Gov. Charlie Crist’s office has shut down the ability of its staff to text, PIN or instant message, spokeswoman Erin Isaac said.
At the urging of the governor’s office, several agencies have followed suit.
On Tuesday, Crist appeared eager to follow actions taken by state Attorney General Bill McCollum to start recording instant messages and PINs (messages sent between Blackberry devices, as opposed to messages sent between e-mails addresses or phone numbers).
But it appears Crist’s office has instead decided to adjust its servers so no PINs or IMs can be sent and take the additional step of contacting its mobile phone service provider to shut down text message capabilities.
Klein said he wants constituents who click on specific projects to tell him if they aren’t doing what they are supposed to do.
“We want to make sure that our local people…can see what’s going on in their local community and can be part of the eyes and ears to make sure this money is being spent correctly,” Klein said today in an appearance at the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail station, where he touted a $13.6 million federal expenditure to buy four new locomotives and make other transit improvements.
Said Klein, who voted for the $787 billion stimulus bill: “If the money’s doing its job and creating jobs and creating benefit in our community, I’m all for it. And if we find that it’s not being spent, or its being spent on anything other than creating jobs, we need to cancel it, pull it back and find a better way to support our local community.”
A man who asked not to be identified walks into a South Florida Mobile Workforce van to apply for a job at the Community Partnership for the Homeless in Homestead in August. (AP photo)
Unemployment rates dropped slightly in 53 of Florida’s 67 counties, contributing to a dip in the state’s overall rate of out of work citizens, unemployment numbers out today show.
Click here for more about our local unemployment rates. And go here for more detailed statewide information.
Florida counties with highest unemployment rates in August (change from July):
1. Hendry: 16.4% (-1.8%)
2. Flagler: 15.7% (-3.1%)
3. Indian River: 15.3% (-0.7%)
4. St. Lucie: 14.7% (-1.3%)
5. Lee: 13.5% (+1.5%)*
6. Hernando: 13.3% (-0.7%) 24. Martin 11.5% (0%) 27. Palm Beach 11.3 (-0.9%)
Florida: 10.9% (-1.8%) *Other Florida counties where unemployment increased last month were Collier, Gulf, Lake, Lee, Marion and Osceola.
U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler of Delray Beach, Alcee Hastings of Miramar, Kathy Castor of Tampa and Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Pembroke Pines are among 92 House Democrats who have co-sponsored the “Respect for Marriage Act,” a bill introduced Tuesday to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. That 1996 law bars some benefits from same-sex couples.
Absent from the sponsorship of the bill is Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), an openly-gay and usually vocal proponent of GLBT rights. Both Pelosi and Frank believe the bill has little chance of passage, and prefer to implement legislation that would take gradual steps to repeal DOMA.
“Given that there is zero chance of this bill becoming law in the near future, it is a mistake to explicitly introduce this crossing state lines issue,” Frank said. “The controversy now will not be about whether we should have the federal government treat people fairly in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, etc., but whether we should export [marriage recognition] to Ohio and Florida.”
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, and some other Democrats who voted against a measure to deny federal money to scandal-tainted ACORN said they did so because they regarded the action as an unconstitutional “bill of attainder.”
Wexler was on the losing end of a 345-75 House vote in which local U.S. Reps. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, voted with the majority and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, answered “present.”
A bill of attainder, forbidden in Article I, Section IX of the constitution, is a legislative act that imposes punishment on a specific person or group without a trial or hearing. But there’s legal precendent allowing a law that singles out an entity if “the law under challenge, viewed in terms of the type and severity of burdens imposed, reasonably can be said to further nonpunitive legislative purposes.”
Florida Power & Light’s proposed $1.3 billion rate hike 13-hour marathon hearing yesterday concluded with one head-injured FPL lawyer, an order for an independent audit of the utility’s corporate jet spending and yet another delay to hear yet more testimony next month.
Public Service Commissioner Nathan Skop demanded the audit to check into the Juno Beach-based utility’s fuzzy accounting for VIPs, their wives and guests who flew, some at customers’ expense, to far-flung destinations including Europe, Martha’s Vineyard and Louisville during the Kentucky Derby.
FPL will have spent at least $32.5 million between 2006 and 2009 on the corporate aircraft travel alone, its records show.
“It’s very important to me that the rate payers of FPL are not being allocated costs that are not prudently incurred,” Skop said.
Florida Power & Light Co.’s proposed $1.3 billion rate hike hearing fizzled out at 10:55 p.m. this evening after a 13-hour marathon of testimony from FPL CFO Armando Pimentel.
Public Service Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, attending the hearing by telephone, spoke up before the panel was set to take a five-minute respite.
“I really think this is wrong. 10:44 at night is not a good time for people” to be asking important questions,” Argenziano said. “I’m sure everybody there wants to go home.
That’s just not the way to do this. I have strong feelings that we may have pushed it too far or too late.”
PSC Chairman Matthew Carter, who’s had two back surgeries earlier this year, was in such pain late this evening that he went home after being helped out of the room by an aide.
