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TexasTowelie's JournalRights to abortion, privacy could diminish under proposed constitutional amendment
TALLAHASEE -- Abortion restrictions would face fewer legal hurdles in Florida, and the state’s unique right to privacy would be significantly narrowed, under a proposal that was advanced by a key committee of the Constitution Revision Commission Thursday.
Under Proposal 22, approved Thursday by a 4-3 vote of the CRC Declaration of Rights Committee, the existing privacy right is narrowed from giving every person the right “to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life” to restricting government intrusion to only “information and the disclosure of that information.”
The CRC is the 37-member board that has the power to put amendments directly on the November 2018 ballot. If approved by the full commission in March, the measure would appear before voters.
If adopted, parental consent and 24-hour waiting periods on abortion — laws thrown out by Florida courts in recent years because of the current privacy clause — could be restored, said John Stemberger, an Orlando attorney and sponsor of the measure who has been a longtime anti-abortion advocate.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article196698764.html
He said he put residents first then he scored secret cash from special interests
It was raining outside, so hotelier Marc Lawrence met then-Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco in the parking garage of the South Beach condo building where they both live.
Lawrence handed the commissioner a $15,000 check.
“He told me he was running for mayor,” Lawrence later told state investigators probing Grieco’s campaign fundraising. “And he asked if we could contribute.”
The August 2016 donation never showed up in public records for Grieco’s campaign, which formally began several months later. That’s because — at Grieco’s instruction — Lawrence made the check out to People for Better Leaders, a political action committee with no apparent ties to the popular politician.
Now, hours of sworn testimony from the committee’s donors prove the PAC was meant to serve as a secret fund for Grieco’s upcoming campaign for mayor — raising more than $200,000 from Miami Beach business interests and residents between 2015 and 2017 — all out of public view.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article196519684.html
Bill to abolish daylight saving time change advances in Florida Senate
TALLAHASSEE --- A move to put all of Florida in the same time zone, while following daylight saving time throughout the year, got the backing of a Senate committee on Tuesday.
But even if the proposal receives approval from the full Legislature, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Congress would both have to act for the changes to occur.
The Senate Community Affairs Committee voted in favor of the proposal (SB 858), which seeks to put Panhandle counties in the same time zone as the rest of the state and for Florida to observe daylight saving time all year. Much of the Panhandle is now in the Central time zone, while the rest of the state is in the Eastern time zone.
Sen. Greg Steube, a Sarasota Republican who is sponsoring the proposal, initially sought to have the state exempted from daylight-saving time and observe standard time throughout the year. But an amendment Tuesday moved the bill closer to a House version (HB 1013), which seeks year-round daylight saving time.
Read more: http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20180124/bill-to-abolish-daylight-saving-time-change-advances-in-florida-senate
Bethune-Cookman University sues former president Edison Jackson over dorm deal
Bethune-Cookman University has sued former President Edison O. Jackson, a pair of former school officials and the developer of the university’s newest dorm, claiming that bribery, corruption and fraud surrounded the project, which will ultimately cost the university $306 million.
The suit, recorded Wednesday in Circuit Court, said “secretly built” into the dormitory’s price tag are “millions of dollars in improper payments,” some of which are alleged to have been made to Jackson and two former high-ranking school officials who were Jackson’s longtime associates. It also alleges that “hush bonuses” were paid to B-CU staff to obtain their “silence” on the deal.
This past summer, The News-Journal published a series of stories showing that the historically black university, founded by Mary McLeod Bethune, was in difficult financial straits. An expose on the dorm deal — which included the review of hundreds of documents, including emails, court records and financial statements — revealed many of the troubling facts in the suit, including that the dorm’s developer, Darnell Dailey, had been sued twice for fraud, that his company had no prior experience in dorm projects, and that the deal was fast-tracked by the administration and board of trustees.
In the wake of the stories and other controversies, Jackson retired as president, and the administration, led by newly appointed interim President Hubert Grimes, promised to investigate any financial wrongdoings. The suit appears to be the first step in that process.
Read more: http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180124/b-cu-sues-former-president-edison-jackson-over-dorm-deal
Duke Energy to use tax savings to cover hurricane tab
Duke Energy Florida customers will be spared paying more than $500 million in costs related to Hurricane Irma because of the utility’s savings under the new federal tax overhaul, Duke said Wednesday.
Duke, the state’s second-largest electric utility, announced the decision slightly more than a week after Florida Power & Light said its customers would avoid $1.3 billion in Irma costs because of the tax law approved in December by Congress and President Donald Trump.
“We are pleased that this solution will prevent a rate increase for our customers,” Harry Sideris, Duke Energy Florida state president, said in a prepared statement. “Hurricane Irma was the worst storm to ever hit Duke Energy Florida and impacted many lives. Redirecting the tax reform savings against the storm costs ensures that our customers will reap the benefits of this new law.”
Duke filed a petition last month with the Florida Public Service Commission seeking to recoup $513 million in Irma-related costs over a three-year period. That included money to cover restoration costs and the replenishment of a $132 million storm reserve.
Read more: http://floridapolitics.com/archives/254399-duke-use-tax-savings-cover-hurricane-tab
Mental health advocates urge lawmakers to pass slate of bills during Behavioral Health Day
More than 150 mental health advocates visited the Capitol Wednesday to urge lawmakers to pass a slate of bills and approve funding requests covering a wide range of mental health issues, including the opioid epidemic.
