FLORIDA POLITICS
Since 2002, daily Florida political news and commentary

 

UPDATE: Every morning we review and individually digest Florida political news articles, editorials and punditry. Our sister site, FLA Politics was selected by Campaigns & Elections as one of only ten state blogs in the nation
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Welcome To Florida Politics

Thanks for visiting. On a semi-daily basis we scan Florida's major daily newspapers for significant Florida political news and punditry. We also review the editorial pages and political columnists/pundits for Florida political commentary. The papers we review include: the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Naples News, Sarasota Herald Tribune, St Pete Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Tallahassee Democrat, and, occasionally, the Florida Times Union; we also review the political news blogs associated with these newspapers.

For each story, column, article or editorial we deem significant, we post at least the headline and link to the piece; the linked headline always appears in quotes. We quote the headline for two reasons: first, to allow researchers looking for the cited piece to find it (if the link has expired) by searching for the original title/headline via a commercial research service. Second, quotation of the original headline permits readers to appreciate the spin from the original piece, as opposed to our spin.

Not that we don't provide spin; we do, and plenty of it. Our perspective appears in post headlines, the subtitles within the post (in bold), and the excerpts from the linked stories we select to quote; we also occasionally provide other links and commentary about certain stories. While our bias should be immediately apparent to any reader, we nevertheless attempt to link to every article, column or editorial about Florida politics in every major online Florida newspaper.

 

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The Blog for Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Slots

    If the Legislature won't do it, the courts will:
    It took a Broward judge 22 minutes Tuesday to do what frustrated Floridians have threatened, but have been unable to do, for years: Order the Legislature to follow the mandate of state voters.

    In one fell swoop, Circuit Judge Leroy Moe ruled that slot machines may start spinning within weeks in Broward County and slammed the Legislature, saying it ''deliberately violated the Constitution'' when it failed to pass legislation regulating slots at parimutuels by the July 1 deadline.

    In his brief hearing, Moe said the Legislature's inaction prompted the court to step in. He ordered the Broward County Commission to write the rules -- with his oversight. An appeal is expected.

    The ruling marked the first time a court has delegated legislative control over gambling to a county government, but the events that led to it were the latest example of state lawmakers thumbing their noses at a requirement in the Florida Constitution.
    "Lawmakers have ignored voters' mandates before". See also "Judge gives go-ahead for slots" and "Last chance on slots".

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