FPL caught again, ripping you off. Florida has a lax regulatory environment, the result of one-party Republican misrule. This led to the itty bitty cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach to rubber-stamp an electricity tax in exchange for 30 year franchise agreements with these FPL varmints.
Florida Power & Light customers to get refund for Hurricane Matthew charges
On October 6 and 7, 2016, Orlando Sentinel reporters and photographers covered Hurricane Matthew's impact on Central Florida with the goal of keeping locals and visitors alike safe and informed with all the current storm information. Jim Turner News Service of Florida
Florida Power & Light has reached an agreement to refund $27.7 million to customers, in part because of an “over-recovery” of costs following Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
The agreement, announced Tuesday between the Juno Beach-based utility and the state Office of Public Counsel, still needs approval from the Florida Public Service Commission, which could sign off next week. The Office of Public Counsel represents consumers in utility issues.
FPL said if the deal is approved, a one-time refund would be applied to customer bills. For a residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a month — a standard benchmark in the utility industry — the credit would amount to $3.18.
The company, Florida’s largest electric utility, serves about 4.9 million customers from the Florida Keys to near Jacksonville.
Paid Post LEARN MORE Get A Yard Reese Really Digs Get A Yard Reese Really Digs SPONSORED CONTENT BY Wells Fargo The refund is tied to $316.5 million that the power company charged customers following the powerful October 2016 storm that ran northward along the East Coast without making landfall in Florida.
Utilities are typically allowed to recoup costs of restoring power and rebuilding systems after hurricanes and to replenish storm reserves. But they also have to return to the Public Service Commission to justify the amounts recovered from customers.
As part of that process, the commission had scheduled a hearing next Tuesday on the Matthew costs. In advance of that hearing, the Office of Public Counsel had questioned some costs that FPL was attributing to hurricane recovery.
The utility estimates it replaced more than 250 miles of wire, more than 900 transformers and more than 400 poles due to Matthew, in addition to having to clear large amounts of vegetation.
Pictures: Hurricane Matthew aftermath in Florida PICTURE GALLERY: See photos from the Hurricane Matthew aftermath and cleanup in Florida. FPL said it restored power to approximately 99 percent of customers with outages two days after Hurricane Matthew left the service territory, with service considered fully restored within four days.
To recover the costs, FPL added extra charges to customers’ bills for a year. For a residential customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours a month, the charge was $3.35 a month. The storm charge expired in March.
The company collected $322.45 million through the charge, with about $6 million listed in the agreement as “over-recovery” of costs.
The remainder of the refund, $21.7 million, is due to an accounting adjustment on the restoration costs. The one-time refund includes interest.
The Florida Retail Federation and the Florida Industrial Power Users Group, which represents large business users of electricity, are listed in the agreement as taking no position at this time.
One of the countless drawbacks of being tethered by bad law and lousy leaders to a nasty monopolistic nuclear power plant utility, an investor owned electric power company with maladroit, overpaid management.
FPL varmints are beloved in the City of St. Augustine Beach. City Hall.
FPL managers joined in swilling champagne in secret in the all-white "VIP tent" at the alcohol-field St. Augustine beach New Years "Beach Blast Off! with St. Augustine Beach PZB Chair Jane West (married to an FPL manager), St. Augustine Beach City Attorney James Patrick Wilson a/k/a "minimum Jim" Commissioners Undine George (2018 Mayor), Margaret England (2018 Vice Mayor), and Donald Samora (2018 Commissioner).
Wonder what they were talking about in that "VIP tent?"
FPL ‘underestimated frankly’ online demands after Irma
Updated May 05, 2018 By Charles Elmore, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Share on FacebookShare on Twitter...More Website crash. App with information not so apt. Trees that local governments don’t agree to cut back. Lines on 200,000 poles controlled by other companies with “not a big appetite” to strengthen them.
For all the successes Florida Power & Light cites in restoring power after the worst hurricane in more than a decade last year, executives acknowledge there are things the Juno Beach-based utility hopes to handle better, and things it cannot totally control, if catastrophic weather comes calling in 2018.
Take the company’s website that crashed after Hurricane Irma, and a phone app that didn’t always correctly show when the lights were back on for a given customer. If hurricane winds blow, FPL aims to be better prepared for a crush of traffic when nearly every house and car now teems with countless phones, laptops and other gadgets hungry for information.
“One of the things we underestimated frankly is the number of devices we all own,” said Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL, at the company’s annual storm drill Thursday in Riviera Beach.
“We’re testing our system now at a much higher level,” he said.
FPL pointed to $3 billion in investments to strengthen poles and install smart-grid technology as a big reason it restored 50 percent, or more than 2 million customers who lost power, within one day after Irma. It took five days to get that proportion of customers restored after 2005’s Hurricane Wilma.
“Hurricane Irma was precedent-setting for our company as we amassed the largest restoration force in U.S. history to get the lights back on for our customers,” Silagy said.
A growing automated army is joining the cause. The utility fielded 49 drone teams to survey damage after Irma, Silagy said. FPL’s first substation robot operates in Palm Beach Gardens, a mobile provider of images designed to show what’s ailing complex equipment.
People affected by the storm have more ways to get information than they did in Wilma’s day, and that’s a good thing, but an ever-expanding gadget supply places a big demand on the system.
One issue FPL officials mentioned to regulators in a Tallahassee workshop Wednesday was a need for a “thinner” app in the aftermath of a big storm. In that situation, people overwhelmingly just want to know when their house will have power, not a raft of data about next month’s bill, said Bryan Olnick, FPL’s vice president of distribution operations.
FPL’s smart-grid technology is designed to identify when and where outages occur and ideally communicate that through the website and app, but under heavy traffic the system did not operate properly at times.
“Our mobile app system was up and running, but it was not providing the most accurate information sometimes and that’s what we’re working on now,” Olnick told state Public Service Commissioners in a workshop on storm response.
Other concerns: FPL has been strengthening its 1.2 million poles, but its lines also run by agreement on about 200,000 poles controlled by other entities. Olnick called this a “weak link.”
He did not name names, but Public Service Commissioner Julie Brown asked, “Say AT&T owns a pole. Who has the authority to tell them to harden a pole? We don’t.”
Olnick said “somehow that discussion needs to take place,” saying he was not aware of a “big appetite” to strengthen that equipment by other companies.
An AT&T spokeswoman declined comment.
For its part, FPL wants to tackle the issue of “the wrong tree in the wrong place,” as falling vegetation remains the top cause of outages. But local governments in its 35-county service area don’t always share the same priorities. Olnick said some are “planting trees right under our lines as we speak.”
One possible avenue to reduce outages: more underground lines.
These are not free from hazards such as tree roots and water. But during Hurricane Irma, only 18 percent of underground main power lines experienced an outage, compared to 69 percent of “hardened” overhead main power lines, meaning strengthened against storms, and 82 percent of non-hardened main power lines, according to FPL.
An FPL pilot program this year will probe cost-effective ways to bury lines, attempting to broaden the reach beyond developments that planned for such an arrangement during their construction.
Gov. Rick Scott joined Thursday’s storm drill, noting that Florida during Irma “mobilized the largest power restoration effort in our nation’s history. I was proud of the work of Florida’s utility providers who quickly restored power to our communities.”
The exercise involved a hypothetical Hurricane Cobalt, modeled on 1964’s Hurricane Isbell which had similarities to Hurricane Wilma. The pretend Cobalt made landfall on the state’s southwest coast May 2 as a Category 2 storm and departed the state around West Palm Beach. FPL evaluated how well employees responded.
“Our company has a culture of continuous improvement, and with that in mind, we must continue to push ourselves to improve our ability to respond,” Silagy said. “That’s what FPL’s storm drill is all about.”
Unanimous vote. NO water slide park. AKERMAN corporate law firm and KEY INTERNATIONAL corporate lackeys were sent packing by unanimous votes of all seven St. Augustine Beach Planning and Zoning Board members last night, May 15, 2018. The vote was unanimous: NO. There will be NO Monstrous, obnoxious water slide park at St. Augustine Beach Embassy Suites Hotel, unless SAB Commissioners reject the vote.
AKERMAN corporate law firm counsel THOMAS INGRAM, leaning into the podium like a drunk holding on to a lamp post:
stumbled and bumbled in attempting to justify building a noisy 48 foot tall water slide at the massive hotel, being built next to Anastasia State Park and endangered species.
falsely implied the $600,000 water slide park was inadvertently omitted, then said it was the result of a "focus group" by the DIEGO ARDID family in Miami. Then he said it wasn't a mistake.
falsely claimed the $600,000 water slide park was a swimming pool.
falsely claimed that one of the "two swimming pools" was a "jacuzzi.:
falsely characterized the water slide park as being similar to the splash park at St. Augustine Beach pier park
admitted that there would be no lifeguard on duty to render assistance if a child fell 42 feet
admitted that the $600,000 water slide park was part of something he called "Phase II," but never answered about the discrepancy in the number of rooms for the hotel between the St. Augustine Record's page one article on May 13, 2018 (212 rooms) and the number allowed in the development order (175 rooms), explained by City Manager BRUCE MAX ROYLE as being part of future plans in a "Phase II."
said "that's interesting," when one of the board members pointed out that "Embassy Suites" was misspelled on some seventeen pages of documents.
took umbrage at audience members laughing at his misbegotten $600,000 water slide park and his irritating irrelevant prevarications and improvisations.
PZB member members were not deterred by THOMAS INGRAM's illogic, or the tieless AKERMAN corporate lawyer's flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, tomfoolery and pettifoggery.
PZB members were unimpressed mendacious, efforts of City Attorney James Patrick Wilson and Brian Law to help the ARDID family's AKERMAN mouthpiece to muddy the water,.
PZB members all rightly agreed with Chair Jane West that the addition is not covered by the Final Development Order and must not be allowed.
Three cheers for the PZB.
PZB is not unlike the "Little Engine That Could" at St. Augustine Beach, which knows the difference between a swimming pool and a water slide park (and right and wrong).
There was no St. Augustine Record reporter in attendance and no article in today's newspaper.
The St. Augustine Record Sunday, May 13, 2018 reported the monstrous, obnoxious Embassy Suites will have 212 beachfront rooms, not the 175 approved by the City in the Final Development Order.
So I asked the City of St. Augustine Beach for documents.
Before it replied, a pro-developer Record reporter wrote me, claiming it was a mistake, based on "old information," with reporter STUART KORFHAGE, Newsroom Lead and Supercilious Developer Fanboy, blaming the photographer for the bylined article's cutline.
That dawg won't hunt, STEWIE:
-----Original Message-----
From: Korfhage, Stuart To: Ed Slavin Sent: Mon, May 14, 2018 2:11 pm Subject: Re: Request No. 2018-121: Embassy Suites Code Enforcement investigation re: 212 room hotel, when only 175 rooms were approved by St. Augustine Beach PZB
Mr. Slavin, my apologies. There was some old information consulted when our photographer wrote this cutline. The hotel is 175 rooms. There should be a correction online and one in print tomorrow. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
-------------
Hint: while sometimes photographers write cutlines, editors and reporters are responsible for content. Record photographer Peter Willott does excellent work. I doubt the feeble explanation of Chief Developer Fanboy STUART KORFHAGE, notoriously known as a fawning amanuensis for developers: if STEWIE wrote it, the developer said it.
Yet, Without any reporting or proper explanation, the Record tried to conceal Phase II with a "correction" on Tuesday, May 15, 2018, sans "explanation," viz:
After the cockeyed correction, controversial St. Augustine Beach City "Manager" BRUCE MAX ROYLE admitted additional rooms would be part of "Phase II," which will involve public hearings and consideration by PZB and Commission. See below
Does EMBASSY SUITES covet the St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Park for Lebensraum, expansion and phony putative P3 ("Public Private Partnership)?
Stay tuned.
The thick plotten
Something's rotten.
In St. Augustine Beach,
where developers make City Hall their beach,
where our government is their trampoline.
City "Manager" BRUCE MAX refuses to answer questions or disclose documents about "Phase II."
