Discourse.net

Last Day to Register to Vote in Florida

Today is the last day to register to vote in Florida.

You must either mail (with today’s postmark) or hand deliver a completed application to any Supervisor of Elections’ office in the state, a driver’s license office, a voter registration agency, an armed forces recruitment office, or the Division of Elections.

And if you are a US citizen who is a Florida resident and is not already registered, you must do it today — or miss out on what will undoubtedly be the most important Presidential election since we re-elected the current disaster. And maybe even more than that.

Florida Courts Hearing on the Future in Coral Gables Tomorrow

I learned from my service on a committee convened by the Florida Supreme Court that our state courts really do try to think ahead, and are serious, innovative and thoughtful when it comes to planning.

It seems they also do outreach, and they’re coming to a meeting room near me — tomorrow. The following just plopped into my mailbox:

Florida Supreme Court Committee to Host Nine Public Meetings on Future of Florida Courts

Think of the changes Florida has undergone in the last two decades – and imagine the changes that will take place in the next two decades.

As Florida changes, so too must Florida courts. Sheer population growth will increase the number of cases coming into the courts. Significant changes in demographic and societal trends will alter the kinds of cases that the courts must resolve. Economic changes will impact the resources available to handle cases. Emerging technologies will change the ways people interact with each other and with the courts.

Florida’s judicial branch is working on a long-range strategic plan so that the courts can respond to new challenges and stand firm as a strong cornerstone of a well-functioning society and a healthy economy. And it wants to hear from people around the state as it develops its plan.

The Supreme Court Task Force on Judicial Branch Planning will hold nine meetings around the state, including in Miami. The Task Force is inviting citizens and local officials to share their thoughts on trends and conditions that they believe will impact the ability of the judicial branch to carry out its mission over the next 20 years. The current strategic plan for the Florida judicial branch, which can be found at www.flcourts.org/gen_public/stratplan/index.shtml, includes the mission and vision of the branch.

A public meeting will be held in the Miami-Dade area:

October 2nd, 2008 4 – 7 p.m.
Miami Dade Public Library
Coral Gables Branch
3443 Segovia Street
305-442-8706

Persons with disabilities or those using a TDD through the Florida Relay Service, 711, or who need an accommodation to participate should contact Kat Simpson at (850) 488-6569 as far in advance as possible, preferably at least five working days before the public hearing:

Individuals and organizations are also invited to submit written comments, which will be accepted through Nov. 1. Comments may be sent to:

Task Force on Judicial Branch Planning
Office of the State Courts Administrator
Strategic Planning
Florida Supreme Court
500 South Duval Street
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1900

# # #

MISSION: The mission of the judicial branch is to protect rights and liberties, uphold and interpret the law, and provide for the peaceful resolution of disputes.

VISION: Justice in Florida will be accessible, fair, effective, responsive and accountable.

For more information contact: Steve Henley
Senior Court Operations Consultant
Office of the State Courts Administrator
850-488-6569 or henleys@flcourts.org

Could be interesting. Or, judging from some of the slides from a previous meeting, could be a bit odd.

(Other meetings around the state, mostly in the next few days, listed here.)

University of Miami Law Tops Florida Bar Pass

Congratulations to the UM Class of 2008, which recorded a stellar bar pass rate on the Florida bar exam. According to the official list, our grads achieved the highest pass rate of all Florida law schools, with a 92.4% pass rate among first-time test-takers. (More bragging at the official UM announcement.)

I’ve reproduced the full table below, sorted by percentage passing, based on the raw data (sorted by number passing) contained in a .pdf from the Bar Examiners.

But first, a few words of warning: Bar Pass Rates are Over-Rated As A Measure of Law School Quality.

It would be sort of interesting to extend this table with a column showing percent of class taking the exam, and also percent of class taking out of state exams.

The percent in-state vs. out-of-state tells you something about how national/regional/local the law school is. A large number taking no bar at all raises the question whether the law school is steering some students away from the summer bar exam in order to prop up its statistics, although there are also other very innocuous explanations. It may be that many students go on to LL.Ms and put off the bar, or that the school prepares them for other sorts of careers. The no-bar-anywhere number only raises a question, rather than answering it.

The first number is probably easy to get, but I don’t know about the second. We graduated 442 JD’s last year, making the 236 Florida test takers just 53.3% of the UM graduating class. My impression is that just about all of our JDs took a bar exam somewhere, and that the numbers reflect a reality that we run a school with both national and Florida ambitions, but I could be wrong about that. Indeed, if you’d asked me, I’d have guessed that the Florida-national ratio was more like 2:1 than 1:1, which suggests either that anecdotal evidence is not worth much, or that the school is becoming more national.

Register to Vote - It Matters

Oct 6 is the deadline to register to vote in Florida if you want to vote in the November election.

If you are a student and plan to vote absentee where you last lived, whether in or out of state, don’t wait to apply for that ballot; these things take time.

[Queued up to run while I’m in New York.]

No Amendment 5 Or 7 Or 9 (Updated)

Via Michael Masinter I hear,

After oral argument this morning, the Florida supreme court unanimously struck from the November ballot amendments 7 and 9 proposed by the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. The two amendments would have amended the Florida constitution to authorize school vouchers, to remove its “no aid” to religious institutions provision from the declaration of rights, and to write the dissent in Locke v. Davey into Florida constitutional law.

Opinion to follow - I think the court had to decide today so the ballots could be printed.

UPDATE: A friend writes to inform me,

My understanding is that the Court moved these AOs up and had to act right away because the Sec of State had said that he was going to certify the amendments on Friday. The order on #7 and #9 tells the circuit court to enter final judgment by tomorrow, Thursday. Judgment on #5 is affirmed and thus final.

UPDATE2: Indeed, the court kicked three amendments off the ballot, all evil and misleadingly described. Amendment Five was the insane property tax amendment — cut property taxes 25% and tell the legislature to make it up to the schools somehow. Seven and nine were as described above.

Amendment Five looked headed for defeat — a majority may have been for it, but not the super-majority required; I think its backers, not least the Governor, may breath a secret sigh of relief. I don’t know if the absence of seven and nine (and five) will remove what had been seen as a push for right-wingers to turn out at the polls. After all, Amendment 2, the marriage amendment, is still on the ballot.

Gov. Crist Does Florida No Favors With This One

Freed from tacking to the center for his national ambitions — or smarting from being rejected for being insufficiently red-meat conservative perhaps — Gov. Crist has pulled a Jeb Bush:

Figure in Clinton Impeachment Is Named to Florida Supreme Court: In a move that drew praise from conservatives, Gov. Charlie Crist on Thursday named to the State Supreme Court a former congressman who played a major role in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. The appointee, Charles T. Canady, 54, spent eight years in Congress before being named an appeals court judge in 2002 by Gov. Jeb Bush.

While in Congress, Mr. Canady was one of the House managers who handled the impeachment case against Mr. Clinton.

This is a divisive appointment.

Obama to Ramp Up Staff in Flordia

Sam Stein, in the Huffington Post, Obama ‘Months Ahead’ Of Gore/Kerry In Organizing Florida:

The new locations will include Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Sarasota, and the ever-important (think, 2000) Miami-Dade. Next week the campaign will be adding centers in Ft. Myers, Tallahassee, Orlando, Miami-Dade (2nd), Homestead, Naples, Hollywood and Tampa (where they already have an office) to the list. The Illinois Democrat is currently operating out of Tampa, Gainesville and Ft. Lauderdale.

The offices, according to Bubriski, will be staffed, and do not include the varous volunteer offices that Obama will have at his disposal. None of the locations are existing Democratic party headquarters

The implications of this extend well beyond the Presidential campaign. Obama will stress turnout. Turnout will help the whole ticket — especially the Congressional candidates.

FL Candidate Unveils Powerful Ad

Alan Grayson, who is running for Congress in FL-8, has unveiled a powerful TV ad. I hope we see more like this.

