Florida State Legislature

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News Roundup

The Florida Legislature is getting worried about the budget. There could be a deficit of as much as $2 billion this fiscal year. [Local10] A Broward High School swim coach is arrested on child pornography charges. Who knew a guy who spends his free time around a bunch of teenagers in speedos would ... More >>

Boing! Boing! Boing!

Cutbacks in the state attorney's Worthless Check Division may have given carte blanche to aspiring check bouncers

HoJo's To Miami Motorsports: No Prix Fee for Thee!

Grand Prix poobah Ralph Sanchez went to the downtown Howard Johnson's with his hand outstretched. And an ultimatum.

Program Notes

Grand Prix poobah Ralph Sanchez went to the downtown Howard Johnson's with his hand outstretched. And an ultimatum.

Yes, Those Are Slaves On The Steps of The Florida Capitol Today

If you happen to wander by the Capitol on your daily stroll around Tallahassee today, yes, that is in fact a truck full of farm workers being beaten into unpaid slave labor right on the steps of the Florida Legislature.New Times photoHaitian farm workers in HomesteadA few months after the latest sla ... More >>

Lobbying for a Commission Seat

Juan Carlos Zapata, a state representative from the Kendall area, is gunning for Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez's job. The legislator is going to be termed out of office in 2010, so he's laying the groundwork for a run at Martinez's seat in 2012. Already, the first Colombian-American ... More >>

Big Brown Machine

Saturday's Kentucky Derby favorite arrives fresh from South Florida.

Poisoned Well

What was contaminating our drinking water? Who knows - Dade officials stopped looking.

Miami: Screwed Again

The legislature helped taxpayers, but not in the Magic City

Risky Business

"The inmates throw pee, bleach, semen, doo-doo; wee-wees out everywhere"

Welcome to Fabulous Tallahassee

Where your humble state legislators work hard by day and play hard by night

Soggy Celebration

Gotta love water

Notes from the Dead Zone

The politics of AIDS funding in black Miami

Better Lake Than Never?

Officials insist the Lake Belt created by limestone mining in Northwest Miami-Dade will be an eco-panacea. Critics say that's all wet.

River of Sass

From the grave eco-saint Marjory Stoneman Douglas has spawned a neighborhood dispute of historic proportions

Letters

From the grave eco-saint Marjory Stoneman Douglas has spawned a neighborhood dispute of historic proportions

The Last of the Indian Wars

The fight may be about houses in the Everglades, but the battle is about Miccosukee independence by paula park

Peel the Vote '09: Luis Morse For Miami Commish

Alex Izaguirre Today Banana Republican begins a weekly series assessing candidates running for various municipal elected offices this year. Let's turn our attention to the district three city commission race in Miami where we have seven contenders vying to replace Joe Sanchez, who is running for ma ... More >>

Yolly Roberson Kicks Off House Bid Against Crowded Field, Including Her Ex-Husband

With Kendrick Meek resigning to seek a Senate seat, Florida's 17th congressional district will have its first non-Meek representative since 1993. District 17, with a Cook pvi of D 34, is one of the most Democratic leaning districts in the entire nation, so the real race ... More >>

Ray Sansom Doesn't Give It Up That Easy

screenshot of MiamiHerald.com​Perhaps if today was a different day this post would include such phrases as "gentle teasing," "a pinky finger and some spit," "ky jelly," and "latex glove and a vat of crisco," but we simply aren't in the mood. However, in case you weren't aware Ray Samson, the ... More >>

Shafted

A cop left Eric Brody brain damaged 11 years ago. His family still hasn't received a penny of compensation.

South Florida dogfighting rages on despite tough laws

A cop left Eric Brody brain damaged 11 years ago. His family still hasn't received a penny of compensation.

Should South Miami-Dade teen Dewayne Pinacle get life in prison for rape and robbery?

A cop left Eric Brody brain damaged 11 years ago. His family still hasn't received a penny of compensation.

David Rivera Takes Lobbyist Cash During Legislative Session

Former Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chairman Joe Garcia is wasting no time knuckling up for  Via David Rivera's FacebookAt a recent fundraiser, Rep. David Rivera (left) serenades supporters with the help of actor Steven Bauer, whom, as far as we know, doesn't do business with the state of Florid ... More >>

Babies left in hot cars: Accident or crime?

