Being a pro bono lobbyist sounds a little like being a volunteer stockbroker, but Merick Lewin says it’s true. The Republican state House candidate from Davie contends he did lobbying work for his uncle’s company,the 1-800-411-PAIN Referral Service, but wasn’t paid for it. Yep, he just kept an eye on state legislation…
The Teamsters’ ethics complaint filed last month against Gov. Rick Scott — which alleged his million bucks from private prison corporations was somehow affecting the state’s decision to enter contracts with the companies — has been tossed out by the Florida Ethics Commission.Among other things, the commission says that “pay…
Forget Kevin Bacon. The Florida Democratic Party is playing the “Six Degrees of Rick Scott.”How do you play? Well, apparently by launching a website identifying the state’s “Rickpublicans.”Sure enough, hometown favorite Rep. Allen West landed a Bacon Rick number of one, with a direct connection to the governor…
Wow! Gov. Rick Scott just left for Brazil a few days ago, and he’s already announced that he brought over a Brazilian company to create 75 whole jobs at an average salary of $62,000!Just like he waited until he went to Canada to announce a months-old deal he wasn’t even…
It looks like Gov. Rick Scott never met a constitution he couldn’t violate.This time, it was likely the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, according to a federal judge who temporarily blocked the state’s new welfare drug-testing law the governor loves so much.The lawsuit over the law, filed by the…
Last week, the Washington Post published its exposé on how Sen. Marco Rubio “embellished” his family history, and after a few days, no one’s really sure what the hell happened there.The Post validates the reasoning behind the article correcting Rubio’s family history — which involves dates before the senator was…
Broward County Mayor Sue Gunzburger — without any great objection from her fellow commissioners — has issued a proclamation declaring this Saturday “Occupy Fort Lauderdale Day” and “encourag[ing] all Broward residents to work together to bring about a stronger, better, and fairer America for our future generations.”Gunzburger had previously visited…
Well, here’s one way to explain the $3 million difference between the fundraising totals of Rep. Allen West ($4.1 million) and hopeful Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy ($1.1 million): 50,000 Tea Party “whacktivists” across the country are signing checks made out to West.That’s from an email the Murphy campaign sent out…
After the Florida Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Rick Scott’s executive order to suspend rulemaking in the executive branch agencies was unconstitutional, he decided to issue a new executive order to complain about the decision.The court had ruled 5-2 that it’s not the governor’s job to suspend rulemaking, and now…
Pass the tinfoil; we’ve got more hats to build.Sen. Marco Rubio is a hot pick for the vice presidential spot on the ticket of several GOP presidential candidates, but according to the birther lab, he’s not eligible to be president or vice president because he’s not a “natural-born citizen of…
If money determines elections, Davie Republican Merick Lewin is the leading state House candidate to represent western Broward in 2012.Lewin, who has familial and financial ties to the 1-800-411-PAIN Referral Service, has raised far more money than his Republican and Democratic opponents in District 97. In fact, his campaign war…
On June 7, Southwest Ranches Town Attorney Keith Poliakoff sent an email to (now deceased) Town Administrator Charlie Lynn, town staffers, and his consulting and lobbying colleagues. The email urged town leaders to maintain a “cone of silence” about a proposed 1,800-bed immigrant detention center in Southwest Ranches to avoid…
Standing in the pouring rain in one of the wealthiest enclaves in the country, the man in the Gators cap did not mince words. “I’m not issue-specific, because there are so many things fucked up right now about how our country is managing itself.”And so the Occupy movement came to…
A few people stayed the night on Saturday, and donations and support kept coming in through yesterday. On Sunday, organizers say, Fort Lauderdale police told them they wouldn’t be allowed to stay over.An attorney who has been working with the movement contacted the park’s owner, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA),…
President Obama’s reelection campaign released its list of 351 volunteer fundraisers who have helped him rake in the big bucks — more than $50,000 — with 29 of them coming from Florida and eight of them from either Broward or Palm Beach counties.None of the GOP presidential candidates has released…
We reported last week from the scene of a Southwest Ranches town hall meeting where so many people showed up to protest a proposed immigrant detention pen that BSO deputies just started blocking people from entering the council chambers, citing fire code.The detention center wasn’t on the agenda — it’s…
Occupy Fort Lauderdale now has an address — Bubier Park at 32 E. Las Olas Blvd. The group announced it has started a 24/7 occupation of the park, which began with the first group of people on Saturday night after their first demonstration. The next meeting of the group –…
They started outside the federal courthouse and marched — on the sidewalk, escorted by police — to the front steps of Scott Rothstein’s old digs on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Outside the restaurant space where the local Ponzi king once cut his porterhouse, people gathered with American flags,…
A 56-year-old man was arrested last night during a demonstration held by Occupy Gainesville in the Bo Diddley Community Plaza, and of all the people to be arrested, it was the son of blues legend Bo Diddley.Before his arrest, Ellas Anthony McDaniel was explaining that police were trying to get…
The Pulp tried to attend last night’s meeting of the Southwest Ranches town council, but BSO Deputy Lee Roselli and Cmdr. Wallace Haywood wouldn’t let us inside the council chambers. So we remained outside with the 50 or so local residents who were loudly protesting an immigrant detention facility that…
It looks like Texas Gov. Rick Perry is last week’s news to Florida Republicans — pizza man Herman Cain leads the latest poll of the state’s GOP voters with a six-point buffer over the second-place former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, in the chase for the party’s presidential nomination.No other…
Well, here’s what everyone wanted to hear from Gov. Rick Scott, the chief executive of the state with the fifth-highest unemployment rate of the 50 states: Not only as he already retracted his campaign promise to create 700,000 extra jobs but he now says he doesn’t have to create any…
