Unemployment Rates Dropped in January; Allen West Says No They Didn’t

The jobs numbers released yesterday look promising — the nation’s overall unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 percent to 8.3 percent in January, and the rate of black unemployment dropped from 15.8 percent to 13.6, the lowest it’s been since March 2009.Still, the last time another president faced unemployment this high…

Rick Scott Ranked Only Slightly Less Loathsome Than Jerry Sandusky

​The writers over at the Beast — manic, vulgar folks who once prank-called embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker pretending to be a Koch brother — have released their annual “50 Most Loathsome Americans” list, and Gov. Rick Scott is featured prominently at number 18.The list describes him as “the consummate…

Gingrich Loses Florida Republican Primary, Asks for Delegates Anyway

— Andy Bernard, The OfficeRepublican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich lost Tuesday’s primary by 14 points, which means he doesn’t get any of the state’s 50 delegates and front-runner Mitt Romney can go skipping to Nevada’s Saturday primary with a 48-delegate lead in the long, agonizing race for 1,144.We didn’t hear…

Allen West Is Totally Bailing on His Entire Congressional District

Ladies and gentlemen of District 22, at this time next year, you will be completely rid of Congressman Allen West.Faced with an unfriendly redistricting proposal and growing opposition from national groups including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, West announced this evening that he is ditching the whole place in favor…

Florida Worst State in Study of Long-Term Unemployment

​More than 53 percent of Florida’s unemployed residents went six months or more without work last year — the highest rate in the country, according to a study from the Hamilton Project, run by the Brookings Institute, a D.C. think tank.To compare, the average unemployed worker between 2004 and 2007…

Here Are Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC Campaign Finance Documents

I admit there’s almost no Broward/Palm Beach connection to the super PAC run by Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, but I’m going to be waist-deep in South Florida’s disclosure forms for a while, so hopefully this will tide you over.Though the forms cover July through December 2011 only, the cover…

Fox News Steals Our Stuff, Backs Off When We Notice

On Friday, we noticed that one of our blog posts, about a freaky Florida campaign video set on a slave ship, had been stolen pretty much in its entirety and pasted up on the Fox News website, byline and all. Yesterday, New Times Editor Eric Barton offered to forgo legal…

Credo Mobile Creates Super PAC, Immediately Targets Allen West

A cell phone company is jumping into the fight for District 22.Credo Mobile was founded in the ’80s as a long-distance phone service that sent 1 percent of customer charges to “further the causes of human rights, women’s rights, peace, environmentalism and an entire progressive agenda.” The founders eventually got…

Republican Primary Quiz: Whom Should You Vote For?

In case you were not aware, Florida’s Republican primary is tomorrow, at which time thousands of Florida Republicans will emerge to support somebody and give the media a fresh narrative to invent and take into the upcoming caucuses. But it’s perfectly natural to feel a little anxiety when it comes…