Subject: Florida State Legislature

• Every Damn Time

  February 13, 2007

• Mayo, Euthenasia, and DeGroot

  June 5, 2007

• Election Office Denying New Voters

  October 29, 2008

• Joel Steinger and Mutual Benefits Corp. Stole a Billion Dollars by Peddling Bogus Life Insurance Policies

  June 4, 2009

• Cleared for Takeoff

  February 26, 1998

• The Sultan of Swap

  October 1, 1998

• Piss Off!

  January 21, 1999

• Letters

  March 4, 1999

• Best Mile of Broward/Palm Beach

  May 17, 2001

• Letters May 6-12, 2004

  May 6, 2004

• Letters for April 21-27, 2005

  April 21, 2005

• Stacy Ritter Misleads Herald, Public About Vote Scandal -- UPDATED

  Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter should have just kept her mouth shut. The Miami Herald got a few words out of Ritter regarding her and her husband Russ Klenet's Ponzi scheme/home renovation/voting scandal. And what does Ritter offer? Obfuscation and lies. From the article: Ritter, a Democratic lawmaker at the time, disputes media reports suggesting that her votes benefited Mutual Benefits. She said she had no conflict. ''It was an amendment that wasn't written by Mutual Benefi

  January 27, 2009

• Big Brown Machine

  May 1, 2008

• Ambushed by Seminole Blackjack

  Shut Up and Shuffle

  July 10, 2008

• Seminoles: Senate Version of Compact, Please

  The Florida House and Senate have both drafted legislation that would dramatically alter the games at Seminole casinos. Either the Tribe's profits will take a huge leap back or huge leap forward.The House version scales back the games that the Tribe can offer, eliminating card games so that the casino's gambling draw would be slots -- and the Seminoles would have to pay the state $100 million annually just for the exclusive privilege to operate slots outside South Florida. (Pari-mutuels here can

  March 25, 2009

• Legislators Pay Lip Service to Dreaded Compromise

  FLHouse.govHasnerCompromise is what distinguishes the effective, conscientious governments from the dysfunctional ones, and the lack of it has been a drag on the Florida Legislature for some time. One would think that this year's gaping, $6 billion budget hole would make compromisers out of the stubbornest souls. Instead, legislators are playing politics. Republicans, chiefly. The slightly more pragmatic of the bunch, who sit in the Florida Senate, have grudgingly agreed to the Democrats' propos

  March 26, 2009

• Mutual Benefits czar Joel Steinger manipulated local politicians and the state legislature. But divorce court too?

  February 19, 2009

• Mutual Benefits used dirty money to pay its legal defense

  February 12, 2009

• Lady of the House

  She's got three kids, 650,000 constituents, and millions of watching eyes. Debbie Wasserman Schultz can't keep them all happy.

  May 29, 2008

• Nova to Workers: Drop Dead

  Janitors go jobless for months, and students don't give a damn

  June 14, 2007

• Cuckoo for Coconuts

  Lauderdale-by-the-Sea may lose its soul over a political firefight.

  December 21, 2006

• Heartbreak at 45 mph

  May 21, 2009

• Pit Bulls Banned in Miami Find Refuge in Broward and Palm Beach Counties

  May 21, 2009

• The License Plate Gambit

  Don't think you're going to get rich by attaching a slogan to the backs of people's cars.

  July 6, 2006

• The Littlest Felons

  December 15, 2005

• The Bad-Hands People

  You say you want United Auto Insurance to pay your medical bills? Be ready to go to war.

  September 15, 2005

• To Re-Catch a Thief

  December 2, 2004

• The Great Slurp

  Gov. Bush's Scripps gamble is sucking up state funds -- and the Everglades with it

  June 3, 2004

• Pretty Boy

  Jim Stork has become the face of Broward's gay community. But is he ready for Capitol Hill?

  May 6, 2004

• One-Way Street

  Popped for DUI? Smile. You've just fallen victim to the DHSMV's kangaroo court.

  January 29, 2004

• Broward Shell Game

  It wasn't Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant who done the county wrong but the County Commission itself

  September 25, 2003

• The Matrix: Unloaded

  Hank Asher's just the guy to set up a futuristic terrorist-tracking system, but the cops don't trust him

  September 11, 2003

• Man Overboard

  Behind South Florida's golden crab industry is the story of a family proud but divided

  July 17, 2003

• Out of Touch

  You press the screen. The machine tells you that your vote has been counted. But how can you be sure?

