Category — Florida

The Feds finished their work, so now it’s the turn of the state’s attorney to deal with the local Sheriff’s Office: Morris’ ‘criminal enterprise’

SHALIMAR — Former Sheriff Charlie Morris and four members of his administrative staff face state racketeering charges for their roles in a “criminal enterprise.”

A sixth, Sabra Thornton, identified as Morris’ mistress, will be charged with grand theft.

In a detailed charging document made public Thursday, state prosecutors said the Sheriff’s Office from 2006 to 2009 operated as a criminal enterprise at its highest levels, with the sheriff using public money to buy gifts and pay off thousands of dollars in debt for a top female employee, Thornton, his former chief of staff.

The other four are accused of helping keep it quiet.

Thornton drew a large salary from the Sheriff’s Office even though “there was no evidence that (she) performed any work,” the charging document said.

If you had evidence of the “work” she performed we would be dealing with network satellite trucks and the state’s attorney would be on CNN every night for weeks.

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Piyush was in the area not running for President and I missed him.

The Times Picayune reports:

After a three-month break mandated by state law, Gov. Bobby Jindal will resume raising money for his re-election campaign today with an event in Destin, Fla.

The fund-raiser is being hosted by the Louisiana chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, and follows a speech that Jindal is giving to the group, which is holding its 2009 convention in the popular vacation destination.

Well, at least we are getting some tax revenue from the visit, which will help the county budget. Although we are in better shape than many counties because of state and federal actions. We didn’t have to lay off anyone from the Sheriff’s Office because of all of the arrests by the Feds, and the state arrests of other local officials are being tried in the state capital in Leon County, so we don’t have to pay those costs. Things could be worse. 😈

Update: He finally showed up and promptly messed up by talking. This is why reading people their rights doesn’t make a big difference, they’ll talk anyway. The LPT didn’t issue a new article, they just updated it.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports the shocking news, the coach didn’t turn himself in

NICEVILLE – Lawmen believe they’ve given the Rocky Bayou Christian Academy coach accused of sexual misconduct more than ample time to turn himself in.

Now, police officers, deputies and even the U.S. Marshal service are on the lookout for the 28-year-old who’d arranged to turn himself in at 10 a.m. Monday. James Laird Seegars, Jr is accused of lewd and lascivious conduct with a 14-year-old and has also been entered into the National Crime Information Center database.

“He knew this was coming. It was not a secret,” said Niceville Police Department Lt. Randy Sallee.

Seegars had told investigators he was only “a phone call away” whenever they needed him to surrender, Sallee recalled. But when lawmen called Seegars, they found he was in Augusta, Ga.

“That’s not a phone call away,” Sallee said.

The accused coach told police he’d come in on his own Monday morning, but that didn’t happen.

Wow, who could have imagined that a guy facing major prison time over a sex charge with a minor wouldn’t just come in to face the music. The guy was a Christian who went to church every Sunday, and everything.

The Local Puppy Trainer reports on the implosion at a local school: Heads of Rocky Bayou Christian arrested in abuse case

NICEVILLE — A current and former administrator at the area’s largest Christian academy have been arrested for failing to report a sex abuse allegation, according to police.

Rocky Bayou Christian School co-founder and interim Superintendent Bob Grete, 72, and former Superintendent Don Larson, 48, were arrested Friday and charged with failure to report child abuse.

Meanwhile, a 28-year-old basketball coach, unidentified by Niceville police, had a warrant out for his arrest on charges of lewd and lascivious conduct. He was expected to turn himself in Monday.

Police detective Kate Devine said the investigation was “kept very quiet” since allegations arose June 27, when the father of a 14-year-old girl reported “possible sexual abuse” to Grete.

Grete “informed (the father) not to contact the authorities until after Rocky Bayou Christian School could conduct their own investigation,” according to his arrest report.
…

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The capitol bureau for the Pensacola News Journal reports on local races: Senate race wide open

TALLAHASSEE — The Panhandle will join the campaign frenzy of an unprecedented 2010 political season with wide-open state legislative races.

A state Senate seat and three House spots representing Northwest Florida are open next year because of term limits. There already are plenty of contenders — at least for Republicans — in the heavily GOP districts. Those races will be part of an election cycle with four open statewide Cabinet campaigns and a high-profile U.S. Senate contest.

State Sen. Durell Peaden, a Republican from Crestview, will end a 16-year legislative career — with a decade spent in the Senate — when he is term-limited out next year. The race to succeed him now includes two House members hoping for promotion to the upper chamber and a political neophyte seeking to upset the race for the Republican nomination.

Current House member Greg Evers from Baker [North Okaloosa county] calls himself a farmer. House member Dave Murzin of Pensacola admits to being involved in real estate and property management. Also from Pensacola, Mike Hill is an insurance agent. I would give Evers the edge in the district based on his address. The district is predominately rural, and it’s hard to get more rural than Baker.

The Local Puppy Trainer announces the sun rises in the East: Matt Gaetz to seek Sansom’s seat

Matt Gaetz has announced his candidacy for the District 4 seat in the Florida State House of Representatives.

Gaetz, 27, a resident of Fort Walton Beach, is the third Republican candidate to announce his interest in succeeding state Rep. Ray Sansom, whose term in the House would expire next year.

Kabe Woods and Bill Garvie, both also of Fort Walton Beach, have also pre-filed to run.
…

Gaetz said he believes Northwest Florida needs energetic leaders who will stand up for the core values of the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has “core values”? You mean like graft, corruption, and marital infidelity aren’t all they believe in, based on their performance lately? Do they expound on the virtue of hypocrisy, that seem to be their main “core value”. Instead of new taxes, they call them fees. Instead of “pork” or “turkeys”, they call them community development.

