Category — Florida

Carl Hiassen of the Miami Herald looks at Florida’s new fraudster-in-chief: Scott wants to clean house? Lotsa luck

“Today is the end of politics as usual in Tallahassee.”

So said Gov.-elect Rick Scott in his victory speech, confirming a severe disconnection from reality.

He won’t change Tallahassee, but Tallahassee will change him.

Nobody who knows Florida believes that last Tuesday’s vote marks the end of politics as usual. It’s just another chapter of politics as always.

The Republicans have controlled the state Senate for 18 years, the state House for 14 years and the governor’s mansion for over a decade. The election changes absolutely nothing.

[Read more →]

Both of the redistricting amendments exceeded the 60% threshold and are now part of the Florida constitution. In addition, the attempts by the legislature to overturn the public financing and classroom size amendments failed.

This makes the election of Scott as governor less of a blow and signals real change in the make-up of Florida’s legislature and its Congressional delegation. The Republicans will have to turn in their crayons.

After being sandbagged by Markos of DKos [he suggested Crist run as an independent] and Obama [the rumor that Meek was dropping out in favor of Crist was traced back to the White House], Kendrick Meek didn’t really have a chance, so we are stuck with Rubio.

The turn-out was just under 50%, which isn’t exceptionally low, but the win on redistricting shows that liberals and progressives were voting, but not for a number of Democratic candidates. If the leader of the party won’t support the party’s candidates, why should voters?

Steve Bates notes that the Third District Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court ruling that overturned Florida’s ban against gay adoption. The governor and attorney general have apparently decided not to appeal the ruling to the Florida Supreme Court, which mean that gay adoptions can take place in the areas covered by the Third District.

By not appealing, the ruling is automatically limited to this one area, so the battle will have to be waged in the other Districts until there is a ruling by the Supreme Court that would apply to all of Florida.

[Note, this is not a peculiarity of the Florida court system, the Federal system works the same way.]

A columnist for the Local Puppy Trainer, Wendy Victoria, wrote a related piece: I’ve seen too many police reports to condemn gay parenting

Every once in a while, someone makes the mistake of trying to start a discussion with me on whether gay people should be allowed to foster or adopt children.

And, here’s your warning, I always get angry.

It’s not so much that I’m passionate about gay people’s rights or that I think a family with two Moms or two Dads is better than a traditional family.

The anger comes from the fact that week after week, month after month, year after year, I’m assaulted by reports of what people do to their birth children in the name of love, parental rights, etc.

It occurred to me, in an attack of the obvious, that almost every child who is adopted or in foster care was the result of the “traditional” family setting. I say almost, because it is always possible that somewhere there is IVF child who was abandoned, so I’m avoiding the absolute.

While some of these children are probably orphaned, most enter programs for foster care and/or adoption while their parents are still alive. This would tend to make one think that the “traditional” model is the problem, not the solution… but that would be a baseless generalization, just like the ban that was in place in all of Florida.

The Pensacola News Journal carried this story by Lucy Morgan in the St. Petersburg Times: ‘Fiscal steward’ presides over ‘Taj Mahal’ project

TALLAHASSEE — Four times Paul M. Hawkes tried to become a judge, four times without success.

Success came on the fifth try, after then-Gov. Jeb Bush gained control of the nominating process. Bush picked Hawkes, a policy adviser in the Republican-controlled House, over five other nominees, including three judges.

On his application, Hawkes wrote, “A judge should be accountable to the public as a fiscal steward. A judge should not utilize practices that may be more convenient but would violate the stewardship responsibilities of the court.”

The “fiscal steward” then set out to build what is now derided as the “Taj MaHawkes,” a monument to profligate spending, with no taxpayer dollar spared, a courthouse outfitted with 20 miles of African mahogany, etched glass and, for each judge, a private kitchen and bathroom.

Chief Judge Paul M. Hawkes is on the ballot in the First District for a retention vote, and is the only judge I voted against retaining.

This is the Court of Appeals, not a trial court. These people need offices and a few conference rooms, not “august chambers”, because lawyers are the only “outsiders” who will see the inside of the building. Cases are appealed by paperwork being filed, and the Court of Appeals doesn’t even have the final word, they are just a filter between the trial courts and the state Supreme Court. Judge Hawkes suffers from a sense of entitlement and the voters should disabuse him of that fantasy.

I thought it might be easier for my Mother if she went to the early voting, rather then waiting until election day. She isn’t a fan of the ramp to the entry of the town hall, but can’t really complain about it because she was on the town council that built it, and she voted for it.

I decided to do a reconnaissance on the early voting location and set up to see how “user friendly” it would be for people using walkers or wheelchairs and … well, there are always absentee ballots.

