The Political Whore

My cover story on the stands today is a mock GOP election strategy memo outlining the many wedge-issue bills in the session this year, plus a sidebar by Alex Pickett on 10 outrageous bills offered by goofballs in both parties.

Read the cover stories here and here.

And here is an update on the various pieces of legislation we wrote about, as of today’s session (most notably, the ultrasounds for abortions bill was killed on a tie Senate vote):

SB 744 Sexual Activities Involving Animals.
Co-sponsor Rep. Bill Heller.
Senate bill stuck in Judiciary committee; in several House committees going nowhere

SB 302 “The Saggy Pants Bill.”
Democratic Senator Gary Siplin of Orlando
Passed Senate 28-11; in House council with iffy chances

HB 257 “Ultrasounds before abortions”
– Rep. Trey Traviesa of Tampa
Passed House 70-45; died in Senate on 20-20 vote this afternoon

SB 1992 Anti-Truck Nutz bill/Banning gonads on vehicles.
Sen. Carey Baker of Eustis
Passed Senate 37-2; passed House this morning 112-2

HB 371 I Believe, Chrisitan license plate –
On third reading calendar in the House; Senate passed a specialty plate bill without it, with In God We Trust instead (Senate voted down an amendment from Sen. Ronda Storms of Valrico to add it)

SB 2692 Academic Freedom bill (teaching creationism)
Sen. Ronda Storms
Passed House 71-43 with language that tones down the bill’s impact; passed Senate 21-17; must go to a conference committee to iron out differences.

HB 73 – Immigration
Wide-ranging crackdown on undocumented workers similar to Oklahoma bill
Rep. Don Brown of DeFuniak Springs
Going nowhere in committee

SB 1354 Florida Commercial Anti-Pornography Act.
Sen. Siplin
Going nowhere in committee

SB 1118 Illegal Aliens.
Senator Frederica Wilson of Miami
Prohibiting the term “illegal alien” from appearing in state documents,
Going nowhere in committee

SB 340 Salvia Divinorum ban.
Sen. Paula Dockery of Lakeland
Passed, 109-4 in House; 39-0 in Senate
possession or sale of salvia a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

HB 977 Public Transit Safety/bathroom breaks for drivers
Rep. Geraldine Thompson
Going nowhere in the House

SB 386 “I can’t spare a square” bill
Food Service Restroom Inspections/
requires toilet paper in clean restaurant bathrooms
Sen. Victor Crist
Stuck on second reading calendar in Senate and passage is unlikely

SB 2464 Implanted Microchips.
Central Florida Senator Bill Posey
Making it a felony to implant microchips in someone without their consent.
Dead, went nowhere in committee

Cell phone prohibitions
HB 175 – on first reading calendar
HB 357– on first reading calendar
SB 1266 – going nowhere in committee
SB 1314 – going nowhere in committee

Bookmark It

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Senate leaders announced late Wednesday they were stripping a transportation bill of the legal protections CSX Corp. says it needs to pave the way for Central Florida’s commuter rail deal.

Claiming the huge bill loaded with projects for other regions like South Florida was being weighted down by the controversial rail deal, Senate Transportation Chairman Carey ["Truck Nutz"] Baker, R-Eustis, said he would gut the CSX legal protections and framwork for the deal to buy the 61-mile line.

Pro-deal forces like the Central Florida Partnership had lobbied hard for the deal, including commissioning a poll that showed positive public sentiment for the generic concepts of more rail and more freight as green endeavors. In sheer anger at not getting his way, Polk Sen. J.D. “Related to Katherine Harris so you know he carries at least the recessive gene for nuttiness” Alexander, who has financial interests in opening up the heartland of Florida to more development, lashed out at his colleagues:

In retaliation, Sen. J.D. Alexander of Winter Haven had filed an amendment to strike the $45 million state subsidy Tallahassee sends to the Tri-Rail system in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties — complaining that lawmakers who were fighting central Florida’s rail project were benefiting from the same legal protections in their region.

“At the end of the day I hope we build commuter rail first in Orlando,” he said. “Whatever our policy is, it should be the policy for the entire state. We shouldn’t have a South Florida policy and a Central Florida policy.”

Bookmark It

My old buddy Ron Cunningham must be behind this great editorial in the Gainesville Sun:

What’s wrong with Tallahassee? Is there no adult supervision in the political romper room called the Florida Legislature?

Read the entire piece here.

Bookmark It

Dude, you gotta read your deed restrictions.

• Obama cuts off the ravin’ Rev.
• Mrs. Irrelevant.
• U.S. preps military action against a “hostile” Iran. I’d suggest “Operation: National Suicide” as a title.
• U.S. economy staves off recession with .6% growth. I feel better, don’t you?
• Figuring out the rice shortage. (Hint: The problem isn’t just ethanol.)
• Al Franken finally pays his taxes.
• Paula Abdul’s got issues with her short-term memory.
• Lede of the week: “A teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus, federal authorities said Tuesday.”

