Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman told a roomful of Acreage residents on Thursday that he had cancer and underwent surgery last year to treat it.

It was the first time Weisman has discussed his cancer publicly. The revelation came during a meeting of several hundred residents concerned about a potential brain-cancer cluster in their community, where state environmental regulators plan to draw samples from private drinking water wells.

“I personally suffer from cancer,” Weisman told the crowd. “I had surgery last year. I’m in testing right now. I live in Wellington on public water. My neighbor has a different problem on public water in Wellington right next door from me. I can’t explain it. I don’t know why I got it. But these things just happen.”

Weisman declined to discuss the cancer in more detail Friday.

Some residents at the meeting wanted to know why the county hasn’t done more to connect the community to public utility lines.

Weisman said his daughter lives in The Acreage with her husband.

“My daughter is of child-bearing age and she lives in the central north Acreage. She has lived there for a year. She just got married. She is living there right now, but that is not why we do anything here or not. These are all honest people who have their job. This is what they live for. Public health.”

Asked whether he would encourage his daughter to stay in the neighborhood, Weisman said: “Yes, because I don’t know there is a problem that I can identify.”

Correction: Because of reporting errors, a previous version of this story indicated that Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink had approved a pardon for Gerald McCranie, who had been listed as a sex offender. Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson approved the pardon. According to a spokesman, Sink did not sign the pardon.

Virgil McCranie is ecstatic. After more than a decade of marriage to his “Romeo and Juliet” sweetheart, the stigma of being branded a sex molester has finally been lifted.

The Board of Executive Clemency, comprised of Florida Cabinet members Gov. Charlie Crist, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, granted McCranie a full pardon this week after leaving the Panama City Beach resident in limbo after the last clemency meeting in June.

“It sat there for two hours before I opened it,” McCranie said in a telephone interview today.

McCranie, now 34, and his wife Misty, now 28, fell in love when was he was 19 and she was 14. Since then, they’ve raised four children while struggling to make ends meet.
But their story is no fairy tale.

Misty and her father pressed charges against Virgil, accusing him of raping the minor. The rape charge was dropped but he was charged with lewd and lascivious acts against a minor and was sentenced to two years of probation.

That’s when the father of four’s nightmare began, McCranie told the clemency board in June.

He was placed on the state’s sex offender web site and has been unable to hold down a job or attend his daughter’s dance recitals, he said as he and his wife pleaded with the board to grant him a pardon.

The board took his case “under consideration,” leaving the couple in limbo.

The fact that three of the four clemency board members are running for statewide office – Crist for U.S. Senate and Sink and McCollum for governor – added to the pair’s worries.

That changed when they finally opened the letter containing the governor’s executive order and a copy of the certificate of clemency.

“I hadn’t felt that good since I was 19. I felt clean,” McCranie said.

McCranie said he hasn’t been able to hold down a job because of his sex offender status. Now he won’t have to wonder “if it was me not being good enough to do something or just me getting a bad shake from what I did,” he said. “I’m happy.”

Check out the Florida House Democratic Caucus’ new page here.

Democratic House Leader Franklin Sands of Weston explains the new site above.

It’s one thing for Attorney General Bill McCollum to let us know what he’s up to (or not up to – as the case may be), but when his communications team reminds us of the things he’s already done, well, we just have to tip our hat.

To that end, we’d like to pass along a note from McCollum’s diligent communications director Sandi Copes that McCollum & his CyberCrime Unit will be on a repeat of the Oprah Winfrey Show today (the episode originally aired in April). Check your local listings.

It’s costing taxpayers $475,000 to replace Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, who suddenly resigned with one year left on his final term and after 19 years in the legislature. The cost was reported this morning by tcpalm.com.

Pruitt is leaving the legislature – and the district that includes five counties — for a position with Weiss Handler Angelos and Cornwell, a job that could involve lobbying in the near future.

The election Tuesday features Democrat Bill Ramos and Republican Joe Negron, who won an endorsement this morning from The Palm Beach Post‘s editorial board. Read the editorial here.

Two weeks ago we reported that Florida Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, was calling shenanigans on two contracts within the state Department of Transportation that included raises for private contractors. State employees have not had raises for three consecutive years.

Today, FDOT Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos wrote to Aronberg saying no more contracts would be written or amended to include the so-called “escalation” clauses for private workers. From her letter:

“I have instituted a statewide policy eliminating any salary modification terms from new contracts and new amendments to existing contracts. The Department has also implemented a statewide contract review and renegotiation process to reduce the extent and impact of salary modification terms that may be included in existing consultant contracts.”

