Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

William PatrickJanuary 23, 2017

It’s a vicious circle: Poor people who can’t afford their court-related costs and penalties incur escalating costs for not paying, further indebting them to the state. “It’s a circle that some people get stuck in and they can’t get out,” Christopher Torres, a Tallahassee defense attorney and former Florida assistant attorney general, told Watchdog.org. Compounding the problem is […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterDecember 12, 2016

State lawmakers will once again try to strengthen the state’s texting while driving during the 2017 Legislative Session. Two bills have already been filed in the Florida House aimed at beefing up the state’s texting while driving ban. The first — House Bill 47, sponsored by Reps. Richard Stark and Emily Slosberg — removes language from […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterOctober 3, 2016

Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency for all of Florida as Hurricane Matthew barrels toward Jamaica and Haiti. Heavy bands from the Category 4 storm have already flooded streets and sent many people to emergency shelters in the two countries. Two deaths have already been reported in Haiti, bringing the total for the […]

Jim RosicaApril 19, 2016

Don’t try to renew your driver’s license online the weekend of May 6-8. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) will be offline then as it moves its computers and other equipment to a new home, the agency said in a Tuesday news release. The move begins 8 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) on Friday, […]

Phil AmmannNovember 17, 2015

Rob Fields, chief information officer of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, is joining One Eighty Consulting, a Tallahassee-based governmental affairs consultancy firm. Fields, a 14-year-veteran of Florida state government, has been a top adviser to several senior government leaders on a variety of issues: health care, banking, insurance, motor vehicle and […]

Mike SchneiderMay 7, 2015

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A Florida woman who was issued a driver’s license that mistakenly labeled her a sexual predator said Thursday that she plans to file a defamation lawsuit against a county tax collector’s office. Tammy Lemasters, 42, said she was denied service when trying to book a room at a hotel and has endured funny looks from […]

Phil AmmannMarch 7, 2015

Red-light Cameras (RLC) caught violations by nearly one million Floridians last year, creating quite the revenue stream for municipalities across the state, according to a new report Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. As reported by Lloyd Dunkelberger of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, of 941,000 violations issued to motorists, a majority of them (648,000) […]

Phil AmmannMarch 2, 2015

A Senate bill filed Monday seeks to protect the privacy of Florida motorists by blocking the release of email addresses accumulated by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Filed by the Senate Transportation Committee, SPB 7040 would create public-record law exemptions for email addresses received by the department while collecting vehicle records and […]

Tag: Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

Proposed legislation could break the cycle of debt for many caught in Florida’s legal system

Emily Slosberg files bill to strengthen texting while driving law

Rick Scott declares state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Matthew

State DHSMV moving its computers in May

Personnel note: Veteran state CIO Rob Fields joins One Eighty Consulting

Woman: Florida license mistakenly labeled me a sex offender

Red light cameras, with $105M in revenue last year, remain controversial

Senate bill seeks to prevent release of DMV email addresses

Florida politics had 11 questions before federal qualifying week. Here are the answers.