Update: Democratic Congressional Candidate Alan Grayson on Iraq Reckoning: “We’ll Put People in Prison”.

New Poll Looks Good for Local Democratic Candidates

A new poll spells trouble for the Diaz-Balart brothers, who represent neighboring South Florida in Congressional districts. As McClatchy’s Washington bureau puts it,

A new poll suggests that two Republican members of Congress from Miami are facing a tight race from their Democratic challengers — the first significant challenge to the incumbents in years.

The poll, by Bendixen & Associates, shows Reps. Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Cuban-American brothers with a long Miami political pedigree, are leading their Democratic challengers by only single digits with four months to go to the election. Potentially more troubling for the GOP incumbents, the poll shows neither cracked 50 percent of the vote. That’s a far cry from their dominance in previous campaigns.

The Joe Garcia campaign was quick to crow about the results in an email to supporters:

A few moments ago, The Miami Herald released a new, independent poll.

The headline: “GOP incumbents facing a tight race in South Florida.”
Here are the raw numbers:
Joe Garcia 39%
Mario Diaz-Balart 44%

Now, I know some of you may be wondering what all the fuss is about — Joe isn’t ahead, so what’s the big deal?

Well, here is quick a break-down of these numbers to put things into perspective:

1. Diaz-Balart is in serious trouble. In politics, there is a key figure that analysts look at when determining an incumbent’s viability — the “re-elect’ rating (whether 50% of the public would vote to re-elect him or her). Mario is at a 44% re-elect, which places him well below the 50% viability threshold an incumbent needs to feel comfortable.

2. Joe has nowhere to go but up. Mario Diaz-Balart enjoys the luxury of near-universal name recognition that comes with being a career-politician — even though most people only know him as ‘the brother of the guy that wants to be the future President of Cuba,’ but that’s besides the point. Joe Garcia has yet to run a single television ad and our work has been limited primarily to grassroots outreach. As is the case around the country, 2/3 of independent voters are voting Democratic. We expect this pattern to hold as more voters learn of Joe Garcia’s long record of working across party lines to find common-sense solutions to problems.

3. The issues are on our side. Mario Diaz-Balart is not on the right side of any major issue. Whether it’s on the economy, rising gas prices or the Iraq War, Mario Diaz-Balart’s blind support for the failed policies of George W. Bush places him out of touch with our community. Meanwhile, Joe Garcia’s plan to provide tax cuts for working families, make our country energy independent and bring a responsible end to the Iraq War reflects the values of South Florida and is resonating with voters.

FL-18th’s Annette Taddeo, fighting a better financed and more popular opponent, is behind by 27 percentage points — 58 to 31 — with just 11 percent undecided.

Gov. Crist Gets Engaged

Flablog has the rundown on Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s engagement to one Carole Rome, described as an MBA, with experience working as an auditor and as a realtor, at Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again? including many people asking the obvious question.

It’s hard not to be cynical about the sudden engagement of a man whose primary obstacle to the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination are the rumors that he’s gay. It seems not everyone has been able to control their snark and just wish our Governor joy in his engagement, no doubt in large part to his unbroken series of convenient publicized serious girlfriends before each of his recent election campaigns.

Actually, what struck me most about this story was that the Governor wasn’t, as I though, a life-long bachelor. Our “bachelor Governor” is actually a divorcee!

Sayth the Herald [which oddly didn’t even put the story on it’s front page, what’s with that?],

It will be the second marriage for Crist and Rome. Crist was married for six months after college to Amanda Morrow and then divorced in 1980.

Rome was married to Todd Rome of New York, CEO of Blue Star Jets, until 2006.

As far as I can tell, no reporter seems to have spoken to Ms. Morrow in any of Crist’s recent campaigns. (Although one very unpleasant blogger did track down a recent picture of her.)

All I could find was a dubious web page with this, sourced to Adam C. Smith and Joni James, St. Petersburg Times (June 21, 2006),

While in law school, Crist married Amanda Morrow in Delray Beach. The 1979 marriage lasted a little more than six months. They divorced in January 1980. “We dated at Florida State for a couple of years, got married. I was pretty young. It just didn’t work out,” said Crist, who has never talked much about the marriage and had little to say about it.

The brevity of his marriage, and the fact that Crist has never had kids, has prompted whispers about his sexuality and questions about his ability to relate to most voters.

“I don’t like to argue and we did some of that. But that’s really all I have to say,” said Crist, who has not kept in touch with his former wife.

Although he displayed relatively few signs of humanity in public life during his pre-Gubernatorial career as “Chain Gang Charlie” Crist (and even looking beyond his about-face on offshore drilling), Crist has been a more reasonable and centrist Governor than I would have expected.

Admittedly, expectations were low for a man who promised to be a Jeb Bush clone. But it was a promise he didn’t keep. And in public appearances Crist acts like a likable human being in ways that if they are scripted would suggest a super-human acting ability, one so great as to suggest a certain fitness for higher office.

Yes, the state budget is going to hell in hand basket, and Crist’s future may be going with it, so he has to be praying for national recognition now, before it’s too late. But even so.

Maybe, even despite the campaign history, even despite the promise of a Fall (campaign season?) wedding, we should give the Governor the benefit of the doubt on this one until and unless there’s an actual fact to point to?

Tres Florida

Why I am not the least bit surprised that all three major Florida universities — UM, UF, FSU — are represented on this select list of institutions of higher education who have signed deals with Victoria’s Secret for “pink” themed clothes and underwear?

All so very tasteful and revenue-enhancing, I’m sure. And so Florida. Although to be fair, there are lots of schools from both sunny and raininy states on that list…

(Spotted via Kieran Healy, A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste.)

Local GOP Candidates Back Out of Debates

Catching up on the local news, now that I’m back in Miami — complete with the standard ride-an-airplane-catch-a-cold. It seems that the local GOP congressional incumbents are trying to avoid debating their challengers: Miami-Dade Dems: Debate? Republicans run and hide.

Joe Garcia, challenging Mario Diaz-Balart for District 25, said in a statement Wednesday that his opponent had backed out of a commitment to debate.

“This is an act of political cowardice. If Mario Diaz-Balart had time to vote to underfund our schools, three times against children’s healthcare and against medical benefits for veterans, then he better make time to explain himself to the people of South Florida,” the statement said.

Of course, it’s SOP in the incumbent playbook to avoid debating an opponent as much as possible for fear that they have more to gain. Normally the candidates do one or two set-pieces just before the election and that’s it.

But I don’t think that the regular playbook is going to apply to this abnormal year, especially in macho S. Florida — at least for the male candidates. How it will play in the 18th, where two women are in the race, I’m less clear.

"Sunshine State": It Should Have Been a Contender

This song, Sunshine State, should have been a contender for state song instead of the horrors we got.

But at least you can enjoy the video.

(via Eye on Miami)

South Florida Delegate Results

The Florida Democratic party had caucuses last weekend; as far as I know these don’t count any more than anything else Florida Democrats do.

The numerical results were determined by the voting in the Florida primary. The issue at the caucus was who would get to be the actual delegates.

How are the district-level caucuses run? Who chooses the delegates? The selection of district-level delegates will be in 25 post-primary district-level caucuses around the state on March 1, 2008. The highest vote-getters slotted under each presidential candidate are elected. (The numbers each presidential candidate gets in each district is dependent on the Presidential Primary results in that district.) In order to participate as a voter in the caucus, a voter must establish that he or she is a registered Democrat within the Caucus’ Congressional District. Voters must present a voter registration card and photo I.D. The voter will then be required to fill out a statement of support for the presidential candidate whom he or she supports. Delegates and alternates will be elected only by those participants at the caucus who have declared support for the same candidate to whom the delegate or alternates are pledged. Each participating voter must vote for exactly the number of delegate candidates to which the presidential candidate is entitled. Undervotes and overvotes will result in that ballot becoming invalid and will not count.

