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Professional tea-leaf readers: Gov. Charlie Crist was asked at a Governor's Mansion presser today if he'll be in Ohio Friday, where John McCain is expected to appear with his vice presidential choice. "I'll be in Florida," Crist reponded. Does that mean he's not the VP pick? "I'll be in Florida," the governor repeated. What happens with McCain's pick is anybody's guess, but Crist appears an unlikely choice at this point. Most of the speculation has centered on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. And a poll out this week showed Floridians actually prefer Romney to Crist...

As discussion regarding domestic exploration for oil and natural gas off Florida’s coast grips the nation’s attention, new poll results today released by Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) demonstrate a significant increase in the percent of Floridians in favor of drilling off the state’s coast over the percent of those in favor this time last year. The McLaughlin & Associates poll, conducted last week, concluded 73.2 percent of Floridians favor drilling for oil off the coast of Florida – a 10 percentage-point increase over the previous year’s poll results. Further, the results show bipartisan support of the issue with the...

DENVER — Four years after leaving office, former Sen. Bob Graham looked every bit the political star Monday, surrounded by beaming Florida fans and well-wishers. But more striking was the action around him at the Florida delegation breakfast: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston had her own throng of fans, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer was fielding questions about another statewide run, and all over the hotel ballroom people speculated about Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink running for governor or U.S. Senate in two years. "Democrats went through a period in which the bench got very shallow. Now I think...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLORIDA CHAMBER POLL: MCCAIN LEADS OBAMA 42% TO 39% GOING INTO CONVENTION TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (August 25, 2008) – As the Democratic National Convention begins, a new poll released today by the Florida Chamber of Commerce shows Republican John McCain has a slim 42 percent to 39 percent edge over Democrat Barack Obama with Florida voters in the race for the White House. The Florida Chamber poll asked likely voters the following question: If the election for president were held today, would you vote for Republican John McCain, Democrat Barack Obama (ROTATE) or one of the other candidates?...

MANATEE COUNTY - Sheriff's officials are calling it a local record: an Ellenton woman was jailed Saturday on her 10th drunken-driving arrest. Ironically, a passenger riding with 41-year-old Janet Landrum told a deputy that Landrum was driving at 2:20 a.m. Saturday because the passenger, whom Landrum had just met, was too drunk to drive. Landrum, according to federal traffic records, has been arrested on charges of driving under the influence at least nine other times in several states over the past 20 years. Prior to Saturday's arrest, Landrum was picked up for DUI in Kentucky in 1988, in Tennessee in...

Some are questioning whether a top city leader showed favoritism when he ordered crews to help a "single woman" cope during the storm. That single woman was U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D- Jacksonville. During the height of Tropical Storm Fay, when many Jacksonville residents were trying to keep rising water out of their homes or dealing with fallen trees and power lines, the city sent a public works crew to put sandbags around the Brown's home along the Trout River. Brown denied getting special treatment, telling Channel 4 that she's like any other citizen who had an emergency. She said...

No. 1 Constitutional Amendment Article 1, Section 2 (Legislative) Ballot Title: DECLARATION OF RIGHTS Ballot Summary: Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to delete provisions authorizing the Legislature to regulate or prohibit the ownership, inheritance, disposition, and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship. Full Text: SECTION 2. Basic Rights.--All natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy....and to acquire, possess and protect property....

TROPICAL STORM GUSTAV SPECIAL FORECAST/ADVISORY NUMBER 2 NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL072008 1800 UTC MON AUG 25 2008 AT 2 PM EDT...1800 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC HAS UPGRADED THE TROPICAL STORM WARNING TO A HURRICANE WARNING FOR THE SOUTH COAST OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC FROM SANTO DOMINGO WESTWARD TO THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF HAITI. AT 2 PM EDT...1800 UTC...THE TROPICAL STORM WARNING FOR THE SOUTHWEST PENINSULA OF HAITI FROM THE SOUTHERN BORDER WITH THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AND PORT-AU-PRINCE WESTWARD HAS BEEN UPGRADED TO A HURRICANE WARNING. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN...

