The Court got it wrong--twice!

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Republicans opposed the decision and continued to call for repealing the law. U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2016, tore into the decision as “interpretive gymnastics” and doubled down on his support of repealing the law.

“The Supreme Court's interpretive gymnastics means that millions of Americans will continue to be burdened with increased premiums, high deductibles, and fewer hours, or else face stiff tax penalties,” said DeSantis. "We must repeal Obamacare and replace it with patient-centered solutions that actually make health insurance more affordable, promote small-business expansion and job growth, and relieve bureaucratic burdens on doctors and patients.”

Judge Scalia said: The majority used “interpretive jiggery-pokery.

Sunset 6-25-15

Theft in Lake Worth

Even when it's nailed down, thieves will take it.  That's what happened to a new Habitat for Humanity homeowner in Lake Worth when her washer and dryer got stolen in the 200 block of North H Street. This was the third theft in three weeks from a Habitat home.

Read about it...

Florida Budget Turkey Watch

"We are encouraged that the governor is also promoting these values, as he vetoed many projects for circumventing established funding processes, a central criterion in the Budget Turkey Watch process," said Dominic Calabro, president of Florida TaxWatch. Read about it...

Florida Tax Watch is "an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit taxpayer research institute & government watchdog for more than one third of a century, Florida TaxWatch works to improve the productivity and accountability of Florida government. Its research recommends productivity enhancements and explains the statewide impact of fiscal and economic policies and practices on citizens and businesses."

Read about the turkeys

The Park of Commerce wasn't a "turkey" was it?

Moving towards the Leftest "Utopia" -

Jeb Bush

Debbie just keeps "doin it."

Sunshine State News: U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. The DNC chairwoman keeps trashing former Gov.Jeb Bush, saying he is wrong for America. Wasserman-Schultz is a strong voice for liberals but people are tired of negative politics.

Speaking at FIU, she started off with the “blaming Bush” syndrome and blamed George W. Bush for all of the nation’s woes. “I expect as time goes by Americans are going to have an opportunity to see the results of Jeb's policies as they were in Florida,” Wasserman Schultz said. Maybe not -- since Jeb’s record far outpaces Wasserman Schultz’s, says Sunshine State News.

Some of the things that Jeb Bush enacted while Governor of Florida:

He cut taxes by 19 billion dollars.
Overhauled the medicaid system in an attempt to rein in health care costs...Obamacare before there was Obamacare.
He created the first school voucher program. An advocate of school choice and charter Schools.
Ended Affirmative Action with One Florida. Affirmative action is a diversity that discriminates by ignoring hard work and performance.
Worked with Feds to preserve the Everglades and dedicated over 1 million acres of land for conservation.
Florida had the highest bond rating ever. Reserves went from $1.3 billion to $9.8 billion.
One of Florida staunchest opponents of offshore drilling. He did not oppose it in other areas of the country and said in 2013 that federal lands and water should be open for drilling in a "thoughtful way."

He won total control over judicial nominations
Reinstated the feeding tube for Terri Schiavo. This was a case that dragged on from 1990 until 2005 when a judge ordered the feeding tub removed. I remember how I felt then, and to this day I can't get myself to sign a Living Will.
He approved a "Choose Life" license plate recognizing the importance of life in the womb.
Tough on criminals. Backed a mandatory sentence for criminals using guns. Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law a series of bills bringing back the three strikes law that was struck down by a Florida appeals court earlier in 2002.
In 2005, he signed the "Stand your Ground" law by protecting people's rights to protect themselves.

Eminent Domain - Abuse of Power here?

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Eminent domain should be used only for a public benefit. Kelo v. City of New London remains one of the most disputed rulings in the Supreme Court history. A decade later, the land where a neighborhood claimed by eminent domain remains vacant. “They put in infrastructure and roads to nowhere, sidewalks to nowhere with always the thought that they were going to have this redevelopment plan where a hotel would come, a health club, cafes, restaurants and stuff like that that never came to be,” said a woman whose property was grabbed and demolished.

Even though the government has the right to seize property for a public benefit, there is something inherently wrong with this. I still do not believe that eminent domain is proper on Boutwell no matter what Lake Worth's expert eminent domain attorney says. The city tries too hard and spends too much taxpayer money trying to convince all of us that they are right.

How Caitlyn Jenner, Hillary, Bush and Rubio compare

A little trivia for the day:

According to George Bennett at The Post on Poltiics, Jenner’s net favorable score of +4 is roughly on par with the favorability score Florida voters give presidential contenders Marco Rubio (+5), Jeb Bush (+2) and Hillary Clinton (+2).

