Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics.
By Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Mitch Perry, Ryan Ray, and Jim Rosica.
AFTERSHOCKS OF PARIS ATTACKS REVERBERATE IN FLORIDA POLITICS
On the first day of business since the Paris terrorist attacks, state and federal lawmakers in Florida weighed in on what should happen to combat any future attacks by the Islamic State on the homeland.
The biggest development was Governor Rick Scott’s letter to congressional leaders in Washington declaring that he would “not support the requests we have received” for refugees from war-torn Syria to resettle in Florida. Acknowledging that making that call is ultimately on the feds, Scott requested that Congress stop the funding that could relocated up to 425 refugees currently awaited support to come to the Sunshine State.
Scott was one of at least 12 Republican governors to make similar requests.
Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera backed his boss in his own statement issued later in the day, saying, “there is no mechanism to verify whether these individuals have any involvement with Islamic terror groups, and Florida cannot take that risk.”
CLC wasn’t the first GOP Senate candidate to weigh in on the issue, however.
Congressman Ron DeSantis called on the two major Democrats running in the Senate race to announce if they agreed with President Obama’s plan to allow up to 10,000 Syrian refugees to be sent to the U.S.
“Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want the United States to take tens of thousands of Syrian refugees despite the terrorist attacks in Paris and the government’s inability to screen them for terrorist sympathies. Do Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson agree with them?” he asked.
Meanwhile, another GOP Senate candidate, David Jolly said he was “heartbroken” that President Obama wasn’t willing to change his strategy in terms of combating ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
In regards to the refugee question, Jolly gave a mixed message, saying it would be appropriate to provide refuge “to those that we know do not compromise our safety,” but said the immediate focus should be on providing resources to western European countries or other areas “where we can create a safe haven for refugees.”
On Sunday, presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio appeared on Meet The Press and ABC’s This Week, respectively, to discuss the issue.
Bush said that the focus should be on accepting “Christians that are being slaughtered,” while Rubio objected to Hillary Clinton refusing to use the term “Islamic terrorism,” saying, “That would be like saying that we weren’t at war with the Nazis, because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi Party, but weren’t violent themselves.”
Those comments drew the ire of South Florida Congresswoman and Democratic National Committee head Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who accused Bush, Rubio and other GOP presidential candidates of spending the days since the terror attack in Paris “launching ugly, partisan attacks and using the tragedy for political gain.”
DESPITE PARIS, BARACK OBAMA REJECTS CALLS FOR SHIFT IN ISIS FIGHT via Julie Pace of the Associated Press – Obama … firmly rejected calls for a shift in U.S. strategy against the Islamic State following the Paris attacks, saying Republicans who want to send ground troops into the volatile region are “talking as if they’re tough” but fail to understand the potentially grave consequences. “Folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do … If they think that somehow their advisers are better than the chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. And we can have that debate.” … condemned Republicans who have suggested U.S. assistance to refugees fleeing the Middle East should focus on Christians, not Muslims. “That’s shameful … That’s not American. It’s not who we are.”
DAVID JOLLY “BEYOND DISAPPOINTMENT” ABOUT PRESIDENT’S POST-PARIS IMMIGRATION STANCE via Mitch Perry of Florida Politics – Jolly says it’s “heartbreaking” … Obama isn’t redirecting his strategy toward combating the Islamic State … “It’s more than disappointing, this is heartbreaking … I have been imploring the president and others have as well that we need to do more to defeat ISIS and terror cells … I don’t think we’re at the place of moving a land army into the Middle East … Nor should we be, but through a coalition with the U.S., Russian and Western European allies, I think we can deploy an international force of special operators that finally can quench this threat, and ultimately protect it from coming to the homeland.”
RON DESANTIS HOLDS FORTH ON OBAMA’S “RISKY REFUGEE GAMBIT” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics – DeSantis poses the question exactly as one might expect: “Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want the United States to take tens of thousands of Syrian refugees despite the terrorist attacks in Paris and the government’s inability to screen them for terrorist sympathies. Do Patrick Murphy and Alan Grayson agree with them?”