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, May 15, 2018, PZB rejected one part of "Phase II," an ugly 48 foot tall, 4000 square foot outdoor water slide park not in the Final Development Order. PZB rejected it, unanimously. The issue now goes to Commission for a possible vote.
It's getting curiouser and curiouser at St. Augustine Beach
Last year, then-PZB member DAVID ASHLEE BRADFIELD told Rose Bailey that KEY INTERNATIONAL planned to invest $60 million in the County Pier Park property, which it does not own.
No details have ever been released on meetings between two successive City mayors, County Administrator, City Manager and KEY INTERNATIONAL owners.
FBI take note: Looks like another possible RICO case.
Who's running for St. Augustine Beach City Commissioner? How about encouraging ethical people of good will, who lack conflicts of interest or biased blinders.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin To: jpwilson ; thomas.ingram ; mroyle ; niesen.kasdin ; braddatz ; blaw ; hardwickra ; pzjwest ; pzesloan ; pzdthomas ; pzjholleran ; pzrodom ; pzsmitherz ; pzhlongstreet ; pzkkincaid ; pzcpranis ; jane ; comugeorge ; commkostka ; comdsamora ; comrobrien ; commengland Sent: Wed, May 16, 2018 5:33 pm Subject: Re: Request No. 2018-121: Embmssy Suites Code Enforcement investigation re: 212 room hotel, when only 175 rooms were approved by St. Augustine Beach PZB
Subject: Re: Request No. 2018-121: Embmssy Suites Code Enforcement investigation re: 212 room hotel, when only 175 rooms were approved by St. Augustine Beach PZB
Mr. Slavin: There are no documents responsive to your request. There has been no application for Phase II of that development.
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: thomas.ingram ; mroyle ; niesen.kasdin ; braddatz ; blaw ; jpwilson ; hardwickra ; pzjwest ; pzesloan ; pzdthomas ; pzjholleran ; pzrodom ; pzsmitherz ; pzhlongstreet ; pzkkincaid ; pzcpranis ; jane ; comugeorge ; commkostka ; comdsamora ; comrobrien ; commengland Sent: Wed, May 16, 2018 4:32 pm Subject: Re: Request No. 2018-121: Embassy Suites Code Enforcement investigation re: 212 room hotel, when only 175 rooms were approved by St. Augustine Beach PZB
Good afternoon: 1. Please provide today all of the information Mr. Royle has on "Phase II."
2. As James Madison said:
"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
-----Original Message----- From: Beverly Raddatz <braddatz@cityofsab.org> To: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> Sent: Wed, May 16, 2018 3:24 pm Subject: RE: Request No. 2018-121: Embassy Suites Code Enforcement investigation re: 212 room hotel, when only 175 rooms were approved by St. Augustine Beach PZB
Mr. Slavin:
You have received all the documentation on Embassy Suites we have.
Sincerely,
Beverly Raddatz, MMC
City Clerk
City of St. Augustine Beach
2200 A1A South
St. Augustine Beach, FL 32080
(904) 471-2122 FAX (904) 471-4108
Confidentiality Notice: This Email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited, and that you have received this E-Mail and any accompanying files in error. You should notify the City of St. Augustine Beach immediately by replying to this message and deleting them from your system. City of St. Augustine Beach does not accept responsibility for changes to E-Mails that occur after they have been sent.
Dear Mayor George, Vice Mayor England, Commissioners, Chair West, PZB members, and Messrs. Royle, Law, Wilson & Hardwick: 1. Please provide me today with all responsive documents on your investigation and actions in response to Request No. 2018-121.
2. Who examined the current plans to count the number of guest rooms?
3. Who counted the rooms that have been built on site?
4. Where would Embassy Suites "Phase II" be built -- on our beach volleyball courts, part of the county's St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Pier Park property?
5. What other demands is Embassy Suites making in secret meetings with the city and county?
6. Please explain, as Mr. Royle's cryptic e-mail raises more questions than it answers.
7. Please place this matter on tonight's PZB agenda, where Embassy Suites already has an item scheduled for discussion on a variance:
NEW BUSINESS
VII A. Final Development File No. FD 2018-02, for amendment to Final Development Order File No. FD 2015-01 for a spray playground with a maximum height of the uppermost splash equipment at approximately 28.5 feet on the northeast corner of the Embassy Suites site in a commercial land use district at 300 A1A Beach Boulevard, Thomas O. Ingram, Akerman LLP, Agent for Key Beach North LLC, Applicant.
The recent newspaper article that the Planning Board approved a final development plan of 212 rooms for the Embassy Suites isn’t correct. The Planning Board approved 175 rooms. The additional rooms could be proposed as Phase II of the development, if the owners decide to proceed with Phase II. If they do, their application will first go to the Planning Board for a recommendation to the City Commission. The Commission will then hold a public hearing to decide whether to approve Phase II and the additional rooms. At this time, with Phase I not yet completed, there is no proposal from the Embassy Suites owners for Phase II.
Dear Mayor George, Vice Mayor England, Ms. West, PZB members, Ms. Raddatz, and Messrs. Law, Hardwick, Wilson and Royle: 1. The City of St. Augustine Beach Planning and Zoning Board approved 175 guest rooms for Embassy Suites.
2. A front page photo caption-cutline with yesterday's (May 13, 2018) St. Augustine Record article, "BIG CHANGES AT THE BEACH," reported there would be212 rooms.
3. Is that correct?
4. Please initiate SAB City Commission, PZB, Code Enforcement, ethics and criminal investigations.
5. Please send me all documents associated with these investigations and legal recommendations.
6. Please place this urgent compliance item on the agenda for the May 15, 2018 PZB meeting, the May 16, 2018 Code Enforcement meeting, and the June 4, 2018 City Commission meeting.
7. Since the monstrous Embassy Suites structure may have been built illegally, will you please explore alternative legal remedies, including ordering it be torn down, as Florida precedents have provided since 1934?
-----Original Message----- From: Beverly Raddatz <braddatz@cityofsab.org> To: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com> Sent: Mon, May 14, 2018 9:34 am Subject: RE: Request No. 2018-121: Embassy Suites
Mr. Slavin:
Attached are the documents requested.
Sincerely,
Beverly Raddatz, MMC
City Clerk
City of St. Augustine Beach
2200 A1A South
St. Augustine Beach, FL 32080
(904) 471-2122 FAX (904) 471-4108
Confidentiality Notice: This Email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited, and that you have received this E-Mail and any accompanying files in error. You should notify the City of St. Augustine Beach immediately by replying to this message and deleting them from your system. City of St. Augustine Beach does not accept responsibility for changes to E-Mails that occur after they have been sent.
This school teacher allegedly forced agricultural students to drown two raccoons and an opossum. Animal torture is NOT on the approved secondary school curriculum in Florida. Superintendent recommends firing. Requires a hearing. But this misguided Ocala school teacher needs a psychiatrist. And those kids need therapy, too.
How many parents send their kids off to school thinking their children will be forced to murder small animals by an authoritarian teacher threatening "referrals" if they exercised their civil and constiutional rights to video record it?
Why did this happen?
Proud of these kids for speaking out and documenting animal abuse.
I once saw a sadistic South Jersey Catholic day camp counsellor torture and kill a frog before our eyes on a "hike."
We had no cell phone cameras at the Holy Child Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) Day Camp in Blackwood, N.J. circa 1970. Thus, we had no way to act on our concerns.
Technology is forcing change, exposing wrongdoers every single day. Ever since the Rodney King beating, we've been watching video. Keep taping. Ask questions. Demand answers. Expect democracy, and better days.
HIDE CAPTION
Forest High School agriculture teacher Dewie Brewton. [File Photo]
“Marion County Public Schools is appalled” by teacher Dewie Brewton’s actions, the school district said in a statement issued late Wednesday afternoon. “Marion County’s education standards — in fact, Florida’s education standards — do not include activities for the destruction of live animals, nuisance or not. While law enforcement determines whether this teacher’s actions were legal or not, his actions before students are entirely unacceptable and cause us great concern.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating. So is the Florida Department of Health.
“Regardless of the investigative outcomes, Superintendent Dr. Heidi Maier is recommending termination,” the district statement says. The School Board will have the final say.
Brewton, who has been the school’s FFA leader since 2006, was put on paid leave Tuesday. He is accused of drowning an opossum and two raccoons that were suspected of killing a chicken that his students were raising at the school.
A 14-second video, first released by WKMG-Channel 6 news in Orlando, has surfaced on web pages of many news outlets nationwide. The video shows students pouring water into large garbage cans, getting ready to kill the animals.
The raccoons, which had been caught in wire traps, were lowered into the water-filled cans.
Today in History
The mother of a Forest freshman contacted authorities after her son came home Monday and told her what happened. The woman, whose name was not released, told Channel 6 that her son was upset.
“The raccoons tried to come up for air. (The teacher and students) had metal rods and they held them down with metal rods and when the raccoon would try to pop its head up they held water hoses in its face to drown it,” the mother told Channel 6.
The Forest High School FFA Alumni Chapter came out in support of Brewton.
“He has always gone above and beyond his call of duty to ensure that his students had everything they needed,” the chapter wrote on its Facebook page. “He has spent late nights, weekends and has provided around the clock support for his club and for his school.”
The chapter calls Brewton “a man who would give everything he had to make sure that his children/students are taken care of.”
The majority of comments on social media are far less positive. Dozens of comments on the Star-Banner’s Facebook posting of the story state that Brewton was cruel.
“Isn’t there enough violence in schools?” local resident Karen Black asked in a Facebook post, which the Star-Banner is quoting with her permission. “Now we’re going to torture animals? How does that teach kids to treat humans with respect? Sickening.”
The story has received wide attention, even getting play in the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail.
“Native nuisance wildlife may be released on the property of the landowner where captured provided the release site and capture site are located on one contiguous piece of property. Native nuisance wildlife may be released off the capture site if the release site is a minimum of 40 contiguous acres, located in the same county as the capture site, and the person releasing the nuisance wildlife has in their possession written permission from the landowner of the release site allowing release on their property. Nuisance wildlife may not be released on federal, state, county, local or private lands without written permission of the landowner.”
Fla. teacher on leave after being accused of drowning raccoons
A Florida teacher was placed on administrative leave after school officials were told that he had students help him drown wild raccoons during class.
A 14-second video published by CBS affiliate WKMG showed a group of students filling a tub of water using a hose and later keeping a trapped raccoon submerged. A mother told the TV station that her son, who shot the video, came home upset about what happened to the raccoons, including the one seen in the video, inside a metal wire trap.
The animals had reportedly been killing chickens that the students were raising for class.
The teacher, Dewie Brewton, was placed on paid administrative leave with pay Tuesday while the school investigates, said Kevin Christian, spokesman for Marion County Public Schools. Christian said he couldn’t comment further, saying only that Brewton was placed on leave as part of standard protocol and that district officials did not have previous problems with Brewton in the 34 years he has worked on and off for the district.
In a subsequent statement, the district said it is investigating, as are two state agencies — but that “regardless of the investigative outcomes, Superintendent Dr. Heidi Maier is recommending termination.”
“Marion County Public Schools is appalled at the actions of an agri-science teacher accused of killing nuisance animals in front of students earlier this week,” the statement read. “Marion County’s education standards – in fact, Florida’s education standards — do not include activities for the destruction of live animals, nuisance or not. While law enforcement determines whether this teacher’s actions were legal or not, his actions before students are entirely unacceptable and cause us great concern.”
It’s unclear if the incident involved any criminal acts, but law enforcement officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are also investigating. A separate Florida Department of Health investigation is also underway.
According to the conservation commission’s website, wildlife animals that are considered a nuisance can be caught using live traps, snares or firearms during daylight hours and where they’re allowed. Animals “must be released legally or euthanized humanely within 24 hours of capture or trap inspection,” according to the agency.
In the interview with WKMG, the mother said the incident made her “sick to my stomach.”
“When the raccoons tried to come up for air, they had metal rods and they held them down with metal rods. And when the raccoon would try to pop its head up, they held water hoses in its face to drown it,” she told WKMG.
Brewton, the teacher, is an adviser of the school’s Future Farmers of America club.
In a statement posted Tuesday on Facebook, the club’s alumni group defended Brewton, describing him as a teacher who worked hard for his students and who cared for the agriculture industry.
“We would like to say that we are 100% behind our advisor and everything he does for our children/students. This is a man who would give everything he had to make sure that his children/students are taken care of,” the Forest High School FFA Alumni Chapter said. “He has always gone above and beyond his call of duty to ensure that his students had everything they needed. He has spent late nights, weekends and has provided around the clock support for his club and for his school.”
The chapter also criticized coverage of the incident, saying the media will “escalate” the situation “to lengths that are unnecessary.”
“We must focus on all of the extremely positive and life changing things that this man has done for the people,” the group said. “We must show our support for him in this time of need and show that we are one.”
People who commented on the Facebook post also came to Brewton’s defense, saying such actions were necessary to protect farms and keep livestock alive.
“This man’s reputation and livelihood are threatened by those who know nothing about the ag business,” one commenter wrote. “Raccoons are not cute little furry creatures. They are very destructive and dangerous. They can be rabid and you can be overrun with them in a short time.”
EPA Administrator EDWARD SCOTT PRUITT encourages security to use lightens and sirens to tote his butt to restaurants and airports. He's gutting our environmental laws. What a crook. Fire the lugubrious goober.
Turn on the flashing lights and crank up the siren: Scott Pruitt has an emergency.
President Trump’s embattled EPA administrator is an important man. He does not like to wait in traffic. So, he reportedly let it be known that he wanted his security detail to use police lights and sirens when taking him to the airport, meetings and social events — even though such emergency equipment is for, well, emergencies.
Confronted Wednesday by a Senate committee, Pruitt said the siren-and-lights thing was a false alarm.
“There have been reports that you encouraged the use of lights and sirens on your motorcade even though there wasn’t an emergency,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).
“I don’t recall that happening,” Pruitt maintained.
Udall rephrased. “You personally requested that on a number of trips,” he charged.
“No,” Pruitt insisted. “I don’t recall that.”
It was then that Udall revealed a just-released February 2017 email from Pruitt’s head of security, Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta. Subject: “Lights and Sirens.” The body consisted of one line: “Btw — Administrator encourages the use.”
The email was sent to Pruitt’s security detail, including Eric Weese, who was reportedly demoted after he refused to drive with lights and siren, and John Martin, who was also removed from the detail after raising objections to Pruitt’s security procedures.
Throw that log on Pruitt’s five-alarm blaze of cartoonish corruption, as his explanations go up in smoke.
The president, and most congressional Republicans, have stuck with Pruitt, presumably because he has proven skilled at dismantling the EPA. But is there nobody else who can dismantle the EPA without acting like he’s the Sultan of Brunei?
“I am concerned that many of the important policy efforts that you are engaged in are being overshadowed,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) advised Pruitt.
Ya think?
There’s his affection for first-class travel, because, as Perrotta put it, “we believe that the continued use of coach seats for the Administrator would endanger his life.”
Udall, usually one of the mildest members of the Senate, denounced Pruitt as “disastrous” and “a betrayal of the American people.”
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) mocked Pruitt’s security (“nobody even knows who you are”) and called him a “laughingstock.”
Pruitt maintained a placid expression; only his legs jiggling under the witness table betrayed his agitation. He said nothing about ethical problems in his opening statement and, when prompted, said the allegations are motivated by policy disagreements. He blamed his predecessors for failing to develop “processes . . . to prevent certain abuses.” Perhaps he expected a “No $43,000 Phone Booths” sign in his office?
He also blamed the decision for him to have 24/7 security on “law enforcement career officials” — even though emails reported this week by The Post show the decision was made by a Trump political appointee.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked Pruitt why, given that he requested 24/7 security on day one, he justified the security by citing an August 2017 report on threats against him.
“That’s not the case,” Pruitt replied.
No? Just a few weeks ago, Pruitt read from the August 2017 “threat investigation” when asked by a House committee to justify his extensive security.
Pruitt’s abuses of office are catching up with him — and no quantity of bodyguards, biometric locks, sirens and flashing lights can protect him.
On the morning of May 17, 1983, one of the flaks for the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations called me at our Appalachian Observer office at 121 Leinart Street in Clinton, Tennessee, asking me to send someone to pick up records I requested. I did. Declassified records revealed the largest mercury pollution event in world history, at the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It was a feat for which I was recommended for a Pulizer Prize by District Attorney General James Nelson Ramsey.
In November 1982, Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and I sent a short letter to DOE, asking for declassification of mercury documents. Snooty DOE had told the State of Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation and three local newspapers the information was "classified." Ernie and I did not treat "classified" as an immutable fact. Declassify the records now, we wrote, to avoid a "potential environmental health disaster." We won. no lawsuit needed. 182 days after we asked for the documents, we got 'em.
Why it matters: Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation (LEAF) environmental lawsuits, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor, and DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Joe Ben LaGrone helped transformed the entire nuclear weapons complex.
The $300 billion cleanup of nuclear weapons plants might be completed by my 100th birthday, in 2057. DOE a/k/a "Denier of Everything" will never be the same again, and neither will Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
DOE did not even have an environmental, safety and health program until after May 17, 1983. We've all learned a lot since then.
Once upon a time, circa 1981 or 1982, I called DA Jim Ramsey from the basement of the Oak Ridge Federal Building, from the 10 square foot windowless FOIA Reading Room.
I was embarrassed by my lack of a chemical background, so I asked a basic chemistry question of our elected reform DA, whose late father was an Oak Ridge chemist.
I said, "General, what does Hg mean?" "Mercury," the General Ramsey replied. "Well, y'all sure have a lot of that in your creeks, General," I replied.
The rest, as they say, is History.
May 17 is (also the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, and the birthday of my courageous Gay rights client, Duane David Rinde, who won equal spousal benefits in 1991 from Woodward & Lothrop and John Wanamaker -- 30 department stores in six states and the District of Columbia).
Mr. LaGrone told me several years ago that I was "the crowbar" who got the information released for the public. Later, I was honored to represent environmental, nuclear and security whistleblowers in this and other "dark satatic mills."
Read how our federal government created segregated housing patterns. View maps and photos showing the terrible results.
Here in Northeast Florida, racist road builders skipped any access to West Augustine from I-95 while destroying Jacksonville's thriving LaVilla community.
Here in St. Augustine, Realtors refused to sell property to African-American buyers (even for cash in 2004 from a Justice Department retiree, who in 2008 was elected to County Commission (J. Kenneth Bryan). And white police officers under the ancien régime once quizzed residents about why they were living or visiting Lincolnville.
Ending redlining resonates with me. I was so proud when my father was told by NAACP that he was the only Realtor in South Jersey who would show a home in West Berlin, N.J., to an African-American couple. I treasure the day in 1977 when my friend, Ed McElwain, and I watched the U.S. Senate pass the Community Reinvestment Act (Proximire Amendment) by one vote in 1977 as a 20 and 22 year old legislative research assistants making recommendations on housing policy to Democratic Senators Jim Sasser and Gary Hart, respectively.
The amendment passed.
By one vote.
Decisions are made by people who show up.
It’s a little after 3pm in Detroit’s 8 Mile neighbourhood, and the cicadas are buzzing loudly in the trees. Children weave down the pavements on bicycles, while a pickup basketball game gets under way in a nearby park. The sky is a deep blue with only a hint of an approaching thunderstorm – in other words, a muggy, typical summer Sunday in Michigan’s largest city.
“8 Mile”, as the locals call it, is far from the much-touted economic “renaissance” taking place in Detroit’s centre. Tax delinquency and debt are still major issues, as they are in most places in the city. Crime and blight exist side by side with carefully trimmed hedgerows and mowed lawns, a patchwork that changes from block to block. In many ways it resembles every other blighted neighbourhood in the city – but with one significant difference. Hidden behind the oak-lined streets is an insidious piece of history that most Detroiters, let alone Americans, don’t even know exists: a half mile-long, 5ft tall concrete barrier that locals simply call “the wall”.
“Growing up, we didn’t know what that wall was for,” says Teresa Moon, president of the 8 Mile Community Organization. “It used to be a rite of passage to walk on top of the wall, like a balancing beam. You know, just kids having fun, that kind of thing. It was only later when I found out what it was for, and when I realised the audacity that they had to build it.”
The wall, a concrete barrier in 8 Mile, Detroit, built to divide black and white neighbourhoods
In 1942, 8 Mile was a black neighbourhood – segregated by law, segregated by culture, segregated from white Oakland County by the eponymous 8 Mile Road. It was a self-contained community, filled with not only African Americans but immigrants of all colours, some of whom had built their houses with their own hands.
It was also adjacent to empty land – valuable land that developers were rapaciously turning into homes for a surging postwar population. Land that one housing developer wanted to use to build a “whites-only neighbourhood”. The only problem was, he couldn’t get federal funding to develop the land unless he could prove he had a strategy to prevent black people and white people from mixing. His answer: wall off the white neighbourhood with a concrete barrier.
“That wall is a monument,” says Moon. “We survived it. It’s a part of what happened, and no one feels any negativity towards what happened.”
Her neighbour, Lou Ross, agrees. “What that Wall was intended for, it didn’t work that way. It did for a minute – but it didn’t last.”
Today, policymakers are making plans to revamp the nation’s infrastructure. The Trump administration has pledged to create a $1tn infrastructure renewal plan, and came to power, after all, on the promise of building a massive wall. But, like Trump’s wall and the 8-mile wall, infrastructure is not value-free – and the decisions made now will affect the future of inequality in our cities.
‘White roads through black bedrooms’
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To get an understanding of how infrastructure transforms communities, there’s no better place to start than the Federal Housing Authority “redlining” housing maps. Commissioned by the federal government in the 1930s, these maps were critical to decisions of where and what type of infrastructure, lending and housing each neighbourhood of each American city would be able to receive.
“The FHA promoted home ownership in new – and primarily suburban – neighbourhoods so long as they were white and not ethnically or economically diverse,” writes Antero Pietila in Not in My Neighbourhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City.
Left, an FHA Housing Map for Detroit circa 1939, with the 8 Mile neighbourhood clearly ‘redlined’; right, an aerial photomosaic of the city in 1961, showing the completed I-94 and Route 10
If your neighbourhood had the misfortune to be “redlined”, it was often doomed to a future of stillborn investment and decay. Specifically, it would be impossible to secure federally backed mortgages, a sort of scarlet letter branded across huge swaths of the city. Developers avoided these areas and concentrated investment into white areas, and services stagnated. The seeds of the future ghettos of America had been sown.
FHA maps were created for every major city in the US. Original assessment documents unearthed by researchers at the T-Races project reveal the cold, casually racist way in which data collectors consigned vast neighbourhoods to neglect and poverty:
The I-980 and I-880 merge in West Oakland, California
West Oakland in California is a typical example of a redlined neighbourhood. Historically a working-class community of immigrants and African Americans, it stagnated after being redlined. By the 1950s and 60s, during the interstate building boom, West Oakland was in a prime position to be carved up and paved over: full of low-income housing, it offered little to no political opposition. A literal ring of concrete was poured around the neighbourhood, the precursors to today’s I-580, I-880 and I-980, and the result was decay, pollution and crime that characterised West Oakland for decades. But it was by no means alone. The process of routing roads through black communities was so common it even had a name among critics: “White roads through black bedrooms.”
Baltimore’s ‘road to nowhere’
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Nowhere is infrastructure so obviously divisive as with the vast interstate highway system. Ubiquitous, generally free and heavily used, it’s undeniably a vital part of the American experience. There are more than one million miles of federal aid highways in the US, which cost $105bn a year to maintain. If American highway spending were a country, it would have the world’s 63rd largest GDP, just behind Morocco. But while these roads unify and connect millions of the country’s citizens, they’ve also excluded and destroyed many black communities.
West Baltimore is an exceptionally bleak area in an exceptionally poor, overwhelmingly black American city. The city recorded 343 homicides in 2017, the highest murder rate per capita in the country. It’s almost double that of Chicago, and 18 times higher than New York City. Racial divisions run deep here, a segregation of opportunity, class and even life expectancy.
On a humid September morning, police cars darted furiously through empty streets, their sirens blaring. In front of the housing complex where Freddie Gray was killed in 2015, two white police officers questioned a young black man in an SUV, their hands resting on their weapons. Many of the homes have boarded-up windows and doors, and even wooden scaffolding to prevent them from collapsing. The city has more than 16,000 abandoned properties, some of them vacant for decades.
Abandoned properties dot West Baltimore in a patchwork of blight
In the middle of this blight stands a monument to failed American city planning: a giant ditch that bisects West Baltimore neatly into north and south. Officially named State Route 40, it was originally intended to be a key part of a proposed east-west freeway presented as crucial to the city’s growth. This gigantic project upended hundreds of lives, transformed an entire landscape and cost tens of millions of dollars. The locals call it the “road to nowhere”.
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“It was an obvious name to give,” says Denise Johnson, a community organiser who grew up in West Baltimore. “We lost families, we lost homeowners, we lost businesses, and we lost churches. And we lost people. People who were stable. People who didn’t plan to leave the community.”
In the 1950s, a vast increase in cars was beginning to clog the roads to and from the new suburbs. The federal government poured money into the brand new interstate system, encouraging radials, arteries and thoroughfares through dense urban neighbourhoods. This also presented city planners with what seemed an unprecedented opportunity – to use federal funds to clear out “slums” and open up vast tracts of land.
A view of Baltimore’s freeways, with the ‘road to nowhere’ visible in the centre
Where to build a freeway became not only an economic decision, but also a moral one – a chance to uplift and sweep clean America’s ghettos.
But were they ghettos?
“This was not a neighbourhood that was struggling,” says John Bullock, the city councilman for Baltimore’s ninth district, which includes the road to nowhere. “We’re talking about middle-class neighbourhoods, which were seen through the eyes of others as slums or ghettos because of the colour of the people who lived there.”
The road, says Bullock, who also teaches political science at Towson University, was yet another example of infrastructure marginalising black citizens. “We’re talking about generations of black people who have faced these challenges. Not only from the highway, but also disinvestment, the redlining, the lack of employment. Because if we say housing was lost, churches were lost, we have to remember also businesses were lost. And oftentimes people have to go outside their communities to spend that money, which never gets recirculated in that community.”
‘Generations of black people have faced these challenges’ … an aerial shot of West Baltimore
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Moreover, while the freeways opened up routes from the suburbs to the city centres, there were often a conspicuous lack of entrances in black communities. The gigantic concrete ditch in West Baltimore is a perfect example: sunken, without exits – it effectively seals off one side from the other.
Interstates touched the lives of millions of people, in hundreds of cities across the US. From Atlanta to Chicago, Denver to New York, black communities felt the twin pain of urban decay and expropriation of land. But before the Voting Rights Act, black people had no legal recourse through which to oppose such plans.
“I call it the falseness of community engagement,” says Denise Johnson, her voice rising with emotion at the frustration of decades of failed promises. “Back then, when they were building that highway, there was no mandated policy that you had to engage the community. Now, there is a mandated policy to engage the community, which is a good thing. But at the same time, it’s still just … their agenda.”
Abandoned properties in Baltimore’s Oliver neighbourhood
In recent years those failed promises have included the Red Line. This was a light rail project, heavily championed by the city council, that would have connected East and West Baltimore, and provided thousands of jobs and economic development. The proposed route of the Red Line would have been overlaid on the road to nowhere, with a stop at Harlem Park in West Baltimore. But despite the project winning federal approval and funding, incoming governor Larry Hogan cancelled the project, citing its cost, enraging the city government and large portions of the African American community.
In Baltimore, the added insult was that the road to nowhere didn’t even have to happen. To this day, the one-mile, six-lane road sees so little traffic that when it is shut down, as it is occasionally due to film shoots or snowfall, hardly anyone notices. It ends abruptly just outside the city, a strange amputation that is now a park-and-ride, cleaving a terrible wound through the middle of a major city for no reason: too big to replace, too expensive to tear down.
Detroit: the death of Black Bottom
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Detroit, like Baltimore, also suffered disruptive interstate projects that decimated African American communities. Submerged highways snake through the city: I-94, I-96, I-75. Home to the automobile, it may be the best connected city in America for cars. Above these transportation corridors, the ghost factories of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler dot a desolate landscape that resembles an urban prairie.
One such district teeming with available land is the historically African American neighbourhood that used to be known as Black Bottom. It was a vibrant, dense area in a prime location just north-east of downtown, with a nationally renowned music scene and home to many famous residents, including boxer Joe Louis and the first African American mayor of Detroit, Coleman Young. The area was mixed, rich and poor, with migrants from Syria, Poland and Germany co-existing in a bustling urban area that ran from the Detroit river all the way up to Grand Ave. Young called it a “thrilling convergence of people, a wonderfully versatile and self-contained society”.
Hastings Street used to be the main thoroughfare in the Detroit neighbourhood of Black Bottom; an aerial shot of the area today
By the mid-1950s, however, the declining auto industry had hit Black Bottom hard, and the all-white Detroit city council deemed it a “slum”. The neighbourhood became one of the first casualties in the grand “Detroit Plan”. Freeways, hospitals, universities and housing developments were planned and built, creating radical changes to the city fabric, including the destruction of vast amounts of housing to construct Route 10 and I-75.
While some improvements were applauded and created highly valuable land, like Lafayette Park, almost all of the beneficiaries of the improved housing stock were white. Tens of thousands of African Americans were either forced into high-rent properties or high-rise public housing projects. Moreover, white landowners often prevented African Americans from renting in “white communities”. The forced removals of the 1950s remain one of the single biggest upheavals in the city’s modern history.
Today, Black Bottom is gone. All that remains are some vacant industrial buildings, empty fields and I-75.
Jackson Ward: the ‘black Wall Street’
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In Jackson Ward, a neighbourhood in Richmond, Virginia, the story was much the same. Formed after the civil war by urban African Americans and recently freed slaves, it was an unlikely place for a vibrant black community (the city was the capital of the briefly lived Confederate States of America).
But vibrant it was. The business community there was known as “black Wall Street” and its social and economic capital earned it the nickname the “Harlem of the South”. Maggie Walker, the first female bank president (of any race) to charter a bank in the US, lived there; a statue of her welcomes visitors to the Ward today. The area was central to the civil rights movement in Richmond and today is honoured with US National Park Service historic status.
Jackson Ward began to change, however, during the second world war. The construction of Gilpin Court, a large public housing project, and the I-95, a transport artery to connect Richmond to its neighbours, saw federal funds pour in. Unsurprisingly, the formerly redlined, historically important neighbourhood of Jackson Ward was chosen as the path of construction.
A shot of the I-95 in Jackson Ward, showing the road bending around the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church
Photographs show the breadth of the interstate – almost a city block wide. The southern section was fortunate in its proximity to downtown, and parts of it are now a sought-after neighbourhood. But the northern section, anchored by Gilpin Court and the Shockoe Hill cemetery, were isolated. Roads, businesses and homes were demolished, turning Gilpin Court into an island. The area plunged into an economic and cultural malaise, disintegrating into blocks of land now filled only with grass.
One small victory was the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist church, a historic site of worship built in 1884, which had the misfortune to be located directly in the path of the interstate. With the bulldozers looming, a loud and furious resistance from community members prevented construction proceeding as planned. The church was permitted to stand, and the entire interstate was re-engineered to bendaround it – one of the few symbols of resistance still visible.
Today, northern Jackson Ward is still 96% African American, and the average income is only $9,357, far below the poverty line of $15,000.
The future
Making the case that infrastructure itself can be exclusionary is hardly straightforward. Many of the worst decisions in US planning were made decades ago to intentionally disenfranchise, marginalise and separate communities; policies such as redlining and “blight clearing” are well-documented embarrassments. But many decisions that segregated communities were unintentional. The stop sign and one-way street might seem benign, but they shape our lives in ways we sometimes don’t even realise.
Roads, bridges and walls are agents of change, with a direct impact on our lives. Who has control over where these are placed? Who says how many there will be? How big? As the US gears up for its biggest infrastructure revitalisation project in decades, it is only by asking these questions and acknowledging the power of city planning to impact lives that we can hope to prevent the injustices of the past and fix those of the present.
Speaker Douglas C. Miller is from developer engineering firm of England, Thims & Miller, which City of St. Augustine Beach paid more than $40,000 to rewrite its Land Development Regulations, after initially hiring the Northeast Florida Regional Planning Council to do the work. Conflict of interest? You betcha. Crappy work by ETM has had to be redone, over the past several years. Hutson Companies is owned by the father of State Senator Travis Hutson, who is a walking conflict of interest in Tallahassee.
A new development in northern St. Johns County that will rival Nocatee in size will be building homes within a year and eventually could contain more than 10,000 homes.
The Hutson Companies unveiled its master-planned community called SilverLeaf on Wednesday. SilverLeaf covers about 8,400 acres, stretching from near County Road 210 all the way to State Road 16. It’s situated between Stonehurst and Johns Creek. Read the Story https://bit.ly/2wOv9Ai
Why is it that it that South Florida politics seems so much livelier than St. Augustine? What do y'all reckon?
Former Miami Beach Commission candidate Rafael Velasquez was not charged after then-Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez claimed he exposed his penis to her. Miami Herald
A Miami Beach commissioner who accused a political candidate of exposing himself to her is now being sued for defamation.
Rafael Velasquez on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, alleging that the city commissioner invented a claim that he showed her his penis and tried to force her to touch it while the two were alone in a car last October. Rosen Gonzalez made up the story in order to capitalize on the national #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse, Velasquez alleges.
"I will not rest until she is held accountable for her vile actions," Velasquez said in a statement, calling the allegations a "slap in the face to every true victim of sexual assault."
Velasquez is seeking $5 million in damages. Rosen Gonzalez referred a reporter to her attorney, who said he hadn't yet seen the complaint.
"This is why women who are sexually harassed and exposed to such god-awful behavior don’t come forward," said attorney Kent Harrison Robbins.
Currently a Democratic candidate to replace Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Congress, Rosen Gonzalez went public with the allegations against Velasquez as he was campaigning to win a seat on the City Commission last year. She'd been helping his efforts, and said she waited several weeks to talk about the incident because she worried about backlash.
Rosen Gonzalez, a divorced mother of three, first went to the media. Then she filed a police report, sparking dueling criminal investigations into whether Velasquez had committed battery — and whether Rosen Gonzalez had filed a false police report. Police and prosecutorsclosed both cases without filing charges, saying there wasn't enough evidence to prove either case.
Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez resigned Friday, April 27, 2018, in order to run for Congress.
Emily Michot emichot@miamiherald.com
Velasquez, who is married and has two children, lost the election. He apologized for making "inappropriate comments" to two women who quickly emerged after Rosen Gonzalez went public and accused Velasquez of inappropriate comments and, in one case, touching. But Velasquez has always denied groping anyone, or exposing himself to Rosen Gonzalez.
In his lawsuit, Velasquez says Rosen Gonzalez's allegations have ruined his family life and destroyed his real estate career. His attorney declined to discuss how Velasquez determined he'd suffered millions of dollars in damages as a result.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article211320499.html#storylink=cpy
On May 15, 2018, County Administrator MICHAEL WANCHICK and County Attorney PATRICK McCORMACK rightly cancelled a St. Augustine Beach Civic Association alcohol fundraiser event set for that night at the pavilion at the St. Johns County Ocean and Fishing Pier Park.
There was NO permit for alcohol sales.
There was NO insurance for alcohol sales.
So then the beer distributor cancelled its beer and wine delivery.
Then the fete was ended by the St. Johns County Administrator.
Kudos to citizens Thomas F. Reynolds, Jr. and Merrill Paul Roland for asking questions and demanding answers about SABCA's flummery, dupery and nincompoopery
Thanks to the County Attorney and County Administrator for doing their jobs, without fear of or favor. What a difference a few years makes.
No thanks to stinky SABCA, which remains the developers' cat's paw, a secretive, de facto Political Action Committee, an habitual violator of free speech rights, a 501c4 that thinks it owns the Pier Park. Those days are ending.
SABCA EVP ROBERT SAMUELS has publicly opposed a civil rights museum at our pier, while heckling progressives and lobbying Commissioners to support developers, particularly while his spouse, ANDREA SAMUELS was Mayor and Commissioner. (ANDREA SAMUELS violated nepotism rules by voting to appoint her husband as an alternate member of the Planning and Zoning Board.). Ms. SAMUELS was defeated by reformer Maggie Kostka in 2016.
See ANDREA SAMUELS' Top Ten List below:
Here's WILLIAM JONES in happier days, illegally wearing his Sheriff's credentials in violation of Sheriff's orders outside work, with St. Augustine Mayor NANCY SHAVER and then-Mayor ANDREA SAMUELS of St. Augustine Beach. It was JONES who procured the illegal arrest August 12, 2015 of former St. Augustine Beach Code Enforcement Board Chair WILLIAM ROSENSTOCK for "stalking" for raising concerns to elected officials about an alleged unlicensed unsanitary barbecue vendor at SABCA concert events, the last of which will be on September 13, 2017.
JONES has publicly attacked Mr. Rosenstock and other whistleblowers or "ethical resisters," whom he calls "elderly old white men" and "anti-Semites," and calling one a "disbarred lawyer" in retaliation for questioning and criticizing the Civic Association, a 501c4, for: 1. no-bid $1/year lease of city property, 2. no-bid lease of County Pier Park property for concerts and farmers markets (ending soon as a result of activist and county concerns), 3. failing to pay the County for electricity for ten years, 4. failing to pay for trash disposal until 2017 (and only a nominal fee), 5. violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, including failure to provide enough bathrooms and blocking disabled parking spaces, 6. permitting unlicensed, unsanitary vendors at its farmers market and concerts, 7. financial flummery, 8. ripping up protest signs, 9. performing unlawful investigations of political enemies using Sheriff's computers to access state and federal data bases, 10. maintaining an enemies list, rejecting applications from St. Augustine Beach Vice Mayor Undine George and her husband, former Mayor Edward George, and 11. acting as a de facto political action committee supporting Sheriff Shoar and his developer-friendly allies, and 12. giving $500 campaign contribution to a successful 2015 off-year special election effort to raise sales taxes, when developers spent $189,000 campaigning to add a half-cent sales tax for school infrastructure, sparing developers $150,000,000 in impact fees and property taxes over 10 years (a return on investment of some 33,200%).
ANDREA SAMUELS was defeated for re-election in 2016 by Maggie Kostka. Here's the last "Top Ten" list I published on SAMUELS:
ANDREA SAMUELS -- TOP TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH CITY COMMISSIONER ANDREA SAMUELS, seeking a third term, RUNNING AGAINST reformer MAGGIE KOSTKA for St. Augustine Beach Commissioner UPDATED: November 2, 2016
Dictatorial, mercurial, two-term City Commissioner ANDREA SAMUEL has showed her insensitivity, immaturity and meanness repeatedly. She's callously indifferent to public concerns about signage, development, building height, mangrove tree preservation and the right of citizens to speak their mind without being intimidated by angry Commissioners (and her angry, mercurial spouse, ROBERT SAMUELS).
HECKLER ROBERT SAMUELS, et ux, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS
Left to right: SABCA President WILLIAM JONES, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS, et ux, SABCA VP ROBERT SAMUELS, tedious tendentious serial First Amendment violators.
City of St. Augustine Beach COMMISSIONER, ex-Mayor, ANDREA SAMUELS
1. Angry, dictatorial and insulting attitude toward citizens, colleagues and City staff, including interruptions, cutting remarks, eye-rolling, inappropriate laughter and discrimination, while favoring dodgy contractors, rejecting food trucks and sometimes actually telling concerned citizens, "THIS IS NOT A DIALOGUE!" Her antics earned a November 2, 2016 St. Augustine Record endorsement for her challenging opponent, reformer Maggie Kostka.
2. Voted to hire and retain conflicted developer lawyer DOUGLAS NELSON BURNETT as City Attorney. SAMUELS and Commissioners voted to hire BURNETT in 2009 and repeatedly retained his services despite concerns that he could not represent developers and the City of St. Augustine. BURNETT's St. JOHNS LAW GROUP law firm finally quit in 2015 and BURNETT was replaced in 2016 amid ethics and incompetent concerns -- including advertising his law firm on the City's website, and representing the Publix shopping center owner (whose logo was on his website), when that shopping center owner wanted to buy a 6.1 acre city park. SAMUELS supported giving BURNETT a "plaque" to honor his "service." BURNETT:
1. Never disclosed his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP client list. 2. Never provided evidence of a "conflicts check" by ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP. 3. Advertised his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP law firm on City of St. Augustine Beach website. 4. Advertised on his website that he represented shopping center owner that wanted to buy City-County park for less than we paid for it. 5. Sent his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associates to meetings he did not attend, some who were not listed in engagement letter. 6. Gave conservative, pro-developer legal advice. 7. Represented 7-Eleven, a Japanese multinational corporation (through ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP associate JAMES GEORGE WHITEHOUSE) in efforts to inflict twelve gasoline pumps at May & San Marco in the the historic City of St. Augustine, which would have endangered deaf and blind students at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, and other residents, while adding to traffic problems at the failing intersection ("We, the People" defeated 7-Eleven, which sold the property to the City of St. Augustine for $1.4 million; the property will now be the locus of an elliptical roundabout to solve the traffic problem 7-Eleven would have exacerbated). 8. Quit as City Attorney just a few months after his ST. JOHNS LAW GROUP-SAB 2009 engagement contract was renewed in 2015, without readvertising the position. 9. Billed SAB taxpayers a quarter of a million dollars since 2009.
3. Nepotism, bigotry and bullying: ANDREA SAMUELS violated state ethics laws by voting for appointment of her husband, ROBERT SAMUELS, as a junior alternate member of the Planning and Zoning Board -- a fact never reported by the St. Augustine Record, or anyone (reported on for the first time on this blog earlier this year). While finding a violation, there was no penalty from the State Ethics Commission (her defense lawyer, MARK HERRON, is former Chair of the State Ethics Commission). SAMUELS' only legal defense: incorrect legal advice from City Attorney DOUGLAS NELSON BURNETT. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/andrea-samuels-violated-ethics-laws.html SAMUELS has used her husband to skirt Sunshine laws, apparently, with ROBERT SAMUELS meeting and talking with other Commissioners. SAMUELS' husband is a bully who loudly and widely spread Lashon hara about UNDINE PAWLOWSKI being a "LESBIAN" when she first ran for office against ANDREA SAMUELS in 2008 and was legally married to a woman. Then ROBERT SAMUELS spread Lashon hara about Commissioner UNDINE PAWLOWSKI GEORGE after she married former St. Augustine Beach Mayor Edward George. The SAMUELS obsess on Vice Mayor PAWLOWSKI GEORGE and do not conceal their hatred. This was demonstrated by the December 7, 2015 "cupcake" incident, involving then-Mayor SAMUELS' display of animus upon being given a birthday cupcake for Commissioner PAWLOWSKI-GEORGE's birthday by her father, Dr. Michel S. Pawlowski, D.Sci. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/12/birthday-barbarism-at-st-augustine.html As a loudmouth spectator at City meetings, ROBERT SAMUELS acts like rebarbative retromgnent ridiculing Republican lord of all he surveys: ROBERT SAMUELS is abusive: he frequently heckles and insults citizens in public meetings, on-camera, once making devil horns behind Tree and Beautification board member Ann Palmquist after she spoke in public comment. A devious defender of the status quo and developers, ROBERT SAMUELS once slithered to the podium to call me an "outsider" and to say I "stink" because I opposed reducing developer (and SAMUELS' campaign contributor) Farid Ashdji's contractual commitment to pay some $560,000 for infrastructure (Commissioners ultimately agreed with me and rejected Ashdji's extralegal, illogic demand, but no one ever chastised ROBERT SAMUELS for his creating a hostile working environment). Earlier this year, after citizens waited for 200 minutes before public comment before a joint meeting of the Commission, PZB and Tree Board, I spoke in favor of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, with ROBERT SAMUELS waving his arms at me, saying there would "never" be a National Park and Seashore, and that he opposed a larger pier with a public-private partnership and a small civil rights museum. On October 20, 2016, ROBERT SAMUELS assailed and assaulted Commissioner Undine Pawlowski George. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/06/heckling-by-commissioner-samuels-spouse.html http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2013/08/defeating-bullies-tyrants-and-bigots.html
4. Too cozy with big developers: As Mayor, in 2014, ANDREA SAMUELS toured Pier Park with DIEGO ARDID, South Florida developer from KEY INTERNATIONAL, City Manager MAX ROYLE and County Administrator MICHAEL DAVID WANCHICK, discussing possible trade of land for the former Holiday Inn property, without advance notice, videotape, news coverage or lawyer present. No records exist. ANDREA SAMUELS does not always tilt toward all developers, but it is a bad habit that offends people who love the small-town, low-rise working class St. Augustine Beach. As proof of her coziness with developers, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR has endorsed her, as has Flagler College Public Administration Professor JOE SAVIAK.
5. Irresolute, maladroit and ineffectual on enforcing City Charter's 35 foot building height limit. Result: an "edifice complex," with City staff giving significant encouragement to hideous McMansions blotting out the sun and ocean views and Embassy Suites to erect too-tall building at north end of St. Augustine Beach. The St. Augustine Record agrees, discussing this issue in its endorsement of Maggie Kostka -- ANDREA SAMUELS served on the Planning and Zoning Board and should have prevented this abortion of a skyscraper in our beloved low-rise St. Augustine Beach.
7. Retaliates against First Amendment protected activity: A. By policemen and government employees, including 3-2 vote to fire all St. Augustine Beach Police officers because ten of them filed a complaint against then-Chief Robert Hedges, stating her overt intent to retaliate because of their complaints, with Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS saying the Police Department had become "political." We, the People persuaded Commissioners to reconsider, and seventeen jobs were saved -- Commissioner Sherman Gary Snodgrass, a former HR manager for Excelon, switched in time. Ironically, in 2016, ANDREA SAMUELS publicly referred to "my 17 police officers," as if they were serfs, vassals or bullets in her gun. How gauche and louche. http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2012/11/record-wrong-on-st-augustine-police.html http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/commr-samuels-my-17-police-officers-how.html
8. Disdains environmental values and shoots from the hip, giving lots of lip: SAMUELS and her husband swore a Democratic loyalty oath and said they were Democrats, becoming members of the St. Johns County Democratic Executive Committee In July 2009 and voting against the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and Seashore. They are now registered Republicans. Both ANDREA and ROBERT SAMUELS have repeatedly, publicly attacked supporters of the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, attempting to halt public debate. Like an ignorant Archie Bunker in drag, Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS has stated "I don't care how tall the building is, I just don't want to lose FEMA" and "there are no mangroves here" as an effort to foil protection for legally protected mangrove trees (indeed, there are mangroves as far north as South Ponte Vedra Beach). http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/samuels-dont-care-how-high-building-is.html http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/05/protecting-mangrove-trees-in-st-johns.html http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/global-mangrove-conference-intellectual.html
10. Fails to perform adequate oversight of maladroit City Manager MAX ROYLE, one of the shared flaws of the ruling "bloc of three" (Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN, Commissioner SHERMAN GARY SNODGRASS and ANDREA SAMUELS). During 2016, St. Augustine Beach has repeatedly scheduled meetings that conflict with meetings of the City of St. Augustine, and sometimes on short notice. In September 2016, City Manager MAX ROYLE smirked at me and said, "You're the only one who complained." Nothing has been done to correct ROYLE, who admittedly falls asleep in meetings, and fails to supervise the City staff adequately (ROYLE even wrote a newspaper column admitting he falls asleep in meetings). http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2016/07/sab-violates-first-amendment-rights.html
CONCLUSION: Partisan, angry ANDREA SAMUELS has disgraced her public office. Vote for Maggie Kostka, a 24-year resident and small business owner, who listens to people and throw SAMUELS out of office for her unAmerican activities. Also elect Rosetta Bailey, whom the Record did not endorse in her race against entrenched fourteen-year incumbent RICH O'BRIEN, currently the Mayor of St. Augustine Beach.
FLORIDA SUNSHINE LAW -- Good news: Court may order remedy for people unlawfully blocked from officials' social media accounts.
In the coming weeks, the likely Democratic front-runner faces the prospect of a deposition in the case, which also raises broader questions about his temperament and his mayoral legacy. | AP Photo
Levine’s social media blocking haunts Florida gubernatorial campaign
MIAMI — Philip Levine blocked a Twitter critic back when he was mayor of Miami Beach and got sued. Now it’s starting to haunt the Democrat’s bid for governor of Florida and threatens to paint him as a thin-skinned bully.
First, Twitter accused the city of threatening its officials as part of a legal strategy to keep Levine from being deposed during his campaign for governor. Then, Levine’s top adviser had to take the stand on his behalf this month and admit the former mayor blocked Twitter comments he didn’t like, setting the stage for a potentially precedent-setting case concerning social media and government censorship.
In the coming weeks, the likely Democratic front-runner faces the prospect of a deposition in the case, which also raises broader questions about his temperament and his mayoral legacy.
“He’s totally unfit for office. Here he is wasting tax money to hide his mistakes rather than fix problems,” said Grant Stern, a Democratic activist, blogger and host of the “Only in Miami” show on WZAB-AM. “Levine uses the Donald Trump method: lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie and then attack everybody who calls you out and try to muddy the waters.”
Levine’s political adviser, Christian Ulvert, said in a written statement that Stern was no longer blocked and that the former mayor’s Twitter and Facebook pages weren’t public records — a position many First Amendment lawyers dispute.
“Mr. Stern has mistaken the City’s social media accounts with those of Philip Levine’s personal, individually managed accounts and has incorrectly filed a public records requests,” Ulvert said, adding the mayor’s temporary blocking policy was due to “today’s continuous push of false, foul or derogatory information through social media.”
Sewage and science
However, Stern said he was only unblocked more than a year after he filed his lawsuit in state court in Miami. And his messages the mayor found objectionable used no foul language and were at best disputable, not clearly false.
The controversy began over one of Levine’s legacy items he boasts about on the campaign trail: pumps that keep the streets of South Beach dry amid increasing incidents of dry-day flooding during what are known as “king tides.”
For Levine, the pumps are a tangible example of him as the executive problem-solver.
But for a team of scientists, the pumps had an unintended consequence: discharging fecal bacteria, as high as 600 times the limit in one case, into the famed beach’s nearshore waters. Scientists found the pollution and surmised the pumps were incidentally sucking up and discharging human waste seeping into floodwaters from old leaky sewer lines and septic systems.
When the Miami Herald wrote about the scientist’s study in March 2016, Levine reacted with fury and bellyached about “sloppy science combined with sloppy journalism.” He and his allies on the commission ordered city staff to demand a correction from the paper — but failed to point out what it got factually wrong — and attacked the reputation of the lead scientist from the team, which included researchers from Florida International University, the University of Miami and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Stern, who had been on friendly terms with Levine, was outraged by the mayor’s attack on the press and the scientists.
Trolling Levine
“#Miami Beach @MayorLevine doesn't believe in science when the results are a problem,” Stern wrote on Twitter, linking to a Huffington Post Miami story he authored on the subject in June 2016.
At the end of the month, the Miami Herald requested Miami Beach provide city staff emails concerning water quality monitoring. The city responded with what open-government advocates called an outrageous demand: a $73,000 bill to comply with the records request. Stern again criticized Levine on Twitter: “I can't believe that @MayorLevine's city #MiamiBeach is asking for $73,000 to turn over emails about water quality.”
Days later, on July 23, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came to Miami to announce her new 2016 running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). A longtime friend of the Clintons, Levine tweeted out a picture of the three politicians talking backstage.
“In Miami with the next President and VP of USA @HillaryClinton @timkaine #ClintonKaine,” Levine wrote.
Stern promptly trolled Levine on Twitter by linking to another Huffington Post Miami story that criticized the mayor. “Hope that @HillaryClinton @timkaine advised you fix the #MiamiBeach water pollution problem you caused,” Stern tweeted.
Within about 30 minutes, Levine’s account blocked Stern, making it impossible to see what the mayor wrote on Twitter without Stern logging out of his now-blocked account and viewing his posts as either an unregistered user or through a new account Stern would have to set up. Grant then posted the same story on Levine’s official Facebook page and also requested 30 days of the mayor’s tweets, arguing they were a public record. Levine deleted that, too, and did not respond.
Turning to the city, Stern submitted a public records request asking for Levine’s list of blocked accounts on Facebook. The city said it wasn’t a public record.
Months later, Stern again asked the city for yet another record: the raw recordings of Levine’s SiriusXM show “The Mayor,” when he grew suspicious about the way a scientist’s remarks might have been edited because they conflicted with what he told Stern in yet another story about spraying mosquitos with the poison Naled to prevent the spread of the Zika virus.
Miami Beach city officials denied that request, too. Stern eventually sued in October of 2016.
For a year and a half, city officials alternately ignored Stern’s legal filings, raised numerous objections and even falsely accused him of trying to perpetrate a fraud upon the court. “It’s the Stalingrad Defense,” Stern said of the city’s delaying tactics.
Twitter’s clapback
Independent attorneys who specialize in public records cases say Stern is on solid ground.
“Social media posts by a public official in their official capacity are a public record. There’s no doubt about that,” said Barbara Peterson, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, which lobbies for open records on behalf of Florida media.
Peterson said Stern’s suit, one of numerous cases cropping up in courts across the country as Facebook and Twitter dominate political discourse, could add to case law concerning what defines a public square.
“What are the ramifications when government blocks somebody? And I don’t know if we have an answer about that,” she said. “If a government agency creates a Facebook page, for example, they have created a public forum for the purposes of the First Amendment. That means First Amendment rights attach.”
But different courts, from Kentucky to Virginia, have come to opposite conclusions about politicians who block citizens on social media, although the judges note that case law is evolving. The world’s most famous politician on Twitter, President Donald Trump, is also being sued in federal court in New York for blocking people.
Though basic account functions of Twitter are easy to understand and explain, the City of Miami Beach tried to keep Levine from being deposed about managing his account by trying to subpoena Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and the company's former general counsel, Vijaya Gadde. Stern said it was just another delay tactic.
The city backed off after Twitter’s attorney, Hayley L. Berlin, submitted a declaration last month that hinted at the political calculations behind the defense tactic.
“The City refused to withdraw Subpoenas and continued to insist that Twitter's testimony is necessary because this case involves a 'serious' gubernatorial candidate who would prefer not to testify,” she wrote. “The City more generally threatened that to 'avoid any trouble,' Twitter should cooperate.”
Mark Fishman with the Miami Beach Office of the City Attorney, who made the threatening comments, refused to comment and refused to disclose to POLITICO how many hours he worked on the case, how many billable hours outside counsel has racked up or the cost of the case to taxpayers.
Unable to delay any longer, Levine’s political adviser, Ulvert, was hauled into court earlier this month and testified that he and Levine manage his social media accounts and have a “policy to make sure when false derogatory information that's publicly viewable, to temporarily block individuals, then make them unblocked.”
‘Serious misstep’
In his statement to POLITICO, Ulvert added that no one is currently blocked on Levine’s social media accounts. He justified the blocking by noting that “Philip’s children, including his 10-year-old daughter can view posts, it’s important that these protocols are followed.”
Stern said his tweet that led to the blocking was factual and believes a politician can’t merely block a citizen from social media for objectionable speech that isn’t abusive. He wants the court to declare Levine in violation of open records laws and to declare that Levine’s “Facebook page block list, and audio recording/agreements related to the SiriusXM show .. are public records pursuant to Florida law.”
Since Ulvert said he couldn’t remember who blocked Stern, Stern says he needs to depose Levine now to find out the facts.
In his testimony, Ulvert said he drafts “all copy, post pictures, upload information, because the purpose of the account is for public engagement. It's our job from day one to make sure that we're properly presenting the Mayor.”
But Samuel Terilli, a University of Miami School of Communication department chair and former Miami Herald lawyer, wasn’t sure if Levine is properly presenting himself by engaging in social media censorship.
“Politically, this is probably a serious misstep,” Terilli said. “You’re always going to have people take issue with you and become an irritant, maybe even a major irritant. But blocking them on social media? If you have that much trouble on social media, then stop using it.”
Criminally negligent workplace corporate homicide is a crime and must be prosecuted. It appears that one of our Florida Democratic Attorney General candidates, Rep. Sean Shaw, recipient of TECO contributions, misspoke. He must choose between corporate funders and protecting worker rights.
Whose side are you on?
Enough corporate lackeys in the Flori-DUH Attorney General's office. Re-think your position, Rep. Shaw.
Democrat Sean Shaw says he’ll be “activist” Florida Attorney General But Shaw showed little enthusiasm for one cause espoused this week by his opponent in the primary, consumer foreclosure lawyer Ryan Torrens of Tampa – investigating TECO over the June 2017 deaths of five workers in a boiler accident.
By William March Tampa Bay Times May 18, 2018
Rep. Sean Shaw, D-Tampa. State Rep. Sean Shaw is promising an activist attorney general's office that will file or join lawsuits to correct what he calls the state Legislature's failure to properly fund public education and environmental land purchases and legalize medical marijuana.
The Florida Legislature, he said in a Tampa campaign stop Friday, "is not doing what the people instructed us to do" under constitutional amendments passed in popular votes and other constitutional provisions.
"When the Legislature doesn't do what they're supposed to do, there's no one to hold them accountable except the attorney general," said Shaw, one of two Tampa Democrats in the primary for attorney general.
"I'm suing the Legislature," he told the crowd at a Café con Tampa gathering.
Shaw said he would consider suing polluters or large fossil fuel users over the costs of adapting cities for sea level rise caused by climate change.
He also said, "The time has come for full legalization" of marijuana. "We ought to tax it, regulate it and have a revenue stream for the state."
But Shaw showed little enthusiasm for one cause espoused this week by his opponent in the primary, consumer foreclosure lawyer Ryan Torrens of Tampa – investigating TECO over the June 2017 deaths of five workers in a boiler accident. Torrens said TECO executives should be prosecuted if they knowingly ignored worker safety in the incident. In an interview after his speech, Shaw said "I don't understand what the criminal point is – there's already civil litigation from the victims currently going on. I'm not sure what state basis I (would) have to go after anybody in connection with that incident."
TECO is one of Shaw's largest contributors, with $10,000 to his political committee last month and $1,000 to his campaign last year.
Shaw said state attorney generals in other states have led investigations on opoid abuse, President Donald Trump's allegedly illegal foreign emoluments, Trump's Muslim travel ban, immigration law enforcement and unauthorized data use by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica.
But the Florida attorney general's office has stayed on the sidelines.
"We should be proactive, we should be on the front lines," he said.
Meanwhile, he said, the Florida Legislature has failed to enact (sic) constitutional amendments passed by the voters on medical marijuana and environmental land purchases, and is failing to adhere to the constitutional requirement to fund public schools adequately.
If voters pass an amendment planned for the November ballot restoring voting rights for most felons who have finished their sentences, "I can guarantee (the Legislature) are (sic) going to do everything they can to thwart it," he said.
He said Pam Bondi's lawsuit against opoid manufacturers, announced this week, is "great. The only problem is, she's been in office eight years" before acting.
Shaw, 40, is a Princeton and University of Florida educated lawyer with a firm that represents consumers in property insurance claims, and is the son of the late Leander Shaw, who was the state's first black Supreme Court chief justice.
He previously served as the state insurance consumer advocate, appointed by former state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink of Tampa, and has been a state House member since 2016 representing central Tampa, part of the university area and Progress Village.
The Democratic nominee likely will face a much better-funded Republican after a GOP primary including former Judge Ashley Moody of Plant City and Reps. Jay Fant of Jacksonville and Frank White of Pensacola.
But Shaw said he considers his chances of winning to be "over 50 percent."
"The Republicans are going to have a tough primary and I'm not," he said. "They're going to have to take positions that are untenable in the general election."
Retaliatory Mosquito Control Commissioner JACKIE ROCK just defamed me on Facebook. She claims my activism in cancelling an illegal no-bid $1.8 million Bell Jet helicopter put more than "200,000+ lives at risk" and wasted "millions of dollars in tax money." Is she full of it, or what? Read her ranting rodomontade below.
Is JACKIE ROCK unfit to hold public office in St. Augustine?
UPDATE. May 19, 2018: JACKIE ROCK has taken down her defamatory post, sans apology. Why this matters: St. Augustine mayoral candidate JACKIE ROCK defamed a journalist, for activism eleven years ago that killed an illegal, no-bid contract for a $1.8 million Bell Luxury Jet Helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter. Yes, St. Augustine mayoral candidate JACKIE ROCK falsely accused me of putting public health at risk and wasting millions of dollars. She lied. Shamelessly. She's anti-historical. She's hysterical. She did NOT apologize. No retraction. As JFK said on the morning after Election Night 1960 about RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON: "No class."
Here's the e-mail that I just sent to ROCK and AMCD:
-----Original Message----- From: Ed Slavin To: rockart1333 ; jrockamcd ; wflowers ; xueamcd ; jmoe01 ; brandhorstamcd ; ginaleblanc492 ; g-chowell Sent: Fri, May 18, 2018 2:07 pm Subject: Anastasia Mosquito Control Commissioner JACKIE ROCK's Defamation of Ed Slavin on Facebook
Dear Chairman Howell, AMCD Commissioners Brandhorst, Moeller, LeBlanc & Rock, Dr. Xue and Mr. Flowers:
1. I have objected to certain misleading statements by Anastasia Mosquito Control District (AMCD) of St. Johns County Commissioner JACKIE ROCK: she has repeatedly mischaracterized herself, in writing and in person, as a "St. Johns County Commissioner."
2. In retaliation for my First Amendment protected activity, JACKIE ROCK posted on her Facebook page last night (the evening of May 17, 2018) per se defamatory statements about me, to wit:
Whoa there, all you had to do was ask for additional info. It’s a county wide role and has many of the same ramifications.
To be CRYSTAL CLEAR -er.... If leadership on the board had perfect Self learning skills in 2007 , and were well educated on the public works duties by the staff themselves, someone’s intervention (sic) to “over Think” (sic) on a single major issue spinning (sic) it upside down (sic) WOULD NOT have managed to put the lives of SJC 200,000+ residents at risk (sic) for catching infectious vector born diseases. That’s you Ed. You are that activist. You intervened (sic) on major health and human services initiatives that put our entire county behind (sic) ELEVEN YEARS!!!!!!! So, pay attention kids. Some “activists” can make actions go waaaaaaay sideways (sic) and cost a county public works millions (sic) in tax revenue. #Thinkforyourself #QuestionAuthority
3. Will JACKIE ROCK kindly explain her per se defamatory attack?
4. Do either JACKIE ROCK or AMCD plan to apologize/retract?
5. Defamation is not the business of AMCD. This is not the first time that AMCD officials have attacked me, in retaliation for First Amendment protected activity. Former AMCD attorney GEOFFREY DOBSON spent AMCD funds investigating me, accumulating one pound of documents, in retaliation for First Amendment protected activity concerning illegal purchase of a no-bid, $1.8 million luxury Bell Jet Helicopter incapable of killing a single skeeter. AMCD rightly cancelled the illegal contract in 2007.
6. Please place this matter on our next AMCD meeting agenda. Kindly notify AMCD's and JACKIE ROCK's respective insurance carriers.
Another unjust steward convicted of crimes in Northeast Florida. How arrogant to tape record a telephone conversation when permission was DENIED to Flagler County Supervisor of Elections KIMBERLE WEEKS.
As Bill Clinton said in his Second Inaugural Address, "Nothing great was ever accomplished by being small." It appears WEEKS was petty and small-minded. Just the sort of egotistical person we do not need in public office. (Photo: Flagler Live).
Kudos to Seventh Circuit State's Attorney Ralph Joseph Larizza for bring this successful prosecution of white collar crime in the Flagler County Courthouse. What's next? Prosecution of Sheriff DAVID SHOAR in St. Johns County? Yes, we can!
By Frank Fernandez Posted May 18, 2018 at 11:23 AM Updated May 18, 2018 at 8:12 PM Daytona Beach News-Journal
Weeks released on $25K bond pending an appeal
BUNNELL — Former Flagler County elections supervisor Kimberle Weeks was sentenced Friday to 18 months of probation, with the first 30 days to be spent in jail.
But Weeks spent little more than an hour at the Flagler County jail from where she was released at 4:12 p.m. Friday.
Her attorney, Kevin Kulik, convinced the judge to allow Weeks to remain free on $25,000 bail pending appeal of her seven felony convictions for illegally recording conversations, including a telephone conversation with the Florida Secretary of State, who asked for jail time.
Before handing down her sentence, Circuit Judge Margaret Hudson asked Weeks if she wanted to say anything.
“No ma’am,” Weeks said.
Those were the only words she spoke during Friday’s hearing other than talking to her attorney.
In allowing Weeks to remain free while she appeals, Hudson noted that there are legitimate issues to appeal. The case involves crimes committed in a digital age prosecuted with laws from an analog era.
Hudson also ordered Weeks to pay $2,871 for the costs of the investigation, far less than the $33,000 that Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis had requested, which would have included the wages of employees involved in the investigation.
Weeks’ attorney, Kevin Kulik, argued that it was rare to charge such hourly wages in a criminal case and in the end the judge did not.
Based on state sentencing guidelines, Hudson could only sentence Weeks to prison after making a special written finding that Weeks would present a danger to the public otherwise, Kulik argued in court and in a motion filed Thursday.
Weeks, 57, faced up to five years in prison on each of the charges, which are all third-degree felonies.
In seeking jail time for Weeks, prosecutor Lewis argued that she ignored the law and derided and mocked the people she recorded illegally. He said as a public official, Weeks should be held to a higher standard.
“At the end of the day, what Ms. Weeks did completely and utterly decimated this community,” Lewis said. “It was a complete disregard for everything that she swore to uphold when she took office.”
He told the judge that some of her victims felt she should get jail time.
That included Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner and Gary Holland, assistant general counsel for Florida Department of State. Holland was assistant director of the division of elections for the Florida Department of State when Weeks committed the crimes.
Lewis read from an affidavit from Detzner and Holland in which they said Weeks deserved time behind bars.
“We both believe that her actions violated the public trust for an elected constitutional officer and she brought discredit upon her elected office,” Lewis read. “She flagrantly violated her constitutional oath of office.”
Palm Coast City Clerk Virginia Smith testified and asked the judge to hand down an appropriate sentence. Although she did not ask for jail or prison time, Smith made clear that she felt Weeks’ crimes were serious.
“As a dedicated public servant, I had to rise above the utter chaos you caused while you served as the Flagler County Supervisor of Elections,” Smith said in a voice that seemed full of emotion at times. “Your crimes negatively impacted many but my office in particular.”
Smith said Weeks’ crimes took a toll on the community.
“Your crimes cost money,” she said. “But more importantly, they damaged trust — the trust of Flagler County citizens and voters.”
Kulik, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, questioned the impact of Weeks’ actions on the community.
“The prosecutor said this case was devastating to the community,” Kulik said. “It’s hard for me to imagine that. Maybe it was but it’s up to the court to make a determination whether that’s true or whether it’s some kind of exaggeration for sentencing.”
He said the case had been devastating to Weeks. He said Weeks has five children and numerous grandchildren who care for her and don’t see her as this criminal deserving of jail time.
“I would submit that this whole event has been very devastating to Ms. Weeks, her husband and her whole family,” Kulik said. “They’ve had to read about her in the paper now for several years.”
He said that since she left office, Weeks now primarily cares for an 81-year-old man who was a friend of her father’s. He said she is not paid for the tasks but does it to help him.
Weeks was indicted in May 2015 and arrested, originally on 12 charges. But her attorneys fought successfully to knock some of those off.
During the trial, prosecutors painted Weeks as an egotistical elections chief who began making the illegal recordings of public officials after she felt disrespected and got some bad press. They said her intent was to protect her image.
Weeks’ attorneys countered that she had detected ethical violations involving local officials and possible voter suppression, and she was trying to bring it to the attention of state authorities.
Weeks had asked Detzner for permission to record him during an April 2014 phone conversation. Detzner declined but Weeks recorded him anyway and later told some people she wasn’t sure what she had done was legal.
At the time, Weeks was feuding with Palm Coast officials over polling sites. Detzner urged Weeks to resolve the dispute with the city. Weeks shot back at Detzner, telling him his letter was inappropriate and gave her a “black mark” in the media.
Lewis said at the sentencing hearing that Weeks believed she was above the law.
“Her conduct reflects a complete lack of respect for the law,” Lewis said.
The Most Rev Bishop Michael Curry gives an address during the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018.
By Owen Humphreys/WPA Pool/Getty Images.
Immediately after the Most Reverend Michael Curry concluded his sermon, delivered with an energy and improvisation that felt entirely different from a traditional royal wedding service, Kensington Palace released the transcript of the text, which read somewhat differently from the sermon as delivered—an experienced preacher, Rev. Curry felt comfortable making changes on the spot, from a reference to Instagram to a promise to wrap up so “we can get you two married.” But below you can read the transcript of the actual sermon, and watch it as well:
The late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, and I quote: “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world. Love is the only way.
There’s power in love. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t even over-sentimentalize it. There’s power, power in love. If you don’t believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love. The whole world seemed to center around you and your beloved. There’s power, power in love. Not just in it’s romantic forms, but any form, any shape of love. There’s a certain sense, in which when you are loved and you know it, when someone cares for you and you know it, when you love and you show it, it actually feels right. There’s something right about it. And there’s a reason for it. The reason has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love. Our lives are meant to be lived in that love, that’s why we are here. Ultimately, the source of love is God himself, the source of all of our lives.
There’s an old medieval poem that says it: “Where true love is found, God himself is there.” The New Testament says it this way: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; and those who love are born of God and no God, those who do not love, do not know God. Why? For God is love.
There’s power in love. There is power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live. Set me as a seal on your heart, a seal on your arm. For love, it is strong as death. But love is not only about a young couple. Now the power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we are all here. Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up. But it’s not just for and about a young couple who we rejoice with. It’s more than that.
Jesus of Nazareth, on one occasion, was asked to sum up the essence of the teachings of Moses. And he reached back to the Hebrew scriptures of Deuteronomy and Leviticus. And Jesus said you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.
And then in Matthew’s version, he added, he said, on these two, love of God and love of neighbor, hang all the law, all the profit, everything that Moses wrote, everything in the holy profits, everything in the scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world. Love God. Love your neighbors. And while you’re at it, love yourself.
Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history, a movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world. A movement mandating people to live that love, and in so doing, to change not only their lives, but the very life of the world itself. I am talking about some power. Real power. Power to change the world. If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s Antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love, and why it has the power to transform. They explained it this way, they sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity. It’s the one that says there is a balm in Gilead. A healing balm.
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. One of the stanzas actually explains why: if you cannot preach like Peter, and you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love of Jesus, how he died to say us all. That’s the balm of Gilead.
This way of love, it is the way of life. They got it; he died to save us all. He didn’t die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an honorary doctorate for dying. He wasn’t getting anything out of it. He sacrificed his life for the good of others, for the well-being of the world, for us. That’s what love is.
Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial. And in so doing, become redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives. And it can change this world. If you don’t believe me, just stop, think, and imagine.
Think and imagine a world when love is the way. Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities when love is the way. Imagine governments and nations when love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way. When love is the way, unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the way, there is plenty good room for all of God’s children. Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all. And we are brothers and sisters, children of God. My brothers and sisters, that’s a new Heaven, a new Earth, a new world, a new human family.
And let me tell you something, Solomon was right in the Old Testament. That’s fire.
With this, we’ll sit down, we got to get you married.
French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was arguably one of the great minds, great spirits of the 20th century. A Jesuit, Roman Catholic priest, a scientist, a scholar, a mystic. In some of his writings, he said from his scientific background as well as his theological one, that the discovery and harnessing of fire was one of the great scientific and technological discoveries in all of human history. Fire, to a great extent, made human civilization possible. Fire made it possible to cook food and to provide sanitary ways of eating which reduced the spread of disease in it’s time. Fire made it possible to heat environments and thereby made human migration around the world a possibility, even into older climates. There was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no Industrial Revolution without fire. The advances of science and technology are greatly dependent on the human ability and capacity to take fire to use it for human good.
Anybody get here in a car today, an automobile? Nod your heads if you did, I know there were some carriages. For those of us who came in cars, fire made that possible. I know that the Bible says, and I believe that Jesus walked on water. But I have to tell you I didn’t walk across the Atlantic Ocean to get here. Controlled fire in that plane got me here. Fire makes it possible for us to text and tweet and e-mail and Instagram and Facebook and otherwise socially be dysfunctional with each other.
Fire makes all that possible. And de Chardin said that fire was one of the greatest discoveries of all of human history. He then went on to say that if humanity ever harnesses the energy of fire again, if humanity ever captures the energy of love, it would be the second time in history that we have discovered fire.
Dr. King was right: we must discover love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world.
My brother, my sister, God love you, God bless you. And may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.
The Oak Ridger reported merely that DOE "announced" its mercury pollution 35 years ago. 1. “Announced?” That’s hysterical. Misleading, inaccurate and anti-historical. How gauche and louche of The Oak Ridger. 2. On November 17, 1982, our small, one-year old, tabloid Clinton, Tenn weekly newspaper, the Appalachian Observer, filed a FOIA request for mercury data to be declassified. See one-page FOIA letter from Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and Editor Ed Slavin (me). 3. NO such request was made by Tennessee environmental regulators, The Oak Ridger, or two Knoxville daily newspapers. 4. Most people believed DOE’s “national security” secrecy assertions when DOE and Union Carbide told the Tennessee regulators that mercury data was “classified,” unavailable. We alone asked for declassification. 5. Please see transcript of May 23, 1983 Oak Ridge City Council meeting, where I cross-examined DOE and Union Carbide officials; printed hearing of DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Joe Ben LaGrone’s testimony, and my testimony, at July 11, 1983 hearing before then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. & Marilyn Lloyd and their two House Science and Technology subcommittees, held at the Oak Ridge Museum of Science and Energy auditorium. 6. In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor held there was NO “national security” exemption to anti-pollution laws https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/586/1163/1903257/ 7. P.S. Anderson County voters May 1 re-elected Mr. Ernest F. Phillips’ daughter, Terry Frank, as Anderson County Mayor. 8. Like her late dad and her mom (Anne Phillips), Mayor Terry Frank has “the right stuff.” 9. The gullible Oak Ridger newspaper was founded by the U.S. Government. When will it stop being a doormat, a press release, for DOE and its contractors? Start reporting the whole truth, with actual investigative reporting on DOE
Legislators, environmental regulators and top U.S. Department of Energy officials break ground in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on a new Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Nov. 20, 2017. When complete, the expansive complex will help reduce mercury levels in the East Fork Poplar Creek and enable large scale cleanup to begin at the site.
Ben Pounds/The Oak Ridger
By The Oak Ridger
Posted May 16, 2018 at 12:48 PM
On May 17, 1983, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it had “lost” or couldn’t account for 2.4 million pounds of mercury in the Oak Ridge environment as a result of lithium production for a U.S. thermonuclear weapons program.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — On May 17, 1983, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it had “lost” or couldn’t account for 2.4 million pounds of mercury in the Oak Ridge environment as a result of lithium production for a U.S. thermonuclear weapons program.
This Thursday, May 17, 2018, which is the 35th anniversary of DOE’s public disclosure, Carolyn Krause will speak on “Oak Ridge’s Mercury Saga: A History of Mercury Contamination in Oak Ridge and the Public and Scientific Response” at 6 p.m. in the Midtown Community Center (formerly the Wildcat Den) at 102 Robertsville Road.
The talk is hosted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
“The release of information to the public about the release of the heavy metal mercury to the Oak Ridge environment since 1950 sparked DOE’s launch of a national environmental management program,” Krause said. “Through contractors, DOE has been addressing contamination at its 75 nuclear sites by uranium, plutonium, other radioactive substances, and chemical pollutants.
“Almost 50 years of mercury research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has helped reduce cleanup costs and resulted in amazing discoveries that may lead to ways to make mercury in waterways less toxic.”
***
The editor of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review for 25 years, Krause previously worked as a reporter for the Pittsburgh Press and The Oak Ridger. She has a master’s degree in journalism, with an emphasis on science writing, from Northwestern University.
1. “Announced?” That’s hysterical. Misleading, inaccurate and anti-historical. How gauche and louche of The Oak Ridger. 2. On November 17, 1982, our small, one-year old, tabloid Clinton, Tenn weekly newspaper, the Appalachian Observer, filed a FOIA request for mercury data to be declassified. See one-page FOIA letter from Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and Editor Ed Slavin (me). 3. NO such request was made by Tennessee environmental regulators, The Oak Ridger, or two Knoxville daily newspapers. 4. Most people believed DOE’s “national security” secrecy assertions when DOE and Union Carbide told the Tennessee regulators that mercury data was “classified,” unavailable. We alone asked for declassification. 5. Please see transcript of May 23, 1983 Oak Ridge City Council meeting, where I cross-examined DOE and Union Carbide officials; printed hearing of DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Joe Ben LaGrone’s testimony, and my testimony, at July 11, 1983 hearing before then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. & Marilyn Lloyd and their two House Science and Technology subcommittees, held at the Oak Ridge Museum of Science and Energy auditorium. 6. In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor held there was NO “national security” exemption to anti-pollution laws https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/586/1163/1903257/ 7. P.S. Anderson County voters May 1 re-elected Mr. Ernest F. Phillips’ daughter, Terry Frank, as Anderson County Mayor. 8. Like her late dad and her mom (Anne Phillips), Mayor Terry Frank has “the right stuff.” 9. The gullible Oak Ridger newspaper was founded by the U.S. Government. When will it stop being a doormat, a press release, for DOE and its contractors? Start reporting the whole truth, with actual investigative reporting on DOE« less
KUDOS FOR FLORIDA STATE LICENSING BOARD REFUSING TO BE BULLIED TO ACCEPT INCOMPLETE APPLICATION FROM DONALD JOHN TRUMP'S DENTIST.
At Friday’s board meeting, Dr. Albert Hazzouri stressed his personal relationship with President Trump, according to three people who attended the meeting. | AP Photo/Gerald Herbert Trump’s personal dentist highlights friendship with president to obtain Florida dental license
By ALEXANDRA GLORIOSO 05/18/2018 06:58 PM EDT Politico
TALLAHASSEE — President Donald Trump’s personal dentist went before the state licensing board on Friday and specifically highlighted his friendship with the president in a bid to obtain permission to set up shop in Florida, according to three people present at the meeting.
Dr. Albert Hazzouri ultimately withdrew his licensing application after receiving significant pushback from the Florida Board of Dentistry, which was concerned that he failed to properly complete the application, a state law requirement.
Missing were scores for a written and clinical exam, official transcripts and CPR certification, according to a Feb. 26 letter from Florida Department of Health Executive Director Jennifer Wenhold. “Typically, when applications are before the Board for consideration, it helps to have a complete application so that all credentials can be reviewed,” she wrote.
At Friday’s board meeting, Hazzouri stressed his personal relationship with Trump, according to three people who attended the meeting but did not want to be identified for fear of retribution.
"This guy was so arrogant. He was saying you should break all the rules and make an exception for me,” said one attendee.
“So basically, he was being lazy and thought that he could just come in and say, ‘I’m the president’s dentist, give me a license,’” said a second attendee.
A third person present at the board meeting described Hazzouri’s actions as “bizarre,” noting that he “implied it hard” that Gov. Rick Scott supported him receiving special permission. Scott’s office denied any special treatment.
“It was just weird,” the third attendee said. “Everyone was kind of looking around, wondering if this was happening.”
When contacted by POLITICO on Friday, Hazzouri did not directly address the allegations that he tried using his personal relationship with Trump to get license approval based on an incomplete application. He said his ultimate goal is to help underserved patients.
“The American Dental Association has asked me to help them form an over-sight committee to insure [sic] that federal funds used to help veterans, Native Americans, underprivileged children and pregnant women were properly deployed and used in the best interest of the patients,” he wrote to POLITICO. “We had hoped to start the program in Florida. As part of that effort I had sought to get a license.“
Hazzouri also called attention to his close friendship with Trump and his family in a Feb. 12 letter to the board.
“As the dentist and personal friend of the President of the United States, I am writing to you with a request to grant me a license to practice in the state of Florida,” Hazzouri writes in the first paragraph of the letter.
“As you know, the President and his family spend a significant amount of time in Florida and he recently made a request to Governor Scott to assist me in obtaining a license,” Hazzouri wrote implying that Scott was supportive of his license application.
Scott’s office told POLITICO on Friday that the governor didn’t support Hazzouri getting special treatment by the board.
“The Governor does not have a position on Dr. Hazzouri’s request and leaves those decisions to the Board of Dentistry,” said Scott spokeswoman Mara Gambineri. “There is a clear process to obtain licensure to practice dentistry in Florida outlined in Florida law. Neither the Governor, nor his staff, made any calls or conducted any outreach on behalf of Dr. Hazzouri. Dr. Hazzouri was directed to the Department of Health for explanation on how to obtain a license in Florida.”
Hazzouri does have close ties to Trump. He‘s reportedly known him for years and more recently was the president’s guest at last year’s New Year’s Eve party at Mar-A-Lago, according to published reports and photos.
Trump himself pointed out Hazzouri during a speech at a presidential campaign rally in July 2016 at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa. Hazzouri‘s dental practice is in Scranton.
Said Trump: “Stand up, Albert; where the hell are you, Albert? Stand up, Albert. He’s a good golfer, but I’m actually a better golfer than him, right? OK, but I have a lot of friends in the room.”
In his Feb. 12 letter to the licensing board, Hazzouri said he had plans to use the private practice in South Florida to “serve as a dental delivery site on selected dates for U.S. veterans and children from underserved populations.”
At Friday’s meeting, the board ultimately suggested he go that route and apply for a limited-access license where a dentist can more easily get established if they practice in an underserved area. Such an area exists nearby Mar-a-Largo outside Palm Beach.
Hazzouri instead chose to withdraw his application.
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2. On November 17, 1982, our small, one-year old, tabloid Clinton, Tenn weekly newspaper, the Appalachian Observer, filed a FOIA request for mercury data to be declassified. See one-page FOIA letter from Publisher Ernest F. Phillips and Editor Ed Slavin (me).
3. NO such request was made by Tennessee environmental regulators, The Oak Ridger, or two Knoxville daily newspapers.
4. Most people believed DOE’s “national security” secrecy assertions when DOE and Union Carbide told the Tennessee regulators that mercury data was “classified,” unavailable. We alone asked for declassification.
5. Please see transcript of May 23, 1983 Oak Ridge City Council meeting, where I cross-examined DOE and Union Carbide officials; printed hearing of DOE Oak Ridge Operations Manager Joe Ben LaGrone’s testimony, and my testimony, at July 11, 1983 hearing before then-Reps. Al Gore, Jr. & Marilyn Lloyd and their two House Science and Technology subcommittees, held at the Oak Ridge Museum of Science and Energy auditorium.
6. In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Taylor held there was NO “national security” exemption to anti-pollution laws https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/586/1163/1903257/
7. P.S. Anderson County voters May 1 re-elected Mr. Ernest F. Phillips’ daughter, Terry Frank, as Anderson County Mayor.
8. Like her late dad and her mom (Anne Phillips), Mayor Terry Frank has “the right stuff.”
9. The gullible Oak Ridger newspaper was founded by the U.S. Government. When will it stop being a doormat, a press release, for DOE and its contractors? Start reporting the whole truth, with actual investigative reporting on DOE« less