Some parents are never prosecuted. Antonio Balta got 20 years.

Dispatch From the Biltmore: The Night Marco Rubio's Presidential Campaign Began

photo by Tim ElfrinkRubio in 2012: It started tonight.​Marco Rubio is running for president in 2012. It's not official, of course, and maybe even Rubio himself hasn't decided whether to seek the highest office in the land. But at the raucus party tonight at the Biltmore, it sure seemed like Rubio' ... More >>

South Miami Supports Medical Marijuana

Michael McElroy​On Monday night, the South Miami city commission took a giant leap forward in the pro-marijuana debate. Commissioners voted 3-1 to push the Florida Legislature and the federal government to authorize the medicinal use of marijuana making South Miami the first city in the state to r ... More >>

"Fake Cocaine" is Now Banned in Florida

Via​Kids snort the darnedest things. Apparently, they've been sniffing a substance sold at specialty and head shops marketed as bath salts that mimics the effects of cocaine and LSD. Yesterday, newly elected Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an emergency rule banning the substance while th ... More >>

Senate President Mike Haridopolos Got $152K in Taxpayer Money to Write Crappy, Misspelled Book

​Senate President and U.S. Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos lists his profession as college professor (though he's actually merely a lecturer) but apparently does a hell of a lot less toiling on his written works than one would expect of his students. He certainly makes a lot more money for it, t ... More >>

You Can Now Buy Mike Haridopolos' Crappy Book for $9.99 on Your Kindle

​So, this weekend the Associated Press published a story on some crappy book Florida Senate President and likely US Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos got $152,000 in taxpayer money from Brevard Community College to write. Besides being of questionable quality, only one copy of the book existed. We ... More >>

Bill Requiring Doctors to Discuss "Fetal Pain" with Abortion Patients Moves Through Florida House

The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature is moving forward this session with a number of restrictive anti-abortion bills, the newest of which would require doctors to discuss research on the possibility of fetal pain caused by the termination of pregnancy. Though, there's little conclusive evid ... More >>

Confederate License Plates? Ruling Might Mean They Could Be Coming to Florida

​A Federal Judge has ruled that Florida should have approved the request of a group looking to honor a group of rebels who waged war against the United States in the name of slavery. U.S. District Judge John Antoon II ruled the state's specialty license plate law unconstitution ... More >>

Now You Too Can Incorporate Your Uterus!

​Last week, Democrat state Rep. Scott Randolph made House Republicans uncomfortable when he dared to say the word uterus on the House floor. He suggested that his wife "incorporate" hers to get Republicans to stop mandating what she and other woman do with it. Although Florida Republicans are ... More >>

Sen. Jim Norman Protects the Rights of Farms at the Expense of Florida Consumers

via Flickr CALM ActionWhat Florida Senator Jim Norman doesn't want us to see.​Something is wrong with Florida Sen. Jim Norman. I don't mean that something is wrong with his physical or mental health (well, maybe the latter), but rather that something is wrong with him in general. He is defective, ... More >>

County Commissioners Deny Ron Book's Waiver

No waiver for Ron Book. ​Maybe Ron Book is losing his touch. On Monday, Miami-Dade County commissioners denied Book's request to lobby on behalf of a private client pushing a state bill the county is against. The ultra influential lobbyist represents Miami-Dade before the Florida Legislature. But ... More >>

Luther Campbell Gets Perfect Marks on Gay Voters Guide, Robaina and Gimenez Don't

​It's 2011, and the only candidate running for Miami-Dade mayor who is polling in the double digits to get perfect marks from Equality Florida's voting guide on GLBT issues happens to be former-2 Live Crew leader Luther Campbell. It's odd indeed. The leading candidates Julio Robaina and Carlos Gim ... More >>

Miami missed the rapture for many sinful reasons

​It's 2011, and the only candidate running for Miami-Dade mayor who is polling in the double digits to get perfect marks from Equality Florida's voting guide on GLBT issues happens to be former-2 Live Crew leader Luther Campbell. It's odd indeed. The leading candidates Julio Robaina and Carlos Gim ... More >>

Rick Scott Now Wants to Spend More Money on Education, But It's Probably Too Late

​The Florida Legislature actually put more money into education this year than called for in Gov. Rick Scott's Tea Party-happy budget, but now that the legislative sessions is over and the final budget in on Scott's desk he's suddenly realized that even that isn't enough money to educate our child ... More >>

Does David Rivera Have to Tweet a Picture of His Bulge For Anyone to Care About His Alleged Scandals?