VERN BUCHANAN URGES OBAMA TO DITCH PLAN ALLOWING SYRIAN IMMIGRANTS via Kevin Derby of the Sunshine State News – Buchanan … wrote … Obama, urging him to deny allowing refugees from Syria to immigrate to the U.S. “It is clear that radical Islam is waging war against America and Western civilization … We cannot allow terrorists to seep through a porous refugee screening process to kill Americans.” Buchanan backed safe zones for refugees in other nations. “We cannot gamble with our national security and risk the lives of Americans on an imperfect refugee screening process. Even FBI Director James Comey admits we do not have the ability to adequately vet refugees from Syria.”
RICK SCOTT JOINS RANKS OF GOVERNORS OPPOSING SYRIAN REFUGEES IN U.S. via Gary Rohrer of the Orlando Sentinel – Scott … opposed efforts to resettle Syrian refugees in Florida, and he called on Congress to ensure they are denied entry to the Sunshine State … In a letter to … Paul Ryan and … Mitch McConnell, Scott said he’s ordering Department of Children and Families, the state agency overseeing refugee services in Florida, not to cooperate with a federal request to place 425 Syrian refugees in the state … also urged Congress to pass legislation or to withhold funds for Syrian refugee resettlement.
— “CAIR, ACLU blast Rick Scott for requesting Syrian refugees not be allowed to settle in Florida” via Mitch Perry of Florida Politics
— “Experts say states lack legal authority to block refugees” via Jeff Karoub and Alicia Caldwell of the Associated Press
TWEET, TWEET: @DwightBullard: Shame @FLGovScott has chosen to fuel xenophobic panic, not rooted in any fact by denying access to Syrian refugees in Florida.
MORE FLORIDA REAX
Mary Thomas, candidate for Florida’s 2nd Congressional District: “ISIS has attacked us and our allies. We know for a fact that ISIS used the cover of Syrian refugees to conduct the attacks on France. I strongly support Governor Rick Scott’s decision today saying ‘no’ to allowing Syrian refugees to settle in Florida. Congress must immediately pass a bill to prevent federal money and federal government support from being used to bring Syrian refugees to our shores. If I were in Congress today, I would fight to stop any Syrian refugees from settling in the United States.”
Adam Barringer, candidate for Florida’s 6th Congressional District: “Congress should not allow thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States. A recent poll shows 71% of Americans believe ISIS has infiltrated Syrian refugee camps. The unfortunate reality is ISIS did infiltrate France and carried out the worst attack on that nation since WWII. Instead of spending federal dollars to bring potential ISIS terrorists into the our country, Congress should be spending money to defeat ISIS and secure our borders against unwanted and potentially dangerous refugees.”
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FRANCE IDS TOP PARIS ATTACKS FIGURE, SEEKS UNITY TO BOMB IS via Greg Keller and Raf Casert of the Associated Press – France identified a 27-year-old Belgian who once boasted about killing “infidels” and fought for the Islamic State group in Syria as the mastermind of the Paris attacks, and President Francois Hollande vowed … to forge a united coalition capable of defeating the jihadists at home and abroad. “Friday’s acts of war were decided and planned in Syria. They were organized in Belgium and perpetrated on our soil with French complicity with one specific goal: to sow fear and to divide us … Syria has become the biggest factory of terrorism the world has ever known and the international community is still too divided and too incoherent” … anti-terror intelligence officials had identified Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, as chief architect of the Friday the 13th attacks on a rock concert, a soccer game and popular nightspots in one of Paris’ trendiest districts.
IRAQ WARNED OF ATTACKS BEFORE PARIS ASSAULT via Qassim Abdul-Zahra of The Associated Press – Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned members of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group of imminent assaults by the militant organization just one day before last week’s deadly attacks in Paris killed 129 people … Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, through bombings or other attacks in the days ahead … The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication “all the time’ and ‘every day.”
U.S. WARPLANES STRIKE ISIS OIL TRUCKS IN SYRIA via Michael Gordon of The New York Times – Intensifying pressure on the Islamic State, United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said. According to an initial assessment, 116 trucks were destroyed in the attack, which took place near Deir al-Zour, an area of Syria controlled by the Islamic State that is close to the eastern border with Iraq … Plans for the strike were developed well before the terrorist attacks in and around Paris Friday, and the assault is part of a broader operation to disrupt the ability of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to generate revenue to support its military operations and run its self-styled caliphate.
AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATE THREAT MADE AGAINST MOSQUE IN ST. PETERSBURG via The Associated Press – [A] caller left a threatening phone massage to the Islamic Society of St. Petersburg Friday night, following the terrorist attacks in France. Hatem Jaber, a volunteer and teacher at the mosque, says he received a voice mail which threatened to “firebomb” the mosque and shoot people in the head. Jaber says the caller also referenced Friday’s attacks in Paris, saying, “This act in France is the last straw” … the mosque canceled prayer following the threat.
ORLANDO MUSLIM FAMILY CLAIMS IT WAS TARGETED BY GUNFIRE via Troy Campbell of News 6 Orlando – Amir and Nehal Elmasri said when they returned home to their gated community from feeding the homeless … they noticed a bullet hole in their garage door … the bullet went through their garage and into their master bedroom. “Just a little bit of a black hole in a beige garage door, when we parked right there,” Amir Elmasri said. “So, it’s in front of my eyes and I said, ‘What is that?'” Nehal Elmasri said that she and her daughter wear traditional hijabs in public, adding that it’s obvious for anyone to be aware of their Muslim faith.
SOUTH FLORIDA MUSLIMS REACT TO ‘BACKLASH’ IN WAKE OF PARIS ATTACKS via 7 News Miami/Fort Lauderdale – “When the Paris attacks happened, here in Florida, we’ve had two death threats to two mosques,” said Nezar Hamze, Regional Operations Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Florida. “We’ve had one Muslim family’s house shot at, and we’ve had another mosque … that received an indirect threat” … “Everybody is attacking Muslims in general instead of specifically,” said Mohamed, a Syrian Muslim. “When international terrorist attacks happen, the American Muslim community, the peace-loving American Muslim community, receives direct and almost immediate backlash,” said Hamze.
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JEB BUSH TRIES TO ACE THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF TEST via Eli Stokols of POLITICO – With Republican presidential candidates racing to condemn … Obama as a reluctant warrior too inept to take on the Islamic State … Bush is pouncing on an opportunity to offer up what other critics aren’t – a plan … It’s not without risk … could bring back echoes of his brother’s prolonged engagements in Iraq and elsewhere. And Bush has proven himself at times inept at articulating the daylight between his foreign policy vision and that of the 43rd president. But the Bush campaign and its allies have made a calculation that in this Republican race driven by emotion and dominated by more compelling personalities, the former Florida governor has an opportunity to stand head and shoulders above his rivals as he speaks to Americans shaken by last week’s deadly attacks in Paris. Bush plans to expand on his vision … at the Citadel in South Carolina … working to reframe a speech initially focused on the need to restore cuts to the Pentagon’s budget in the more immediate context of the Paris attacks and how to fight ISIL in the Middle East.
“Jeb Bush calls for restoration of NSA surveillance program” via Jesse Byrnes of The Hill
“Jeb Bush: Focus on Christian Syrian refugees” via Rebecca Kaplan of CBS News
BLAISE INGOGLIA TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER FLORIDA GOP SUMMIT via Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida – After fending off early critics and fears no one would attend … Ingoglia is taking a victory lap … after the weekend’s Sunshine Summit saw 14 GOP presidential candidates converge on Orlando for the event that was his brainchild. “With over 2,500 attendees from across the state present to hear the 14 Republican presidential candidates, it is evident that Florida voters are eager for a change of the current failed policies of this Democrat administration … Our attendees were made up of elected officials, grassroots leaders and volunteers, along with first-time voters who will play a key role in the next election.”
MY TAKE: WITH SUCCESSFUL SUNSHINE SUMMIT, BLAISE INGOGLIA MAKES CRITICS EAT CROW via Florida Politics – So much for Blaise’s Blunder … For a moment there, it did not look as if the Summit would be the blockbuster event it is shaping up to be … Ingoglia and the Florida GOP proved their critics wrong … [and] for their part, these critics are giving credit where credit is due … [Adam] Smith named Ignoglia his “Winner of the Week in Florida politics,” although in typical Adam fashion, he couldn’t resist labeling Ingoglia’s promotional efforts as “hardball tactics.” [Marc] Caputo is more gracious … writes in his Florida Playbook that he “deserves an attaboy” and then goes on to list the impressive stats about participation in the Summit.