Sunset 6-24-15

Shanon Materio will launch re-election campaign

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Materio, West Palm Beach Commissioner, will announce her re-election campaign on June 30.

Everything is open game, said Keith James. Because of politics, at the beginning of the year, West Palm Beach City Commissioner Shanon Materio was one of several elected officials who wrote to the New York State Parole Board, asking for the release of convicted murderer Michelle Lennon after more than 20 years behind bars. Materio did this at the request of Lennon’s father, constituent Len Fintzy who was running against Keith James. James won by 70.65% of the vote this past March.

Let the games begin.


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Quote of the Day - Rush Limbaugh

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“The next flag that will come under assault, and it will not be long, is the American flag. It is gonna happen. We are trending that way.

It makes perfect sense. If you take a look at the timeline of progression of events, the speed and rapidity with which the left is conducting this assault on all of these American traditions and institutions, if you don’t think the American flag’s in their crosshairs down the road, you had better stop and reconsider.

The American flag is what? It’s the symbol of America. The left, what? Doesn’t like this country very much and never has and it’s getting angrier and angrier about it seemingly every day. The American flag stands for the United States of America and as such, everything that’s wrong with it. And you wait, it isn’t gonna be long before the American flag is gonna cause chills, fear, scary thoughts … [because] it’s a symbol of hate.”

~ Rush Limbaugh

An eyesore and blight on a neighborhood

UPDATE: magistrate orders demolition 6-25-15

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Last week, a resident of ROLO mentioned this house at 1528 Cochran that really is no longer a house but a slab and a few boards.  Apparently it has been in this condition for years and located just a few blocks from the Vice Mayor's house.

Manuel Gonzalez bought the property in July 2014 for $7,500 and if you call his "for sale" sign, he is asking $65,000.  Taxes that were due by April 2015 go unpaid. The city has been fining the owner(s) of this property at a rate of $100 a day since 2008. Recently a new case was opened and it was declared that the building was "unsafe."  It goes before the magistrate tomorrow at Lake Worth City Hall.

Eminent Domain at Park of Commerce is NOT for a public benefit

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The City of Lake Worth wants to use its powers of eminent domain at the Park of Commerce. They believe that developing the POC is the city's salvation. The City Commission voted to do that and it passed on a 4/1 vote with Commissioner Ryan Maier dissenting.

The property may be taken either for government use or by delegation to third parties, who will devote it to public or civic use or, in some cases, to economic development. And that's what we are doing here in Lake Worth--economic development. "The most common uses of property taken by eminent domain are for government buildings and other facilities, public utilities, highways, and railroads.  Some jurisdictions require that the condemnor make an offer to purchase the subject property, before resorting to the use of eminent domain."  Lake Worth will offer the two owners involved 125% of its appraised value or seize the land.

How much did this eminent domain attorney cost the city who says, "the project is clearly for a public purpose." Don't we pay Torcivia law firm enough money? How does this eminent domain lawyer, William Doney with the law firm of Caldwell Pacetti Edwards Schoech & Viator LLP conclude that this is all for a public purpose?  How is it any public benefit? The only "benefit" is supporting this commission's desire to spend a hell of a lot of money for infrastructure, storm water drainage, utilities, etc. for private development. Developers get 100% off the hook.

Eventually this private development, if it even comes to the Park of Commerce, will be contributing to the tax base but it could take 100 years before those ad-valorem taxes covers the initial cost of all this infrastructure even if every square inch out there is developed.

This clearly is NOT a public benefit. What it is--a land grab and one gigantic expense for the taxpayers if Lake Worth gets its way.

It's someone else's fault, says Mayor Triolo

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Governor Rick Scott said that it "circumvented the Economic Development Transportation-Road fund evaluation process." The mayor doesn't "buy" that. "Obviously, the governor's staff did not thoroughly read the backup," she said. "Something is not right. We followed all the rules, the governor knew about this project, the governor visited this project, and it's right along the lines of his goal of bringing jobs to the area," Triolo stated. The Blame Game. And Mayor Triolo dumped Governor Scott from her "friends" list.

Watch the video at Channel 5.

The mayor is always spouting jobs...a Republican soundbite, not that any business locating to the Park of Commerce would create jobs for anyone living in Lake Worth.  Look to the real reasons why we have high unemployment here.

According to Channel 12, they were not told about her press conference and of course, this blogger was not. You would have thought that Channel 12 would have had an invite after their dreadful one-sided hatchet piece on Ryan Maier.  The usual suspects were there:  Wes Blackman, PR hatchet man provocateur for this commission who is obsessed with this blogger as well as trumped up racism, Mark Easton of the LW Herald, another media in bed with the visionaries, Channels 5 and 25, both with camera crews at City Hall. The mayor, with her marketing background, invited "friends" in order to massage her message.

