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Near-Tragedy on Lake Okeechobee Brings Home Danger of Lowered Lake

May 1, 2019 - 9:15am
Bill Matchekowsky and the lake rescue boat

There are safety consequences to lowering the lake. The folks who know Lake Okeechobee best, who work on it and fish in it, keep telling us a deliberately lowered 10.5-foot lake is an accident waiting to happen.

On Saturday night, we found out how justified those fears were when three boys visiting from South Carolina and fishing in Lake Okeechobee, ran aground about a mile from shore.

AOB Abuse King Addresses His Army of Vendors, Vowing to Get Around the New Law

April 29, 2019 - 7:45am

The Johnny Appleseed of AOB lawsuits has no intention of going quietly -- or, at all. 

Even before the ink on the just-passed "assignment of benefits" (AOB) legislation had dried -- before Gov. Ron DeSantis had a chance to sign the bill into law --  Orlando attorney Harvey Cohen was trying to bleed every last penny out of the scam he invented to make a killing on storm victims' misery.

Polk County's Troubled DEC

April 23, 2019 - 8:00am
Kathie Sunderland and Shawn Kinsey

Democrats in Polk County are getting down and dirty. With each other. 

What we've got here is a kind of passive-aggressive brouhaha between the Democratic Executive Committee's former chairman and current chairwoman over which one can go lower to rat-out the other's unpleasant secrets. With charges of racism thrown in.

SFWMD Senior Scientist Terrie Bates Quits. Was Retirement a Bridge Too Far?

April 19, 2019 - 7:00am
Terrie Bates

Terrie Bates, director of Water Resources at the South Florida Water Management District and one of its most respected scientists, has resigned her position.

Lawmakers, Heed DeSantis' Resolute Commitment to VISIT FLORIDA

April 16, 2019 - 9:00am
Ron DeSantis highlights tourism in Tampa

Gov. Ron DeSantis looks in no hurry to sunset VISIT FLORIDA for good. Mercifully. Let's hope his strong support will end any further discussion to shutter the state's busy and effective tourism agency. And, instead, fund it the full $76 million that's helped make it the envy of every state in the nation.

VISIT FLORIDA is one of the Sunshine State's best assets, and always has been.

Sen. Harrell Would Make Insurers Cover Vaccinations for 'At-Risk' Hepatitis A Group

April 15, 2019 - 9:00am

Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, said Sunday if it's not too late, she will try to amend one of the Legislature's 2019 insurance bills to mandate all insurers inoculate at-risk people in areas identified by the Centers for Disease Control as having been hit by Hepatitis A.

"Local health departments usually insure Medicaid patients, the uninsured and the underinsured," said Harrell. "But this is a rising epidemic and we have to look for the vulnerable who might otherwise fall between the cracks."

State Attorney Amira Fox to Answer to Ethics Commission Friday for Campaign Violations

April 11, 2019 - 4:15pm
Amira Fox

The state attorney for Florida's 20th Judicial Circuit will go before the Florida Ethics Commission Friday, answering a complaint that during 2018 and even before, she campaigned during working hours, costing state taxpayers what the complainant claims are "many thousands of dollars" in political absenteeism.

Sewage Bills Create a Stink in the Brevard Delegation

April 8, 2019 - 9:00am
Raw sewage polluting a waterway

We aren't going to fix Florida's waterways until we stop loading them up with poop. Ask any biologist. Failing septic tanks and broken municipal sewer pipes have galvanized the state’s environmental discourse.

So, how come we're here now with less than three weeks left in the 2019 legislative session, yet we don't have a single piece of significant sewage-be-gone legislation anywhere near the finish line?

The simple answer: Dissension among legislators. 

Trouble in River City, a.k.a. District 17 -- the wider Brevard County area. 

Florida's Neanderthal Prison Guards 'Withhold' Women's Personal Hygiene Items as Punishment

April 2, 2019 - 7:00am

It says something profoundly unsavory for Florida when the state Legislature needs to pass a law so women in prison can get something as basic and essential as a tampon. 

How about we make the first order of business for the new surgeon general explaining the function of a woman's anatomy to every official and jug-headed guard at every women's prison in the state. 

Trump at the Dike: More Money for the Everglades 'Coming Soon'

March 30, 2019 - 7:30am
President Trump Friday at the Herbert Hoover Dike

South Florida media were unsuccessful Friday putting President Donald Trump on the defensive over underfunding the massive Herbert Hoover Dike-repair project.

The president took control of the agenda during his visit to the crumbling 143-mile earthen dike at Canal Point, and he never relinquished it.

Appearing with Florida's top political leaders  -- Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott -- Trump kept his Everglades comments upbeat and vague.

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