Florida Latin Connection

Agriculture commissioner Adam Putnam’s daughter, Abigail, caused a stir when fertilizer giant Mosaic paid $10,000 this week for a chocolate hazelnut cake she entered into a Youth Fair Auction in Polk County. Fair officials said it was an unprecedented sum for an auction cake.

Speaking at a Capital Tiger Bay Club meeting on Friday, Putnam said the incident created two crises.       

First, his 8-year-old daughter, Libby, who also entered contest, lost to her older sister. Then came news of the $10,000 award. Abigail wanted to give the county fair $9,000, her 4-H Club $500 and keep $500 for herself, the usual going rate for auction cakes. But the award would have violated the state’s gift ban.

And so, Putnam negotiated with Abigail, offering to buy her an iPod instead. She countered that she wanted three iPods, so her sisters, including 7-year-old Emma, could have them as well.

St.Petersburg/ Zink/01/28/2011
Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Adam Putnam’s daughter turns down $10,000 fertilizer check, takes iPods instead..

Comments (0) Jan 28 2011

Disney’s Vero Beach Resort is a Disney Beach Destination located in Vero Beach, Florida — 2 hours southeast of Walt Disney World Resort. Guests relax in the casual elegance and laid back lifestyle of Florida’s picturesque Atlantic Treasure Coast.

Make your stay more magical with a wide range of recreational activities on both land and sea. Your entire family will find something to get them into the spirit of the Sunshine State.

Experience all the modern amenities and conveniences that make Disney Resorts feel like home, while you enjoy the incredible service you’ve come to expect from Disney, with Cast Members on hand to make your vacation easy and worry-free.

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

The White House personnel switch to more business-friendly officials may be going too far, Democratic strategist Paul Begala warned on Sunday.

“Don’t replace an over-reliance on intellectual elites with an over-reliance on corporate elites,” Begala said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Begala was commenting on the hiring of  banker and former Clinton administration official Bill Daley as White House chief of staff and the replacement of intellectuals such economist Larry Summers with new National Economic Council director Gene Sperling.

Begala said that such elites are out of step with middle-class voters who are the base of the Democratic coalition. One example is President Barack Obama’s likely embrace of deficit-cutting in 2011.

“Elites want to hear about the deficit argument, middle-class Americans want the hear about jobs,” in Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, Begala asserted. “Those are two ice floes going in absolutely different directions.”

Politico/ Maggs/ 01/23/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Don’t over-rely on business, Begala warns..

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday he’s not interested and hasn’t discussed returning to government.

“I’m not looking for a position,” Powell said on CNN’s “State of the Union,” adding that he prefers to serve as an informal adviser to President Barack Obama.

Powell, who endorsed Obama for president, acknowledged there were discussions during the 2008 transition to find a spot for him, but “nothing was of interest to me.”

Politico/Maggs/ 01/23/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Colin Powell: He is In….

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

“If the Judicial Qualifications Commission is looking for one clear moment of conduct unbecoming a judge, it could look at 1st District Court of Appeal Judge Paul Hawkes’ inaccurate account to a Senate committee this month of his pursuit of the ‘Taj Mahal’ courthouse. His sorry performance is also a reminder of the price Floridians are paying for a politicized judiciary.”  

Apparently, Hawkes has no fear about spinning a version of events that is at odds with the facts. Indeed, 1st District voters returned him to the bench for at least another six years in November, even after St. Petersburg Times senior correspondent Lucy Morgan reported how he and other judges pursued the new building and demanded such amenities as private kitchens and soundproof bathrooms. But Hawkes and his colleagues didn’t act alone. They had help from legislators — including new U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and new Hillsborough County Commissioner Victor Crist — and the state Department of Management Services, which acquiesced to many of their demands.

Bush’s hands are not clean, either. It was during his tenure in 2001 that the Legislature, where Hawkes was then working for the House Policy Committee, made the selection of judges a de facto patronage arrangement and abandoned a nonpartisan nomination process. Now the governor completely controls the nominating committees and thus the list of nominations from which he appoints judges. The result is too often predictable: Political insiders like Hawkes who are not the best qualified are named to the bench.

St.PetersburgTimes/Editors/01/23/2011

“Conduct unworthy of Court”

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Jebbie “Bush’s hands are not clean”…

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

Former Palm Beach County commissioner Mary McCarty, serving time for a felony federal honest services fraud conviction, sat with aPalm Beach Post reporter last week for an exclusive interview at the minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.

Mary McCarthy in prison khaki with husband Kevin during one of his recent visits to the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas.

She talked about feeling “entitled” to play by her own set of rules when she was a commissioner, about her daily routine at the prison camp, about former colleagues/felons Tony Masilotti and Warren Newell, about the recent Supreme Court decision that narrowed the honest services fraud law and about the questions that arise among her fellow inmates when they see the avalanche of mail McCarty gets.

PostPolitics/ Bennett/ 01/23/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* ‘Entitled’ no more: Mary McCarty speaks from federal prison camp..

Comments (0) Jan 23 2011

Gov. Rick Scott and top legislative leaders spent much of last year talking about the need to make Florida more pro-business, but the state dominates a new report listing the 20 regions with the lowest operating costs and best business climate.

In a ranking of the 20 cheapest regions to set up shop, Florida appears five times, with Orlando claiming the top spot. Jacksonville finished third, and Broward County ranked 20th. Tampa Bay was seventh, and Palm Beach County came in at 16th.

