Florida

=fla primary winner taker all, bondi endorse trumpfla tag new=fac so  3/17the country, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-disenfranchisement/" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1490299157889_45389" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none;">more than 6 million citizens</a> 
<a href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-disenfranchisement/">http://www.sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-disenfranchisement/</a>aren't able to vote because of laws preventing those with a felony conviction from casting a ballot. More than 1.7 million, or a quarter of the nation's voters disenfranchised by these laws, live in <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/publications/Florida_Voting_Rights_Outlier.pdf" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none;">Florida</a>, the perennial battleground state that also has some of the most restrictive rules barring the franchise from those with a felony record in their past. African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately affected by these laws, a product of inequities in the criminal justice system. Today, about 21 percent of Florida's voting-age African-American population is kept from voting under the state's harsh rules. One of them is <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://lawstreetmedia.com/news/felon-lawyer-inspiring-story-desmond-meade/" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none;">Desmond Meade</a> (in photo), a 49-year-old in Orlando who is at the center of a growing campaign to shift course in Florida and expand voting rights to those who have served their felony sentences. Meade has a law degree with Florida International University, and last fall worked on his wife Sheena's unsuccessful run for the Florida House. But one thing he couldn't do is vote for her. Meade applied to have his voting rights restored in 2006, after finishing his sentences for drug possession, and, later, for aggravated assault and possession of a firearm. Florida requires that those seeking to regain voting rights submit a petition to the state's Executive Clemency Board, which includes Gov. Rick Scott (R) and two other members of his cabinet. And Meade is still waiting. The number of Florida citizens who see their voting rights restored through the process has varied dramatically depending on who is in the governor's office. From 2002 to 2006, the clemency board cleared 72,080 citizens to vote, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://flarecord.com/stories/511045985-florida-supreme-court-to-review-felon-voting-restoration-amendment" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1490299157889_45380" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none;">according to the Florida Commission on Offender Review</a>. Gov. Charlie Crist expedited the process, leading to a surge in votes being restored — up to 155,315 between 2007 and 2010. But Gov. Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi ushered in new restrictions on the process in 2011; between 2011 and 2014, the number of citizens with voting rights restored plummeted to 1,534. "When you look at the number of individuals whose rights have been restored over the last six years, I mean, it's depressing, considering 47 other states allow people to vote after they've served their time," Meade <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/11/05/voter-disenfranchisement-florida-skew-swing-states-outcome/" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); outline: none;">said</a> in an interview last November. ===3/16 fla primary pundit sez reg ppl know, vs base and gov<h3 id="yui_3_16_0_1_1458062440553_5521" class="yiv9766249470null" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: block; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: 125%; letter-spacing: -0.5px; text-align: left;"><a id="yui_3_16_0_1_1458062440553_5612" rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=905c91d121&e=c2e8fdabfa" style="word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">13 Million Americans at Risk From Rising Sea Levels</a></h3>

<a href="http://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=905c91d121&e=c2e8fdabfa">http://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=905c91d121&e=c2e8fdabfa</a>

More than 13 millions Americans could be at risk from sea level rise and..everglades<div>extensive  sea level rise</div><div><a href="http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-south-florida-ends-1783803198">http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-south-florida-ends-1783803198</a></div><div></div>==http://www.alternet.org/environment/guacamole-thick-algae-takes-over-floridas-atlantic-coast
Waterways and beaches along Florida’s Atlantic coast have been taken over by thick, blue-green <a href="http://ecowatch.com/?s=algae+bloom">algae blooms</a>, prompting Florida Gov. Rick Scott to declare local states of emergency in St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach and Lee counties.Residents have described the foul-smelling algae as “<a href="http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ALGAE_EMERGENCY_FLORIDA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-06-30-16-13-11" target="blank">guacamole-thick</a>,” “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/30/florida-emergency-toxic-algae-treasure-coast" target="blank">god-awful</a>” and “<a href="http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2016/06/30/this-video-shows-how-gross-the-floridas-toxic-algae-blooms-really-are" target="blank">a festering infected creepy mess</a>.” One resident has complained of health problems, telling <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/video/2016/07/01/algae-chokes-florida-river?videoId=369132060" target="blank">Reuters</a>, “It is affecting all of us as far as red eyes, runny nose and the ‘in the throat’ feeling.”...<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/25/3753365/okeechobee-beach-water-pollution/" target="_blank">ThinkProgress</a> reported

in February that local industries have long dumped an assortment of

chemicals, fertilizers and cattle manure into the lake. David Guest,

managing attorney of the Florida branch of the environmental law group

Earthjustice, described the lake as a “toilet.”<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/30/florida-emergency-toxic-algae-treasure-coast" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported

that algae samples from the lake taken earlier this month found levels

of toxins 20 times higher than a safety threshold set by the World

Health Organization.The officials who regulate the toxic,

overflowing lake are in an unenviable position. To prevent flooding,

water gets flushed from the lake into the St. Lucie River that flows to

the ocean via Martin County. They can’t just leave the water there

either; high water levels have added stress to the aging Herbert Hoover

Dike, a 143-mile levee that surrounds the lake. Florida’s high rainfall

only makes matters worse.==SOLAR BALLOT INITIATIVE
see dooley, 60 plus, alfordPACE http://energyfairness.org/2015/07/smart-solar-amendment-good-move-for-florida/
POST YOUR OWN NEWS?http://capitalsoup.com/2015/07/30/florida-council-for-safe-communities-announces-support-of-recently-launched-smart-solar-amendment/ (also has add on payday loans ballot init?)BS:
TALLAHASSEE, FL — The Florida Council for Safe Communities today announced that it has come out in support of <a href="https://smartsolarfl.org/" target="_blank">Consumers for Smart Solar</a>

and their consumer-friendly solar amendment for the 2016 General

Election ballot, which was recently launched in response to an

alternative flawed solar amendment.

The Florida Council for Safe Communities submitted a legal brief to

the Florida Supreme Court in opposition to the alternative ballot

initiative, the “Shady Solar Amendment,” due to the fact that the ballot

title and summary are misleading and do not give voters “fair notice”

of the amendment’s purpose and effect. In the brief, the Florida Council

for Safe Communities also stated that the Shady Solar Amendment

“strips” Floridians from important consumer protections and it may cause

Florida consumers to experience potential utility rate increases. To

view the brief in its entirety, please <a href="http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/summaries/briefs/15/15-780/Filed_06-10-2015_Brief_Fl_Council_Safe_Communities.pdf#search=florida%20council%20for%20safe%20communities" target="_blank">click here</a>.

“As advocates for consumer protections, we simply cannot stand by

without actively opposing Floridians for Solar Choice or their

genuinely-flawed initiative,” said John Giotis, Chairman of Florida

Council for Safe Communities. “This Shady Solar Amendment provides free

reign to large solar companies, which have the potential to take unfair

advantage of Florida consumers in a myriad of ways. In addition, this

amendment could lead to an increase in costs to ratepayers, many of whom

will never opt for solar energy.”

“Florida has excellent potential for solar energy, and our state

should use that to our advantage; however, we must do so with complete

and adequate consumer protections,” said Giotis. “Quite simply, the

Shady Solar Amendment is misleading and ambiguous, and could victimize

certain populations in Florida, such as seniors or those living on a

fixed income. We encourage Floridians to review the Smart Solar

Amendment that is good for Florida consumers, as it is specifically

designed with them in mind.”

ON THE WEB: <a href="http://www.flcsc.org/" target="_blank">www.flcsc.org</a>

Contact: John Giotis, <a href="mailto:john@flcsc.org" target="blank">john@flcsc.org</a>=
http://desmogblog.com/2016/03/07/florida-rooftop-solar-advocates-challenge-deceptive-anti-solar-campaign-courtThe Sunshine State didn’t get its name for nothing: Florida ranks <a href="http://www.seia.org/state-solar-policy/florida" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">third</a> nationally in rooftop solar energy potential. But thanks to restrictive laws supported by the state’s powerful utility monopolies, the country’s third most populous state is only fourteenth in installed solar capacity.
 
Florida is one of only four states that bar third-party solar financing, when non-utility companies install solar panels on the roofs of homes and businesses at little or no upfront cost, sometimes selling the energy generated back to the customer.
 
A battle in Florida is well underway between Big Energy and clean-energy advocates. The current conflict began when a coalition called <a href="http://www.flsolarchoice.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Floridians for Solar Choice</a> (FSC) proposed <a href="http://www.flsolarchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/64491-1.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">a ballot measure</a> to legalize third-party solar agreements. FSC is an unlikely alliance of Tea Party activists and environmentalists, Libertarians, Republicans, a Christian coalition, and business groups.Utilities are threatened by third-party solar, which could affect their bottom line because of net metering—when utilities pay solar users for excess energy generated by their solar panels—and less demand for grid-based energy and new power plants. 
So utility giants teamed up with chambers of commerce and political and “social welfare” nonprofits to form <a href="https://smartsolarfl.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Consumers for Smart Solar</a> (CSS), which produced <a href="http://miamiherald.typepad.com/files/smart-solar-petition.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">a competing ballot initiative</a> that allegedly protects consumers and encourages the use of rooftop solar.
 
