funds on way back".
"Sacrificing is for suckers"
The Orlando Sentinel editorial board writes that, "in the Wonderland that is Washington, D.C., members of Congress have been letting their belts out. As South Florida's Sun Sentinel recently reported, federal lawmakers voted themselves a 5 percent increase in their own budgets last year. They spent those taxpayer dollars for staff salaries — sometimes in six figures — office expenses and perks. In Florida's delegation, the perks included chauffeured car trips, pricey auto leases and an office aquarium."
Florida's two U.S. senators have annual budgets for office expenses of more than $4 million each, while the state's 25 House members each get about $1.5 million. When their budgets are combined with their Senate and House colleagues', the total of less than $2 billion almost gets lost amid this year's $3.6 trillion federal budget and $1.6 trillion projected deficit. Cutting congressional office expenses won't balance the budget."Taunting taxpayers".
But when lawmakers refuse to hold themselves back in tough times, it sends a message to struggling Americans: Sacrificing is for suckers.
Consider these office expenses last year from Florida House members:
Democrat Corrine Brown of Jacksonville, who represents a district where the per capita income is only two-thirds of the U.S. average, spent almost $8,000 last year for herself and her staff to ride in chauffeured cars or SUVs.
Democrat Ron Klein of Boca Raton, a self-described deficit hawk, increased his office spending by $30,000.
Democrat Alcee Hastings of Miramar spent the most on staff. He paid two of them — one his longtime girlfriend — about $160,000 each. Both fell just below the $168,000 limit for congressional staff salaries.
Republican Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami leased a Honda Odyssey minivan for $803 a month.
Republican Tom Rooney of Tequesta spent almost $2,500 on an aquarium in his office. He also spent $628 on bottled water.
Among Florida's House members, the top 10 office spenders last year were split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. The group included four members whose districts cover parts of Central Florida: Republicans Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville and Cliff Stearns of Ocala, and Democrats Alan Grayson of Orlando and Ms. Brown of Jacksonville.
Republican Adam Putnam of Bartow was the most frugal member of Central Florida's delegation. His office spent just 76 percent of its budget allotment.
"'Corruption County' bill"
"In another effort to shed its "Corruption County" label, the scandal-plagued Palm Beach County Commission has sparked a bill that would give all 67 counties the ability to strengthen penalties against crooked officials. " "Palm Beach County-inspired bill would let counties set stricter ethical standards".
Red light bill
"House committee OKs red light bill".
Census based aid
"As the 2010 Census approaches, a study shows South Florida and the rest of the state are on the short end of federal funding determined by the count." "Florida lags in U.S. aid based on Census". More: Dan Moffett writes that the "State must count on illegals: Florida needs their help in the census".
LIMBAUGH: "I don't know. I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented -- I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica." But, Rush, Costa Rica has a nationalized, or as you would describe it, a "socialist" health-care system.
Republican U.S. Senate front-runner Marco Rubio brags on his Web site that he didn't officially request budget pork in his last four years as a leader in the Florida House. But during Rubio's eight years in office — including the final two when he was House speaker — he unofficially helped push loads of hometown spending: $250 million, according to a Times/Herald analysis of little-known budget documents.
Cash-strapped Florida lawmakers aren't getting any help from a new general revenue estimate issued Tuesday, but the figures aren't causing them any grief, either. State economists increased their forecast by just fractions of a percent from the last one they submitted in December for the current and next four budget years.
Floridians could get public records free of charge if it takes less than 30 minutes to produce them under a Sunshine law overhaul bill unanimously approved by its first Senate committee Tuesday.
After an internal review requested by the Public Service Commission's chairwoman, the agency's inspector general has asked state law enforcement officials to consider investigating allegations that a commissioner and her aide lied about a conversation with a utility executive during a pending case.
Legislative leaders are swiftly carrying out one of their priorities by bringing back once-reviled ``leadership funds'' -- unlimited soft-money accounts under direct control of a few influential lawmakers.
More than 2.5 million Floridians are on food stamps, up from three years ago where 1.2 million residents received assistance.
Homeowners can still get insurance discounts for hurricane clips and window shutters, they'll just have to file more paperwork to get them. It's a change sought by the insurance industry, part of addressing what companies say is a financial squeeze of low rates exacerbated by fraudulent discounts.
There are now plans to connect Central Florida's two big rail projects. The high-speed rail and the SunRail will cost billions to build under the current plan, but the two rail lines don't meet anywhere. But now, a private company wants to build a new train to link them from OIA to the convention center, which means it may not cost taxpayers a dime.
Jackson Health System is close to insolvency and facing the specter of having one of its major vendors, Johnson & Johnson, shut off supplies unless the company receives a $1 million payment this week.
Martin Gill and his partner are seeking to adopt two brothers, ages 5 and 9. The boys have lived with the two men for five years as foster children. For most of that time, the Miami couple has been in court fighting for something Florida forbids gay couples: the right to adopt children.
State economists mostly held steady Tuesday in their forecast of tax collections for the year ahead — meaning lawmakers continue to face a budget shortfall of as much as $3.2 billion.
MIAMI — The movie "Bait Shop" had too much boozing to earn the extra rebate from Florida's "family friendly" program of incentives for film production. "Confessions of a Shopaholic" was, well, just too violent.
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