See the unofficial results, if you want to know who won in south Florida.

Florida Republican Wants Confederate Flag License Plate

Think Progress was where I saw it first: Florida lawmaker seeks Confederate flag specialty plate.

Florida state Rep. Donald Brown (R) introduced a bill last week to create a “Confederate Heritage” license plate for the state. Saying “it would give motorists a way to show pride in their heritage,” Brown proposes a $25 charge for motorists to purchase a plate with “a shield displaying the rebel battle flag symbol surrounded by several flags from the Civil War era.” The money would benefit “educational programs run by Sons of Confederate Veterans,” which considers the Civil War to be “the Second American Revolution.”

And they even have a picture:

Florida has more specialty license plates than you can imagine. Some are very nice.

WSJ Says Florida Leads the Nation

According to the Wall St. Journal’s Objection! Funny Legal Ads Draw Censure, Florida leads the nation in restrictions on the use of animals in lawyer advertising.

Tigers are OK. Lions probably. But no sharks or pit bulls. Go figure.

The article is limited only to animals and TV ads; had they mentioned advertising rules more generally, and especially the evolving rules relating to law firm web pages, they’d have had to mention New York state’s increasingly restrictive policies, quite possibly worse than Florida’s.

Election Returns

McCain wins over Romney, Rudy! crashes, Huckabee is reduced to “other”.

Look for Rudy! to endorse McCain tomorrow. The chance of a brokered convention just went down — but the intra-party dirt will really start to fly now.

Clinton crushed Obama but gets no delegates.

Both Amendment 1 (cutting property taxes) and Initiative 3 (more slot machines) passed. Sigh.

Will anyone remember this prediction a year from now?

A study done by Coral Gables-based Washington Economics Group for the pro-slots organization Yes for a Greater Miami-Dade said more than 6,400 jobs could be created by the machines in their first year of operation. The study projects $26 million in tax revenues will go to the county and the cities of Miami and Miami Gardens in the first year.

I doubt they’ll see that kind of money, although I’ll not bet against gamblers’ addictions, but I know there’s no way they’ll see a net increase in jobs anywhere near that size (they may displace a few, though).

Voting Today

Haven’t voted yet, but this is how I’m leaning:

Presidential beauty contest: John Edwards.

Several times I’ve thought of voting tactically for Obama since he’s my favorite of the two leading candidates. But he has done just enough progressive-bashing, and his health plan has a big enough hole that I think I’m sticking with voting for Edwards.

State Amendment 1 (starve localities, decimate services, and discriminate against young people and immigrants from out of state by further limiting property tax increase on housing appreciation): NO!

County proposition 1 (technical change on election rules to save millions of dollars): Yes

County proposition 2 (elect the county property assessor): No?

This is the one vote I’m least certain about — I don’t know who is behind it, or what they hope to achieve. Nor does this seem the sort of post all that well suited to election, even if other counties do it.

Country proposition 3 (2nd try at legalizing slot machine gambling at dog races & frontons): NO!

On balance I think we don’t need to feed gambling addictions; the claims of jobs and revenue from out-of-state tourists are bogus; the claim that revenue will help schools is also belied by experience of lottery money being offset by decreased spending. And it’s been sad to see teachers and cops pressed into service arguing for dog track gambling.

Take the Broweird News Quiz

Miami is weird and wonderful. But Miami people say that Broward, the next county north, is just weird. That’s not completely fair, but you’d be forgiven for thinking it after you take the Miami Herald’s fun Broweird news quiz.

Sample question (I had to think about this one):

16. Which of the following in Fort Lauderdale terrorized two teenagers and sent a dog to the animal hospital for treatment?

A. Africanized honey bees.

B. Deerfield Beach firefighter and reality TV show star Dani Campbell.

C. Alligators.

D. Airport bus drivers.

Could have been any of them, really.

Join the 'None of the Above' Campaign

No, I’m not talking about the GOP primary. I’m talking about the contest for a new Florida state song.

I admit that this morning I was a little worried about my post attacking all three songs as bad. (The Song Will Not Remain The Same) In fact, I toned it down quite a bit from the first draft, saying to myself that it just came out sounding too curmudgeonly.

Well, I’m feeling bolder now that I’ve read Flablog, Bad music:

Folks, I hate to find myself in the Simon Cowell role in this talent show, but these are aggressively awful songs.

I don’t mean just awful in a passive, boring, public-assembly way. I mean chair-creaking, clock-checking, eyes-scanning-the-exits, mind-numbingly, risibly awful. One sounds like an infomercial for a television ministry, one sounds like a 19th century Congregationalist hymn, and one sounds like something that should have been recorded on an Edison wax cylinder.

And these were chosen by people who are influencing innocent children.

I tremble for our future.

Maybe what we need is a “none of the above movement”? Is there some way to get a re-do, or to hear the other contenders, or hire a decent rock band, or commission the Dean of the UM School of Music, or something.

Please, someone, tell me help is on the way.

The Song Will Not Remain The Same

The state of Florida is looking for a new state song.

The current (written in 1851 by Stephen Foster, officially adopted by Florida in 1935) state song’s official name is “Old Folks at Home,” (lugubrious mp3) but most people know it either for its first line “Way down upon the Swanee River…” or for its racist lines including “Still longing for the old plantation” and “Oh darkies, how my heart grows weary.”

They had competition for a replacement, and now they are down to three finalists which can be heard at justsingflorida.org. And apparently the public is invited to vote online for the winner. Ballot stuffing anyone?

Here are direct links to the syrupy contenders:

‘Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)’ | Music and lyrics by Jan Hinton

‘My Florida Home’ | Music and lyrics by Christopher Marshall

‘Florida, My Home’ | Music by Carl Ashley, lyrics by Betsy Dixon

I think the first one is awful, the second one dull, and while the third may be the least bad, I don’t much care for it, and it would be hard to sing. I hope I never have to hear any of them again, but I suppose they’ll start popping up at graduation.

Do any states have good anthems?

Florida Fund Crisis: The Jeb Bush Connection

A money scandal with a Bush connection — who would have thought it? Forbes did. Where Was Jeb?:

A government money market debacle unfolding in Florida is raising questions about former governor and presidential brother Jeb Bush’s possible involvement in the mess.

Florida froze withdrawals from a state investment fund earlier this week when local governments withdrew billions of dollars out of concern for the fund’s financial stability.

In the past few days, municipalities have withdrawn roughly $9 billion, nearly a third of the $28 billion fund (which is similar to a money market fund) controlled by the Florida’s State Board of Administration (SBA). The run on the fund was triggered by worries that a percentage of the portfolio contained debt that had defaulted.

A majority of this paper was sold to SBA by Lehman Brothers. Bush, as the state’s top elected official, served on a three-member board that oversaw the SBA until he retired as governor in January. In August, Bush was hired as a consultant to the bank. Lehman spokesperson Kerrie Cohen, speaking on behalf of Bush, said they had no comment and would not say when the bank had sold Florida the paper. SBA did not return calls.

Let’s not jump to conclusions just because it looks bad. But it doesn’t look good.

Update: Does this sound like the time Jeb’s state pension fund held on to Enron despite warnings to sell?

Washington Post Introduces Us to "Swamp Divers"

Yes, it seems that there are Floridians nuts enough to go swimming with alligators. So the Washington Post profiles this group, which it calls

a very small, very savvy, very crazy band of swamp divers — people who purposefully jump into dark and dangerous ponds, pools, canals and creeks in the Everglades and its surrounding wild waters. They do it for science, to make movies, to observe or capture uncommon scenes in an element of the Everglades few humans ever see.

And, yes, for scary fun. Entering the hidden haunts of the lizard king of the Everglades, a creature capable of snapping human bones like tortilla chips, is an electric jolt.

“It’s very, very exciting,” said Fernandez, a South Miami man whose murky immersions have rekindled passion for a photography profession he abandoned years ago. “There are times when you’re in there and the alligators bump into you. Sometimes, they take off in a very small area, and it’s like a chain reaction, they all start flying by and hitting you.”