Commissioner Lisa Edgar had already vacated hours earlier.
That left Commissioners Katrina McMurrian, acting as chairwoman, Nathan Skop and Argenziano to decide.
Argenziano won out in the end over FPL’s objections. Pimentel wanted to finish up because he did not want to have to return for the next round of hearings in late October, his lawyer said.
“We all want to get done. We’ve been at it more than 13 hours today,” said Sheffel Wright, an attorney representing the Florida Retail Federation that opposes the hike.
“I tend to agree with a lot of what’s been said. I think we are at that stage and we are getting a little overly tired and anxious,” McMurrian said, stumbling over her words. “I can’t even string a sentence together.”
She adjourned the meeting. The panel will reconvene on Oct. 21.
Glades County Sheriff Stuart Whiddon is endorsing state Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, in the Democratic primary for Florida attorney general. Whiddon joins Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara in backing Aronberg, who faces state Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, in the primary for Florida’s top lawyer’s job.
Said Whiddon, in a statement released today by Aronberg’s campaign: “Dave fits the mold of an ideal Attorney General….previous experience already working in the office as assistant AG, a track record of getting consumer protection laws passed, even experience at the federal level fighting terrorism by going after money laundering operations…no one else can offer Floridians that kind of background and dedication to the job.“
Rate increase opponent Jon Moyle, who represents the Florida Industrial Power Users Group, questioned Pimentel about the impression the jet travel to the hearing seeking the increase might leave with consumers.
The situation is nothing like the CEOs of the nation’s big three auto makers who traveled to Washington D.C. to ask for a $25 billion bailout, Villafana said in an e-mail.
“This is what you need to know:
OUR customer bills are the lowest in Florida.The bill will go down further in 2010 if our proposal is approved.
Reliability is high. Clean energy. Creating thousands of jobs. And millions in taxes for local communities. How is it exactly like auto executives?” he wrote.
Villafana then pointed out that Moyle’s client is a “special interest” group that represents some of the state’s worst pollutors, including mining, phosphate and cement companies.
And FIPUG complains that FPL – which has tried to keep information like executives’ salaries private – “has ‘too much secrecy’ yet refused to identify its own members,” Villafana wrote.
Florida Power & Light Group Chief Financial Officer Armando Pimentel flew to Tallahassee on the corporate jet to appear before a panel considering the utility’s proposed $1.3 billion rate hike.
After nearly 10 hours of testimony, attorney Jon Moyle, who represents the Florida Industrial Power Users Group, asked the CFO about traveling to Tallahassee on the corporate plane.
“Did you have a concern when you decided to take the corporate aircraft up to provide your testimony that that might send a bad signal or a bad message to fly on the corporate aircraft up here to provide testimony to support a $1.5 billion rate increase?” Moyle wanted to know.
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 by Michael C. Bender
Gov. Charlie Crist’s press office said it received about 100 inquiries today regarding recent controversies involving ACORN, including one from Crist’s U.S. Senate Republican primary opponent, Marco Rubio. We’re awaiting a sample of these letters.
The text of the reply from Crist’s office is below.
Public Service Commissioner Nancy Argenziano’s former aide Larry Harris is back at work at the utility regulatory agency in the general counsel’s office.
Two other commissioners – including Chairman Matthew Carter – put their aides, who make at least $84,000 a year, on paid leave until investigations into the messaging mystery are resolved.
Harris was reassigned to the general counsel’s office as a senior attorney where he now earns $60,000 a year. The PSC’s general counsel Booter Imhof resigned Friday. He gave two weeks’ notice and said he is going back to work for the House of Representatives.
The PSC’s lobbyist Ryder Rudd resigned earlier this month after it was revealed that he attended a Kentucky Derby party at the Palm Beach Gardens home of FPL VP Ed Tancer. An internal investigation could not prove whether Rudd, who oversaw staff handling several FPL rate requests, broke state law or rules by going to the fete.
The musical chairs at the PSC takes place during a $1.3 billion proposed FPL rate hike hearing. Progress Energy Florida is also seeking a $500 million rate increase. That case is scheduled to resume next week.
The U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate this afternoon in voting to cut off any federal money to scandal-plagued ACORN.
The vote was 345-75 to attach a Republican anti-ACORN measure to a student aid bill. All 75 “no” votes came from Democrats, including U.S. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton. Wexler considers the language unconstitutional, a spokesman said.
U.S. Reps. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, supported the measure.
U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, answered “present.”
The left-leaning Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now has been under fire since a pair of guerrilla videographers — one of them a 20-year-old minister’s daughter who attends Florida International University — posed as a prostitute and a pimp and captured hidden-camera footage of ACORN employees offering advice on how to set up a brothel and conceal the income.
Florida Power & Light Co.’s $1.3 billion rate hike request hearing is temporarily halted – again – because of an injury to one of the utility’s lawyers.
