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Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Florida / Broward County Voters Guide:


Get An Absentee Or Sample Ballot HERE

Recommendations From Richard DeNapoli:
(I looked them over, looks good to me)

UNITED STATES SENATOR
Rick Scott

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS DISTRICT 22
Nicolas Kimaz

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS DISTRICT 23
Joseph "Joe" Kaufman

GOVERNOR & LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
Ron DeSantis & Jeanette Nuñez

ATTORNEY GENERAL
Ashley Moody

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Jimmy Patronis

COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE
Matt Caldwell

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 93
Chip LaMarca

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 98
Joseph Anthony Cruz

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 103
Frank Mingo

STATE REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 105
Ana Maria Rodriguez

COUNTY COMMISSIONER DISTRICT 4
Shari L. McCartney

RETENTION VOTE JUSTICES OF THE
FLORIDA SUPREME COURT
Alan Lawson - Vote YES

RETENTION VOTE 4th DISTRICT COURT OF
APPEAL JUSTICES
Burton C. Conner – Vote YES
Jeffrey T. Kunz – Vote YES
Carole Y. Taylor – Vote YES

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE, GROUP 38
Jason Allen-Rosner OR Stefanie Camille Moon

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE, GROUP 46
Maria Markhasin-Weekes

COUNTY COURT JUDGE, GROUP 9
Tanner Channing Demmery

COUNTY COURT JUDGE, GROUP 19
Allison Gilman

BROWARD SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT, SEAT 2
Richard DeNapoli

CITY COMMISSION / MUNICIPAL

Cooper City Commission, District 2: William L. "Lenny" Athas

Dania Beach City Commission: Marco A. Salvino Jr.

Hallandale Beach Mayor: Joy D. Adams

Hollywood City Commission, District 5: Jack Izzo

Margate City Commission, Seat 3: Antonio Arserio

Oakland Park City Commission: Steve Arnst

Plantation
City Council, Group 1: Michael "Mike" Taussig
City Council, Group 2: Rico Petrocelli
City Council, Group 5: Timothy Fadgen
Mayor: Jennifer Izaguirre

Pompano Beach
City Commission, District 1: Andrea Leigh McGee
City Commission, District 2: Tom Terwilliger

Southwest Ranches City Commission, District 1: John Eastman

Tamarac
City Commission, District 2: Bill Mei
Mayor: Michelle Gomez

Weston City Commission, Seat 4: Nancy Cooke

STATEWIDE AMENDMENTS
Amendment 1: YES
Amendment 2: YES
Amendment 3: NO RECOMMENDATION
Amendment 4: NO
Amendment 5: YES
Amendment 6: YES
Amendment 7: YES
Amendment 8: Removed from Ballot
Amendment 9: YES
Amendment 10: NO
Amendment 11: YES
Amendment 12: YES
Amendment 13: NO

BROWARD SPECIFIC QUESTIONS:
Transportation Surtax: NO
County Commission District Map Standards: YES
County Redistricting Procedure: YES
Affordable Trust Fund Definition: YES
Discretion of Inspector General: YES
Revisions to Zoning Glossary: YES
Examining Board Alternate Members: YES
Quorum Shall be Majority: YES
Materials No Later than 48 Hours Before Meeting: YES
Independent Board Nominates Auditor: YES
Comp. of Inspect. Gen. Selection Oversight Com: YES
Delete Ineffective Language: YES

Sunday, September 2, 2018

President Trump Keeps Winning – Everything Else Is Just Noise…

Two funerals received national attention this week: Aretha Franklin’s and John McCain’s. President Trump did not attend either one yet was clearly inside the heads of those who did. Liberals and globalists infested both occasions and would spit out the occasional anti-Trump remark of which the Establishment Media would then replay in a loop for the next three hours. Meanwhile, as these political and entertainment elites continue to appear jaded, spiteful, and increasingly tone-deaf, Donald Trump continues to rack up one impressive policy victory after another as America flourishes in this Age of Trump.

