Life and politics from the Sunshine State's best city

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Jac VerSteeg

Jac VerSteeg has 7 articles published.

Jac VerSteeg: How Marco Rubio might get Hillary Clinton elected

in 2017/Top Headlines by

Marco Rubio says he decided to run for reelection because it will be imperative to have people like him in the U.S. Senate if Hillary Clinton is elected president. “There’s [a] role for the Senate that could end up being its most important in the years to come: The Constitutional power to act as a check and balance on the excesses of a president.” But it is worth asking: Does Rubio’s decision to run make it more likely that Clinton…

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Jac VerSteeg: Lessons from a blended gun family

in 2017/Top Headlines by

I have a blended family. A blended gun family. Some of us own guns – lots of guns. Some of us don’t own any. There are shotguns, hunting rifles, revolvers and semi-automatic pistols among the weapons we own. Nobody in my blended family owns an “assault weapon,” as far as I know. Here’s another thing about my family: Two of us have been shot and killed. It was a murder-suicide nearly 20 years ago. And here’s an ironic thing: The…

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Jac VerSteeg: Rick Scott puts Band-Aid on environmental wounds

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

A politician is a guy who shoots you in the gut and then campaigns by bragging about the Band-Aid he put on the wound. The latest example: Just days after The Palm Beach Post’s John Kennedy documented how Gov. Rick Scott‘s environmental policies had led to an explosion of huge developments in Palm Beach County and across the state, Scott showed up in the county to tout his environmental achievements. Scott came to Florida Atlantic University’s Pine Jog Environmental Education…

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Jac VerSteeg: Sen. Joe Abruzzo’s ‘wide open’ alternative to the Seminole Compact

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

What happens if the Florida Legislature refuses to ratify the Seminole Compact that Gov. Rick Scott negotiated with the Tribe? No one really knows, of course, but state Sen. Joe Abruzzo, a Boynton Beach Democrat, offered a tantalizing hint toward the end of a recent workshop by the Senate’s Regulated Industries Committee. Addressing Jim Allen, the CEO of Seminole Gaming, Sen. Abruzzo said: “In looking at this and all the moving parts and how difficult this issue is, we hear…

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Jac Wilder VerSteeg: 2016 to be a put up or shut up year

in 2017/Top Headlines by

At last, we will have a put up or shut up year. In 2016, people will have to act instead of speculate or opine, and we are going to have some answers, finally. In 2016, we’re going to find out who schlongs who. We will find out whether the rise of The Donald is the solidifying phenomenon that, however unlikely, it appeared to become in the final months of 2015. Trump is the biggie of 2016. We will find out…

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Gov. Rick Scott’s veto hinders effort to woo homeowners away from Citizens

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday vetoed legislation – House Bill 1087 – that would have created protections for Florida homeowners who have insurance from Citizens, the state-run insurer of last resort. Scott said he thought the bill would hinder efforts to depopulate Citizens. But from my experience, he got things exactly backwards. Specifically, the legislation Scott vetoed would have allowed homeowners to return to Citizens if the private insurance company to which they’d switched raised rates by more than 10…

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Jac Wilder VerSteeg: Unelected Supreme Court chastises House members for unelecting themselves

in Top Headlines by

Politicians who disagree with Supreme Court rulings frequently point out that the justices are “unelected.” That’s true on both the federal and state levels. Florida House Speaker Steve Crisafulli echoed that disdain with comments after a majority of Florida Supreme Court justices agreed with an opinion written by Justice Barbara Pariente, who wrote that the House, under Crisafulli’s leadership, “clearly violated the Constitution” when it adjourned three days early. That ruling came in response to a lawsuit by Democrats. Crisafulli…

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