Swamp diving is eerie, fascinating, frightening — and an experience that almost no one should ever, ever try. Don’t even think about it.

OK. If you say so.

I'm Starting to Like a Republican

I’m really starting to like our Governor, Charlie Crist.

Other than as regards the DFC (which he cleverly handed over to a Democrat), our new governor is governing as a centrist — for example by taking some actions that will help slow global warming — which turns out to be great politics:

Something that was once unimaginable in Florida happened last week: A Republican governor hosted a global warming summit.

Then he issued a series of executive orders aimed at greatly reducing air pollution from cars, utilities and new homes.

He’s also putting solar panels on the Governor’s Mansion, asking utility companies to build more windmill generators and ordering all state vehicles to use ethanol or other biofuel blends.

It’s official: Charlie Crist is the un-Jeb.

You might dismiss acting to slow global warming as a bit of a stunt. It’s a popular issue, and we here have more to lose than most as it’s too hot already, and most of the state is only feet above sea level.

But consider this next fact: Governor Crist just vetoed an obscure but very awful bill that would have totally transformed Florida’s administrative procedure laws. The bill would have dramatically limited agency rulemaking powers, and would have made it much easier and more profitable for private parties to challenge previous rules and all non-rule documents, not least by in effect stopping all rules from taking effect when challenged, no matter how silly the challenge.

Vetoing it was absolutely the right thing to do, and won’t win points with the far-right anti-government crowd, but it can hardly be called grandstanding.

DFC Up to Its Old Tricks

Unchanging: The Florida Dept. Of Children and Families is still screwing up, and kids are dying,

It was the fourth time in as many years that state child welfare workers had visited the home of Stephanie Dorismond.

The oldest of five children, Stephanie, 15, had told North Miami Beach police that her uncle had asked for sex and that a family friend had molested her. An investigator took less than a week to devise a safety plan:

”Mom told [to] ensure the safety and wellbeing of the child at all times,” he noted in his report.

Case closed.

But even as Department of Children & Families investigator Williams R. Ajayi moved on to his next case, Stephanie, a slim girl with a glowing smile, was already in peril. On April 10, a day before DCF closed its case, a counseling group assigned to work with the family told Ajayi that the teen had run away from home.

Records show Ajayi did nothing.

And Stephanie was found dead in a hotel room soon afterwards.

Weird Florida News (Dead Chicken Edition)

Summer brings out the weird news, and Florida’s is just a little weirder than most people’s:

Man acquitted of assault with a dead chicken (via Flablog).

On Thursday, a jury acquitted the neighbor, Juan Fernando Carrasco, of hitting Shaffer in the head with a dead 4-pound chicken.

“I wasn’t injured but I certainly felt it. He got my attention,” saidShaffer, 78.

The April 12, 2006, dispute between the two neighbors — separated by a 3-foot-high fence on Jane Lacy Lane, a dirt road of 2 1/2-acre lots in New Smyrna Beach — ended when Shaffer called a sheriff’s deputy.

And when Carrasco refused to accept a plea agreement by the State Attorney’s Office, the battery-with-a-dead-chicken case went to trial. On Thursday, a jury of four women and two men took 20 minutes to decide Carrasco was innocent of battery.

…

“Sounds like something you hear on ‘Jay Leno’ but it’s not a joke,” Assistant State Attorney Larry Avalon argued. “Mr. Shaffer was hit with an object that has weight. That is battery.”

But Carrasco’s attorney, Diego Handel, argued that the state’s only evidence was Shaffer’s testimony claiming Carrasco hit him with the dead chicken.

“It may be a case involving a dead chicken but it is extremely serious to Fernando (Carrasco),” Handel said. “The lack of evidence supports the conclusion that Fernando is not guilty. It’s a situation of ‘he said and they said.’ “

After the trial, Shaffer said he was satisfied with the jury’s decision.

“He had 14 months to worry about it and it cost him a bunch. That’s enough,” Shaffer said. “It was his word against mine.”

One member of Carrasco’s family called it the “alleged assault with a dead weapon.”

Update: Was it a battery hen?

Today's Strange Florida News

The headline in the print version of the Herald says it all: “Man With Bad Headache Learns His Wife Shot Him”; the online version’s headline is less funny.

A woman was arrested Tuesday after her husband woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible headache and later learned he had a bullet lodged in his head.

St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputies initially thought Michael Eugene Moylan had been hit by a stray bullet, but later realized the couple’s story did not match up, Sheriff Ken Mascara said.

April Moylan, 39, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Mascara said. Moylan was being held in jail.

I can hear the jokes already…

Florida Paper Ballots Law - The Fine Print

Daily Kos: Florida’s Paper Ballots Come with a Catch

This Sounds Like a First Amendment Issue to Me

No, you won’t spend any time in jail, but you’ll certainly feel like a criminal once the local record shop makes copies of all of your identifying information and even collects your fingerprints.

On top of that, stores that want to sell used CDs despite all these discouragements will have to post a $10,000 bond!

CDs, even used ones, are a form of speech covered by the First Amendment. The idea that one must register to traffic in speech strikes me as presumptively unconstitutional. I wonder how this statute could survive strict scrutiny (which I assume would be what applies?) given the assertion at ars technica that in fact there is “no proof that [stolen CDs] is a particularly pressing problem for record shops in general.”

Cites to the text of the bill, or thoughts from First Amendment mavens most welcome.

Two Pieces of Very Good Legal News From Florida

He was once known as “Chain Gang Charlie” Crist for his tough law and order stands, but in the face of strong troglodyte opposition from Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, Florida Governor Charlie Crist has pushed through a set of reforms to Flordia’s felon disenfranchisement rules. Now, instead of making it virtually impossible for felons to get their right to vote (and to hold state licensees for a wide variety of trades), it will merely be slow (15 years!) for non-violent offenders, and slow and difficult for violent offenders. This is a major issue as the state has almost a million persons who have been found guilty of felonies, and about half of them are black (although blacks are about 14% of our total population). That a Republican governor would do this, because it’s the right thing, is amazing. Florida still remains well behind states with more civilized penal policies, but this is a huge step in the right direction. Details at the Miami Herald, Felon rights on faster track.

Also in today’s news, a welcome and very powerful ruling by our Supreme Court. In Re: Amendments To Florida Rule Of Judicial Administration 2.420—Sealing Of Court Records And Dockets. (April 5, 2007) says in the strongest terms that state courts must not “superseal” civil cases in trial courts — ever. “Supersealing” was a procedure that removed any trace of a matter from the public docket, even its docket number and title. As the court notes, it was a set of practices “that, however unintentional, were clearly offensive to the spirit of laws and rules that ultimately rest on Florida’s well-established public policy of government in the sunshine.” The Court’s decision does not prevent the sealing of substantive civil case records in appropriate cases after appropriate process. Also, the issue of criminal and appellate cases is left for another day, pending study by the appropriate committees (in criminal cases there are additional issues relating to protecting informants, for example).

A great day for the State of Florida! (And if the last election were held today, I’d vote for Crist.)

[Bonus good news: Condo tenant wins fight to keep mezuzah.]

Pick Your Nuisance

We may have the occasional crocodile here in Miami, but it seems just north of us, in Broward County, they have Pitbulls On The Loose.

Nineteen possibly feral pitbulls collected in one week? And many more still on the loose? I feel safer with the crocodiles, which we are assured as generally peaceful and leave one alone if one doesn’t bug them.

Regarding 'The South Florida Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet'

Is there a South Florida Giant Underground Weirdness Magnet? Many people seem to think so.

I prefer the theory that someone once picked up the US and shook it, and all the loose screws fell to the bottom…

FL GOP Wants to Raise Taxes -- On Poor People

It’s bad enough to read that the state GOP — or at least the ones in the state House of Representatives (ie. the most right-wing ones at present), want to eliminate property taxes and instead increase the sales tax (which is a regressive tax). I would like to dismiss this as posturing, but there are three reasons why I can’t.

