An update on red-light cameras in the Senate Transportation Committee gave lawmakers the opportunity to vent some concerns about the traffic devices.
Sen. Larcenia Bullard related a tale of one of her constituents’ sons who was caught by a red-light camera while toting some of his pot-smoking pals. Police used the tape showing his back-seat buddies getting high to charge the teenager with a drug offense instead of a traffic infraction, said Bullard, whose district includes part of Palm Beach County.
Bullard said the cameras should take photos limited in size to the trunk of the car and not include the window of the vehicle. That way officers – and others – can’t peek at what’s going on inside, she said.
“A man is sitting in the back seat with a woman who he’s not married to and his wife,” Bullard, D-Miami, said, drawing snickers from her committee colleagues. “But it’s very true. This is real. This stuff happens. I see where this camera is really working but we need to get beyond taking pictures of that back window where you can see someone cheating on his wife or someone smoking marijuana.”
Rep. Jeff Clemens, a Lake Worth Democrat, has filed a bill that would ban banks from charging customers for using debit cards.
The bill (HB 375) doesn’t have a Senate sponsor and the GOP-dominated legislature is unlikely to pass the measure. Clemens filed his bill on Monday, capitalizing on recent protests by Occupy Wall Street supporters, who held rallies throughout the world this weekend, including in Lake Worth.
“The banks sold us all on the idea of a cashless society, and now that we’ve bought into their promise of free, easy access to our own money, they want to charge us for it,” Clemens, who served as Lake Worth mayor before coming to Tallahassee, said in a statement. “Anyone with a sense of decency should be outraged.”
Clemens’ proposal makes it unlawful “to charge or impose a dormancy fee, and inactivity fee or charge, or a service fee with respect to the use or holding of a debit card by a consumer.”
Wells Fargo and Bank of America, the first banks to announce monthly fees for debit cards, are raking in huge profits, according to Clemens. Bank of America has paid no federal income tax for the past two years, claiming losses in its federal filings and is planning to eliminate 30,000 jobs. Wells Fargo netted more than $7.5 billion in profits during the first half of this year, Clemens said.
Federal laws govern banking regulations but Clemens said a recent U.S. Supreme Court that gave the New York attorney general oversight over some federally chartered financial institutions.
Representative Clemens has also started a Facebook page entitled G.R.E.E.D. (Get Rid of Excessive Expenses for Debitcards) that he hopes will serve as a sort of rallying point for those who are outraged and a clearinghouse for banking horror stories.
Clemens said he also started a Facebook page called “Get Rid of Excessive Expenses for Debitcards,” or G.R.E.E.D. to “serve as a rallying point for those who are outraged and a clearinghouse for banking horror stories,” according to the release.
Plant City businessman Mike McCalister raised about $71,000 during the third quarter for his Republican U.S. Senate bid, his campaign said today. That places McCalister — who served 33 years in the Army National Guard, Army Reserves and active duty and retired with the rank of colonel — financially far behind his three main GOP primary rivals.
Federal Election Commission reports were due Saturday but have not yet been posted on the FEC site.
Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner raised $535,000 in the quarter. Former appointed Sen. George LeMieux collected $402,916 and former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller raised $226,000.
McCalister’s total came from nearly 2,000 donors, consultant Buzz Jacobs said.
The GOP candidates together raised less than incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who raised nearly $2 million in the quarter.
After nearly a decade, Florida doctors can now check out their patients’ prescription drug history in an online database aimed at curbing “doctor-shopping” and other illicit pain pill abuses.
The Elecronic – Florida Online Reporting of Conrolled Substances Evaluation (E-FORCSE) went live today after narrowly escaping being killed earlier this year by Gov. Rick Scott and other high-ranking GOP lawmakers.
After today, doctors can tap into the database to view their patients’ prescription drug history and view when and where they filled their prescription and who wrote it. Law enforcement officials will be able to access the database to investigate drug-related crimes.
Supporters of the system, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and state Surgeon General Frank Farmer, hope doctors use the database even though they aren’t required to. Bondi was instrumental in getting lawmakers to reach an agreement over the database this spring.
The Florida Medical Association and the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association are asking their members to participate.
