Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Melissa RossNovember 23, 2015

Three years ago Monday on Nov. 23, 2012, – it was Black Friday that year – Michael Dunn, a 45-year-old white man, argued with a group of teenage friends at a Southside gas station in Jacksonville. Dunn was peeved about the volume of their hip-hop music . The altercation would turn violent. Dunn fired 10 […]

Melissa RossNovember 23, 2015

Everything old is new again, the saying goes. In North Florida, that also holds true for crime prevention initiatives. Sources tell Florida Politics that Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry is set to announce new details about a revamped Jacksonville Journey initiative on Dec. 1 The program, debuted under the mayoral administration of John Peyton, began as […]

Associated PressNovember 16, 2015

Florida’s overall crime rate is dropping, but the number of reported sex offenses and sexual assaults is rising. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement released Friday a summary of crime information for the six months of 2015. The report showed overall crime volume dropped 2.2 percent compared to the first six months of last year. […]

Melissa RossNovember 13, 2015

Just as a closely watched U.S. Supreme Court case may strike down Florida’s death penalty sentencing laws, ACLU staff attorney Adam Tebrugge of Bradenton is discussing the death penalty Monday night in St. Augustine at an event sponsored in part by Amnesty International. The high court is reviewing what the New York Times calls Florida’s […]

Melissa RossNovember 12, 2015

The HBO documentary film shot in Jacksonville that tells the story of the Jordan Davis shooting and the trial of Michael Dunn will screen on the Florida State University campus this weekend before it premieres on national television next week. In an e-blast, the group Generation Progress has announced the screening in cooperation with HBO, […]

Drew WilsonNovember 12, 2015

Florida gained 15,400 private sector jobs last month according to data released Wednesday by payroll company ADP. The new jobs put the Sunshine State in third-place among the 50 states according to the ADP Regional Employment Report. Only California, which added 23,000 jobs, and Texas, which saw a 17,200-job gain, added more than Florida. The […]

Melissa RossNovember 11, 2015

As headlines across the state continue to pile up, documenting the horror show that is Florida’s mental health system of care, state Reps. Janet Adkins and Charles McBurney listened somberly to a litany of problems – and proposed solutions – at a public forum Monday at Jacksonville City Hall looking at the issue. The Community […]

Melissa RossNovember 10, 2015

State Attorney Angela Corey celebrated 34 years as a prosecutor in Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit this week (excepting, of course, the short span when she was fired from the office by her predecessor, Harry Shorstein.) Corey triumphantly returned when she beat Shorstein’s protege, Jay Plotkin, in the 2008 state attorney’s race. “Ed Austin hired me […]

Melissa RossNovember 6, 2015

A bipartisan summit on criminal justice reform is expected to draw local and national thought leaders to Jacksonville this month. Operation Reform, sponsored by #Cut50, the Ford Foundation and Operation New Hope, will focus on re-entry solutions for people leaving incarceration, and reducing recidivism through employment. This was a major focus of the Jacksonville Journey, […]

Associated PressNovember 6, 2015

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday makes her first appearance in a negative advertisement funded by the wealthy Republican donors tied to billionaires Charles and David Koch. A 30-second ad aimed at Internet users in South Carolina and Florida shows headlines about the number of veterans who have died while awaiting health care. […]

Tag: Florida

HBO film “3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets” debuts Monday with story of Jax teen Jordan Davis

Jacksonville Journey “2.0” to officially debut Dec. 1

Florida’s crime rate drops, but sexual assaults are rising

Florida’s death penalty reviewed by U.S. Supreme Court, discussed in St. Augustine

Email insights: HBO to screen ” 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets” at FSU

Florida adds 15,400 private-sector jobs in Oct., ADP reports

Pleas for reform heard at Jax mental health roundtable

Angela Corey: “What we’re doing is working”

Operation Reform Summit seeks bipartisan approach to criminal justice reform

Hillary Clinton targeted in ad from group tied to Koch brothers