Critics of CSS say the group, seeing the positive polling that FSC’s amendment had received, created its measure to confuse voters, mimicking language used in the first measure but with a very different meaning. The ballot title is “Rights of Electricity Consumers Regarding Solar Energy Choice,” echoing CSS’s competitor’s name, Floridians for Solar Choice.
 
Today the state Supreme Court will hear arguments from David Guest, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Florida office. The environmental law firm is representing three conservation groups that are <a href="http://earthjustice.org/cases/2016/challenging-a-misleading-solar-ballot-initiative-in-florida" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">challenging</a> the CSS ballot measure that purports to give consumers the right to install solar panels on their homes.
 
But here’s the catch: Floridians already have the right to do this.
 
Guest says that under the Florida constitution, residents have the right to own and use property as long as that property has no adverse effects on others. The measure, which would amend the state constitution, attempts to trick voters by pretending to afford them a constitutional right they already have, he says, which is impermissible under Florida law.
 
The amendment’s language is misleading in more ways than one, says Guest. The amendment summary says that state and local governments will “ensure that consumers who do not choose to install solar are not required to subsidize the costs of backup power and electric grid access to those who do.” But the true meanings of some of these terms, including “subsidize” and “backup power,” Guest says, are not what they might seem to the lay reader.
 
While many might think “backup power” refers to gas generators, for example, the amendment goes on to define the term as electricity that the utility provides solar users at times when solar energy is unavailable, like nighttime.
 
Earthjustice’s <a href="http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Florida%20Faux-solar%20Amendment%20Filing_1.13.16.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">legal brief</a> also contends that the practice of net metering, when utilities pay solar users for excess energy generated by their solar panels at the same rate that the utility charges for its electricity, does not constitute a subsidy, as the amendment suggests.
 
“This is a fake amendment that was designed for the purpose of defeating the real one,” says Guest. “It’s simply a device to trick voters into putting the brakes on solar while believing they’re promoting it.”
 
The CSS amendment “is an outright lie under the guise of solar freedom,” says Debbie Dooley, head of Conservatives for Energy Freedom, a founding organization with FSC, and a Tea Party co-founder who has led successful organizing efforts in Georgia and South Carolina to expand third-party solar agreements.
 
The CSS petitioners have engaged in dishonest signature gathering, members of the conservation groups have found. FSCmembers encountered voters who had already signed CSS’s petition, thinking it was FSC’s.
 
Guest says he was approached by CSS petitioners in November who presented him with both measures, falsely claiming that one covered local jurisdictions and the other covered the state. He signed only the FSC petition, and just recently he called his election supervisor, who had no record of his signed petition.
 
Big Corporations Back “Consumer” Group
 
Consumers for Smart Solar is hardly a consumer advocacy organization. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. As of March 4, data from the Florida Division of Elections reveals that major utilities, trade organizations, and a Koch-funded nonprofit provided the vast majority of the more than $7.3 million raised by the group from 2015 through January of this year.
 
Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest utility, has contributed the most to CSS ($1.3 million), with Duke Energy close behind ($1.2 million).
 
The <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/60-plus-association" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">60 Plus Association</a>, a “social welfare” nonprofit funded by many groups backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, put in $1.1 million.
 
Other energy companies donating large sums were Tampa Electric Company ($1 million) and Gulf Power Company ($715,000), while the Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy ($126,000) and Powersouth Energy Cooperative ($60,000) contributed lesser sums. Mysterious “social welfare” nonprofit <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/mystery-surrounds-largest-donor-to-rival-solar-power-ballot-initiative/2251418" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Let’s Preserve the American Dream</a> gave $840,000, and other “social welfare” groups <a href="http://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-filings/entry/crew-calls-on-fec-to-investigate-checks-and-balances-for-economic-growth" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Checks and Balances for Economic Growth</a> ($421,000), Florida Faith and Freedom Coalition ($175,000), and Floridians for Government Accountability ($62,000) also pitched in. The <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/national-black-chamber-commerce" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">National Black Chamber of Commerce</a> gave $100,000, and the Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, $50,000.
 
The CSS <a href="https://smartsolarfl.org/about-us/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">website</a> lists its leaders, a group of political insiders from the Democratic and Republican parties, including a Tea Party head, the president and CEO of the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Board of Governors of the state’s university system.
 
As it turns out, two of CSS’s leaders are profiting from the campaign.
 
CSS paid $50,000 last year to the consulting firm of co-chairman Dick Batchelor, a former Democratic member of the Florida House, for management and communications consulting, while Batchelor gave only $100 to the CSS, according to campaign finance records.
 
The government relations firm of “coalition member” and former executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, Screven Watson, received over $25,000 from CSS last year for management and communications consulting and travel. Watson donated $25 to CSS.
 
Endorsements from black and Hispanic organizations may be the result of a lengthy campaign by Big Energy to “<a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/big-energy-has-tried-to-turn-people-of-color-against-solar-power-since-forever/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">turn people of color against solar power</a>,” documented by Brentin Mock. Corporations like Exxon have funded groups such as the National Black Chamber of Commerce and lobbied members of Congress.
 
The Edison Electric Institute, a trade association for electricity companies, has successfully converted some lawmakers of color <a href="http://grist.org/climate-energy/heres-how-dirty-energy-is-co-opting-black-lawmakers/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">against net metering</a>. In addition to the chambers of commerce, the Florida state NAACP and the National Congress of Black Women are listed as endorsing organizations.
 
Fundraising by FSC couldn’t compete with the big money that major corporations and deep-pocked political groups poured into CSS, and this funding imbalance was one reason FSC didn’t get the required number of signatures to put its amendment on the 2016 ballot. The group plans to push for its amendment again <a href="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/consumer/fl-nsf-solar-choice-2018-ballot-20160111-story.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">in 2018</a>.
 
FSC’s donor list is much longer than its competitor’s, with many small individual donations, but most of the $2.1 million it raised came from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Action Fund, the Alliance’s “social welfare” nonprofit arm.
 
Members of the solar industry have contributed, including Infinite Energy ($25,000), founding organization the Florida Solar Energy Industry Association ($2,900), and Brilliant Harvest ($2,500), but the corporate backing of FSC is nowhere near that ofCSS. Conservatives for Energy Freedom pitched in $25,000, and wealthy Democratic donor Barbara Stiefel contributed $100,000.
 
While the utilities have ponied up large sums to fund the misleading ballot measure, they’ve spent far more over the years to sway the Florida legislature and governor, making it a tough climate for clean-energy advocates.
 
“The legislature is owned by the utilities,” former GOP state legislator Nancy Argenziano <a href="file://localhost/The%2520legislature%2520is%2520owned%2520by%2520the%2520utilities.%2520To%2520me,%2520it's%2520extremely%2520corrupt.%2520The%2520legislature%2520takes%2520millions%2520from%2520utilities,%2520who%2520make%2520billions%2520from%2520%255bthe%2520decisions%2520of%255d%2520the%2520PSC.%2520They%2520get%2520what%2520they%2520pay%2520for.%2522%2520%2520Read%2520more/%2520http/::www.rollingstone.com:politics:news:the-koch-brothers-dirty-war-on-solar-power-20160211#ixzz41yi6sBU0 Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">told</a> Rolling Stone. “To me, it's extremely corrupt. The legislature takes millions from utilities, who make billions” because of decisions made by the Public Service Commission, a five-member board that regulates the utilities and is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. “They get what they pay for.”
 