The location is in full compliance with the ADA and there are no ramps, beyond a standard curb cutout. It is a major walk from the parking lot to the building, and then a medium length walk inside. There are two sets of doors to get through, and they aren’t automatic or easy.

Once you get to the room where the voting is taking place it is obvious that no one had walkers or wheelchairs in mind when they arranged the furniture.

I voted, but my Mother will wait until election day, because it is a lot easier for her to navigate the town hall, and they provide a person to open the doors.

When you add in a 20 mile round-trip, it isn’t very convenient, or cheap.

Note: this applies to the early voting location in South Okaloosa county, which is off Lewis Turner Boulevard.

The St. Petersburg Times says that Of all Democrats, U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd should be safe, but he’s not

Each morning as he heads out on the campaign trail, an increasingly bleak and hostile landscape, U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd must ask himself, “Why me?”

Democrats are under siege everywhere, but during 14 years in office, Boyd has carved a profile as a conservative “Blue Dog,” comfortable in an increasingly Republican North Florida. He has never faced a close election.

Last week, he got the endorsement of the NRA and before that, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. If anyone should feel at ease in this turbulent midterm election cycle, it is Boyd.

There is one group that doesn’t think highly of him – Democrats. That is his problem, his negatives with Democratic voters. He barely squeaked out a win in the first primary challenge he has faced in years, and the people who voted against him in the primary won’t vote for him in the general.

Boyd voted for drilling on the coast. Does he think people don’t remember that? There is a good reason the US Chamber of Multinational Corporations Commerce endorsed him, and the real Democrats don’t like it.

I hope the funeral director from Panama City kicks Boyd’s butt thoroughly, and not just by a squeaker. I hope all of the Blue Dogs get their butts kicked. If the Dems won’t clean house, the voters will. It’s still true – given the choice between a Republican running as a Republican and a Republican running as a Democrat, they’ll pick the Republican every time.

Shannon Behnken of the Tampa Tribune has the latest from the Florida Attorney General’s investigation – Witness: Foreclosure firm owner gave gifts for altering documents

The office released transcripts of two interviews it conducted for its investigation into the law offices of David J. Stern. The sworn statements were from Kelly Scott, a former employee of Stern’s and Mary R. Cordova, a former employee of G&Z, a process server used by Stern’s office. The women’s testimonies appear to back up that of former Stern’s employee Tammie Lou Kapusta, whose statement was released last week. The three statements paint a picture of a secret system designed to speed up the foreclosure process. Attorneys and staff members forged signatures, changed dates, passed around notary stamps, the women say in interviews with attorney general’s staff.

This is not a “technical problem with the paperwork”, this is criminal fraud. The entire process was operated this way.

The banks have no idea where the paperwork is, because filing paperwork was an overhead cost, so they skipped it. They didn’t file changes with county clerks, because it was an overhead cost, so they skipped it, despite charging a fee at closing to do it.

This is a civil investigation, so criminal charges won’t directly follow, but the fact that it is a civil proceeding gives the public immediate access to the information.

the houndfish [Tylosurus crocodilus] might.

From a local NBC affiliate in South Florida: Woman Impaled By Fish In Keys.

Minding her own business, paddling her kayak through the water, and a houndfish leaps up and rams its beak through her chest.

Come on down and enjoy the water sports.

Update: More information from the Miami Herald.

Early Voting for the November election starts tomorrow.

The hours for Okaloosa County are:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 10:00am-6:00pm
• Wednesday & Saturday: 7:00am-3:00pm

They are using the same three locations, the Supervisor of Elections office and Sikes Library in Crestview, and the University of Florida facility off Lewis Turner Boulevard in Shalimar, that they used for the primary early voting. They have maps at the Early Voting link above.

Early voting continues until Saturday, October 30^th.

The Pensacola News Journal reports on the latest attempt by a Republican to avoid responsibility: ‘Taj Mahal’ courthouse flap finds new target

TALLAHASSEE — State Sen. Mike Haridopolos on Thursday demanded the resignation of the head of the state’s property management agency because of “runaway spending” on the politically charged 1st District Court of Appeal courthouse.

Haridopolos, a Merritt Island Republican who will become president of the Senate in November, said Linda South, secretary of the state’s Department of Management Services, should resign for failing to properly oversee the $49 million project.

“It’s just an abomination. This was just the final straw,” Haridopolos said. “Secretary South has failed to do her job, and it’s time for her to go. I’m really surprised the governor, given her behavior, hasn’t already asked her for her resignation.”
…

n 2007, the Legislature passed a last-minute amendment to an appropriations bill that included authority for the sale of $33.5 million in bonds to pay for the bulk of construction on the courthouse. Haridopolos voted for the bill.