“The prescription database is perhaps the single most important patient safety program to launch in recent memory,” Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said in a statement. Fasano has tried for nearly a decade to get the database up-and-running. Lawmakers were so skittish about the database they forbade the use of state money to create and operate it. The Prescription Drug Program Monitoring Foundation, the non-profit organization footing the bill for the system, and the state have received $800,000 in federal grants for the database.
“After many years and many obstacles to overcome, the database is going live at a time when it is needed most. Although we will never know the number of lives that will be saved, we will know that many lives will not be lost as long as the database is consulted by every doctor every time he or she considers writing a controlled substance prescription,” Fasano said.
U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, raised an amazing $1.96 million for his 2012 reelection campaign between July 1 and Sept. 30.
But his campaign also spent a hefty $1.4 million during the quarter, much of it on the machinery of his direct-mail fundraising effort.
West switched direct-mail consultants from a firm called Base Connect to one called Response America, which received $132,609 in the quarter. He paid vendor Capitol Hill Lists $164,312 for list rental, paid Vertis Communications $229,115 for direct-mail services and paid Southwest Publishing and Mailing another $111,954 for direct-mail-related services.
West’s campaign spent $85,327 on postage during the quarter. He also spent $75,801 for online advertising.
“We’re taking steps to make sure that we have the resources for us to run this race,” West chief of staff Jonathan Blyth said. He noted that West has amassed a list of more than 50,000 donors, most of them small contributors who can be tapped again.
Overall, West has raised more than $4.1 million for his 2012 campaign and has more than $1.8 million cash on hand.
Nelson: $1.9 million quarter; $7.5 million on hand
Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton raised more campaign cash in the third quarter than GOP Senate primary rival George LeMieux — but neither one comes close to incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
Hasner raised $535,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30 and has $786,000 in cash on hand, his campaign said this evening. LeMieux, a former appointed Senator, raised $402,916 in the quarter and has a little more than $1 million in the bank.
Nelson, seeking a third term next year, said earlier this week that he raised nearly $2 million in the last quarter and has about $7.5 million in cash on hand.
A third Republican candidate, former Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse CEO Craig Miller, tonight announced he raised $226,000 in the quarter and has $145,000 cash on hand.
Also seeking the GOP nomination is Plant City businessman Mike McCalister, who has not yet announced his third-quarter fundraising totals. Federal Election Commission reports are due Saturday.
Hasner’s latest $535,000 haul compares to $565,439 he raised in the second quarter.
LeMieux’s third-quarter total is less than half the $951,558 he raised in the previous quarter.
Nelson (right) in a 2009 interpretation of Elton John’s “Rocket Man.”
Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Sir Elton John teamed up this week to write a piece for Politico calling for more AIDS funding.
As odd as the pairing between the Space Coast lawmaker and Glam Rock survivor may seem, it isn’t Nelson’s first Elton John-related collaboration. Back in 2009, Nelson and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., strained to hit the high notes on John’s 1972 hit Rocket Man in a duet captured on blackmail-worthy video.
The Senators had wagered on the Florida-Oklahoma BCS championship game. When the Tim Tebow-led Gators beat the Sam Bradford-led Sooners, Nelson forced Coburn to sing Rocket Man, which Nelson selected because he had flown on the Space Shuttle in 1986. Though Nelson won the bet, he joined with Coburn for part of the song.
Cain talks to a PostOnPolitcs.com scribe and others during a stop in Central Florida last week in this Orlando Sentinel photo.
New Hampshire-based American Research Group’s poll of 600 likely Florida Republican voters finds businessman Herman Cain taking a 34-to-28 percent lead against Mitt Romney. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the only other candidate in double digits at 11 percent.
Onetime frontrunner Rick Perry appears to be Texas toast — the poll finds him at 5 percent.
The Florida poll is similar to a national Rasmussen poll released today that finds Cain and Romney tied at 29 percent, Gingrich at 10 percent and Perry at 9 percent.
Click here to read about Romney’s consistent presence at or near the top of GOP polls while other candidates rise and fall.
The Teamsters Union is accusing the Florida Department of Corrections of cheating prison workers out of nearly an hour of pay each day, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Labor yesterday.