The effort to derail solar in Florida is one of many from big utilities around the country. <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/03/06/battle-over-solar-energy-s-future-north-carolina-heats-bipartisan-bills-and-civil-protests-mount-against-duke-energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Duke Energy has fought third-party sales in North Carolina</a>, and utilities have gone after net metering in Arizona and Nevada. DeSmog will continue to monitor these developments in this series on <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/war-solar-and-renewable-energy" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">The War On Solar and Renewable Energy</a>.<a href="http://desmogblog.com/2016/03/07/florida-rooftop-solar-advocates-challenge-deceptive-anti-solar-campaign-court">http://desmogblog.com/2016/03/07/florida-rooftop-solar-advocates-challenge-deceptive-anti-solar-campaign-court</a>A Southern focus
Why would so much of Charles Koch's contributions to higher education be going to schools in the South?
The Charles Koch Foundation did not respond to requests for comment. But Ralph Wilson, a doctoral candidate at Florida State University who co-founded the student activist group FSU Progress Coalition and is active with UnKoch My Campus, a student group dedicated to uncovering the Kochs' influence on U.S. universities, thinks the Southern focus has to do with the brothers' political clout in the conservative region.
Koch Industries has contributed heavily to candidates for state office in the South, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Since 1994, the company, its political action committee, and its lobbying arm have invested the most money in state candidates, other political action committees, and outside political groups in Texas ($1.5 million), with Virginia in third ($670,000), Georgia in fifth ($275,000), and Florida in seventh ($200,000).
State politicians in turn are often in charge of appointing public university systems' boards of governors and trustees who appoint top administrators, who then can influence the creation of academic centers, the donations a school accepts, and hiring decisions. Some politicians even become top university officers themselves.
Take for example Florida State, where a contentious search for the university president took place last year. One candidate for the job was businessman John Thrasher, then a Republican state senator in Florida and chair of the re-election campaign of Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who received significant support from the Kochs. Thrasher's own campaign got $3,000 from Koch Industries over three election cycles, and in 1998 he was named legislator of the year by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a pro-business advocacy group that receives funding from Koch foundations.
Thrasher, who twice violated ethics laws as a state representative and voted to cut Florida's higher education budget, was up against three candidates who many thought were better qualified for the university presidency. But the Scott-appointed chair of the school's board of trustees picked the presidential selection committee, which included many politicians, former politicians and lobbyists. Thrasher was chosen as president.
In 2008, Florida State had entered into a $1.5 million funding deal with the Charles Koch Foundation that granted the foundation wide leverage in hiring decisions and imposed other requirements. Public outcry led to a revised agreement, which drew fire from students, faculty, and alumni for infringing upon academic freedom.
In Thrasher's final months in the Florida House, he supported a bill that weakened donor transparency requirements for state universities. And after Thrasher became FSU's president, the school removed the requirement for a formal gift agreement — a written document"outlining the program to be supported and the schedule of contributions" — for donations over $25,000.
"Thrasher, as a legislator and now as president, has enabled FSU's resistance to donor transparency," says Wilson. "He has personally perpetuated the university's misinformation about the Koch agreements as justification for refusing to meet with students and faculty, and maintained total silence regarding recent student and faculty concerns over the university's donor policy."
A free-market strategy--The Florida panther is under attack.Majestic panthers once roamed throughout the Southeastern U.S., but now they can be found in justthree Florida counties. What little remains of their habitat is constantly under siege from development, oil drilling and mining.And now the Florida Wildlife Commission is trying to persuade the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to remove the Florida panther from the endangered species list!<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.emails.sierraclub.org/?qs=c0df6decaa4adcf95b74a3dced5938da5d4968c8b8cf42396cd584a35af99da50f96859d337506ec" title="How bizarre that Florida wildlife officials won't protect Florida panthers?? That means you must! Tell the USFWS to maintain protections for the Florida panther now." id="yui_3_16_0_1_1436372230319_103116" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none; background: transparent;">How bizarre that Florida wildlife officials won't protect Florida panthers?? That means you must! Tell the USFWS to maintain protections for the Florida panther now.</a>On its own website, the USFWS states that fewer than 180 Florida panthers remain in the wild.1 There have already been 21 Florida panther deaths this year.2 And federal wildlife officials are currently moving forward with a proposal to remove the eastern cougar from the endangered species list-leaving the Florida panther as the only subspecies of these predators east of the Mississippi River.3The USFWS can stop efforts to undermine protection of the Florida panther. But they need to hear from you. Over 170,000 SierraRise activists have already sent messages in support of protecting Florida panthers and their habitat. Now it's your turn.astroturf:he Palm Beach Post‘s Christine Stapleton <a href="http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/actors-hired-to-protest-at-water-district-know-lit/nkkkb/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">reports</a> that the “Tea Party” protesters outside of the South Florida Water Management District on Thursday were, by and large, actors hired by the <a href="http://www.teaparty-miami.org/about-1.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Tea Party of Miami</a> and U.S. Sugar.The district is currently considering buying land owned by U.S. Sugar, which it would use for the treatment and storage of lake flood water. Environmentalist <a href="http://florida.newszap.com/clewiston/138821-113/can-purchasing-us-sugars-land-fix-south-floridas-water-problems" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">believe</a> that using the land in this way will allow them to divert more water into the Everglades without harming coastal estuaries. The water would not only help replenish the Everglades, it would also provide an emergency reserve drinking supply for South Florida.But U.S. Sugar wants to keep the land, arguing that as one of the area’s largest employers, it is in the district’s best interests not to exercise the $350 million buy-out option in its contract. Tea Party Miami:<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/tea-party-protesters-opposed-florida-land-deal-were-mostly-actors-hired-big-sugar">...</a><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/tea-party-protesters-opposed-florida-land-deal-were-mostly-actors-hired-big-sugar">http://www.alternet.org/environment/tea-party-protesters-opposed-florida-land-deal-were-mostly-actors-hired-big-sugar</a>but //Ga TP pro solar? pro-solar conservative group in Florida cleared a major hurdle this week in its journey to make solar more accessible in the state.Floridians for Solar Choice reached 72,000 signatures on a <a href="http://election.dos.state.fl.us/initiatives/fulltext/pdf/64491-1.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">petition</a> that seeks to allow Floridians to purchase solar power directly from other consumers — something that isn’t currently allowed in the state. That number of signatures clears the way for the petition to be reviewed by the state’s Supreme Court, which will decide whether or not the petition’s language legally qualifies it to be a ballot initiative for Floridians in 2016. Getting its petition on the 2016 ballot is the main goal for Floridians for Solar Choice.“We are thrilled to reach this important milestone,” Tory Perfetti, founder of Floridians for Solar Choice, said in a statement. “It shows broad support among Florida’ families and businesses for removing barriers to commerce in solar power.”<div id="in-content-ad" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22.4400005340576px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The petition for the initiative seeks to “encourage and promote local small-scale solar-generated electricity production and to enhance the availability of solar power to customers.” Under Florida’s current law, only utilities can sell electricity directly to consumers. Florida is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/florida-solar-conservatives_n_6834792.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">one of only five states</a> in the country with a law like that, and solar advocates say that it’s holding the Sunshine State back from its solar potential. If the ballot initiative is successful in 2016, businesses and property owners in the state would be able to produce up to 2 megawatts of solar power and sell it directly to consumers.If the state Supreme Court does approve the petition’s language for a ballot initiative, Floridians for Solar Choice will still have some work to do. In order to get on the ballot in Florida, an initiative <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/supreme-court-review-of-solar-petition-held-up-by-state-election-board/2222627" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">must collect 683,149 signatures</a> from Floridians in at least seven congressional districts by February 1. Any delays in the Supreme Court’s approval of the petition means there’s less time for Floridians for Solar Choice to collect signatures. Already, supporters have expressed frustration that the state took too long to acknowledge that they had received enough signatures for Supreme Court review.Perfetti’s group began <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/08/3609455/florida-conservatives-push-for-solar/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">circulating</a> the petition in January, and he said at the time that he received “overwhelming” response to it. Perfetti and Debbie Dooley, a tea party activist who founded the original chapter of Conservatives for Energy Freedom in Georgia, say that they’re tackling solar in Florida because increasing access to the energy source makes sense from a conservative standpoint.“Free market and the freedom to choose — those are core conservative principles,” Dooley <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/01/08/3609455/florida-conservatives-push-for-solar/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">told ThinkProgress in January</a>. “Unless you cherry-pick your principles, if you’re a true conservative, this is something that resonates with you. I think the residents are fed up with the government telling them who to purchase their power from.”Floridians from Solar Choice has gained multiple backers of the ballot initiative. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) <a href="http://www.altenergymag.com/news/2015/03/25/seia-announces-support-for-florida-solar-ballot-initiative-/36642" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">voiced its support</a> of the initiative earlier this week, and it’s also <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/supreme-court-review-of-solar-petition-held-up-by-state-election-board/2222627" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">gained</a> the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/florida-solar-conservatives_n_6834792.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">support</a> of the Tea Party Network, the Christian Coalition, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the Florida Retail Federation, the Sierra Club, and other groups.“This fight is about consumer choice and private property rights — cherished, long-standing American principals that we strongly support as an organization and an industry,” Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA, said in a <a href="http://www.altenergymag.com/news/2015/03/25/seia-announces-support-for-florida-solar-ballot-initiative-/36642" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">statement</a>. “We urge Floridians to sign this critically important, freedom-of-choice petition, allowing it to be placed on next year’s ballot.”<span id="trigger-slidedown" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22.4400005340576px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Conservative group Americans for Prosperity has attacked the initiative, however, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/09/florida-solar-conservatives_n_6834792.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">saying</a>that it’s “about money, and using government and taxpayers to prop up the solar industry.” Supporters reject that claim, saying the measure isn’t calling for solar subsidies or mandates; instead, it simply wants to make it easier for Floridians to gain access to solar.http://ecowatch.com/2015/03/24/bryan-koon-refuses-to-say-climate-changeThe saga of Florida’s <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/03/09/florida-officials-banned-using-climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">ban of the “C-words”</a> <a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">climate change</a> is just getting ridiculous. “Even as Florida Governor Rick Scott denies reports of an unwritten policy banning administration officials from using the term ‘climate change,’ an employee of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection says <a href="http://www.tallahassee.com/story/burlewblog/2015/03/19/dep-disciplines-worker-who-shared-opinion-on-pipeline-climate-change/25018655/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">he was suspended</a> for expressing his views on climate change,” reports MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. The Florida official, Bart Bibler, joins Hayes on his show <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/worker-sent-home-for-sharing-climate-change-views--416138307895" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">All In With Chris Hayes</a> to tell his story. suspended and ordered to get psychiatric clearance to returnAlso included in the segment, Gov. Rick Scott’s chief of emergency management, Bryan Koon, testified before the state legislature and refused to say the “C-words” during a state Senate hearing last week. State Sen. Jeff Clemens (D) asked Koon about FEMA requirements, which mandate that states have a “climate change plan” in order to receive preparedness dollars—a totally reasonable thing to talk about with the state’s chief of emergency management given the<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/24/florida-split-state-climate-change/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">expected impacts on Florida</a> from climate change. The interaction at the Senate hearing is a bit like watching the older kid trying to get the younger kid to say a bad word. Watch as lawmakers and the audience actually laugh out loud at the Scott administration official who just refuses to say that naughty term:<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Florida's ban on <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/08/florida-global-warming_n_6826824.html" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">using the words "climate change" and "global warming"</a> in official communications goes beyond just the state's Department of Environmental Protection to other government agencies under Gov. Rick Scott (R), according to <a href="http://fcir.org/2015/03/11/as-gov-scott-denies-ban-climate-change-order-reported-at-other-agencies/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a new report</a> by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FCIR previously reported that <a href="http://fcir.org/2015/03/08/in-florida-officials-ban-term-climate-change/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">four former DEP officials</a> had come forward about the unwritten policy.