Free Republic

State court turns down Lantana’s attempt to dismiss suit over whether sky-high fines for minor violations violate the Florida Constitution.. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—This morning, a Florida court rejected the town of Lantana’s attempt to end a lawsuit filed by resident Sandy Martinez, who is contesting sky-high fines she was assessed for minor infractions on her own property. One parking violation, assessed daily for over a year, totals more than $100,000. The total amount the town fined her, which includes two other infractions, comes to an astounding $165,000, more than half what her home is worth. In February, Sandy teamed...

Mere hours after Hurricane Irma, Miami-Dade County was ticketing residents for building code violations on their wrecked properties. Celso Perez was helping his neighbors remove some fallen trees blocking their street when a county code enforcer rolled up and issued him a safety notice for having a downed fence. "I laughed," Perez tells WSVN-TV. "I thought he was kidding. 'You are kidding right? We just had a hurricane six hours ago.'" It wasn't a joke. The official told Perez that the downed fence—which encloses a pool—was a safety hazard, and that if it wasn't fixed by the time he returned,...

This gallery depicts almost every BYU athlete we found with an honor code incident since 1993. (Certain players have been excluded to protect our sources.) The information in the gallery comes from media reports, BYU profiles, and interviews with athletes. It is by no means definitive. Many of these incidents were shrouded in secrecy. Many of the athletes could not be reached to confirm what we learned. If we have included bad data — whether due to inaccurate news stories, the faulty memories of interview subjects, or our own error — we are happy to correct it. If readers can...