Via Newt Gingrich:

In the middle of the liberal media’s desperate efforts to convince us that President Trump is in trouble, there are an amazing number of victories that suggest he is winning. In fact, there are indications that he is winning a lot.

Let’s start with Tuesday’s primaries. In Florida, a fine, well-entrenched state Agriculture Commissioner and former U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam decisively lost the Republican gubernatorial primary to Rep. Ron DeSantis. The big boost for DeSantis came from President Trump’s endorsement and a Trump robocall to Florida Republicans.

The contest for governor of our third-most populous state shaped up even better for Republicans as a hard-left Bernie Sanders-backed progressive – Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum – won the Democratic primary with 34 percent of the vote. The contrast between a pro-Trump DeSantis and Gillum will probably keep Florida in Republican hands in November.

Florida gave President Trump and Republicans a second boost as GOP Gov. Rick Scott won an important primary victory for a U.S. Senate seat. Scott has proven in his two campaigns for governor that he is an aggressive, effective campaigner. It is very likely the blue wave in Florida will disappear with the DeSantis and Scott victories.

It is clear that the president’s judicial and economic victories build his prestige, and that prestige is giving him the muscle to reshape the Republican Party.

In Arizona, President Trump won another primary victory when Martha McSally, a congresswoman and Air Force veteran (in fact, the first American woman to fly a fighter jet in combat) won the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

President Trump praised McSally earlier this month at the signing ceremony for the National Defense Authorization Act. What looked at one time to be a close contest became a blowout, as McSally won 52 percent of the vote in a three-way race and was 24 points ahead of her closest competitor. Republican chances of keeping the Arizona seat are dramatically better with...

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Florida Senator Bill Nelson Is A Liar. Has Russia hacked into Florida’s election system? There is no evidence.

When the ultra-leftist Washington Post is unable to find a way to make a Democrat less a liar, then oh boy was that a whopper.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.): “At the urging, I might say, of the chairman and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, we wrote and signed a joint letter to all 67 county supervisors of election to tell them that the Russians are in Florida’s records. And they need help.

And they can get that help free of charge from the Department of Homeland Security that will come in and help secure their database, their election records. But it’s got to be at their initiative to do that.”

Steve Bousquet, Tampa Bay Times: “Do you know what records the Russians are meddling around with in Florida?”

Nelson: “Say again?”

Bousquet: “Do you know which records the Russians are accessing?”

Nelson: “That’s classified.”

Exchange with reporters before a campaign event in Tallahassee, Aug. 7

Kirby Wilson, Tampa Bay Times: “Do you mean right now, or were you referring to 2016?”

Nelson: “Right now. Senator Rubio and I have written a letter together to all 67 of the county supervisors of election. He is a member of the Intelligence Committee; I am the ranking member of the Cyber subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee. We were requested by the chairman and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee to let the supervisors of election in Florida know that the Russians are in their records. … Two senators — bipartisan — reached out to the election apparatus in Florida to let them know that the Russians are in the records, and all they have to do, if those election records are not protected, is to go in and start eliminating registered voters.”

Interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Aug. 8

“In June, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, a Republican, and the vice chair of the committee, a Democrat, Senator Burr and Senator Warner, came to Marco Rubio and me and said: ‘We have a problem in Florida, that the Russians are in the records. We think the two of you should warn the election apparatus of Florida.’ ”

Nelson remarks at an event in Lake City, Fla., Aug. 14

“It would be foolish to think that the Russians are not continuing to do what they did in Florida in 2016.”

Nelson statement quoted by the Associated Press, Aug. 15

This warning from Nelson — that Russia has breached election systems in Florida and may purge voters from the rolls — seems to confirm some of the worst fears about vulnerabilities in the U.S. election infrastructure.

Nelson and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Florida election officials July 2, reminding them that “Russian government actors targeted our election infrastructure during the 2016 elections” and urging them to seek resources from the Department of Homeland Security to boost security for the state’s upcoming primary and general elections.