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Now, employees who worked at other government agencies are speaking out, as well.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Until last year, Bill Taylor was a manager at the Florida Department of Transportation's office in Fort Lauderdale. He said that at a meeting in 2012 or 2013 -- Scott took office in 2011 -- "it was mentioned very casually that in our future dealings with the public, we were <a href="http://fcir.org/2015/03/11/as-gov-scott-denies-ban-climate-change-order-reported-at-other-agencies/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not to use the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming.’</a> But it was OK to talk about sea-level rise, because for some projects that had to be taken into consideration.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A former employee at the South Florida Water Management District had a similar story.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It was widely known that you couldn't put those words into a report," the former employee told FCIR. "They just wouldn't make it through the editing process."<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A Florida scientist who co-authored a study about how climate change affects a certain marine food-borne illness told The Washington Post that the state Department of Health told her to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/10/why-this-florida-scientist-had-to-remove-the-term-climate-change-from-her-study/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">excise every mention of "climate change"</a> from her paper.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Florida officials, including Scott, have denied that there's any policy banning these words. The governor told reporters Monday that the FCIR report was "<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/florida-rick-scott-global-warming-talk-115910.html" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">not true</a>" although he refused to say whether he believes man-made global warming is a problem.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Scott has been an outspoken skeptic of global warming, despite the fact that his state is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/us/florida-finds-itself-in-the-eye-of-the-storm-on-climate-change.html?r=0" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">at risk</a> of losing its coastal communities to rising sea levels. A Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact paper has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/08/florida-global-warming_n_6826824.html" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">warned</a> that water in the area could rise by as much as 2 feet by the year 2060.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last year, a reporter asked Scott whether man-made climate change "is significantly affecting the weather, the climate." Scott tried to change the subject and replied, "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/27/rick-scott-climate-change_n_5398844.html" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Well, I'm not a scientist</a>."<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When asked by the Tampa Bay Times in 2010 whether he believed in climate change, Scott simply replied, "No."<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FCIR noted that although the words "climate change" and "global warming" still slip through and make their way into government reports, there has been a "<a href="http://fcir.org/2015/03/11/as-gov-scott-denies-ban-climate-change-order-reported-at-other-agencies/" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">steep decline</a>" in their use since Scott came into office.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; line-height: 21px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-stretch: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The state's senior Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has a very different take on what climate change means for his state:<div></div><div><div>Time magazine has called them the "First Family of Corporate Welfare"</div><div>
</div><div>John Ellis Bush (JEB), Rick Scott, and other GOP politicians kowtow to this family like no other.  They were a top donor for W. And they are almost singlehandedly destroying our Everglades.</div><div>
</div><div>Welcome to Keeping up with the Fanjul family of Palm Beach.  The Fanjul family is synonymous with the term "Big Sugar" here in Florida.  They control 1/3 of our nation's raw sugar.  </div><div>
</div><div>This family collects over 60 million a year in Federal subsidies.  As a result, you pay an artificially high price for raw sugar, but of course that's not all.  You not only support their hedonistic lifestyle (such as Casa De Campo, their 7000 acre multimillion resort), horrible labor practices, and right-wing politics: you support the killing of our Everglades National Park.  </div><div>
</div><div>I am not being hyperbolic.  The Park is actually going to die, along with Miami's fresh water supply.  </div><div>
</div><div>One of their subsidiaries is Florida Crystals (among other sugar affiliates).  You can see how much of the Everglades that is by itself on the map below.  (See the orange and yellow)</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>That huge lake is Lake Okeechobee, one of the biggest freshwater lakes in the Continental United States.  You can pick it out on any map because it is so large. The Fanjul's use this lake to irrigate their crops.  The discharge is toxic.</div><div>
</div><div>The irrigated water should be recycled in a reservoir, but it isn't. The family dumps it in the coastal estuaries.  </div><div>
</div><div>Before Tallahassee was taken over by teabags, our state was making an effort to clean up the Everglades. The one crucial piece was a binding contract that the sugar industry signed that would sell land to the state to create a reservoir.  Not only that, Florida passed Amendment 1 last year.  The whole purpose of that amendment was to guarantee a source of funding for land acquisition to protect Florida's Everglades and our very fragile estuaries.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Despite the GOP's election wave last year, Amendment 1 received 78% of the vote.</div><div>
</div><div>Our state has an opportunity to buy the land we need from Big Sugar (the land is shown in the article here), at fair market value.  The University of Florida issued a report yesterday to say it's desperately needed.  The contract ends on October 15, 2015.</div><div>
</div><div>Unfortunately, it isn't going to happen.</div><div>
</div><div>Our GOP legislature and, as always, Gov. Sick Scott, are steadfastly refusing to purchase the land we were promised.  You see, one big reason the rightwing interests didn't pour money into fighting Amendment 1 is they knew they could just ignore it.  Just look at Amendments 5 and 6 back in 2010:  they were supposed to end gerrymandering.  Didn't happen. They completely ignored those as well, which is why every black neighborhood from Jacksonville to Orlando is crammed into District 5.  Because f* you.</div><div>
</div><div>In fact, the only amendment that Pam Bondi and Rick Scott ever fought for was the only one declared illegal by the courts:  banning gay marriage.  </div><div>
</div><div>Rick Scott cares nothing about the Everglades. Heck, he made money allowing fracking in the Everglades before he was caught (and still won re-election).  Of course he's not going to care about toxic water.</div><div>
</div><div>By the way, if all of this is new to you, I don't blame you.  As always, our local media is silent. Also, our state party hasn't said anything.  Even though this critical issue is next to our DNC chair's home, Debbie-Wasserman, she hasn't said one word. She is too wrapped up in a failed Senate run.</div><div>
</div><div>Please go to SavingFLwater.com and add your name.  At the very least, we can let our politicians know that we were watching.</div></div><div>
</div><div>http://www.alternet.org/environment/everglades-be-killed-october-floridas-own-koch-brothers</div><div></div><h1 style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Inmates Die in Droves After Governor Rick Scott Outsources Prison Healthcare</h1>Suffering from lung cancer? Here’s a Tylenol and some warm compresses. Are your intestines escaping? Not to worry; here’s some K-Y Jelly to shove them back in. An investigation reveals that Florida inmates have been dying in droves since the state privatized prison health care. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=IskEyt7b0Qem9qwswJ6s3Z%2B99yUMU%2FN8" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; line-height: 1.2em;">Read more</a><h1 style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Governor Snyder Stands Behind Prison Privatization, Even After Maggots and Murder for Hire</h1>Ideological slogans often trump facts when it comes to the outsourcing of public services. When independent studies are commissioned, the conclusions are often disregarded. In some cases, however, there seems to be solid research supporting the cost-efficiency of privatization. Such was the case in Michigan – at least at first glance.<p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140827/tight-floridas-governors-race-climate-change-central-issue">http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20140827/tight-floridas-governors-race-climate-change-central-issue</a>2. Florida City Tries to Make it Illegal for Homeless People to Own StuffThe city of Ft. Lauderdale recently took up a resolution that would make it illegal for homeless people keep their possessions anywhere on public property. The resolution would allow police to confiscate any property stored on a public ground, provided twenty-four hours notice is given; confiscated property may be retrieved, if the person pays a “reasonable” fee for storage and transportation.The city claims the ordinance is due in part to an “interest in aesthetics,” but as homeless people have no alternative method for hanging on to their belongings, the resolution effectively criminalizes their only possessions.“Maintaining city streets is a legitimate concern, but simply punishing homeless people for leaving their possessions in public places is not an effective or humane way to address it,” Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/04/21/3428899/fort-lauderdale-criminalize-homelessness/" style="">said</a> [5] to Think Progress. “Instead, city and business leaders should work with advocates and homeless people to develop alternative short and long term solutions, such as public storage options for homeless people and affordable housing.”The resolution is, of course, backed by the city’s business community, which merely finds homeless people an eyesore.grist:  Evangelical Christian leaders in Florida are making just that point, calling on Republican politicians in the state to take climate change seriously. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) recently <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/11/3436606/marco-rubio-goes-full-on-climate-denier/" style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">went full-on climate denier</a>, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/gov-scotts-beachfront-home-vulnerable-to-changing-climate/2180132" style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">is a denier</a> too.<div class="article-body" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.5em; max-width: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rev. Mich Hescox, president of the Evangelical Environmental Network, has started a <a href="http://vbuttons.com/ems/client_preview_email.php?em_id=69028950" target="blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">petition drive</a> calling on Scott to make climate change and "creation care" priorities. Here's an excerpt:</div><div class="right-arrow-link-text" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; float: left; text-transform: uppercase;"><a class="right-arrow-link read-more" title="Evangelical Christians call on Florida politicians to take climate action" href="http://grist.org/news/evangelical-christians-call-on-florida-politicians-to-take-climate-action/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; display: block; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; line-height: 21.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">THIS STORY CONTINUES</a></div>WEDNESDAY, NOV 8, 2000 5:38 PM UTCJesse Jackson questions Florida votingHe schedules a rally in Miami and plans to look into a possible undercount of minority votes.BY ALICIA M ONT GOM ERYThe Rev. Jesse Jackson is traveling from Nashville to Florida on Wednesday to hold a rally in North Miami toprotest what he say s were irregularities in the presidential vote count. Jackson told reporters Wednesdaymorning that he would first meet with community leaders and party officials who question the fairness of thatstate’s vote, alleging that voting irregularities may have led to an undercount of votes that likely would havegone to Al Gore.