Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a growth management bill supported by business and development interests but opposed by environmentalists and local governments. ...more

June 1, 2009

The Florida House of Representatives is cynically using the economic downturn to justify an effort to gut measures that protect neighborhoods, taxpayers and natural resources. ...more

March 10, 2009

Using the late Ralph Hughes, the Big Daddy of Hillsborough County politics, as the template for the community's Moral Courage Award is a bit like the NAACP naming its person-of-the-year honor after David Duke. ...more

September 16, 2008

Florida's manatees are protected for now, thanks to Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ...more

December 11, 2007

In September this year, the IUCN World Conservation Union (IUCN) officially declared the Florida manatee endangered using exactly the same criteria state officials are attempting to use to justify downgrading the manatee's status from Endangered to Threatened. After a scientific status review at the international level, the Florida manatee was declared Endangered on the Red List, which is recognized as the most reliable evaluation of the world's species. The manatee's status evaluation was conducted and also reviewed by some of the world's most qualified sirenian scientists who based their recommendation for listing as Endangered on the most recent scientific data. ...more

November 23, 2007

Make no mistake about it, the ballot proposal "Florida Hometown Democracy" is a bad idea that, if passed, would begin a nightmare of voting on every growth and planning issue at the local level. ...more

November 18, 2007

It wasn't exactly the road map to success that Pam Prysner was looking for. ...more

November 7, 2007

It wasn't exactly the road map to success that Pam Prysner was looking for. ...more

November 1, 2007

Lobbyist John Thrasher, a lawyer and former speaker of the Florida House, makes a bogus but convincing case against the Hometown Democracy amendment that voters will possibly consider in November 2008. ...more

September 24, 2007