Category — Florida

McClatchy reports that Rubio’s charges to GOP credit card included $134 haircut.

When will they learn? Everyone knows that an expensive haircut is the kiss of death for a politician. Forget about all of the seemingly bogus charges on the credit card, the haircut proves that Marco is a latté swilling elitist. For that kind of money you are talking “salon” and “stylist”, not a barbershop. 😈

Actually I think the repairs to his minivan are a bigger deal, but that’s just me. I don’t think the tea party crowd are going to be thrilled with the credit card charges. There are a lot of Republican donors already PO over the way the ROPF was spending their donations.

Speaker of the Florida House is becoming the title you have before you end up with a number on a prison uniform.

Local fishermen have gone to Washington, to complain about the restrictions on fishing, especially red snapper in the Gulf.

The fish population is down, and everyone knows it, but won’t admit it. In addition to years of over-fishing, you have the expanding dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi caused by agricultural run-off in the Midwest, and well as a lack of water in the rivers during the last couple of years of drought in the Southeast. The drought conditions have eased, but the bays haven’t been scoured clean.

We have ever more frequent incidents of red tide, and other problems that affect the population of the Gulf.

The reality is that if we don’t give the fish time to recover, the fishing industry is dead, and not just for a year, but forever. It is happening around the world, and the global climate change isn’t going to improve the situation. We have to clean up our act and our oceans. Nobody wanted to back off when this would have been relatively painless, so the pain is going to come. The only reason the industry hasn’t already collapsed is because of the net bans put into the Florida constitution in the 1990s. Many of the same fishermen who are complaining in Washington, fought those bans, too.

So, this past Sunday Former Speaker Ray Sansom finally resigned from the Florida House just before the start of hearings on his alleged “ethics violation”. You would think that with that mess still on people’s minds, as well as the recent replacement of the head of the party for various reasons, the Republicans would find a new Speaker who was as pure and new fallen snow.

Well, this is the Republican Party of Florida, so you would be totally wrong.

Meet the new Speaker:

The home of Rep. Chris Dorworth of Lake Mary is in foreclosure. He is struggling to pay a $2.7 million legal judgment from a bad land deal. And his driver’s license was temporarily suspended this month after what he called a misunderstanding with his car insurer.

Now that he is the new Speaker, of course, many of these problems will recede into the background as certain interest groups look for “favors”. Nothing untoward, of course, just some minor adjustments and recalculations. Mr. Dorworth is in real estate, so he is just having some “temporary cash flow problems” due to the “business downturn”, but that won’t have any effect on his performance in one of the three most powerful offices in the state. 😈

It was about the money. The Miami Herald reports that Charlie got his money, and the medevacs started almost immediately. Somehow all of the space and coordination problems vanished when the “extortion payment” was guaranteed.

From the beginning of the crisis military aircraft have been transporting people to a Central Florida airport for processing: Flights from Haiti continue to arrive in Sanford airport

So far, the airport has received 8,596 passengers on 110 flights, Crews said. Of those, 6,544 were American citizens and 2,052 were foreign nationals. Emergency workers have transported 67 passengers to area hospitals because of injuries or illnesses.

The officials at the airport, near Orlando have been talking about asking for National Guard or Federal help with the processing because of the number of flights.

Of course, most people don’t know that the charter flights organized by the NGOs and relief groups cannot, for the most part, carry passengers, so this is another task the military takes on. They fly relief supplies in and then convert the cargo bay for passenger use, including medical evacuations.

What a piece of work the current Florida governor, Charlie Crist, is! The military has been transporting trauma patients from Haiti to hospitals in South Florida almost continuously from their initial arrival down there. Now the military has had to halt the Haiti medevacs because Charlie wants more money.

Charlie’s Homeland Security department has already pushed to stop flights into South Florida to ensure hospital space for Super Bowl casualties, and now he wants to Feds to guarantee to pick up the cost of all of the medical care Haitians will receive. [Please note, that I can’t remember a single case of this type when the Feds haven’t picked up the bill, often by passing a supplemental.]

A few things you need to know: Charlie is in a tough Republican primary race with Marco Rubio; Haitians tend to vote Democratic; and the for-profit hospitals, like HCA, would probably like a cut of the money to provide this care, without risking anything, like accidentally making a charitable donation.

While Charlie is attempting to blame the hospitals, he’s the one that started this. He doesn’t want Rubio to be able to attack him for spending state money on Haitians when Florida’s finances are in a mess. There’s no downside for attacking Haitians in a Republican primary.

The military isn’t going to move people based on a hope that someone will take them in – they need a firm destination.

The Local Puppy Trainer is reporting that Pensacola Bay Bridge needs replacement, ‘structurally deficient’.

Known locally as the Three-mile Bridge, it is the link between Pensacola and Gulf Breeze, and an important point on US 98. It has survived multiple hurricanes that have regularly wiped out the much shorter I-10 bridge to the north.

This is going to be a mess because a new bridge will require two cities and two counties to agree on the route, and then the state and Federal governments to agree on the funding. Any project this big is going to attract all of the unsavory types in the area and waste years.

They could just use the route of the bridge that the current bridge replaced, and turn the current bridge into a couple of fishing piers, but that would be too easy.

The Local Puppy Trainer let me know that AT&T launches local 3G network. Wow, you now have some form of 3G connectivity along the coast from Panama City to NOLA. Of course, there is none inland, and forget the coast between Panama City East to Tampa, but you can now use the iPhone on the beach in Northwest Florida, just like Wichita Falls, Texas.

The Naked Politics blog at the Miami Herald is reporting: Jim Greer is out

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer just made it official in a call with members of the executive committee: He’s resigning as of Feb. 20.

Greer has had several foot-in-mouth episodes recently, and is a friend of Charley Christ, so the whackos have been after his head in their pursuit of moving the FGOP further to the right. This isn’t directly tied to Rubio’s Senate bid, but it will be seen as a sign of his increasing strength in the party.

Personally I would love to see Rubio beat Christ, as it would make it much easier for Meek to win the election. Charley Christ is a popular guy. He hasn’t really done anything, but he is personally popular with a lot of people, especially in the real center among voters. He would be the odds on favorite to win, if he got through the primary. It looks like the same brilliant plan that cost the Republicans a House seat in the NY-23 race, could cost them a Senate seat from Florida.

Just a reminder that if you are visiting Central Florida during cold snaps, you will want to wear a sturdy hat and watch the trees for falling iguanas.

From the Weather Underground:

Thursday Night
Breezy. Mostly cloudy. Chance of snow in the evening…then slight chance of snow after midnight. Lows 25 to 30. Chance of snow 30 percent.

It’s going to warm slightly, so it can SNOW!

The high for the entire state today will be 59° at Key West!

The orange juice isn’t supposed to be frozen until after it’s in the can!

These people can’t drive in heavy dew, and they are going to get SNOW!

Update:

Sunday
Sunny. Highs in the mid 40s. Lowest wind chill readings 1 below to 9 above zero in the morning.

Wasn’t the deal hurricanes, but no freezing?

The Pensacola News Journal reports that McCollum seeks suit on health care

TALLAHASSEE — Attorney General Bill McCollum said today he is asking chief legal officers in other states to join in a legal review of pending federal health-care legislation.

McCollum, who is running for governor, said the effort could spark a lawsuit to block what he called an unconstitutional “tax on living” for all citizens.

McCollum, a Republican candidate for governor, was immediately accused of using his Cabinet office to appeal to conservative GOP voters who adamantly oppose national health care.
…

Proponents have argued that states require drivers to carry automobile insurance and that making the uninsured pay into a health-care pool would provide a funding source to cover them if they get sick or injured with no private coverage.

But McCollum said that’s different, because no one is required to have a car.

The other thing McCollum is attacking is a provision for the Federal government to pick up all of Nebraska’s Medicaid costs that was inserted to win Ben Nelson’s vote on the bill. Medicaid costs are normally split between the Federal and state governments.

Actually, I hope someone does file suit over mandates, because I don’t see the basis for requiring people to give money to private corporations.

First Bobby Bowden “decided to retire” as the head coach of the Florida State Seminoles, and now Urban Meyer is stepping down as head coach of the Florida Gators.

A couple of nice $2+ million/year job openings in the state, but both going out in December will certainly give rise to conspiracy theories, especially given the reports of Meyer’s heart attack after the Alabama-Florida game.

This means that American-style football will be the only topic of conversation for weeks. I really hate the kicked-puppy looks I get when I tell people I couldn’t care less.

The county just ran a test on their reverse 911 system, calling everyone to test it, and then set off a warning siren at noon. The only thing going on is flooding along the Yellow River in the North County, but there is no notification up there as the signal fire system doesn’t work well in the rain, although the dogs should pick up the sound of the siren and start baying.

Apparently this is an opt-in system, so I guess I’m going to have to deal with it this afternoon.

On the labor front, the Pensacola News Journal reports: State jobless rate up to 11.5 percent

The Agency for Workforce Innovation said today there are 1,056,000 people out of work in the state. The state’s jobless rate is 1.5 points higher than the national average of 10 percent — and the highest Florida has recorded since May 1975, when it hit 11.9 percent.

Health care was the only sector that didn’t lose jobs. Too bad Congress can’t figure out how to pay for health care, since those seem to be the only people working.

I got a collect call from the county jail. I didn’t accept it. It must have been a mis-dialed number, because I’m not known for helping out people who do truly stupid things and I have major objections to the business that profits from the calls. In my opinion they should be in the jail, not profiting from it.

It is still raining and cold. When the rain stops it will get even colder. This mess is supposed to start moving North, which means major snow for the last weekend before Christmas. That will really help sales.

Update: Local bank, First Peoples Community Bank, got “eated” today. Actually, it was more of a nibble than a real bite, because they were small, but they got involved in the real estate madness.

A Pensacola News Journal editorial: Making dollars and sense

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deserves credit for leveraging its fleet service garage as an asset to help shore up its budget in lean times. Opening it up to other local governments makes good sense (as in dollars and cents).

Former Sheriff Ron McNesby set up the vehicle garage as a way to save money by doing in-house maintenance and repair. He built a well-equipped, full-service mechanics shop.

Now Sheriff David Morgan has capitalized on the operation by opening its doors to other local law enforcement agencies.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s garage charges $35/hour, while the private sector charges $85/hour. The Sheriff’s garage works on the Crown Vics and Impalas with the police packages, and the standard law enforcement additional equipment. They have the spare parts for this limited market in stock.

As I know a few mechanics, they aren’t making much more than $15/hour in this area, so you do the math. Another important consideration is that you don’t have to worry about someone smashing a $400 [or more] light bar into the ceiling when they put a patrol car on a lift.