Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Jim RosicaOctober 12, 2017

The House’s ethics panel on Thursday set a Dec. 4 hearing on a charge that Democratic Miami-Dade Rep. Daisy Baez doesn’t live in the district she was elected to represent. The Public Integrity and Ethics Committee will conduct an evidentiary hearing “somewhat like a court trial,” said chair Larry Metz, a Yalaha Republican. “You’re trying to […]

Steve SchaleOctober 9, 2017

Since Maria, the question I’ve gotten more than any other is: “So if X number of Puerto Ricans move to Florida because of the hurricane, what does this mean?” Honestly, I write this blog with some hesitation. As I work on this piece, 80-90 percent of the population still lacks power and some 50 percent […]

Peter SchorschOctober 7, 2017

Florida State University President John Thrasher announced the members of the President’s Advisory Panel on University Namings and Recognitions, according to a news release. “I want to thank the members of this panel for their willingness to take on this important matter,” Thrasher said in a statement. “I expect them to be deliberate, to be thoughtful and to […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 30, 2017

Former Congresswoman Gwen Graham of Tallahassee, a Democratic candidate for governor, said she’s filed additional public record requests “for all communications” to and from Gov. Rick Scott via his private cellphone about the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills nursing home. Graham also seeks “all communications in the Governor’s Office, the Agency for Healthcare Administration and […]

Peter SchorschSeptember 23, 2017

The first sentence of a Reason blog post this week got House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s attention: “Mere hours after Hurricane Irma, Miami-Dade County was ticketing residents for building code violations on their wrecked properties.” The House’s graphics team soon was on the case, producing an infographic based on the story, first reported by WSVN-TV. Corcoran tweeted it with the message: “Revealed: […]

Scott PowersSeptember 19, 2017

The massive power outage Hurricane Irma left behind last week with more than 6.5 million homes and businesses is down to a handful of pockets outside the still heavily-darkened Monroe, Collier and Lee counties that were hardest hit by the storm. The latest data provided by the Florida Division of Emergency Management, showing power through […]

Associated PressSeptember 18, 2017

Florida’s economy has long thrived on one import above all: People. Until Irma struck this month, the state was adding nearly 1,000 residents a day — 333,471 in the past year, akin to absorbing a city the size of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. Every jobseeker, retiree or new birth, along with billions spent by tourists, […]

Scott PowersSeptember 14, 2017

Heat may be rising among the millions of Floridians still without power, as 2.3 million homes and businesses head toward finishing a fourth full day without. The latest data from the Florida Office of Emergency Management show 22 percent of the state still was sweating out power outages at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, on what has […]

Scott PowersSeptember 12, 2017

Duke Energy announced it expects to have restored lost electrical service to the western portions of its service area – Pinellas and Pasco counties – by midnight Friday, and to most of the rest by midnight Sunday, but the hard hit counties of Hardee and Highlands likely will wait longer. Duke’s announcement came Tuesday afternoon […]

Associated PressJuly 19, 2017

A 10-year-old boy from a drug-ridden Miami neighborhood apparently died of a fentanyl overdose last month, becoming one of Florida’s littlest victims of the opioid crisis, authorities say. But how he came into contact with the powerful painkiller is a mystery. Fifth-grader Alton Banks died June 23 after a visit to the pool in the […]

Tag: miami dade county

House ethics panel sets trial in Daisy Baez residency case

Steve Schale: Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico and Florida politics

Takeaways from Tallahassee — FSU takes on campus names, markers

Takeaways from Tallahassee — The politics of nursing home deaths

Takeaways from Tallahassee — Fences make happy code enforcers

Power restored except South, Southwest, Central Florida pockets

Irma’s damage a reminder of Florida economy’s vulnerability

Power update: 2.3 million homes and businesses still without

Duke hopes to have Pinellas, Pasco power up by midnight Friday

Miami boy’s death shows powerful opioid’s chilling potential