But the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the union that now represents the state’s 20,000 correctional and probational officers, counters that the Teamsters, in an elections battle with the PBA over the prison workers, are “showboating.”
The one-page complaint, filed in Orlando, alleges the state is in violation with federal labor laws because correctional officers are not being paid for the time it takes for them to go through security and receive equipment such as pepper spray before they can clock in to work. They also have to clock out before dropping off the equipment at the end of the day, according to the complaint. The Teamsters are asking the Labor Department to investigate the practice.
“Correctional officers suffer because of wage theft by the FDOC and also because they have had no pay increases for the past seven years,” said Michael Filler, director of the Teamsters Public Services Division. “All officers who put in a fair’s day work are legally entitled to a fair day’s pay.”
Federal courts in other cases have ruled that the time spent before clocking in is compensable, the complaint says.
But the PBA executive director Matt Puckett said the Teamsters’ latest complaint is just grand-standing because the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled on the issue. (more…)
A day after unveiling his latest seven-step themed plan – this one toward creating jobs and spurring economic development — Gov. Rick Scott turned into saleman-in-chief Thursday, pitching his plan at appearances in Jacksonville, Panama City and on talk radio.
Scott gained some additional talking points with Congress ending a deadlock that spanned two presidencies and approving a series of free trade agreements, including those with Panama and Colombia.
In his jobs’ plan, Scott highlighted the prospect of enhanced trade with Central and South America as a motive behind his push for more public works projects at Florida’s 14 deepwater sea ports.
“Free trade with Panama and Colombia will benefit Florida’s economy and businesses for years to come,” Scott said after the bipartisan vote in Congress. “By eliminating the need to pay tariffs in order to export Florida goods and products to those expanding economies, Florida companies will now be able to invest their money in creating jobs.”
Scott on Thursday is scheduled to tour an aviation center at Jacksonville’s Cecil Field and an industrial and retail complex near the year-old Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport outside Panama City.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate George LeMieux rolled out a plan to fix the nation’s economy Wednesday — dubbing it his ‘four freedoms plan.”
The historic roots of the “four freedoms” concept goes back to Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt, who pledged to defend the constitution’s guaranteed freedoms of speech and worship, and freedom from fear and want.
LeMieux, engulfed in a tough, four-way GOP primary, is adding to the list the freedom to work, pursue the American dream, and safeguard freedom from foreign dependence and debt. Some of his proposals mirror those aired by Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and others in the Republican presidential field.
“After faith and family, the most important thing a person can have is a job,” LeMieux said.
LeMieux’s approach would reduce federal spending to 2007 levels, which he said could help balance the budget within two years.
He would slash the corporate tax rate by almost one-third, to 25 percent, while repealing the federal health care overhaul pushed by President Obama and tough federal banking regulations that he said are stifling lending.
LeMieux also said his deficit-reduction plan will take on Social Security and Medicare.
Among the changes he would advance: gradually raising to age 69 the retirement age for those now under age 55 and impose so-called means testing that would reduce Social Security payments to wealthier retirees.
“We are losing jobs today because of our debt,” LeMieux said.
After raising a robust $89,333 between April 1 and June 30 for his reelection campaign, Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe collected a mere $6,400 from donors last quarter, then loaned his campaign $100,000 in personal funds.
McAuliffe, a Democrat who has not drawn an opponent, told PostOnPolitcs in an e-mail today that he was busy building his campaign organization and prosecuting criminals during the last quarter:
“As a state attorney running for reelection, I am humbled by the tremendous and broad base of support I have received. In our initial quarter of fundraising ending in June, we raised almost $100,000 in contributions without an opponent. That provided a solid base to start the reelection effort.
“This past quarter we intentionally did not focus on fundraising, but on building the organization for the reelection campaign to come. I also concentrated on personally prosecuting one of the worst violent predators in South Florida in Dunkin Donuts robbery and shooting case. That successful effort resulted in nine life sentences. Over the past several months, I also have personally directed the efforts in the Beauchamp multiple homicide investigation resulting in first degree murder charges and the latest efforts in the fight against pill mills resulting in charging and convicting a pain clinic owner on murder charges – a first in the nation.
“In short, I lead an office of 125 prosecutors and that is always my first priority. However, the reelection effort is strong and will be in full swing this fall.”
