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
"every political insider should be reading right now."

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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 Saturday, July 16, 2005

Sliding Touchscreens Through ...

    on the consent agenda:
    Consent agendas improve efficiency and shorten meetings. But they can also be misused -- as a hiding place for bad decisions or a harbor from public controversy. Too often in recent months, local officials have buried items in their consent agendas rather than afford them appropriate discussion.

    Case in point: The decision by the Flagler County Commission to purchase touch-screen vote tabulation systems for handicapped users. In Volusia County -- after one failed attempt to put the issue on a consent agenda -- the topic consumed four hours of one County Council meeting and two special hearings, with council members hearing from residents who feared the machines' inability to produce a paper record of votes. But on May 9 and then again on June 20, Flagler officials put the issue on their consent agenda. That move suggests that county officials wanted to avoid discussion on a potentially incendiary issue.
    "Consent agendas shouldn't be cover for hot issues".

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