Gov. Charlie Crist is ordering agencies to audit their compliance with state law requiring criminal background checks on workers who deal with children, the frail or the elderly.

Crist ordered the review after The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that about more than 6,000 people had been approved by the state to work with the elderly, disabled and children, including some who had been convicted of murder and rape.

Crist is asking a host of agencies to examine the current legal requirements for screening, compliance and report back to him on Nov. 2.

Crist’s order comes on the heels of Democratic Sen. Nan Rich’s filing of legislation to tighten up screening requirements.

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Equality Florida threw its support to Sen. Dan Gelber in the Democratic attorney general primary — Florida’s largest LGBT was the first statewide group to weigh in the race. Their press release is here.

Meanwhile, Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres added Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson to the list of law enforcement officials back him. The Dobson’s presser is here.

The Public Service Commission’s inspector general won’t investigate Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, turning down a request from a business group backing Florida Power & Light Co.’s proposed $1.3 billion rate hike.

PSC Inspector General Steven Stolting told Associated Industries of Florida lawyer Tamela Perdue in a letter that he won’t investigate allegations of impropriety and impartiality revealed in BlackBerry PIN messages exchanged between Argenziano and former aide Larry Harris.

AIF should file an ethics complaint instead, Stolting advised.

Stolting’s office is restricted to “conduct oversight activities within the Commission,” he wrote.

Argenziano called AIF’s accusations “baseless” and “stupid.”

Read here about FPL’s connection to AIF’s press release demanding the investigation.

Utility regulators should not delay a vote this year on Florida Power & Light Co.’s proposed $1.3 billion rate hike, Public Service Commission staff recommended today.

Gov. Charlie Crist asked the panel to hold off on FPL’s rate case and on Progress Energy Florida’s proposed $500 million rate increase until next year when his new hand-picked commissioners join the panel on Jan. 1.

FPL’s rate case is slated to resume Wednesday and finish up on Friday after dragging on more than two months longer than originally scheduled.

The PSC should ignore Crist’s request, staff wrote in a recommendation today. The panel is scheduled to vote on the recommendation next Tuesday.

The PSC is scheduled to vote on the amount of FPL’s base rate hike on Dec. 21 and on Progress Energy’s on Nov. 19.

FPL argued that the case should move forward because it would take the new commissioners – former newspaper editorial writer David Klement and Panhandle accountant and bar owner and manager Benjamin “Steve” Stevens – too long to get up to speed on the voluminous filings in the cases.
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Bowing to pressure from federal officials, Sen. Jeff Atwater said today he’d like a December special session to address rail issues.

Gov. Charlie Crist said this afternoon that he would welcome the reconsideration of a controversial commuter rail project that lawmakers failed to pass in the spring and another stab at a gambling compact with the Seminoles.

“That’s a great idea,” Crist said.

Senate President Jeff Atwater, meeting with leaders from Congress and the White House today over Medicaid and rail transit issues said he wants a December special session to show the federal government that Florida needs $2.5 billion in federal stimulus money for high-speed rail.

“The President would like to give the Federal government an answer by the end of the year, December being the earliest we could feasibly have a special session. He plans to talk with the Speaker, Governor and Senate members in coming days,” Atwater’s spokeswoman Jaryn Emhof said in an e-mail.

Here’s our front-page story this morning on some of the issues facing high-speed rail in Florida.

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The Florida Police Benevolent Association endorsed Republican Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign today in Tallahassee. The group has been a long-time supporter of Crist.

“We’re gonna hate to lose you as our governor, but we know we’re going to enjoy you as our U.S. senator,” said Florida PBA President John Rivera.

Crist is facing a Republican primary against former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

UPDATED with a comment from Lois Frankel below.

WEST PALM BEACH — Appearing with a dozen Democratic elected officials a few blocks away from potential rival Lois Frankel’s office, state Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, said his congressional campaign has already topped $100,000 in contributions since setting up a campaign web site late Thursday.

Deutch is running for the seat of U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, who last week announced he’s stepping down in January to head the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

Deutch’s campaign today announced endorsements from 16 elected Democrats. Most of them stood behind Deutch outside the Palm Beach County Governmental Center this morning. The endorsers include County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, who said he gave “a lot of thought” to running for Wexler’s seat.

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Two utility regulators’ aides are back on the job after being suspended with pay during investigations into BlackBerry messages exchanged with utility representatives.

Public Service Commission Chairman Matthew Carter reinstated aide William Garner on Oct. 5 and Commissioner Lisa Edgar put aide Roberta Bass back to work on Oct. 12.