Well, I’m not a Republican, so I don’t get to vote for any of my local officials. It’s a warm feeling knowing that I’m not responsible for any of the criminal class our local elected officials have become.

This is an editorial in the Local Puppy Trainer –

Headline: Using fear to expand D.C. power

Lead Paragraph:

We’re glad to see Republicans gear up to fight the Obama administration’s unprecedented insertion of federal authority into areas of life that traditionally and appropriately have been reserved to the private sector. Indeed, our nation is heading down a dangerous road from which it might be difficult to return.

The body of the piece used to support that lead paragraph and headline is a recounting of the evil perpetrated by the Hedgemony under the Shrubbery.

It does not occur to them that the Republicans are the problem, when it comes to government intrusions into private space, because they are only concerned with the interests of corporations. They were silent about all of the abuses of the Bill of Rights, but vault onto the soapbox when the government might do something about the failures of large corporations to serve the needs of people and the country.

Low cost housing is at a premium in this area. The Section 8 rules are so intrusive for landlords and tenants that few people want to put up with them. It is all well and good, that you need oversight of public money, but it is stupid to spend more money on inspections, that you spend on housing.

Getting low cost housing built around here is another problem, because local governments that depend on property taxes don’t want it. These same politicians don’t have a problem reducing or eliminating those same taxes for commercial development, but they don’t want poor people hanging around.

Then there are the developers.

The Pensacola News Journal reports on one of them: Land trust probe deepens

In October 2004, John Wyche paid the Escambia County School District $64,000 for the former L.A. Kirksey Elementary School on North D Street in downtown Pensacola.

Three years later, Wyche sold the property for $160,000 to the Escambia County Community Land Trust, a nonprofit organization of which he was executive director.

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By all accounts Representative Alan Grayson, (D-Orlando) is a solid liberal vote, but he’s a Congresscritter and does what Congresscritters do – Bring Home The Bacon.

He is pushing a $50 million hurricane research center to be built in Orlando. More money for hurricane research is great, but there are existing research centers that could make better use of the money than building a new one in Mouseville. If Walt Disney had wanted a hurricane research center in Orlando he would have ordered the local Congresscritters to build one.

The Orlando Sentinel editorial page notes Alan Grayson behind a Category 5 waste and Dr. Jeff Masters says New $50 million hurricane research center: a bad idea.

Yes, Orlando needs jobs, but the jobs generated would come from outside the Orlando area, not from the local community, so it isn’t an effective boost in a state without an income tax. If the Congresscritter would like to really help, he could back rail service to Orlando to increase visitors.

Someone needs to check the offices of the Local Puppy Trainer for strange substances in their water cooler.

First it was the column on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and now you have a columnist, Wendy Victoria, complaining about the Sunday liquor laws and the proliferation of religious symbols on the desks at the tax collector’s office.

This is no place to be discussing the separation of church and state, much less endorsing it on principle.

Del Stone Jr. runs the editorial page at the Local Puppy Trainer which is merely hard core libertarian on its good days. This is easily the most evangelical Republican county in the state, and yet he wrote this: Down with ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’.

When the editorial page of the Northwest Florida Daily News comes out against a policy, that policy has clearly been shown to be box of rocks stupid. Folks, your iPhone doesn’t work in Okaloosa County. We are an unpaved path well off the “information highway”. People still rent VHS tapes of movies here. By the time realization hits this county, the rest of the world has forgotten what the problem was.

Somebody tell the President that the editorial page of the NWFDN has his back, and he really can dump the stupidity.

It is with something resembling pride [not really] that I announce that in the St. Petersburg Times Bizarre Florida weirdness roundup for this week, four of the top ten stories are sourced to my Local Puppy Trainer.

This is what being an evangelical Republican does to you.

[exits stage left slowly shaking his head…]

The call of the Republicans in their native environment. This means when they pick your pocket to pay for their programs it won’t be called a tax, it will be called a fee.

From the Local Puppy Trainer: Some vehicle, license fees will double

The Legislature this year approved across-the-board rate increases for fees charged by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The new prices take effect Sept. 1.

“This is a huge deal. A lot of the fees are doubling,” said Okaloosa County Tax Collector Chris Hughes. “It kind of slipped in there. None of us knew about it until after the Legislature approved it.”
…

Below are some of the hikes:

• License plate renewals: From $28.10 to $46.65.
• Registration fee for new vehicles: From $100 to $225.
• Drivers license: From $32.25 to $54.25.
• Replacement of lost license: From $15.25 to $31.25.

You can double fees, but don’t ever suggest a 0.1% increase in anything labeled as a tax.

The Pensacola News Journal reports that our local Congresscritter has decided to take a stand on something – Miller: Rubio the man

U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller announced Thursday he has endorsed former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio in the state’s U.S. Senate race.

“Marco Rubio is a young, fresh voice for our cause, and he does believe in limited government,” said the Chumuckla Republican.

Miller, who said the race has “tremendous implications for the future of Florida,” becomes the first member of Congress to publicly announce his backing of Rubio.

Miller’s endorsement puts him at odds with top Florida and Washington Republican Party leaders who are backing Gov. Charlie Crist for the nomination.

His endorsement is the latest among conservatives; within the last two weeks, Rubio picked up support from former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

This is great news. One can only hope that it encourages the local rabid Republicans to back Rubio and deplete meager resources in a primary fight between Crist and Rubio. A Meek-Rubio Senate race would be a gift to the Florida political media.