TALLAHASSEE -- Read the 49-page commuter rail opus here before it changes. Quick impressions: the House committee bill taps $60 million from the transportation trust fund beginning in 2014 for the Florida Rail Enterprise lawmakers want to create to oversee...
Republican Armando Gutierrez released a list of his top fund raisers Tuesday, a roster that includes a part owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, the author of Florida's prepaid college tuition program and a former Bush "Pioneer" fund-raiser for President George...
TALLAHASSEE -- From Gary Fineout's The Fine Print: Talk about good timing. On the same week that Gov. Charlie Crist gets rebuffed in his bid to create a statewide grand jury to probe corruption, the state's ethics commission may do...
TALLAHASSEE -- Is there an outbreak of lazy-itis brewing among rank-and-file Florida legislators? Florida House Speaker Larry Cretul has sent a memo to lawmakers Tuesday telling them that to accommodate more than two-dozen black legislators involved in a national conference...
TALLAHASSEE -- CFO Alex Sink has added her voice to the Democratic push to delay the slated Thursday start of the rail special session until after a national conference of black legislators is concluded in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. “Given...
TALLAHASSEE -- Hillsborough County Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi jumped into an an already crowded Republican field for attorney general on Tuesday, pitching herself as a tough crime-fighter and staunch conservative in a race that already features two prominent GOP...
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE -- House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands, D-Weston, warned that the Legislature’s Republican leadership is verging on being “racially insensitive” for scheduling a special session on days conflicting with a national conference of black legislators...
TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature's presiding officers just released the official "call" for the Dec. 3-11 special session for rail, and it includes a couple of new choo-choo items. The document that spells out what lawmakers can...
TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida AFl-CIO has a lot of sway with Democrats -- particularly those running for higher office. So, will the union's move to oppose the rail legislation taking shape in the Legislature cause a shift in votes? There...
Today's lesson in Politics Is Just Like You Think It Is comes from Todd Harris, a smart, eminently quotable Republican strategist, who's advising former House Speaker Marco Rubio on his bid for U.S. Senate. Last week, the Sentinel asked Harris...
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE -- The Legislature will be in special session starting Thursday at 9 a.m., it looks like. Just one problem: That’s a big day for the state’s black caucus, which is hosting a national conference...
TALLAHASSEE - - Florida legislative leaders on Monday agreed to a deal on a special legislative session this week to pave the way for the $1.2 billion SunRail commuter train system as well as a potential high-speed corridor linking the...
TALLAHASSEE -- Senate President Jeff Atwater just sent out a summary of the rail bill the Florida Legislature could take up this week in a special session. The point, he wrote in a memo to lawmakers, is to emphasize the...
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Supreme Court on Monday denied Gov. Charlie Crist’s petition for a statewide grand jury on corruption issues, ruling 6-1 that the governor’s call didn’t meet minimum legal requirements. Crist’s petition didn’t...
By Aaron Deslatte and Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel TALLAHASSEE -- Since Florida Senate leaders kick-started talks about pushing through SunRail legislation, the Florida AFL-CIO has been talking behind the scenes with the chamber to try and broker a deal to...
By Brian Haas, Sun Sentinel Are you a government official or an elected official looking for box seats to a sporting event? No problem. Need a new set of golf clubs? You got it. What about a fancy dinner for...
Sometime next year, Alex Sink and Bill McCollum plan to get serious about creating jobs. McCollum, a 20-year Republican congressman from Longwood and first-term attorney general running for governor, is offering many of the same ideas conservatives have pushed for...
By Jim Stratton, Orlando Sentinel Google the words Charlie Crist and vomit and you'll find an item that illustrates just how badly things have been going for Florida's governor and aspiring U.S. senator. The link features a bit from a...
For months, backers of Central Florida's proposed $1.2-billion SunRail commuter train have sought to convince the Florida AFL-CIO to drop its opposition to the rail deal. The union has opposed language in the package creating SunRail that it says would...
TALLAHASSEE -- State lawmakers are penciling in next week as the starting point for a special legislative session to pave the way for Central Florida's $1.2 billion SunRail commuter train project. The Florida Legislature's presiding officers sent a memo to...
Lots of people may not realize it, but Alex Sink isn't the only Democrat running for governor next year. Michael Arth, who earlier this decade revitalized a mini-slum into one of DeLand's most charming neighborhoods, has declared his candidacy. The...
By David Royce, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE -- Ray Sansom's preliminary list of possible witnesses for a committee investigating his conduct includes two of the three central characters in the drama over the former speaker's work with Northwest...
By Ludmilla Lelis, Orlando Sentinel DeLAND — In 2001, Michael E. Arth moved into a drug-infested slum in DeLand and, with no money and lots of doubters, rebuilt it into a quaint tree-lined enclave of historic homes. Now Arth wants...
Reminiscent of her September 2008 Florida campaign debut here, former Alaska governor & '08 GOP veep nominee Sarah Palin got a rousing welcome from hundreds of fans during a book-signing stop at a Barnes & Noble store in The Villages,...
They're lined up at The Villages -- and even in Orlando -- for Sarah Palin's book-signing appearance at two Barnes & Noble bookstores later today. The former Alaskan governor will be autographing copies of her new book, Going Rogue, at...