1) The proposal is to make the change via a ballot proposition to chance the state constitution. Anything can happen, especially if it is dressed up as a tax cut.

2) State property tax receipts are tanking, so the state will be out hunting for more revenue.

3) This is Florida.

Fish Stories

So it seems that Florida diners are ordering grouper and getting counterfeits: On Fla. Menus, a Favorite Fish Experiences Identity Theft. I suspect that when the stuff is slathered in sauces, or charred to within an inch of charcoal, diners can’t tell the difference anyway.

It all puts me in mind of the story of the lady who went to Zabars in New York and said, “I’d like half a pound of caviar. And make sure it’s imported because I can’t tell the difference.”

Weird Even By Florida Standards

This story, Jilted, diapered astronaut planned to kidnap rival, is weird even by Florida standards.

Only In Florida

Forget about South Florida corruption. Up north a ways, in Central Florida, they bring weirdness to new heights.

I mean, where else but Florida could you ever get this fact pattern:

Deputies: Man on crack when alligator attacked. LAKELAND -- A man who was attacked by an alligator this morning was naked and smoking crack at the time, Polk County deputies who rescued him said today.

Apgar, 45, of Polk City, suffered a broken arm, partially amputated left arm and trauma to his left leg. Doctors are trying to reattach the arm at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where [he] was listed in critical condition.

"We don't know whether he'll make it or not," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

Voting Machine Problems in Florida

There were a lot of celebratory articles today about how the voting machines worked OK on Tuesday. (E.g. AP's Voting System Worked, With Some Hiccups.)

Not so fast. Looks like another Florida voting machine meltdown. Yes, all the elements are there. Enough missing votes to determine the outcome of a Congressional election. Florida election officials in a state of denial. Next up, the lawsuit(s).

(See also Flablog for the cynical summary.)

The Local S. Florida Angle

Democrats will control the House, with help from South Florida.

Republican Charlie Crist Christ won the state, but lost this region. It looks as if state turnout wasn't all that high, which hurt Davis, as did Christ's huge financial advantage, which allowed an incessant barrage of TV ads depicting Davis as pro-terrorist. [Update: I hear Crist ran 21,000 commercials -- more than any other candidate in the nation.]

Democrat Alex Sink will be the first elected state CFO -- and looks to have a great future in state politics.

Nelon beat Harris -- without my vote. I didn't want to vote for a supporter of the torture bill. And they both voted for it. So for the first time in my life, I voted for neither candidate in a contested election.

Ron Klein beat Clay Shaw in the much-watched Boca Raton congressional election. Mahoney narrowly beat "Mark Foley" (Joe Negron) in Palm Beach, but it was close.

Where I live, Democrat Dave Patlak was beaten by incumbent Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen by almost 2:1, pretty much tracking party registration in Florida's 18th district. The Patlak campaign had a few tens of thousands of dollars; the incumbent had well over a million on hand before the campaign even began.

Broward voted down a mass transit tax by a 2:1 ratio.

But the local news is dominated by the shooting of a UM student, Bryan Pata, a football player with a possible NFL career, in the parking lot of his off-campus apartment building.

NOVA as a Debate Location

The secondfirst Florida gubenatorial debate is about to start at NOVA South Eastern University. Turns out that might not the best place to hold it, at least according to this email I received:

Two models for the future of South Florida will be debated on Tuesday, October 24th, at NOVA South Eastern University. The selection of the debate site is quite unfortunate, in my opinion, because NOVA is involved in a labor dispute that will, if nothing changes quickly, render some 350 janitors jobless. An institution that is toying with the future of so many workers, as though their lives and livelihoods were truly unimportant, should not be chosen as the locale for hosting a discussion about the future of all Floridians. This problem is even more egregious, considering that two institutions of higher learning in South Florida, FIU and UM, have recently committed their resources to respecting the rights of workers to both organize and have a decent standard of living. These institutions are more deserving of hosting such a momentous event, for they have secured the future of their workers.

What I am asking is that NOVA Southeastern University finally accept the rights of their janitors to have a decent life, or that the debate be moved to a different place.

Many people are mobilizing in the next few days and weeks to achieve this goal, a goal that will benefit South Florida in general, for a solid working class is the back bone of any healthy community. Please stay tuned!

Dr. Manuel J. Caro
Sociologist
North Miami

FL Governor: It's a Horserace Again

Poll says Davis has caught up with Crist:

A shift in the mind-set of independent voters has made Florida's governor's race a ''dead heat,'' according to a new poll by Quinnipiac University.

The poll, released today, shows Democrat Jim Davis narrowing the gap with Republican Charlie Crist to two points -- 46 percent to 44 -- well within the poll's 3.4 percent margin of error.

Nevertheless, I admit that just as I was surprised at the size of Crist's lead, I'm also surprised that Davis caught up so fast.

Register to Vote

The deadline to register to vote in Florida is October 10th, three days away. The deadline for a host of other states is one of the next seven days.

10/7: MS, NV, RI, SC
10/8: AK, TN, WA
10/9: AR, AZ, HI, LA, WY
10/10: CO, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MI, MT, NM, OH, PA, TX, UT, VA, MO
10/13: ID, NC, NY, OK
10/14: DE
10/17: MD, ME, MN, NJ, OR, WV
10/18: MA
10/19: WI
10/20: NE
10/23: CA, KS, SD
10/24: CT
10/27: AL, IA, NH, VT
Election Day Registration: ID, ME, MN, ND, NH, WI, WY

If this is a new registration application, the date the completed application is postmarked or hand delivered to a driver's license office, a voter registration agency, an armed forces recruitment office, the Division of Elections, or the office of any Supervisor of Elections in the state will be your registration date. If this is a new Florida application, you must be registered for at least 29 days before you can vote in an election. If your application is complete and you are qualified as a voter, a voter information card will be mailed to you.

Mydem.com offers you a chance to check online if you are already registered, but they make you sign into the site first.

It could be an historic election. If they count the votes right, of course.

I Voted -- But Will It Count?

And then I come home to find How easy is it to hardware hack a Voting Machine?

A couple of untrained 54-year old women from Black Box Voting bought $12 worth of tools and in four minutes penetrated the memory card seals, removed, replaced the memory card, and sealed it all up again without leaving a trace.

The Experiment on an actual Diebold voting machine shows that the seals do nothing whatever to protect against access by insiders after testing, and the seals also are worthless in jurisdictions like Washington, Florida, California, and many other locations where voting machines are sent home with poll workers for days before the election.

How I'm Voting

It's election day today in Florida. We have the primaries, a school board election, and also the judicial elections and a local ballot question (other parts of Miami also have some big county commission races, but the terms are staggered and I live in a district which has an off year). The judicial elections -- the part that gets by far the least attention from voters or media -- may be the most important part.

Governor (D primary): Jim Davis

At the top of the ballot there's the race that got the most attention: the gubanatorial primary. As a registered Democrat, I get to choose between two candidates I'd happily vote for over either of the Republicans, so I'm already ahead whether Rod Smith or Jim Davis wins. Both candidates bring a different package of virtues and blemishes to the table and I can't say I have violent feelings about this one. But on balance, I'm going to vote for Davis. I was leaning that way anyway, but what tipped me was the multi-million dollar third-party ad blitz for Smith in the last few days. It was mean, negative, misleading -- and financed by Big Sugar.

I'll be voting for the ballot proposition to give county commissioners a real salary instead of the pittance they now receive. They run a huge budget and, who knows, it might reduce the propensity to make backroom deals for cash.

That said, I resent the one-sided way in which the ballot summary is worded:

Shall the Charter be amended to provide that County Commissioners no longer receive the $6,000 annual salary established in 1957, but shall receive instead the population based salary provided by State statutory formula (currently approximately $88,919) and used by other Florida counties, including Broward County?

