Free Republic

Gov. Rick Scott’s administration is positioning itself for a showdown with the U.S. Department of Justice for demanding that Florida cease searching for and purging noncitizen voters. The DOJ gave Florida until Wednesday to respond to a letter, sent last week, that said the purge probably ran afoul of two federal voting laws.

As the State of Florida continues to release evidence in the Trayvon Martin case, it becomes increasingly clear that prosecutors will have little chance of convincing an honest jury that George Zimmerman is guilty of 2nd degree murder. On May 15th, a medical report submitted by Zimmerman’s family doctor revealed that, on the night of the shooting the accused murderer suffered “…a ‘closed fracture’ of [the] nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of [the] head and a minor back injury…” Zimmerman was treated by police at the scene and sought medical attention the next morning....

Republican Gov. Rick Scott is already getting ready for the 2014 election. So are the Democrats who hope to challenge him. The state Republican Party is buying television ads to promote Scott's policy successes in hopes of reversing voters' negative impressions. The governor and party are also raising money for his re-election.

In a brief interview following his speech to the Boca Raton Republican Club Tuesday night, Gov. Rick Scott shared his thoughts regarding Florida's crackdown on non-citizen voters, the media scrutiny his chief of staff has been under, and his decision on whether to ask the FDLE to launch a criminal investigation into the three Florida Supreme Court judges who allegedly used their staff to help them file campaign papers. Scott also revealed his top priorities for the next legislative session, and answered the question "are you happy being the governor?"

by John HillStand With Arizona As most Americans know, Florida is a state where a small number of votes can make a huge difference. After all, the 2000 presidential election was decided by just over 500 votes. So when there is evidence of potential voter fraud, officials better take it seriously. But they rarely have. Stand With Arizona, along with FAIR, have urged Florida to check on evidence of potential illegal alien voters for over a year with no action taken. That is, until a Tampa NBC affiliate uncovered shocking evidence of illegal aliens who voted in multiple elections...

Tallahassee, Florida (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott has shot down a request by Tampa's mayor to allow local authorities to ban guns from the city's downtown during the Republican National Convention in August. Citing Second Amendment protections in the U.S. Constitution, Scott told Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn that conventions and guns have co-existed since the nation's birth and would continue to do so during the four-day event beginning August 27. "It is unclear how disarming law abiding citizens would better protect them from the dangers and threats posed by those who would flout the law," the Republican governor said...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dl-hugley/trayvon-martin-zimmerman_b_1445575.html

President Obama holds a 50-to-45 percent lead over Mitt Romney in Florida, according to a new poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. PPP also tested four potential Florida running mates for Romney — Sen. Marco Rubio, former Gov. Jeb Bush, Gov. Rick Scott and U.S. Rep. Allen West — and found that only Bush would have a positive effect on the GOP ticket in Florida. A Romney/Bush ticket would narrow Obama’s advantage to 49-46, within the poll’s 3.7 percent margin of error. The survey of 700 Florida voters was taken Thursday through Sunday. The Obama/Joe Biden ticket holds...

A task force headed by Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, established to review among other things Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law, includes 17 members. The task force hopes to conclude its work by next year’s legislative session.

Two sources told WFTV on Monday that gunman George Zimmerman could be arrested this week, and that a Grand Jury will not meet on Tuesday. Zimmerman has been in hiding because of threats, after he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. He claims he shot Martin in self-defense. Jacksonville State Attorney Angela Corey has the sole authority to determine whether Zimmerman will be charged for killing Martin. Governor Rick Scott put Corey in charge of the case late last month amid concerns that State Attorney Norm Wolflinger wouldn't do a thorough and fair investigation. "You've got to make sure justice...

Candy Crowley interviewed Florida governor Rick Scott on CNN’s State of the Union, and obviously the big topic of conversation was the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman while he was on neighborhood watch. Crowley grille Scott on why it took him almost a month to finally act in the case. Scott defended himself by saying he wanted to wait until all the facts are in, and wants to give the special investigation time first before any charges are filed. Crowley brought up Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law that protects people if they kill or hurt someone in...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott has quietly signed into law a bill allowing random drug testing of state workers. The governor's office announced the signing after normal working hours Monday night. The only suspense was when the Scott would sign the bill, not if he would sign it. The Republican governor already has tried to enforce random drug testing through an executive order. He suspended it, though, due to a court challenge. The new law also is certain to generate a lawsuit.