  April 24, 2003

• Poison Pill

  Florida's first law to protect farm workers from pesticides died a quiet death, but now it's back

  March 27, 2003

• Queen of the Recount

  Carol Roberts may not beat Clay Shaw, but don't count her out

  September 26, 2002

• West Palm's Next Mayor Speaks

  Forget Joel Daves. Lois Frankel rules.

  August 22, 2002

• Dr. Strange Train

  Or: How I learned to start worrying and hate the bullet train

  May 30, 2002

• Guardian Gone

  Irv Reisfeld fought ferociously for Broward's forgotten children. Then his boss axed him.

  April 26, 2001

• Minority Madness

  Wisecracking Democrats in Tallahassee were steamrollered during the presidential contest. But they didn't take it lying down.

  December 28, 2000

• Just Look at the House Republicans Inaction!

  When House Republicans caucus, I'll bet it looks something like this: Star Wars-Imperial March - Click here for more amazing videosAmid all the other state budget crises, it's not getting nearly enough attention, but the Florida Legislature is on the brink of giving the heave-ho to $444 million in federal stimulus funds that could help the state's unemployed.Who knows? Maybe that was the plan all along: Throw lots of bad policy at the wall, and some of it's sure to stick.

  April 29, 2009

• Mutual Benefits Con Man Joel Steinger Spent a Lifetime Getting Mobbed Up

  May 28, 2009

• Selling Used Video Games Now Requires Essentially Getting Booked

  Proof that he didn't make it past Mario's second level.I'm in line at Gamestop the other day, breaking down and finally buying the much-hated NCAA Football '09, when I hear the clerk ask the guy in front of me for his fingerprints. He's returning a game, and the clerk breaks out some kind of form. He swipes his thumb across an ink pad stuck to the counter and then puts his mark in the appropriate box.What the deuce? "The sheriff's office has been making us do it," the clerk told me. "People hate

  May 29, 2009

• New Hampshire Ends Live Greyhound Racing; Will Florida Follow Suit?

  Jailamony used to race at Mardi Gras. Now she sits around looking adorable. Live greyhound racing in New Hampshire ended swiftly this week with a new state bill that allows the two tracks there to have simulcast betting without having to run dogs on the premises. Similar bills have been proposed in the Florida Legislature each of the past three years, but none made it out of committee. South Florida, home of the country's first dog track, still has three of the state's busiest tracks: Fla

  July 1, 2009

• Hallandale Rep Clashes With Blue Dog in Black Caucus

  Photo: myfloridahouse.govRep. Joe Gibbons​Joe Gibbons better watch out. Not only is he no longer the chairman of the Florida Legislature's black caucus. But the new chairman is Gary Siplin, the state senator from Orlando famous for trying to put a crucified Christ on the Florida license plate. And Siplin doesn't share Gibbons' highfalutin notions about black politicians winning in majority white districts, which Gibbons did in Hallandale Beach. Rather, Siplin appears resolved to reverse the bl

  July 28, 2009

• Bum Fights: Do Liberal New Yorkers Know What Happens to Homeless in Florida?

  Flickr: 71sbeetle​It's advertised as a way to deal with a city's homeless problem in the most humane way possible -- give 'em one-way tickets out of town. But that's only if the progressives in cities like New York aren't reading headlines like we've got down here, about Florida leading the nation in beating the homeless.Nor is their sleep disturbed by the news that the Florida Legislature slashed funding for the homeless this most recent session, meaning there's fewer resources to spread amon

  August 10, 2009

• A Deputy Left Eric Brody Brain-Damaged, and His Family Still Hasn't Received a Penny

  August 13, 2009

• Palm Beach Rebs Threaten Secession

  Rebellion, Palm Beach-style​Nothing secedes like excess. We here at the Juice thinks it makes  sense: Palm Beach town councilman William Diamond urged his fellow confederates at yesterday's council meeting to consider seceding from Palm Beach County and forming a  new county of its very own. Diamond argued that the playground of the rich and famous was paying out something like $51 million a year in property taxes. And for what? A few paltry public parks? And those full of little bro

  August 12, 2009

• Man and Beast: State Bird Gets the Heave-Ho; Monkeys Go Home; Pythons Morph Into Man-Eaters

  The rock python's scary-sexy maw.​Amnesty Day is coming up on October 3, but that's amnesty for you, not for our scaly friends. Owners of exotic reptiles may turn in their anacondas at Gatorland in Orlando, no questions asked. It's time for Spot the reticulated python to find a new home, if he survives the three-hour drive in a sweltering car. Rocky the African rock python receives permanent sanctuary -- and not in your neighbor's garden.  Those rock pythons are becoming an issue, by the

  September 15, 2009

• New Trial to Begin in Boynton Beach Dogfighting Case

  October 22, 2009