DENVER -- Florida Democrats' outsider status was officially erased Sunday when the national party voted to give each of the state's delegates a full vote at the national convention. The vote by the credentials committee to bring the state party into the fold comes on the eve of the presidential convention, and Democrats hope it closes a door on a bitter year-long dispute that divided the party. ''Thank you for bringing the sunshine back ... for Florida,'' said Scott Maddox, a former Florida Democratic Party chairman and credentials committee member. The vote is largely symbolic because Barack Obama won enough...

Leaders of a crime-plagued neighborhood near downtown are tired of talk and task forces. Instead, they're taking up arms and preparing to become a "lock and loaded" community. Members of the Royal Poinciana Civic Association say they want to start working with a Texas-based gun-rights organization and a local weapons-training academy to verse residents on gun laws and self-protection. "It is unfortunate, but it really has come down to this," said the association's president, Jack David, whose neighborhood is surrounded by cheap motels, slum apartment buildings and a large cluster of social service agencies. City officials say the task force...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida authorities are investigating a threatening letter sent to Gov. Charlie Crist that contained a suspicious but nontoxic white powder.

John McCain has recaptured the lead over Barack Obama in Florida, besting his Democratic opponent 46% to 43% in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of voters in the state. Counting “leaners,” McCain attracts 48% of the voter while Obama earns 46%. That advantage for McCain is well within the poll’s margin of sampling error. Full demographic crosstabs are available for Premium Members. Time is running out to save on Premium Memberships. Sign up now and save. Learn More. While Obama remains close in the polls, he is viewed unfavorably by 48% of Florida voters, including 57% of white voters....

WASHINGTON - As he battled pancreatic cancer, Harvey Waite encouraged his wife to continue her race for a fourth two-year term to the U.S. House of Representatives. "I want you to run," he told his wife, U.S. Rep Ginny Brown-Waite. "I want you to win almost as much as I want to beat this cancer." On Tuesday, Harvey Waite died. He was 68. In an interview with The Tampa Tribune in May, Brown-Waite said she had been wrestling with doing her duties in Washington and running for re-election after her husband's cancer diagnosis in February. After he encouraged her to...

In this legislative district, consisting of East Manatee and parts of Sarasota and Hillsborough counties, incumbent Ron Reagan vies with newcomer Kirk Faryniasz in the Republican primary. The winner will compete with Democrat Richard Jackson in the November general election. Reagan's passion for politics and policy and the leadership skills and experience he has gained in his three terms in the Legislature give district residents strong representation. Due to term limits, a fourth term would be his last. The biggest issues again are pocketbook concerns - taxes, property insurance, energy costs - and economic development. Tired of high property insurance...

The tropical system currently over Hispanola has been teasing weather watchers for days, as hurricane hunters were unable to locate a surface center of circulation. Meanwhile, the system has looked remarkably like a tropical depression for greater than 24 hours. Local Florida weather forecasters are urging Floridians to keep a close eye on this system. Updates:Atlantic Tropical Info Satellite:Visible Image LoopInfrared Image LoopWater Vapor Image LoopRGB (Vis/IR combo) Image LoopFunktop Image Loop Caribbean BuoysWestern Atlantic BuoysFlorida BuoysRadarPuerto RicoGuantanimo Bay CubaKey WestBahamasMiamiFlorida LoopStorm Track Models Category Wind Speed Barometric Pressure Storm Surge Damage Potential Tropical Depression < 39 mph < 34...

A chapter of a national gun advocacy group that supports allowing students to carry weapons to class may open at Florida Atlantic University this fall. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus was created after the April 2007 shootings on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, Va., where 32 people and gunman Cho Seung-Hui died. About the organization Students for Concealed Carry on Campus promotes its cause with several initiatives, including the 'empty holster protest,' where students, faculty and staff who support allowing guns on campus wear holsters to school. Group leaders said 3,800 students nationwide participated in April's event....

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FORT PIERCE — Students taking their first steps into the world of learning at Chester A. Moore Elementary this fall will be able to take advantage of a new curriculum designed to develop proficiency in two languages. The school will become the first in St. Lucie County to host a dual-language program that provides instruction in English and Spanish for students in kindergarten and pre-kindergarten. C.A. Moore Principal Keith Davis said the curriculum, commonly referred to as a 50:50 immersion program, will help Spanish-speaking students learn English while providing English-speaking students with an opportunity to start learning Spanish at an...

Click thread link for graphics. NWS discussion follows. ZCZC MIATWOAT ALL TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL 800 PM EDT WED AUG 13 2008 FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO... 1. AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE...ASSOCIATED WITH A TROPICAL WAVE...IS CENTERED A COUPLE HUNDRED MILES EAST OF THE LEEWARD ISLANDS. SHOWER ACTIVITY IS PRESENTLY LIMITED AND DISPLACED WELL TO THE NORTHEAST OF THE LOW CENTER. HOWEVER...UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE FORECAST TO GRADUALLY BECOME CONDUCIVE FOR DEVELOPMENT OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS...AND THIS SYSTEM COULD BECOME A TROPICAL DEPRESSION ON THURSDAY...

Two New Polls: FL(InAv) McCain 48% Obama 44% NC(SVUSA) McCain 49% Obama 45%

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- A surfer in New Smyrna Beach was caught on tape kicking and paddling frantically after spotting a shark closing in on him a day after a boy was bitten in the same area. A TV news helicopter spotted the surfer paddling in the water unaware that a shark was nearby. Video showed the surfer eventually noticing the shark and then fleeing. He is seen kicking when the shark is near his feet. Just hours before the encounter, a 15- year-old was hospitalized after jumping on a shark. "It appears that he actually just put his...

Over the past couple years, we’ve noticed a suspicious number of ticket camera editorials by the Orlando Sentinel. After looking more closely, we noticed that nearly every editorial in the Sentinel was strongly in favor of installing ticket cameras. Furthermore, we noticed that nearly every pro-camera article was written by one member of the Sentinel’s Editorial Board, George Diaz.This seemed odd, so we decided to look into it further.After some quick research, we discovered that George Diaz appeared at a symposium held by The National Campaign To Stop Red Light Running in late 2007.As we covered on this blog previously,...

ORLANDO, Fla. -- An appeals court has denied a motion to lower the bond for the mother of a missing 3-year-old Orlando girl. The 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach on Monday denied Casey Anthony's motion for a rehearing. The motion was sealed. Anthony is being held on $500,000 bond on charges of child neglect, making false statements and obstructing an investigation. Police said she lied to them and didn't report her daughter, Caylee, missing for more than a month. A message left with a spokeswoman for Casey Anthony's attorney was not immediately returned Monday afternoon. Detectives and...

The snake hunter shakes his head as he crouches over a sandy trail that pushes through Collier-Seminole State Park. Hoping to spy subtle signs of his slithering prey, Paul Andreadis instead finds only pebble-sized pockmarks left by raindrops overnight and maybe tracks left by a deer, probably that morning. “No, nothing here,” said Andreadis, a snake researcher visiting Collier-Seminole last week from Denison University, located near Columbus, Ohio. Andreadis stands up and, from behind the mosquito netting hanging from the brim of his wide-brimmed hat, sets his sights on the trail ahead. He knows Burmese pythons are out there; a...

An organization in Florida plans to educate what it perceives as an increasingly culture-tolerant public about the horrific dictates of Islamic law by purchasing billboard space with a simple, but confrontational message: "Sharia law is hate." The Central Florida chapter of the United American Committee, a nonprofit group that seeks to educate Americans on the threat of Islamic extremism, is raising money to purchase a six-month contract to display the billboard, which the group hopes will awaken the public to discussing the full extent of Islamic law. "The UAC's goal in this project is to raise awareness because most people...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

Yeah but the guy probably did a job no American would do. So sit down and stop your xenophobic, racist, hate-filled sputtering. It's a frickin' melting pot and sometimes you get a piece of gristle in your stew. Think that's bad? This hospital administrator in Florida was just getting warmed up.

There are several proposals being discussed in Washington and Tallahassee that would expand the areas on which oil companies could drill off of the coast of Florida. I support a moratorium against the expansion of offshore drilling and have written a column on this topic, a version of which ran last month in the Sun-Sentinel. That said, I am interested to know what you think about this topic, especially now that energy prices are increasing. Thank you for taking a moment to read this and for letting me know your opinion on this important issue.

Here's the situation. A family caught a 100-pound alligator snapping turtle on the Escambia River and named him Goliath. Then they said they might kill it, reports the Pensacola News Journal Whoops. That got people talking. The Wildlife Sanctuary of Northwest Florida received 10 to 15 calls in protest. The family says they're debating the turtle's fate. The father says he plans to keep it alive. The 15-year-old son: "I do want to keep him alive, and if I get some help, I will," he said. "But I am not going to release him or (donate) him." He also added:...

ST. PETERSBURG — As Steven Blackwell's neighbors searched his house for money to bail him out of jail, they found rooms full of chains, pornography and knives. They also found something even more unsettling — a human skull. It was identified Friday as that of Allen Garner, a homeless Hills­borough County man who was found beaten to death in 2003. But how it ended up in Blackwell's closet has sheriff's deputies puzzled. They thought it was safely with the medical examiner. Garner's skeletal remains — his skull among them — were found in a wooded area in Tampa, said J.D....

SPRING HILL, Fla. -- A Gulf Coast man was charged with murder after he said he gave his 15-year-old son powerful prescription drugs because he wanted the boy to know "how to party right." Steven Alfano was charged with third-degree murder after son Vincent died of an accidental overdose in June. Witnesses said the 47-year-old Spring Hill man showed his son how to crush and snort pills like the painkiller oxycodone and the heroin substitute methadone. Alfano was arrested Friday and is being held without bail in the Hernando County Jail. Officials did not know if he had a lawyer....

In an election in critical swing-state Florida for President of the United States today, 08/04/2008, Republican John McCain defeats Democrat Barack Obama, 50% to 44%, according to this latest SurveyUSA poll pre-election poll conducted exclusively for WFLA-TV Tampa and WKRG-TV Pensacola.

Chip Witte doesn't consider himself a Rebel. He doesn't hang Dixie battle flags in his living room, nor does he wear one on the back of his leather jacket. Yet when the Tampa motorcycle mechanic saw the world's largest Confederate battle flag unfurl above the intersection of I-10 and I-4 in June, he felt a jolt of solidarity with the lost cause and lost rights that he says the battle flag represents. "I think it's great that they're allowed to fly it," says Mr. Witte. Despite years of boycotts, schoolyard bans, and banishment from capitol domes, the Southern battle colors...

You may have signed a petition related to "keeping men out of women’s bathrooms." As a mother of two children who were born and raised in Gainesville, I agree that keeping our restrooms safe is good public policy, which is why the petition drive was framed that way. But that argument masked the true target of the petition drive and the charter amendment it proposes. The true target is to remove civil rights protections based on sexual orientation that have been Gainesville law since 1998, as well as gender identity that was added in 2008. That charter amendment is plainly...

PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Florida (AP) -- Ed Ellis steps across the National Naval Aviation Museum into the aircraft that was Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Chester Nimitz's flying headquarters during World War II. "If this plane could talk," said the 67-year-old retired Navy captain, longing to hear the conversations that happened aboard the vintage PB2Y Coronado. "Nearly every Navy admiral in the Pacific was in here." The Coronado -- the first U.S. plane to land in Tokyo after the war -- is the latest restoration project undertaken by the museum's mostly volunteer staff of hundreds of military retirees. Located at...

Hewing to campaign conventions, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) today visited a local pastry shop here, praised his fellow Republican officeholders and declared Florida is "a battleground state" in the election. McCain entered Pancho's Spanish Bakery & Deli in Orlando this afternoon along with his wife Cindy, Florida GOP Gov. Charlie Crist and Orange County mayor Richard Crotty (R). They all shook hands with many patrons and a few employees. There was scattered applause. "Thank you," McCain said. "We have the mayor and the governor, how about that?" Upon seeing Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who was seated at a table, rise...

This is an incredible read. Please go to link to see the massive fraud going on in South Florida.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce and The Florida Retail Federation argued for three years that business owners had an absolute right to control their employees. That's why they kept calling it the "take-your-guns-to-work" legislation. They claimed they could search employee vehicles and ban firearms from those vehicles in the employer's parking lot. They claimed businesses didn't care if customers had guns in cars, they only cared about their right to control employees. When the legislature passed the law protecting the rights of workers, The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation filed a lawsuit in federal court asking...

The latest Quinnipiac Swing State Polls are out: Florida: Obama leads McCain, 46% to 44% Ohio: Obama leads McCain, 46% to 44% Pennsylvania: Obama leads McCain, 49% to 42%

Both U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, and her Democratic challenger, Annette Taddeo, have pledged to fight Florida's proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage. Amendment 2 will be on Florida's ballot in November. If passed, it would amend the state constitution to ban gay marriages and civil unions, as well as publicly recognized domestic partnerships. ''Most [Amendment 2 supporters] would like to frame it as a gay issue,'' Ros-Lehtinen said Sunday at Miami Log Cabin Republicans club meeting. ``It's not that at all. Most of the domestic partnerships in Florida are heterosexual.'' Taddeo, the Democrat challenging Ros-Lehtinen in this fall's election,...

OKEECHOBEE - In a move the American Civil Liberties Union is calling "groundbreaking," a federal judge has ruled in favor of students who claimed the school board discriminated against them by opposing their gay tolerance club.

A scheme to defraud state taxpayers out of millions of dollars was thwarted by some alert Regions Bank employees and one of the state's biggest road contractors — but not before some of the money was transferred to Beirut, Lebanon. FBI agents caught Ali Hassan Hammoud, 35, minutes before he was to board an Air France flight to Lebanon, but they were too late to stop the transfer to Lebanon of some of the $5.7-million stolen from the state treasury. The money was transferred in four installments after state officials received bogus paperwork directing them to ship the money to...

Robert Wexler the non-Floridian who represents the South Florida district that includes Delray Beach has decided to lease an apartment in the congressional district that he claims to represent rather than declaring residency at the home of his in-laws. Wexler actually lives in in Potomac, Md where his children attend school.

BAY COUNTY - Local deputies now are acting as immigration agents and will be able to deport illegal aliens from Bay County. Deputy Richard Bagwell and Sgt. John Sumerall, both of the Bay County Sheriff's Office, have graduated from the 287 (g) Program in Charleston, S.C., Sheriff's Office officials said last week. The four-week school was created by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and is named after a section of law under the Immigration and Nationality Act that authorizes the federal government to train local officers to enforce immigration laws. The Bay County Sheriff's Office has a task force...

A federal judge has dealt a major defeat to Florida's business lobby by upholding the main thrust of a new law allowing employees with concealed weapons permits to take their guns to work. The so called "guns-at-work" law was the product of a three-year constitutional clash that pitted the powerful National Rifle Association against equally influential business groups over two basic constitutional concepts: the right of private property and the right to bear arms.

Honest Conservative welcomes Lt. Col. Allen West, retired Veteran of the Iraq War; a great man and a great conservative. Lt. Col. West is running in Florida's 22nd district and wants to speak with you! http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedom 646 478 5613 8 PM EST Sunday July 27

Hooters hotties took to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday night, July 8, for a chance to win Miss Hooter’s International. Of the 130 bronzed bodies from all over the world, only one could be most worthy. Sara Hoots, from San Antonio, TX took the crown. The 12th Annual Miss Hooter’s International event wasn’t just a celebration of beauty, but also the 25th anniversary of the first Hooters, which opened in Clearwater, FL in Oct. 1983.

S. Rep. Robert Wexler is Florida’s only member of Congress who does not own a home in his congressional district. The Democratic congressman ostensibly from Boca Raton or Delray Beach is under fire this week after he admitted on national TV that the only house he owns is in Maryland, and that he uses his in-laws’ home in a senior-only community in Delray to meet residency requirements. Wexler said in a statement that such an arrangement was “common.” However, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel survey of Florida’s 25 members of the U.S. House and two in the Senate found that all...

For nearly two years, the South Florida middle school art teacher forced the boy to have sex in a classroom supply closet. Sometimes, Aaron Mohanlal would call in sick to work, take the boy to his home for sex and drop the seventh-grader back off at school at the end of the day. To keep the abuse secret, Mohanlal bought the 13-year-old a cell phone and created nicknames for their genitalia. When police arrested him, the teacher was caught on hidden video trying to destroy letters threatening the boy if he ever told. Last summer, a Broward County jury convicted...

It's pitiful to read the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You are so pro-Obama that it is sickening. No such thing as an impartial paper.