In Tallahassee, you cant throw out a line without hooking a flack. The water is black with 'em.
The state lists them in all kinds of ways as press secretaries, public information specialists, communications directors/coordinators/assistants, you name it. Titles boggle the mind. But the truth is, flacks feeding at the public trough actually outnumber legislators. They did before the new governor was sworn in, they do now.
Florida continues to pile grief on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the standards it set for the Sunshine State to comply with the federal Clean Water Act.
On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, wrote a stinging, three-page, all-business letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, challenging her to prove -- paper trail included -- that the federal numeric nutrient rulemaking is necessary to keep Floridas lakes and flowing waters clean.
Hes big and hes brash and he brags like a sailor on shore leave. All fine for a TV personality hyping his new show. But Donald Trump is talking about running for the highest office in the land.
Lets not let him. Whatever happens.
You had to know the buzz over Steve Wises bill to discontinue part-time school board members salaries would grow into something akin to a blast from a South African vuvuzela.
The Republican state senator from Jacksonville woke up a number of very-comfortable-thank-you public trough-feeders when he introduced SB 7234.
If the bill passes as is, the state will pay the next crop of school board members $100 per meeting, capped at $2,400 per year, plus travel reimbursement.
Personally, I love it. And I don't know why Florida didn't go this route a long time ago.
What a difference a day makes.
Two more sources call back, Rick Scott doesnt and all of a sudden I realize the turncoat-governor rumors may not be so far-fetched.
I hope I'm proven wrong; time will tell.
Scott who convinced us after the election hes the anti-regulation governor apparently opposes a smart, carefully crafted bill aimed at stopping the costliest, most oppressive regulation of all: the EPA's numeric nutrient criteria, scheduled to go into effect in March 2012.
"In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
-- Mark Twain
Did the great American author and humorist have a premonition? Did he meet W.C. Gentry in some futuristic dream?
You have to wonder how Mark Twain would categorize Gentry, the Duval County School Board chairman who last week told district parents and taxpayers that the school system can't afford to educate their kids.
It is $97 million over budget.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, Hero
No wonder Gov. Rick Scott spends so much time in Miami. Why wouldn't he want the state to spend $77 million to dredge a deeper Port of Miami? For a governor who promised 700,000 jobs in seven years, Miami is Paradise Found. It's a spark waiting for tinder.
Especially since last week when U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio upped Miami's stakes.
A year ago Charlie Crist was a Republican, Marco Rubio was lying in the weeds in Miami and Bill McCollum was so far ahead in the governor's race he struck a pose and fell asleep.
What fun 2010 was. Sunshine State News came along at just the right time.
We had no idea last March that a staunchly conservative, anti-establishment revolution was about to turn Florida government upside down.
We certainly fit right in -- if not in the Capitol press corps, at least in the temper and tumult of the day.