But then Nelson, who is up for reelection in November, took things further in public comments. He has said repeatedly and unequivocally since Aug. 7 that Russia has access to election systems in Florida and could eliminate individual voters’ records. This is far more alarming and detailed than the warning in Nelson and Rubio’s joint letter.

“This is no fooling time. This is why two senators — bipartisan — reached out to the election apparatus in Florida to let them know that the Russians are in the records, and all they have to do, if those election records are not protected, is to go in and start eliminating registered voters,” Nelson told the Tampa Bay Times on Aug. 8.

“And you can imagine the chaos that would occur on Election Day when the voters get to the polls and they say, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Smith. I’m sorry, Mr. Jones. You’re not registered.’ ‘Well, here’s my registration card.’ ‘Well, I’m sorry, you’re not in the registration records.’ Well, you can imagine. That’s exactly what the Russians want to do. They want to sow chaos in our democratic institutions. Every intelligence agency in the United States government has said that they are going to try to disrupt the 2018 elections, just like they did in 2016.”

We want to be clear here: This fact check is not about the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment and the bipartisan consensus that Russia plans to interfere in the 2018 elections, as it did in 2016. It is about Nelson’s specific claim that Russia has access to voter rolls in Florida.

The Department of Homeland Security, the top election official in Florida, and election officials in several of the most populous counties in the state have said they have no evidence that Russia has access to Florida election systems. Nelson said his information came from Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Neither senator has confirmed Nelson’s specific claim that Russia has access to Florida’s election system, though they have echoed his broader warning about the threat Russia poses to this year’s elections.

Nelson also has cited “classified” information. Although it’s possible that this information exists and proves his claim, it’s a tough proposition for The Fact Checker to accept, since the Department of Homeland Security has denied Nelson’s assertions, the FBI said as recently as Aug. 2 that there’s no sign of “efforts to specifically target election infrastructure,” and U.S. officials probably would have shared this classified information in some form with the state of Florida, where election officials have contradicted Nelson’s claims.
The Facts

The CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and other intelligence services unanimously found that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election by hacking and releasing emails from Democrats, pushing propaganda online and attempting to breach election systems in many states, including Florida. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has filed an indictment against 12 Russian intelligence officers, including two who allegedly attempted to hack into state election systems. Officials in Florida have said the Russian attempt to access state voter records was not successful in 2016.

At a news briefing Aug. 2, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said intelligence agencies had not detected this year the “same kinds of efforts to specifically target election infrastructure” that were seen in 2016, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Russia’s efforts so far have focused on ‘malign influence operations,’ which he called ‘information warfare,’ ” the Journal reported.

Nelson’s claim is problematic in several ways.

For starters, he keeps repeating it without evidence. He cites Burr and Warner as his sources, but neither senator has confirmed that Russia has access to Florida’s election infrastructure. Nelson said Aug. 7 that “classified” information supports his claim, but that’s hard to accept, considering the contradictory statements from DHS and the FBI.

Nelson has said that Burr, Rubio and Warner reaffirmed his claim about Florida after he first made it Aug. 7, but none of them has. Nelson on Tuesday said that he didn’t know which Florida counties’ election systems Russia had infiltrated because U.S. intelligence agencies “don’t want to tip off the Russians that we know; otherwise, they’ll figure out how we got that information.” But the FBI took steps before the November 2016 election to warn local election officials — including in Florida — about cyber-intrusion attempts it had detected. Such attempts have not been detected this year, according to Wray.

Finally, Nelson and Rubio wrote in their July 2 letter that DHS “depends on states and localities self-reporting suspicious activity,” but election officials in Florida have not reported any.

Representatives for Nelson did not respond to our questions. That’s also fishy.

Florida’s top election official, Secretary of State Ken Detzner (R), wrote in a letter to Burr on Aug. 9 that state voters are casting mail-in ballots for the Aug. 28 primary and that Nelson’s comments “only serve to erode public trust in our elections at a critical time.” Gov. Rick Scott, who is seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Nelson in November, appointed Detzner.

“Immediately upon hearing Senator Nelson’s comments, DOS [the Florida Department of State] contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to request an immediate briefing on any information that pertained to Senator Nelson’s comments,” Detzner wrote. “DOS was advised by all partners that they have no information that corroborates Senator Nelson’s statement. Additionally, DOS has no evidence to support these claims.”


The Tampa Bay Times reported Aug. 9, “A number of large counties, including Pinellas, Pasco, Seminole, Broward and Miami-Dade, have issued statements saying they are not aware of any breaches.”

View image on Twitter



Steve Bousquet
✔@stevebousquet


Pinellas County, Fla. elections chief Deborah Clark issues response following Sen. Bill Nelson's claim of Russian penetration of Florida voting systems

Representatives for Burr did not respond to a request for comment. But Burr wrote in a letter to Detzner on Aug. 10: “While I understand your questions regarding Senator Nelson’s recent public comments, I respectfully advise you to continue engaging directly with those Federal agencies responsible for notifying you of and mitigating any potential intrusions — specifically, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Any briefings or notifications about ongoing threats would, rightfully, come from those agencies.”

A statement from Warner neither confirms nor denies Nelson’s claim that Russia has access to Florida’s election systems. “Sens. Nelson and Rubio are right to warn their state’s election officials about this very serious and ongoing threat to our democracy,” Warner said. “This is not about politics. I urge officials at all levels of government to heed the warning and work with DHS and the FBI to address the threat.” Notice how he refers to the July 2 letter, not Nelson’s further-reaching comments in August.

Likewise, a statement from Rubio, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, neither confirms nor denies Nelson’s claim. “Given the importance of Florida in our national politics, our state’s election systems have been and will remain a potentially attractive target for attacks by foreign actors,” Rubio said. “While I firmly believe states should remain in the lead on conducting elections, the federal government should stand ready to assist as needed in confronting actual or potential attacks from determined foreign adversaries.”

Rubio weighs in on questions sparked by Bill Nelson on Florida election interference: “Given the importance of Florida in our national politics, our state’s election systems have been and will remain a potentially attractive target for attacks by foreign actors.”

The FBI did not respond to our questions. The Department of Homeland Security said it has not seen “any new compromises by Russian actors of election infrastructure.”

“We know that in 2016 Russian government cyber actors sought access to U.S. election infrastructure as part of a multifaceted operation directed at the U.S. elections,” said DHS spokeswoman Sara Sendek. “We continue to assess Russian actors were not able to access vote tallying systems, though we consider all 50 states to have been potential targets.

“While we are aware of Senator Nelson’s recent statements, we have not seen any new compromises by Russian actors of election infrastructure. That said, we don’t need to wait for a specific threat to be ready. DHS and Florida state and county officials have partnered on a number of initiatives to secure their election systems, including sharing threat information between the federal, state and local governments, conducting training for county election supervisors, and providing technical assistance to counties — as we are with other jurisdictions across the country.”

We don’t want to minimize the threat that Russia could attempt to hack into state election systems this year, whether in Florida or other states.

According to Mueller’s indictment, two of the 12 Russian intelligence officers, Anatoliy Sergeyevich Kovalev and Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk, gained access to state or local election systems in the United States in 2016. Mueller alleged they “conspired with each other and with persons, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to hack into the computers of U.S. persons and entities responsible for the administration of 2016 U.S. elections, such as state boards of elections, secretaries of state, and U.S. companies that supplied software and other technology related to the administration of U.S. elections.” Their goal was to “steal voter data and other information stored on those computers,” the indictment says.

In one instance, the Russian officers “hacked the website of a state board of elections” in the United States “and stole information related to approximately 500,000 voters, including names, addresses, partial social security numbers, dates of birth, and driver’s license numbers,” the indictment alleges. The Illinois Board of Elections believes it was the target of this cyberattack, which was discovered in July 2016.

The indictment also says Russian officials “hacked into the computers of a U.S. vendor … that supplied software used to verify voter registration information for the 2016 U.S. elections.” They sent more than 100 phishing emails to “organizations and personnel involved in administering elections in numerous Florida counties,” using Word documents that displayed the hacked vendor’s logo. The Intercept reported that the business described in the indictment is a match with an e-voting vendor based in Florida that denies it was hacked.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has said more evidence of “Russian attempts to infiltrate state election infrastructure” emerged since the U.S. intelligence community released its January 2017 assessment of Russia’s election interference, but it’s not clear when or where this happened, and there’s no indication it was in Florida.

The Pinocchio Test

Nelson and Rubio warned Florida election officials to be on high alert for Russian cyber-intrusions. We take no issue with their July 2 letter.

Nelson, however, went on to make a specific and alarming claim several times: that Russia currently has access to Florida’s election systems and could purge voters from the rolls. Not a single speck of evidence backs him up, and we have serious doubts whether the classified information he cited even exists.

In his letter to Burr, Florida’s top election official said the state asked DHS and the FBI whether Russia had access to Florida’s election systems and was told “they have no information that corroborates Senator Nelson’s statement.” Burr replied that “any briefings or notifications about ongoing threats would, rightfully, come from those agencies,” meaning DHS and the FBI. Reading between the lines, Burr seems to be contradicting Nelson’s claim.

He wouldn’t be the only one. DHS contradicted Nelson’s claim. Wray’s comments from Aug. 2 contradict Nelson’s claim. Local election officials in Florida contradict Nelson’s claim. Neither Rubio nor Warner confirmed what he said.

Making matters worse, Nelson misquoted his own letter from July 2 several times (it made no mention of an ongoing breach) and inaccurately said Burr, Rubio and Warner reaffirmed his assertion that Russia has access to Florida voters' records.

Without minimizing the threat of Russian interference in this year’s elections, we give Nelson’s claim Four Pinocchios.
Four Pinocchios




Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Florida Bans ‘Free-Speech Zones’ at State Colleges

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed into law a bill banning so-called “free-speech zones” at public universities and allowing students and speakers to sue the schools for violating their First Amendment rights.

Free-speech zones are limited areas, sometimes only fractions of a campus, where students may express themselves freely. Critics argue that an entire campus should allow free speech, not small and restrictive areas.

The legislation, called the Excellence in Higher Education Act, reads: “A public institution of higher education may not designate any area of campus as a free-speech zone or otherwise create policies restricting expressive activities to a particular outdoor area of campus.”

Students, faculty, and staff of a public institution of higher education may not “materially disrupt previously scheduled or reserved activities on campus occurring at the same time,” the new law says.

Scott, a Republican, signed the bill Sunday.

“No one has a right to shut down speech simply because it makes someone feel uncomfortable,” state Senate President Joe Negron, a Republican who made passage of the bill a top priority, said in a press release.

“Florida’s universities will continue to achieve national distinction because they are training our students to articulate and defend their ideas in an open, responsible way that prepares them for the real world.”

Supporters of the legislation pointed to the riots in February 2017 at the University of California, Berkeley, when demonstrators prevented libertarian commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, a Florida resident, from speaking on...

Monday, March 12, 2018

67 NRA Approved Republicans Voted For Gun Control US 67 NRA Approved Republicans Voted For Gun Control

67 NRA approved Republican Florida state politicians just voted for gun control, basically blaming law abiding citizens for the deadly shooting in Parkland Florida last month.

Florida enacted its first gun control measures in more than two decades on Friday when Gov. Rick Scott (R) signed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act ― in open defiance of the National Rifle Association.

As the Trace reported, 67 members of the Florida House and Senate with “A” or “A-plus” ratings from the gun rights group voted for the bill.

If you count Scott, who earned an A-plus rating himself, that makes 68 NRA-approved politicians who chose to break with the group.

The NRA had come out strongly against the new regulations, which include raising the minimum age for all firearms purchases to 21, creating a three-day waiting period and banning the sale of bump stocks.

Marion Hammer, the NRA’s powerful Florida lobbyist and former president, called on gun rights supporters to flood Florida House Republicans’ inboxes with messages telling them to vote no after the state Senate passed the bill.

“YOU and every other law-abiding gun owner is being blamed for an atrocious act of premeditated murder,” she wrote.

After this latest mass shooting Republican politicians around the country seem almost eager to curtail the Second amendment rights of honest citizens.

Shortly we will have an opportunity to vote in primaries to choose our parties candidate for public office.

Any Republican that votes for gun control should be immediately voted out of office and replaced with a candidate that...

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Florida lawmakers vote to stay in Daylight Saving Time all year long

(CNN)Lawmakers in Florida are tired of the whole "fall back" and "spring forward" rigamarole. So they've approved a bill to keep Daylight Saving Time going throughout the year in their state.
It took the state Senate less than a minute Tuesday to pass the "Sunshine Protection Act." There were only two dissenters. (The House passed it 103-11 on February 14.)

The bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Rick Scott -- but it's far from a done deal after that, Even if the governor approves, a change like this will literally take an act of Congress.

But if all is approved, Floridians -- who'll set their clocks ahead one hour this Sunday when Daylight Saving Time begins -- won't have to mess with it ever again.


Florida will then join Hawaii and most of Arizona, the two places that are exempt from the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The Act established the system of uniform Daylight Saving Time throughout the US.

A time whose time has passed?

Efforts to kill off daylight saving time are nearly as old as the time shift itself. And many of the commonly offered rationales for daylight saving time (yes, it's "saving," not "savings") no longer hold true.

For instance, one reason Congress used in enacting daylight saving time is that it saves energy.

A 2008 US Department of Energy study reported that daylight saving time reduces annual energy use by only about 0.03%. And a study that same year from the University of California-Santa Barbara found it might even increase energy consumption.
Another study found the clock changes can raise the risk of accidents by sleep-deprived motorists.

NRA Sues Florida Over New Gun Control Law

Less than an hour after Florida Governor Rick Scott — who also happens to be running for the US Senate — signed the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act” into law yesterday, the National Rifle Association announced that they had filed suit against the state over the one of the law’s provisions.

There’s much in the new bill — legislation the NRA’s Florida lobbyist calls “political eyewash” — that gun rights supporters will find anathema, among them:

– A ban on bump fire stocks

– A three-day waiting period on long gun purchases

– The creation of “extreme risk protection orders” to seize guns from suspect individuals

But the provision of the new law that the NRA chose to challenge in court is the new prohibition on long gun sales to anyone under 21 years old. While wait periods, equipment bans and ERPOs are already law in a variety of other states, arbitrarily denying Second Amendment rights to adults of a certain age would seem to be the most promising target for a constitutional challenge.

Here’s the NRA-ILA’s press release announcing the suit:

FAIRFAX, Va. – The National Rifle Association today announced that it has filed a lawsuit challenging the State of Florida’s newly-enacted ban on the purchase of firearms by young adults between the ages of 18-21.

Florida’s ban is an affront to the Second Amendment, as it totally eviscerates the right of law-abiding adults between the ages of 18 and 21 to keep and bear arms. The ban is particularly offensive with respect to young women, as women between the ages of 18 and 21 are much less likely to engage in violent crime than older members of the general population who are unaffected by the ban. Despite this fact, the State of Florida has enacted a sweeping law banning all young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 from purchasing any firearm from any source. Chris Cox, the Executive Director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, stated, “Swift action is needed to prevent young adults in Florida from being treated as second-class citizens when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms.

We are confident that the courts will vindicate our view that Florida’s ban is a blatant violation of the Second Amendment.” The case is National Rifle Association of America, Inc. v. Bondi, and it has been filed in the United States District Court for...

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Remember The Lady At Starbucks? She has been exposed as a former government official who refused to recite the pledge of allegiance...






MIAMI(CBSMiami) — A group supported by Florida Governor Rick Scott is responding to a woman seen on a viral video going on a rant against him at Gainesville coffee shop.

On Friday, the group “Let’s Get To Work, supported by Gov. Scott, released a video talking about the incident, referring to her as the “terribly rude woman” who they say “clearly has a problem.”

The governor had walked into a Starbucks in the area. That’s when Cara Jennings began yelling – prompting the governor to eventually walk out empty-handed.

The video released by the group identifies Jennings as a former government official who they say “refused to recite The Pledge of Allegiance” and they say “calls herself an anarchist.”

Friday, April 12, 2013

Idaho Restricts Drones Use By Police Agencies, Florida Moves Bill Forward To Restrict Drone Use By Police


IDAHO

(Reuters) - Idaho's Republican governor signed a law on Thursday that restricts use of drone aircraft by police and other public agencies as the use of pilotless aircraft inside U.S. borders is increasing. The measure aims to protect privacy rights.

In approving the law, which requires law enforcement to obtain warrants to collect evidence using drones in most cases, Idaho becomes the second U.S. state after Virginia to restrict uses of pilotless aircraft over privacy concerns.

"We're trying to prevent high-tech window-peeping," Idaho Senate Assistant Majority Leader Chuck Winder, sponsor of the measure in the Republican-led Idaho legislature, told Reuters earlier this year as the bill was pending in the legislature.

Current federal regulations sharply limit the number and types of drones that can fly in American airspace to just a few dozen law enforcement agencies, including one in Idaho, public agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and universities for scientific research.

But unmanned aircraft are expected to be widely permitted in coming years, raising fears about misuse of miniature devices that can carry cameras which capture video and still images by day and by night.

Lawmakers in Idaho and more than a dozen states this year introduced legislation to safeguard privacy in the face of an emerging market the unmanned aerial vehicle industry forecasts will drive $89 billion in worldwide expenditures over the next decade.

The measure Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter signed into law on Thursday requires police to obtain warrants to use drones to collect evidence about suspected criminal activity unless it involves illegal drugs or unless the unmanned aircraft is being used for public emergencies or search-and-rescue missions.

The Idaho bill, approved last week by the state Senate and the state House of Representatives, also bans authorities, or anyone else, from using drones to conduct surveillance on people or their property, including agricultural operations, without written consent.

Idaho's Republican governor couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

Americans are most familiar with drones because of the use of armed, unmanned aircraft by the United States for counter terrorism operations against Islamist militants in countries like Pakistan and Yemen.

The majority of unarmed drones expected to operate in U.S. airspace when restrictions are rolled back by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2015 weigh less than 55 pounds and fly below 400 feet, according to a September report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Cash-strapped law enforcement agencies see small drones, which cost as little as $30,000, as money-saving, low-manpower tools that could locate illegal marijuana farms, seek missing children and track dangerous fugitives.

Yet worries about widespread snooping persist. In February, privacy concerns prompted the Virginia legislature to put a hold on drone use for two years, and grounded a plan by Seattle police to deploy two camera-equipped drones.

Civil uses for drones would likely emerge first after 2015, while a commercial market would develop more slowly as airspace issues are resolved, the GAO report shows. Possible uses include pipeline inspection, crop dusting and traffic monitoring.

The FAA's goal is to eventually allow, to the greatest extent possible, routine drone operations in U.S. airspace.


FLORIDA


(CNN) -- Florida state senators voted Wednesday to restrict the use of unmanned aircraft by police, approving a bill backed by both the state's conservative Republican governor and the ACLU.
The Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act would require a judge to sign off on the use of surveillance drones in nearly all cases. The legislation makes exceptions in cases involving "imminent danger to life or serious damage to property" and when "credible intelligence" from the federal Department of Homeland Security points to "a high risk of a terrorist attack."
The bill is headed for the state House of Representatives after Wednesday's 39-0 vote in the Senate. If it makes it through the House, Gov. Rick Scott says he'll have his pen ready.
"I believe that privacy should be protected," Scott said in a paper statement, adding, "This law will ensure that the rights of Florida families are protected from the unwarranted use of drones and other unmanned aircraft."
The use of drones has become controversial in recent years as unmanned aerial vehicles have become cheaper and more advanced. The concerns range from moral questions over their use in warfare overseas to worries about their impact on air traffic in the United States.
"We are pleased that SB 92 was passed with such enthusiasm by the Florida Senate. Because of the Senate's action, our state is on pace to be the one of the first to protect privacy by putting limits on the use of unmanned surveillance drones, " Ron Bilbao of the ACLU of Florida said in a written statement.
In Florida, the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff Department each have two drones. Miami-Dade's roughly backpack-sized Honeywell T-Hawks have been used only in training exercises so far, Detective Roy Rutland said.



More On Drones:

PETA Is Buying Drones To Spy On Farmers And Hunters

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

ALL 67 FLORIDA COUNTY SHERIFFS SIGN PLEDGE TO PROTECT THE RIGHT OF CITIZENS TO BEAR ARMS



Constitutional Sheriffs sent an email stating, “I have added the names of the following 61 Florida County Sheriffs [who] joined the previous six Florida County Sheriffs to announce that they will not enforce laws that violate the Constitution or infringe on the rights of the people to own firearms.”

This means all of Florida’s county sheriffs have now signed the pledge, the first state to achieve 100% compliance with the 2nd Amendment. The list is bi-partisan.

The following Florida Sheriffs have taken a stand to defend the second amendment:

Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell
Baker County Sheriff Jerry B. Dobson
Broward County Sheriff Scott J. Israel
Calhoun County Sheriff Glenn H. Kimbrell
Charlotte County Sheriff William G. Prummell
Citrus County Sheriff Jeffrey J. Dawsy
Collier County Sheriff Kevin J. Rambosk
Columbia County Sheriff Mark A. Hunter
Desoto County Sheriff William P. Wise
Dixie County Sheriff Dewey H. Hatcher
Duval-Jacksonville County Sheriff John H. Rutherford
Escambia County Sheriff Thelbert “David” Morgan
Flagler County Sheriff James Manfre
Franklin County Sheriff Mike Mock
Gadsden County Sheriff Morris A. Young
Gilchrist County Sheriff Bobby Schultz
Glades County Sheriff Stuart Whiddom
Gulf County Sheriff Mike Harrison
Hamilton County Sheriff Jay Harvey Reid
Hardee County Sheriff Arnold Lanier
Hendry County Sheriff Stephen Whidden
Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis
Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton
Hillsborough County Sheriff David A. Gee
Holmes County Sheriff Tim Brown
Indian River County Deryl B. Loar
Jackson County Sheriff Louis S. Roberts III
Jefferson County Sheriff David C. Hobbs
Lafayette County Sheriff Brian N. Lamb
Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders
Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott
Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell
Levy County Sheriff Bobby McCallum
Liberty County Sheriff Nick Finch
Madison County Sheriff Benjamin Stewart
Manatee County Sheriff W. Brad Stuebe
Marion County Sheriff Chris Blair
Miami-Dade County Sheriff J.D. Patterson
Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay
Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper
Okaloosa County Sheriff Larry R. Ashley
Okeechobee County Sheriff Paul C. May
Orange County Sheriff Jerry L. Demmings
Osceola County Sheriff Bob Hansell
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric L. Bradford
Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco
Pinellas County Sheriff Robert “Bob” Gualtieri
Putnam County Sheruff Jeff Hardy
St. Johns County Sheriff David B. Shoar
St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara
Santa Rosa County Sheriff O. Wendell Hall
Sarasota County Sheriff tom Knight
Seminole County Sheriff Donald Eslinger
Sumter County Sheriff William O. Farnsworth
Suwannee County Sheriff Tony G. Cameron
Taylor County Sheriff L.E. “Bummy” Williams
Union County Sheriff Jerry Whitehead
Volusia County Sheriff Ben F. Johnson
Wakulla County Sheriff Charlie Creel
Walton County Sheriff Michael A. Adkinson
Washington County Sheriff Robert Haddock