Category — Florida

The Miami Herald reports that 1 in 5 Florida mortgage holders behind on payments.

The real news is that this includes people with normal fixed-rate mortgages, not just the variable rate sub-prime junk loans. The new spike at the end of 2008 is related to job losses.

Of historic note: the term “depression” was coined by Herbert Hoover. He felt it sounded better than the previous term used, “panic”. There really is a reason I call it the “GOPression”, besides snark, of course.

How many of you can say you actually, personally, know someone “featured on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann as the worst person in the world”?  The Northwest Florida Daily News once again features the antics of local whacko, Larry Ford.

For picky people, that was a tour de force spelling-wise for Mr. Ford, only one word misspelled, it’s amazing. He really needs a fund-raiser to get a new flag of the Army of Tennessee, his old one is extremely tattered.

In case you’re wondering, the entire world is out to get him because he’s the only “real American” left in the county or state.

From an editorial to be printed in tomorrow’s St. Petersburg Times: Strong choice to lead FEMA

President Obama avoided one of the most egregious mistakes of his predecessor Wednesday by naming Craig Fugate, the director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Unlike President Bush, Obama has chosen experience and competence over political connections to lead the national response to hurricanes and other emergencies. Florida’s loss will be the nation’s gain.

Fugate knows his stuff and has managed everything from wildfires to major hurricanes for the last 7 years. Now Florida has to worry about who will replace him, especially if he starts hiring some of his current staff. He will need people with experience in earthquakes, volcanoes, and Western wildfires, but he has done just about everything else. We may not do anything else right, but the state knows disasters.

It’s time again for the annual performance of the world’s least humorous comedy troop, the Florida legislature: State lawmakers begin budget-balancing act.

Their 60-day performance begins on Tuesday and they are supposed to create a budget after eliminating all of the reasonable sources of revenue. As the GOP holds 65% of the seats in both the House and Senate, this disaster is all theirs.

Understand that they have raided all of the funds and set-asides available to cover the disaster of last year’s budget, so they will be required to actually make really nasty decisions this term. Being dependent on sales tax revenue during the GOPression is not exactly the best position a state can be in.

The basic problems are: the value of homes is in the toilet; tourists can’t afford to visit; the state stopped growing; and consumers are not spending. The investment income on the various state funds is now negative, so they are going to require more funding at some point and are not available for raiding.

This is going to be painful to watch.

Today the puppy trainer reports: Morris home after arrest; chief deputy on leave

…Chief Deputy Mike Coup was placed on paid leave Saturday. But interim Sheriff Ed Spooner said Coup’s leave wasn’t imposed for suspicion.

Here’s the thing: everyone assumes that Charlie was in Las Vegas on vacation, although he didn’t tell anyone he was going. Among the people he didn’t tell was his number 2, Mike Coup. Coup was down in Orlando, and one of them is expected to be in the county to make decisions. There was a shoot-out involving the Sheriff’s Department and the top of the pyramid was gone from the county.

Spooner isn’t saying Coup did anything wrong, but I doubt he wants to be second guessed while the Feds are traipsing through the Sheriff’s office.

A small note for those thinking of going into crime: banks are required to report cash transactions of $10K or more, but they actually report smaller transactions if they see a pattern. You can check with Eliot Spitzer and Rush Limbaugh about this little quirk. [Note that this doesn’t apply to Wall Street-types who can, of course cash as many checks as they want for $9,999.99 with no paperwork being generated.]

The Pensacola Beach Blogger really wants to rub it in just because because the FBI and IRS decided to arrest Okaloosa County Sheriff Charlie Morris while he was on vacation in Las Vegas.

The “Good Ol’ Boys” are shocked to think that Charlie might have had his hand in the cookie jar, along with his administrative director, Teresa Adams.

Here’s a hint: The county and the state are scrambling to cover budget shortfalls because of the GOPression, and the position of Sheriff doesn’t actually pay all that much [it’s not like he’s a football couch or someone important]. How in hell can he afford a vacation in Las Vegas [that no one actually knew he was taking, but, then, he doesn’t spend a lot of time in the county]?

Now we are going to have to have a special election that we can’t afford. Of course, unlike Charlie, we should assume he is innocent until he is convicted of something.

I wrote about these whackos, My Idiot Neighbors, back in November and they are still at it.

The mighty metropolis of Valparaiso [population: 6400] led by their intrepid mayor, Bruce Arnold, has decided to sue the Air Force over the plan to spend tens of millions of dollars locally to create the training site for the new F-35 fighter.

Mayor Arnold, apparently upset that the Air Force hasn’t provided the Valparaiso city commission with the complete classified documents on the F-35 program, or some such foolishness, scheduled a vote when he knew that opponents to his plan wouldn’t be available.

Things have gotten so absurd that even the local libertarian puppy trainer [Northwest Florida Daily News] has started a letter writing campaign: Valparaiso steps over the line.

