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Ethics commission

Judicial ethics watchdog could suffer in fight for independent Florida courts

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

Is Florida’s judicial ethics commission about to become collateral damage in a battle over the independence of the courts? House Speaker Richard Corcoran, the Land O’Lakes Republican, appears to have targeted the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) along with the courts themselves in his campaign to curb the independence of the judiciary. The JQC and the Supreme Court had not concluded an ethics case against Circuit Judge Mark Hulsey III of Jacksonville when Corcoran scheduled an impeachment hearing a month ago.…

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Anti-corruption bill faces rocky path in Legislature

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

A major ethics and anti-corruption bill that advocates say is long overdue – but critics say may go too far – faces a rocky path in the Legislature. The legislation seeks to end what a 2010 grand jury called a “corruption tax” on Florida citizens amounting to millions a year in extra taxes, government fees and even highway tolls to make up for the waste, fraud and misconduct by public officials. The grand jury, sought by former Gov. Charlie Crist…

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Ethics Commission finds probable cause that Jamie Bennett misused his position by offering baseball tickets. But will the Times get the story right?

in Peter/The Bay and the 'Burg by

At its December meeting, the Florida Commission on Ethics found probable cause that St. Petersburg City Councilman Jamie Bennett misused his position by offering tickets to Tampa Bay Rays baseball games, provided by the City, for the benefit of his campaign: While ostensibly distributing the tickets in accordance with City policy by handing them out to heads of neighborhood associations, preliminary evidence indicates that Respondent’s primary purpose for distributing at least some of the tickets was for garnering political support…

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