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 Sunday, November 13, 2005

FPL Got Some 'Splaining To Do

    While billing customers for hurricane cleanup and netting record profits, Florida Power & Light scrimped on tree-trimming, pole inspections and other basic maintenance -- leaving South Florida's power grid more vulnerable to widespread blackouts.

    Florida's largest utility company slashed operating and maintenance costs per customer by 32 percent between 1991 and 2001. In the past three years, the company shaved about 4.5 percent more from those costs, company records show.

    FPL insists that its cost-cutting -- which has helped stock prices soar in recent years -- has not pinched the reliability of its service.

    Yet when Hurricane Wilma swept the region three weeks ago, its winds plunging 3.2 million FPL customers into darkness, overgrown trees and rotting poles played a crucial role in the record-setting outage, utility workers say.
    And the "utility workers" in question are not FPL employees (not that that should make a difference); rather
    20 out-of-state utility workers interviewed by The Herald in Miami-Dade and Broward counties say they were not surprised by the damage because overgrown trees were dangerously close to power lines and some utility poles were so rotted they were easily pierced by a screwdriver.
    "Workers: Cutbacks put FPL's system at risk".

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