Gov. Rick Scott laid out the “job creation and economic growth agenda” he’s been hinting at lately — a wide-ranging plan aimed at repealing more than 1,000 state rules and regulations, reducing the corporate income tax, and pouring money into port and road projects to spur more jobs.
The Republican governor — who has promised to create 700,000 jobs in seven years — has conveniently settled on seven steps toward jump-starting Florida’s sputtering economy.
Scott unveiled the plan Wednesday morning at a metals and plastics plant in Orlando. With an election year coming, Scott also used the event to draw contrasts between his plan and the jobs proposal pushed by President Obama, now languishing in Congress after a negative vote Tuesday in the Senate.
“Unlike our elected leaders in Washington, D.C., I realize that it is Florida’s families and businesses, taking risks with their ideas, capital and time, that create jobs and grow an economy,” Scott said. “We will continue to attract new jobs by consistently lettting businesses know through our actions that we want Florida to be their home.”
Scott’s latest proposal builds on many of the themes he endorsed in his first-year as governor.
After scaling back benefits for Florida’s almost 1 million unemployed — to reduce costs for businesses — Scott now wants to require job training for those drawing assistance. He also wants to double the corporate income tax exemption approved last year by the Legislature, an increase that would eliminate the levy for about 25 percent of the companies still paying.
Scott also puts more pressure on state colleges and universities to produce more graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — which he said will help promote economic growth. He also wants the K-12 system to do its part in advancing STEM education.
“Florida will become the nation’s leader in job creation and economic growth by consistently doing the right things month after month to create the nation’s premier environment to start, relocated or expand a business,” Scott said.
U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation, raised an astounding $1.9 million during the third quarter of 2011, his campaign announced this morning.
West’s announcement comes a day after Democrats Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy announced third-quarter fundraising totals of $415,000 and $313,000, respectively, in their quests for West’s Palm Beach-Broward congressional seat.
West, whose 2010 campaign was one of America’s richest with $6.4 million raised, has collected $4.1 million so far for his 2012 reelection bid.
West’s campaign said the $1.9 million raised between July 1 and Sept. 30 came from more than 42,100 individual contributors — an average contribution of about $47.
Actual Federal Election Commission reports, which show precise fundraising and expenditure totals and cash-on-hand figures, are due Saturday.
It’s tough to raise campaign cash in the summer, especially in an anemic economy.
Even so, Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe‘s latest campaign finance report stands out. After raking in $89,333 in contributions between April 1 and June 30, the Democratic incumbent collected a mere $6,400 from outsiders between July 1 and Sept. 30, according to a report filed Tuesday.
Benacquisto
McAuliffe added a $100,000 loan from personal funds on the last day of the quarter.
Among those posting strong quarters was state Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers. The former Wellington councilwoman raised $106,074 during the quarter and has collected $345,399 overall for her reelection bid.
The Florida Democratic Party’s money woes worsened over the past three months, according to quarterly finance reports released Tuesday.
In the previous quarter, almost half of the state party’s $1.1 million raised came from Republicans who formed a political committee to help elect Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown, a Democrat. Now, in the quarter ending Sept. 30, Democratic fund-raising bottomed out at $894,445, making it the party’s worst three-month total since right after the November 2006 elections.
For the year, Democrats have raised about $3 million — compared with $14 million for the Florida Republican Party.
The state GOP weighed-in with $5.5 million this quarter, according to reports posted Tuesday night by the state Secretary of State.
Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson‘s campaign says it will report nearly $2 million in contributions for the third quarter when it files a Federal Election Commission report later this week.
The Nelson campaign also says it has $7.5 million in cash on hand for the two-term incumbent’s 2012 reelection bid. It says the third-quarter haul came from 5,133 individual donors.
Republicans hoping to unseat Nelson — former appointed Sen. George LeMieux, former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner of Boca Raton, businessmen Craig Miller and Mike McCalister — have not yet announced their fundraising totals for the July 1-Sept. 30 period.
Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning today asked a court to do away with federal approval of changes to the state’s elections laws in five counties under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, alleging that the that part of the Act is unconstitutional.
