Nearly a month after accused Ponzi schemer and mega-Charlie Crist fundraiser Scott Rothstein was charged with racketeering, Crist reversed himself Friday and said he'd give up all contributions made by Rothstein's lawyers. That's at least $84,000.
When will he give up the cash? "not very long at all," Crist told the' [...]
Republican Senate leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla filed for divorce Dec. 10 with a pretty boilerplate separation filing from lobbyist Claudia Diaz de la Portilla. She followed up Dec. 11 with a counter petition that whacked him right between the eyes by claiming the Miami Senator is "unwilling and" [...]
Picking up a line of attack begun months ago by the Florida Republican Party, gubernatorial hopeful Bill McCollum is accusing his Democratic rival, Alex Sink, of using ``deceptive loan practices'' while she was a top banker.
It's a risky political strategy, considering McCollum's history with the mortgage industry. As a member [...]
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is conducting an anti-trust investigation of a voting-machine company merger that would create a near-monopoly over the levers of democracy in Florida and much of the United States.
McCollum's office has issued at least six subpoenas covering every major voting-machine company as part of a civil [...]
So here's the content and attachments of the breakfast gate emails. The level of conspiracy and wicked government skullduggery and abuse of public records laws is shocking! (look here, here, here and here for more background). Beware, these attachments contain highly classified info.
From: Thibault, Kevin
Sent: Tuesday, October [...]
In her zeal to score political points over breakfast-gate, state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's governor's campaign sent out a screed lambasting the Gov. Charlie Crist's administration for a Sunshine Law violation because DOT officials used words like "French toast" and "pancakes" in the subject header of emails dealing' [...]
Gov. Charlie Crist -- not known as a regular user of e-mail -- says he found it "odd" that the Department of Transportation would use breakfast words like "pancakes" and "French toast" in official communications dealing with the recent commuter rail legislation. DOT Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos' No. 2, Kevin Thibault, said he' [...]
Wow. A new Rasmussen Reports survey shows that Republican Gov. Charlie Crist and former House Speaker Marco Rubio are tied 43-43 in the primary race for U.S Senate. About 5 percent prefer another candidate and 9 percent are undecided, according to the poll.
Crist’s support [...]
Breakfast is served.
Sen. Paula Dockery now wants Gov. Charlie Crist to delay the Wednesday signing of the rail bill she opposed now that Crist asked the state's inspector general to conduct an inquiry into Florida Department of Transportation emails that bore the headlines "pancake," "Pancakes" and "French Toast."
To' [...]
So Florida Department of Transportation secretary Stephanie Kopelousos's attention is tough to get. Asst. Secretary for Engineering and Operations Kevin Thibault said had a solution: Write a weird headline that she can easily see and search for on her BlackBerry.
Adam Smith notest that we've struggled lately to get a clear answer from Marco Rubio on whether as governor he would have accepted money from the federal stimulus package about which he is so critical. Keith Cate on Tampa Bay's NBC affiliate got a clearer answer:
"Ultimately," Rubio said. "I would have'" [...]
Sen. Paula Dockery just wanted to see eight-month's worth of emails issues to and from FDOT honchos about "CSX, rail, liability."** The Lakeland Republican barely got a thing. There was not one email from FDOT chief Stephanie Kopelousos over the past eight months on an issue that her boss, Gov. Charlie Crist, and' [...]
A former aide to Sen. Mandy Dawson is talking with authorities in the Justice Department's case against Alan Mendelsohn, a Broward fundraiser extraordinaire accused of transferring $87,000 to an unidentified former state lawmaker.
``You already know I'm cooperating. Talk to my lawyer,'' said ex-aide Venica Blakely, 36, who sources say served' [...]
Nothing quite like Senate District 38. File a complaint against a candidate, and the next thing you know you’ll be accused of being in league with Fidel Castro and his band of spies. And then someone's mom gets dragged into it. And then each side suggests the other is committing' [...]
The most affable man in the Florida Senate wasn’t so smiley.
Senate President Jeff Atwater had taken too much of a gamble, calling a special session on controversial rail transit issues without enough votes to ensure passage. And with the clock running down, he needed the Florida Department of Transportation Secretary, [...]
In the end, billions of hoped-for federal money to build a high-speed rail, and hundreds of millions more for Central and South Florida commuter rail hinged on just one letter from Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos to Senate President Jeff Atwater. The letter gives the AFL-CIO some sense of [...]
Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, the only Democrat on the Cabinet, lost to her two fellow Republicans Tuesday in her continuing drive to broaden the oversight of Florida's $120-billion pension fund. A career banker who's running for governor, Sink sought to remove the governor and attorney general as pension fund [...]
AFL-CIO president Mike Williams didn't quite say it, but the deal that's been struck in the Senate protects 184 union railroad workers in South and Central Florida. The signalmen and maintenance-of-way workers will continue to enjoy federal pension benefits and federal job-protection benefits.
Getting the union on board not only helps' [...]
Mike Williams, president of the AFL-CIO, just left Sen. Paula Dockery's office after delivering a bombshell: They're about to reach an accord on union workers at SunRail. So Democrats in the Senate might vote for the rail bill.
That means they can roll it over to third reading and pas it' [...]
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander said he'll vote on the SunRail deal despite the fact that his cousin, Rep. Baxter Troutman, abstained from voting on the grounds that it's a conflict of interest because their family owns a business that works on the CSX lines.
Alexander based his decision on a [...]
The Democratic race for attorney general's getting a little more intriguing now that Sen. Dave Aronberg skipped the Regulated Industries Committee meeting yesterday because "I will be detained by events in my district that I need to attend," according to his please-excuse-my-absence note.
One of those "events:" A fundraiser for the' [...]
Sen. Paula Dockery had one more question to ask, a stack of documents on her desk that would invariably help her tear holes in the SunRail deal. But the Transportation and Economic Development Committee was winding down. Dockery had already asked three days' worth of questions in other committees, including this one. Sen.' [...]
Boy, is the Senate divided over SunRail. The Judiciary committee just approved the rail package on a 5-4 vote. Just like the Transportation Committee yesterday.
[...]What magic thing did Gov. Charlie Crist say to Sen. Nancy Detert to get her to switch her nay vote on SunRail?
Not much.
"I went in as a yes and I came out as a yes," Detert said.
"We have the votes now to pass SunRail," Detert said. She's' [...]
Jamie Miller, who consulted for Bill McCollum's successful 2006 race for attorney general, is now the campaign manager for McCollum's Republican opponent for governor, Paula Dockery.
But Miller probably isn't the biggest boost to Dockery's campaign. That distinction belongs to Senate President Jeff Atwater who called a special session on SunRail [...]
Add a new element to the political intrigue in the Senate over rail.
Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson, D-Tallahassee, confirms he's being pressured to drop his longshot Congressional bid and instead run for chief financial officer -- the only statewide race in which Democrats have thus far failed to field a candidate.
The [...]
From a House Democrats' press release:
State Representative Michael Scionti will not seek reelection to a third term in the Florida House of Representatives for Legislative District 58 and announces that he has been appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intergovernmental Affairs and' [...]
At the start of the second week of a two-week special session, the Florida House voted 84 to 25 Monday for sweeping rail legislation. The bill allows creation of the SunRail commuter line in central Florida, adds a new permanent money source for the debt-ridden Tri-Rail system in South Florida and accelerates construction of [...]
It’s a gimme that the House will pass a rail package, but a group of Miami-Dade legislators has a few concerns/questions about the deal. And it’s all about Miami-Dade, though highly technical (link below). 10 of the 18 members of the delegation signed the letter, including budget chief David Rivera [...]
Here's a switch for state economists accustomed to falling revenues: Florida is collecting more in taxes than they had previously forecast.
The state's general-revenue fund should take in about $338.4 million more than anticipated for the budget year ending June 30. Next fiscal year, the budget should reap about $312.6 million [...]
Well, someone (an anonymous photo-shopper) has a sense of humor about Paula Dockery (on tracks) killing SunRail. Looks like Sen. Jeremy Ring is on left, Senate President Jeff Atwater is center with the Dick Dastardly stash (or is that the ole Tom Lee?) and Rep. Gary Aubuchon [...]
As a deal on rail projects hits roadbloacks, Senate Majority leader Alex Diaz de la Portilla is working the phones – and his pen.
The Miami Republican lobbied one House member to submit an editorial to drum up home-town support to help the measure pass in his own chamber. First stop: [...]
The familiar white paper covers the windows of a basement-level hearing room in the Capitol's Senate Office Building. That's the tip-off that the Commission on Ethics is meeting in executive session Friday, considering separate complaints involving the use of state aircraft by three high-ranking state officials.
The three are Attorney General Bill [...]