“It’s not just recount, it’s about investigation,” Jackson told reporters in Nashville. Jackson said that missingballot boxes and voter intimidation kept some minority members from voting, and some others who did votewere not counted. CNN has reported that a locked ballot box was discovered in Dade County , Fla., Wednesdaymorning, the voting location for a primarily minority community .But while Jackson alleges that mistakes in voting procedure led to an undercount of minority voters, there was asubstantial black turnout in Florida. According to exit polls, while African-Americans account for 15.1 percentof the state’s voters, they represented 16 percent of voters Tuesday . And, according to those polls, Gore won 93percent of the African-American vote.“People whose votes have not been counted need to have their votes counted and their voices heard,” Jacksonsaid. He cautioned that the press and the American people should not be impatient or push for a decision inFlorida that could ultimately be proved invalid. “There is no time limit on justice,” he said. “The media talksabout this like it’s a horse race, but this isn’t just about Gore and his staff and Bush and his staff. It’s about theAmerican people.”Clay Roberts, director of the Florida state division of elections, could not immediately be reached for comment.Alicia Montgomery is an associate editor in Salon's Washington bureau.<h2 property="dc:title" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; clear: both; line-height: 40px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/170261/recent-history-gop-voter-suppression-florida" title="A Recent History of GOP Voter Suppression in Florida" style="text-decoration: none;">A Recent History of GOP Voter Suppression in Florida</a></h2><div class="byline" style="display: inline; font-style: italic; margin: 2px 0px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.thenation.com/authors/ari-berman" style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Ari Berman</a> <abbr class="published" title="2012-10-01T13:04:08-14400">on October 1, 2012 - 1:04 PM ET</abbr></div>The state of Florida has an unfortunate history of disenfranchising voters. We all remember the “hanging chads” of 2000. Less well-known is how Florida wrongly labeled 12,000 eligible voters as felons, 41 percent of whom were African-Americans, and kicked them off the voting rolls that year, which could have very well cost Al Gore the election. Florida attempted another controversial voter purge in 2004, but was forced to scrap the plan after public outcry (history is <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/florida-gop-takes-voter-supression-to-a-brazen-new-extreme-20120530" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">repeating itself</a> this year). The 2008 election, however, was noticeably smooth in the Sunshine State, producing a surprising victory for Barack Obama.Following the 2010 election, Florida Republicans concluded that it was a little too easy to vote in the state. “I want the people in the State of Florida to want to vote as bad as that person in Africa who is willing to walk 200 miles for that opportunity he’s never had before in his life,” said GOP State Senator <a href="http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/you-gotta-fight-for-your-right-to-vote/" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">Michael Bennett</a>. “This should not be easy.”Upon taking office in 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Republican legislature drastically changed the state’s <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/168619/florida-minorities-dont-vote-here" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">election laws</a> by preventing ex-felons from being able to cast a ballot after serving their time, cutting back early voting from fourteen to eight days, and severely restricting voter registration drives.As I reported in <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-gop-war-on-voting-20110830#ixzz27nWbo2wy" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">Rolling Stone</a>:<blockquote style="margin: 1.25em; padding: 1.25em 1.25em 0px; line-height: 9.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In May [2011], the GOP-controlled legislature in Florida passed a law requiring anyone who signs up new voters to hand in registration forms to the state board of elections within 48 hours of collecting them, and to comply with a barrage of onerous, bureaucratic requirements. Those found to have submitted late forms would face a $1,000 fine, as well as possible felony prosecution.As a result, the law threatens to turn civic-minded volunteers into inadvertent criminals. Denouncing the legislation as “good old-fashioned voter suppression,” the League of Women Voters announced that it was ending its registration efforts in Florida, where it has been signing up new voters for the past 70 years.</blockquote>The voter registration restrictions seem particularly ironic in light of the escalating scandal involving <a href="http://www.bradblog.com/?p=9598" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Strategic Allied Consulting</a>, the RNC-funded GOP voter registration firm, run by a Republican operative with a history of <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/170198/gop-quietly-hires-firm-tied-voter-fraud-scandal-work-battleground-states" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">bad behavior</a>, recently accused of submitting fraudulent voter registration forms in Florida and elsewhere. The scandal makes Republican claims about ACORN sound more than a little ridiculous.Florida Republicans invoked <a href="http://floridaindependent.com/27571/voter-fraud-suppression-election-acorn" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">ACORN</a> as the reason for the voter registration restrictions in 2011, even though ACORN was out of existence by that point. “Can you spell ACORN?” State Representative Dennis Baxley, chief sponsor of the law, told reporters at the time. “Or have you forgot all about that, and some of the problems that we had?”Yet the law change appeared to be more about political payback than a sincere concern about voter registration fraud. “The first major imposition of restrictions on voter registration drives occurred in 2005, a year after ACORN’s community organizing work resulted in enough signatures to place a citizen initiative on the ballot to increaseFlorida’s minimum wage,” the<a href="http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/letter_to_the_department_of_justice_urging_denial_of_preclearance_for_flori/" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none;">Brennan Center for Justice</a> reported. The 2005 law was subsequently blocked in court. But it was taken up again and passed by Republicans in 2011.From my reporting:<blockquote style="margin: 1.25em; padding: 1.25em 1.25em 0px; line-height: 9.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The registration law took effect one day after it passed, under an emergency statute designed for “an immediate danger to the public health, safety or welfare.” In reality, though, there’s no evidence that registering fake voters is a significant problem in the state. Over the past three years, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has received just thirty-one cases of suspected voter fraud, resulting in only three arrests statewide. “No one could give me an example of all this fraud they speak about,” said Mike Fasano, a Republican state senator who bucked his party and voted against the registration law. What’s more, the law serves no useful purpose: Under the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2002, all new voters must show identity before registering to vote.</blockquote>A <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/election-pranks-are-not-equal-to-fraud/1167231" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">fact-check</a> from the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact Florida labeled as “false” the claim by GOP State Representative Eric Eisnaugle that “Mickey Mouse was registered to vote [in Florida],” and that voter registration fraud by ACORN in 2008 necessitated the new voting restrictions.According to the paper:<blockquote style="margin: 1.25em; padding: 1.25em 1.25em 0px; line-height: 9.6px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eleven people hired by ACORN to register potential voters near Homestead were accused of falsifying hundreds of voter registration applications.ACORN actually turned in the hired workers after officials noticed the discrepancies in the cards. The group of workers turned in 1,400 cards, of which 888 were found to be fraudulent. Included among the fraudulent voter applications: deceased actor Paul Newman.No one voted in the election using the fraudulent voter applications.</blockquote>In May 2012 a federal judge blocked the most egregious provisions of the law for violating the First Amendment, and another judge formally <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/us/judge-to-block-changes-in-florida-voter-registration.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">overturned</a> it at the end of August. Yet the damage had been done, as groups like the League of Women Voters and Rock the Vote were forced to shutter their voter registration efforts for a year during a crucial presidential election. “The entire year was lost for voter registration in Florida,” says Deidre Macnab, president of the Florida League of Women Voters. “The law had a major impact on students, minorities and the elderly.” The voter suppression efforts worked as <a href="http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2012-08-27/story/democratic-registration-all-dries-new-florida-laws" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">intended</a> for the GOP—between July 2011 and July 2012, Republicans added 128,039 new voters to the rolls but Democrats registered just 11,365 new voters.[UPDATE: University of Florida elections expert <a href="http://electionsmith.wordpress.com/tag/times-union/" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">Daniel Smith</a> says the numbers I linked to above, from the Florida Times Union, are not accurate. "According to the state’s official records, more than 155k voters registered as Democrats in 2011," writes Smith. "Slightly less than 138k voters registered as Republicans in 2011." But the law did hurt Democrats more than Republicans: "28.1% fewer Floridians registered as Democrats in 2011 compared to 2007, and 15.5% fewer Floridians registered as Republicans in 2011 compared to 2007."]In a deeply sardonic twist, Republicans committed the only voter registration fraud that has occurred since the law was overturned. “It’s kind of ironic that the dead people they accused Acorn of registering are now being done by the RPOF [Republican Party of Florida],” Paul Lux, the Republican supervisor of elections in Okaloosa County, told <a href="http://firstread.nbcnews.com/news/2012/09/27/14126789-rnc-cuts-ties-with-firm-over-voter-fraud-allegations?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">NBC News</a>.And, unlike with ACORN, Strategic Allied Consulting didn’t alert authorities to the voter registration fraud—that was done by local election officials. Prosecutors are now investigating the group for criminal misconduct. (The case hasn’t put an end to GOP hypocrisy about voter fraud, however. Last week the attorney general of Texas <a href="file://localhost/oagnews/release.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">invoked ACORN</a> to justify similar restrictions on voter registration drives in his state, even though no charges were ever filed against the group.) Maybe in 2013 the Florida legislature should pass legislation specially preventing Republicans from running voter registration drives.Here’s why this scandal matters: the Florida GOP committed voter registration fraud while undermining the right to vote for <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/florida-gop-takes-voter-supression-to-a-brazen-new-extreme-20120530" style="text-decoration: none;">everyone else</a>—particularly minority voters, who have been historically disenfranchised in the state and are key supporters of Barack Obama and Florida Democrats. The common thread between these different voter suppression efforts has been to make it more difficult for minority voters to cast a ballot.• Data from the 2004 and 2008 elections in Florida show that “African-American and Hispanic citizens are about twice as likely to register to vote through drives as white voters,” according to <a href="http://www.projectvote.org/blog/2012/03/laws-restricting-voter-registration-laws-discriminatory-registrations-dropping-in-florida/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Project Vote</a>.• African-Americans in Florida were twice as likely to cast ballots during <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/florida-gop-takes-voter-supression-to-a-brazen-new-extreme-20120530" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">early voting</a> in 2008 as white voters. According to University of Florida political scientist <a href="file://localhost/electionsmith/status/241578942144843776" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">Daniel Smith</a>, 800,000 voters in Florida cast ballots during early voting hours in 2008 eliminated by the GOP. A federal court overturned the law in the five Florida counties covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.• An executive order by Scott mandating that felons convicted of nonviolent crimes wait up to seven years before receiving their voting rights <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/felon-voting-laws-disenfranchise-sentencing-project_n_1665860.html" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">disenfranchised</a> nearly 200,000 Floridians who would have been eligible to vote in 2012. Blacks are 13 percent of registered voters in Florida, but 23 percent of disenfranchised felons. (See Brentin Mock’s excellent new story, “<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/170187/has-florida-created-trap-polls-ex-felons" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">Has Florida Created a Trap at the Polls for Ex-Felons?</a>”)• Eighty percent of the so-called “non-citizen” voters on Florida’s inaccurate and discriminatory <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/florida-gop-takes-voter-supression-to-a-brazen-new-extreme-20120530" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">purge list</a> were people of color (only <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/09/10/819111/florida-voter-purge-caught-just-one-non-citizen-voter/" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">one non-citizen</a> on that list of 2,600 was found to have actually voted). Florida has <a href="http://t.co/jfqV575v" target="blank" data-ls-seen="1" style="text-decoration: none;">restarted the purge</a> on a reduced scale—but election officials may once again refused to implement it.So remember this: Republican voter suppression efforts in Florida have been far more destructive than simply handing in a few hundred fraudulent voter registration forms.==