No other state placed more than one area on the list of top 20.

“Florida is one of the most pro-business states in the nation,” said John Boyd Jr., a principal with BizCosts.com, the New Jersey-based company that did the analysis earlier this month. “And it has been for some time.”

BizCosts compared the annual costs of operating a typical corporate headquarters in 55 areas across the U.S., weighing factors such as labor costs, tax burden, utility costs and travel costs. For its model, it calculated those expenses for a 75,000-square-foot facility employing 300 people.

It found that Orlando had the lowest cost of the 55 areas studied, totaling about $19.9 million a year. Jacksonville was slightly more — $20.1 million a year — and Broward County (home to Fort Lauderdale) was $21.6 million. New York City had the highest cost, at $28.5 million a year.

Florida benefited from relatively low labor costs, tax burden, land and construction costs.

“The labor costs tend to dominate the equation,” Boyd said. “And we see Florida and Orlando as enormously competitive.”

The report comes a month after the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council placed Florida sixth overall — and second among big states — in a ranking of the best places to run a small company.

Those findings run counter to political theme that has emerged in the past year.

With the state facing record unemployment levels — a 12 percent jobless rate, with 1.1 million people out of work — state political leaders built campaigns around the need to bring more jobs to Florida. Central to that was the implication that the state had not done enough to accommodate business or, in some cases, fostered an adversarial relationship with the business community.

OrlandoSentinel/ Stratton/ 01/22/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Orlando is cheapest place to open business in Florida, report says..

Comments (0) Jan 22 2011

“Academics around the country hailed the move last week by President Barack Obama to loosen travel restrictions to Cuba.”

But there was no celebrating by scholars at Florida’s public universities.

A 2006 state law prohibits them from using state money or tapping into their budgets for travel to countries considered “terrorist states” by the federal government, Cuba being one. …

Margaret Miller, director of the University of South Florida Institute for Research in Art, calls the law an “embarrassment.” …

Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, who sponsored the bill in 2006 and is a 2012 U.S. Senate candidate, stands by it.

FLAPolitics/ 01/22/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Haridopolos’ “embarrassment”..

Comments (0) Jan 22 2011

Located on a barrier island, nestled between the great Atlantic Ocean and the Banana River Lagoon on Florida’s Central East Coast, Cocoa Beach continues to link the birth of the Space Age with the wonders of the future.

Just six miles long, and mostly less than one mile wide, Cocoa Beach is truly a unique place! Where else can you choose between watching a space launch from the beach or precious animal species in their natural habitat? You can choose between a swim in the ocean, or a quiet kayak exploration off the Banana River islands, from our river shore? Play a round of golf at our 27-holes golf course, surf cast from the beach for dinner, or just enjoy a day at the beach where you will likely see dolphins at play or be lucky enough to see an occasional whale in migration. Widely known as the surfing capital of the East Coast, Cocoa Beach is the hometown of surfing champions.

The primary attraction to Cocoa Beach is the weather. With its coastal location and positioned where two climatic zones (sub-tropic and temperate) meet, our weather usually avoids extremes. This unique location attracts wildlife indigenous to both climatic zones, as well as coastal and migratory species. And, of course, our weather, beaches and local amenities attract human visitors as well! Many of our residents first experienced Cocoa Beach as visitors and eventually relocated here!

Cocoa Beach is a residential community and a tourist destination. Our base population is 12,631,  our population though swells to as high as 30,000 during the peak tourist season when the hotels, motels, timeshares and condominium rentals are filled. In addition, Cocoa Beach is the destination for another 2.4 million day visitors per year; it is the primary tourist destination on the Florida Space Coast. It is also home to an active retiree population, many of whom devoted their careers to our nation’s space program. The casual beach lifestyle is enjoyed by visitors and residents alike!

Comments (0) Jan 22 2011

It’s Republicans who will decide whether and how to reschedule Florida’s statutorily set January 2012 presidential primary date, and there’s little consensus among top GOPers about whether to comply with the schedule called for by the national Republican and Democratic primaries. But after Florida’s Democratic presidential primary fiasco of 2008, Democratic chairman Rod Smith is eager to follow the rules. He sent this out today:  

Chairman David Bitner
Republican Party of Florida
420 E. Jefferson Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301

Dear Chairman Bitner,
Congratulations on your election as Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida.
On behalf of the Florida Democratic Party, I write today asking for your support to change the date of Florida’s 2012 presidential preference primary. This move is critically important to ensure full representation of our state at our respective national conventions since Florida law currently sets the date of the presidential primary as the last Tuesday in January, which is out of compliance with the rules of both parties.
As you may know, for the first time ever the Republican National Committee has adopted the same timing rules as the Democratic National Committee, which came about through bi-partisan cooperation between the two parties.
It is my sincere hope that we, in the same spirit of cooperation, can work together on selecting a date that complies with the rules set by both national parties. While changing the date of the primary would require action by the Republican Legislature and Governor, I am confident that we can make this happen.
I look forward to working with you on this issue.
Sincerely,
Rod Smith
Chairman, Florida Democratic Party

St.PetersburgTimes/Smith/ 01/21/2011

Florida Latin Connection/Arnoldo Varona, Editor

* Fla Democrats want to change 2012 primary date..

Comments (0) Jan 22 2011