WHO’S WHO ON HILLARY CLINTON’S MASSIVE FLORIDA CAMPAIGN via Marc Caputo of Politico Florida – Tne number shows why Florida is Hillary Clinton country in the Democratic race for president: 152. … That’s how many top Florida Democrats — from current and former members of Congress to mayors to state and local party leaders and fundraisers — were announced Tuesday as members of Clinton’s Florida Leadership Council. The list is so big it took her campaign weeks to assemble it. … Leading the list of her endorsements is Florida’s lone statewide elected Democrat, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Eight of the party’s 10 U.S. House members from Florida have officially endorsed her, as have eight of the party’s 14 state senators and 28 of its 39 members in the state House of Representative.
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ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: The Florida Chamber of Commerce will unveil its 2016 Competitiveness Agenda with a 10:30 a.m. news conference at the fourth floor of the Florida Capitol. Presenting the agenda is Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson, Chamber Chair Tracy Duda Chapman and Chamber Board Member Sidney Kitson.
THE MOOD IN TALLAHASSEE via Chris Hudson of Americans for Prosperity on Facebook: “There is no part of me that wants to go to Tallahassee today. But someone has to go tell these legislators that the money they want to handout to Hollywood, sports and big business is wrong. They need to know that mom and pop shops and small businesses in general will not stand for it. There will be accountability.”
NEW SENATE PRESIDENT COULD PUSH FUNDS FOR SOUTH FLORIDA PROJECTS via Dan Sweeney of the South Florida Sun Sentinel – Joe Negron … has emerged as the next Senate president – the first from South Florida since 2008 … said when he takes over in 2017, he will “continue to advocate for the issues and funding projects that are important to Palm Beach County” … “There’s a lot I’m excited to get done, from the Loxahatchee River initiative to cleaning up the Lake Worth Lagoon.” Once he is Senate president, Negron will assign each committee its chair and have a huge hand in fundraising. Those two responsibilities alone mean he can drive the Senate’s agenda.
LAWMAKERS MIGHT RESIST SCOTT’S 2016 AGENDA via Gary Rohrer of the Orlando Sentinel – Jack Latvala … the Senate’s top economic development budget writer … likes some of the reform proposals, but the price tag on Scott’s ideas and his public pressure has him concerned. “[Scott] called to wish me a happy birthday last week, and I appreciated that. But how do we do $1 billion in tax cuts, a quarter of a billion dollars in incentives for businesses, and do all the other things?”
ENTERPRISE FLORIDA TIGHTENS LINK BETWEEN TAMPA MAYOR, GOVERNOR via Arek Sarkissian of Political Fix Florida – Buckhorn threw his support behind … Scott in his request for $250 million in cash for Enterprise Florida and a way to manage the money that may settle the concern of weary state lawmakers … only six months ago [Buckhorn] slammed Scott and the Legislature for failing to embrace the expansion of Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act … The pendulum in the relationship … historically has been motivated by Enterprise Florida … “The strong partnerships between Enterprise Florida, the City of Tampa, and the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation are key factors in how Tampa continues to lead the state in job creation.”
SPOTTED on Forbes Magazine’s list of cities experiencing the most job growth: Orlando at #2.
FLORIDA’S CRIME RATE DROPS, BUT SEXUAL ASSAULTS ARE RISING via The Associated Press – Overall crime volume dropped 2.2 percent compared to the first six months of last year. The number of murders so far this year … has dropped slightly from 492 in the first half of 2015 to 489 in the first half of 2015 … FDLE reported that there has been a 7.1 percent increase in forcible sex offenses and a 5.4 percent increase in the number of sexual assaults. Domestic violence crimes also rose 1.7 percent during the first half of 2015.
DEP TIMBER-HARVEST CONTRACT TOOK ODD TWISTS BEFORE IT FELL APART via Craig Pittman of the Tampa Bay Times – This spring DEP planned to hire a company called Forestech to survey the amount of timber to be harvested from state parks. The Tallahassee company claimed only it had the technology to get the job done … [Don] Curtis, a competing contractor, said the Forestech software is off-the-shelf … “Anybody can buy it … It looked like they were trying to lock out anyone else.” That $500,000 Forestech contract was canceled last month. Questions about how it was awarded led to the resignations of at least two agency officials and renewed concerns about DEP Secretary Jon Steverson‘s management of the state park system.
ASSIGNMENT EDITORS: Illegal immigration is the subject of bills filed by Republican state Sens. Aaron Bean of Fernandina Beach and Travis Hutson of Elkton, as well as state Reps. Larry Metz of Yalaha, Carlos Trujillo of Miami and Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton Beach. Each lawmaker will be on hand to discuss the issue at an 8:30 a.m. news conference outside the Senate Chambers, fourth floor in the Capitol.
WHY I WANT TO CHANGE “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAW via Dennis Baxley for the Tampa Bay Times – When the Florida Legislature passed the “stand your ground” law, we codified in statute the substantive right of immunity for persons to defend themselves from attack without fear of prosecution. The right of self-defense is legal doctrine that has roots in the Bible and spans English common law for centuries … a cornerstone of the foundation of our judicial system. The Legislature’s clear and unequivocal intent was to protect innocent people by granting immunity from arrest, detention and prosecution to a person who acts in self-defense. However, the courts have now usurped the law passed by the Legislature by creating a pretrial immunity hearing, at which the defendant bears the burden of proving by preponderance of evidence that he or she acted in self-defense. Placing the burden of proof on the citizen directly contradicts the Legislature’s clear intent to give greater protection to citizens who lawfully act in self-defense by granting them total immunity from prosecution.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA’S LONG DELAY IN FLORIDA GIVES BUD TO NEW IDEAS via John Kennedy of the Palm Beach Post – Frustrated by delays in Florida introducing a form of medical marijuana … Jeff Brandes … is proposing a measure that would add more illnesses to the list of those qualified for marijuana treatment, allow more growers and retailers to sell the product, and scrap the state’s limitation that prescription pot in Florida be only the non-euphoric oil dubbed Charlotte’s Web … “This legislation recognizes the growing support in Florida for the medicinal use of marijuana as an additional option for physicians in the treatment of their patients” … said his proposal recognizes that a broader medical marijuana measure could succeed when placed on the higher-turnout, presidential election ballot … the Legislature should have more control of the process.
FANTASY SPORTS TRADE ASSOCIATION BACKS PROPOSED FLORIDA REGULATIONS via Jeremy Wallace of the Tampa Bay Times – Fantasy Sports Trade Association – is telling Florida legislators that they support new proposed regulations for their industry, which would also allow them to continue operating legally. “The FSTA welcomes legislation confirming that fantasy sports are fully legal in Florida,” said Peter Schoenke, chairman of the trade association … the key to the legislation is one sentence that emphatically declares that the state’s anti-gambling statutes are not applicable to fantasy games.
— “Lawmakers want to ban Florida from implementing EPA clean air rule” via Kristen Clark of the Miami Herald
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE HIGHLIGHTS via Legislative IQ powered by Lobby Tools
UTILITY BONDS DISCUSSED – The House Energy & Utilities Subcommittee will hear a number of bills, including a proposal to allow local agencies to issue bonds for utility projects. Meeting begins 9 a.m. in Room 212 of the Knott Building.
HOUSE, SENATE EXAMINES EDUCATION CHOICES FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES – The House Educations Appropriations Subcommittee will look at legislation that seeks to provide a variety of educational opportunities for students with disabilities – a priority of Senate President Andy Gardiner. Meeting begins 9 a.m. in Room 17 of the House Building. At 2 p.m., the Senate Pre–K-12 Committee will take up its version of the bill in Room 412 of the Knott Building.
HOUSE RECEIVES UPDATE ON ALZHEIMER’S RESEARCH – The House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee will receive an update on Alzheimer’s research from the Florida Department of Health – a priority of committee chair Matt Hudson – beginning 1 p.m. in Room 212 of the Knott Building.