“Behavioral Health Day at the Capitol allows, peers, caregivers, friends and family to unite to talk about mental health issues and work with lawmakers to find solutions,” said Alisa LaPolt, Executive Director of NAMI Florida. “With the current dialogue in the state around the opioid epidemic, it is important that we also address the prevalence of mental illness with opioid addiction and substance use disorder. These issues go hand-in-hand in the majority of cases; we can’t treat one without the other.”
Along those lines, the National Alliance on Mental Illness Florida is in favor of proposals by Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto and Rep. Jim Boyd (SB 8/HB 21) that would revamp the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and limit opioid prescriptions in Florida to a three-day supply or a seven-day supply if deemed “medically necessary.”
The group is also looking for the state to commit $25 million in funding to expand services and the authorization to spend another $27.1 million in federal State Targeted Response funds, a request they share with Gov. Rick Scott.
Read more: http://floridapolitics.com/archives/254458-mental-health-advocates-urge-lawmakers-pass-slate-bills-behavioral-health-day
Shutdown raises staffing, safety concerns at FCI Tallahassee
The government shutdown put a spotlight on issues from staffing and public safety to employee morale at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee.
Ray Coleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 1570, said the federal prison on Capital Circle Northeast was short-staffed going into the shutdown, a problem a prolonged impasse only would have worsened.
“If you start to furlough employees and reduce the number of staff, essentially that’s less staff you have to respond to emergencies, disturbances, any of those inherent dangers that come with working at a prison,” Coleman said. “And that in and of itself is a safety concern being as this prison is essentially in the backyard of this community.”
Coleman said the prison has about 275 full-time employees, including about 200 union members, but is some 70 positions short. He said a hiring freeze has been in place since last January, which has prevented the prison from filling positions left open by retirements and transfers. The Tallahassee Democrat could not immediately confirm the staff numbers with prison officials.
Read more: http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/01/22/shutdown-raises-staffing-safety-concerns-fci/1055550001/
Florida's GOP Politicians Keep Threatening to Jail Democratic Mayors
Last week, Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen asking her to investigate two of Florida's most prominent Democratic leaders, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, for running "sanctuary cities" that refuse to detain immigrants on behalf of the federal government. It's not a coincidence that Gillum is running for governor right now — Corcoran, who is eyeing a run for the GOP nomination, seems to have no problem trying to arrest his political opponents.
Somehow this was not the only threat of arrest state politicians levied at Democrats this month. Yesterday, Rep. Jay Fant, another first-class lunatic from Jacksonville, promised to send immigrant-protecting mayors to jail if he's elected Florida's next attorney general.
"The difference between immigration and illegal immigration is that illegal immigration is illegal," he said, proving once and for all that Fant is smarter than us. He then, for some reason, included a dramatic shot of two migrants climbing over some sort of border fence, despite the fact that Florida does not share a land border with any other nation.
"Elected officials who prop up this paradigm of illegal immigration need to be prosecuted because they are breaking the law," he continued. "I'm sick and tired of it, people are sick and tired of reading about it. We play by the rules, so should they. We have rules about immigration, they should be followed. Those who break the rules as sanctuary cities, and those who enable them, need to be prosecuted, and as attorney general, that's what we're going to do."
Read more: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-politicians-corcoran-fant-threaten-to-jail-sanctuary-mayors-10023382
Miami Principal Mocks Parent Asking About Teacher's Alleged Molestation of Student
When Nancy Tyler found out a teacher at her daughter's charter school had been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a student, she was — understandably — concerned. Though the teacher didn't work at her daughter's campus, Tyler wrote in an email to Miami Arts Charter leaders that the entire school community should have been informed of the arrest.
The response from Alfredo de la Rosa, the school's principal and founder, was less than encouraging: "You just like the drama," he wrote in a lengthy email sent Saturday afternoon. "You will have to satisfy your need for gossip by watching TV."
Then he signed off with a poop emoji.
"I can't believe a principal wrote that," says Tyler, whose email also asked about the rumored departure of one of her daughter's teachers. "And, you know, I was just in shock."
De la Rosa, who opened Miami Arts Charter in 2009 after years as a Miami-Dade County public school teacher, tells New Times the poop emoji was "not intentional" and he didn't know how it made its way into the email. He says the school sent a statement about the arrest of Valeria Costadoni to the Wynwood campus, where she taught language arts, but it wasn't necessary to send one to the Homestead campus.
Read more: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-arts-charter-school-principal-mocks-parent-asking-about-allegedly-abusive-teacher-10023245
Florida Voters Can Finally Kill Racist, 150-Year-Old Felon Voting Ban
Florida's law denying the right to vote to anyone ever convicted of a felony is racist. Full stop. It was passed in 1868 by white-supremacist lawmakers enraged at the 14th Amendment, knowing full well that a crooked criminal justice system would ensure far more blacks than whites would be stamped with lifetime voting bans. And it's been kept in place by craven politicians who benefit when minorities are denied the most basic right of casting a vote.
Florida voters will now have a chance to right that 150-year-old wrong. A statewide question on this November's ballot will ask whether to eliminate the lifetime voting ban on felons after elections officials confirmed today that activists had gathered more than the required 766,000 valid signatures.
“Voters took matters in their own hands to ensure that their fellow Floridians, family members, and friends who’ve made past mistakes, served their time, and paid their debts to society are given a second chance and the opportunity to earn back their ability to vote,” Desmond Meade, chair of Floridians for a Fair Democracy, says in a news release.
Florida is one of only three states — the others are Kentucky and Iowa — with lifetime bans on felons voting. There's no ambiguity about the law's origins. Florida first tried to block the 14th Amendment, which gave African-Americans full citizenship and the right to vote.
Read more: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-voters-can-kill-racist-felon-voting-ban-on-november-ballot-10019784
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