Aronberg is now calling for Gov. Charlie Crist to order other state agencies take similar steps.

“Private contractors ought to be responsible for their own employees’ raises. Not the taxpayers of Florida,” Aronberg said in a statement.

A man is being held in Ghana on charges of attempted extortion and identity theft against U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, the U.S. Secret Service said today.

Eric Kwame Agbosu, 27, was arrested on July 15 by authorities in the West African nation, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said.

Donovan declined to reveal other details of the case, including whether any other public figures were victimized.

A person familiar with the investigation said Wexler was contacted several weeks ago by a man from Ghana who had Wexler’s Social Security number and other information and threatened to turn the data over to identity theft specialists if Wexler didn’t pay him. The source said the man also had similar information on other public figures.

The source said Wexler refused to pay and contacted the U.S. Capitol Police. Since Wexler was contacted by the man in Ghana, the source said, unauthorized attempts have been made to gain access to Wexler’s personal bank account and to use his credit cards.

President Obama visited Ghana this month. The Secret Service said there did not appear to be any relationship between the presidential visit and the timing of the alleged extortion of Wexler.

Wexler’s office referred questions to an attorney, Pamela Marple, who issued this statement:

“Congressman Wexler greatly appreciates the professionalism and ongoing assistance of the United States Secret Service and Capitol Police regarding a matter where he was targeted as a Member of Congress and was the victim of crime involving extortion and attempted identity theft. This remains an ongoing legal matter that will be closely monitored.”

Florida Republicans, who disobeyed their national party’s presidential primary calendar last year, will now have one of their own shaping the schedule for 2012.

State Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer won the coveted position of the national party’s rules chairman on Thursday, but he immediately dismissed the possibility that he would sway the calendar to benefit Florida voters or a possible presidential run by Gov. Charlie Crist.

(more…)

As Tuesday’s special election for Senate District 28 approaches, former Republican state Rep. Joe Negron of Stuart is running his third ad of the campaign to replace retiring Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie. The spot, running only on cable TV, features Pruitt touting Negron as “a leader who will always put people first.”

Negron raised more than $400,000 for the race. Democratic rival Bill Ramos raised $31,684 through July 9 and didn’t have enough money to buy any TV ads.

In a sign that Negron sees things going well for his campaign, none of his ads mention Ramos.

Former Democratic state Rep. James Henry “Hank” Harper Jr., who this week failed to qualify for an Aug. 25 special state House election because of a paperwork mixup, will announce this afternoon that he’s endorsing Riviera Beach Councilman Cedrick Thomas in the race over Delray Beach City Commissioner Mack Bernard.

Harper noted that Thomas lives in District 84 while Bernard currently does not. The seat was represented by Priscilla Taylor until she was appointed this month to the Palm Beach County Commission.

“I know that Cedrick has been very involved in the district. It is necessary for me to support someone who has at least worked diligently in the district,” Harper said. He and Thomas are slated to appear together at a 3 p.m. news conference at Riviera Beach City Hall.

Dr. Pedro Jose Greer, a physician and the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Florida International University School of Medicine, was announced today as one of 16 recipients this year for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Greer, who is also FIU’s Chair of the Department of Humanities, Health and Society, is the founder of Camillus Health Concern, an agency that provides medical care to over 10,000 homeless patients a year in the city of Miami.

He is also the founder and medical director of the St. John Bosco Clinic which provides basic primary medical care to disadvantaged children and adults in the Little Havana community. He has been recognized by Presidents Clinton, Bush, Sr., and Carter for his work with Miami’s poor . He is also the recipient of three Papal Medals as well as the prestigious MacArthur “genius grant”. He currently has a joint private practice with his father, Pedro Greer, Sr.

For a list of other recipients, continue reading.

(more…)

As Gov. Charlie Crist asks Floridians tohope for the economy to turn around, numbers released Wednesday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics show Florida among the hardest hit areas of the country.

The map above breaks down unemployment rates by metro area and shows the three toughest places to find work in Florida are huddled along the state’s central Atlantic Coast: 15.5 percent unemployment in Palm Coast; 14.1 percent in Sebastian-Vero Beach and 13.1 percent in Port St. Lucie.

