Columns

If just-announced state Senate candidate Lauren Book was anybody but the daughter of one of the most influential lobbyists in Tallahassee, the media would be over her like vultures on road kill.

In my last column, I looked at the possibility of two impossible things -- impossible things in the sense used by Alice and the Red Queen -- happening in the already turbulent 2016 presidential cycle. Here I'll look at another: the possibility that the partisan division lines that have endured with little change for two decades might suddenly shift and change. 

Despite reflections recently about the “good old days” in Florida government, I'm not sure there ever was any such thing.

Florida is always seen as something of a model for the nation’s future politics as America grows older and more Hispanic. In recent years, Republicans from the Sunshine State tapped into a trend which is now taking over the GOP across the nation: disgust with career politicians. 

The fact that Donald Trump is currently leading in national polls in the Republican race for president is interesting -- but hardly a predictor of the outcome of the election. In fact, based on the

Look for lawmakers to revisit Florida's new drone law. Maybe later rather than sooner. But certainly tweaks are on the horizon for a law governing a budding industry that few understand and even fewer trust. The bill the Legislature passed last session and Gov. Rick Scott signed May 14 -- the Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act -- lays out a gold-plated welcome mat for personal injury law firms looking to establish a new cottage industry.

On Sept. 5, 2014, Russian agents crossed into Estonia and kidnapped an Estonian security official. Last week, after a closed trial, Russia sentenced him to 15 years.

Those of us who make it a point to stay up-to-date on foreign affairs took great interest in last month’s Iran deal aimed at stopping the volatile country from developing nuclear weapons.

The double standard our media impose on child sexual abuse is garishly obvious. On Aug. 14, The Washington Post set the stage for the coming American visit of Pope Francis with another splashy front-page story on a man still berating the Catholic Church after being abused by a priest from 1969 to 1976.

There was never a count of how many hundreds of people descended on Tallahassee the day before Hurricane Katrina hit. Frightened people, lost people, certainly very vulnerable people. I know something about them. I know they will never forget the extraordinary kindness and heart they were shown by residents of Florida's capital 10 years ago today. I know I won't.

"One can't believe impossible things," Alice objected. 

I've looked. I'm sorry, I just don't see Blaise Ingoglia the way Politico does. Ever since Aug. 19, when reporter Marc Caputo came out with his story, "GOP chair takes lead in House coup," I've been looking for the coup. Caputo gets most things right, so I looked extra hard. He's got an anonymous source, a "top Florida Republcan" who's telling him the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida is leading a coup to take out future speaker Eric Eisnaugle. This must be a rock-solid source, I'm thinking, or else Caputo would never let him/her go unattributed.

The fascination of the news media with Donald Trump is ironic, to say the least. For people who have long lamented the domination of Big Money in politics, these reporters are presenting Mr.

On the opening day of the 2014 session in the Florida House of Representatives, then-Speaker of the House Will Weatherford spoke at length about an issue that few leaders in government talk about -- generational poverty. During his remarks, Speaker Weatherford noted, “There will always be poverty -- the kind that results from temporary setbacks: job loss, foreclosures, or unexpected challenges … but there’s a far greater and more dramatic problem for some of our Floridians. They’re stuck in generational poverty -- the persistent, year after year oppression and hopelessness that starts with grandparents, is passed on to parents and continues to their children.”

Welcome to The Dean's List -- an Ed Dean-style look at who Florida's political achievers were (and weren't) in the last seven days. What you see here is strictly my opinion, not necessarily the editor's or the rest of the staff at Sunshine State News.