It's too bad that all those costly trips to Tallahassee didn't pay off. Instead someone should have been reading what was submitted to the State and spent time dotting the I's and crossing the T's.

Sunset 6-23-15

"We'll get the money," says Lake Worth mayor

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Do you remember back in 2011 when Scott Maxwell and his friend Peggy who spoke at the lectern were so irate about the then city manager wanting to raise taxes by assessing everyone $60.00 per year on a fire assessment as well as approving a tax rate of $5.49 per $1,000 taxable value, up from the current rate of $5.34.

It was a real big deal back then when Maxwell said: "We just increased their taxes. We didn't do anything creative." He was the lone dissenting vote for not raising taxes even the $60 a year.

But have times ever changed.  It was just months ago that he and the majority commission went out on a general obligation bond of $63 million dollars that property owners would be paying on for 34 years. Part of that, around $11 million, was for his dream of developing the infrastructure at the Park of Commerce--the field of dreams--hoping businesses would come and putting the burden on all the property owners in poor Lake Worth.

Back then, the city applied for a federal grant for the POC and did not get it. Now Rick Scott has eliminated their request from the state for $3.5 million for the POC.  The reason? Lousy paperwork.  The mayor says she will get the money somewhere.

Gay Open Carry Group Makes a Stand

It's all getting crazy!

A group of 4 gay community members tried to enter the public event going on with their assorted weapons and gear on their bodies. All of the weapons had loaded magazines and clear chambers. As the Second Amendments states, citizens of the United States right to bear arms shall not be infringed. As the group attempts to peaceably enter the event and partake in the festivities, the Capital City pride staff blocked the entrance and told the group of 4 to go away because they "Do not feel safe with people with guns around" even though they were there to support and defend the rights of the people.

Lake Worth Park of Commerce will NOT get State money

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Today, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $461.4 million (Go to number 1927 in provided link) in spending from the $78.7 billion state budget approved by the Legislature last week, erasing dozens of local programs and projects sought by elected officials.

The Visionaries took a big hit when Scott erased $3.5 million from the Park of Commerce.

Obamatrade - Corruption

Obamatrade enmeshed in corrupt backroom dealings


"Enough is enough. I cannot vote for TPA unless McConnell and Boehner both commit publicly to allow the Ex-Im Bank to expire—and stay expired. And, Congress must also pass the Cruz-Sessions amendments to TPA to ensure that no trade agreement can try to back-door changes to our immigration laws. Otherwise, I will have no choice but to vote no."

~ Ted Cruz

Lake Worth Crime

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I like Cpt. Rolando Silva, District 14 Commander. He tries his best in a city plagued by crime. He gave a policing update pertaining to Lake Worth to the city commission on June 16th and mentioned four categories that have had reduced stats:  murders, vehicle thefts, burglaries, and robberies.

Unfortunately,  many things coming out of city hall and filtered by this government are not totally transparent thanks to the administration in power.  Negative truths are not something this city wants to advertise. So Cpt. Silva reported on four categories that had reductions. According to Silva, the biggest problems we face here are drugs, prostitution and robberies.  Drugs is the root cause of the other two.

It is what he didn't say that is problematic and we know of incidents that have gone unreported by deputies called to a scene. If we know of some, how many are there? There is so much crime, that these deputies have to concentrate on the worst first.

The crime data reveals that the overall Lake Worth, FL crime rates are 95% higher than in comparison to the Florida mean and are 125% higher than the nation's mean. In regards to violent offenses, Lake Worth, FL has a rate that is 170% higher than the Florida average; compared to the United States, it is 246% higher. Looking at crimes involving property, Lake Worth, FL is 84% higher than its state's mean, and 109% higher than the country's average. Source: Area Vibes

In the proposed 2014/2015 budget page2, advalorem is projected to be $6,315,694.  In order to support the Public Safety aspect of our budget, we have revenues from other sources, i.e., utility fees, licenses and permits, fines and forfeitures, etc. As Public Safety takes the biggest portion of the pie (nearly 70% of budget), and Ric Bradshaw is getting another tremendous raise this year, city hall does not want to upset the resident, you know the guy who pays the bills.

Even the Palm Beach Post fell into the trap with its less than honest headline this morning--PBSO: Crime down, but still work to do." This does a dis-service to the city.

Just remember to Make the Call Ya'll and report suspicious activity:  561-688-3400.