As if the feud with his fellow lawmaker/cousin wasn’t interesting enough, Rep. Baxter Troutman dropped the Ray Sansom bomb in reference to Sen. J.D. Alexander.. Outside of the fact that the former House Speaker’s name is now synonymous with conflicts of interest, invoking his name is sure to test the [...]
For the first time in these bleak financial times, Florida’s economists are forecasting higher-than-expected tax collections that could mean fewer budget cuts and less of a chance for tax increases.
But the big question looms: How much of a windfall?
The answer is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Legislature’s Office of [...]
An old lawyer saying goes something like this: If you don't have the facts, pound on the law. If you don't have the law, pound on the facts. If you don't have either, pound on the table.
Lakeland Sen. Paula Dockery didn't need to pound on the table when she pummeled [...]
There’s little love lost between Sen. J.D. Alexander and Rep. Baxter Troutman (more here). And there will be even less now that Troutman filed an official vote-abstention form with the House Clerk, noting that he’s a “significant” shareholder in a family company called Phoenix Industries, which does work for [...]
Last year, Eustis Republican Sen. Carey Baker was a yes on SunRail. But now he says...
"Originally I committed to the SunRail.. a Little Red Riding Hood bill. Instead we're voting on this big bad wolf bill."
Ouch. Senate President Jeff Atwater had called the special session on rail to garner' [...]
The feds seized Scott Rothstein's gaudiest assets, allegedly purchased with purloined money.
The governor was not among them.
The federal charging document claimed Rothstein used funds from his brazenly mendacious billion-dollar Ponzi scheme to buy homes, yachts and cars with the kind of mindless ostentatiousness not seen hereabouts since the days of [...]
Twice in two years, proposed commuter rail in Central Florida died despite backing from powerful political and business leaders.
Both times, Lakeland Republican Sen. Paula Dockery engineered the train wreck. Today, as the Florida Legislature convenes in a special session to consider commuter rail legislation for a third time, Dockery [...]
Florida's real estate market is crumbling so badly that the taxable property value for schools statewide will tumble 9.5 percent next year, state economists forecast Wednesday.
The plummeting property values pose problems for lawmakers, taxpayers and the school system: If the Legislature keeps the schools tax rate the same during the [...]
The Florida House released a list of 36 members -- nearly one-third of the total membership -- who have excused absences for one or more days from the week-long special session on transportation that will get underway Thursday. With five excused senators, it means fully one-fourth of the 160 members of the Legislature [...]
House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, told reporters Wednesday that black lawmakers have known since Nov. 25 that the special session on rail projects would start Dec. 3. He defended his decision to reject a proposal by black legislators to delay the start of the session until next Monday, so they [...]
Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein doled out large bonuses to his firm's lawyers, purportedly for exemplary work -- but they would receive the awards only after they made fat campaign contributions in their names to political candidates of Rothstein's choice.
That allegation, tucked into federal racketeering charges filed Tuesday against Rothstein, [...]
From the black caucus re: the special session on rail:
Dear President Atwater,
It has come to my attention a special session on rail issues has tentatively been scheduled for December 3-4, 2009. I am sure you are aware the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) annual conference is scheduled for [...]
So the House Democrats have asked for a delay in the special session, slated to start Thursday, because it would step on a national conference of black legislators meeting this week.
Is this the same group of Democrats who urged Nov. 5 Republicans to hurry up on rail? Yup. Press release [...]
Maurice Ferre, a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, today called for an investigation into Gov. Charlie Crist's campaign, claiming that accused Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein had a habit of contributing money to the Republican Party of Florida when Crist approved judicial picks that Rothstein supported. Rothstein was [...]
Gotta love West Miami Mayor Cesar Carasa. He allegedly made more than $70,000 worth of personal calls from his city-owned cell phone. Most of the calls were to the Dominican Republican, even during a trip to China. Talk about roaming charges.
Gov. Charlie Crist suspended him.
Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul jointly issued a statement Monday evening calling for a special legislative session on commuter and high-speed rail to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday Dec. 3 and ending at noon Friday, Dec. 11. Read the proclamation here.
-- Steve Bousquet
[...]Gov. Charlie Crist's request for a statewide grand-jury to probe potential corruption in Florida (more here) was denied Monday by the Florida Supreme Court. Only Justice Charles Canady dissented. Here's what the court said:
THE COURT, having considered the Petition of the Honorable Charles J. Crist, Jr., Governor of Florida, [...]