The aides will be on the job when the PSC continues a hearing on Florida Power & Light Co.’s $1.3 billion rate hike request on Wednesday.

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After a four-decade hiatus, the Last Train to Paradise may soon pull back into the station.

Plans are rolling ahead to possibly invest more than $5 billion to turn 350 miles of the Florida East Coast Railway, whose rusty freight cars now rattle straight through the state’s coastal downtowns, into a sleek, intercity passenger rail system that would rival those of Europe.

Transit gurus say South Florida’s future, as much as its past, will depend on passenger rail. The state’s population is expected to grow several times faster than its highway capacity, virtually guaranteeing bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic on all major roads by 2025.

“If you think it’s crowded today on the state’s roads, the long-term picture is really scary,” said Kim Delaney, growth management coordinator for the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.

Read the rest of Post reporter Paul Quinlan’s story here.

Republican Allen West, the retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel making a second attempt to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Ron Klein of Boca Raton, has adopted a different money strategy for his 2010 campaign.

West raised a meager $583,877 for his 2008 race and got 45.3 percent of the vote against Klein, who spent more than $2.3 million.

This time around, West has already raised $543,808 . But so far, West isn’t socking away that money. He has already spent $336,427. More than $230,000 of that figure has gone to direct-mail consultants and services.

West and consultant Ed Brookover say they hope the early expenditures pay off by next fall in the form of a steady revenue stream from contributors around the U.S.

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Utility regulators have added an extra day to hear testimony in the $1.3 billion Florida Power & Light Co. rate hike case.

The base rate case is already into overtime and is running long past the original two weeks scheduled for early August, including several back-to-back 12-plus hour days of testimony.

The Public Service Commission was slated to finish the hearings on Wednesday and Thursday but this morning added Friday to the schedule.

Only four commissioners remain on the regulatory panel – former Commissioner Katrina McMurrian walked off the $133,000 a year job recently after Gov. Charlie Crist effectively fired her and Chairman Matthew Carter and appointed two new members who will take over on Jan. 1.

The Juno Beach-based utility’s rate case and Progress Energy Florida’s proposed $500 million base rate increase is shining an unwelcome spotlight on the agency that heretofore operated with little public interest.
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Fifteen elected Democrats from Palm Beach County are slated to appear this morning with state Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, to show their support for his special-election bid for the congressional seat of think tank-bound U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton.

The event will take place at 11:30 a.m. outside the Palm Beach County Governmental Center — a block or so away from the office of West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel, who’s considering entering the congressional race herself.

In addition to Frankel, the other big question mark is Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter.

Read the list of Deutch’s endorsers after the jump…..

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With U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, resigning in January, state Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, has announced he’ll run in the special election to replace Wexler. That has state Rep. Maria Sachs and others eyeing Deutch’s Senate seat — which will only be open if Deutch wins the congressional race.

Read about it in this week’s Politics column…..

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, was never a giant on Capitol Hill.

But he was a colossus of the condo belt, adored by Democratic retirees in his liberal Palm Beach-Broward district and influential in shaping other political races there.

“If he felt something strongly enough,” says Century Village of Boca Raton Democratic leader Marvin Manning, “we would support him, many times without giving a second thought.”

Wexler, resigning midterm to head a Middle East think tank, will be replaced in Congress by a special election. But no one appears ready to assume his condo clout.

Read about it here.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign is running its first two radio ads across the state. Listen to “Out of Control” and “Enough is Enough” here.

The ads are pretty much the same. Read the transcripts and fact check after the jump.

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The state’s trial lawyer association suspended Executive Director Scott Carruthers, Deputy Executive Director Paul Jess and political director Albert Balido for their involvement in a racially-tinged flyer targeting then-candidate John Thrasher.

“We repeat FJA’s apology for our financial role in the offensive and appalling absentee mail piece,” FJA President Michael Haggard said in a press release.

Haggard asked former Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan to investigate the mailer and released Kogan’s report today after a board of directors’ meeting in Orlando.

The mailer sent to potential absentee voters was aimed at persuading Jacksonville residents to vote against Thrasher, a Republican, in the race to replace the late Sen. Jim King. Thrasher, a former House Speaker, later won the election.

The mailer depicted Black Panthers, President Barack Obama, Al Sharpton, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a group of blacks holding an ACORN sign and was captioned “Is this the change you want to believe in?”

