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Come rain, shine, sleet or snow, you could trust the U.S. Postal Service, but no more
TALLAHASSEE – For more than 30 years we have forwarded some of our mail between Florida and the North Carolina mountains during the summers. We travel between the two places and try to keep up with bills, birthday cards, packages and letters from friends. It used to be simple. We filled out a form at […]
A deluge of desperate ‘Team Trump’ emails: ‘There is no end to them’
Former President Donald J. Trump must be getting desperate. Over the past few weeks he has deluged me with emails begging for money and trying to sell me various sorts of stuff that I would mostly describe as “junk.’’ He is clearly deranged. “Lucy, President Trump knows you have been here for him since day […]
Bill would name capital’s U.S. courthouse after the late Justice Joseph Hatchett
U.S. Rep. Al Lawson, a Democrat from Tallahassee, has introduced a bill in Congress to name the U.S. courthouse in the capital city after former Florida Supreme Court Justice Joseph Hatchett, a pioneer in Florida’s battle for civil rights. The courthouse at 111 Adams Street would be designated as the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States […]
The life and death of famed defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, with some FL anecdotes
It was pretty clear that famed attorney F. Lee Bailey was on his way down when he leaned over a federal courtroom bench in Ocala and asked me for a ride back to the Hilton Hotel. It was the first time the defendant in any trial asked me for a ride during a lifetime of […]
The path back to sanity is not so clear: Hate, venom and a former president who seems to think he’s still president
There is way too much hate and way too much misinformation spreading across our political landscape these days. I’ve watched and written about politics for more than 55 years and never seen anything that approaches this mess. At the top of the dreadful heap is a former president who seems to think he is still […]
Ralph Turlington, former commissioner of education and force in FL politics, dies at 100
Ralph D. Turlington, former speaker of the Florida House and Education Commissioner, died Friday at the age of 100. Turlington was a towering figure in Florida politics for much of his life. Born in Gainesville, he graduated from the University of Florida in 1942 after serving as business manager of the Florida Alligator and joining […]
Judge Joseph Hatchett remembered: ‘He never talked against people, but against policy’
Few thought Supreme Court Justice Joseph Hatchett had much of a chance at winning a statewide election in Florida, where no African American had ever won a statewide race. Gov. Reubin Askew had appointed Hatchett to the state’s highest court in 1975, ignoring the fact that he would face an election in 1976. Askew defended […]
Joseph Hatchett, FL’s first Black Supreme Court justice, dead at 88
My all-time favorite judge has died. He was only 88 years old. I had hoped he would live forever. Judge Joseph Woodrow Hatchett, a Clearwater native, was our first Black Supreme Court Justice, appointed to the court in 1975 by then Gov. Reubin Askew. He died Friday. He was a soft spoken, low key sort […]
Benjamin Crump: He’s filed civil suits on behalf of Black victims, collecting millions for grieving families. But he cannot replace those who died
Attorney Benjamin Crump was standing in a snow storm Tuesday, watching the mother of yet another young Black son weep as she described the night her son called her from his car to tell her he’d just been stopped by police. The scene was in the middle of Brooklyn Center, a Minneapolis suburb, just 10 […]
‘It is a tangled web’: Robert Levinson, former FBI agent kidnapped in 2007, and Matt Gaetz and his extortion tale
Every state needs a village idiot. Florida is fortunate to have many. But this week the prize for most stupid performance has to go to U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz. The Panhandle member of Congress, son of a former state Senate President in the Florida Legislature, has outdone himself. On Tuesday night he went on Fox […]
Longtime FSU prof resigned: ‘There is a huge sense of disgust over the allegations’
A longtime distinguished professor at Florida State University’s Askew School of Public Administration and Policy was allowed to quietly resign last year amid a sexual misconduct investigation sparked by the disclosure of a series of sexually explicit emails, photos and text messages exchanged between the professor and a foreign student. Dr. Richard Feiock, 62, was […]
Whistleblower computer expert facing criminal charges has the COVID disease she was tracking
TALLAHASSEE – Rebekah Jones, the 31-year old computer expert who designed a state system for keeping up with COVID-19 data in Florida, now has the disease she was tracking. The positive test for the virus was discovered Sunday night when Jones was booked into the Leon County Jail in the state capital, on charges of […]