Florida Sunshine Review:
Florida Times-Union editorial: How Jacksonville City Council can build trust in light of grand jury probe into its Sunshine Law problems …
Florida Times-Union, by Michael P. Clark: Jacksonville’s 10 new council members share views about following the Sunshine Law …
Florida Times-Union, by Beth Kormanik: Grand jury to shine light on Jacksonville City Council’s sunshine practices …
Florida Times-Union, by Beth Kormanik: Jacksonville City Council members hire attorneys for grand jury probe access and public could foot the bills …
Florida Times-Union editorial: Is “culture of blatant disregard” for Sunshine Law at Jacksonville City Council just the tip of the iceberg? …

July 8, 2007

Girl pays for DCF missteps: The St. Petersburg Times petitioned a court to release state child welfare records on 1-year-old Courtney Clark after she disappeared from the foster care system. This story by reporter Melanie Ave based on more than 885 pages recently released shows “a little girl lost in a bureaucratic maze of government, community groups, courtrooms and law enforcement agencies” and raises serious questions about the agency’s judgment and performance. The records – including e-mails, abuse reports, court petitions and computer entries – show how the system seemed bent on reuniting Courtney with her mother, even though she had 15 arrest warrants pending in Kentucky, a history of frequent moves and “no track record when it came to holding a job to provide for her child.” Courtney eventually disappeared with her mother, and a case worker didn’t report it for four months. The story notes the little girl “was later found safe, amid a gruesome scene in Wisconsin that resulted in her mother's arrest on a murder charge after a body was found buried in the back yard.”

July 7, 2007

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Records in play:
E-mails, county charter: Bill Varian of the St. Petersburg Times on how Hillsborough County talks regarding trash hauling are heating up…
Mobile home statistics, study: Anne Thrower of the Pensacola News Journal on how safe mobile homes are during storm season …
Personnel records: Mike Salinero of The Tampa Tribune on the expected resignation of Hillsborough County’s head of its wetlands division …

Florida Sunshine Review:
Florida Times-Union, column by Ron Littlepage: Jacksonville City Council president seeks to provide more access the “Green Room” near council chambers …
St. Petersburg Times, by Colleen Jenkins: Woman's fight for Gasparilla rape investigation records to continue …
Florida Today editorial:State should stop dumping insurance dispute records and step up oversight …

July 4, 2007

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Florida Sunshine Review:
Lakeland Ledger: Florida Department of Financial Services stops disposing of records related to consumer disputes with insurance companies …
Tallahassee Democrat, by Paige St. John: State destroyed its records of insurance company complaints but says it was within the law …
Florida Times-Union, by Beth Kormanik: Where probe of Jacksonville City Council regarding Sunshine problems goes from here …
All Headline News, by Josephine Roque: Fidelity National Information Services of Jacksonville reports theft of 2.3 million consumer records …

July 1, 2007

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On the records radar:
Deeds, mortgages, liens and driving records check: Susan Taylor Martin of the St. Petersburg Times on how many homes financed during the housing boom in the Tampa Bay area are falling into foreclosure and disrepair because absentee owners either won’t or can’t make payments …
Social Security death records, voter registration records: Ryan Burr of the Panama City News-Herald on how cross-checks of records in Bay and Jackson counties turned up potential cases of dead people voting that turned out to be explainable …
Invoices, payment records: *Ludmilla Lelis of the Orlando Sentinel on the last public payments made to State Attorney John Tanner’s private attorney in relation to keeping a potentially damaging grand jury report out of public view (*free registration required) …
Florida Department of Law Enforcement uniform crime reports: The editorial page of The Florida Times-Union on how the community must stay positive despite Duval County leading the state in per capita murder rate for the eighth year in a row and 14 of the last 19 years …
Florida Legislative bills: Bill Cotterell of the Tallahassee Democrat (via Florida Today) on a large stack of new state laws kicking in on July 1 …

Florida Sunshine Review:
Florida Times-Union, column by Wayne Ezell: Times-Union’s probe of City Council Sunshine problems started 18 months ago and included review of 4,000 pages of calendars, meeting notices and other documents …
Fort Myers News-Press editorial: Court victory on open records against FEMA is a win for more government accountability …
Daytona Beach News-Journal editorial: New open government commisison can spotlight shady spots in Florida’s open government laws …