Palm Beach County State Attorney Michael McAuliffe will be sorely missed by at The Palm Beach Post when he fades into the private sector in two weeks. Hundreds of emails leaked jointly to Gossip Extra and BizPacReview this week reveal an ultra-cozy relationship between McAuliffe and at least two of the newspaper’s figureheads. How close? In an email dated Nov. 2, 2011, Rhonda Swan, one of the shrinking newspapers’ remaining editorial writers, bypassed the proper channels and asked McAuliffe to get involved in an investigation. She asked him to check into why...

BizPac Review has obtained hundreds of pages of email correspondence between Palm Beach Post employees and State Attorney Michael McAuliffe that appear to show an unusually close relationship between McAuliffe and both Palm Beach Post Editorial Page Editor Randy Schultz and Editorial Board member Rhonda Swan. The relationship appears so close that McAuliffe, Schultz and Swan felt comfortable enough with one another to bash Gov. Rick Scott, Jeb Bush and state Senate President Mike Haridopolos and to downplay Attorney General Pam Bondi's role in closing pill mills, while lamenting the lack of recognition for McAuliffe's efforts. In the following email,...

Let's face it: Our president, the one who had so many outstanding parking tickets when he was just Barack Obama, has rail envy. Just judging from the number of times he's mentioned the high-speed rail system of China, which has one party rule so no problem with messy democracy stuff. Or bipartisanship, there being no bi- in Chinese politics, just uni-. Or the wonderfully modern airports that communist China has constructed that we should emulate with Obama's newest stimulus spending ideas. Well, it seems many Americans are not as enamored of China's choo-choos as the president who spent much of...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Sarah Palin told Republican donors Thursday that Occupy Wall Street protesters want the same thing as the “fat cats” they’re upset with — a government bailout. Palin criticized the protesters as believing they’re entitled to other people’s productivity and money and said they’ve drawn the wrong conclusions. Instead, the former Alaska governor said people should look to the tea party....

Republican superstar speaker Sarah Palin will be the headliner at the Republican Party of Florida’s Nov. 3 “victory dinner” fundraiser at the Disney Grand Floridian Resort in Orlando. Palin, the former Alaska governor who ran for vice president in 2008, has been best known this year for not running for president and yet still drawing at least as much attention as the nine announced candidates. “This gala dinner comes just a year before one of the most important elections in Florida and the nation’s history,” RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry stated in a press release issued by the party. “Having a...

“I know (Perry) can win Texas,” Scott continued, “but to win Florida he's going to have to help us get more jobs. So, now you're going to have two governors who are going to help you get jobs.” Scott and Perry have been exchanging light-hearted jabs over business development and job creation for months.

After a hotly contested online summertime election, with tens of thousands of votes streaming in from across the country, Governor Rick Scott of Florida has been elected Worst Governor Ever by the American people. Scott’s rejection of high speed rail funding, attacks on teachers unions and billions of dollars in cuts to the middle class, while creating tax breaks for the rich, proved to be a very successful campaign strategy in the race for Worst Governor Ever. Governor Scott beat out many close competitors, including Texas Governor and now Presidential candidate, Rick Perry, Ohio’s Governor John Kasich and the man...

MIAMI -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida plans to challenge the state's law requiring new welfare recipients to pass a drug test. An ACLU spokesman told The Associated Press Wednesday the lawsuit is being filed on behalf of a 35-year-old Orlando man, Luis Lebron. The spokesman says Florida's drug testing law is unconstitutional, saying it violates the Fourth Amendment's search and seizure protections. No further details of the lawsuit were immediately available. Gov. Rick Scott signed the drug testing bill into law in July. Under the law, welfare applicants must pay for the drug tests. If they pass,...