“We in the Legislature appropriate an amount of money. The oversight is in the executive branch,” Haridopolos said. “When people came in and they said this is what the cost will be, we weighed the pros and cons, and we voted for it.”

The problem is not that the project is over budget, it’s that the budget was too large. The legislature approved the spending, so they approved the project, including the exotic wood paneling and granite counter tops. The executive is administering the project according the wishes of the legislature. Everyone who voted for it is responsible for it. There is no one else to blame, they own the problem.

McClatchy has a feature on two of the people involved in the foreclosure fraud conspiracy in Florida – How 2 civilian sleuths brought foreclosure problems to light

PALM BEACH, Fla. — More than a year before lenders, law firms and document companies began owning up to widespread paperwork problems with their foreclosure filings, Lisa Epstein and Michael Redman already knew that something was wrong — very wrong.
…

Equal parts agitators, activists and advocates, Redman and Epstein have made their presence felt in Florida and nationally through their respective websites, 4closureFraud.org and foreclosurehamlet.org.

It is a conspiracy, and it involves politicians. As the article points out, two of the actions these people protested were laws being enacted in Tallahassee and then Washington that would have helped to hide the fraud.

It is important to understand that these two people are not lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, or in law enforcement. They are intelligent people who read the documents and immediately noticed they were fraudulent, even though they had no special training in mortgages or real estate law. That should give you an idea of how blatant this has been, and how corrupt the system is that processed these foreclosures.

It is irrelevant that people owe money, if it can’t be determined who the money is owed to, i.e. who has the note. If the person who holds the note isn’t getting the money, the debt isn’t being discharged. There have been cases in Florida where it isn’t clear that the mortgage used in the foreclosure actually existed.

This problem isn’t limited to people with mortgages. The problem is undermining the validity of all land deeds.

The whole RPOF credit card mess should have been a clue, but if you still think Republicans care about tax dollars, maybe this Lucy Morgan article in the St. Petersburg Times will wake you up: E-mail names ‘heroes’ who got legislative funding for ‘Taj Mahal’ courthouse

Sometimes being a “hero” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Take Marco Rubio. Since the story first broke about the palatial new courthouse being built in Tallahassee, the former House speaker has said it was a Senate priority, and he couldn’t even remember the money being appropriated to build it.

But now the St. Petersburg Times has obtained an e-mail circulated among the judges on the courthouse building committee that identifies the “heroes” in delivering the money to build it.

Among them, the e-mail identifies a select few who were “especially helpful,” including Rubio.

Rubio was the Speaker of Florida House at the time, and he was the only person who could have slipped the funding into the transportation bill at the last minute. If he didn’t support it, it died. It was tens of millions of dollars that “he couldn’t even remember”.

How do you forget paying for mahogany paneling and granite bathrooms? This is another example of “Republican fiscal conservatism” – pack kids into classrooms so appeals court judges can have mahogany paneling in their offices.

Hurricanes and oil gushers aren’t enough, so now we have “Florida Foreclosure Fraud” to make the state somewhere that people want to avoid.

Mike Konczal is running a series with graphics to explain what is happening. He calls it: Foreclosure Fraud For Dummies. [You can read it even if you aren’t a Republican.]

The Miami Herald has a cheerful little backgrounder about the realization that this isn’t an isolated problem: Foreclosure freeze widens as fears grow.

Finally, courtesy of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s investigation, here’s the full deposition of an employee of a law firm filing “creative” documents in foreclosure cases in Florida. [Depositions are taken under oath and false statements are punishable as perjury. This is not a conversation with a reporter.]

The bottom line for Florida is that you can’t get a clear title to property in the state until this is cleared up, because it isn’t obvious who owns what if the property was mortgaged. This brings real estate sales to a screeching halt in the state.

McClatchy reports on the travails of our Republican candidate for governor under those “socialists” in Washington that he is always complaining about: Rick Scott’s tax returns show Florida GOP candidate thriving under Obama

TALLAHASSEE — Rick Scott blames President Barack Obama for the nation’s economic woes, but Florida’s Republican nominee for governor is doing far better now than he did under the last year of George W. Bush’s presidency.

That’s according to Scott’s last three years of tax returns, which portray a man who, like more and more out-of-work Floridians, earns no wages.

But unlike most of the state’s 1 million unemployed workers, Scott earns millions from a long list of investments.

Scott’s adjusted gross income in 2009 was $7.87 million, more than double what he made in 2008 during Bush’s last year in office. Not only did his income grow under Obama, he paid less in federal taxes — 13 percent — than he did the previous year when Uncle Sam took 16 percent.

But everyone knows that the facts have a liberal bias. Just because the stock market consistently does better when there is a Democrat in the White House is no reason to think that there might be a connection.