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HOT!: Catch the latest Florida open government news with The Florida Sunshine Review ...
Open records and meetings links, resources.
June 26, 2005
Florida Sunshine Review:
 *Naples Daily News, by Anne Marie Apollo: Watchdog reveals CIA director’s Social Security number from a Lee County document in hopes of changing public records laws (*free registration required) …
*Orlando Sentinel, by Anthony Colorossi: State panel advises to put Florida court records online in recommendations to the state Supreme Court (*free registration required) …
Palm Beach Post, by Dara Kam: Panel urges Florida Supreme Court to decide on Web court records …
Bradenton Herald, by Susan Spencer-Wendel: Judge to decide relevance of Limbaugh records …
June 13, 2005
Many school bus drivers have flawed records: Public records can answer crucial questions about the driving records of school bus drivers. Accident and citation records analyzed by Cynthia Kopkowski of the Palm Beach Post indicate many bus drivers with bad driving records aren’t disciplined for violations despite a school district promise to crack down on them. The newspaper looked at seven years of accident records and the driving records of 130 drivers over 10 years. “Nine drivers have been charged with crimes within the past 10 years or within several years of being hired. One current driver was charged with two counts of homicide and convicted of manslaughter in both cases. She was hired within five years of leaving prison,” the story says. The review found bus drivers on the job and off received 55 speeding tickets and 64 non-moving violations. Only one DUI showed up in the research, and the school system fired the employee after it happened. But there are some real eyebrow-raising individual records here, including a driver with 16 violations since 1998. A union contract with the school system makes it tough to take action in many cases. The public records handbook covers driver history records on Page 134, county traffic court records on Page 354 and traffic accident reports on Page 357.
June 10, 2005
Florida Sunshine Review:
*Miami Herald, by Natalie P. McNeal: Southwest Ranches Town Administrator John Canada won't be charged criminally for violating public records law regarding his pay (*free registration required) …
June 7, 2005
Florida Sunshine Review:
Palm Beach Post, by Dara Kam: ChoicePoint says omitting personal information from public records would hurt consumers …
June 6, 2005
Off road, off limits: Property appraisal records play a supporting role for Lenora LaPeter of the St. Petersburg Times regarding this story about thousands of scammed Polk County land owners who can’t access their properties. Forty years ago, hard-sell land dealers pushed 70 square miles of Florida wilderness to people from all over the United States to Rome and Hong Kong. But the land – some of it under water – was never developed and the eager buyers were left with slices of property they couldn’t use. For the last 25 years, the story says, “the property has been controlled by a group of hunters and others intent on keeping it the way it always has been: a gated enclave with absolutely no government and few rules … The property offers a window into a world where planning, building, health and zoning officials have no control, where one group of landowners has full use of land that belongs to hundreds of thousands of others and government can do little to change it.” This is quite a Florida tale, and LaPeter tells it well. The public records handbook covers property appraisal records on Page 322.
Records that rock:
Final judgment: Northwest Florida Daily News posts a judge’s ruling allowing Okaloosa Walton College to proceed with selling the Destin property Mattie Kelly willed to the college in 1992 …
Development records, U.S. Census data: Tom Arthur of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on how the growth boom is raging south of Tampa to Bradenton …
Lawsuit: Erika Hobbs of the Orlando Sentinel about Volusia County and four other school districts challenging Florida's school-funding system this week in a trial …
Florida Sunshine Review:
St. Petersburg Times editorial: Florida Supreme Court must be careful not to erode our Sunshine Amendment when deciding how to handle court records in the digital age …
Hernando Today, by Angeline Taylor: Weeki Wachee case regarding documents could set legal precedent …
Lakeland Ledger, by Dana Willhoit: Former Polk Community College professor accused of stealing student identities by using Social Security numbers from people in his class …
June 3, 2005
Florida Sunshine Review:
Associated Press, by Jill Barton: Judge passes off decision on Limbaugh medical records ...
June 2, 2005
Florida Sunshine Review:
Daytona Beach News-Journal, by Jim Saunders: Access to records easier, for better or worse ...
St. Petersburg Times, guest column by Jon Mills: Seeking public comment on Internet court records …
St. Petersburg Times, by Phil Davis: First Amendment Foundation gets $1,500 unexpected donation from New Port Richey as part of a public records lawsuit settlement ...
Palm Beach Post, by Dara Kam: Comments invited on panel’s proposal for court records on the Internet
Palm Beach Post, by Alan Gomez: New legislation regarding insurance laws exempts some company information for the purpose of protecting trade secrets
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Research it yourself at the courthouse, city hall, state agencies and online! Discover the records to help you find people, research property, check out doctors and nursing homes, monitor government, do your own background checks, scope the competition and much more!
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