Browning also asked a three-judge federal court panel in Washington to expedite its review of four election law changes approved by lawmakers this spring and signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott. Browning went to the court in July for approval after initially submitting the new laws to the U.S. Department of Justice for “preclearance,” required for under federal law for five counties – Hendry, Collier, Hardee, Hillsborough and Monroe – with a history of racial discrimination against voters.
The federal law covers the Florida counties as well as six other southern states – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana,
Mississippi, South Carolina, and Virginia – Alaska, and counties in North Carolina, Arizona, Hawaii, and Idaho.
Under changes to the Voting Rights Act approved by Congress in 1972, the preclearance is required for jurisdictions in which at the time less than 50 percent of the voting-age citizens were registered to vote or voted in the presidential election, had a non-English-speaking population of more than five percent, and provided voting materials only in English.
“I am hopeful the federal court will come to a quick resolution and approve the remaining provisions of our preclearance submission as nondiscriminatory,” Browning said in a statement. “However, I am frustrated that the reason we are still waiting to implement Florida law in five counties is because of an arbitrary and irrational coverage formula based on data from 40 years ago that takes no account of current conditions.”
All changes to the state’s new elections laws must be approved by the Justice Department or by a federal court, a rare move according to elections experts.
Browning asked the court to rule on the new elections laws before the end of the year. If not, that could pose problems for Floridians voting in the GOP primary now slated for Jan. 31 because the five counties would not be operating under the same laws as the rest of the state. State law requires that voting laws be uniform statewide.
Instead of getting federal approval for the four most controversial portions of the state’s new elections laws, Browning went to court, making U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder a defendant in the case.
Florida is one of more than a dozen states that passed elections laws this spring that critics object are aimed at keeping low-income, minority and college-student voters – who typically vote for Democrats and helped President Obama win the 2008 presidential election – away from the polls.
The ACLU and others are challenging the new elections laws in federal court in Miami.
Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday that cutting regulations, taxes and toughening requirements for those receiving unemployment benefits will again be part of his legislative wish-list next year — along with the new priority of pushing schools toward helping students gain job skills.
Scott used a lunchtime speech before a Tallahassee business group to echo his recent talk radio rant against anthropologists — saying schools need to teach more science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses to meet marketplace demands.
“Do you want us to use your tax dollars to educate more people that can’t get jobs?” Scott said. “In anthropology? I don’t. I want to make sure that we spend our money where people can get jobs when they get out” of school.”
He later added that his approach to state budgeting is rooted in business.
“We have a $69 billion state budget. If those were business dollars, we’d say ‘I’m going to put those dollars where we get the best return,’” Scott said. “My job is to take the $69 billion we have in the state budget, and allocate them the best way possible.”
But Scott acknowledged that his budget plans have been complicated by Tuesday’s downsizing of Florida’s anticipated tax collections by state economists. Rising education and health care costs, combined with shrinking revenue, will likely leave the state facing a $2 billion budget hole next year.
“We thought we were going to have a nice budget surplus…but we’re not. Now we’re going to have a budget deficit,” Scott said. “We’re going to have to do the same thing: ‘How do you prioritize those dollars when they’re not growing dollars?’”
While Scott talked about boosting the role of “STEM” courses in education, he later conceded that could be tough amid declining dollars.
Last year, Scott signed into law a state budget that slashed $1 billion from public schools, and vetoed another $200 million allocated for almost 50 college and university building projects. On Tuesday, Scott also said higher education administrators shouldn’t just feel that tuition increases are automatic but should rather ask, “Do we need to do all those programs?”
“It’s hard,” Scott conceded. “We’re going to go through and prioritize and spend the money the best we can….How can we change how we do it, to make it less expensive?…What can we be doing differently in education. Using technology, leveraging our best teachers. But you’re right, it’s going to be tough.”
Former West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel‘s campaign says she raised $415,000 in the third quarter for her Democratic congressional bid for the seat of U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Plantation.
That tops the $313,000 quarter announced earlier today by Frankel’s primary rival, Patrick Murphy.
Both Frankel and Murphy have raised about $1.1 million since launching their campaigns in March. West had raised $2.2 million for his 2012 reelection bid through June 30.
Federal Election Commission reports covering July 1-Sept. 30 are due Saturday.
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