SENATE DISCUSSES REPLACING CONFEDERATE STATUE AT CAPITOL HILL – A bill (SB 310) in front of the Senate Governmental Oversight & Accountability Committee seeks to remove the bronze statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, one of two prominent deceased Floridians honored at the U.S. Capitol. The other is John Gorrie, the Apalachicola resident credited with discovering air conditioning. Meeting begins 1 p.m. in Room 401 of the Senate Office Building.
HOUSE HEARS LOTTERY TICKET TERMINAL BILL – The House Business & Professions Subcommittee will hear a bill (HB 415) submitted by state Rep. Holly Raschein which could allow lottery ticket terminals to accept debit and credit cards. Meeting begins 1 p.m. in Room 404 of the House Office Building.
HOUSE PANEL HEARS PRESENTATION ON FLORIDA BAY, KEYS – Also at 1 p.m., the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee will hear presentations on both Florida Bay and the Florida Keys in Reed Hall of the House Office Building.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILL DEBATED BY HOUSE, SENATE – Committees in both the House and Senate will hear bills to legalize medical marijuana for terminally ill patients. In the House Criminal Justice Committee is HB 307 – from state Reps. Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton Beach and Katie Edwards of Plantation. In the Senate Health Policy Committee is SB 460, from state Sen. Rob Bradley of Fleming Island. Each bill seeks to expand the law passed in the 2015 Legislative Session allowing terminally ill patients’ access to experimental medication. The Senate meeting is at 1 p.m. in Room 412 of the Knott Building; the house meeting is at 9 a.m. in Room 404 of the House Office Building.
TWEET, TWEET: @SenatorAltman: Thoughts and prayers for Sen Tom Lee and his family on the passing of his father. From my family to yours, our hearts are with you.
RHEA CHILES’ FAITH, GRACE AND COMPASSION FONDLY REMEMBERED via Steve Bousquet of the Tampa Bay Times – “She was a brilliant woman. She had a great sense of timing and a great understanding of where our priorities should be,” said [former Gov. Buddy] MacKay … noted that it was Rhea Chiles‘ brainstorm that her husband, as a long shot Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in 1970, should accept no campaign contribution greater than $100 and walk the length of the state to introduce himself to voters. The service had an uplifting spirit. Former Florida Supreme Court Justice Major Harding delivered the eulogy and noted Mrs. Chiles’ strong religious faith, a passion for painting and a vision that became “Florida House,” the only so-called state embassy in Washington, D.C. Harding, the first judge Gov. Chiles appointed, recalled the “courage and grace” Mrs. Chiles demonstrated after her husband’s death two weeks before Christmas in 1998.
PROFILE OF FLORIDA’S LATEST RETIREE — JOHN BOEHNER’S UNEASY ADJUSTMENT via Jake Sherman of POLITICO – “I’m used to going all the time. Then you’re not going all the time” … Boehner is splitting his time between his condominium in nearby Marco Island … his home in the Cincinnati area and Washington. On a recent afternoon, he was spotted shopping at the Harris Teeter in Navy Yard in D.C., pushing his own cart as he grabbed groceries. … Capitol Police officers still trail Boehner, but the detail is shrinking. … [A] speech [at the Naples Hotel and Beach Club] was the first of many in the coming years that will make the millionaire Boehner even wealthier. His hourlong talk – a roughly 15-minute speech and 40-minute Q&A – was part variety show and part history lesson, with a dash of machismo.
WINTER IS COMING, AND SO IS AN EL NIÑO PATTERN IN FL via Tamara Lush of The Associated Press – Federal Emergency Management Agency officials and meteorologists say Floridians should brace themselves for a wet and wild winter, all because of El Nino … when the Pacific Ocean warms up around the equator. This year’s is one of the strongest El Ninos on record. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate … says Floridians should be prepared with emergency kits, weather radios and evacuation plans because strong storms, flash flooding and tornadoes are especially possible this winter.
FACEBOOK STATUS OF THE DAY via Mac Stipanovich: “Wanted, Dead Or Alive … Roger Stone is a ruthless man, double tough, and fear don’t enter into his thinking, but I managed to take him into custody tonight without gunplay or any injuries to innocent bystanders. The hunt for Ann Coulter continues.”