School Board (District 6): Gus Barrera (incumbent).

I have a vote in a local school board race in District 6. It's a sign of how dismal the choices are that I will be voting for a man who supports book-banning. Yes, "Gus" Barrera not only voted to ban Vamos a Cuba, a picture book for little children on the grounds it failed to be anti-Castro enough, he voted to waste more money appealing the school board's loss in court. Why am I voting for him? Because the other guy is worse.

Barrera at least voted not to ban the book the first time the issue arose, thus giving the school system's normal procedures a chance to examine it. And to their credit the parents and bureaucrats both said to keep the book -- at which point Barrera voted to overturn their decision. Barrera's opponent's main campaign issue is that he would have voted to ban the book right away. No thanks.

AG (D primary): Walter (Skip) Campbell

There's a race on for Florida's Attorney General, often a springboard to higher office (the Republican incumbent is the leading candidate for Governor). I have to confess I've paid too little attention to this one (is it not seriously contested?). Skip Campbell is endorsed by DFA and by the Miami Herald. While I don't fully trust the Herald in non-judicial elections -- its instincts are very status quo -- anyone who can get both these endorsements is likely to be someone I'm going to feel comfortable with.

There is, however, one place where I do tend to be a status quo voter, and that's in the judicial races. I like voting for judicial incumbents unless they're doing a bad job (examples include ethical lapses, sloppy rulings, and consistently poor in-court behavior). This year I'll be voting for all but two of the incumbents running for re-election.

The first exception is Judge Ivan Hernandez. I'll be voting for his opponent in Group 4, Robin Faber. The reasons why this is an important vote are well summarized in the Miami Herald editorial endorsing Faber.

The second exception is Judge Ana Maria Pando who was admonished by the Florida Supreme Court last year for failing to disclose a campaign finance loan from her parents in previous elections. In Group 10 I'll be voting for Sari Teichman Addicott.

There are also a number of open judicial seats -- some where it's a tough call.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court

Group 25: Murphy (I) [(I) means incumbent] (Herald endorsement)

Group 42: Schwartz (I)

Group 78 (open seat): one of the toughest calls -- all the candidates seem to have both virtues and question marks. The Herald endorsed Bardawil, but she didn't get that great a qualification rating from the Dade bar poll -- 57% suggested she was unqualified! At 37 years old she's also the least experienced lawyer in the race. However, Jose R. Sanchez-Gronlier did equally badly, and Valerie R. Manno Schurr, only did somewhat better (47% rated her unqualified). I remember Ms. Schurr from her previous race in 2004. She's experienced as a lawyer, had a prior career as a nurse, and is a UM law grad. I liked her in the 2004 race, and I think she's my choice in this group.

Group 79 (open seat) has two candidates, Marie Abigail Davidson and Antonio "Tony'' Marin. The Herald endorsed Marin, a pillar of the local Cuban establishment, as did the pseudonymous Rumpole. He also gets a much, much higher rating in the Dade bar poll, so I'm voting for Martin.

Update Group 80 (open seat) has three candidates: Mario Garcia Jr.; Marisa Tinkler Mendez; and Catherine B. Parks. Garcia is out of the running as far as I am concerned -- he has too little legal experience without anything I know of to make up for the lack. The Herald's not-so-convincing endorsement is for Marisa Tinkler Mendez, but on paper Parks looks like a slightly better candidate on the basis of her diverse experience as a litigator (20 years), a trauma nurse, and especially as an active citizen in various local organizations. For this one I may need to call people I know until I find someone who knows them personally.

Miami-Dade County Court

Group 1: Shirylon McWhorter (I) (Herald endorsement). Judge McWhorter failed the Save Dade test (about which more below) -- but so did her opponent.

Group 4: Robin Faber (running against incumbent) (even the Herald doesn't support incumbent Ivan Hernandez -- although the PBA does.)

Group 9 (open): Both the Herald and Rumpole endorse Victoria Del Pino over Joel Jacobi. The Dade bar poll scores are not that different, although Del Pino slightly edges Jacobi. I'm planning on voting for Del Pino on the grounds that she seems to have more relevant experience, and that even if it were a tie all other things being equal I'd probably like to see more women on the bench. (Both candidates fail the Save Dade test.)

Group 10: Judge Ana Maria Pando is the incumbent, but I'm voting for Sari Teichman Addicott for the same reasons as in the Herald's endorsement. Read the Florida Supreme Court's decision in the Pando case for yourself.

Group 11: Karen Mills Francis (I)

Group 12: An important vote for Judge Steve Leifman (I). It would be sad if he lost. See the Herald and Rumpole. Leifman is tops in the bar poll too.

Group 14: Judge Michael Samuels (I) (Herald endorsement)

Group 27: Judge Sheldon "Shelly" Schwartz (I). Another valued veteran. Herald likes him too.

Group 39: Judge Bronwyn Catherine Miller (I). I actually have met Judge Miller. She seems smart. And I hear she's a good judge. And the Herald likes her.

Group 40: Judge Bonnie Lano Rippingille (I). Herald. The challenger, Don Cohn, sounds good too, but I'm for retention during good behavior.

Group 43 (open): Three candidates. Do NOT vote for Cecilia Armenteros-Chavez. I don't know much about Michael A. Bienstock; both he and Jose L. ''Joe'' Fernandez have somewhat similar Bar poll scores. The cognoscenti and the Herald much prefer Fernandez, and I have no reason to disagree.

And finally, I thought I should reprint this from the Sun-Post before it vanishes (temporarily at this link):

Like many political action committees, SAVE Dade endorses candidates. Known for championing an amendment to the county's human rights ordinance that includes banning discrimination against anyone based on sexual orientation, SAVE Dade (the SAVE stands for "Safeguarding American Values for Everyone") has an adversary -- the Christian Family Coalition, a local group devoted to the ideal that it's OK to discriminate against gay people and it is not OK for same-sex couples to enjoy any kind of civil rights protections.

How does Murmurs know this? Simple -- the Christian Family Coalition sent questionnaires to judicial candidates, which were displayed on the organization's Web site, mdccc.org. "Canon 2 (c) code of Judicial Conduct, states a judge should not hold membership in an organization that practices invidious discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin. Do you believe this canon should be changed to include sexual orientation (i.e., bisexuality, homosexuality, etc.)?" "Do you believe there should be domestic partner benefits (same-sex marriage benefits) for judges?" Why the obsession with homosexuality? One clue would be the group's founder and director, Anthony Verdugo. Formerly the head of the Miami-Dade Christian Coalition, Verdugo and his followers have been seeking to overturn the county's provision banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. They also want a state amendment declaring that marriage is only between a man and a woman -- even though such a provision already exists on state books.

Isn't it a major no-no to ask judges such questions, as it may render them less than impartial in future cases, you may ask? Not according to the Florida Supreme Court's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee. "The mere expression of an opinion does not necessarily mean the person giving the opinion has researched the issue exhaustively, or that the person would not be amenable to altering the opinion in the face of capable advocacy. That is, expressing an opinion does not automatically indicate closed-mindedness," the opinion stated, which is also proudly displayed by mdccc.org -- as are the judicial candidates' answers to the questions. Apparently county court candidates Patricia Marino-Pedraza (Group 1), Shirlyon McWhorter (Group 1), Ivan Hernandez (Group 4), Victoria del Pino (Group 9), Joel Jacobi (Group 9), Ana Maria Pando (Group 10), Stephen Millan (Group 11), Gloria Gonzalez-Meyer (Group 14), Sheldon "Shelly" Schwartz (Group 27), Cecilia Armenteros-Chavez (Group 43) and Jose Fernandez (Group 43) more or less think it's all right for judges to belong to groups that discriminate in regard to sexual orientation. McWhorter, Hernandez, del Pino, Jacobi, Pando, Millan, Gonzalez-Meyer, Armenteros-Chavez and Fernandez also answered "n" (no) when asked if domestic partner benefits should be extended to judges. Eleventh Circuit Court candidates Jose Perez Velis (Group 25), Dennis Murphy (Group 25), Gina Mendez (Group 42), Antonio "Tony" Marin (Group 79) and Mario Garcia Jr. (Group 80) said it was not OK to forbid judges from belonging to groups that discriminate based on sexual orientation. And Velis, Murphy, Mendez, Marin and Garcia also marked "n" when it came to extending domestic partner benefits for judges. As of deadline, Murmurs could not find the Christian Family Coalition's endorsements on its Web site. However, according to SAVE Dade's Web site, www.savedade.org, "The Christian Family Coalition has decided to do endorsements for the first time this year, as opposed to the report cards they have done in the past, and they have adopted a policy to only offer endorsements to those candidates that agree not to accept the SAVE Dade endorsement."