Kogan’s report, slightly longer than three pages, found that the three FJA executives were the only members of the organization who had knowledge of the flyer that drew outrage from Republicans and black lawmakers.

Everyone questioned about the mailer found it “outrageous, shocking, disgusting and contradicting everything FJA represents,” Kogan wrote in his report.

The trial lawyers initially distanced themselves from the mailer then admitted that Balido had hired political consultant Bill Helmich to come up with the last-minute attack.

“Bill, did it have to be so over the top?” Balido asked when initially shown the mail piece, according to Kogan’s report.

FJA promised that an oversight committee would review all campaign materials and expenditures in the future, according to the press release. (Read about FJA’s campaign spending at a bondage bar and a trendy South Beach night club here.)

The press release did not identify the three executives by name but said that “all three staff members specifically identified in the Kogan Report for their involvement in the matter have been temporarily suspended.”

A special election to replace U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, will cost Palm Beach County about $600,0000, Elections Supervisor Susan Bucher says. And if state Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, wins that election, Bucher estimates it could cost another $500,000 to hold a special election to fill Deutch’s Senate seat.

Wexler is leaving in January, midway through his seventh term, to head the nonprofit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

Under state law, the county can recover special election costs from the state. But the reimbursements won’t come until July 1 at the earliest and could take longer, Florida Department of State spokeswoman Jennifer Krell Davis said.

Palm Beach County has already submitted requests for about $246,000 to recover expenses from special elections this summer to fill a state Senate vacancy and an open state House seat.

Bucher’s estimates for the special congressional and state Senate elections assume there is both a primary and general election for each seat. Both districts run into Broward County. Bucher didn’t estimate costs there.

The Public Service Commission just agreed by a 3-1 vote to let customers pick up the tab for $62.7 million of Florida Power & Light’s construction costs for new nuclear power plants.

Commissioner Nancy Argenziano casting the sole vote against the increase.

FPL customers will pay $0.67 for 1,000 kilowatt hours for the nuclear cost charges next year as a result of today’s vote.

The Juno Beach-based utility is also asking for a $1.3 billion base rate hike, but when the panel votes on that issue remains unclear.

Gov. Charlie Crist asked the PSC to wait until next year when his two new appointees to the regulatory agency come on board to vote on the FPL base rate hike and another $500 million base rate increase sought by Progress Energy Florida.

Argenziano, appointed by Crist in 2007, is likely to become chairwoman of the panel next year.

Even if FPL’s base rate increase is approved, customers’ bills will go down by at least $9 because of a drop in fuel charges.

Public Service Commission Chairman Matthew Carter wants everyone to leave him and his colleagues alone so they can get on with their jobs and has no plans to ask for an internal investigation into charges of possible conflicts of interest or bias against Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, he said today.

“Right now I plan on getting through this hearing,” Carter told reporters during a break in a nuclear cost recovery meeting now ongoing.

The panel is scheduled to vote later today on requests from Florida Power & Light Co. to charge customers $63 million for what the utility’s expenses on nuclear power plant construction and a similar $236 million request from Progress Energy Florida.

Yesterday, Associated Industries of Florida President Barney Bishop asked that PSC’s inspector general look into thousands of BlackBerry messages exchanged between Argenziano and her aide Larry Williams over the past two years. Bishop accused Argenziano of potentially breaking laws barring ex parte communications between regulators and the utilities and of breaking her oath of office in unflattering comments aimed at her colleagues.

Read about FPL’s link with AIF’s press release here.

AIF’s demand is yet another distraction for the panel also poised to vote on about $2 billion in base rate increases – $1.3 billion sought by FPL and $500 million by Progress.

Ten days ago, the panel turned down a $1.6 billion request from FPL to build a natural gas pipeline through 14 counties.

State Attorney Willie Meggs said recently that his investigators have found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing at the agency. And several internal investigations resulted in similar findings.
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That’s the headline in this Wall Street Journal story today that, of course, mentions the GOP primary between Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

In Florida, Republican leaders were elated when popular Florida Gov. Charlie Crist agreed to run for the Senate. He has adopted policies such as an aggressive approach to global warming that appeal even to Democrats. Those very policies infuriated conservatives, as did Mr. Crist’s decision to campaign with President Barack Obama on behalf of the president’s $787 billion stimulus package.

“He was Judas to the Republican Party in the state of Florida and across the country,” says Robin Stublen, 53, of Punta Gorda, co-state coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, a loose national coalition. “He sold us out for 13 pieces of gold.”