Here is reality: the Air Force should just use eminent domain and buy out the town. It will be quicker, and cheaper than messing around in court. The people in Valparaiso say they are worried about property values. well they have dropped like a rock without the F-35. The entire town should be available cheap. and the Air Force can use it for base housing, or as a noise buffer zone.

In the county, Mayor Arnold is about as popular as small pox [no offense to infectious diseases].

The Pensacola News Journal has the story, but blows the headline: Sansom Quits

TALLAHASSEE – Speaker Ray Sansom, a Destin Republican, has stepped down amid ethics and legal charges that he abused his position.

“Effective immediately, I have decided to recuse myself from the exercise of my duties as Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Sansom wrote in a memo to House members. “Ongoing legal proceedings have temporarily created an inability for me to carry out my responsibilities as Speaker. Under the House rules, during this temporary inability, Speaker pro tempore Larry Cretul will exercise all the duties, powers and prerogatives of Speaker.”

He is taking a temporary break from his duties as Speaker. He is still the Speaker, and is still a member of the Florida house. He should quit to preserve any dignity he has left, but he won’t.

Given the ethics rules of the Florida legislature, I have no doubt that he hasn’t actually committed a violation. The rules are so lax I’m not sure if you could violate them if you tried.

No doubt due to the bad economic times, Florida State University football couch, Bobby Bowden, has signed a one-year extension of his contract for only $2.5 million, the same as this year. Like everyone else he has had to forgo a raise.

The St. Petersburg Times reports that State Farm Insurance withdrawing from Florida property market

State Farm, the largest private property insurer operating in Florida, filed plans to stop selling property insurance statewide.

The pullout includes insurance coverage for home and condo owners, renters, personal liability, boats, personal articles, and business property and liability. The company will continue to write auto policies, where it is the market leader, and other insurance lines.

Another million home and business owners are going to be applying for the state’s insurance coverage. State Farm and other insurance companies are in trouble because of bad investments, and the policy holders are being tapped to make up the Wall Street losses. These companies aren’t really insurance companies anymore, they are Wall Street gamblers. The policies they write are an excuse to get enough money to feed their addiction.

The entire insurance industry is broken. Governments should just give up on them as a bad idea, and create their own insurance pools. Flood insurance has already been forced upon the Federal government, so they may as well provide full coverage and stop this charade of the “free market”. The insurance industry is only interested in guaranteed profits and no risks.

While most people think of citrus crop losses when the weather gets cold in South Florida, damaged fruit isn’t the only thing that falls out of the trees.

So if you are in the area during a freeze, wear a padded hat and watch the trees.  They are mostly harmless.

The Republicans keep trying to give public lands to their friends in Big Oil so “we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil”. There are are whole lot of assumptions built into their concept that can’t be reconciled with the real world.

For example, the Pensacola News Journal is reporting Production suspended at Jay Oil Field

Denver-based Quantum Resources has suspended its Jay Oil Field production and laid off about half its employees as a result of the economic recession and dramatic fall in oil prices.
…

The Jay fields were first discovered in 1970 and contained estimated reserves of one billion barrels of oil, one of the largest single discoveries in U.S. history.

This isn’t exploration, it’s a proven field, but they are shutting it down to wait for higher prices. Just because the Republicans give them rights to public property doesn’t ensure they will use those rights for anyone’s benefit but their own. As Alan Greenspan finally realized, the self-interest of corporations isn’t very enlightened, just greedy.

The Pensacola News Journal reports Missing pilot captured

An Indiana pilot who faked a distress call and bailed out of a plane over Alabama was found at a Gadsden County campground Tuesday night after slashing his wrist in a suicide attempt.

Marcus Schrenker, 38, was taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital by helicopter, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Law enforcement learned of his location after he sent an e-mail Tuesday to a family friend from a computer at the KOA Campground outside Chattahoochee, according to the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office.

Gadsden deputies and the U.S. Marshals Service North Florida Fugitive Task Force found Schrenker in a pup tent at the campground before 9:30 p.m.

This is about 100 miles East of me. If he wasn’t going to be shipped back to Indiana, he would probably have spent significant time in that area as Chatahoochee is the location of the state’s secure mental health facility [AKA psychiatric prison]. Given the current economic conditions and a suicide attempt, a one-hour hearing on a Baker Act claim followed by immediate commitment would be much preferred by local officials than an extended criminal trial.

CNN reports a local story: Authorities: Fake-emergency pilot under securities probe

(CNN) — A man whose financial management business is under investigation faked a life-or-death emergency in his private aircraft before secretly parachuting out and letting his plane crash in the Florida panhandle, authorities said Monday.

The pilot, identified as Marcus Schrenker, 38, later checked into a hotel in Alabama under a fake name and then put on a black cap and fled into woods, authorities in Alabama said, according to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office in Milton, Florida.

So there’s an idiot with a pilot’s license who has been ripping off his clients and he needs to flee. Given the details in the article, I find it hard to believe that people trusted anyone this incompetent.

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