For comparison, unemployment in the Detroit area is 17.1 percent, the highest among the country’s 49 most populated metro areas. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Boynton Beach has an 11.1 percent unemployment rate.

Click on the map above to enlarge it. And for a chart comparing the recent trend of Florida’s unemployment rates to the national average, click here.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, a Tequesta Republican who Democrats apparently hope will just quit his office (they’ve yet to field an opponent), was put in the crosshairs Wednesday of the latest round of stimulus politics.

Hoping to push back against Republican claims that the stimulus plan isn’t working, the Democratic National Committee released a cable today ad (watch to the right) that targets veteran Republicans who are “playing politics with our economy.”

Rooney, a freshman lawmaker, is not included in the ad, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee simultaneously sent out this press release questioning Rooney’s commitment to law enforcement:

(more…)

Republican Bill McCollum announced his “Statewide Campaign Leadership Structure,” a lengthy list of elected Republicans from around the state, including potential rival Charles Bronson as the chairman.

Get the entire list after the jump.

(more…)

After Republican state Senate hopeful Joe Negron told supporters last week that liberal MoveOn.org is trying to turn out voters for Democratic foe Bill Ramos, MoveOn.org Political Action Executive Director Justin Ruben responded:

“As a federal PAC, MoveOn.org Political Action does not work on state legislative races and is not involved in the Florida District 28 special election.”

(more…)

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson is pushing for a “one-stop” federal center and assistance typically used for hurricane victims to aid homeowners with Chinese drywall.

In a letter sent Tuesday, Nelson, D-Fla., asks President Obama to “create a ‘one-stop’ federal Drywall Assistance Center” that homeowners can go to for information and resources regarding the defective material.

The link to that article and more can be found on the right side of this page under ‘Today in The Palm Beach Post,’ a list of stories, editorials and columns of political and state interest published in today’s print edition of the newspaper.

Opening a campaign and actually qualifying for a spot on the ballot are two different things in Florida. The distinction can confuse ordinary citizens or first-time candidates. It also tripped up former Democratic state Rep. James Henry “Hank” Harper Jr. on Tuesday, even though he’s been through the qualifying process three times before.

Click here to read how Harper failed to qualify for the special election to fill the state House District 84 seat.

Blaming pressure from the Obama administration and congressional colleagues, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, has dropped an amendment aimed at weakening the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gays.

Hastings’ amendment to a defense appropriations bill would not have repealed the policy that allows the military to discharge a servicemember for homosexual conduct, but would have withheld the use of federal money to investigate or discharge military personnel for revealing their sexual orientation.

“Due to pressure from some of my Congressional colleagues and from the White House, I have withdrawn my amendment. I would, however, like to note that it is most unfortunate that we are not addressing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell at this time. We should not be appropriating funds to enable qualified service members to be booted out just because they are honest about whom they are,” a Hastings statement late yesterday said.

Read his entire statement after the jump……

(more…)

Elissa Pearl, a labor lawyer who was running for an open state House seat, announced this afternoon that she instead plans to run for the seat of Palm Beach County Commissioner and fellow Democrat Jess Santamaria next year.

Pearl, 37, is a relative unknown in local politics. But she is expected to hire well-connected Neil Schiller and Eric Johnson as her consultants. Attorney Schiller has handled several successful legislative campaigns and Johnson is the chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton.

Santamaria, 71, represents western District 6 on the commission. A longtime developer and businessman in Royal Palm Beach, Santamaria entered politics for the first time in 2006 and won the seat as a reformist outsider after former District 6 Commissioner Tony Masilotti resigned in a corruption scandal.

(more…)

Though he collected enough signatures to get on the ballot for a special state House election, the Florida Division of Elections says former Democratic state Rep. James Henry “Hank” Harper Jr. did not qualify for the race to replace Priscilla Taylor.

Two other Democrats — Riviera Beach Councilman Cedrick Thomas and Delray Beach City Commissioner Mack Bernard — qualified for the District 84 race before today’s noon deadline.

Harper said he was unaware of any problem with his candidate paperwork and planned to call the Division of Elections for an explanation.

“The Division of Elections did not receive qualifying papers for Mr. Harper,” a spokeswoman for the Florida Secretary of State said in an e-mail.

With no other candidates running, an Aug. 25 primary will decide who serves the final 14 months of Taylor’s House term. Taylor left her House seat when Gov. Charlie Crist appointed her to a Palm Beach County commission vacancy.