FPL attorney John Butler got hit in the head by a door leaving the hearing room. The door-slinger was Jon Moyle, a 6’4″ lawyer on the other side who was once an offensive lineman for the University of Florida and now represents the Florida Industrial Power Users Group.
Butler, a good six inches shorter than Moyle, has a lump on his forehead and a white butterfly bandage covering a cut near the center of his face. No word yet whether any lawsuits will be filed on the injury.
Former Florida House Speaker and Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio picked up the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, today — doubling his endorsement total from Florida’s congressional delegation.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Pensacola, has also endorsed Rubio, who faces an uphill GOP primary against Gov. Charlie Crist.
“In the Senate, Marco will stand up for Florida’s taxpayers, not with President Obama and dangerous big government spending,” Brown-Waite said in a reference to Crist’s support for the Obama-backed $787 billion stimulus package. With Rubio running to the right of Crist, Brown-Waite called Rubio a “consistent, principled conservative.”
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 by Michael C. Bender
A program advertised by Republican House leaders as a solution for many of the state’s 3.6 million residents without health insurance still has no insurers or businesses signed up, according to a report from Health News Florida.
That makes (Florida Health Choice) even less successful than the program created at the same time, Gov. Charlie Crist’s “Cover Florida.” At the end of July, Cover Florida had about 4,130 policies. …
The results so far mean neither Crist nor Marco Rubio, his opponent in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, can use the state’s efforts on the uninsured as campaign fodder. Rubio pushed the Health Choices plan as House Speaker.
The idea was that Florida Health Choices would promise employers a free market where any package of care could be sold by approved providers, including chiropractors, dentists, and other non-traditional sources of insurance. The benefits would be paid for with pre-tax dollars.
The hearing, slated to last 10 days but now on day 13, will go on for three more days next month – Oct. 21-23.
And the panel won’t vote on how much of the requested increase will be granted until Dec. 21. Then, on Jan. 11, the panel will vote on the specific rates and charges.
So how much will FPL customers’ rates go up?
They won’t. Because of lower fuel costs, electric bills will go down. The question is how much.
Customers would pay even less if the panel rejects the base rate increase.
The PSC usually grants a portion of requested rate increases. But FPL’s $1.3 billion rate hike increase – the largest ever requested in Florida and anywhere in the nation – is not the typical base rate case.
Gov. Charlie Crist threatened not to reappoint two commissioners if they vote for the rate hike.
An FPL financial consultant said yesterday that the shifting political climate under Crist could bring the state’s largest utility to its knees by damaging its ability to borrow.
PSC Chairman Matthew Carter announced the new schedule before breaking for lunch. Today’s hearing, like yesterday’s, is set to go for another 12-hour marathon run.
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 by Michael C. Bender
Gov. Charlie Crist regrets not following his instinct to leave a press conference when he gets the chance. In this video, Crist returns to the podium for one last question, but quickly reverses course when he realizes it’s about recent comments from former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Blagojevich, who was impeached after a federal investigation showed he was selling an appointment to the U.S. Senate, recently criticized Crist’s U.S. Senate appointment. Crist installed his former campaign manager, George LeMieux, into the seat while Crist prepares his own campaign for the office.
Blagojevich, who maintains his innocence and is hitting the news circuit lately to promote a book, told Fox News that Crist’s decision to “hold the seat warm for him” was worse than anything Blagojevich did. Blagojevich says if he’s guilty of anything, its looking out for his state. Those claims likely will be decided by a jury.
When we caught up with Crist later, he said he didn’t know what Blagojevich had said.
Former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio has written a letter to his 2010 GOP Senate primary rival, Gov. Charlie Crist, asking him to probe scandal-rocked ACORN’s activities in Florida.
Gov. Charlie Crist’s recent threats not to reappoint two Public Service Commissioners if they vote for a proposed $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike could scare investors away from investing in the utility, an expert testified today.
Bill Avera, a financial analyst hired by FPL, said that the regulatory climate in Florida had changed under Crist and that credit rating agencies, including Moody’s and Fitch, were paying attention.
“The governor cautioned this commission to regard carefully the outcome of this case and even suggested that the tenure of the reappointment of some of the commissioners might be in question based on the outcome of this case. That is unusual. That is the kind of political change that rating agencies are very concerned about,” Avera told the panel during a marathon hearing slated to last 12 hours today.
Opponents of the rate hike grilled Avera throughout the day but those comments temporarily quieted attorney Sheffel Wright.
“Surely you don’t think that Gov. Crist wants the commission to do anything that would render FPL unable to cover its debt service?” Wright asked after a long pause.
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” replied Avera. What matters is what the credit rating agencies believe, he said.
“I think investors see this as a change in posture in Florida. The long tradition in Florida is one where the commission has been free to exercise its expertise in making decisions that it thinks serve the customers long term. When the political leaders insert their judgment, that’s the kind of thing that scares investors,” Avera said.
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Gov. Charlie Crist’s office has shut down the ability of its staff to text, PIN or instant message, spokeswoman Erin Isaac said.
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