<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;">palast BB? fla AG said 91K convicted felon on rolls, but zero fraud

<b style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">fla<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;"> illegal to reg voters in church, welfare office or voter reg drive mtgs 235 (GUNS OK IN ALL); jeb made illegal to turn in after 48 hrs or w/ errors, 86'd L of WV till judge overruled 236 june 2012, but post acorn, fear persists (hard time in jail?)

===

jh:  

"The voters, damn them, have got to be subverted."

You won't find that autocratic principle taught in any civics class, but it's one that America's corporate powers openly embrace when local democracy offends them. Just ask the voters of Orlando, Florida, who recently felt the sting of such arrogance.

A grassroots coalition called Organize Now had collected 50,000 signatures last year to put an earned sick time referendum on their county's November ballot. It was to be a citizen's vote on whether employers should let workers earn a few days each year of paid leave to be used if they fall ill or must care for a sick family member.

"Whoa!" shouted the bosses of Disney World, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and other super-wealthy, low-wage corporations in Orlando that provide minimal or no benefits – "we can't allow that." So they leaned on the county commissioners to knock the referendum off the ballot. However, the scrappy Organize Now bunch took 'em to court – and won. The people's victory was too late for last year's election, though, so the court ordered that the referendum be put on the 2014 ballot.

So, all set, right? Not so fast, shouted the corporate powers, as they scuttled off to Tallahassee, demanding that the GOP governor and state legislative leaders deliver a "Kill Shot" to those pesky voters back in Orlando. Sure enough, the obsequious, corporate-hugging politicos obliged in June by enacting a brutish, democracy-smashing law called "state preemption." It autocratically usurps the right of local governments (and local voters) to enact paid sick leave benefits.

Still, it's not over, for the corporate subversion of The People is not real popular, and maybe not legal. Organize Now is pushing back and pushing ahead. Keep up with them at <a href="http://www.orgnow.org/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;">www.orgnow.org</a>.

<em style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(196, 211, 147);">"Scott blocks sick-time vote in Orange, statewide,"<a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-06-14/news/os-scott-signs-local-paid-sick-time-ban-20130614_1_florida-chamber-ballot-orange-county" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;">www.orlandosentinel.com</a>, June 14, 2013.

<em style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(196, 211, 147);">"ALEC-Orchestrated Bill in Florida Would Block Cities From Making Paid Sick Leave Law," <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/03/1817161/alec-florida-paid-sick/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;">www.thinkprogress.org</a>, April 3, 2013.

"ALEC-Orchestrated Bill To Preempt Paid Sick Leave Passes Florida Senate," <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/04/29/1934871/alec-orchestrated-bill-to-preempt-paid-sick-leave-passes-florida-senate/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;">www.thinkprogress.org</a>, April 29, 2013.

bill richardson: 

As I prepare to take part in <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_7yXRkpnJyVM0enaRMvsUYKq0u8QjwaPEmxYqkjSCgQ/viewform" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">an event</a> on hurricanes and extreme weather in Miami, Florida later today, it's clear just how much climate change threatens the state's local communities. Florida is the most vulnerable U.S. state to sea-level rise, with seas<a href="http://www.wri.org/publication/sea-level-rise-impact-on-florida" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">projected to rise</a> along the state's coast by as much as 2 feet by 2060 -- threatening valuable infrastructure, homes, and communities. Even Superstorm Sandy - which had the greatest impacts in New York and New Jersey -- caused significant damages along Florida's east coast while centered miles offshore. Rising seas contributed to Sandy's storm surge and tidal surges, causing flooding throughout Miami-Dade County and sweeping away portions of State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale.

But as overly concerned as I am of the climate change impacts Florida faces, I'm also encouraged. Florida has something that few other states have: A bipartisan collaboration to address global warming's disastrous impacts.

The <a href="http://southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org/" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact</a> is a bipartisan initiative where local governments from four major counties - with a combined population of 5.6 million - are developing and implementing comprehensive measures to address climate impacts<a href="http://www.wri.org/publication/sea-level-rise-impact-on-florida" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">like sea-level rise</a>. Local efforts like the Compact, being undertaken by those dealing with the impacts of climate change on a daily basis, provide a powerful example of adaptation and building community resiliency. These types of initiatives can not only inspire action in other communities, regions, and states, they can help guide and complement climate action at the national level.

===

Florida may soon become the fourth state with a law on the books enforcing <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/">hydraulic fracturing ("fracking")</a> chemical disclosure. The Florida House of Representatives' Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee voted unanimously (11-0) on March 7 to require chemical disclosure from the fracking industry. For many, that is <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/florida-lawmakers-lay-groundwork-for-natural-gas-f/nWkTk/">cause for celebration</a> and applause.

Fracking for oil and gas embedded in shale rock basins across the country and world involves the injection of a 99.5 percent cocktail of water and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sand-land-frac-sand-mining-western-wisconsin-video-report-desmogblog">fine-grained silica sand</a> into a well that drops under the groundwater table 6,000-10,000 feet and then another 6,000-10,000 feet horizontally. The other .5 percent consists of a mixture of chemicals injected into the well, proprietary information and a "trade secret" under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which current President Barack Obama <a href="http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00213">voted "yes" on</a> as a senator.