One judicial candidate preferred the backing of the Christian Family Coalition to SAVE Dade's endorsement. "Formerly endorsed judicial candidate Patricia Marino-Pedraza...has opted to drop our endorsement so that she may receive the Christian Family Coalition endorsement," SAVE Dade stated. "SAVE Dade would like to thank the judicial candidates who turned down such offers from the Christian Family Coalition."

I do realize I'm voting for some judges who fail this test but in most cases their opponents fail it too, and in the rest they are not good choices for other reasons.

Campus Cops Gone Wild

Via boing-boing comes this amazing story of campus cops gone wild at the University of Florida. (Note that since UF is a public university, the cops are subject to the same constitutional constraints as other cops.):

Phil Sandifer, a grad student in English at Gainesville's University of Florida ... was harassed by campus cops for publishing fiction on his LiveJournal. The cops -- acting on a tip that appears to have originated from people displeased with Sandifer's Wikipedia editing style -- argued that because Sandifer's story depicted a murder, he should be fingerprinted and have his DNA taken in order to ensure that he wasn't responsible for any unsolved murders.

As I investigated this story, the campus cops stonewalled me, but used the fact that I was leaving messages for them to attempt to frighten Sandifer into allowing them to fingerprint and DNA-sample him, saying that a journalist was on the story and he'd better exonerate himself before the story broke. They went to Sandifer's (righteously angry and uncooperative) faculty advisors and, in front of them, leaned on Sandifer for his biometrics and threatened to retrieve his DNA from his garbage if he wouldn't concede to a DNA swab.

Mitchell J Silverman, an attorney in Hollywood, Florida, used the state's sunshine laws to get hold of the police reports on the event.

The report is remarkable for what it doesn't say: it is an apparent fabrication that contradicts the eyewitness reports of everyone I spoke to involved in this story.

Very Odd College Rankings

The Washington Monthly Magazine has produced an idiosyncratic list of rankings of undergraduate colleges. I haven't looked at the methodology, but the rankings for Florida are quite suspect from the point of view of a person trying to decide where to send their kids. That has nothing to do with law schools, but bear with me.

The University of Florida is ranked 37th. The Florida Institute of Technology is ranked 121st. FSU is 132nd. Nova is 157th. The University of South Florida is 158th. FIU is 169th. And UM is 170th.

I'm not offended by the idea that the undergraduate college at UF might beat UM on a value-for-money scale: especially if one is weighing the cost of in-state tuition, UF might well be a better deal for your educational dollar despite the gigantic class size and the location in Gainesville. And I'm sure that every college in the state has departments that shine. But overall I simply find it inconceivable that the college at UM, which has made such enormous strides in the past 10-20 years and which today boasts by far the strongest faculty in its history, could possibly be ranked so much lower than UF, not to mention behind those other schools.

OK, UM isn't quite at the rear of the state sweepstakes, as UCF got ranked at 193, and FAU at 240, but still.

Daily Show's Valentine to Florida

The Daily Show explores its love affair with Florida. Part One and Part Two (not decorous at all).

They love us. They really do.

They do love us, don't they?

A Chance to Help Raise the Quality of the Florida House

A correspondent writes,

I see in your blog from March of this year that you called attention to Florida House member Dennis Baxley's ridiculous idea to make sure students can "express their views" in the classroom. Unfortunately I live in his district. The good news is that he faces a challenger this year in November, a young democrat who is an Iraqi war veteran but now works at a women's domestic violence center. His name is James Walker. I am not associated with his campaign, but have been trying to help him and have given him the maximum $500 myself.

Are you interested in doing something about Baxley and legislators who propose crazy ideas like his? I suggest you round up your friends who have an interest in this issue and each give James Walker $50 for his campaign. The only way to temper people with crazy ideas like Baxley is to try to throw them out of office. This is an excellent chance to do so. Baxley has no business serving in our legislature.

Here is a link to James Walker's website:

P.S. Baxley's legislation relates directly to religion and his disbelief in the theory evolution. What he really wants is for students to be able to argue in favor of creationism, and against evolution, and not be penalized in any way (i.e. meaning graded down). Baxley is a far right wing religious conservative.

Florida Progressive Coalition Blog

Say hello to the new Florida Progressive Coalition Blog. Florida is the ultimate 50/50 state, so it's always nice to see progressive activists at work. Oh yes, they've got a Progressive Coalition Wiki too.

[Update: Read more about the plan behind the effort at Daily Kos.]

Because Those Poor Defenseless Gators Need Help

Flablog is on the case:

If giant pythons are outlawed only outlaws will have giant pythons.

The board of the South Florida Water Management District asked federal regulators this week to take a step toward banning imports of the Asian reptiles, which can grow as large as 26 feet and 200 pounds - and, if one one famous case is an indication, seem to have acquired a taste for gator.

Davis or Smith for FL Governor?

I confess that I have paid almost no attention to the Florida Governor race. Jeb is term limited and can't run. The GOP primary candidates are running right, although the latest poll shows Charlie Crist well ahead of Tom Gallagher.

But now I learn that the Democratic primary candidates, Rod Smith and Jim Davis, are tied in the latest poll.

I am among the undecided, mostly for lack of information. Comments as to what distinguishes the candidates -- both of whom seem to have been endorsed by pols I like -- would be welcomed. I sort of gather that Rod Smith is the more electable candidate, but thought Davis had a decent record as a Congressman. But I could be wrong...

Jeb Bush's Values

Fred Barnes says Jeb Bush is great. Here's a real-life example of what Jeb Bush means to real people: thanks to his choices, the state of Florida loses track of hundreds -- yes, hundreds -- of at-risk kids in the foster care system every year. That's right: rather than raise taxes, Jeb Bush chose -- even after the matter became a state scandal three years ago -- to run a system in which the state of Florida takes kids into care, then loses them, (often to biological parents, ruled unfit to keep them, who then kidnaped them). We don't know if they're dead. We don't know if they're on the streets. We don't know anything about where they are. All we know is that Jeb Bush doesn't care much about them -- couldn't be bothered to find competent people to run the system nor to fund it properly.

When the disappearance of a 5-year-old girl from her Miami foster home four years ago went unnoticed for months, the ensuing scandal that engulfed Florida's child-welfare agency led to recriminations and promises of beefed-up efforts to track down children who went missing from state care.

A few months later, Gov. Jeb Bush and his social-services chief declared ''success,'' saying the state had found all but 102 of about 400 foster children who had gone missing.

That was Dec. 17, 2002.

Yet as of Monday, the number of kids missing from the state's troubled child-welfare system has skyrocketed to 652, most of them runaway teens and youngsters snatched from foster care by their biological parents. The number of missing kids has risen even as the number of kids in state care has declined.

And here's the killer quote:

"People look for their pets with greater concern,'' said Howard Talenfeld, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who is president of Florida's Children First.

Weird Florida News

Bumper crop today.