David Rivera dressed as a UPS man for some reason. (Click to enlarge.)​Here's a disturbing contrast in the way the U.S. media approaches political scandals: One congressman accidentally tweets a picture of his boxer-brief-clad boner, and a week's worth of wall-to-wall media coverage ends in teary ... More >>

McKay scholarship program sparks a cottage industry of fraud and chaos

David Rivera dressed as a UPS man for some reason. (Click to enlarge.)​Here's a disturbing contrast in the way the U.S. media approaches political scandals: One congressman accidentally tweets a picture of his boxer-brief-clad boner, and a week's worth of wall-to-wall media coverage ends in teary ... More >>

Florida Judge Rules HIV Notification Laws Apply Only to Straight People

​In 1997, the Florida Legislature passed a law that made it a felony for a person with any STD, including HIV, to have sexual intercourse without informing their partner of their status beforehand. Problem is the only thing legally considered "sexual intercourse" in the State of Florida is your st ... More >>

Oh Sh*t! Florida's Five Most Notorious Poopcrimes

​Yesterday, jollily bearded fellow Edmund Barksdale set the AP's Poop Alert Newswire (TM) ablaze with his bizarre tale of getting Tasered while taking a dump in a Destin park. Yet he's far from the first fecal-matter felon to snag Florida headlines.If George Orwell put thoughtcrime on the map, the ... More >>

Miami-Dade County Commission Unanimously Asks Florida Legislature to Chill Out on Crazy Immigration Laws

​It's hard to get the Miami-Dade County Commission to agree on anything, but every single member voted today for a resolution that asks the state legislature to cool it on all those crazy conservative immigration bills they've been trying to pass. The Florida Legislature will, more than likely, to ... More >>

Las Vegas Sands Looking Into Possibility of Rival Casino Plans in Downtown

Las Vegas Sands, a casino resort company that counts Las Vegas's giant Venetian resort as its crown jewel, for years has been trying to butter up the Florida Legislature to allow gambling. The company was none too pleased when arch-rival Genting came into downtown Miami and announced a massive ... More >>

Jason Starkman, Epicure Owner, Taken To Court Over $1.2 Million Gambling Debt

Jason Starkman skipped out on a $1.2 million debt at the Hollywood-based casino owned by the Seminoles.​When it came to betting against the Seminole Tribe of Florida, prominent businessman Jason Starkman didn't know when to walk away -- yet so far he has still come out even. Last week, the Seminol ... More >>

Seminoles sue Miami businessman over $1.2 million gambling debt

Jason Starkman skipped out on a $1.2 million debt at the Hollywood-based casino owned by the Seminoles.​When it came to betting against the Seminole Tribe of Florida, prominent businessman Jason Starkman didn't know when to walk away -- yet so far he has still come out even. Last week, the Seminol ... More >>

Mavericks charter schools don't live up to big promises

Jason Starkman skipped out on a $1.2 million debt at the Hollywood-based casino owned by the Seminoles.​When it came to betting against the Seminole Tribe of Florida, prominent businessman Jason Starkman didn't know when to walk away -- yet so far he has still come out even. Last week, the Seminol ... More >>

Florida's Oxycodone Party is Over: Pain Pill Sales Dropped 97 Percent in One Year

​The hillbilly heroin hoedown in Florida has ended. The number of pain pills sold by Florida doctors dropped 97 percent from 2010 to 2011 according to the DEA. In 2010, 90 of the top 100 Oxy-prescribing doctors in the country were in Florida. In 2011, just 13 made the list, and none cracked t ... More >>