WINTER PARK – State Sen. Paula Dockery’s case against SunRail drew both cheers and jeers at a city commission meeting Monday before she even stepped to the podium. Dockery, a Lakeland Republican who is running for governor, is one of...
TALLAHASSEE -- Remember not too long ago when she trashed all her staff's BlackBerrys? Now Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is going after the paper people waste in the course of operating and communicating the daily doings of government. Sink...
TALLAHASSEE - Florida lawmakers may have a way to avoid the thorny issue of raising taxes to pass commuter-rail legislation: Motorists may be paying enough at the gas pump to bail out South Florida's beleaguered Tri-Rail commuter system. State economists...
TALLAHASSEE -- The Alex Sink gubernatorial campaign sent out a photo of a smiling Bill McCollum and Scott Rothstein earlier this month, taken in the better days before Rothstein was accused of defrauding hundreds of millions of dollars from investors....
WASHINGTON -- More than 80 U.S. House members wrote President Barack Obama today, urging the White House to increase NASA funding by up to $3 billion annually so that the agency can accelerate plans to send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit....
TALLAHASSEE -- Democratic agriculture commissioner candidate Scott Maddox teed off on the push to open up Florida's near-shore waters to oil exploration Monday, saying he could think of no better way to destroy the economy and "mortgage the future." “My...
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson surprised The Orlando Lutheran Academy's Jeffrey Knutson and his fellow students Monday morning by announcing that the senior had earned an appointment to West Point. His dad and school Principal Jeff Knutson was visibly choked up...
By Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel MIAMI – Veronica Jackson pored over a training notebook as she sat in a Tri-Rail commuter train one day last week. Glancing over, she could see thousands of cars and trucks creeping along Interstate 95,...
Two of the most powerful men in the Florida Senate took a trip to Washington last week that could foretell the state's eventual response to the federal health-care debate. Sens. Mike Haridopolos, the Merritt Island Republican next in line to...
By Amy L. Edwards, Orlando Sentinel It records everything you type: Your passwords. Your user names. Even the text you deleted. It logs the Web sites you've visited and stores screenshots of whatever you are viewing. You don't even know...
By Dan Tracy, Sentinel Staff Writer With a state Senate investigation of its practices heating up, Metro Orlando's largest blood center said Friday that it will no longer do business with its board members, who now will be subject to...
Glenn Beck, the conservative talk radio and Fox TV commentator, got a cheering reception as he arrived for a book-signing appearance at the Barnes & Noble store on East Colonial Drive in Orlando, Friday. Beck, who was promoting his bestseller...
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist today appointed golfing legend Annika Sorenstam to his council on physical fitness. Sorenstam, who retired from the game last year after notching 92 worldwide victories, has a foundation named after...
By John Kennedy, The News Service of Florida TALLAHASSEE -- Productive. Frank. An open discussion. That’s how Florida Republicans Friday described their huddle in remote Howey-in-the-Hills a day earlier. The party’s executive committee gathered in the Lake County town in...
WASHINGTON -- Much like the rest of the U.S. Senate, Florida’s two senators are split along party lines on whether to open debate Saturday on the Democrats’ massive healthcare package. In an interview Thursday, U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, R-Florida, said...
TALLAHASSEE -- Earlier this week, a cadre of Democratic voices from Alex Sink to Kendrick Meek called for Florida legislators to revisit their decision last spring not to expand jobless benefits and draw down an additional $444 million in federal...
Orlando Sentinel business columnist Beth Kassab followed up on the job claims of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission and found something troubling. While the taxpayer-supported agency boasted that it helped create 902 jobs in Seminole County in the last...
By Susan Jacobson, Sentinel Staff Writer Law-and-order Orlando City Council candidate Ezell "E-Z" Harris was arrested again Thursday on more prescription drug-trafficking charges after agents searched his home and office and said they found numerous drugs, guns and pill bottles....
Mark K. Matthews, Washington Bureau WASHINGTON – Two NASA allies in Congress dug in their heels Thursday and said that the agency should continue with its troubled Constellation program and not rely on global partners to access space after the...
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's jobless rate inched up to 11.2 percent in October, a slight gain over the previous month as the worst recession in more than three decades lumbered along. Florida's unemployment rate in September was 11.1 percent, and state...
TALLAHASSEE - For decades, Floridians have essentially bought government on the cheap, satisfying a swelling appetite for expanded services with taxes paid in large measure by visitors and newcomers. But the notion that the Sunshine State can keep buying happiness...
WASHINGTON -- The House Financial Services committee agreed Thursday that the Federal Reserve should be audited by government watchdogs, a decision that would bring unprecedented transparency to the central bank if the measure jump through several more congressional hoops. The...
By Josh Hafenbrack, Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Charlie Crist’s Friday schedule just came out. And – surprise, surprise – the governor isn’t in Tallahassee and his day looks as sparse as usual. Here’s what is listed: 11:30am MEETING WITH...
TALLAHASSEE -- House Speaker Larry Cretul said Thursday that legislative staffers were "probably a little closer than we have been" to hammering out an agreement over the $1.2 billion SunRail project that could bring lawmakers back for a special session...
TALLAHASSEE -- Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink's top helper is moving over to her gubernatorial campaign. Sink's campaign announced Thursday that Chief of Staff Jim Cassady, a Fort Lauderdale native, will be joining the campaign in January 2010, although the...