• DNA ties UM prof to Genghis Khan. As Dave Barry says, I am not making this up.
• Man arrested after trying to use potato as a silencer. Apparently, the folk story that a potato will silence a pistol shot is widespread.
• Lady who found a grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary, then auctioned it off on e-bay for $28,000 (plus another $6,000 for the skillet!), has now had the sandwich's image tattooed onto her right breast.

Just another day in Florida.

Which is good, because I needed something to distract me from the latest US-troops-get-barbaric allegation: Iraqis claim troops framed victim.

Renting Out the Commanding Heights

I know the state of Florida has no shame, and I suppose that anyway this probably is no different from ads appearing on the sides of public buses but even so I was very surprised to have ads for satellite TV and satellite radio fall out of the envelope when I got my annual car registration renewal notice.

When the state sells off public functions we call it privatization. (When it sells or leases land we have unfortunately gotten used to calling it a 'rip off'.) When the state takes on formerly private functions we call it a vast number of things, depending on the circumstances and how we feel about it.

But when the state lends its good offices to put an advertisement into every home (or, who knows, just demographically selected homes?), do we just call it "advertising"? Surely there's a better word for this?

Meanwhile, Back in Tallahassee

The Florida legislature has been unusually busy this year, and by and large the results are pretty ugly.

The legislature passed, and Jeb Bush signed, a bill repealing the doctrine of joint and several liability in Florida. Henceforth, joint tortfeasors will no longer be required to contribute more than their percentage of the judge or jury's assessment of their share of the total fault. Deep pockets can rest easier. The value of patsies just increased. And victims (and taxpayers) will have to pay more when some members of a group of joint tortfeasors are judgment-proof.

Florida is infested with billboards. And south Florida is full of billboards blatantly erected in violation of local law...which for years wasn't enforced in exchange for bribes and/or campaign contributions. Eventually, the laws here got changed to 'grandfather' them in so that some streets I drive on, like Bird Road, are overrun with the things. The Florida legislature's reaction to this will, however, boggle your mind. It has just passed a bill that...protects billboards from the threat of being obstructed by trees.

Ladybird Johnson must be spinning in her grave. [UPDATE: As noted by an astute commentator, Ladybird Johnson is in fact living; according to the wikipedia "She has been protected by the Secret Service longer than anyone else in history."] This isn't just a failure to 'beautify' roads -- it's a public commitment to permanent uglification. If Jeb Bush signs this one, local governments will be forbidden from planting any trees where they might obstruct the public's view of those glorious billboards.

The bill requires that billboards be given a clear sight line of 500 feet on roads with speed limits above 35 mph and 350 feet where the speed limit is under 35 mph. If counties or cities plant trees within that zone, they have 90 days to remove them or face a court fight and fines.

And if existing trees near a billboard are knocked down in a hurricane or if they die, they cannot be replaced except by low-growing shrubs or flowers that do not block the sign.

Still on the legislative agenda: proposals to gut the class-size amendment, the voter-approved mandate to have small classes in schools. That amendment has been a perennial bone in the Republican throat since at some point you might actually have to appropriate money to build those classrooms and pay those teachers.

There has been a ray of good news: spurred by the public scandal of an on-camera murder of a child by guards at a Florida "boot camp" (and the furor over the ensuing attempt at a coverup, then a whitewash), the legislature has voted to "demilitarize" the boot camps to which youthful offenders can be sent. Instead of a regime where guards, who were essentially unregulated and unsupervised, could and did use as much violence as they wanted for minor infractions such as 'not looking respectful', the new statute "bans the use of stun guns, pepper spray, pressure points, mechanical restraints and psychological intimidation unless a child is a threat to himself or others." Yes, in Florida this really is enormous progress, so let's be grateful for it.

I Hope He's Exaggerating

Here's how one local anonymous lawyer-blogger sees the Jeb Bush administration's approach to state judicial appointments:

WANTED: ONE APPELLATE COURT JUDGE.

QUALIFICATIONS: MEMBER OF THE BAR. REPUBLICAN OR TO THE RIGHT OF REPUBLICAN. Cannot have practiced criminal defense law. Cannot have ever said anything nice about a criminal defense attorney or a defendant.

The ideal applicant will be a Judge who has never granted a motion to suppress, a JOA, or sentenced a Defendant to anything under the top of the guidelines. Having never granted a motion for a defense continuance is a plus.

Must work well with Judge Rothenberg and be willing to overlook, ignore, or explain away at least eight of the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

Legal research skills must be limited to the late 1700’s case law, as only those candidates that promise to apply only the original intent of the framers will be considered, especially in cases involving the internet, computers, telecommunications, or searches of automobiles.

Membership in organizations that espouse the belief that the United States Of America is a Christian Country, and that separation of church and state is an outmoded concept will receive a favorable and expedited review.

Democrats, people who read books other than the Bible, and defense attorneys need not apply.

Pay flexible based on experience.
Ask about our "per curiam affirmed" bonus program for criminal appeals!!!!

Animals Behaving Badly

The silly season is starting early this year, and there are lots of Florida animal stories in the news, notably Fla. Island Town Overrun With Iguanas (Boca Grande, far from here) and Florida's newest problem: Burmese Pythons (not far from here at all).

Florida's newest problem is roughly the circumference of a telephone pole. It has no toes. It snacks on rabbits. It's the Burmese python. And in South Florida, the problem is growing in number and in feet.

"Last year, we caught 95 pythons," said Skip Snow, a biologist with Florida Everglades National Park. That's not counting the 13-footer that exploded after trying to eat an alligator, or two others that got loose and ate a Siamese cat and a turkey.

Caption: The hind legs and tail of a two-metre alligator protude out of the body of a dead, four-metre python in Everglades National Park in Florida.

Pythons have also discovered suburbia, said Capt. Ernie Jillson, who helps run the Miami-Dade County fire department's snake squad. They catch around 20 pythons a year.

Sun-Sentinel Is Against The War

The Sun-Sentinel is a quality newspaper a bit north of here. It has a justly deserved reputation as being pretty conservative editorially, and even in some of its political coverage. (A long-time state political reporter just got reassigned for being too overtly Republican, showing both that there's a tilt, and that the place has some standards.)

So it's interesting that the Sun-Sentinel editorial page, which I gather has been a big cheerleader for the Iraq war, is now not only vehemently against the Iraq war, but trying to suggest it was always against it. That's right: the war is now so unpopular that former backers are obfuscating their prior support.

Incidentally, the paper's April 7 editorial is real strong stuff. Here's how it starts:

Three years, 19 days. And counting.

More than 2,300 Americans killed. More than 16,000 wounded, many of them maimed for life. And then there are the tens of thousands of Iraqi victims.

Almost $400 billion spent so far, followed by another $330 million every day.

These are the tangible costs of the Iraq war. There are other costs that are harder to measure precisely, but they are many and they are mounting. It can be strongly argued that they are largely the fault of a president who is stubborn, intractable, dogmatic, exclusionary and intellectually dishonest, and who appears reluctant to operate outside his inner circle.

New Florida Chief Justice is UM Graduate

Justice R. Fred Lewis, a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, will be the 52nd Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.

And students say their career options are limited?

GOP in Trouble in Florida

St. Petersburg Times Online -- The Buzz: For GOP, Perilous Polling:

Florida Republicans could be in deep trouble this cycle. Consider:

--When asked whether they'd prefer Republicans or Democrats to control Congress after November's elections, 48 percent said Democrats and 38 percent said Republicans. Only 20 percent of independents wanted Republicans in control.
--Not even Jeb Bush could beat Bill Nelson at this point. In a hypothetical matchup 48 percent supported Bill Nelson and 44 percent Bush. Back in November, the same pollster found Bush beating Nelson by 5 percentage points.

And -- yes! -- Harris stays in the race.

Uh-oh

Run, Jeb, Run! is exactly what I've been afraid of for weeks. And the more Cruella Harris craters, the more likely it gets.

Florida Cops Intimidate Would-be Complainants

Via Boing-boing, a link to this absolutely amazing piece of investigative reporting: