New Year Begins With Lower Gulf Power Rates
January 1, 2017
Beginning today, Gulf Power customers will see their prices drop 3 percent thanks to lower fuel costs used in energy production. But there’s also a price increase on the table for July.
In November, the Florida Public Service Commission approved Gulf Power’s request to decrease customer’s bills by $4.63, from $148.64 to $144.01 for the average residential customer. This is the second year in a row Gulf Power customers have seen a decrease in energy prices brought about by careful planning and management of the natural gas and cleaner-than-ever coal the energy provider uses to generate electricity. Last January, residential energy bills decreased 5 percent.
“Gulf Power employees have worked hard to manage costs to benefit our customers directly, especially as we head into the cold winter months,” said Rick DelaHaya, Gulf Power spokesperson. “And because Gulf Power employees have been working hard toward a more balanced energy mix, our customers can take advantage of lower fuel prices now, and into the future.”
Every year, the Florida Public Service Commission adjusts Gulf Power’s prices to reflect cost changes in fuel, environmental controls and energy conservation programs. Fuel cost savings are passed through directly to Gulf Power customers, with no profit to the company.
This decrease comes on the heels of a price increase request to continue to invest in the reliability of Northwest Florida’s energy infrastructure. In October, Gulf Power requested that the Florida Public Service Commission conduct a public review of their prices and a proposed increase that would begin in July 2017. The last time customers saw a price increase was in January 2015, and when compared to those prices, the average residential customer’s monthly bill in July 2017 after PSC approval would increase by only $2.50 per month or less than 2 percent.
“If approved, that requested investment would help secure long-term reliability, continue smart grid improvements, and bolster our goal of achieving a balanced energy mix,” added DelaHaya. “A balanced energy mix helps keep customers’ costs stable and insulates customers from price fluctuations that can be caused by price volatility in the fuel we use to generate electricity.”
Along with that request, the energy company has asked for approval of new customer rate options designed to make bills more predictable, and has instituted new initiatives designed for greater customer conveniences ncluding an improved online experience, additional payment locations at popular stores and payment kiosks in business offices.
2017 Florida Look Ahead: Election Chatter, Trump And Legislative Wrangling
January 1, 2017
The first person to say it is unclear — most seem to attribute the phrase to Hall of Fame baseball manager Casey Stengel — but 2016 seemed to prove the old quote: “Never make predictions, especially about the future.”
The journalist has an additional warning from the late, great Peter Jennings: “I don’t think a reporter should give advice or make predictions.”
But what would the end of one year be without a bit of forecasting about what will happen in the next? And while the Florida political world can always be counted on to produce an offbeat story or two, we can expect a few things to dominate the conversation in 2017. The unexpected will truly have to wait for another day.
THE ELECTION IS OVER. LONG LIVE THE ELECTION: Now that the 2016 presidential election is done, there’s only one thing for politicians to do — gear up for the 2018 midterm elections. And the best way to do that might be to pack away a few accomplishments and talking points in 2017. Republican Gov. Rick Scott is angling for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Bill Nelson, potentially setting up a battle between two of the state’s perennially underestimated politicians. Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of would-be candidates possibly lining up to fight for Scott’s current job — Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, House Speaker Richard Corcoran, outgoing Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Graham and Democratic trial lawyer and mega-donor John Morgan are just some of the marquee names who could jump into the contest. For those not interested in the governor’s mansion or the Senate, three Cabinet posts will be up for grabs in 2018 — Putnam, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Attorney General Pam Bondi are barred by term limits from running for re-election, and Bondi might be headed to Washington, D.C. early in 2017. A few candidates likely will make announcements before the middle of the year, but signs of who is serious about taking the plunge will be clear long before then.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Trying to predict anything that the nation’s mercurial new chief executive will do is dangerous. But the part-time Floridian Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have already floated some ideas that could affect the Sunshine State. Bondi is seen as a likely candidate for a position in the Trump administration, given her outspoken support for Trump during the campaign and her apparent interest in a Beltway job. On the policy front, some in the GOP hope Trump seizes the opportunity to reshape the relationship between Washington and the states. Turning the joint state-federal Medicaid program into a block grant, for example, would allow Florida lawmakers a much freer hand in deciding how the program works. Changes in trade policy could have repercussions for the state’s ports. Stronger enforcement of immigration laws could also have unpredictable effects in a state where even the Republican Party is sometimes divided on how to treat undocumented immigrants.
DISSED INCENTIVES: One the key battles already shaping up for the 2017 legislative session focuses on whether the state should continue to spend tens of millions of dollars to attract tourism and business investment to Florida. Corcoran is an outspoken opponent of the spending. “When you’re taking money out of the masses’ pockets and then giving it literally — to the Democrats’ argument — to the top 1 percent, to the detriment of everybody else, that is de facto socialism,” Corcoran said in October during a panel discussion hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit conservative think tank. Scott is just as determined to provide incentives to attract businesses, in this case $85 million worth. And Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, also supports some level of spending. “I don’t know the magic number, and … obviously we have to look at the budget and see what we’ve got, but I support the concept of funding some incentives to go find jobs,” he said. A recent blow-up over a state tourism-promotion contract with Miami rapper Pitbull hasn’t helped matters.
CORCORAN AND NEGRON TAKE COMMAND: Every other year, when a new House speaker and a new Senate president take office, Capitol denizens debate whether and how the leaders will get along. The attention is particularly keen after Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart, formally moved into their new roles following the November elections. Corcoran is almost universally viewed as a smart, hard-driving conservative who is willing to grind things to a halt if necessary to avoid compromising on certain issues. At least in public, Negron is more laid back and tends to the wonkish side on policy fights. They also have different priorities. The Senate president has floated an additional $1 billion in higher-education spending and new investment in the Everglades. Corcoran appears to be more interested in changing how Tallahassee works, implementing new lobbyist disclosure and budgeting rules. How those goals might come together — or collide — will determine how smoothly the 2017 session will go.
PINCHING PENNIES, A BILLION AT A TIME: Cramping everyone’s room to maneuver are economists’ projections of how much money the state will bring in next year. The economy is still growing at a modest clip, but potential new income is being gobbled up by tax cuts and growing demand for services like education and Medicaid. It’s incredibly hard to lock down exactly how much extra money the state will have to spend because there are several different ways of looking at it, but what’s clear is that lawmakers won’t have much room for budget add-ons. That will be particularly true if lawmakers want to once again hold local education property taxes steady regardless of rising home values, something that could consume $400 million in state money. Negron has acknowledged that some of his spending priorities will have to come from cutting other areas of the budget, but that could cause its own headaches in the form of advocates who support the programs on the chopping block.
ANOTHER SPIN: The annual food fight that is a gambling bill is likely to return to the Legislature, this time as Scott and lawmakers make another attempt at hammering out a revised gaming agreement with the Seminole Tribe. A federal judge’s ruling last month that the state had violated the tribe’s exclusive rights to offer some games added impetus to the negotiations. But any package of gambling bills is likely to attract issues that make it incredibly difficult to get a deal done.
YOU FIX IT: In addition to whatever they might want to do, lawmakers will also have to deal with a to-do list from the state Supreme Court and voters. The court, for example, struck down a new death-penalty law because it did not require unanimous jury recommendations to impose death sentences. The court also found unconstitutional parts of the workers’ compensation insurance system. Meanwhile, voters approved allowing full-strength medical marijuana to be used in the treatment of numerous conditions. But the regulatory structure, and who could make a lot of money off the amendment, has to be approved by the Legislature. Lawmakers during the past few years have passed measures to allow limited uses of medical cannabis, but even that has resulted in a legal and regulatory morass still being sorted out.
EDITING THE CONSTITUTION: After the 2017 session, a 37-member Constitution Revision Commission is expected to start working on a series of recommended changes to the Florida Constitution. The once-every-20-years process will be steered by people appointed by Scott, Corcoran, Negron and Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga, along with Bondi (or whoever is attorney general by then). It could mark Republicans’ best chance to try to roll back provisions of the Constitution that they’ve found nettlesome in recent years. Court rulings on vouchers to pay for private school tuition could be targeted. So could judges themselves; Corcoran has floated the idea of a term limit for new judicial appointments. And lawmakers are likely to be interested in finding some way to avoid another long legal battle under the anti-gerrymandering Fair Districts amendments that voters approved in 2010. Possible solutions include an independent redistricting commission (which could draw bipartisan support) or finding some ways to weaken the amendments (not so much). The one catch is that any changes to the Constitution would still have to win the approval of 60 percent of Florida voters, and that has proven to be a difficult hurdle in recent years.
KEEPING AN EYE ON ZIKA: Was the recent all-clear on local transmissions of Zika an indication that the virus’ invasion of the state has stopped? Or was it just a function of cooler weather chasing away or killing the mosquitoes that carry the virus? Once things start to warm up again, the state will have a better idea of whether Zika was a one-year problem or a recurring nightmare. It’s not just a public health concern; early indications are that the disease crimped Florida’s tourism numbers a bit, which means a sustained presence could hurt tax revenues and employment. Another outbreak would also force the state and federal governments to come up with a plan, perhaps a more permanent one, to deal with the virus.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
2016 In Photos: June
January 1, 2017
Today, we continue our look back at the year 2016 in photos with a look at June.
A “monster” fire destroyed a two-story history turn of the century home in Atmore.
Heavy rains caused temporary flooding on Highway 97.
The Town of Flomaton celebrated the opening of a new municipal complex.
Hands-on training for local firefighters with LifeFlight.
Work continued to widen Highway 99 from Enon to Barrineau Park.
Pictured: Dark clouds from an approaching storm meet the sunset in Walnut Hill.
Demolition began on the 114-year old Century United Methodist Church, heavily damaged in the February tornado.
Mayor Freddie McCall (blue shirt) meet with a Florida Department of Transportation Traffic Safety Engineer to discuss how to stop truck rollovers on North Century Boulevard.
Century deputies wrote 1,286 traffic tickets in the three months leading up to June.
The Town of Century pleaded with FDOT to fix a sharp curve with an extreme lean on North Century Boulevard as another truck wrecked in late June.
A “strawberry moon” in June.
A new traffic signal was activated in June at Highway 297A and Pine Cone Drive.
The Northview High School FFA’s “Fresh From Florida Advocacy Program” was named the second best program in the state during the FFA state convention.
Boy Scouts in Molino held a flag retirement ceremony.
A summertime “Market in the Park” in Atmore.
Youth from The First Baptist Church of Cantonment served lunch at the Waterfront Rescue Mission.
A “magical” Summer Reading Program was held at the Century Branch Library.
The remains of a fallen Blue Angel were flown back to Pensacola Tuesday aboard Fat Albert with a Blue Angel jet escort. Fat Albert, flying under the call sign “Blue Angel 6″, and Lead Solo Lt. Ryan Chamberlain flew over downtown Pensacola, Pensacola Beach and Perdido Key as thousands paid tribute to Capt. Jeff Kuss, who was killed in the crash of his Blue Angel jet in Smyra, TN.
A committee made plans to preserve bricks from the former Century High School in a monument.
A group from Ohio worked on tornado cleanup in Century.
.
A Bratt sunset in June.
Vacation Bible School was held at numerous local churches in June.
A Blue Angels F/A18 aircraft crashed Thursday during the beginning stages of an afternoon practice at the Smyrna (TN) Airport. Blue Angels pilot Capt. Jeff Kuss of the U.S. Marine Corp died in the crash.
A cowboy with the goal of riding 48 states raising money for children’s charities rode his horse into Florida.
Florida’s Minimum Wage Increases
January 1, 2017
Many Florida workers will see a modest boost in their wages starting today as the state’s minimum wage rises a nickel to $8.10 an hour.
It is the first minimum wage increase since January 2015, when the hourly rate rose by 12 cents to $8.05. There was no increase in 2016.
Under a state constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2004, the wage is adjusted annually by the state Department of Economic Opportunity based on a consumer price index.
Tipped workers will earn at least $5.08 an hour.
Florida’s hourly minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, which has not been changed since 2009.
Florida has not followed the lead of California and New York, which have approved laws to eventually raise the minimum wage in their states to $15 an hour. Legislation seeking to raise Florida’s wage to $15 an hour has not advanced in the Legislature, with strong opposition from business groups.
Deputy Shoots Home Invasion Suspect After Homeowner Is Shot
December 31, 2016
An armed home invasion in Escambia County led to a deputy shooting a suspect overnight.
The home invasion occurred about 1 a.m. Saturday on Talladega Trail off Mobile Highway. Before deputies arrived, the suspect and a homeowner exchanged gunfire, wounding the homeowner.
When deputies arrived on scene, the suspected home invader pointed his gun at them, forcing an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputy to fire their service weapon.
Both the homeowner and suspect were transported to a local hospital for treatment. The officer involved shooting is under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as is standard procedure.
Further details have not yet been released by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Molino Man Charged With Striking Deputy In Face
December 31, 2016
A Molino man is facing multiple charges after allegedly fleeing from deputies and striking one of them in the face.
Andre Lamar Floyd, 59, charged with felony battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, resisting arrest without violence, driving without a license and cited for no seat belt.
Two Escambia County deputies attempted a traffic stop at the intersection of Lincoln and Lewis streets in Cantonment. The driver, later identified as Floyd, pulled into a yard and Ellington and Washington streets, exited the driver’s seat and fled on foot despite verbal commands to stop.
A deputy was able to catch Floyd and directed him to the ground in a gravel lot at Muscogee Road and Stinnis Street. Floyd was able to get back up and flee again, before being caught again by the deputy. Floyd then shoved the deputy in the face with his hands, an arrest report states. A second deputy then tased Floyd, who was then detained.
Floyd was booked into the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $16,000.
Another House Fire: 12th Red Bulb Placed On Fire Safety Wreath
December 31, 2016
A fire in the 1000 block of South Fairfield Drive Friday marked the 12 the red bulb to the place on the “Keep the Wreath Green” fire safety wreath.
Escambia County Emergency Communications received multiple calls reporting a structure fire Friday, December 30 at 10:45 a.m. Crews arrived on scene to find a working fire in a single-wide mobile home, with fire visible from a bedroom window.
The fire was called under control at 10:57 a.m. No one was injured in the fire, but the home was a total loss displacing the residents.
The American Red Cross is assisting one adult and two children and the Florida State Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire. The following Escambia Fire Rescue Stations responded: Warrington, Myrtle Grove, Pleasant Grove and Osceola. The NAS Pensacola Fire Department also assisted.
The 10th and 11th red bulbs were following fires in the Cantonment area. Click here and click here for more information and photos.
The “Keep the Wreath Green” fire safety campaign is a collaborative initiative with the city of Pensacola to promote fire safety during the month of December. During the month-long campaign, five-foot wreaths are on display at 18 county fire stations and five city fire stations, with wreaths also placed outside Escambia County’s Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building downtown, the Escambia County Public Safety Building, Pensacola City Hall and Cordova Mall near the food court entrance. Each time firefighters respond to a residential fire with damage, a green light bulb will be replaced with a red one to remind citizens of the dangers posed by fires in residential home.
ECUA Truck Crash Causes Power Outage
December 31, 2016
An Emerald Coast Utilities Authority truck was involved in an accident Friday morning near Jay that left numerous Escambia River Electric Cooperative customers without power.
Further details on the crash at Harvest Road and North Simmons Road, including information on any injuries, have not been released by the Florida Highway Patrol.
Photos courtesy Jay VFD for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Judge Tosses Pollution Notification Rule
December 31, 2016
In a victory for business groups, an administrative law judge Friday ruled that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection overstepped its authority in proposing new requirements for notifying the public when pollution occurs.
The department proposed the notification requirements after high-profile pollution incidents involving a sinkhole at a phosphate plant in Polk County and sewage discharges into Tampa Bay.
But Associated Industries of Florida, the Florida Farm Bureau Federation, the Florida Retail Federation, the Florida Trucking Association and the National Federation of Independent Business challenged the proposed rule in the state Division of Administrative Hearings.
Judge Bram D.E. Canter issued a 21-page order Friday siding with the business groups’ arguments that the department does not have authority under state law to impose the notification requirements on people or businesses responsible for pollution releases. In part, the arguments dealt with proposed requirements for notifying the public through the news media when pollution occurs.
Canter wrote that state law only requires that the Department of Environmental Protection be notified about incidents such as spills or contamination.
“There is no statute that specifically authorizes DEP to adopt a rule which requires persons to notify entities other than DEP when there is a release of a contaminant,” Canter wrote.
The proposed rule came after incidents that included a sinkhole opening at a Mosaic fertilizer plan in Polk County and sending contaminated water into the Floridan Aquifer. Also, it followed St. Petersburg spilling large amounts of sewage into Tampa Bay after Hurricane Hermine.
The proposal called for such pollution incidents to be reported to the Department of Environmental Protection, the news media and local governments within 24 hours. Also, the proposed rule included reporting requirements such as notifying adjacent property owners when pollution travels off-site.
In a document filed Dec. 14, attorneys for the business groups argued that the department’s “haste to respond to the Mosaic sinkhole incident and the St. Petersburg release led to this broad rule and led FDEP to disregard their lack of statutory authority.”
“Under its (the proposal’s) terms, for example, truckers with a fuel spill over 25 gallons can be required to contact the media and local government about the spill,” the document said. “Small businesses, such as dry cleaners and gas stations, that use solvents and petroleum can likewise be swept up within the rule for small releases that pose no realistic danger to human health, whether or not it was prompted by events beyond their control. Under this broad variety of circumstances and businesses, all the entities covered by this rule will be required to contact local media, who have no training and little experience in assessing environmental releases, and who may cause an overreaction, unnecessary panic, and damage a (business’) reputation.”
But department attorneys, in a document filed the same day, contended the agency had the legal authority to require the stepped-up notification.
“The department reasonably interpreted the statute by defining a set of circumstances that presented a threat to human health, and by placing special emphasis on that set of circumstances,” the department attorneys wrote.
While Canter sided with the business groups, the issue of public notification of pollution incidents could re-emerge during the 2017 legislative session, which starts in March. Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, and Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-Treasure Island, indicated in September that they would propose legislation to address the issue.
McKinley Lewis, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott, said in an emailed statement late Friday afternoon that the Scott administration remains committed to increased public notification.
“Protecting Florida’s pristine environment is DEP’s top priority and they will continue the public pollution notification process to ensure all Floridians and visitors are notified of pollution incidents,” Lewis said. “Governor Scott has been clear that the current law is outdated and needs to be changed. That is why earlier this year he directed DEP to implement an emergency rule and announced that he will fight for legislation that ensures Florida families and visitors are notified within 24-hours of a pollution incident. We will review the judge’s order to determine next steps.”
by Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida
Pictured: The Town of Century had 500 gallon sewage spill into this ditch near the Century Woods Apartment on West highway 4 on October 20. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida 2016 Roundup: Kind Of Weird News, Huh?
December 31, 2016
In 2016, Donald Trump was elected to the White House. The Cubs won the World Series. And Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In other words, it was the kind of year that seemed designed to make Florida news look normal.
But even if the relative weirdness of developments in the Sunshine State was down a notch, Florida residents still had plenty to keep them occupied, amused or in some cases terrified.
Two favorite sons who had been among the frontrunners for the presidency failed to get much traction — and one of them, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, reneged on a pledge not to run for a second term. The state’s death penalty sentencing structure was overturned, “fixed” and then overturned again. Two years after rejecting full-strength medical marijuana at the polls, Florida voters decided without much fanfare that pharmaceutical ganja might not be that bad.
There was also tragedy. The state was hammered by two hurricanes, faced an outbreak of the previously unfamiliar Zika virus and endured the worst mass shooting in American history. For many Floridians, 2016 probably couldn’t end soon enough.
Perhaps 2017 will allow Florida to reclaim its undisputed mantle as the weirdest state in the nation — but for the amusing mixture of fast food and strange crimes and not for the darker reasons that sometimes played out in 2016.
FLORIDA, FLORIDA, FLORIDA (I)
With apologies to Benjamin Franklin, there are a few certainties of life in Florida: summer heat, low attendance at Miami sporting events and a deluge of visits from presidential candidates every four years. The last of those put the state in the spotlight during one of the weirdest presidential campaigns in recorded American history — no hyperbole.
After amassing a nine-digit money hoard before the Republican presidential primary even began in earnest, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush started the campaign as the undisputed favorite. But he was already limping by the time 2016 began, with News Hurricane Donald coming ashore and rivals like Rubio trying to eat away at Bush’s establishment base.
One of the clearest signs that Bush and Rubio were both failing to gain serious momentum was that political figures inside their home state were hedging bets, or even leaning a bit toward Trump. Gov. Rick Scott did not make a formal endorsement ahead of the state’s March 15 primary, but he had basically already signaled his choice, penning a USA Today opinion piece headlined, “Donald Trump has America’s pulse.”
The multi-multi-millionaire governor credited the billionaire real-estate developer as someone “who speaks and tweets his mind freely.” Scott said Trump’s standing in the polls was more about Trump’s ability to capture “the frustration of many Americans after seven years of President Obama’s very intentional government takeover of the American economy.”
Whatever it was, it worked. Bush was out by late February, after a string of embarrassing results ended with a fourth-place showing in South Carolina. Rubio hung on until Florida, eventually getting into an insult war with Trump that included suggestions about the size of the businessman’s manhood. But then Trump had almost grown inevitable, even before Attorney General Pam Bondi endorsed the bombastic billionaire on primary eve. Trump crushed Rubio by nearly 20 percentage points.
With Florida voters having made their decision, Scott then lined up behind Trump. And to borrow one of Trump’s famous phrases, he kept winning and winning and winning, ending up as the Republican nominee.
Florida was soon back to center stage. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, emphasized the importance of Florida by visiting the state to give what amounted to a rebuttal of the Republican National Convention before heading to her party’s gathering the following week.
“I know there’s a lot of angst. I understand all that. And I respect those who have legitimate concerns and questions. But I’ve never known America to quit on ourselves. I’ve never known us to give up on the face of tough challenges … to retreat in the kind of isolation that was being advertised at their convention,” she said. “That is not who we are. Those are not the values that made us a great country.”
Trump also made frequent trips to Florida, including an October stop in Panama City Beach, where he suggested that the Army Corps of Engineers could prevent droughts by not releasing water from Lake Okeechobee, and blamed a global elite for the problems facing the nation.
“This election will determine whether we remain a free country in the truest sense of the word or we become a corrupt banana republic controlled by large donors and foreign governments,” Trump told the crowd. “The election of Hillary Clinton would lead to the destruction of our country.”
Democrats banked on the state’s increasing diversity to win Florida and its 29 electoral votes. Republicans counted on a surge of working-class white voters. By the end of election night, it was clear which plan had worked: Trump carried the state en route to winning the White House.
FLORIDA, FLORIDA, FLORIDA (II)
If there was a level of government in Florida that was reshaped most by the 2016 elections, it was the state’s congressional delegation. Between redistricting, retirements and even an indictment, there will be plenty of new faces in Florida’s contingent of U.S. House members when they formally take office in January.
Some of the faces will even be moving around. Republican Congressman Dan Webster moved to run for an open seat stretching from Lake County to the Gulf Coast after his Orlando-area district was redrawn as part of a legal battle over gerrymandering. What was left of Webster’s district was almost unwinnable for a Republican candidate.
Either because of redistricting or other reasons, many members just left. Republican Congressmen Curt Clawson, Ander Crenshaw, Jeff Miller and Rich Nugent all stepped aside. (And would have been joined by GOP Reps. Ron DeSantis and David Jolly but for a change of heart by Rubio on his U.S. Senate seat.) Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Graham bowed out of a redrawn and strongly Republican seat, while Democratic Congressmen Alan Grayson and Patrick Murphy battled for the party’s Senate nomination.
Others fought. Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown, gearing up to seek a 13th term, filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the state’s new congressional districts violated the Voting Rights Act by illegally weakening the ability of African-American voters to elect candidates of their choice. Brown’s district was reoriented from a north-south district that ran from Jacksonville to Orlando to an east-west configuration that runs from Jacksonville to Gadsden County and included a good part of Tallahassee.
But federal judges rejected her lawsuit in April.
Things got worse for Brown in July, when she was indicted on charges that she and a top aide used a sham education charity to pay for personal expenses and luxurious events. Brown pleaded not guilty, but the allegations clearly took a toll on her Democratic primary race against former state Sen. Al Lawson and LaShonda “LJ” Holloway. Still, Brown remained her pugnacious self.
“Are you a pedophile? No,” she said to a reporter who asked a question about the indictment — her way of demonstrating that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.
Brown lost her bid for re-election to Lawson. Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat who resigned from her post as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee amid controversy this summer, fought off a primary challenge from Nova Southeastern University law professor Tim Canova.
Two more incumbents went down in November: Jolly lost to former Gov. Charlie Crist, a onetime Republican running as a Democrat, while Republican Congressman John Mica was ousted by political novice Stephanie Murphy.
One person who surprisingly didn’t leave office: Rubio, who had initially vowed that he wouldn’t run for re-election to the Senate. But after his presidential bid fizzled and with a virtual parade of Republican leaders begging him to reconsider, Rubio re-entered the Senate race and handily beat Murphy, his Democratic opponent.
“I am glad that I’m an American in the 21st Century,” he said following his victory. “America is going to be OK. We will turn this country around. I have faith. I know God is not done with America yet.”
TINKERING WITH THE MACHINERY
Lawmakers were happily going through the motions of the first day of the 2016 legislative session when the U.S. Supreme Court threw a monkey wrench in the proceedings, striking down Florida’s death-penalty sentencing system as unconstitutional.
In its 8-1 opinion, the Supreme Court ruled that Florida’s unique law giving judges the ultimate power to decide whether to impose the death penalty amounted to a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury.
The immediate result was confusion. Once lawmakers began grappling with the issue, though, the House and the Senate split on how far-ranging the reforms to the death penalty should go. Senators pushed for requiring unanimous jury recommendations before death sentences could be imposed. The House proposed increasing the jury threshold for imposing capital punishment from a simple majority to a 9-3 vote.
“The Senate feels that if we go to 9-3 that we’ll be back in a few years, going through this again,” said then-Senate Criminal Justice Chairman Greg Evers, R-Baker.
Lawmakers ultimately compromised on a 10-2 margin for jury recommendations on death sentences. And it didn’t even take a few years. The Florida Supreme Court struck down the new law in October, saying unanimity was needed in death sentences.
“Simply put, Florida’s extreme outlier status in not requiring unanimity in the jury’s final recommendation renders the current imposition of the death penalty in Florida cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Justice Barbara Pariente wrote in a concurring opinion to the court’s decision.
Then, in December, the court ruled that inmates sent to Death Row after a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision should be able to seek new sentencing proceedings. The ruling is expected to pave the way for about 55 percent of the state’s 386 Death Row inmates to seek new sentencing proceedings — though it didn’t help inmates sentenced before the 2002 decision.
Meanwhile, there was a chance that the Florida court’s ideological balance might change, ever so slightly. Justice James E.C. Perry will leave the court at the end of the year due to mandatory retirement. Scott chose C. Alan Lawson, chief judge of the Daytona Beach-based 5th District Court of Appeal, to replace Perry.
Lawson is expected to be more conservative than Perry.
“The Supreme Court, and the courts, do determine whether a law is constitutional or not,” Lawson said. “From the very beginning, that right of the branch also came with a promise that it would be exercised with judicial restraint.”
FLORIDA BUGS OUT
It might sound like a flavorful dish from a Mediterranean country, but Floridians found out this year that Zika is actually a serious virus.
At first, state officials tried to calm the situation by pointing out that many of the cases of the mosquito-borne virus stemmed from people traveling to countries where Zika was active. But then, evidence emerged that local mosquitoes were also carrying the disease in some areas, and suddenly the cases seemed to be coming like a drumbeat. Two new local cases on Aug. 15. Twelve travel-related cases the next day. Three local cases the day after that. And so on.
Scott began criticizing President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled Congress for failing to come to an agreement on funding to combat the disease. He traveled to Washington to personally lobby for the funding. The governor also tried to tamp down fears about the virus, noting that local transmission was only happening in relatively small areas of Miami-Dade County.
“We have a safe state, and we’re going to keep it that way,” Scott said in August.
Finally, in September — seven months after Scott had first sounded the alarm — Congress passed a Zika bill. By December, Scott was able to announce that the last remaining area in Miami-Dade where Zika was being transmitted by mosquitoes had been cleared. But with warm weather and the accompanying bugs bound to return, there were questions about how long the reprieve would last.
TERRORISM STRIKES FLORIDA
A more sudden and brutal tragedy came in June, when shots rang out early one morning at the Pulse gay nightclub in downtown Orlando. By the time it was over, St. Lucie County resident Omar Mateen, 29, had killed 49 people before being shot dead by police.
Despite their varying views on gun control and LGBT rights, leaders from across the political spectrum condemned the violence and mourned the victims.
“We know that there’s hate in the world,” Rubio said. “We know that some of it is inspired by warped ideology. … I hope they see today they won’t terrorize America. They won’t terrorize Floridians. We stand with all Americans … irrespective of their sexual orientation.”
But divisions didn’t take long to emerge, particularly on the issue of gun control. Democrats tried to pressure Republicans to call a special session to deal with firearms legislation. GOP leaders responded by painting the requests as crass politics.
Republicans also stirred the pot. Barely a week after the massacre, Evers — who was running for Congress — drew criticism for plans to give away a semiautomatic rifle similar to the one used in the Pulse attack.
“With terrorism incidents on the rise, both at home and abroad, protecting our constitutional rights has never been more important,” Evers said in a prepared statement.
LGBT activists, in particular, were outraged.
“I think it is tasteless, disrespectful, disgusting, political pandering at its worst,” said Stratton Pollitzer, deputy director of Equality Florida, an LGBT advocacy group. “The idea that he wants to put the same style assault rifle that was just used for mass murder into the hands of a random stranger is grotesque.”
As they had before on gun-related issues, Democrats used a provision of the state Constitution to force a poll of legislators on whether to hold a special session. As such drives had before, this one failed.
HELLO HURRICANES
Not long before the Pulse shootings, a far different kind of tragedy was on the minds of people gathered in Orlando, as the Governor’s Hurricane Conference drew warnings about complacency and “hurricane amnesia.”
If there was any forgetfulness, or a complete lack of memories in the case of new residents, it was wiped out in 2016, when Florida was lashed by not one but two of the tropical storm systems.
Hurricane Hermine crashed into the state’s Gulf Coast in September, making landfall near St. Marks as a Category 1 hurricane. The storm knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of residents. The pace of restoring that power caused clashes between Scott and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party.
Hurricane Matthew was a worse storm, but Florida avoided a direct hit. That didn’t keep the hurricane from doing damage as it barreled up the East Coast. The storm plunged more than 1 million homes and businesses into the dark. Still, Scott said Florida was “blessed.”
“If it had a direct impact hit, it would have been a lot worse for our families,” he said.
In all, damages from the storms reached almost $1.6 billion by December. Those numbers didn’t include agricultural losses and some damages that local governments are handling without state assistance.
QUOTES OF THE YEAR:
“Sometimes I go to happy hour and I have one drink. Sometimes I end up closing the bar and wind up at the Waffle House at 3 a.m.”— Orlando lawyer John Morgan, in May, saying he had “no clue” how much he would spend to support the medical marijuana initiative on this year’s ballot.
“We probably should just schedule the same conversation about every seven days, it appears.”—state Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, in August, asked to respond to the latest comments from GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump that caused widespread outrage.
“I don’t mean this literally, but he’s going to blow the place up. And I mean that in a good way.”—Former lawmaker Mike Fasano, Pasco County tax collector, in November, on incoming House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes.
“Politically, the challenge in this really kind of crude environment is to go beyond being against what’s not working and being for things that will work, that will lift people up. And I tried that and totally failed, miserably. I mean, like, belly flop — bam.”—Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in December, on his presidential bid.
“Lastly, I appreciate Pitbull and his devotion to our great state.”—Gov. Rick Scott, in a letter detailing proposed reforms to Visit Florida, prompted in part by outrage over a contract the Miami rapper got to promote tourism in Florida.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida