Taking Names the Blog - Orlando Sentinel

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01/10/12--07:10: Speaker Dean Cannon promises cooperation – makes big news? (chan 1554597)

Moments ago, Speaker Dean Cannon convened the State House, opening the session with an eloquent speech about the need to move beyond common and partisan politics and the need to respect the will of the people. To show that he was serious, Cannon agreed to stop using taxpayer money to try to overturn the votes of Floridians [...]


01/10/12--18:40: The Malarkey Meter vets Rick Scott’s ‘State of State’ speech (chan 1554597)

We turned the Malarkey Meter on during Gov. Rick Scott’s State of the State speech today — and determined that the governor’ set it off very few times. You can view the latest Malarkey Meter installment here.


01/11/12--01:00: The complexities of school funding in Florida (chan 1554597)

A few folks have raised good questions about all the varying numbers surrounding education funding in this state. For instance, in today’s paper, I wrote that Rick Scott proposed cutting more than $2 billion from education last year, while a front page story said legislators cut $1.35 billion. So who’s right? Well, we both are. Here are some more [...]


01/11/12--06:59: AG Pam Bondi’s office ousted 2 most successful fraud investigators. Investigation says everything was A-OK. (chan 1554597)

By now, many of you are probably familiar with the story that gained national attention when Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office ousted its two most successful foreclosure-fraud investigators after some of the monied interests being investigated started complaining. The stink raised enough of a ruckus that Bondi agreed to let one of her fellow Cabinet members, [...]


01/12/12--11:34: Ryan Williams – the overlooked candidate for State Attorney (chan 1554597)

 Last week, I wrote about Casey Anthony prosecutor Jeff Ashton’s entrance into the state attorney’s race. Though I’m not yet sold on Ashton, I like the fact that he has entered the race — and, in doing so, brought a spotlight and needed competition to the race. But, as I mentioned at the end of the [...]


01/17/12--07:01: Bill Nelson talks tough on snakes … ’sure as heck’ (chan 1554597)

Just perused the latest news release from the state’s senior U.S. senator. Sounds to me like someone just finished an intro-to-writing-thriller-novellas course. MIAMI – Even when Burmese and Rock pythons started turning up in the Everglades in large numbers a few years ago, most folks laughed off the threat from the huge, non-native snakes as just another [...]


01/19/12--08:06: Orange County tax breaks for biz – yay or nay? (chan 1554597)

I’m getting a lotta email from residents looking for insight on the upcoming vote to give property-tax breaks to businesses that are willing to expand or move to Orange County. Well, today’s newspaper had a piece summarizing it in basic terms. (Read it here.) And you can read the full ballot language, along with the county’s [...]


01/19/12--16:21: OPD Chief Rooney: “If we mess up, we come clean.” (chan 1554597)

On Sunday, I wrote about the Orlando Police Department shooting from November 2010, where multiple officers claimed they shot an unarmed man because he was trying to “ram” them with his car … only to have the FDLE determine the ramming never happened. Instead, FDLE determined one of the cop cars was actually shoving the suspect’s/victim’s car from behind [...]


01/26/12--07:49: Tavistock land sales – helping community or helping themselves? (chan 1554597)

Beth Kassab had a good column in today’s paper about Tavistock trying to get UCF to pay top-dollar — translation: above-market — prices for land in the burgeoning Medical City in east Orange County. We are used to having private companies try to take advantage (and succeed) of taxpayers. And as Beth said: “You can’t blame Tavistock [...]


01/26/12--17:47: Comic, pundit Ben Stein goes pro-casino – sets off Malarkey Meter (chan 1554597)

brightcove.createExperiences(); The pro-casino crowd taps Ben Stein in their newest ad. See for yourself what happened when we ran some of his claims through the Malarkey Meter.