The American Civil Liberties Union says Florida is “ground zero” in their fight for civil liberties — which explains why it filed two lawsuits in three days against Gov. Rick Scott-approved legislation.The ACLU filed two federal lawsuits last week — one against the drug testing of state employees, the other…
Yeah, it’s a budget-negotiation story: City wants to close up its wallet like a startled anemone; unions hire lawyers and demand fair pay in a tough economy. But in the case of the City of Hollywood, there are so many little doodads and flourishes to make the story worth noting. The…
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that you smoke a little weed now and then. Now let’s imagine your HR department orders you to take a random drug test. If you’re a person of any financial means, chances are you’ll procure a fairly failsafe way to beat the test, like a…
Just about everyone has had something to complain about with Gov. Rick Scott lately, and you can add Sir Elton John to that list.On behalf of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, John wrote a letter to the governor asking him to protect a program that gives help to HIV/AIDS patients…
Remember that campaign talking point Gov. Rick Scott had about President Barack Obama’s stimulus package being a “disaster,” when Scott said he would endlessly fight the stimulus money?Well, he managed to leave $370 million of that federal “disaster” cash in the state’s budget he signed last week.So who’s selling the…
Let’s just get this out there, cuz somebody’s gotta say it, and the Infiniti-driving Debbie Wasserman Schultz is apparently too thick-tongued to articulate anything other than decades-old talking points. So here it goes: Debbie Wasserman Schultz did not lie, and did not display ignorance of, the country in which her…
Ave Maria Law School, where Marco Rubio delivered a commencement address on May 15, was founded in 1999 by Catholic fanatic Tom Monaghan and a few fellow papists from Michigan. That this is an explicitly, in-your-face religious school rather loosened Marco’s tongue, so that each time he said something truly…
Maybe Esther Scott was tickled by New Times’ Mother’s Day letter. Maybe she caught a glimpse of her son’s dismal approval rating. Or maybe some GOP head honcho cried so hard that she took pity. For whatever reason, Rick Scott’s mom is once again campaigning for her son, the Lex…
Lauderdale Lakes City Commissioner Gloria Lewis had some attitude to give before ousting City Manager Anita Fain Taylor last week — including a rip on Ray Charles and blind three-legged dogs.Apparently not a fan of Lauderdale Lakes’ $9 million budget deficit or still owing millions of dollars to the Broward…
This has been a bullshit-busting kind of weekend for Allen West.First, he showed up on Fox News Sunday, talking smack about his own party’s recent history. He was debating Donna Edwards, a Democrat congresswoman from Maryland, when host Chris Wallace asked:Congressman West, Republicans offered a plan this week… to get…
Apparently spreading propaganda isn’t easy — that’s why the Republican Party of Florida is asking for your help.On the Republican Party of Florida-sponsored website rickscottforflorida.com, they politely ask that you please take the “talking points” they have listed on the page and flood radio stations, newspaper editors, Facebook, and Twitter…
The whole country knows that Gov. Rick Scott turned down $2.4 billion in federal stimulus money for a high-speed train between Tampa and Orlando (and many are blaming that move for his current dismal 29 percent approval rating). But another train project, this one with deep emotional significance for some…
Gov. Rick Scott wants you to know he’s the king of cutting budget fat — with vetoes totaling a record $615 million out of the $69.1 billion budget.He did away with what he calls the “special interests” and the “short-sighted, frivolous, wasteful spending” to look like the budgeting champ.Then again,…
The Florida League of Cities has gotten behind red-light cameras in a big way… thanks to the league’s president, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, and her relentless insistence that the cameras — through which a company in Arizona automatically sends hefty fines to red-light-runners — actually save lives.Cooper, representing the…
What a weird ride it’s been for poor Rick Scott! He came into office with hardly any pretense, with his intentions as plainly visible as the veins in his scalp. But nobody noticed, and now everybody hates him.Which is bad news to the folks manning the bridge on the GOP…
The only thing that seems to be on the up-and-up with Gov. Rick Scott is his disapproval rating.Floridians disapprove of the governor’s job performance more than they approve by a two-to-one margin, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released yesterday.But Peter Brown — assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling…
(Note: This is the second part of a blog post, and I’m picking up en media res. If you haven’t read the first bit, you probably won’t understand what follows. Read the first part here.)Despite the ominous tone of Matt Brooks’ letter, J Street isn’t some kind of Arabic think-tank…
Oh, probably not. But such insinuations are the stuff of American politics in 2011. This particular insinuation is part of the fallout from Obama’s speech on the Middle East last week — that boring, almost content-free speech that in a saner clime would have attracted controversy only because of its…
Comedian Larry Miller comes to the Broward Center May 26, bringing his brand of one-liners and just slightly offensive jokes. He’ll have the largely elderly crowd chuckling somewhat regularly with lines like: “I’ve been thinking about global warming a lot… If it’s a choice between a safe, healthy Earth and…
Yesterday, Democrat Kathy Hochul won a closely watched special congressional election in a heavily Republican district in western New York. Why should Sunshine State voters care? Democrats are spinning Hochul’s upset victory as evidence that voters — even those in traditionally GOP areas — don’t like the Republican plan to…
If you plan on running for president, don’t go anywhere near Florida Gov. Rick Scott.In an interview on Pensacola-based NewsRadio 1620-AM this morning, host Rob Williams mentioned that the last time Scott came in to an interview, he noticed a guitar signed by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.Scott had said…
Gov. Rick Scott’s poll numbers are rising. Well, at least his disapproval rating is.According to survey results released today by Quinnipiac University, the governor’s disapproval rating is at 57 percent, compared to 29 percent who gave him the thumbs-up.In fact, out of the ten states that the university polls, Scott…
