Peter Schorsch - page 470

Be careful if you are a pedestrian in Bay County or Miami-Dade County, Florida. These two regions are both in the nation’s top ten most dangerous places to cross a street, according to data published in Governing magazine. A coastline Census tract (#2701) in Panama City registers the third most per capita pedestrian deaths over a five-year period. Most of these deaths occurred along a divided highway and the others, near the beach. This region has had 20.9 deaths per 10,000 people…

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A week can’t go by without another veteran member of Florida’s fourth estate leaving behind a career in journalism for a corner office at a public relations firm. A new report from Pew Research Center helps us understand why. The salary gap between public relations specialists and news reporters has widened over the past decade – to almost $20,000 a year, according to 2013 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by the Pew Research Center. At the same time,…

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In the first television ad for the Florida’s 18th Congressional District race, freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy reflects on his 2012 campaign promise to be an “independent problem solver” in Congress. “Exactly That” is a set to run on network and cable TV in the West Palm Beach-Treasure Coast market starting this week. The 30-second spot is part of an expected $1.4 million ad buy for Murphy’s re-election effort. In an independent analysis of every congressional representative’s voting record,…

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Right now, the only thing standing between Florida taxpayers and $68,000 is Representative Perry Thurston, the Democratic leader in the Florida House of Representatives. Sixty-eight thousand dollars is the approximate cost to taxpayers of a single day of the Legislature meeting in special session. Already, the tab is in six-figures. How much more that gets added to it comes down to whether or bit Thurston puts his personal political ambitions ahead of the needs and desires of everyone else. Legislative…

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While discussing a Department of Health proposal to use a lottery to award five Charlotte’s Web licenses, Rep. James Grant, R-Tampa, demonstrated how a lawmaker fires a shot across the bow. “I certainly have some concerns,” said Grant, chair of the Joint Administrative Procedures Committee, which oversees agency rulemaking. The Department of Health is constructing a regulatory framework for the Charlotte’s Web law which authorizes doctors to order a cannabis extract for patients starting Jan. 1. Grant’s committee gets the…

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Democratic incumbent Rep. Mark Danish closed the fundraising gap slightly with former GOP state Rep. Shawn Harrison in the rematch campaign for House District 63 During the July 26 to Aug. 1 reporting period, Danish took in $6,500— with $14,700 in-kind support from the Florida Democratic Party — for a total of $88,097, according to the state Division of Elections. After spending $308 in the weeklong period, for a total of $23,430 to date, Danish’s cash on hand now stands…

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In the increasingly combative battle for Lakeland’s House District 40 GOP primary, Colleen Burton continues her lead in the money race, by adding another $10,050 between July 26 and Aug. 1. Burton’s fundraising effort was nearly double that of John Shannon, who took in $5,150 in the same weeklong reporting period, according to newly filed Division of Elections reports. Burton, a former executive director for Polk Vision, raised a total of $150,870 in the race to replace term-limited Rep. Seth…

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