Florida | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 39
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Posted by Mary Chastain on October 17, 2016 22 Comments
Do you ever think Hollywood will ever learn that not everyone thinks the way they do? Yeah, neither do I. Well, in Tampa Bay, people booed and stormed out of Amy Schumer's comedy show when she insulted Donald Trump, calling him an "orange, sexual-assaulting, fake-college-starting monster," and called for more gun control. The group of people was relatively small, but large enough for others to notice:
Schumer scanned the crowd for Trump voters, and invited one up to the stage. He identified himself as Dave, an attorney and RINO (Republican In Name Only) who hadn’t voted for a GOP candidate since Reagan. He said he just felt safer with the country in Trump’s hands than Clinton’s.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 17, 2016 20 Comments
Instead of election officials rejecting mail in ballots because the signature does not match the one on file, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ordered that Florida extend the same courtesy it extends to those who don't sign their ballot at all: a chance to correct the problem. The Miami Herald reports:
Calling existing rules “obscene” disenfranchisement, a federal judge in Tallahassee declared late Sunday that Florida must provide a method for voters to fix signature problems that might arise when they vote by mail in the presidential election. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling was a victory for the Florida Democratic Party and the Democratic National Committee, which sued the state Oct. 3 arguing Florida canvassing boards shouldn’t immediately reject a ballot if a voter’s signature doesn’t match the one on file. The state gives voters who forget to sign their mail ballots a chance to fix the problem before Election Day — but doesn’t offer voters with mismatched signatures the same opportunity. Walker ruled the “bizarre” double-standard was unconstitutional.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on October 14, 2016 8 Comments
The problem with Florida's death penalty began earlier this year when the Florida legislature rewrote the death penalty law in light of the Supreme Court ruling that its existing law was unconstitutional.  The rewrite was flawed and resulted in a challenge that resulted in today's rulings that Florida's death penalty is (still) unconstitutional. The Miami Herald reported at the time:
Lawmakers have approved a crucial rewrite of Florida’s death penalty sentencing law, hoping it passes muster after the current version was recently declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The bill, passed overwhelmingly by the state Senate Thursday, now heads to Gov. Rick Scott for his signature. . . . .  Florida’s new law requires juries to unanimously vote for every reason, known as aggravating factors, to warrant a death sentence. A trial judge must sign a written order confirming those findings.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 07, 2016 5 Comments
You may remember Lane Pittman, the Jacksonville-area rocker whose July 4, 2015 guitar riff of the Star Spangled Banner got him in hot water with the cops, Florida man arrested for playing Star Spangled Banner on 4th of July rejects plea deal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuEGn8Cn6ms The video of the performance received over 320,000 views on YouTube. Things turned out okay for Lane, as the charges were dropped and he became something of a legend, as I recounted in my post over a year later, Update: Remember Florida rocker charged for playing national anthem on July 4?

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on September 17, 2016 22 Comments
As Marco Rubio faces a tough battle for his Senate seat in Florida, he introduces a new gun bill aimed at limiting terrorist access to guns. The legislation, according to Rubio's Senate website, "builds on some of the best ideas that have been proposed, and improves them in ways that I hope will make a bipartisan solution more likely."
Rubio’s Terror Intelligence Improvement Act would:

Posted by Andrew Branca on August 31, 2016 34 Comments
Yesterday Angela Corey, the prosecutor who dragged George Zimmerman into a hapless politically-motivated trial for second degree murder for the lawful killing of Trayvon Martin, has soundly lost the GOP primary race for her re-election as 4th Judicial State Attorney in the Jacksonville area of Florida, reports the Florida-Times Union newspaper.  Corey was defeated by a relatively late entrant into the primary, former corporate lawyer and prosecutor Melissa Nelson.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 29, 2016 2 Comments
On Tuesday, voters will decide if former DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is worthy enough to advance to the election in November after a summer filled with controversy. She came under fire this summer when "leaked emails showed that staffers at her organization appeared to be plotting ways to undermine the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)." She resigned as chairwoman on the eve of the DNC.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on August 28, 2016 24 Comments
Back in May, I wrote about Harry Reid being "fairly certain" that Democrats can retake the Senate this year.  He has reason to be fairly certain in part because Republicans are defending far more Senate seats than Democrats: "Democrats need five Senate seats to retake the Senate, and while it’s not a lock, things don’t look good for Republicans who are defending 24 seats to the Democrats’ 10." Watch Bret Baier's overview:
With the Senate hanging by a thread this November and the high stakes involved in losing it to the Democrats, we've been paying close attention to the Senate races across the country. The Florida primaries are on Tuesday, and judging by the way Marco Rubio (R) and Patrick Murphy (D) are running their campaigns, they are each confident they will win their respective races.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 06, 2016 8 Comments
Some intriguing news has been reported that gives me hope that our bureaucrats are taking the public health threat related to the Zika virus seriously. As you may recall, the last time I reported on the Zika epidemic, 4 Floridians had developed locally-acquired infections (probably from mosquito bites). Now, there are 16 cases and stores in the impacted area of Miami are closing due to the viral spread.
Cafes and art galleries in Miami’s Wynwood Art District would normally be bustling this week, even during some of the hottest days of the year, but with Zika virus spreading in the area, businesses like Wynwood Yard and Gallery 212 are keeping their doors shut. There were 16 cases of mosquito-transmitted Zika reported in the mainland U.S. as of Friday, and health officials have traced most to a square-mile area north of downtown Miami. Empty streets there reminded Gallery 212 owner Michael Perez of when he had to temporarily close a store in New York in 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks. “I’m just like living my life all over again, with this Zika thing,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s crazy, the streets are bare right now.”
Florida is not only an important beacon of tourism for this nation; it is a critical swing state in this election. Therefore, it should surprise nobody that the normally slow-moving Food and Drug Administration just approved the releasing of mutant Zika-killing mosquitoes in the Sunshine State.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 30, 2016 10 Comments
I predicted earlier this year that our country would start seeing cases of "home-grown" Zika sometime this summer. Sure enough, Florida is reporting four cases of locally-contracted Zika.
Four individuals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have been infected with the Zika virus by local mosquitoes, Florida health officials said Friday. These are the first known cases of the virus being transmitted by mosquitoes in the continental United States. "While no mosquitoes trapped tested positive for the Zika virus, the department believes these cases were likely transmitted through infected mosquitoes in this area," according to a statement from the Florida Department of Health. ...Officials believe the local transmission is confined to a small area north of downtown Miami within a single ZIP code. However, local, state and federal health officials are continuing their investigation, which includes going door-to-door to ask residents for urine samples and other information in an effort to determine how many people may be infected. Additional cases are anticipated.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 22, 2016 15 Comments
Last month, we blogged about a 2-year-old who was killed by an alligator at the man-made Seven Seas Lagoon located across the lake from the Magic Kingdom in Disneyworld. The family of the toddler, Lane Graves, has opted to build a foundation in their son's name rather than sue Disney.
"Melissa and I are broken. We will forever struggle to comprehend why this happened to our sweet baby, Lane," Matt and Melissa Graves said in a statement Wednesday. "As each day passes, the pain gets worse, but we truly appreciate the outpouring of sympathy and warm sentiments we have received from around the world."