Florida

Hotly contested poll initiatives dealing with private school vouchers and a "tax swap" will remain on the statewide poll whether the Florida Supreme Court does not resolve the cases in relatively short order, according to the department of State.

If the high court upholds circuit court rulings tossing the proposed amendments from the November poll, the voting would just not be reported as an election aftereffect, said spokeswoman Jennifer Krell Davis. "It’s much easier to tell a voter the item is no longer on the poll than it would be to reprint the ballots," she said. "It just makes more practical sense."

The department of State has an internal deadline of Friday Sept.

(Read the full post about ‘Tax swap would remain on poll — for now’…)

This instance the Florida Democrats managed to get a quorum - despite Fay - to pick their presidential electors: Chip Arnt; T Wayne Bailey; Fred Balsera; Terrie Brady; Karl Flagg; Joe Gibbons; Janet Goen; James Golden; Chris Hand; Marlon Hill; Tony Hill; Joan Joseph; Alan Katz; Gena Keebler; Joan Lane; Caren Lobo; Rick Minor; Jared Moscowitz;  Angela Rodante; Frank Sanchez; Juanita Scott; Geraldine Thompson; Karen Thurman; Carmen Torres; Kirk Wagar; Enoch Williams; Fredierica Wilson.

The party says it’s the most ethnically and geographically diverse group Florida Democrats have ever had.

Original post by Adam Smith

The Dolphins have just announced the trade of cornerback Travis Daniels to Cleveland in exchange for an undisclosed draft pick.

Daniels had been running with the moment team and was seemingly en route to making the team until struggling somewhat Saturday at Jacksonville. Daniels, in his fourth NFL season, fills a void for the Browns considering their corners got toasted against the Giants.

Daniels is already on a flight to Cleveland. The move pretty much guarantees that Joey Thomas, who had an interception Saturday, will produce the team.

It plus opens the opportunity that either Chris Roberson, Nathan Jones or Will Billingsley will have a spot on the team.

(Read the full post about ‘Dolphins trade Travis Daniels to Browns’…)

When Human Rights Watch called for an end to corporal punishment in schools today, its report pointed directly at Florida. The Sunshine State is one of 21 states to allow educators to spank misbehaving students. (See Fl. Stat. 1006.07) And while the state doesn’t come shut to the highest number of such disciplines - that would be Texas, with 41,497 of 223,190 students swatted nationally in 2006-07 - it still rates in the top 10 when it comes to percentage of students struck by educators that year. Jackson County, in the Panhandle, led all Florida districts with 712 incidents of 5,245 statewide, the Florida DOE reports. The same report notes that the number of reported uses of corporal punishment has dropped 78 percent since 1991-92. (Read the full post about ‘Spare the rod’…)

Hillary Clinton will meet with the Sheet Metal Workers Internatl at Disney tomorrow dawn, though it’s not a public event. She holds a rally for Barack Obama at FAU in Boca early afternoon, next a late afternoon rally at King’s Point in Tamarac before hitting a private fundraiser in Miami.

Original post by Adam Smith

Did you work on Monday and Tuesday this week?Yes, I went to the office both daysYes, I worked from homeNo, I played Guitar Hero at home

And for the comments:

How many billable hours were lost in the rain?

Did BigLaw make their secretaries work?

Should the federal courts track the school closures?

If the court is closed, should you be able to e-file motions?

Now at Yahoo.

Or how Demetrius Byrd won the National Championship for LSU

ESPN’s latest issue of “The Mag” has this year’s college preview, and Georgia is their number one team.

I have absolutely no problem with that.

However, I have serious reservations about how they determined the Dawgs would win the BCS title.

(Read the full post about ‘ESPN Doesn’t Do Serious Analysis’…)

UPDATE — because the SDFLA tracks Dade County Schools, Miami federal court will be closed Tuesday.

Here’s the notice from the court website:

AUGUST 17, 2008, 7:30 p.m.Federal District Court Operations and Tropical Storm Fay
The U.S. District Courthouses in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe Counties will be closed on Monday, August 18, in accordance with Administrative Order 2007-44. This administrative order mandates that, in the event of hazardous weather that causes the local public schools in a particular county to close, the U.S. District Courthouse in that county will also close. The U.S. District Court closures include the U.S. (Read the full post about ‘Federal court in Miami closed Monday & Tuesday’…)

Al Gore lost Florida by 537 votes in 2000, and John Kerry by 281,000 in 2004. The Barack Obama strategy to win Florida in 2008 is pretty basic and relies on big spending and big enthusiasm among supporters: 1. A massive voter mobilization effort to register and turn out a good chunk of the 5.1-million eligible, unregistered voters, and mobilize the nearly 1-million registered African-Americans and 18- to 29-year-olds who did not vote four years ago. 2. An equally huge, volunteer-driven effort to win by the roughly 20 percent of undecided Florida voters who won’t manufacture up their minds until well into the fall.

"It doesn’t take much.

(Read the full post about ‘Obama vs. McCain in FL: old machine vs new’…)