That loophole is referred to by many as the "<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Halliburton_Company#The_.22Halliburton_loophole.22_for_Methane_Gas_Drilling">Halliburton Loophole</a>" because Dick Cheney had left his position as CEO of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Halliburton_Company">Halliburton</a> -- one of the largest oil and gas services corporations in the world -- to become vice president and convene the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/cheney_energy_task_force.html">Energy Task Force</a>. That Task Force consisted of the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation and Energy. One of its key actions was opening the floodgates for unfettered fracking nationwide.

Between 2001 and the bill's passage in 2005, the Task Force held <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/cheney_energy_task_force.html">over 300 meetings with oil and gas industry lobbyists and upper-level executives</a>. The result was a slew of giveaways to the industry in this omnibus piece of legislation. On top of the "Halliburton Loophole," the bill also contains an exemption for fracking from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The federal-level response to closing the "Halliburton Loophole" is the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, a <a href="http://tomwilber.blogspot.com/2012/01/status-of-frac-act-gone-today-here.html">bill</a> that never garnered more than a handful of co-sponsors.

The state-level response, the story goes, is <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">versions of the bill</a> that recently <a href="http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0743">passed on an 11-0 bipartisan basis</a> in a Florida state house subcommittee.

Introduced as the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">"Fracturing Chemical Usage Disclosure Act"</a> on Feb. 13, <a href="http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0743">bill sponsor</a> Rep. Ray Rodrigues (R-District 76) <a href="http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/florida-lawmakers-lay-groundwork-for-natural-gas-f/nWkTk/">told The Palm Beach Post</a> the day the bill passed in Subcommittee that there is "every indication... at some point in the future" that fracking will proceed in the <a href="http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/vol-110/issue-3/exploration-development/sunniland-shale-an-emerging.html">Sunniland Shale basin</a> and that being "proactive" is the way to go. A senate companion bill was also introduced as <a href="http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/1028">SB 1028</a> by Sen. Jeff Clemons (D-District 27) and if the bill passes in both chambers, it will be labeled <a href="http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/1776">SB 1776</a>.

What Rodrigues didn't mention: the law was written by what investigative journalist Steve Coll referred to as a "private empire," ExxonMobil.

Like its federal-level predecessor, it still contains the "trade secrets" loophole. It's also a model bill distributed both by the <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed">American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</a>, as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html?ref=politics&pagewanted=print">first revealed by The New York Times in April 2012</a>, and the <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/9033-subverting-the-statehouse-uncovering-the-other-alecs">Council of State Governments (CSG)</a>, as <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">first revealed here on DeSmogBlog</a>.

FracFocus Façade: Sunshine State's Copy-Paste and Disaster-in-the-Make

It's "<a href="http://www.sunshineweek.org/">Sunshine Week</a>" for open government groups and in the Sunshine State we've just witnessed a "copy-paste" job that happened out in broad daylight with no one noticing -- until now.

A <a href="http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0743/BillText/Filed/PDF">review of the bill's verbiage</a> reveals it is essentially a mirror image of <a href="http://www.eenews.net/assets/2012/05/01/document_ew_01.pdf">ALEC</a>'s "Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act" and <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/0133a01txhydaulicfracturing.pdf">CSG</a>'s "Act relating to the disclosure of the composition of hydraulic fracturing fluids."

Most telling is the section of Florida's bill calling for an "<a href="http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/0745/BillText/Filed/PDF">online hydraulic fracturing chemical registry</a>." That registry, like the Texas model the bill is based off of, would be run by FracFocus. An August investigation by Bloomberg News revealed that FracFocus merely offers the façade of disclosure, or a "<a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/12/04/alec-csg-exxonmobil-fracking-fluid-disclosure-model-bill-failing-by-design">fig leaf</a>" of it, as U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), co-sponsor of the FRAC Act <a href="http://degette.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1056:degette-hinchey-and-polis-introduce-frac-act-to-ensure-safe-drilling&catid=76:press-releases-&Itemid=227">put it</a>.

"Energy companies failed to list more than two out of every five fracked wells in eight U.S. states from April 11, 2011, when FracFocus began operating, through the end of last year," <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/fracking-hazards-obscured-in-failure-to-disclose-wells.html">wrote Bloomberg</a>. "The gaps reveal shortcomings in the voluntary approach to transparency on the site, which has received funding from oil and gas trade groups and $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy."

In reality, FracFocus is a public relations front for the oil and gas industry, as we reported here in Dec. 2012, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2012/12/04/alec-csg-exxonmobil-fracking-fluid-disclosure-model-bill-failing-by-design">explaining</a>,

FracFocus' domain <a href="http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2012/11/30/fracunfocused/">is registered by Brothers & Company</a>, a public relations firm whose <a href="http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2012/11/30/fracunfocused/">clients</a> include America's Natural Gas Alliance, Chesapeake Energy, and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Clean_Skies_Foundation">American Clean Skies Foundation</a> -- a front group for Chesapeake Energy.

</blockquote>

In short, the bill offers "sunshine" to the public in name only.

"This disclosure bill has a hole big enough to drive a Mack truck through," Texas Rep. Lon Burnam (D-District 90) <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-30/frack-secrets-by-thousands-keep-u-s-clueless-on-wells.html">told Bloomberg</a>.

How the Bill Became a "Model"

In May 2011, the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-study-panel-filled-gas-industry-insiders">Obama Administration Department of Energy (DOE) fracking subcommittee</a> -- consisting almost entirely of officials with ties to the oil and gas industry -- convened to produce "best practices" for state-level regulations and disclosure standards for fracking.

Out of the subcommittee came the standards written into a Texas bill, <a href="http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=82R&Bill=HB3328">HB 3328</a>, passed one month later in June 2011 in a <a href="http://www.journals.senate.state.tx.us/sjrnl/82r/pdf/82RSJ05-29-F.PDF#page=32">137-8 roll call vote</a>, while its Senate companion bill passed on a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">31-0 unanimous roll call vote</a>. $1.5 million in FracFocus funding <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/fracking-hazards-obscured-in-failure-to-disclose-wells.html">stems from the DOE fracking subcommittee</a>.

A Dec. 2012 Bloomberg probe revealed that the industry utilized the "trade secrets" exemption 19,000 times its first year as <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-30/frack-secrets-by-thousands-keep-u-s-clueless-on-wells.html">law of the land in Texas</a>. For perspective, there are <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Texas_and_fracking">only 6,000 fracking wells in the state at-large</a>.

In Oct. 2011 and Dec. 2011, the Texas bill became a "model bill" both at the CSG and ALEC annual meetings, respectively. ExxonMobil was one of the biggest corporate patrons for CSG's annual meeting that year, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">serving as a Gold Level Sponsor</a>.

CSG <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/9033-subverting-the-statehouse-uncovering-the-other-alecs">is a partially corporate-funded and taxpayer-subsidized</a> (via portions of state-level budgets) "trade association" which, like ALEC, passes model legislation often written by and voted upon by corporate lobbyists sitting alongside state-level legislators at its annual meetings. It <a href="http://www.csg.org/programs/policyprograms/SSL.aspx#en" target="_hplink">refers</a> to these bills as "Suggested State Legislation" (SSL). Unlike ALEC, its maintains bipartisan membership.

ALEC is <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/What_is_ALEC%3F#Who_funds_ALEC.3F">98 percent funded</a> by corporations, corporate-funded foundations and trade associations. Like CSG, ALEC also passes "model bills" at its annual meetings in similar fashion: behind closed doors, with corporate lobbyists sitting alongside state-level legislators voting "up-down" on proposals. Unlike CSG, it's predominantly a Republican-centric operation.

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html">The New York Times revealed in an April 2012 investigation</a> that ExxonMobil authored the disclosure standards in the Texas bill that came from the DOE fracking subcommittee. ExxonMobil <a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/04/16/exxon-shale-gas-fracking/">is the number one producer</a> of shale oil and gas in the United States and a corporation which <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/exxon-mobil-profit-world-record_n_2598502.html">scored $44.9 billion</a> in profits in 2012, $300 million dollars short of the world record for highest ever annual profit (which Exxon <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/01/news/companies/exxon-mobil-profit/index.html">set in 2008</a>).

The <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">model bill has passed</a> in Colorado and Pennsylvania and was <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/alec-wasn-t-first-industry-trojan-horse-behind-fracking-disclosure-bill-enter-council-state-governments">proposed but failed</a> in Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Indiana, California, and Arkansas. Section 77 of <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/02/28/alec-fracking-chemical-disclosure-model-bill-illinois-regulation">Illinois' proposed Hydraulic Fracturing Regulation Act</a> -- as revealed on DeSmogBlog -- also contains the "trade secret" exemption.

Seven of the 15 <a href="http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Committees/committeesdetail.aspx?CommitteeId=2619">members of the Florida Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee</a> are <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Florida_ALEC_Politicians">ALEC members</a>.

Industry's Florida Plans Include Fracking the Everglades

A portion of the <a href="http://www.collierresources.com/Portals/CRC/pdf/Oill-Field-Map_05-2010_V2.pdf">Sunniland Trend Shale</a>, based in southwestern and southern Florida, overlaps the <a href="http://www.florida-everglades.com/photo-gallery.htm">Everglades National Park</a>. Florida's Republican <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/rick-scott-doesnt-believe-global-warming">Gov. Rick Scott, a climate change denier</a>, has gone <a href="http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2011/sep/06/gov-scott-open-oil-drilling-everglades/">on the record stating fracking in the pristine park is fair game</a>.

Department of Environmental Protection enforcement fell to record-low levels in 2011 in Florida, Scott's first year in office.

"The total number of enforcement cases fell by more than a fourth (28 percent) and the DEP Office of General Counsel received the third lowest number of case reports in agency history," <a href="http://www.thebradentontimes.com/news/2012/06/22/environment/dep_enforcement_falls_sharply_under_scott_s_reign/">wrote The Bradenton Times</a>: "Pollution penalty assessments dipped by a similar proportion (29 percent) while penalties actually collected dropped by more than half (57 percent). The number of big fine cases (more than $100,000) also was cut by half."

While some <a href="http://news.wgcu.org/post/why-fracking-may-not-be-coming-southwest-florida">speculate as to whether fracking will ever actually happen in Florida</a>, the oil and gas industry has shown it's serious about developing this shale basin and will host the "<a href="http://www.emerging-shale-plays-usa-2013.com/">Emerging Shale Plays USA</a>" conference <a href="http://www.emerging-shale-plays-usa-2013.com/8/venue/53/venue/">in Houston, Texas</a> from April 24-25. One of the sessions being led by <a href="http://www.emerging-shale-plays-usa-2013.com/4/speakers/142/brandt-temple/">Brandt Temple</a>, the CEO of Sunrise Exploration & Production <a href="http://www.emerging-shale-plays-usa-2013.com/media/downloads/4-emerging-shale-plays-usa-2013.pdf">is titled</a>, "Mapping The Geological Variance Of The Lower Sunniland To Pinpoint Sweet Spots And Identify Where To Place Wells."

ALEC's track-record in the "<a href="http://billmoyers.com/episode/encore-united-states-of-alec/">United States of ALEC</a>" is nothing to sneeze at.

"Each year, close to 1,000 bills, based at least in part on ALEC Model Legislation, are introduced in the states. Of these, an average of 20 percent become law," <a href="http://www.alec.org/about-alec/history/">ALEC boasts on its website</a>.

One would be remiss given this track record, then, to write off the threat of fracking in the Florida swamplands.

Cross-posted from <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/03/13/florida-legislature-pushing-alec-csg-sham-fracking-chemical-disclosure-model-bill#comment-form" target="_hplink">DeSmogBlog</a>

===

<h1 class="txttitle">Billionaire Koch Brothers Try to Buy Florida's Courts</h1>

By Carl Hiaasen, The Miami Herald

04 October 12

<img src="/6c34af59-0b4f-5c6a-a67e-cfc688b0c480.jpg"/>he new stealth campaign against three Florida Supreme Court justices is being backed by those meddling right-wing billionaires from Wichita, Charles and David Koch.

They couldn't care less about Florida, but they love to throw their money around.

Last week they uncorked the first of a series of commercials from their political action committee, Americans for Prosperity. The targets are Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince.

They were three of the five-vote majority that in 2010 knocked down a half-baked amendment slapped together by state lawmakers seeking to nullify the federal Affordable Health Care Act.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld lower court decisions in finding that the proposed amendment contained "misleading and ambiguous language," the hallmark of practically everything produced by this Legislature. Stoned chimpanzees have a keener grasp of constitutional law.

Conservative groups have gone after local justices before. In Iowa, a place which has nothing but vowels in common with Florida, three state justices were fired by voters after being vilified for ruling against a ban on gay marriage.

On the November ballot, Lewis, Pariente and Quince are up for merit retention, meaning voters can choose to retain them or not. This simple system was put in place to keep the state's high court above the sleaze of political races.

The mission of the Kochs, hiding as always behind their super PAC, is to get the three justices dumped at the polls so that Gov. Rick Scott can appoint replacements.

This is worth repeating: If the Kochs have their way, Rick Scott - yes, that Rick Scott - gets to pack the Supreme Court with his own hand-picked crew.

Yikes is right.

The head of the Florida chapter of Americans for Prosperity is a person called Slade O' Brien, whose job is to keep a straight face while saying things like: "We're not advocating for the election or defeat of any of the justices. What we're attempting to do is call more attention to them advocating from the bench."

Meanwhile the state GOP's executive board is less coy. It voted to oppose the retention of Quince, Lewis and Pariente, branding them "too extreme."

Well, let's have a peek at these dangerous radicals.

Justice Pariente, 63, has been on the court for 15 years. She was graduated from George Washington University Law School and clerked in Fort Lauderdale under U.S. District Judge Norm Roettger, who was no softie.

Justice Lewis, 64, who was graduated cum laude from the University of Miami Law School, has been on the court almost 14 years. Both he and Pariente were appointed by Gov. Lawton Chiles, not exactly a wild-eyed liberal.

Justice Quince, also 64, is the first African-American woman on the Supreme Court. A graduate of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, she worked for years prosecuting death-penalty cases in the state Attorney General's office.

In 1999, she was jointly selected for the high court by Chiles and that wacky left-winger, Jeb Bush.

Twice before Floridians have voted to keep these justices, but now the Kochs from Wichita say they know better. You won't see David or Charlie in any of the campaign commercials because they don't like people to know they're prying.

Their multinational fortune comes from oil refineries, fertilizers, cattle, commodities, chemicals and paper mills. Next time you reach for Angel Soft toilet paper, think of the Koch brothers.

Both are MIT grads, philanthropists, unabashedly ultraconservative and anti-Obama. They're spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to defeat the President and lesser officeholders all over the country who won't bend to their will. Some Florida Republicans - respected judges and lawyers - are disturbed by the sneak attack on the Supreme Court, which they view as a bald attempt to politicize the judiciary.

The two other justices who voted against the inept Obamacare amendment were similarly singled out two years ago, when they were up for merit retention. Tea Party groups bought TV time blasting justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry, and urging voters to remove them from the court. It didn't work.

Labarga was retained with about 59 percent of the vote, Perry with 61 percent. Those aren't bad margins, considering that the justices can't campaign in their own defense.

This time is different because Americans for Prosperity has a bottomless war chest to use against Lewis, Pariente and Quince. Be assured that Gov. Scott is rooting for the Kochs. He'd love to have three openings to fill on the Supreme Court.

The last thing these guys want is fair judges who know the law; they want partisan judges who'll obediently support their political agenda

It's worse than just trying to buy an election. It's trying to hijack Florida's justice system at the highest levels.

And all the Angel Soft in the world won't wipe away the stink.  http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13792-billionaire-koch-brothers-try-to-buy-floridas-courts

===

Florida: Florida is represented by fifteen Dirty Air Villains: Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and

Reps. Sandra Adams (R-FL24), Vern Buchanan (R-FL13), Ander Crenshaw (R-FL4), John Mica

(R-FL7), Richard Nugent (R-FL5), Bill Posey (R-FL15), David Rivera (R-FL25), Tom Rooney

(R-FL16), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL18), Dennis Ross (R-FL12), Steve Southerland (R-FL2),

Cliff Stearns (R-FL6), Daniel Webster (R-FL8) and Allen West (R-FL22). Florida has four Clean

Air Heroes: Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Reps. Theodore Deutch (D-FL19), Debbie

Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL20), and Alcee Hastings (D-FL23).

===

florida 5/12 voter suppression

<a href="http://boingboing.net/2012/06/01/florida-voter-suppression-camp.html">http://boingboing.net/2012/06/01/florida-voter-suppression-camp.html</a>

===

<div class="GGD0W3FBGU">Rubio, M</div>

Has Koch Industries’ investment in Marco Rubio paid off?

By Kyle Daly | 03.14.11 | 1:23 pm

http://washingtonindependent.com/106351/has-koch-industries-investment-in-marco-rubio-paid-off

On Friday, The American Independent reported that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) received more Koch Industries money than any other candidate for U.S. Senate in the 2010 election, and many of his other major contributors have personal and professional ties to the Koch brothers as well. So how have Rubio’s backers fared so far in terms of getting a return on their investment?

As far as introducing new legislation, Rubio has been fairly quiet. So far, he has been responsible for one piece of legislation, an amendment to an air traffic control bill that would prevent the expansion of flight itineraries in countries that sponsor terrorism. Since becoming a senator in January, Rubio has voted in opposition of the implementation of health care reform through a number of resolutions and amendments, and has voted for extending provisions of the PATRIOT Act and blocking Transportation Security Administration employees from collective bargaining (of course, the involvement of the Koch brothers in the national fight over collective bargaining is well documented). That’s the extent of his U.S. Senate voting record, but he’s been vocal about his support for other bills, and it’s there that his benefit to Koch Industries comes into focus.

Koch Industries has three major operations in Florida: Georgia-Pacific, Flint Hills Resources and Koch Chemical Technology Group. Of those, the paper company Georgia-Pacific has come into the most heated conflict with environmental regulations. Flint Hills is an oil refinery operation that has been fined by the Environmental Protection Agency for violations of the Clean Air Act in the past, though it was also commended by the EPA in 2005 for cutting emissions. Koch Chemical Technology primarily makes pollution control equipment that can be used to ensure compliance with EPA regulations.

</div>