Bookmark It

Was just talking with a local media maven about the woes at Tampa Trib-parent Media General and the coming buyouts/possible layoffs, and he commented, “They should just put a bullet in it and be finished with it.” Reminded me of this scene:

Bookmark It

Just getting caught up from last week’s expected public spanking of the current Media General brain trust. (Deggans had a good piece on it if you want to get caught up on the details. Hinman at the BizJournal, too.) For those who don’t follow arcane public media company goings-on, even those involving the owner of our favorite whipping-boy local daily, the Tampa Tribune, three dissident board members beat out the insiders for seats on the Media General board.

Those nominations had led to a nasty proxy fight that MG lost. And what a sore loser the company’s management was. MG CEO Marshall Morton sent the faithful the following e-mail:

Subject: Marshall Morton Comments on Media General Annual Meeting

April 24, 2008

Dear Fellow Employees,

Media General held its Annual Meeting of Stockholders this morning. Based on preliminary election results, it appears that the three individuals nominated by the Harbinger hedge fund were elected to the company’s Board of Directors. Our press release has been posted to the Meganet.

We are disappointed that three very capable directors, who have contributed significantly to the Board’s deliberations, both through their ability and their experience, have been displaced.

I want you to understand that Harbinger cannot, under any circumstances, forcibly gain control of Media General, and that the three new directors cannot gain control of our nine-member Board.

We will listen with courtesy to the ideas of the new directors, but, frankly, I believe they are going to have to prove themselves worthy of their places on our Board before they will be able to earn the confidence of the remaining directors.

I appreciate the many notes of support I received during the proxy contest. Throughout, you stayed focused and continued to make a difference to our audiences, our advertisers and the communities we serve.

You deserve tremendous praise for the successes we have been achieving. Through your efforts, we are transforming the company into a new media enterprise. We know that our customers are in charge, and we are leading change to meet their needs. Employees across our company have created opportunities for us to:

• Foster a critical culture of innovation
• Adopt a successful Web-First strategy in all of our newsrooms to increase total audience and market share
• Create targeted new products to reach new audiences and attract new advertisers
• Expand our interactive advertising services to generate new revenue and cash flow streams
• Complete the transformation to digital broadcasting, launch high-definition local newscasts and use the expanded digital spectrum to offer secondary channels in many markets
• Deliver our content to mobile consumers via cell phones and other portable devices

We will succeed because we have the right strategic focus, the right tools and you are the right employees. Thanks to the relationships we’ve built with consumers and the skills we’ve developed to address their needs, when people want information about their communities, they turn to the Media General brands in their markets. Consumers value our information and we intend to continue to be the leading provider of news, information and entertainment in all our markets.

Your continued support of our mission, our values, and our strategy for success is the right way to build shareholder value for all of us.

Thank you.
Yours sincerely,

Marshall N. Morton
President and Chief Executive Officer

So, at MG, how do new board members “prove themselves worthy?” Vote to overpay for four piddling NBC affiliates in a down economic cycle? Uphold MG’s insistence on broadening the FCC’s media monopoly rules so it can do “convergence” in more markets? Lost tons of money year to year?

Seems that’s the way that the old board members made their bones.

Oh, and the buzz from 202 S. Parker Street (”the News Center”) is that it will be June before the company sorts out its buyout offer situation and plows through the stacks of those who offered to take the bullet now and those who are holding out to be Leo Di Caprio, clinging to the railing as the ship goes down.  (”Never let go.”) Said one person with knowledge of the situation: “It’s like a mauseoleum.”

Bookmark It

Who said it? Can you match the quote to the name below?

• “… my general feeling is that the recession will be longer and deeper than most people think.”
• “I would hope that we could bring them all home. …”
• “At the heart of my approach is a simple belief. … Middle-class families are paying too much and oil companies aren’t paying their fair share to help us solve the problems at the pump.”
• “The displays of personalities such as Barbie, Batman, Spiderman and Harry Potter… as well as the irregular importation of unsanctioned computer games and movies are all warning bells to officials in the cultural arena.”
• “It all adds up to a new level of depth for an interactive entertainment experience.”
• “Indictment should also be against Sony and Microsoft which are making this pornographic game available to minors, and openly so, on their PS3 and Xbox systems.”
• “Annie took, like, a beautiful shot, and I thought it was really cool. That’s what she wanted me to do, and you can’t say no to Annie. … I think it’s really artsy. It wasn’t in a skanky way.”

A. Jack Thompson

B. John McCain

C. Seth Schiesel

D. A complete fucking liar Miley Cyrus

E. Warren Buffett

F. Hillary Clinton

G. Iranian Prosecutor General, Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi

(Photo Credit: Aymlis)

Bookmark It

(Photo by poohka)

A new poll obviously testing the waters for the pending Central Florida rail deal is being circulated behind the scenes but has not been made public yet. We snagged a copy, but more about the pro-rail results later. First, some background.

The proposed deal to lease back some of the CSX rail lines in Orlando started (very, very quietly if not exactly secretly) under Gov. Jeb Bush, and even today, it has received little attention in any local press except for the Tampa Tribune (whose coverage has been so strident it managed to really piss off the former gov recently). That means few have read the stuff or understand the importance of the issue to Tampa Bay and its own rail dreams.

In a nutshell, in the interest of getting a rail corridor for a commuter line from Orlando to here, the state has negotiated a controversial deal to pay freight hauler CSX $491 million to use its tracks in Orlando for commuter rail and to agree not to sue CSX for anything that happens on those tracks, even if it is the rail company’s fault. (Irking some folks is the fact that we, the taxpayers, gave CSX those rail rights of way for pennies back in the day.)

As part of the deal, CSX would shift some of its freight operations to other tracks and build a new hub in Polk County, and that has raised some eyebrows in Lakeland and Polk County as residents realized they could see a lot more freight train traffic coming their way as as result.

Two bills, HB 1399 and SB 1978, are set for votes this week as it comes down to the wire to see if the deal survives. Today, PoHo obtained a copy of a poll done on the issue of commuter rail and freight traffic that shows widespread public support for the concepts of more freight and commuter rail traffic but that pointedly doesn’t mention “the CSX deal.”

Lutz civic activist Dee Layne called the deal a “giveaway” in her latest legislative roundup, posted to this blog earlier today.

The poll — only some of which was given to this blog by two political operatives who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to release the results — was done by the Market Enhancement Group’s Barry Quarles. The polling presentation doesn’t reveal who paid for it.

UPDATE: On Tuesday, the patrons of the poll came forward — the Central Florida Partnership. From their news release: “”It’s very clear that residents of these two counties support more fuel efficient transportation and that they are concerned with the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from excessive traffic,” said Jacob V. Stuart, President of the Central Florida Partnership.  “While we know there’s support in the seven-county Central Florida Region, policy makers should find it interesting that nearly three-quarters of the residents of these two counties - on one end of the I-4 corridor - think finding more fuel-efficient transportation should be a priority for state government.”

Here are the most interesting findings in the survey of 600 voters in Hillsborough and Polk counties:

• 73 percent of Polk voters and 68 percent of Hillsborough believe that “finding more fuel-efficient ways to transport people and goods should be a priority for state government in Florida.”
• 69 percent of Polk registered voters think there should be a “greater use of freight rail” if it “reduces greenhouse gas emissions.” 81 percent of Hillsborough voters agree with using more freight rail to cut trucking emissions.
• Two-thirds of the registered voters in both counties said they would support government investments in rail infrastructure “if railroads are the most fuel-efficient form of ground transportation.”
• Voters in both counties would supporter greater state investments in rail infrastructure if railroads would reduce highway congestion. The support was higher in Hillsborough (77 percent) than in Polk (67 percent), while the idea’s negatives were twice as high in Polk (17 percent said no to the question).
• 62 percent of the voters in both counties said they would supporter a commuter rail line in Orlando if it “would help Tampa secure its own commuter service in the future.”

What the market research shows, if it can be trusted, is that the concept of using state dollars to upgrade and use existing rails for commuter projects and more freight rail seems to be playing out a lot better with voters — if you don’t actually use specifics or the name of the deal or the name of the railroad, CSX, which has been pretty beat up in the Trib coverage.

Lost in some of the details (odious or not) of the CSX deal are the ramifications to Tampa Bay commuter rail. There’s no doubt that TBARTA, our regional rail authority, will be able to design and sell to the voters a commuter rail system with greater ease if hooking into an existing Orlando system is part of the equation. In fact, building a regional commuter rail here without an Orlando component seems downright stupid. TBARTA’s website, in fact, shows such a corridor to Lakeland and beyond to Orlando.

(Polling Methodology: A telephone survey of (self-proclaimed) registered voters in Hillsborough (300 respondents) and Polk (300). The margin of error is +/-5.8 percent in each individual county or +/-4.1 percent for the entire combined sample. That means that 95 percent of the time, you would get the same results within those margins if you conducted the same poll over and over again.)

Bookmark It

Insiders at the St. Petersburg Times have been relaying to me for about two weeks bits and pieces of the planned cutbacks at the larger of the two Bay area dailies, but nothing officially has been released from the HQ on 1st Street South.  Now, the word is reaching a wider audience, with former Times and Tampa Tribune reporter Chris Roush reporting in his business news blog:

The St. Petersburg Times will cut its standalone business section during the week but keep its Sunday business section, current and former members of the business desk have confirmed.

The change is expected to occur next month, likely with the paper of May 19. The business section will be combined with the paper’s metro section.

The Florida paper joins other large metro dailies such as the Denver Post, Orange County Register, Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal, Monterey (Calif.) Herald, Palm Beach Post and Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal.

The paper will also be cutting its stock listings, using three-quarters of a page for market data bassed on Associated Press modules. It will have a full page for business news and the bottom of the market data page for jumps and briefs. Business stories will also be candidates for the front of the metro section.

Business will not be alone. In addition, the Times is cutting its Floridian features section during the week. It will also have a page inside the metro section.

The changes would ech